Romance bloomed at the Luana Dance Palace
Patrons of the Dee Why RSL Club may be aware that one of its function rooms is called the Luana Room. They may not be aware that the name is linked directly to the club’s foundation.
The first public hall in Dee Why was the Elite, built in about 1920 and located on Pittwater Road at approximately where the pedestrian entrance to the RSL Club is today. It was followed in rapid succession by the Dee Why Theatre (to become the Odeon) – also on Pittwater Road – and the Glendowie Dance Hall at The Strand, Dee Why Beach.
In 1925 the Elite began screening silent movies but when sound arrived in 1928, it could not compete with the larger and more lavish Dee Why Theatre. It closed for a couple of years before reopening in late 1932 as the Luana Dance Palace.
Why the name Luana? One of the films released in 1932 was Bird of Paradise, an American-made romantic adventure drama starring Dolores del Rio and Joel McCrea, set on an isolated tropical island chain somewhere in the Pacific. Being made before the self-imposed Hollywood censorship code of 1934, it had some quite suggestive, apparently-nude underwater swimming scenes to go with the romantic plot and caused something of a sensation.
I guess that the owners of the new dance hall thought that the name Luana might conjure up romantic hopes and attract young people to the venue. It seemed to work because the dances continued through to post WW2. The RSL bought the hall as the home for their newly-licensed club in 1948.
Richard Michell is the vice-president of the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society and the secretary of Friends of Dee Why Lagoon. Visit mwphs.org.au and fodyl.au respectively.
