Before the introduction of television in 1956, Australians were great cinema goers.
Picture show attendance increased steadily from the 1920s until the seismic social shift that was television.
In 1935, when the state’s population was 2.6 million, there had been over 9.7 million movie tickets sold. It was many times more than tickets sold to dance halls and theatres, despite being during a significant economic depression.
It was in 1935 that the Virgona family built the Cremorne Orpheum, one of Sydney’s most beautiful picture palaces. It cost over £200,000 at a time, when a basic but good wage was four pounds a week.
The Cremorne cinema was the younger sibling of its namesake, the North Sydney Orpheum, built by the family in 1923. It was designed by architect George Newton Kenworthy, who had developed an expertise in the technical and aesthetic elements of a modern picture theatre.
Kenworthy’s ‘Art deco’ design had characteristic geometric patterns moulded into the ceilings and walls. There were heroic statues of athletic women flanking the main screen and stage – for this was both a picture theatre and a live theatre.
Angelo Virgona, the man who built the cinema, had come to Australia from the Aeolian Islands off Italy as a boy in the 1880s. Somehow, he made the remarkable transition from fruiterer to picture show man, and in 1935 was the owner of two of North Sydney’s best cinemas. He presented his Cremorne venue to the community as a symbol of progress, with the hope that North Sydney might become another Sydney.
In the end ‘progress’ caught up with both Orpheums. The North Sydney cinema was demolished to make way for the Warringah Expressway in 1962, and cinema audiences never reached the heady days of the 1930s, 40s and 50s after the arrival of TV. Then came VHS rentals in the 1980s. The Virgonas worked hard to keep the Cremorne Orpheum open, but sold it reluctantly in 1978. It closed in 1984.
The building might have been demolished to make way for flats or shops, but a reprieve came in the form of Mike Walsh – TV celebrity, broadcaster and lover of movies and their houses. Walsh bought the Cremorne Orpheum in 1986 and spent millions refurbishing the original auditorium, foyer, and lounge, and sensitively adding five more screens to make the place viable.
It still stands as a beautiful example of the cinemas which brought the world to Australian audiences, both on the screen and with their sophisticated modern surroundings.