The Northern Beaches once had dozens of movie theatres, with four in Manly alone.
Today, when you can stream movies of your choice into your own home, it is perhaps hard to envisage a time when many suburbs had their own cinemas and when ‘going to the pictures’ was a regular social activity.
On the Northern Beaches, in the 1950s for example, there were four movie theatres in Manly and one each in Balgowlah, Queenscliff/Harbord, Brookvale, Dee Why, Collaroy, Narrabeen and Avalon, not to mention the drive-in at Frenchs Forest.
The four theatres in Manly were the Hoyts in Belgrave Street, the Odeon on The Corso, the Embassy on East Esplanade and the Metro on South Steyne.
Of these 11 theatres, only two are still in operation – Collaroy and Avalon. Collaroy is still in its original building, but with the internal layout altered to convert what was a single theatre, with downstairs and upstairs seating, into two theatres, one above the other. However its ambience is still much as it was in the 1950s.
At Avalon, the original building has been completely rebuilt and it also now houses two theatres, plus a shopping arcade.
A typical program, after all patrons had stood while God Save the Queen was played to some suitable footage, was one or two cartoons, a newsreel of contemporary local and international events, and one or two documentaries. Then interval and a visit to the in-house or adjacent treats counter/ milk bar, with the main feature film occupying the second half.
Saturday afternoon sessions were aimed at children and the documentaries were usually replaced by an action serial, with episodes running over a number of weeks.
Television came to Australia in September 1956, just in time for the Melbourne Olympics. It was the beginning of the end for suburban movie theatres.
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.
