Newly renovated Garfield Picture Theatre (2021), Garfield
Picture Theatre.
Situated on the Main Street of Garfield, the Garfield Picture Theatre has served the local community for almost a hundred years, providing an entertainment hub, and essential amenities to a rapidly developing corridor in regional Victoria.
Garfield, formally Cannibal Creek, underwent a change of name in honour of the late President of the United States of America, James Garfield in 1887. The Railway station in the town has had many names; originally Hopetoun, then Cannibal Creek, before the town was finally surveyed and proclaimed as Garfield in 1891.
Listed on the local heritage register in 1996, the site is estimated to be one of the earliest examples of a purpose-built theatre facility in Gippsland. The theatre is one of the few picture theatres remaining in the Cardinia region and dates to the cinema boom of the 1920s which saw the number of theatres across the state skyrocket.
Negative of Garfield Picture Theatre (c.1930s), The Biggest
Family Album in Australia Collection, item ID: MM 5484, Museums Victoria.
The brick building with a partial cement exterior and galvanised iron roof consists of three floors. The lowest at the rear of the building consists of storage and dressing rooms situated underneath the stage which were once repurposed and used as two-bedroomed living quarters. The ground floor includes the spacious theatre with an elevated stage, remote controlled front-of-house curtains, framed by the proscenium (the part of the stage that is in front of the main stage curtain) curtains with a double staircase leading up to the stage on either side.
Newly renovated Garfield Picture Theatre (2021), Garfield
Picture Theatre.
The theatre space with original floorboards backs onto a hallway, leading to what is now the kitchen, toilet facilities, and the tripartite (having three parts) main entrance. The two side rooms also provide access to the street front with a pressed metal ceilinged veranda. The left-hand exterior of the building is encompassed by another balcony area.
The left-hand room at the front of the building was once a sweets shop, where theatre goers could purchase treats, and the room on the right acted as a ticket box/engine room, providing access to an office space and the bio box above the entrance which were reachable by a trap door. A ‘bio box’ was reserved for operating audio and visual equipment and derives from one of the first film projectors; the ‘Biograph.’ The original ‘bio-box’ space is now used as private apartments.
In the main theatre area, an imperial staircase leads to the top floor. The gabled roof with exposed steel-trusses provides the open-concept mezzanine with an unobstructed view of the floor below. The mezzanine leads to an apartment space with views of Main Street from where the original ‘Garfield Picture Theatre’ cement lettering is emblazoned.
The property has changed hands many times in its almost 100-year history. Built in 1924 for a cost of over £4,000 by the proprietor, Mr. Martin O’Donohue, the building could once house up to 800 people. The theatre opened on December 22, 1924, to much fanfare with a free Grand Ball on 22nd December 1924. Regular dances were held on Friday evenings, and Saturday nights were reserved for picture showings. Pictures shown included Where the North Begins, Girl Shy, Beloved Bachelor and The Wizard of Oz. A Molly O’Brien was known to play the piano at the theatre during its earliest years.
Writing of growing up in Garfield during the 1930s and 1940s, Jim Connelly reminisces, “There were films every Saturday night, and everybody seemed to go. Sometimes Noel and I went without any money. Noel was adept at attaching himself to a large family party and walking in undetected… The first [film] I remember seeing, was ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”
The theatre was also integral in providing services beyond dances, pictures, and functions. The site was home to the first generator in Garfield, connecting the township to electricity with a 230-volt power supply until around the late 1920s. J. Taylor leased the building from O’Donohue and in 1931, the property was sold to Walter Anderson Lawson and Roy Everard Ross. By 1931, talking pictures could be seen at Garfield Theatre.
The property was to be sold once again in 1953 to a James Murphy. Murphy would retain ownership until the theatre closed around 1962 or 1963. The theatre partially reopened on weekends under Dennis Grigg from 1970-1971, before being used as a furniture shop by Simcocks and in the 1980s the building became the Garfield Trading Centre.
After purchasing the property in 1999, Fred Perez and Sue McMahon began renovations on the site in 2001, affectionately naming the theatre Lucy Bricks, due to the large number of loose bricks, which have since been restored. On the 3rd of July 2016, the theatre once again opened its doors to the public for events, dances, shows, seating up to 250 guests, as well as Bed and Breakfast accommodation on site. If you would like to learn more about current events, check out the Garfield Theatre website here.
Written by Brooke Pickering
Bibliography:
Connelly, J. (2021). Growing Up in Garfield.
Heritage Council Victoria (2022), Garfield Picture Theatre, https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/30018#additional-desc-1
Roe, K. (2018). Garfield Picture Theatre, Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/57084
Garfield Picture Theatre (2021). Garfield Picture Theatre History. https://www.garfieldpicturetheatre.com.au/gallery?lightbox=dataItem-jccbmb3b
Arnold, H. (2014, March 2). Garfield Picture Theatre. http://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2014/03/garfield-picture-theatre.html
Kennedy, G. (1994, January). Garfield Picture Theatre, no.1, Cinemarecord, Cinema and Theatre Historical Society of Australia Inc., https://www.cinemarecord.org.au/read/cr01/mobile/index.html
Mickle, D.J. (1987). More Mickle Memories of Koo-Wee-Rup (vol. 2). The Pakenham Gazette.
The Argus (1924, August 25), OTHER DISTRICTS, The Argus, p.11, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4161400?searchTerm=garfield%20theatre%20under%20construction
Images:
Museums Victoria. (c.1930s). Negative of Garfield Picture Theatre, https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/770388
Perez, F. & McMahon, S. (2001 - 2022). Collection of private photographs.
Garfield Picture Theatre. (2021). https://www.garfieldpicturetheatre.com.au/
No comments:
Post a Comment