Effects Of 10p.m. Closing In Sydney Surveyed

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31504, 19 October 1967, Page 10

Effects Of 10p.m. Closing In Sydney Surveyed

(From DON GRADY, a staff reporter who is visiting Sydney) Hundreds of singers and artists make a living providing entertainment in Sydney’s hotels and licensed clubs. Since the advent of 10 p.m. closing here 10 years ago, hotel and club entertainment has expanded greatly, primarily to attract patronage in the evenings.

The later closing seems to have revolutionised Sydney’s way of life. The licensing of clubs, which was introduced at the same time, has also helped to change the pattern for drinking. In the earlier years of 10 p.m. closing, people working in the city would leave work and travel to the suburbs to drink at the local hotel on the way home, rather than drink in the city hotel. This led to a fall in the number of Sydney city, or down-town hotels. One friend of mine, who is in the travel industry, claims that 10 p.m. closing has in 10 years, halved the number of city hotels. Many of the bigger hotels that had substantial room accommodation, he says, have failed because they depended on profits from the bars. When the bar-takings fell, they could no longer pay their way.

The other disadvantage to city hotels has been the difAcuity in getting parking space. Suburban Moves Ten o’clock closing has also caused a move of hotels from the inner to the outer suburbs. The inner suburban hotels have inadequate parking space, while those springing up in the new suburbs have sufficient off-street parking for 150 to 300 cars. The Clifton Gardens Hotel at Mosman, near Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo, had one of the most magnificent panoramas of any hotel in Australia. It looked out right over Sydney harbour and heads. But because of inadequate parking when family evening drinking was introduced, this hotel’s licence has been transferred to a new hotel at Carlingford. 15 miles out Since 10 p.m. closing entertainment has become a very big part of the Sydney hotel business. The same thing has not happened in Melbourne yet probably because Melbourne people tend to stay at home more than Sydney people do, and Melbourne weather is not conducive to going out at night. This hardly augurs well for Christchurch. “It’s too damn cold in Melbourne,” said a friend in the hotel industry. “So the same evening drinking pattern has not emerged there.”

Melbourne has had 10 p.m. closing for about two years. Since the advent of late closing in Sydney, a bitter rivalry has sprung up between hotels and clubs. Club Prices Most clubs sell their drinks at slightly below hotel public bar prices, though the club facilities are generally superior to those of the average Sydney hotel. Sydney hotel interests are

angry because clubs can trade seven days a week. They also claim that clubs can fix their own closing time, thus putting the hotels at a disadvantage. A friend in the Sydney hotel industry says that in the next reform in drinking laws, he thinks there will be an extension of hotel trading hours to Sundays. “This will come as a result ‘of pressure from the hotel interests and the breweries,” he said. Several suburban hotels in Sydney have “amateui nights” for entertainers, with small cash prizes of about sAust2o for the winners. There is a “hotel circuit" for the professional entertainers.

Millers Breweries in Sydney runs its own talent booking agency for artists who appear in Millers hotels. Mostly they are the old Tivoli type of artists. One that Christchurch theatregoers would know is Queenie Paul. She still works on the hotel circuit about four or five nights a week. She also works in clubs.

From the hotel entertainment circuit, some of the performers graduate to the more demanding and better paid club entertainment circuit. Overseas Artists Club entertainment is really big business in Sydney today Sydney sports clubs, like the St George League Club, have big-name artists such as Winifred Atwell, and one Wollongong club has hired Danny Kaye and Johnny Ray. Where the clubs really score over the hotels is that, rich from the profits of batteries of poker machines, they can put on top imported artists for their members without any cover charge. The hotels—such as Menzies (the No. 3 hotel in Sydney)—have to make a cover charge sAust3.so to their patrons to hear the same artist. The 10 p.m. closing has revived entertainment in Sydney. There is now no vaudeville outside the hotels and clubs. The Tivoli has closed in Sydney and Melbourne to all vaudeville, and there are opportunities on Sydney’s four television stations for sophisticated and polished artists, there’s not much chance on tv. for a juggler, a contortionist or a magician. Younger artists are willing to work on television in Sydney for almost nothing. This enables them to bill themselves as “tv stars” and adds money to their fees on the hotel or club circuit. Sunday Nights Most Sydney clubs have a show on Sunday night, to attract husbands and wives along for a few drinks. The usual type of show would be a singer, a vocal or instrumental group, and perhaps a magician. Mostly it is two or three acts.

Some of the top Sydney hotels, such as Menzies, have had versions of Broadway shows, some of which have never been staged in Australia before. These include: “The King and I,” “Pal Joey” and “South Pacific.” They used top Australian talent (not big overseas names) and are well-produced by Hayes Gordon. The Silver Spade dining room, at Sydney's Chevron Hotel, has had artists like Shirley Bassey, and Shelley Berman. The two evening shows are at 7.30 p.m. and

10.30 p.m. The object of the shows, of course, is to bring in patrons to dine-and wine. The Silver Spade can seat about 800 persons. The fee for a top overseas artist is about sAust2o,ooo for one week. Part of the cost of bringing them to Sydney is borne by one of the television stations. The television station almost always has a one-hour special with the visiting artists. Amateur Contests At the other end of the scale, drinkers in the hundreds of suburban hotels are content to sit drinking and listen to amateur performers. In the big suburban hotels, amateur hours are run two nights a week. On the other nights of the week .they might have a singer or a group. To boost the enthusiasm in the amateur contests, Millers brewery organises city-wide talent competition between the artists of the different hotels.

The grand prize, is a return trip to America, with all the trimmings, or something of about equivalent value. The patronage of a big modern suburban hotel, with lounge capable of seating 300, plus a big car park, is fifty times as great as an oldfashioned suburban hotel, per-

haps half a mile down the road.

The big suburban hotel, with the life, music and entertainment. attracts customers by the hundreds.

But the little hotel, with perhaps a women's bar, a private bar and a public bar, is lucky if it has a dozen patrons at any one time, in an evening. One I looked in at had only six patrons. All the new hotels In Sydney are providing a big lounge, which are generally covered beer gardens, with modern decor, potted palms, and glass all round. A few of the older suburban hotels that have sufficient parking space are holding on to their trade by extensive rebuilding. One could sum up the effects on the hotel industry of 10 p.m. closing in Sydney, this way: Hotels that are prepared to provide all the amenities, the entertainment and the parking space for evening drinking, are doing well. Those that have failed to change with the times are either dead, or dying. Evening drinking is likely to be more popular in a warmer climate.

People will not leave their homes in large numbers to drink in hotels where there is little comfort.