MANY YEARS SPENT IN FILM BUSINESS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32011, 11 June 1969, Page 7

MANY YEARS SPENT IN FILM BUSINESS

Mr Charles Ernest Carleton, who spent 50 years in the motion picture business in Christchurch, starting with the days of silent films and ending with wide-screen coloured “talkies,” died on Sunday after a long illness. Mr Carleton was educated at the Christchurch Technical College, and after a short time mustering in the backcountry, returned to Christchurch and began work as an operator-projectionist at the Queen’s Theatre, which was in Colombo Street next to McKenzie and Willis, Ltd. He went to the Liberty, now the Savoy, as one of the first operators when it showed “half-talkies,” films with a sound track giving animal roars and background sounds but still relying mainly on the projected written word and a theatre pianist. When “talking” pictures came to Christchurch at the Everybody’s Theatre, now the Tivoli, Mr Carleton was a projectionist, and when the Majestic opened as Christchurch’s most up-to-date

cinema he joined it as senior projectionist. In the 1930 s Mr Carleton went into the cinema business on his own, and took the movies to the suburbs and country districts. He ran theatres at Sumner, Southbridge, Rakaia and Hornby before opening the Empire, Papanui, in 1942. He was president of the Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Association for a term, and for many years was associated with the Independent Exhibitors’ Association.

Mr Carleton is survived by his wife and a son.