Wide-screen era ends at Cinerama

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 22

Wide-screen era ends at Cinerama

Another era of cinema history will come to an end this Monday, Queen’s Birthday, when the Cinerama closes its doors. As its name indicated, the theatre had the full facilities to present the widescreen Cinerama process which was a popular fad just over 20 years ago.

It is believed that the screen, projector and sound equipment at the Cinerama is the last surviving working equipment of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

The cinema is to be converted into a youth centre, and most of the projection equipment is being transferred to another cinema.

The cinema, originally named the Mayfair, first opened in March 1935. It had at one time been Smith’s Garage, at 111 Worcester Street.

The Mayfair was burnt out on August 21, 1943, and reopened on March 1, 1944. It closed again on March 16, 1963, for the installation of the Cinerama equipment, and began screening under

the name of that process on May 9, 1963. This three-screen process proved cumbersome, however, and by the time “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” arrived, several years later, the wide-screen picture was projected from one 70mm film.

In more recent times, the biggest box-office film to be shown at the Cinerama was “Star Wars,” which ran for 28 weeks, from December, 1977, to the end of June, 1978.

A farewell screening, for people employed by the Cinerama over the years and other members of the cinema industry, was held two Sundays ago, when the beginning of “This is Cinerama,” introduced by Lowell Thomas, and the 70mm film, “The Great Waltz,” were shown. After Monday, the manger of the Cinerama, Mr Alf Blake, will take over as manager of the Carlton, a 'position which was vacated recently by the retirement of its manager, Mr Noel Strack.