BIG PICTURE MERCER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 141, 19 May 1925, Page 11

BIG PICTURE MERCER.

DOMINION INTERESTS LINKED

ERECTION OF NEW THREATRE. A conference (says Saturday’s Dominion) has been in progress in Wellington for tho last two weeks in connection with the developement of the motion picture industry in New Zealand, in conjunction with Australian interests. The visitors from Australia included Mr J. Fuller, managing director of Fullers’ Theatres, Fullers’ Pictures, Ltd., and the Fuller- Ward Theatrical Enterprises; Mr W. A. Gibson, 0.8. E., and Mr S. Doyle, managing directors, and Mr P. Dive, secretary of Union Theatres, Ltd., and Australasian Films, Ltd., and many other associated Australian companies, having a capital invested in the industry in Australia of £3,000,000. Mr H. Hayward, managing director, and Mr P. Hayward, director of Hayward’s Pictures, Ltd., Mr E. J. Righton, managing director of the New Zealand Pictures Supplies, Ltd., and Mr W. Fuller, a director of Fullers* Pictures, Ltd., have also attended. As a result of the conference, Australasian Films (N.Z.), Ltd., with a capital of £IOO,OOO, has been formed, in which both the Australian and New Zealand companies will be interested, and a range of entirely new pictures will be brought to this country by the new firm, including films in which Rudolph Valentino and Harold Lloyd will play a prominent part. The directors of the new company are Messrs \V. A. Gibson, H. Hayward, S. F. Doyle, J. Fuller, E. J. Righton, G. T. Balcombe, Sir Benjamin Fuller, and Mr F. J. McDonald. Mr A. McGowan, la to manager for Fox Films in Now Zealand, lias been appointed manager of tho film exchange of the new company. * A new tlireatre organisation lias been created, which will take steps to further develop tho interests of Hayward’s Pictures;, Ltd., and Fullers’ Pictures, Ltd., in the main centres throughout the Dominion, in conjunction with Union Theatres, Ltd., of Australia, and £IOO,OOO Ims been allocated for the purpose. New theatres in Auckland and Wellington will be built in the near future which will, it is claimed by the promoters, surpass anything previously seen here. Union Theatres, Ltd., own most of the big picture theatres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania, and aie building the new Regent Theatre in George street, Sydney, at a cost of £250,000. A similar t heatre will Ik built in Bourke street, Melbourne, while the Wintergarden Theatre, Brisbane, and the Prince of Wales Theatre, Perth, recently completed, each hold over 2500 people and cost over £20C,000. Those interested state that a big impetus can bo expected in the picture industry as; a consquence of the developments outlined.