Austral-American Productions was a short-lived film production company in Australia during the 1940s. They made two feature films during World War II, a time of low output for Australian cinema. They also produced some stage plays and exhibited films. Hartney Arthur was managing director. [1] [2]
Gordon Wharton was a key financier. [3] [4] [5]
The company contributed to prizes for writing. [6] It was involved in several lawsuits. [7]
The company was wound up in 1950. [8]
Ronald Egan Randell was an Australian actor. After beginning his acting career on the stage in 1937, he played Charles Kingsford Smith in the film Smithy (1946). He also had roles in Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947), Kiss Me Kate (1953), I Am a Camera (1955), Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) and King of Kings (1961).
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.
Ellen Dymphna Cusack AM was an Australian writer and playwright.
The New Theatre, formerly Workers' Art Club and New Theatre League, is a community theatre company in the Inner West Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia. Its origins are in the international New Theatre movement of the 1920s, and it is the oldest theatre company in continuous production in New South Wales.
Lottie Lyell was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the silent era through her collaborations with director and writer Raymond Longford.
Constance Worth was an Australian actress who became a Hollywood star in the late 1930s. She was also known as Jocelyn Howarth.
Austral was a passenger ship built by John Elder & Co., Govan and launched on 21 December 1881 for the Orient Steam Navigation Company, Glasgow. She was used in the passenger route trade to Australia.
Red Sky at Morning is a 1944 Australian melodrama set during the 19th century based on a play by Dymphna Cusack. It features an early screen performance by Peter Finch, who plays a convict who falls in love with the wife of a sea captain.
Alfred Rolfe, real name Alfred Roker, was an Australian stage and film director and actor, best known for being the son-in-law of the celebrated actor-manager Alfred Dampier, with whom he appeared frequently on stage, and for his prolific output as a director during Australia's silent era, including Captain Midnight, the Bush King (1911), Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road (1911) and The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915). Only one of his films as director survives today.
A Yank in Australia is a 1942 Australian comedy film directed by Alfred J. Goulding and starring Al Thomas and Hartney Arthur.
Hartney J. Arthur was an Australian actor, writer and film director, who worked in stage, radio and film.
John Fleeting, real name Claude Stuart Fleeting, was an Australian actor best known for his film appearances for Ken G. Hall.
The Municipality of Enfield was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The municipality was proclaimed as the Borough of Enfield on 17 January 1889 and, with an area of 3.6 square kilometres, included the modern suburbs of Croydon, Croydon Park and Strathfield South, with parts of Enfield, Belfield and Greenacre included in the West Ward. In 1949, the council was split into two, with Central and East Wards being added to the Municipality of Burwood and the West Ward being added into the Municipality of Strathfield, with the passing of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948.
May Hollinworth was an Australian theatre producer and director, former radio actress, and founder of the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney. The daughter of a theatrical producer, she was introduced to the theatre at a young age. She graduated with a science degree, and worked in the chemistry department of the University of Sydney, before being appointed as director of the Sydney University Dramatic Society, a post she held from 1929 until 1943
The Paris Theatre was a cinema and theatre located on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and Liverpool Street in Sydney that showed films and vaudeville, cabaret and plays. The theatre changed names several times, trading as Australia Picture Palace (1915-1935), Tatler Theatre (1935-1950), Park Theatre (1952-1954) and Paris Theatre (1954-1981) before being demolished in 1981. In May 1978 the theatre hosted a film festival that inspired the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. The theatre was also the home of Paris Theatre Company, a Sydney based theatre company.
Richard Stewart was an English stage actor who settled in Australia. He is best remembered as the father of Nellie Stewart.
Joseph Richard Massey, referred to in his lifetime as Joseph Massey sen., was an Australian musician and founder of a family of musicians, best known as church organists.
Viola Wilson was a Scottish singer, the leading soprano for J. C. Williamson's Gilbert and Sullivan company in Australia during World War II. She married the widowed theatre businessman Frank S. Tait, later Sir Frank.
Red Sky at Morning is a 1935 Australian stage play by Dymphna Cusack. The play helped launch Cusack's writing career and was filmed in 1943.
Lawson is a 1943 Australian play by Oriel Gray. It was based on short stories by Henry Lawson.