Odeon Star Semaphore Cinemas

Last updated

The Odeon Star Semaphore Cinemas, usually referred to as the Odeon Star, is an independent multiplex cinema in the beachside Adelaide suburb of Semaphore, South Australia. It is the oldest purpose-built cinema in Adelaide, opened on 22 May 1920 as the Wondergraph Picture Palace.

Contents

History

Picturedrome

In September 1910, before there were any indoor picture theatres in Semaphore, the Continental Wondergraph Company bought land on the esplanade, intending to establish a tea garden and open-air cinema. [1] On Monday 26 December, Wondergraph gave the inaugural screening at its "Picturedrome", [2] although the construction of the kiosk and tea garden had been delayed. The seating faced the sea, [3] and several silent films were projected onto a solid concrete "silver wall", a new technology claimed to have been brought to Australia by the European company. [4]

In winter, the Greater Wondergraph Company (formed in Adelaide in 1911 [5] [6] ) showed films at the Semaphore Town Hall, which was referred to as the Semaphore Wondergraph. [7] [8] In July 1912, a film of the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott was shown at the Semaphore Wondergraph. [9] Competitor Ozone Theatres also used the town hall for showing films in the winter months. [10]

A scheme to enclose the Picturedrome was advertised in November 1914, [11] but this was apparently not concluded. Films were last advertised as being shown there at the end of summer in March 1915. [12]

In December 1917, an advertisement refers to the "Semaphore Wondergraph Residential Cafe", right opposite the beach, for short stays. [13]

The Picturedrome, which seated 1,000 patrons, was adjacent to the Customs Boarding Station, which still stands today, on the corner of the Esplanade and Semaphore Road. [14]

New indoor cinema

In 1920, Wondergraph had a "palatial" new indoor cinema built on Semaphore Road, [15] to cater for the people of the Lefevre Peninsula in winter. The magnificently fitted out building was designed by prominent South Australian architect Eric Habershon McMichael [16] [17] </ref> [lower-alpha 1] and built by Messrs. Emmett Brothers. By this time the trams were running to Port Adelaide. The theatre opened on Saturday 22 May 1920 with the screening of the 1920 American silent comedy film What's Your Husband Doing? . [18] It had a seating capacity of 1,246 in orchestra and balcony levels, described at the time as "palatial". [18]

In September 1920 Dan Clifford bought Wondergraph's suburban circuit, including the Wondergraph Semaphore, which cost him £15,000. [19] [20] [21] In 1921 the freehold was transferred to Clifford, and then in November 1923 to his company, D. Clifford Theatres Ltd. [22] A vaudeville troupe known as The Dandies performed at the Wondergraph before its name change. [14]

It was renamed Star Theatre in 1930 (like most other cinemas in the Clifford Theatre Circuit), [23] and in January 1931, sound equipment was installed to cater for talkies, in order to compete with the Semaphore Ozone Theatre. [24] No, No Nanette was screened as the inaugural talkie at the cinema. [22]

After a takeover by Greater Union Cinemas in 1946 [24] it was extensively refurbished [22] or rebuilt, [25] and was reopened as the Odeon Star on 12 June 1952. [26] [27] It was still owned by Clifford Theatres at this point. [28]

With the beginning of the TV era in 1959, attendances declined, and the cinema eventually closed on 13 November 1976, [22] and the building converted into a furniture shop. [23] [24]

After a few changes of hands and function, it was renovated and restored to its original purpose, and has continued to operate as the Odeon Star since December 1991. It was reopened as the Odeon Star on 19 December 1991, initially with only circle seating, accommodating 320 patrons, while the stalls area continued as "Hoff's Secondhand Emporium" until 1997. It was once again refurbished in 1997, becoming a three-screen cinema and (seating 300, 150 and 140). It was part of the Wallis Cinemas chain for some time, [23] [29] but by 2009 was being run by independent operators, then Terry, Jacky and Joe Proud. [30] The Prouds put it up for sale in November 2018. [31]

The Odeon Star celebrated its 100th anniversary on 22 May 2020. [32] [24]

Today

As of December 2022 the Odeon Star shows new release mainstream and arthouse films, charging A$10 for any session, any day. [33]

It is also one of several venues for the Adelaide Film Festival in October each year. [34]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ McMichael also designed the Wakefield Street Private Hospital, among other notable buildings. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rundle Mall</span> Pedestrianised shopping precinct in Adelaide, South Australia

Rundle Mall is a pedestrian street mall located in Adelaide, South Australia. It was opened as a pedestrian mall in September 1976 by closing the section of Rundle Street between King William Street and Pulteney Street, to vehicular traffic. The street continues as Rundle Street to the east and Hindley Street to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semaphore, South Australia</span> Suburb of Adelaide, South Australia

Semaphore is a northwestern suburb of Adelaide in the Australian state of South Australia. It is located on the Gulf St Vincent coastline of the Lefevre Peninsula about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from the Adelaide city centre.

Lockleys is an inner western suburb of Adelaide, in the City of West Torrens.

Wallis Cinemas, formerly Wallis Theatres, is a family-owned South Australian company that operates cinema complexes, cinemas and drive-in theatres in greater Adelaide and regional South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindley Street</span> Street in Adelaide

Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street and West Terrace. The street was named after Charles Hindley, a British parliamentarian and social reformist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capri Theatre</span> Heritage-listed cinema in Goodwood, Adelaide, South Australia

The Capri Theatre is a heritage-listed cinema in Goodwood, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, built in the Art Deco style in 1941. It was formerly called the New Star Theatre, Goodwood Star, New Curzon, and Cinema Capri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sampson Hosking</span> Australian rules footballer

Sampson Hosking was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian Football League (SAFL). He was twice a recipient of the Magarey Medal, an individual award given in recognition of being the best and fairest player in the SAFL. After his playing career Hosking was also an accomplished football coach successfully leading Port Adelaide and the West Torrens Football Club to a combined six premierships. In 1929 he was described in the Register as "one of the most prominent figures in the game during the past 20 years. Combining exceptional pace with a football brain of rare fertility".

The Regal Theatre, formerly known as the Chelsea Cinema, the Princess Theatre and the Ozone Marryatville or Marryatville Ozone Theatre, is a single-screen cinema in Kensington Park, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Originally built in 1925, it retains the features of a major renovation in Art Deco style in 1941, and was heritage-listed on the state register in 1983. It is the oldest continuously running purpose-built cinema in Adelaide, and the only remaining silent cinema still operating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grote Street</span> Street in Adelaide, South Australia

Grote Street is a major street running east to west in the western half of Adelaide city centre, in Adelaide, South Australia. It is on the northern border of Chinatown and the Adelaide Central Market, and is a lively centre for shopping and restaurants. The historic Her Majesty's Theatre is located here.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wakefield Street</span> Road in Adelaide, South Australia

Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting the centre of the South Australian capital, Adelaide, from east to west at its midpoint. It crosses Victoria Square in the centre of the city, which has a grid street plan. It continues as Wakefield Road on its eastern side, through the eastern Adelaide Park Lands.

Bushranger's Ransom, or A Ride for Life was an Australian silent film produced by Pathé Frères' in 1911, their first motion picture production in Australia after establishing a branch office in Sydney in April 1910. It was adapted from a stage play first performed in 1907 by E. I. Cole's Bohemian Dramatic Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jubilee Exhibition Building</span>

The Jubilee Exhibition Building in Adelaide, South Australia, was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne on 20 June 1837. The jubilees of her Coronation on 28 June 1838, and of the Proclamation of South Australia on 28 December 1836, were also invoked on occasion.

The corporate town of Semaphore was a local government area in South Australia. It was created on 20 December 1883, and re-gazetted on 17 January 1884, from areas which had been part of the District Council of Lefevre's Peninsula and District Council of Glanville. The separation of Semaphore would make both its former municipalities unviable, with Lefevre's Peninsula subsequently merging into the District Council of Birkenhead and Glanville with the District Council of Woodville. In 1889, the municipality acquired the Semaphore Institute building for use as the Semaphore Town Hall; the building survives today as the heritage-listed Semaphore Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semaphore Library</span>

The Semaphore Library is a public library in Semaphore, South Australia. It was formerly the Semaphore Institute, Semaphore Town Hall, Ozone Theatre, and Semaphore Cinema, and is heritage-listed on both the state and national registers.

The Port Adelaide News was a newspaper published in Port Adelaide, South Australia between 1876 and 1933 with various sub-titles, several breaks in publication and periods of bi-weekly publication.

Christopher Arthur Smith, also known as Chris Smith and Chris A. Smith, was a South Australian architect. He was a prolific designer of picture theatres and public buildings in Adelaide and regional South Australia during the 1920s and 1930s, and is recognised as one of the leading South Australian exponents of the Art Deco style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piccadilly Cinema</span> Cinema in Adelaide, South Australia

Piccadilly Cinema(s), formerly Piccadilly Theatre and Forum Cinema, and also known as The Piccadilly, is a cinema located on the corner of O'Connell Street and Childers Street in North Adelaide, South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Clifford (theatre entrepreneur)</span> South Australian cinema entrepreneur

Dan Clifford was a well-known cinema entrepreneur and philanthropist in South Australia. He was also a keen promoter of the cinema industry, and owned 20 cinemas across the state at the time of his death, including several in Art Deco style, such as the Piccadilly Theatre and the Goodwood Star.

Ozone Theatres Ltd, formerly Ozone Amusements, was a cinema chain based in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1911 until 1951, when it sold its theatres to Hoyts. It was founded by Hugh Waterman and was jointly run by him and seven sons, including Clyde Waterman and Sir Ewen McIntyre Waterman. S.A. Theatres and Ozone Theatres were subsidiary companies, and the chain was referred to as the Ozone circuit.

Wondergraph, Wondergraph Theatre and variations were names given first to a technology, and then to picture theatres run first by the Continental Wondergraph Company ; and then, in Adelaide, South Australia, by the Wondergraph Company (1910–1911), and then the Greater Wondergraph Company, established around 1911 and in existence until 1939.

References

  1. ↑ "Semaphore prospects". The Register (Adelaide) . Vol. LXXV, no. 19, 914. South Australia. 8 September 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 20 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "Wondergraph at Semaphore". The Register (Adelaide) . Vol. LXXV, no. 20, 007. South Australia. 26 December 1910. p. 8. Retrieved 20 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "Wondergraph". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 1, no. 253. South Australia. 26 December 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 20 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "Wondergraph at the Semaphore". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 1, no. 254. South Australia. 28 December 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 20 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "General news". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. LIV, no. 16, 461. South Australia. 20 July 1911. p. 8. Retrieved 27 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "Entertainment enterprise". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 2, no. 431. South Australia. 22 July 1911. p. 8. Retrieved 27 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Semaphore Wondergraph". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 3, no. 739. South Australia. 19 July 1912. p. 2. Retrieved 31 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Semaphore Wondergraph". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 3, no. 770. South Australia. 28 August 1912. p. 7. Retrieved 31 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Semaphore Wondergraph". Daily Herald (Adelaide) . Vol. 3, no. 750. South Australia. 31 July 1912. p. 10. Retrieved 20 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Hugh Waterman and sons extend the Ozone cinema chain from Adelaide's Semaphore in 1911 to eastern states". AdelaideAZ. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "Advertising". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. LVII, no. 17, 501. South Australia. 17 November 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 31 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "Advertising". The Register (Adelaide) . Vol. LXXX, no. 21, 319. South Australia. 10 March 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 31 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "Advertising". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. LX, no. 18, 472. South Australia. 27 December 1917. p. 9. Retrieved 31 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  14. 1 2 Port Adelaide Historical Society (16 May 2021). "Wondergraph Theatre". Mosaic Online. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  15. ↑ "Palatial picture theatre". Port Adelaide News . Vol. 7, no. 40. South Australia. 21 May 1920. p. 6. Retrieved 21 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "This week marks the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Semaphore Wondergraph Theatre, now the Semaphore Odeon Star Cinema". Port Adelaide Historical Society Inc. 24 May 2020 – via Facebook.
  17. 1 2 "Eric Habershon McMichael". Architects of South Australia. University of South Australia . Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  18. 1 2 "Semaphore Wondergraph: palatial new theatre opened". Daily Herald . Vol. XI, no. 3175. South Australia. 24 May 1920. p. 6. Retrieved 21 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "Semaphore Wondergraph". History of South Australian Picture Theatres. 9 November 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  20. ↑ "Theatrical enterprise". Port Adelaide News . Vol. 7, no. 58. South Australia. 24 September 1920. p. 1. Retrieved 21 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ "Semaphore Wondergraph changes hand". Port Adelaide News . Vol. 7, no. 58. South Australia. 24 September 1920. p. 2. Retrieved 21 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  22. 1 2 3 4 "Wondergraph / Star / Odeon, Semaphore". CAARP: Cinema and Audience Research Project. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  23. 1 2 3 Roe, Ken. "Odeon Star Semaphore in Adelaide, AU". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  24. 1 2 3 4 "This week marks the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Semaphore Wondergraph Theatre, now the Semaphore Odeon Star Cinema". Port Adelaide Historical Society Inc. 24 May 2020 – via Facebook.
  25. ↑ "New Theatre". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. 94, no. 29, 225. South Australia. 12 June 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 22 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  26. ↑ "Big crowd at new theatre opening". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. 94, no. 29, 226. South Australia. 13 June 1952. p. 13. Retrieved 22 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  27. ↑ "The odd spot". News (Adelaide) . Vol. 58, no. 8, 997. South Australia. 10 June 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 22 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  28. ↑ "Sema4's New Odeon Star Highly Praised". Messenger (Port Adelaide) . No. 66. South Australia. 12 June 1952. p. 1. Retrieved 22 December 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  29. ↑ Contemplari (29 July 2020). "Semaphore Odeon Star Cinema originally Wondergraph Picture Theatre built 1920, South Australia". Flickr. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  30. ↑ "Contact us". Odeon Star Semaphore Cinemas. 2009. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  31. ↑ Kellner, Lydia (6 November 2018). "Want to carry on the tradition at the Odeon Star Cinema?". realcommercial.com.au. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  32. ↑ "Semaphore Odeon Star Cinema originally the Wondergraph Picture Theatre of 1920, South Australia". Flickr. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  33. ↑ "Home". Odeon Star Semaphore Cinemas. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  34. ↑ "Venues". Adelaide Film Festival. Retrieved 31 December 2022.

Coordinates: 34°50′19″S138°29′05″E / 34.83862°S 138.48476°E / -34.83862; 138.48476

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.