Monday, 2 December 2024

Sale Men’s Shed Advertising Slides on Show

Sale Men’s Shed has provided a special lightbox to view some advertising slides once shown at the Prince Regent Theatre which are sure to bring back memories. The dozen slides promote cars, carpets and blinds, Tattersall’s lottery, upcoming movies and Heyfield Milk and Cream.

Alan Huckell from the Men’s Shed designed and constructed the light box which forms part of the display on ‘Movies in Sale’ at the Museum at 130 Foster Street Sale. The slides and the advertising schedule came from Val Morgan Advertising, still significant in cinema advertising, which was formed in 1894. The first movies in Sale were shown at Victoria Hall but in the 1920s two purpose-built theatres were erected in Sale.

The first was the Palais Theatre in Raymond Street Sale, next door to one of W. D. Leslies’ stores. This was constructed by the Glover family on the site of their grain store, opening on 2 December 1926 with ‘The Only Way’ starring Sir John Martin Harvey. ‘The Only Way’ was a play based on the 1859 Charles Dickes novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

A few weeks later, on 4 January 1927, the lavish Prince Regent Theatre was opened by Combined Victorian Theatres, screening ‘The Thief of Bagdad’ starring ‘The King of Hollywood’ Douglas Fairbanks ‘with ample opportunity to display his athleticism’ according to the Gippsland Times of the day.

Mayor Cr William Stevens officiated at both openings.

At the time, both theatres were showing silent movies and orchestras, or at least a pianist, accompanied the program. Talkies were introduced in the 1930s with a Talkies Bus also touring district towns from 1932.

Within two years the Regent operators conceded they had over-invested and the theatres combined at the end of 1928, with the Regent eventually being bought out by the Glover family (who later also acquired Victoria Hall to reduce further competition).

The theatres were not only used for movies but for dancing, musical concerts, plays and fashion parades and other fundraising events. The Palais was also used for indoor roller skating and later became the city’s first indoor basketball stadium.

The final movie shown at the Regent was ‘Jane Eyre’, screened in February 1973 by George and Pat Glover who had leased the theatre from the family company for its final decade.

Developer Hanover Holdings, which demolished the Palais and constructed a Coles New World Store, also demolished the Regent but plans for a large store and several smaller shops on the Regent store never eventuated and only Specsavers and its neighbours in Cunninghame street were constructed. The back wall of the theatre remains in the carpark.

The exhibition at the Museum includes photographs and memorabilia from the time. The Foster Street museum is open from 1.30 pm – 4 pm each Wednesday and Sunday.

IMAGE – Alan Huckell from Sale Men’s Shed and Linda Cam, a member of the Glover family who ran the theatres, check out the slides on the new light box.