Answers to Quiz 6: Cinemas
1. Where were moving pictures screened for the first time in Fremantle?
Town Hall Fremantle had films screened from as early as 16 December 1896 (West's, 1909; Vic's Pictures, 1910-19).
The Fremantle Town Hall was opened 22 June 1887. It was the location for the first screening of moving pictures in Fremantle, when Frank St Hill presented a programme on an Edison machine for one night only – Wednesday 16 December 1896. After that, touring companies presented occasional film programmes or short seasons there irregularly.
Other such venues were: East Fremantle Town Hall, the North Fremantle Town Hall (as the Arcadia), Victoria Hall, and even the Fremantle Prison.
2. What hall, which opened in 1867, was the venue for a season of Harper's Biograph Vaudeville Company films in 1897, one of the earliest screenings in Fremantle? (Clue: it was in William Street.)
The Oddfellows Hall, which was used for meetings and entertainment of kinds: plays, musical evenings etc.
3. What cinema was demolished in 2014, supposedly so that a Hilton hotel could be built on the site? In 2020, it's a carpark.
4. What cinema, demolished in 1972, was renamed after a P&O liner when the ship arrived here on its maiden visit in 1961? (Its original name was Hoyts.)
The Oriana—which is on of the most historically important sites in town—tho you wouldn't be able to tell that from the very ordinary buildings that are on it now.
5. The largest and one of the three most prestigious cinemas in Fremantle is still standing, tho more or less empty, and even still has its sign over its marquee in front of Kakulas Sister, tho it hasn't been used as a cinema since 1969. What is it?
The Princess Theatre.
6. Perhaps even more prestigious, because of its centrality, but somewhat smaller, what cinema's initials can still be seen on balconies at the front of the building in the middle of the High Street Mall, despite it's not having been used as a cinema since 1938?
The Majestic Theatre.
7. What theatre was used for the projection of films as part of vaudeville programs? The building has had many names and been used for many purposes, including panel-beating! It is currently a nightclub.
The King's Theatre, aka Dalkeith Opera House etc., now the Metropolis.
8. The 1854 Boys School in Adelaide Street was for a time used not only as a cinema but also a production office for the making of films. What was one of its two names during that time?
When it was founded it was called the Perth Institute for Film and Television, but that was later changed to the more appropriate Film and Television Institute (as it was not in Perth as such.
9. What cinema was almost in Beaconsfield - just over the road from the Beaconsfield Hotel (now with a silly name) and was among other things a supermarket after it was closed as a cinema in the late 1960s?
The Beacon Theatre.
10. And, for East Fremantle residents, what is the name of one of the cinemas that used to be there? (I think there might as many possible answers as four, tho one is the obvious one. Extra kudos if you get the one near the corner of Petra Street.)
Probably the best known would be the Richmond, but you might have remembered the Mayfair, which was previously the Empire Hall, and then Swan Suburban Pictures.
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