Cinema and Theatre Historical Society Australia - CATHS

Home
Australia
Prahran, VIC
Cinema and Theatre Historical Society Australia - CATHS

CATHS was formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1989 for people with an interest in cinemas.

20/06/2026

The Melbourne Town Hall has been used at times as a cinema. “Soldiers of the Cross” opened there in 1900 to a crowd of 4000. In 1925 the main hall was destroyed by fire. This programme, recently donated to CATHS archive, was for the 1928 reopening after reconstruction. Cosmopolitan Motion Pictures screened Greek movies there from 1957 for ten years.

16/06/2026

Two of Victoria’s former cinema buildings are to undergo changes. Richmond’s Hoyts Cinema and Malvern’s Victory have operated for many years as Barbecues Galore and Lincraft respectively. Both of those companies have recently announced the closure of all their stores. As cinemas, Richmond opened in 1916 and closed in 1959 and the Victory opened in 1920 and ceased screening in 1955 (rather than install CinemaScope)

14/06/2026

This State News program for their Melbourne opening on 23 Feb 1929 was donated to the CATHS archive this week. It contains this ad for the builder, with the structure partly covered in scaffolding. This morning’s look at the building (now housing the Forum) shows the corner covered in scaffolding as it was in 1928. The depiction of the theatre on the cover probably shows the original colour scheme.

11/06/2026

Village City Centre, Melbourne, opened 40 years ago on 26 June 1986. (This early photo, from before the adjoining arcade opened.) The cinema suddenly closed on 15 February 2006. This was the program and ticket for the final day, from the CATHS archive.

08/06/2026

MGM’s quality cinemas the Melbourne Metro and the St. James in Sydney were both housed in large office buildings. In 1954 they shared the world premiere of the Elizabeth Taylor movie “Rhapsody,” possibly held in Australia because it was based on a novel by Australian author Henry Handel Richardson. (Melbourne building photo 2013)

04/06/2026

This week would have seen Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday. She featured in Fox’s early CinemaScope productions and was made for their big musicals. Colour ad from Film Weekly 1955, and other for the Adelaide Regent May 1955. (Our Photo 2010) The film had to wait until July for a 5 week season at the Melbourne Regent.

01/06/2026

The calendar has clicked over to June. A reminder to CATHS members that due to screening commitments at the Sun Theatre this month’s meeting has been brought forward to Sunday June 14th. Hope to see you there. Visitors are most welcome. The Sun theatre is full of history. These telegrams were received from MGM stars when the cinema opened in 1938.

31/05/2026

It seems that exhibitors liked a gimmick. East End 1 had a hit with Earthquake, in Sensurround, in 1974 and showed other movies, including Rollercoaster, in the same ‘multi-dimension.’

27/05/2026

Sad to see this on Facebook today. The Port Theatre in Port Melbourne was a very early suburban theatre, opened in 1913. It closed in 1952 and was being used as retail premises before the 2015 fire. It’s hard to believe it has sat like this for more than 10 years in such a vibrant area.

26/05/2026

In 1970 the Melbourne Rapallo screen was painted silver for this Spacevision 3D film. It was described as ‘using a single strip over/under image resulting in a 2.35:1 3D image.’ A new screen was installed for the following film on 26 Feb 1971. The Rapallo doesn’t currently present the facade of smooth elegance mentioned in the 1963 opening report.

Address

39 St Edmonds Road
Prahran, VIC
3181

Website

http://www.caths.org.au/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cinema and Theatre Historical Society Australia - CATHS posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Prahran?