Astor Cinema
Encyclopedia
Mount Lawley, Western Australia
Mount Lawley is an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Most of the suburb lies within the Local Government Area of the City of Stirling and small portions are in the City of Vincent and City of Bayswater...
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. It comprises a single, two and three-storey masonry Inter-war Art Deco style theatre and retail building.
History
The building was originally known as the ‘Lyceum Theatre’ and was designed by David McClure, and built by Simon Alexander, whose family owned the premises. The Alexander family also owned the Alexander Building on the South-West (opposie) corner of Beaufort and Walcott Streets. It was constructed in 1914/1915 in a Federation Free Classical style and was designed for a mixture of vaudeville and lantern slide shows.By 1922, the 'Lyceum Theatre' was advertising ‘motion pictures and popular orchestra’. In the mid 1920s, with the development and popularity of silent movies, the 'Lyceum' was converted to a cinema, and the name was changed from the ‘Lyceum’ to the ‘State Theatre’.
In 1939 the theatre was redesigned in an Art Deco style by William Leighton
William T. Leighton
William Thomas Leighton was a Western Australian architect, well known for his Art Deco and Inter-War Functionalist style of civic, commercial and domestic buildings....
, and reconstructed by Simon Alexander’s son John. In the late 1930s Leighton secured a reputation as a leading cinema designer for his work on several Perth cinemas, including the Piccadilly Theatre and Arcade
Piccadilly Theatre and Arcade
The Piccadilly Cinema Centre and Piccadilly Arcade are located at 700-704 Hay Street, Perth, Western Australia. It is an art deco style cinema and shopping arcade, designed by architect William T. Leighton for mining entrepreneur Claude de Bernales...
, the Windsor Theatre in Nedlands
Nedlands, Western Australia
The City of Nedlands is a Local Government Area in the inner western suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, located about west of Perth's central business district...
, and the Cygnet Cinema
Cygnet Cinema
Cygnet Cinema is located at 16 Preston Street, Como, Western Australia. It was the first purpose built sound cinema in the suburbs immediately south of the city in the inter-war period. The Cygnet Cinema opened in 1938 and was built by local identity and film entrepreneur James Stiles...
in South Perth
South Perth, Western Australia
South Perth is a residential suburb 3 kilometres south of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, which adjoins the southern shore of Perth Water on the Swan River...
. He was also behind the refurbishment of the Royal Theatre and Grand Theatre. The remodelling of the 'State Theatre' left it structurally intact but altered its appearance, 'dispensing with the arches and pediments and imposing a simple restrained facade'. The alterations included the entrance to the picture garden, and made provision for a grocery store on the corner, a millinery shop, and refreshments in the cinema vestibule. Leighton’s Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
design introduced ‘The Mayan Flower’ to the Theatre. The Art Deco theme runs from the Main Auditorium through the external facades to Beaufort and Walcott Streets. The remodelled 'State Theatre' opened on 12 May 1939.
The Astor Theatre received its current name in 1941 when an Act of Parliament decreed it an offence for a private business to use the name ‘State’. Mr John Alexander’s wife, Mavis, renamed the theatre ‘The Astor’ in memory of a theatre of the same name in New Farm
New Farm, Queensland
New Farm is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located 2 km east of the Brisbane CBD on a large bend of the Brisbane River. New Farm is partly surrounded by the Brisbane River, with land access from the north west through Fortitude Valley and from the north through...
, Brisbane that was the first cinema they went to after their marriage.
With the decline in cinema attendances in the 1950s and 1960s due to the introduction of television, the Astor Theatre became a shadow of its former self, eventually reduced to showing pornographic films. It was also used as a venue for a number of activities including amateur dramatic shows, a dancing studio and bingo. In December 1978, Astor Theatre was purchased by a group of Perth businessmen and families. In 1988 rumours grew that Astor Theatre was to be demolished, and Ron Regan, from Sydney, arranged a five-year lease of Astor Theatre through his company Entrevision Pty Ltd.
In 1989, the 50th Anniversary of its Art Deco redevelopment, the Theatre underwent an extensive refurbishment by Philip McAllister, Architect for Entrevision Cinemas Pty Ltd, who wished to return the cinema to its Art Deco glory and provide a quality film experience in a quality environment.
The cinema was officially re-opened on 26 July 1989 by His Worship the Mayor of the City of Stirling, Cr. A. A. Spagnolo, prior to a screening of Australian director Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
’s film Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
.
Current uses
Since its reopening, the Astor Cinema has undergone further refurbishment in November 2006, with the cinema facilities continuing to be upgraded. With many recent closures, the Astor Cinema is one of Perth’s few remaining inner city cinemas.In August 2008 the owners announced that the cinema would close because it is no longer profitable, stating that "the cinema had been running at a loss for some time, with just $34 in takings in four hours of trading".
A Music Rocks Australia concert (a kid rock band group of schools)was one of the last performances at the Astor.
The cinema reopened in October 2009, and now screens classic and cult films, hosts live music, theatre and dance.
Heritage value
The Astor Cinema was classified by the National Trust (WA) on 1 August 1988. The building is also included on the City of Stirling Municipal Inventory. and was permanently listed on the State Register of Heritage Places on 14 May 1999.Further reading
- A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present Apperly, R., Irving, R. and Reynolds (1989) North Ryde, Angus and Robertson
- Perth: A Cinema History Bell, M.D (1986) Sussex, Book Guild
- Essays on Art and Architecture in Western Australia Geneve, V. `William Thomas LeightonWilliam T. LeightonWilliam Thomas Leighton was a Western Australian architect, well known for his Art Deco and Inter-War Functionalist style of civic, commercial and domestic buildings....
: Cinema Architect of the 1930s` in Bromfield, D. (ed.) 1988, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands - Mount Lawley: The first 150 years 1829-1979 Hamilton, Margaret (1979) Mount Lawley Society