Cinema

May 24, 2021

Urban Exploring: The Trak Cinema

The Trak Cinema

The Trak Cine Centre was opened on December 26 1975, by Steve Buge – a venture built off of his successful re-opening of the Lockleys Soldiers’ Memorial Hall a couple of years prior.

The opening features were Jeremy and Where The Lilies Bloom.

Programming of these initial days was relatively mainstream and of a wide audience appeal.

Unfortunately, this programming policy received mixed reactions in the eastern suburbs, and the cinema closed in the late 1970s.

Barry Loane

Barry Loane grew up on a diet of films from Hollywood in Sydney’s beach side suburb of Manly, with four movie

palaces within a five-minute walk from his home. He had an affection for alternative films, independent or, as he liked to call it, “World Cinema”.

In 1978 when living in Adelaide, he visited a run-down and disused cinema in the eastern suburbs named The Trak. It was the beginning of what was to be a lifetime devotion for him and Adelaide movie-goers.

He was warned against showing independent and foreign language films on a regular basis. His first big test came when he screened a German Documentary “HITLER – A CAREER”.

It proved to be a huge success with audiences. He then extended his six month lease and established The Trak Cinema as Adelaide’s first “boutique” cinema for discerning movie-goers.

“The Gods Must Be Crazy” was released in Australia in August 1984. While all other cinemas in Adelaide had turned it down, Barry knew how Adelaide audiences would react. “The Gods Must Be Crazy” was so successful it ran for a full year at The Trak Cinema. It’s success allowed him to experiment with even more alternative and cutting edge material, including the hit film A Clockwork Orange.

Renovations & Improvements

In 1989, the Toorak Village Arcade, in which The Trak Cinema was tucked away on the second floor, changed owners. With new owners came a new, long lease, and the reliability that Barry needed to undertake some much-needed upgrades.

In 1989, Barry extended The Trak Cinema to two screens. It proved extremely popular with patrons, giving them a greater selection of programs from which to choose.

The Trak Cinema Foyer, Adelaide, South Australia. (Source: S.A. Drive-ins & Cinemas)

The Trak closed from July 1 to July 19 1990, and $100,000 was spent on new seating, a new red colour scheme, extended foyer, a larger screen and new projectors and a new stereo sound system.

1990 also saw the opening of Trak Video, making The Trak Cinema a one-of-a-kind operation in Australia, combining cinema and home entertainment.

In 2003, after twenty-five years at the helm, Barry retired due to ill health.

Barry passed away peacefully at his Adelaide home on Sunday, April 9, 2017. He was 79 years old.

The Two Michaels

The Trak Cinema owners Michael Schneider and Michael Todd, Adelaide, South Australia. — The Trak Cinema owners Michael Schneider and Michael Todd. (Source: Dylan Coker)

The Trak Cinema was purchased by business partners Michael Schneider, already a decade-long employee of The Trak, and Michael Todd, who until that point had been managing the Capri Theatre.

The Trak continued as Adelaide‘s favourite arthouse cinema for a number of years before the next big change…

Early incarnations of digital cinema were being experimented with in the late 2000s. It led to the installation of one of the first generations of digital cinema – commonly referred to as e-cinema – at The Trak.

Because digital film was more economically viable than the old 35mm format, the two Michael’s added a third, digital only cinema.

The death of a long time friend of Michael Todd was the catalyst for the breakup of the two Michaels’ partnership and led to The Trak Cinema’s eventual downfall in early January 2019.

Enter Adam Towill

Longtime cinema historian and enthusiast, Adam Towill, had become aware of the unfolding circumstances, and arranged access to the minimally documented, and now disused Trak Cinema in order to photograph it, assuming that it would never reopen.

What started out as a mission to photograph the final moments of one of Adelaide’s well-liked cinemas, quickly became a mission to save it.

After poring over sales figures and predicting absolute worst case scenarios, Adam gained possession of The Trak Cinema on February 14 2019.

Adam continued Barry’s tradition of screening alternative films. Australia Day 2020 saw the first use of film The Trak had seen since its conversion to entirely digital projection in 2013 – a 16mm print of an Australian documentary called The Back of Beyond, followed by the journey of Tom Kruse, The postman who serviced the towns and residents along the Birdsville Track.

The Beginning of the End

News of a strange new virus emerging in China was beginning to make headlines. One month later, international travel restrictions were being put in place, distributors were suspending films, and attendances, not just at The Trak Cinema, but across the planet, free fell to record lows. Within the first two weeks of March 2020, attendances dropped 90%, and by the third week, mandatory shutdowns were in force.

Initial conversations with the building owners were positive – “don’t stress, we’ll look after you”. But by September the owners were looking at other options. The Trak Cinema was officially asked to close down and to vacate the building by December 1 2020.

After entertaining Adelaide movie-goers for well over 40 years, The Trak Cinema was systematically dismantled, and replaced with a Gym.

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October 28, 2020

Urban Exploring: Remembering the Windsor Theatre

A Memorial for World War 1 Soldiers

It all began in 1922, when the people of Lockleys decided to erect a memorial as a tribute to all those from the district who enlisted and died in World War 1.

Originally a reserve and garden had been suggested, but the people had something more grand in mind.

Soldiers Memorial Hall at Lockleys, c.1953 (Source: WTC)

The Lockleys Memorial Hall was constructed in 1925 on land donated by John Mellor, for whom Mellor Park derives its name. It cost £3,800 to build (equivalent to $320,000 in 2020). Just under half that amount was raised by the people of Lockleys through various fundraising efforts.

If it wasn’t through various efforts, donations and fundraising activities from the local community, the Lockleys Memorial Hall may not have become a reality.

Re-built as a Movie Theatre

On October 10 1925, the Lockleys Memorial Hall was used by Lyric Theatres Ltd to screen it’s first film.

The Hall was such a success as a movie theatre, The Windsor Group acquired it in October 1948, re-naming it The Windsor Theatre.

The Windsor Cinema c1960. (Source: Courtesy of the Brian Pearson Collection)

In the 1950s the theatre was substantially internally modified. The original two front meeting rooms were restructured, leaving a vast foyer area. The entrance into the auditorium was raised and a staircase to a landing 5 feet above the foyer floor was constructed. That then entered into the theatre, and stairs to the left and right aisles were installed. The final result was a fully carpeted foyer and stairs.

A modern candy bar was built on the western wall of the foyer also incorporating the ticket box and the seating capacity was upgraded to accommodate 495 people.

1953 saw a further upgrade of the theatre. A hallway was built on the eastern side of the theatre as a separate entrance to the front stalls. The hallway would later become the well known “Nostalgia WALK”.

Nostalgia Walk

Over the next 30 years, original movie posters were glued to the hallway wall as a future nostalgic look-back to the films that had been shown there.

Hundreds of original movie posters – some more than 50 years old – were incorporated into the wall, including 1972’s The Godfather, 1971’s Clint Eastwood classic Dirty Harry and 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia.

The Hidden Basement

We originally started exploring The Windsor Theatre 5 years ago.

At the time we were told of an elusive hidden basement that nobody could find.

Upon closer inspection of the original building plans, there was meant to be a “large supper room and kitchen under the stage … [accessed] by means of easy graded stairs from the main floor level”.

During demolition, the carpet in front of the stage area was taken up, revealing a curious hidden panel. When opened it revealed a staircase leading down to a previously unexplored area. The elusive hidden supper room and kitchen, unseen for 70 years, had been found.

The Final Curtain

In 2018, The Windsor Theatre was purchased by The City of West Torrens Council, who then (later that year) applied for its demolition.

An 11th-hour bid by the Friends of the Lockleys Memorial Centre to save The Windsor Theatre was pleaded for, however those prayers were silenced earlier this week with the last wall felled and the site leveled.

A carpark will be built in its place.

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January 14, 2020

Urban Exploring: A Backyard Cinema

Exploring an Abandoned Cinema

It was a Saturday night. We’d received a tip-off about a small cinema that was sitting disused in a suburban backyard.

They’re rare — only about 4 or 5 still exist in South Australia, so we were keen to take a look.

From the outside, it looked just like any other suburban shed; a grey square structure with galvanised cladding. Nothing about the property gave any indication of what was inside.

As we entered, we could see it had been meticulously transformed inside. Its owner had decorated it with lengthy yellow and red cloth with foam and PVC cladding inset with golden ornamental accents. It was truly a sight to see.

Cinemas like these are rare and were mainly built by projectionists or enthusiasts,… and they would go all-out; making their cinemas look as grand as possible!

This cinema contained a little pair of 16mm Bell & Howell movie projectors from the 1970s. Like many of the projectors around at the time, the first projector held the first 40-60 minutes of the movie and the second projector held the next 40-60 minutes.

Lost Film Re-Discovered!

It was in an Australian private cinema similar to this one that a previously lost film was discovered.

For 80 years, the 1930s classic film ‘MAMBA’ thought lost was found in Australia. An old cinema projectionist had a nearly complete 35mm nitrate print of ‘Mamba’ in his collection. All 9 reels were in great shape and stored in their original cans.

At the time, after commercial viewings, films had to be returned or destroyed. In fact, a lot of films were meant to be destroyed after their run. In some cases however, it was just easier to store the film in the corner and as a result many films considered lost are still available.

So when out exploring, if you’re 100% certain a canister of film is headed for the skip-bin, consider handing it in to your local historical society for preservation or contact us and we’ll refer you to an appropriate person. You may have found a piece of history needing preservation.

Safe Travels,
WildStar