Image of the crowd gathered outside of Star Pictures (Anzac Theatre) to survey the damage from the fire in 1920.
Fire at Star Picture Theatre, Payneham Road, St. Peters [PRG 280/1/29/389]
Picture courtesy SLSA: http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/searcy/29/PRG280_1_29_389.htm
In his 1984 interview with Vic Wales, Dylan Walker asked Vic about the Anzac Theatre in St Peters. Vic, who worked at the theatre, replied that it was never the Anzac Theatre but rather the Star Theatre, "it would never have been the Anzac as the term wasn't really coined" replied Wales (Interview with Vic Wales, 1984, May 30, p. 2). It would seem that Walker and Wales were both correct, the newspaper advertisement calls it the Anzac Theatre when it announces that it was to open ' to-night', on the 29th February 1916. But the name Anzac Theatre seems to have been short-lived as it soon became known simply as Star Pictures at St Peters.
Picture courtesy Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/10516379
In a recent article in Cinema Record Les Tod tells us that the theatre was located on Payneham Road in St Peters near where the Maid and Magie Hotel is situated (Tod, 2021 p. 4). Tod goes on to mention two possible reasons that the Anzac Theatre became better known as the Star, it may have been because of the association of the lessees, Coffey and Powell with the Adelaide Star, or perhaps it was the electric star sign which illuminated out the front (ibid).
Either way, less than four years after it opened in a grand affair attended by the Mayor, Aldermen and councillors, the Anzac Theatre/Star at St Peters was to burn down in the early hours of the 31st January 1920.
Image courtesy of Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/10502103
Three firemen were injured whilst tackling the flames when the roof collapsed in. The theatre was built using wood and iron and the fire torn through it. The newspaper's reporting of an exciting experience for the firemen seems a little off the mark, I would think it was more frightening than exciting. It tells us that one of the firemen, Thomas Sayers suffered a broken rib and was taken to the Adelaide Hospital for treatment, the other two men's names and injuries are not provided. In all the notices about the fire at the theatre, it is called the Star Pictures at St Peters, no mention of Anzac at all. It does seem strange in the midst of WW1 that the name Anzac would fall away in favour of Star, perhaps there was another reason behind the change in name?
References:
Tod, Les 2021, Pictures at St Peters in Cinema Record: The Quarterly Journal of the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society of Australia Inc. iss. 109, March 2021.
Walker, Dylan 1984. 'Interview with Vic Wales' interview with Vic Wales, 30th May 1985.
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