I recently attended a talk by American academic Professor Julie Allen. Allen - who is an academic from Brigham Young University in the USA - has written several books, but the book in the discussion last Wednesday was "Screening Europe in Australasia: Transnational Silent Film before and after the rise of Hollywood". It was a very enlightening talk. I knew about the growth of Foreign Language Films in Australia after WWII but knew only a little about these films in Australia in the early 20th Century. Allen's book concentrates on the period 1910s through to the early 1930s.
Article that appeared in The Register 17th December 1925. Retireved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60634402
Allen spoke about one film in particular, the Italian-made Quo Vadis? (1924). It appears that it was a sensation at the box offices. The cover of EVERYONES on 2 December 1925 tells the story of a robust box office success for Wests Olympia in Adelaide.
EVERYONES, 2 DECEMBER 1925, FRONT COVER. retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-557686391/view?sectionId=nla.obj-574055163&partId=nla.obj-557807581#page/n0/mode/1up
An article in EVERYONES dated the 2nd December 1925 talks about Wests Olympia (A first run cinema house) having to call on the local constabulary to ensure peace within the waiting crowds, so much so was the excitement.
EVERYONES, 2 December 1925, p. 21. Excerpt retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-557686391/view?sectionId=nla.obj-574055163&partId=nla.obj-557812950#page/n20/mode/1up
Allen mentioned some of the tactics that some cinemas went to,to try to jump on the Quo Vadis bandwagon, with tactics such as showing an earlier version of the film from 1913, but not telling their audience that it wasn't the lastest version.
EVERYONES, 6 JANUARY 1926, p. 28. Retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-558528417/view?sectionId=nla.obj-574618917&partId=nla.obj-558544329#page/n27/mode/1up
I've just started to read Allen's book and I enjoyed her talk - which has opened up a whole new area of research. To be continued.