Orroroo Institute (Home of Renown Pictures), 12th October 1962.
Image Courtesy of Orroroo Historical Society and District Council of Orroroo Carrieton.
By 1951 John McDougall and his family had settled at Victor Harbor ('McDougalls of Victor' The Advertiser, Adelaide 30 August 1951). In February 1957 a Certificate of the Registration of a Business Name was issued, certifying the business name of RENOWN PICTURES for a period ending 10th February 1960, at a cost of 10 Shillings, there are no names listed. CATHS has the exhibitor listed as Renown Pictures c 1956/57. (http://www.caths.org.au/venues/venue_search.html).
Image Courtesy of Orroroo Historical Society and District Council of Orroroo Carrieton.
The Australian Cinema Map (https://auscinemas.flinders.edu.au/) places Les Haynes as the exhibitor during 1958/1959 . Les had a long association with Renown Pictures. In a letter dated 17 September 1947 to the Deputy Prices Commissioner Les states his title as Manager of Renown Pictures.
Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia Item Number, 1359654
Information supplied to me by the Orroroo Historical Society and the District Council of Orroroo Carrieton states that from the 1st July 1960 Renown Pictures was taken over by L Haynes , R Sims and L Hughes.
The seating capacity would change throughout the years. In 1924 the capacity was 250 seats (1924, 'Gus Dieppe on Tour', Everyones vol.4 no. 225, p. 5, 25 June). The Australian Cinema Map (https://auscinemas.flinders.edu.au/) states in 1956/1957 there was a capacity of 378 seats, this drops down to 370 in the years 1958/59.
Looking through the information that I have been supplied there appears to be fluctuations in the number of ticket sales throughout the years. (nb: all days listed are Saturday unless advised otherwise).
17th March 1945 - 319 seats sold
Monday 19th March 1945 - 146 seats sold
19th November, 1949 - 220 seats sold
26th November, 1949 - 259 seats sold
29th April 1950 - 271 seats sold
2nd July, 1960 - 127 seats sold
On the 21st June 1969 it seems only 59 seats were sold.
Courtesy of Orroroo Historical Society and District Council of Orroroo Carrieton.
The introduction of television would have had a major impact on Renown Pictures. Patrons no longer would need to travel the roads at night for entertainment. And it would seem from early 1968 the audiences numbers were down enough that pictures stopped being shown weekly and moved to fortnightly.
Image courtesy of Orroroo Historical Society and District Council of Orroroo Carrieton.
Renown Pictures would continue to serve the people of Orroroo until June 1969, when it closed its doors for the last time, and the screen would be rolled up. When I interviewed Allan Hall (ex Ozone Semaphore and Oxford Unley- see previous posts) he mentioned that it was a visit to the Orroroo Institute whilst he was working for the ABC, that brought him back to the picture theatre business.
'But I never went back to the picture theatres other um an avid film goer, until I found a pair of projectors at the Orroroo Institute. I was up there doing a film job for the ABC. And I saw the door open, and I walked inside, and there was a guy cleaning the dust and moss out this screen, which used to roll up. They used to roll the screen up in a roll, can you imagine what the screen looked like when they put it down. You know, it’s all, you know, like this no tension on it. And all the moss and everything came out of it. I said, ‘Oh you show films here?’ he said ‘No, not anymore.’ “Oh” I said “you got all the equipment and everything here? “cause I was still interested in equipment.“Yeh wanna have a look.” “Yeh.” so having a look wound up with me buying the machines. Which are a couple of Australian built machines, and they threw in a two of those machines out the front for 50 bucks extra. I paid $350 for the whole lot, which wasn’t much money really. And that’s what started me.'
Interview with Allan Hall, dated 19th March, 2021
References:
Orroroo search, Cinema and Theatre Historical Society of Australia, n.d., viewed 12 February 2022. http://www.caths.org.au/venues/venue_search.html
Renown/Orroroo search, n.d., Australian Cinema Map, viewed 12 February 2022,
EXCELLENT INFO RE ORROROO RECENT HISTORY, HOW DO I FIND PART ONE?