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Jun 18, 20235 min read

TEROWIE INSTITUTE THEATRE - TEROWIE

Updated: Jun 19, 2023



Interior Terowie Institute (photo reproduced courtesy of Philip Wood)

Showing the bio box and seating in the Terowie Institute building in Terowie.


When you think of going to the pictures you typically think of picture theatres as businesses, housed in purpose-built buildings, where you deal with anonymous people. But, for many in the smaller towns of Australia going to the pictures is a much more personal event. You would probably know most if not all of the people in the room with you. You would know the name of the person at the ticket box, the person that ran the film and it is even possible that you yourself had taken some part in getting the 'show on the road' so to speak. In Terowie volunteers were the essential oil on which its cinema ran, people freely gave up their time and sometimes money, even taking out loans to buy the necessary plant and equipment needed, all in order to provide this service to their town (Gray & Wood 2009 pp.130-131).


Terowie in mid-north South Australia is the town that my mother was born in, and my grandparents and their parents and their parents raised their families in. Sadly I never did ask them about their memories of going to the pictures in Terowie. But I did get a chance to ask a group of people in a Facebook group, Next Stop Terowie - check it out it has so many photos and information about this amazing town.


Interior of the Terowie Institute Building showing the proscenium (Image reproduced courtesy of Philip Wood).


Small-town cinemas such as the Terowie Picture Theatre were an essential thread within their society. Some within the Facebook group remembered that if there wasn't a dance on a Saturday night at the RSL hall, the picture theatres at the institute building were the place to be seen. Many 'Friendships and romances were started there' (Trevor Dianne White, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023). For some, a trip to the movies leads to long-lasting love and marriage. Others within the group remembered the fun that they had, with many mentioning Johnny Hill and his torch, which he would shine on you if you had done something to annoy him. But most remembered that he never seemed to follow up on his threats to kick you out of the theatre (Next Stop Terowie, April 2023).


Sandra remembered that the seats were very uncomfortable (Sandra Hutchings, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023). Indeed it seems that many attendees would bring their own cushions to add comfort to the cold and hard seats (Gray & Wood 2009, p.135). Glass hand-produced slides would be used to advertise local businesses (Gray & Wood 2009, p. 131). Some even gave the results of the local basketball and football games ( Diana Scott, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023). There was no air conditioning, instead, all the doors of the institute would be opened to provide some ventilation on the hot nights in the mid-north town ( Gray & Wood 2009, p. 135).


After a standing rendition of God Save the Queen the format each night was typically a newsreel, then an interval where the guests could purchase refreshments such as from the lollipop tray from Chards Deli (Trevor Abbott, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023). Or you could make a quick dash down to McDiarmids Deli (Gray & Wood 2009, p. 131). Then followed the main picture (Trevor Abbott, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023).


Whilst the above memories were from the 1950s and 1960s, the residents of Terowie had been able to watch pictures at the institute from the 1920s. Everyones on the 24th November 1926 reports that Mr. Moloney (sic) of Terowie had visited the United Artists' exchange in Adelaide and had booked UA's 1927 product (p. 38).






Everyones 24 November, 1926, p 38. Image courtesy of Trove


In the 1920s A J Molony and P Nourse set up New Era Pictures (Gray & Wood 2009, p.129). This is the era of the travelling picture show man were typically the only provider of picture show entertainment in the smaller towns across Australia. What is unusual for Terowie was that it had its own town-run picture theatre. An agreement was met for New Era Pictures to hire the institute building each Saturday night for the purposes of providing films for the populace. Music for these silent films would be provided by either Miss Fanny Markey or Mrs Mundy (Ibid).


And business seemed to go well, Everyones reported earlier in the year that Mr. J Maloney's (sic) New Era Pictures at Terowie was doing good business (31 March 1926, p. 10). But by 1928, a year before the Great Depression, South Australia had entered into recession. Gray and Wood report that the minutes of the Institute Committee meeting dated 29 February 1928 show that New Era Pictures has fallen behind with their payments (2009, p.129). But they must have paid up because New Era Pictures would continue to establish Saturday Night as 'Film Night' in Terowie until the mid-1930s. (Gray & Wood 2009, p. 129). By then the talkies were the norm and perhaps it was the cost of the required equipment that was the death knell for New Era Pictures.


Gray and Wood report that for a period after the closure of New Era Pictures the institute building was leased to George Parkes Travelling Picture Show (2009, p. 129). And during the war years Lester Pictures would show films four or five times a week (Ibid). Terowie during the war years was a staging centre for trans-shipment troops, where hundreds of troops would gather whilst awaiting their onward journey.


Then in 1948 several of the townsfolk got together and set up The Terowie Community Entertainment Committee (Gray & Wood 2009, pp. 129-130). The committee members would fundraise and even use their own money. They purchased the equipment and plant needed to run the show at a cost of £1,700, initially placing down a £300 deposit and hire purchase for the rest (Gray & Wood, p. 130). The 'uncomfortable' seats were purchased in 1952 at a cost of £1,200, and are still in use today, then there was the later installation of cinemascope and an upgraded sound system (ibid).


Programme guides c the 1950s/1960s from the Terowie Picture Theatre (reproduced courtesy of Philip Wood).


Change was in the airwaves, and in 1959 television arrived into South Australia. Julie remembers that they had purchased one for their house in Terowie by the mid 1960s (Julie Kelly, Next Stop Terowie, April 2023). And by the late 1960s the railways, the main employers of the town was winding down with Peterborough a little further north becoming the main connector for the two gauges. On the 30th June 1969 films were shown for the last time.



References




Gray, Marina & Wood, Philip 2009, Terowie Institute 130 years: A social history of Terowie.



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