Crowd outside of The Mayfair Theatre, Rundle Street, Adelaide. c 1935 - photo courtesy of SLSA (https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+64014)
The Mayfair Theatre in Adelaide started life as The Adelaide Grand in 1916 (Hennessey 2013, p. 96). It was situated on the corner of Rundle Street and James Place. The photo above is circa 1935, and it is not known what the crowd appears to be looking at.
In the early to mid 1930s remodelling took place in which 'a narrow stage and decorative proscenium were installed to cover the window and wall of the end bay of the hall' (Thorne 1981, p. 162). Cinema Treasures has a picture of the proscenium to view http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/35512 . Managed by British Cinemas Ltd, The Mayfair Theatre was opened on the 31st March 1934, at the stroke of midnight by the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Mr. Jonathan Cain ((The News (Adelaide), 31 March 1934, p3). After the remodelling works The Mayfair Theatre had a seating capacity of 933 (CAARP Grand/Mayfair/Sturt https://caarp.edu.au/venue/view/177).
The theatre was decorated with art moderne lighting and in the colours of green and gold (The News (Adelaide), 31 March 1934, p3). The ushers too worn a uniform of green and gold (ibid). Surprising colour choices considering that 'The Advertiser' reported that The Mayfair Theatre would be an "all-British theatre" (The Advertiser 24 March 1934 p 15). Films would be drawn from a select number of studios which included B.E.F., Gainsborough-British, Gaumont-British and the Australian studios ( The News (Adelaide), 7 March 1934, p8).
In this photo of the entrance to The Mayfair Theatre you can see two young women on the stairs dressed to publicise the film Beloved with Gloria Stuart. Also in the photo is the ticket attendant, the theatre manager and the commissionaire. C 1934 Photo courtesy of SLSA (https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+64015)
By December 1935 Grand Theatres Limited had taken over the management of The Mayfair Theatre and quickly set about change. They announced that there would be a new manager, Mr Arnold Montgomery and a policy change for the The Mayfair Theatre which would 'ensure an unbroken supply of first-class films' commencing with The 39 Steps(1935) ( The News 7 December 1935, p.7). The photo above dates from earlier in 1935. Beloved (1934) was showing at the Mayfair in January 1935. As a Universal Pictures film it would seem that the policy of "all British' had actually changed earlier than reported in December 1935.
The Mayfair Theatre would run until May 1955 when it would undertake another name change to become The Sturt. (CAARP Grand/Mayfair/Sturt https://caarp.edu.au/venue/view/177).
References:
1934- Mayfair Theatre-Big Programme Announced For Opening, The News 7 March 1934, p 8)
1934 - Musical Comedy For New Mayfair, The Advertiser 24 March 1934, p.15
1934 - Wide Variety Of British Films In Course For Production, The News (Adelaide), 31 March 1934 p. 3
1935 - Policy Change at Mayfair Theatre, The News (Adelaide) 7 December 1935, p.7).
Hennessy, Antoinette 2013, 'Entertaining the Classes An archaeological investigation of historic cinemas in Metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia, and their development in relation to social class, 1896-1949', Master's thesis, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University
Thorne, Ross 1981, Cinemas of Australia via USA, Architecture Department, Sydney University, Australia.
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