1960s/70s take a savage toll on Adelaide's classic city cinemas: York, Rex, Savoy, Wests, Majestic, Metro, Sturt, Curzon
The York cinema and foyer (centre), on the corner of Rundle Street and Gawler Place, Adelaide city, in 1936. At right: The Curzon cinema in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, next to the Richmond Hotel.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
Adelaide city lost a slew of stylish and elegant cinemas from the 1960s with the advent of television and suburban multiplexes – and also side effects such as road widening.
Among the cinemas lost in the city were the Rex (first with 11am-11pm showings), Savoy (presented newsreels), Sturt, York, the Metro, Wests, Curzon (showing foreign films) and The Majestic.
The Metro opened in Hindley Street in 1939, designed by the architectural department of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, while West’s, also on Hindley Street, was renovated to art deco style. In the mid 1970s, their owner, Greater Union, turned the Metro into four cinemas and Wests into two. The Wests building survives as the Grainger Studio home of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
The York, with 1,722 seats, on the corner of Rundle Street and Gawler Place, was built by the Greater Wondergraph Theatres chain, and opened in 1921. The side-walls of the auditorium had painted landscapes, representing Australasian scenery, by decorator George Coulter. The York was taken over by Greater Union Theatres chain in 1929. It was modernised in 1938 as a first-release house for MGM films.
When the Waterman family sold the Ozone cinema group in 1951, it retained the city jewel, The York, with a promise that it would continue with its specialty of British films. But it was demolished in the 1960s to widen Adelaide's Gawler Place.
Other city theatres lost included the Plaza, opened off Rundle Street in 1955 using the old Embassy ballroom, and the My Fair Lady, on the former Metro site in Hindley Street.
Adelaide became the only Australian city centre without a mainstream cinema when Greater Union complex in Hindley Street closed in 2008. (This was reversed with the opening of the GU Film House on the site in 2016.) Meanwhile, the popularity of suburban multiplexes at Marion, Norwood, Salisbury, Elizabeth, West Lakes and Mitcham increased. Glenelg also gained a GU Film House.
