Wests cinema, with history in three modes back to 1908, home to Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2001
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in its Grainger Studio in Hindley Street, Adelaide city, the former Cinema 5 of Wests Theatre in multi-cinema mode – a third cinema chapter for the site after West's Olympia from 1908 (top left) and art deco/art moderne Wests Theatre (bottom left) from 1939.
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2001 made the former West’s cinema building in Hindley Street, Adelaide, its home as the Grainger Studio, named after Percy Grainger.
The original orchestra pit, green room and dressing rooms from the cinema remained but covered. In its original life from 1908 as West’s Olympia, the cinema had a popular orchestra playing with the silent films. At the nearby Wondergraph silent cinema in Hindley Street, Bill Cade led his orchestra. Cade would conduct the new Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 1936 to 1948.
A new Wests Theatre, considered one of the finest examples of an art deco/art moderne style in Australia, replaced the original West’s Olympia in December 1939. More than 1,500 people were at the opening for the popular British film Pygmalion with Leslie Howard.
The Mail in Adelaide described the new art deco building with its “bold, ultra-modernistic façade is a column of solid white architecture, brilliantly lit: a thickly carpeted foyer decorated with colourful murals, leads to a pair of curving staircases, which form the approach to the theatre lounge. Elaborate powder rooms, furnished in modernistic style in mulberry tonings are provided for women patrons." The usherettes wore “autumn-toned” uniforms to complement the theatre’s colour schemes.
The new Wests cinema was built and operated by Greater Union Cinemas and seated 1,504, with 1,036 in the stalls and 468 in the circle. Very early, it ran Gone With the Wind simultaneously with the Metro Theatre directly opposite in Hindley Street. In 1955, West’s was equipped with CinemaScope, starting with Sign of the Pagan, starring Jeff Chandler. The seating was reduced to 1,448 and, in 1961, the cinema closed for a few week before reopening with Porgy and Bess, presented in Todd-AO and using only 650 seats in the stalls (with the circle closed).
Greater Union used Wests Cinema to feature blockbusters such as Spartacus, El Cid, Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Thoroughly Modern Millie, A Clockwork Orange, What’s Up Doc?, Earthquake! (in Sensurround), Jaws and Battle for Midway. Wests Cinema closed on February 19, 1977, with Carry on England.
The building was sold by Greater Union, who also operated the Metro Theatre that, in 1975, they converted into the Hindley Cinemas 1-4. In 1978, the former Wests cinema was converted into the Jade Palace Restaurant that soon failed. It was Sinatra’s Nightclub in 1979 before Greater Union Cinemas bought the building again in 1980 but it was damaged by fire (suspected arson) the next year.
In 1982, the auditorium was gutted back to bare brick and the ceiling removed. A new projection booth was built in the rear stalls, with a new auditorium on the south side, on the former staff car park, with access from the former upstairs foyer of the original cinema. It reopened as the Hindley Cinemas 5 & 6 in 1982. Cinema 5 had 768 seats and opened with ET, Cinema 6 with 488 seats and Year of Living Dangerously.
In April 1991, Cinema 6 was closed with The Godfather. The equipment was moved to the new Greater Union Hindley 1-5 across the road. In April 1991, Cinema 5 was closed with Edward Scissorhands. Greater Union’s Hindley Cinemas 1-4 (formerly Metro Theatre) also closed on this date, with all business directed to the new GU Hindley 1-5, from 1991. In 1994, it opened as the Meridan Time Zone Nightclub. The property was sold in 1999, and the Meridan Time Zone was closed in 2001.
The former Wests Cinema/Hindley 5 & 6 was taken over in October 2001 by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as its permanent home, reopening as the 680-seat (former Cinema 5) Grainger Studio. The former Cinema 6 was gutted and converted into office space used by an advertising agency.
