Wallis women keep the Adelaide cinema legacy of Hughie and Bob rolling after city's last drive-in closes in 2022

Lorna Wallis, in her eighties, was still working in 2022 with her daughter Michelle and granddaughter Deanna, to continue the cinema legacy of Hughie and Bob Wallis beyond the closure of the Mainline Drive-in at Gepps Cross, last in its empire across Adelaide and regional South Australia.

Matriarch Lorna Wallis – still working with two other family generations of women involved in running Wallis Cinemas – saw Adelaide’s last drive-in film theatre, the company’s Mainline, at the northern suburb of Gepps Cross, closed in early 2022. 

The cinematic institution, that opened in 1955 with the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck classic Roman Holiday, closed with Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Lorna Wallis and her husband Bob had rolled out the Adelaide and regional South Australia drive-in empire started by Bob’s father Hughie Wallis. Hughie Wallis had a fascination with photography and filmmaking and laid the foundations of his business when he began screening Hollywood films in community halls across Adelaide.

The Blueline was the first Wallis drive-in, at West Beach, was the first, followed by Oceanline at West Beach, Mainline at Gepps Cross, Parkline at Mitchell Park, Valley Line at St Agnes, Harbourline at Outer Harbor, Hi-Line at Panorama and the Hollywood at Salisbury Downs. The family also ran drive-ins at Barmera, Berri, Clare, Loxton, Renmark and Tanunda.

Lorna Wallis, in her eighties, will still working in 2022 to supporting the legacy of Hughie and Bob Wallis. Her first dressed up (“gloves and all”) date at the Capri Theatre in the 1950s with Bob progressed to marriage. Between having children Darryl and Michelle, Lorna began working with Wallis Cinemas at the Hi-Line Drive-In and Glenelg Cinema in the Candy Bar. 

Her fondest memory of working at the Hi-Line was having up to 800 cars (per session) on a Saturday night and serving three-course meals at the canteen. She also remembered: “At the end of a show, a young lady came in quite embarrassed. Whatever they were doing in their small car ended up with the boyfriend upside down and his foot stuck in the glovebox. He couldn’t get it out!”

The Mainline Drive-In survived the threat of VHS, DVD and even home streaming but a serious fire in 2017 followed by the Covid-19 pandemic that severely curtailed the films available to screen brought its end.

The ongoing challenges to the cinema business were met by Lorna Wallis as owner, alongside daughter Michelle as managing director and her daughter Deanna. The Wallis circuit in 2022 comprised the Mitcham, Mount Barker, Noarlunga, Mildura and Piccadilly cinemas. Wallis theatres previously included the Ozone at Glenelg, the Chelsea in Adelaide’s east, and a cinema complex in Hindmarsh Square.