was finally were given consent to build a new theatre, they did Blacktown proud.
The Warrick rose on the opposite side of the laneway to the Rivoli site, a modern, large single level cinema of some 700 seats.
It opened on 30 March 1949 with Susan Hayward in Tap Roots, an American Civil War drama in the vein of Gone With The Wind.
Alan Payne, son of Albert and Edith Payne, later commented that local audiences were so keen to have a theatre back, they would not have cared which film he put on.
Architects for the new theatre were Buckland and Druce (who had also designed the Astra Theatre at Parramatta) and the builders were C H Webb and Sons. Brakell’s supplied the curtains and carpets and the theatre was equipped with RCA Photophone equipment.
Although not on the scale of the big city theatres, it was a very well equipped, well run and comfortable theatre. And it quickly became a Blacktown institution.
On Saturday nights it was not unusual to see a convoy of buses and taxis lined up waiting to take patrons home, and dozens of bicycles parked on the footpath as well. Seats could be booked permanently.
The Warrick’s halcyon days were certainly the 1950s. Even with the threat of television on the horizon, the theatre’s attendances continued to grow, as did the post war population of Blacktown and its district.
The theatre had two major achievements in that time: in 1955 it was equipped with widescreen CinemaScope, which was two and a half times wider than the conventional Academy ratio screen. The first feature screened was The Robe, to a packed house.
CinemaScope was introduced by 20th Century-Fox, premiering in Australia at Hoyts Regent Theatre in Sydney in December 1953 where it ran for nine months.
Audiences were stunned by its width and the use of stereophonic sound to enhance the wider image.
It was a technological marvel, and Fox’s first production, The Robe, was quickly followed by a series of visual blockbuster films that kept audiences packing theatres: How To Marry A Millionaire, Soldier of Fortune, River of No Return, The Egyptian, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Peyton Place, Island in the Sun, King of the Khyber Rifles, and many more.
Other studios quickly jumped on the bandwagon and major films such as 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The High and the Mighty, and Knights of the Round Table were also filmed in CinemaScope. 5 All of these major films were shown at the Warrick.
The second major achievement was in 1957 when the Payne Family decided to take a huge gamble in increasing the capacity of the Warrick.
A dress circle was added by raising the roof hydraulically, and then bricking the walls up higher. In addition, new toilets were installed and a lounge foyer space erected alongside the theatre, parallel to the lane. The proscenium was also modified to improve sightlines.
During this work, the theatre never closed, even though parts of the auditorium had scaffolding along the side walls.
The roof was raised 3.5 metres and a huge steel beam installed to support the new dress circle – a remarkable engineering feat. The façade facing Main Street was heightened so that the theatre now dominated the shops around it.
Around this time a large billboard was erected on the side wall of the theatre, in order to be able to advertise major coming attractions. This was known in the industry as a 24 sheeter.
The Warrick screened all the major hits of the day, including The Ten Commandments, Spartacus, Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, Oklahoma, The King and I, Ivanhoe, Carousel, Sink the Bismarck and many, many more.
It also introduced a policy of screening continental films on one night of the week, and sometimes even operatic films, to appeal to a broader ethnic community which was now increasingly a part of Blacktown due to post war immigration.
The Warrick changed its programmes three times weekly. There was always a variety of choice to appeal to everyone.
Thursday was a special ladies’ shoppers’ matinee, while Saturday had three sessions, the first being a special matinee for children.
School holidays saw additional matinees. There were Ranch Nights and Fright Nights.
To walk home in the dark [there were few street lights in those days] after watching a Frankenstein/Dracula double feature was nerve-wracking, let alone having watched Gorgo the sea monster trash London, or the giant Tarantula eat people.
There were also retro screenings of past favourites. With television yet to arrive, the Warrick was the entertainment hub for the people of Blacktown.
Saturday matinees were popular with local children. Imagine a theatre full of around 1000 screaming kids of all ages and sizes. The appearance of a colour cartoon brought more screams and foot stamping, as did the weekly serial. However, bad behaviour was not tolerated and miscreants were quickly removed. One of the usherettes had a fearsome reputation when it came to picking out the troublemakers in the dark and marching them outside. Interval was further pandemonium as all those children headed for the toilets or the candy bar in a chattering human wave. The sight of so many noisy children at the long candy bar purchasing their sweets at interval was not easily forgotten, nor at the busy fish and chip shop adjacent, which also did a roaring trade.
The new dress circle is complete, and the Warrick is twice its original height. The outline of the original theatre can be seen on the façade as the paintwork is not yet complete.
In 1959 an unusual promotion took place when a free movie policy was introduced for a week. Local shopkeepers would give tickets away, depending on the amount of purchases made, to these free daily film screenings.
The 1960s saw attendances falling due to television. A developer had taken an option on purchasing the theatre in 1962.
In December 1963, the new drive-in theatre opened, which immediately further eroded the Warrick’s audiences. The Warrick closed in March, 1964, with the film Charade, and, appropriately, The Final Hour.
It seemed strange to patrons attending the final screenings that this fine theatre, only 15-years-old, was going to be demolished.
It took several weeks to get the theatre down. The nondescript Blacktown Mall building was erected on the site, a poor visually decrepit substitute for what had been a Blacktown landmark, and one of the city’s most loved buildings. At least one local remarked “they pulled down our theatre for that?”
The Warrick’s roof trusses were re-used to build Rowe’s bus depot on the corner of Richmond and Rooty Hill Roads but this itself was later demolished.
It would be many years before Blacktown got another cinema, the Village Twin, and later, the Hoyts 10 muiltiplex.
Photos credit courtesy of Alan Payne.
