YALLOURN’S FIRST 3D FILM
Everyone who lived in Yallourn was very proud of the town’s ultra-modern cinema and it was big part of the lives of young and old alike The following news article is about the first-ever three dimensional film to be screened at the Yallourn Theatre. The report was published in the ‘Morwell Advertiser’ in September 1953.
The footnotes that accompany this article give brief details about the famous film.
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10th September 1953 Morwell Advertiser Page :3
Three Dimension Films for Yallourn
The Yallourn Theatre will be the first outside the city of Melbourne and, in fact, only the third theatre in this State, to be equipped for the screening of Third Dimension films.
The first 3D film in Yallourn "The House of Wax," will be shown for one week from the 18th of September, announced the proprietor of the theatre (Mr. Rex Hamilton) this week.
Mr. Hamilton is to be congratulated on the progressive step he has taken to ensure the best in entertainment for the people of Yallourn. Over recent months the theatre has been entirely re-equipped with a new projection plant to enable the showing of 3D films.
The equipment installed is the biggest (and heaviest) available for the projection of motion pictures, and is identical with that used at the Regent and Metro Theatres in Melbourne. Also installed at the theatre is the latest innovation in film screens, the panoramic screen, which will be used for the showing of both 3D and ordinary films.
The film, "The House of Wax," is in technicolor. It is a thrilling picture centred around a wax works. A man, turned monster, stalks beautiful show girls (and the pretty heroine), with murderous intent because he craves their life-like images in wax. For this first picture special *polroid (see footnote:6) glasses will have to be used. These will be available at the theatre.
The later 3D pictures (The Cinemascope pictures) which can be shown without alteration to the existing equipment, do not require glasses. The supervision of the installation of the equipment was done by the theatre's chief technician, Mr. R. C. Ferguson.
FOOTNOTES…
1. ‘The House of Wax’ was the first 3D film produced by a major film studio.
2. The film is said to have been the first-ever with stereophonic sound. Perhaps one our Virtual Yallourn readers may know whether the Yallourn Theatre had stereophonic sound speakers.
3. ‘The House of Wax’ premiered in the USA in April 1953; so it was within a short space of time that the film was screened at the Yallourn Theatre.
4. The stars of the film were Vincent Price, Charles Bronson and Carolyn Jones (Carolyn later played the role of Morticia in the ‘Addams Family’ television series).
5. The ‘House of Wax’ was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1953 in the USA.
6. * Probably meant to be polaroid, as the glasses worn in the theatre were made from grey-lensed polarized glass.
7. The Yallourn Picture Theatre was officially opened on the 18th May 1939. In earlier times, films were shown at St Therese’s and St John’s Hall(s). Prue McGoldrick recorded in ‘Yallourn Was’ that…
“Soon after films were released they were shown locally at St Therese’s or St John’s where the installation of talkie equipment in 1931 added another dimension to the movies.”
8. Rex Hamilton was one of the first elected members of the Yallourn Town Advisory Council which was formed in 1948.
9. * Mr Ferguson (chief technician) as mentioned in the news item may have been Mr R. Ferguson who lived in Latrobe Avenue.
The article has been faithfully copied from the original article. Font style & size, spacing and paragraphing have been hanged to enhance the posting of the report on the Virtual Yallourn website.
