History of Perth’s lost theatres and cinemas: Oriana Cinema

Image: Oriana Cinema. Image: 000062D, Source: State Library of Western Australia

Oriana Cinema 1938 – 1972

In 1937, a local company, Hoyts (Fremantle) Pty Ltd, proposed to construct a picture theatre at the corner of High and Queen Streets, Fremantle, on the site of the old Rose and Crown hotel. The Hoyts Cinema was estimated to cost £20,000 and would seat 1,300 people. The architects for the project were Hugh Vivian Taylor and G. A. Soilleux, in conjunction with the firm of Oldham, Boas and Ednie-Brown and the Art Deco cinema opened on Thursday, 4 August 1938.

The cinema, due to the acutely angled intersection, was a visually striking design. The entrance foyer, lounge and stairways were unusual in their spherical shape. The cinema featured a ‘floating’ screen, a soundproof ‘crying room’, to allow parents with crying babies to watch the movies and a ‘powder bar’ in the women’s lounge. The cinema was also unique in that it used ducted ventilation rather than air conditioning.

The cinema remained under the management of Hoyts (Fremantle) until 1961 when it was taken over by City Theatres and renamed the ‘Oriana’, after the SS ‘Oriana’ ship, on her first visit to Fremantle during her maiden voyage. The first stage of the Fremantle Passenger Terminal opened in December 1960 and the ‘Oriana’ was the first vessel to berth at the new terminal.

On Wednesday, 8 September 1971, Sir Frederick Samson, Mayor of Fremantle, gave an interview to ‘Daily News’ journalist Kevin O’Brien, in which he said that the Oriana Cinema had been sold to Summit (Fremantle), a subsidiary of a Sydney development firm, for an undisclosed figure and was to be demolished early the following year. Mr. Samson also added that he was not disappointed that the last theatre in Fremantle was to be demolished as “hard-top theatres seemed to be going out of date” and “drive-in theatres were the popular thing these days.”

Acknowledgements

State Library of Western Australia