MANILLA NSW 1928-1971. Photos by me January 1975. I apologise for the number of photos with this one, but it tells a very important part in Aussie Film History. I was engaged by Joan Long as one of the Technical Assistants on Picture Show Man. One of my tasks was to locate some early projection equipment (which I did, at the PowerHouse Museum), but also to find a sound on disc plant which could be used as a mock up in the movie. After quite a bit of correspondence I received a letter from the operator at the Manilla Palais. You better come up here mate, theres lotsa stuff under the stage. Well, mid January 1975 in stiflling heat, up we went with the trusty Valiant and lo and behold - his lotsa stuff was a classic understatement. You will see in the photos the (then) current plant with modern machines - well, under the stage was everything prior to that - they had never thrown anything out! Its not a long story, but a great story. What we got that day formed the basis for the final scenes in Picture Show Man, where they attempted to run Talkies,(with sound-on-disc) but after the usual technical mishap, John Meillon went on to sing to the audience, just as he had done in the silent days. The last pictures here are the mock-up (very convincing, might I add) which was used in the film. It was an Australian Markophone plant, complete with gated turntables (so you didnt bump the record), but WE tone arms. I can still watch that film with pride and say Hey, thats mine! Later I donated the whole lot to NFSA. The movie which is being shown in Picture Show Man is a scene from The Antidote (DeForest 1927) with Brooks John and Goodie Montgomery. That film was also mine, but thats another story!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 09:21:21 +0000
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