The Beginnings of The Capitol Theatre
November 7, 1924 was a historic day for the city of Melbourne as Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin finally completed their construction of the Melbourne Capitol Theatre. Addressed on 113 Swanston Street, it was right in heart of the city of Melbourne. (Powell, M 2010)
By the end of the completion, the 113 Swanston Street building had 10 stories of offices, shops, cafés, and the main attraction was the Melbourne Capitol Theatre. The construction was revolutionary, only steel and concert was used in the construction of the entire building. When the Theater opened its door on November 7th, it was described as “The Theatre Magnificent” and a building of “extraordinary beauty”. The Theater was truly remarkable, the patrons not only enjoyed movies but also music, theatrical performances, food, drinks and classy surroundings (RMIT).
Later did wen know that The Capitol theatre would be considered the greatest achievement of Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin and associated architects. The ceiling of the auditorium was the greatest feature of their architectural skills, it had thousands of coloured globes set in plater crystalline shapes with gave the audience spectacular light effects (RMIT).
The Capitol theatre opened with a seating capacity of 2137. This decreased to 2115 by the mid-1935 as it had to make room to showcase a 4000 colour lights of red, green, blue and white. The theater revolutionized the Australian cinema industry and asked the question of other cinema companies to build more comfortable theatre’s and try to keep up the Capitol Theater (Walters, T 2009).
The opening night of the Melbourne Capitol Theatre was a private function. It was reported that six policemen were detailed to control the crowds and to figure out the admittance. It was also reported that the theater had a grand opening. Councillor Brunton, who was the Lord Mayor of Melbourne during that time, opened the ceremony. “This handsome building is a worth addition to the architecture of the city” was quoted before the opening of the theater to the public. Mr. Herman Phillips, then speaker of the House of Representative announced that building theatre had cost the city 580,000 pounds. In 1938, Jack Lester, arrived from United States to produce the Paramount concept of “quick-fire”. This was several stage shows that were lasting about three quarters of an hour and consisting of acts each only three or four minutes in duration. These shows were to be produced by Australian performers at Paramount Theatres throughout the country commencing only at the Melbourne Capitol Theatre (Throne, R 1981).
After the Melbourne Capital Theater was build, Paramount pictures leased on the Capitol Theater from 1924 to 1940. This was a great time as the Capitol theater was getting the best movies that Paramount was producing (Walters, T 2009).
