ACADEMY TWIN CINEMAS/ACADEMY WEST END ALTERNATIVE CINEMAS/
LUMIERE
Wellington St, Perth
In the late seventies, TVW Enterprises, the company running
the television channel TVW 7, built the huge Entertainment Centre on a large
site on the north side of Wellington St near the Perth Railway Station. The
complex (which contained a vast entertainment stadium, convention facilities and
restaurants) was officially opened on 27 December 1974, and the two cinemas on
its ground floor were opened on 17 January 1975. These were named the Academy
Cinemas, One and Two, and were leased to City Theatres, which had been from
February 1973 owned by a consortium of which TVW Enterprises was a major
shareholder. In August 1978 TVW Enterprises bought out the other shareholders,
leaving the management of the Academy Cinemas with those employed previously by
the consortium.
Three-D was shown briefly in 1985, then in June 1986 the
cinemas became the Academy West End Alternative Cinemas, programming for the
"film buff", the kind of audience catered for by the Perth Film Festival and the
Windsor (Nedlands) and New Oxford (Leederville). However, the arthouse policy
survived only for a short time, and the cinemas closed 1 July 1988, after Hoyts
took them over. They were then taken on in 1989 by James Woods and leased to the
Film and Television Institute (WA), which had formerly screened only in
Fremantle.
They renamed the venue the Lumiere. In 1993 it was listed as
having 405 seats in Cinema 1 and 373 in Cinema 2, and to be presenting live
performances as well as films. However, it closed on 28 June 1996, and the lease was not again taken up. In 2002, there were rumours of demolition, bitterly apposed by heritage lobbyists. In 2003, it was reported that 'Multiplex (the company) has secured an option to buy the mothballed Entertainment Complex for $25 million. A $40 million redevelopment is proposed.' (Kino no.86, p.42) Further reports suggest that any redevelopment will no longer accommodate cinema: 'A $50 million redevelopment of the closed Perth Entertainment Centre has been proposed which will feature a retractable roof to allow the centre to compete for more tennis and other big events.' (Kino, no.87, p.38)
Sources:
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex,
1986, p.73
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 - 1993', Kino, no.45,
September 1993, p.29
Bob Parkinson, ´Field report', Kino, no.41, September 1992, p.13
Kino, no.17, September 1986, p.24; no.25, September 1988, p.23; no.29,
September 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23 no.38, December 1991, p.27; no.45,
September 1993, p.31; no.57, September 1996, p.31; no.62, Summer 1997, p.35; no.80, Winter 2002, p.54; no.81, Spring 2002, p.39; no.86, Summer 2003, p.42; no.87, Autumn 2004, p.38
West Australian, 27 December 1974, 1974 - 1997
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)
Photos:
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner) Link to image
1 exterior, 3 interiors, b&w, West Australian, 27 December
1974
|
