Ellis St, Pemberton

ADYAR HALL

The first building venture of Allan Jones of Busselton was the Adyar Hall at Pemberton, constructed in pique at the lease of the Mill Hall being given to a local resident. It was a timber hall, slightly smaller than the Mill Hall, but purpose-built for pictures, so with a built-in bio-box. It was located in Ellis St, just down from the north-east corner of the intersection of Ellis and Guppy Sts.

The first screening was on 7 September 1929 - Wings, followed by a dance. But 1929 was also the beginning of the Great Depression. As Jones was still in the early days of his career, he had to work extremely hard to make the new venture pay, going so far as using his van to bring in patrons from outlying farms, particularly in the Group Settlement areas, all for the same entrance price of 2/-. All kinds of people tramped the roads during those hard times - even vaudeville artists: when these arrived in the town, Jones would make an agreement with them to perform at his show in return for a split of the profits. He also ran competitions, with the heats during the week and the final on a Saturday night, or over several weeks with the final on ´Anniversary Night', the anniversary of the opening of the Adyar Hall, which was always celebrated in some special way. In the silent days, the pianist would offer to play for a dance when the films were over: the seats would be pushed back, the hat passed around, and the dancing would begin. The films would have finished by about 10.30, so, if the dancers were still keen at midnight, the hat would go round again for a second session. Jones and his pianist - he had particularly fond memories of ´Tommy', but there were several others too - would split the take, and every penny helped. One penny could make quite a lot of difference - as entertainment tax started on tickets that cost ninepence, the practice of ´Family Nights' was designed to avoid this by making all tickets cost only 8d if a whole family came. Though frowned upon by the distributors - who were not always told of such things - all these gimmicks helped to encourage the audience to keep coming back, through the dark days of the depression. And so they helped many an exhibitor to survive!

Jones did more than survive - he continued to expand. He put in sound equipment at Pemberton, opening with Sunny Side Up on 28 May 1932. He used the locally-built X-L Tone sound heads, as, like many country exhibitors, he could not afford the imported gear. Pemberton remained on one of his travelling picture show circuits out of Manjimup for several decades. Screenings finally ceased at the Adyar Hall in January 1981, and in 1982 the building was sold to a Mr Mutton for use as a private school.

The building is now classified by the National Trust, and in 1997 was in use as a woodcraft studio and up for sale, but in poor condition.

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