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Member LoginBill Gray
I was a page boy at the St. James Theatre, Sydney
In 1938 I had left school and was out of work. I applied for a job advertised in The Sydney Morning Herald. It was for a pageboy at the St James Theatre, owned by MGM, in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. I was 17 and a bit old for a pageboy but I was tall and that got me the job - at one pound per week; 6 days of 8 hours a day. I also wore a uniform. A pageboy was like a gopher; he did everything. Ran messages for the manager, got lunches for the cashiers, assisted in crowd control and cleaned the cigarette butts out of the sand trays.
I worked mainly in front of house so I didn’t get to see many of the pictures. MGM insisted the manager sat through the films at the first session to adjust the sound level. He had a buzzer on a cable running to the projection box- one buzz for up and two buzzes for down. The projectionist followed his instructions.
There were 4 sessions a day; 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm. There were 4 prices. For the 11am sessions the Front Stalls and the Grand Circle the price was one shilling - equal to ten cents. Back Stalls were one shilling and sixpence and the Lounge was two shillings. At the 2pm sessions the prices went up and then up again for 5pm session. A few minutes after that session started the prices went up to the 8pm level.
The programs were complex – a newsreel, a short of some subject and a cartoon, a feature film and then a main feature. Some of the city theatres had an orchestra which performed at the matinee and the evening session. Going to the pictures was an event in those days.
I didn’t stay a pageboy for long. MGM sent me to the Sydney office where I became the “Assistant Country Booker” – booking programs into the country circuits.
As an economy measure the theatres in Campsie, Canterbury and Earlwood ran the same print each session with someone on a bicycle delivering the various reels to each cinema in turn.
The Newsluxe Newsreel Theatres also shared prints and a cyclist switched prints carrying them in a large semicircular backpack. I was in the army from June 1941 until February 1946 and then went back to MGM; they always had a job for their returned servicemen.
In 1947 I joined Hoyts and went to Wagga as assistant manager then manager and then managed at the Roxy in Parramatta, the Embassy in Castlereagh Street, Sydney and the Metro at Kings Cross. In December 1950 MGM made a lot of money and paid everyone a 5 weeks salary bonus.
I became manager at the Chullora Drive-in in Western Sydney and stayed there for 12 years. It was the biggest drive-in in the Southern Hemisphere and had 2 screens; in effect it was two theatres. Apart from being the biggest it also took more money than any other drive-in in the world and it was also the only drive-in that allowed bikie gangs in. On Friday and Saturday nights there were two policemen controlling the traffic outside the entrance. We could get in 6 sessions a night – start on one screen when all the car spaces were taken; then start the second screen. By the time the first screening was over there were enough cars to fill it up again and so on.
On a night like that we had 3,900 cars through the place. The food sales were enormous - vast amounts of money changing hands and a weekend would see sales of 3,600 lbs (1630 kilos) of potato chips sold. I retired in 1981.
MGM managers ran their own theatres - did everything apart from the actual programming whereas Hoyts and Greater Union managers were only front of house men.
In 1947 I ran a promotion in Wagga for a film ‘The Egg and I’ with Fred MacMurray. We had a billy cart made from a fighter plane belly tank and the youngster who brought the most eggs to the matinee won the billy cart. I don’t remember who won but I remember giving 140 dozen eggs to Wagga Base Hospital and 140 dozen eggs to Calvary Hospital.
Bea Miles - an eccentric Sydney character - once pushed into the St James and sat down. I finally got a ten shilling note from her and when I went back down the crowded theatre with the ticket and her change she shouted ‘Robber” at the top of her voice.
Over the years I was given 14 BOX OFFICE AWARDS, for doing things to increase the take. My all time favourite film - GONE WITH THE WIND.
Bill, his wife Vera and I then sat down for afternoon tea and enjoyed some of Vera’s excellent boiled fruitcake.
Vera Gray’s Boiled Fruit Cake.
- 1 lb mixed fruit (approx 1/2 kilo)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 15 oz can crushed pineapple (380gm)
- 1 teaspoon Bi-carb Soda
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1/4 lb butter (112gm)
- pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- wineglass of sherry or brandy
Boil together fruit, sugar, pineapple, soda, spice and butter, gently for 5 minutes. Cool. Add eggs lightly beaten, then flour and sherry. Pour into a greased and papered tin and cook for about 1 and 1/2 hours in a moderate oven.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 16