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Member LoginKevin Roche
For years before television started, Australians would get their weekly news at the local movie house… The two players in the market were Movietone and Cinesound. The last fully employed Newsreel cinecameramen Kevin Roche gives us an extract from his diary on the last days of the Newsreels…
After Cinesound & Movietone merged in 1972 I went to Movietone. Frank Killian was in charge with Phil Dority as Chief Cameraman. Bob Hawkins and I were the other cameramen. Sid Woods was in charge of news, Harold Dews was the documentary editor, Bill Carty was the director and Wally Bird was the sound engineer.
We shot news as well as short magazine stories which were combined with the news. Some events were covered year after year including the Rugby League and Australian Rules Football Grand Finals; the Bathurst car race (then known as the Hardie Ferodo). The Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November and the Craven A Stakes on the Saturday were shot in colour and sent back to be shown in the theatres at the eight o’clock sessions that night.
When Frank Killian passed on, Harold Dews took charge of Movietone. Then Wally Bird retired, followed by Bill Carty and John McPhail took over Wally’s position. Phil Dority went freelance and Bob Hawkins and I carried on until Bob also went freelance. Movietone then hired another cameraman for news.
I went onto documentary work and did Roche Chemicals and His Own Kind of Dignity that was shot for theatre and television release. Two documentaries for Phillips Industries followed and then there was 500 miles in the Saddle; about a horse endurance race from Berrima to Melbourne and to tie in with the film premiere of Bite the Bullet. Sid and I then did two Army films – A Man & his Dog and another one about explosives. Then Sid Wood retired and the other cameraman was laid off.
Representatives from 20th Century Fox came to Sydney and instructed that Movietone was to cease production. John McPhail stayed on to finish editing the Phillips films and I was the last fully employed cameraman for Movietone.
After leaving Movietone, Kevin went onto freelance on various projects before joining ATN Channel 7 News in Sydney in 1981. He retired in 1994 and now resides on the Central Coast of NSW. Kevin celebrates his 70th birthday this month.
Kevin Roche was the projectionist at the first ACS screening at the Cinesound building in Darling St, Balmain. Kevin cannot remember what was screened but cannot forget the Chinese takeaway that was eaten.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 2