Movie posters from Hollywood’s heyday may be saved from long-empty Adelaide cinema
HUNDREDS of original movie posters – some more than 50 years old – plastered on the walls of a long-empty Adelaide cinema may finally be saved. See the photo gallery.
HUNDREDS of original movie posters – some more than 50 years old – plastered on the walls of the long-empty Windsor cinema at Lockleys may finally be saved.
West Torrens Mayor John Trainer is putting the call out for “enthusiastic volunteers” to help remove and photograph the posters at the Henley Beach Rd theatre.
Some of the posters adorning the theatre’s walls include 1972’s The Godfather, 1971’s Clint Eastwood classic Dirty Harry and 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia.
The 1925-built landmark showed its last movie in 2012 and the council-owned building has been empty ever since, apart from a brief stint in 2013 as Katter’s Australia Party’s electoral office.
“I believe that though they (the posters) are not a normal historical item, they would nevertheless fall into some heritage category,” Mr Trainer said.
“It would be nice if someone had a way to remove them from the walls for safe keeping, if that can be done, or create a good quality photographic record.”
While most of the posters are on the walls of a hallway, some are also in the old cinema’s box office.
Mr Trainer said he would talk with the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra about possibly taking the posters for safe-keeping.
“These are windows into the past of a great deal of entertainment provided to many, many Australians over the last 60 to 70 years,” Mr Trainer said.
The theatre was used as a dance and social hall before it became a cinema.
It came under the Windsor banner in 1948 and was given a makeover in 1953.
The theatre has been listed on the council’s register of local heritage places since 1998.
The council has no plans to lease the building out, and is yet to announce its long-term future.