The End: Curtain falls after 79 years
Mackay’s last remaining CBD cinema created many memories.
Mackay
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IT WAS the ideal movie to mark a Mackay cinema milestone, so it’s fitting it will also bring an era to its end.
Jaws, which went on to become a box office classic, was the first film screened when Mackay City Cinema opened its doors on December 11, 1975.
Tonight it will be the last movie shown in the Gordon Street cinema before it closes for the final time.
Film and Arts Mackay president Dale Miinchow said if there was one film movie-goers should get the “big-screen experience” with it was Jaws.
“We grew up with the cinema, school holidays, riding our bikes into town,” he said.
“I remember seeing Star Wars in 1977 and there were, of course, the Disney movies, childhood memories.”
He said the Film and Arts Mackay committee and its members were saddened by the closure of the Birch Carrol Coyle Gordon Street Cinema. For the past eight years it has been the venue for the group’s popular Mackay International Film Festival.
Mr Miinchow still has the habit of calling the City Cinema “The Civic”.
It’s a nod to the site’s past history. The cinema complex in Gordon Street has been a part of Mackay moviegoers’ lives since 1940.
The Civic Theatre was officially opened by Queensland Premier and Member for Mackay, William Forgan Smith, on September 16, 1940.
The opening night proceeds were to be donated to the Mackay and District Patriotic Fund.
Movies screened that night were: My Son, My Son! and Cavalcade of Academy Awards.
The theatre was on two levels. There was only one screen and it was reported that up to 1100 patrons could take part in a single movie screening.
It was regarded as one of the most up to date and best equipped theatres in Australia and the first airconditioned theatre/cinema in Queensland north of Brisbane.
The building was also home to the popular Civic Milk Bar.
Carol Ward has memories of the milk bar and watching films while being courted by her husband, Bob. She has a vivid memory of watching A Clockwork Orange.
After hearing the news the cinema was closing Mrs Ward remembered she had a copy of the souvenir program, saved by her mother, from the official opening of the theatre.
It describes the theatre as a “dream come true” and “an ambitious project”.
“This very fine theatre has the most up-to-date equipment and furnishings that money can buy, and, as entertainment in pleasant surroundings has a tonic effect upon the mind, I am sure there will be a widespread appreciation of what has been provided,” the Queensland Premier said in 1940.
The original building was home to a soundproof, airconditioned, glass-panelled “Cry Room” and feeding room where mothers could soothe babies without missing any of the program.
The cinema was operated by the Taylor Estate, also known as Mackay Theatres, until July 31, 1972 when it was taken over by Birch Carroll and Coyle.
The temporary closure of the cinema in November 1975 allowed for extensive renovations. It was relaunched as the Mackay City Cinema on December 11, 1975.
In 1994 the cinema underwent another makeover and became a five-screen complex. The launch included a preview screening of the film Forrest Gump.
On March 27, 1997, the complex was renamed ‘Birch Carroll and Coyle – Mackay Cinemas’.
It was Mackay’s only cinema until the opening of the Birch Carroll and Coyle, Mount Pleasant 6 Cinemas in 1999.
Birch Carroll and Coyle – City’s final screening will be held at 6 o’clock tonight. Tickets and seats are limited.
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