| Historical notes: | These notes commence with a chronological list of known events. (As the owners’ history of the Saraton Theatre is at odds with some records at the Archives Office of NSW, the latter are used.) The Grafton City Council, unfortunately, has no records except files from recent years. As a consequence there is little detailed information about the theatre. Research, therefore, needs to be done of copies of the Grafton Examiner that exist at the local historical society to find out, in particular, what important social events occurred at the theatre. Also, research is required at the Registrar General’s Office to identify the exact dates of leases for the Saraton Theatre.
A few persons, other than the owners, who have had some relationship to the theatre, will be noted under their individual headings following the chronology of events. At the end of this section is a brief summary of the important role of Greek immigrants in cinema exhibition in country NSW.
Chronology
1905: John (Ioannis) Notaras arrived from the island of Kythera (Greece) and joined his
father who conducted a food retail shop.
1908: Tony (Anthony) Notaras arrived from Kythera and joined his brother and father (Cork,
1998).
Unknown date: The brothers open a café in Grafton. (Cork, 1998)
1926: Saraton Theatre is opened by the Mayor, Ald. W. T. Robinson, on 17th July. He praises
the Notaras brothers by saying that the occasion only went to show that there were at
least some men in this district who appreciate its value and were prepared to put in all
they could to make it a better place to live in.He hoped it would be an example to
many others who were reluctant to spend their money on progressive ventures to make
this part of the State more attractive from the point of view of up-to-date institutions.
(Grafton Examiner, 19 July 1926)
1932:The Board of Fire Commissioners reported a fire on the stage on 20th August,
damaging the floor, roof of the stage, (loudspeaker?)baffle board, screen and curtains.
1932: 18th November. Board of Fire Commissioners report that T.J.Dorgan conducts the
theatre, but it was not being used at present.
1933: Reports of the B of F Cs indicate that the theatre was still not used as a cinema, but
dances and socials were being held in it.
1935: By 20th June a sound screen had been installed (following the fire of 1932), and the
equipment in use was made by RCA (Radio Corporation of America).
1937: By 18th May the screen and projection/sound equipment had been removed.(B of F Cs)
1938/9: Reports of the Board of Fire Commissioners indicate that no films are being shown,
but the theatre is used for dances, concerts, and social functions.
1939: On 3rd September, World War II was declared.
1940: The interior is completely remodelled to produce an ultra modern luxury theatre, on the
lines of the metropolitan picture shows, with a glittering foyer laid down in rich pile
carpets.and the decorative and lighting scheme blends harmoniously in cream and
green, with a touch of blue and gold, while the stage is draped in gorgeous curtains, and
fluted columns and frescoes give a finishing touch to a splendid interior(Grafton
Examiner, 10th July 1940). A detailed description of the decorative colour scheme and
lighting is given in the same newspaper for the 6th July 1940. It notes also that the cost
was almost 4000 Pounds. The architect was George Rae, from Brisbane.
The opening ceremony was performed by Sir Earle Page, MHR, who congratulated T.J..
Dorgan Pty Ltd and Messrs Notaras Bros on their enterprise. He emphasised how
important it was to provide entertainment during times of war. Although World War II had
only been progressing for less than one year, Page gave three principals on how to win
the war: The third and most important [principle]of all is to keep up the spirit of the
people. Men and women are better able to work hard and continuously if they are
entertained. At the front in the last war [World War I] we found the lighter side relieved
the tension, kept the men’s nerves from snapping. I am sure that in these times we will
think clearly, work better, plan straighter if we mix work with amusement, and therefore I
am glad to open this place of entertainment (Grafton Examiner, 10th July 1940)
1944: On 10th May another fire occurred on the stage (Board of Fire Commissioners files).
The screen had to be replaced, as also was the curtains.
1951: New South Wales has 295 country towns containing 385 enclosed picture theares
1955: A Brakelite plastic, wide screen, suitable for Cinemascope presentation, was installed
on 27th April. (B of F Cs)
1963: The year by which television had arrived at most of the country areas. Around this time
or just after, T. G. Dorgan closed the Saraton.
1982: December, 10. The Saraton is reopened after the auditorium has been repainted, and
general refurbishment.. (B of F Cs)
1989: On 13th January a fire, allegedly caused by an employee, destroyed the equipment in
the projection box. Awaiting repairs and purchase of new equipment, films were
temporarily shown in 16 mm from the front of the dress circle, commencing on the 26th
January.(B of F Cs) Since that fire projection of films (on a 35 mm projector with
continuous platter system of feeding film) has continued until the writing of this report.
1999: New South Wales country towns have only 13 picture theatres still operating in
recognisable condition out of the 385 that were operating in 1951. The Saraton is one
of those thirteen.
Other history-related information.
SIR EARLE CHRISTMAS GRAFTON PAGE: He was a native of Grafton, had been a Member of the House of Representatives from 1919 to1961 and the leader of the Country Party from 1921 to 1939. In 1923 he became deputy to the new Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce, and remained as such until 1929 when the conservative coalition went out of government. He again became Deputy P M in the Joseph Lyons’ government from 1934 to 1939 when Lyons died in office when he was Prime Minister. In early 1939, Earle Page became Prime Minister for a brief period until Robert Gordon Menzies took office on 26th April 1939. Page had promoted the area and been active in the New England new state movement which commenced in 1915 and did not conclude until1967 (Barnard, 1962; Bassett, 1996, pp. 211,199).)
Page opened the Saraton Theatre the day before the Battle of Britain began, but after the defeat of the British Commonwealth forces at Dunkirk. The Australian war effort had become well established by the time Page opened the Saraton, and the seriousness of the war situation was much appreciated. It therefore is of considerable interest, from the viewpoint of social significance for heritage listing of this item, that he placed so much importance on entertainment. As soon as the war broke out there were calls by patriotic conservatives to close down theatres and cinemas, claiming that they did not contribute to the war effort. Fortunately, more experienced conservatives, such as Earle Page, saw from his observations during World War I, the benefits provided by entertainments for both the armed forces AND the general population. Of course, almost the only entertainment available to suburban and country people was through attending the local picture theatre. Page’s attitude is also interesting when seen against the attitudes of his superior, S. M. Bruce. In 1929 Bruce thought it was rather dreadful to see great queues of people waiting outside picture palaces that have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to build, when money was needed for industrial development and social welfare. (Tulloch, 1982, pp.89)
T. J. DORGAN: T. J. Dorgan conducted a small independent chain oof picture theatres in the north-east towns of the state. From a letter and comments on the files of the Board of Fire Commissioners it appears that he quite ruthlessly maintained his territory. One single-cinema operator who opened in opposition to Dorgan in Lismore explained how he had been squeezed out and closed down by, he claimed, T. J. Dorgan. Dorgan, he alleged, colluded with the film distributors to restrict product to the newcomer. Dorgan appeared to pursue similar business methods to those then conducted by the major exhibitors. They would arrange to lease an opposition theatre when the former operators were forced to close, either because of a price-war or of an inability to obtain films. They might then close it down, leaving it on hold for future use if demand, in their view, warranted its reopening.
This may be what happened to the Saraton. The timber building known as the Fitzroy Theatre opened as a skating rink (1889), was converted to a cinema in 1924 but the license was temporarily revoked in 1928 and it finally closed as a cinema late in the 1930s. Perhaps the Notaras Brothers attempted to beat Dorgan at his own game because, as well as building the Saraton, they gained control of the Fitzroy in the early 1930s. But both were leased to Dorgan who had also operated the Kinema (licensed in 1913). In a booklet on Grafton, published in 1931 (in possession of the Grafton Historical Society), Dorgan advertised that he controlled the Saraton, the Fitzroy, the Garden Theatre and the Prince Edward at South Grafton. It was only after the closure of the Fitzroy that Dorgan perhaps decided to reopen the Saraton, it also being the only well-built substantial theatre in town suitable for upgrading into a first class venue. It was Dorgan’s architect who was selected to design the complete doing-over of the interior of the Saraton.
GEORGE RAE, ARCHITECT: From personal communication with Mr. Les Tod, George Rae related that he had designed about 30 picture theatres in Queensland and ones at Murwillumbah, Casino, Cabramatta, Ballina, and Grafton. Amongst his other works he designed a number of Art Deco styled Commonwealth Bank branches in Queensland, and executed work for Myers stores at Tweed Heads, Cowra and Tamworth.
In summary, Grafton and South Grafton possessed, at some period, at least seven theatres that were being individually used for the showing of movies. For a time four were operating simultaneously. Only the Saraton Theatre remains as representative and symbol of the time when attending a picture theatre was the principal passive recreational activity of the general population (with, on average, every Australian attending around 20 times per year).
The Saraton Theatre is representative of Greek immigrant interest in operating cinemas in NSW from 1911 to 1960 approximately
(Source: K. Cork, 1998, Chapters 1 &2)
The immigration of Greek nationals to NSW showed marked differences in economic sustainability for those who came before 1950 compared to those who arrived during the mass immigration period following World War II. Prior to World War II the numbers of Greek immigrants were small and followed a system of chain migration. That is, one or two members of a family arrived, worked for other Greeks, set themselves up in some form of business, then sponsored one or more members of the family or friends, to come out and work in that business. Businesses were not set up to service other Greeks but to serve the Anglo-Celtic population.
These immigrants frequently went to country towns to set themselves up in a small catering type of business – food shops or cafes that prepared Australian-style meals. A number then moved into motion picture presentation in the same towns, again providing fare for the Anglo-Celtic population. Becoming managers of picture theatres also provided Greek immigrants with greater standing in town communities and allowed them to be better integrated into those communities.
Greek immigrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries mainly came from islands, (particularly Kythera), coastal towns and inland villages with what is described as a peasant background, often with little, if any, formal education. Between 1911 and 1947 almost half of those who arrived in NSW settled in non-metropolitan areas.
From around 1915 to the early 1960s 116 country picture theatres in NSW were at some time operated by 66 Greek immigrants in 57 towns. Thirty-four new picture theatres were built by Greek exhibitors in these towns. It is known that at least 61 of these immigrants were proprietors of their own food businesses by the time they branched into the motion picture exhibition business.
The Notaras Brothers fitted this model of arrival, extending their original father’s food retailing interest to the opening of a café, then building one theatre and taking control of another in the city (the Fitzroy, now demolished); and taking control of a third in Woolgoolga. Although the Notaras Brothers leased their Grafton theatres to a local independent exhibitor (from the early1930s to early 1960s), a member of the family, Irene Notaras, resumed operation from 1982 to today. However, in the so-called golden age of the population’s high attendance at picture theatres, most Greek proprietors managed their own theatres. They controlled their town’s principal entertainment when the overall population attended the cinema on average from 20 to 31 times a year at a time when there were no registered clubs, no evening opening of hotels, no television, and virtually no professional sport. They had direct input into the moral and social values of the communities in which they operated. They brought national and international events to the rural areas in the form of feature films, newsreels and documentaries. (Cork,1998)
The historical importance of cinema in socio-cultural development.
Cinema and its settings (the picture theatres) belong to a long tradition of narrative story-telling and cultural transmission. In documented history it commenced with the amalgam of performance and religious rights in Ancient Greece and continued through medieval times with the mystery and morality plays performed in the churches and other church-owned property. Some people lament that cinema is not high culture, but then many performances conducted by representatives of the medieval and early renaissance depicted violence, coarse language and obscenities (Bucknell, 1979, pp. 70,71). So too did the Elizabethan and Restoration theatre of England. Governments have recognised the importance of theatrical performance either 'live' or, as recorded on film or some other medium, by both their censorship and regulation, yet also by encouragement through government subsidy.
The progress of popular live theatre reached a pinnacle of mechanical invention for the stage presentation of melodrama. This was achieved through electricity becoming available, but electricity also allowed film to become 'moving pictures'. The narrative story-telling tradition smoothly moved from live plays to what were called 'photoplays', melodrama and epic tales projected onto a screen (See Vardac, 1949/1968). Not only did play texts move from one medium to another but the visual tradition of the stage moved also (See Brewster and Jacobs, 1997).
Whereas a stage presentation may have only had, at most, an audience of thousands it was soon appreciated that photoplays could have an audience of millions paying a fraction of the price to attend a live performance. The rates of attendance rose dramatically. While, before picture theatres, country towns would see an occasional second or third rate touring group of actors perform with dubious expertise, the inhabitants could se a new photoplay once or twice a week if they so desired. And many did. Entertainment tax attendance figures (in the first halves of the 1920s and 1940s, when most seats were taxed) show that all Australians, on average, attended the movies 20 and more times a year. Subtract the very young and the fral elderly and the figure for attendance rises. Where individual cinema attendance figures have been retained for country towns, it shows that the whole population of a town attended about twenty times a year, and they looked forward to that weekly event as a “sense of occasion” and way of catching up with social interaction (and the town’s gossip). They dressed in their “best clobber” and enjoyed the “luxury” of wall-to-wall carpet, a decorated interior and dimming lights, and being greeted by the manager in a dinner suit (or the manageress in an evening dress) (Cork, 1995, pp. 8-18).
The first fifty years of the movie film was a revolution in both the presentation of narrative story-telling and entertainment, just as the second fifty years has seen a new move, for the majority of viewers of performed stories, from the picture theatre to video screen. But the audience for the motion picture has not fallen – it has simply changed the medium in which it sees most of them. The quasi theatre that shows projected shadow performance should not, therefore, be seen as a brief occurrence in isolation from the long cultural traditions of narrative story-telling. The heyday of extraordinary attendances at picture theatres lasted as long as, for example, the heyday of Elizabethan theatre in London.
Irrespective from where the filmed performances have emanated (USA, Britain or Australia, etc.) they have provided possibly greater cultural learning for more of the population than the morality plays did in the 12th to 15th centuries. But movie theatres were not only relating stories as entertainment: in the first World War and World War II they provided visual news of battles thousands of miles away. The production of patriotic films encouraged people’s spirits, and during World War II managements of picture theatres conducted campaigns to entice people to purchase War Bonds or War Savings Certificates as a means of helping the war effort.
Sir Earle Page emphasised the importance of entertainment during a period of war, in his speech at the opening of the Saraton Theatre. Not only was entertainment important but the picture theatre brought together a higher proportion of a country town’s population than any other regular activity. It was the ecumenical glue that bound communities together for the half century from around 1910 to 1960. (Thorne 1999) |