Final Bow

The proscenium arch of Marina Picture Palace in Rosebery is the building's defining interior element. Flanked by columns in the Inter-War free-classical style, the arch frames a stage that was built to serve both silent film and live variety performance, with an orchestra pit and dressing rooms below the stage floor. The auditorium ceiling was originally pressed metal Wunderlich panels. In November 1955 the walls were painted deep mushroom on the pillars and misty lilac between panels; the ceiling was repainted midnight blue at the same time. Marina Picture Palace was designed in 1925 by architect William de Putron, who was also a member of the consortium that built and operated it, alongside builder William Henry Rumble and cinema pioneer Eric Christensen. Christensen, holder of NSW Exhibitor's Licence No. 1, placed a gold sovereign in the brickwork during construction. The building opened on 28 May 1927 with a programme that included Mary Pickford in Sparrows and a live performance by Bill Mason. Construction had been delayed in late 1926 by a shortage of steel girders. Ownership passed through several hands across six decades: the Ward brothers purchased it in 1935 after rates went unpaid; Mascot Theatres Pty Ltd under Snider and Dean acquired it in January 1939; and in 1967 Chris and Chaniglia Louis of Louis Film Company bought it, operating it as a Greek-language cinema in the years before SBS television. The cinema closed for the final time on 8 February 1984. The stalls were converted to a video and DVD shop by the Louis family; the dress circle was taken out of use and the projection equipment removed. All original seating was sold and dispersed to other theatres. The shop itself closed around 2002, leaving the building vacant. This photograph, made in 2019, records the proscenium arch as it stood then: the columns intact, the red velvet curtains drawn with sunlight landing hard against them from a window on the right, a black tarp across the stage floor beneath scattered debris.