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Image - An untorn ticket butt from the early 50’s.

The Wintergarden Theatre, in the Sydney up-market suburb of Rose Bay (next to Double Bay), opened on 24th February 1928.

The theatre was built in true picture palace style, although its entrance vestibule and exterior were quite austere. The auditorium was decorated in the usual Neo-Classical style of architect Henry Eli White (who worked with American John Eberson on the Sydney Capitol Theatre).

In June 1929, the Wintergarden Theatre became the first Sydney suburban theatre to install sound equipment for the ‘talkies’. The projection equipment chosen was ‘Raycophone’ - the Australian invention of Ray Allsop, chief engineer at a Sydney radio station, 2BL.

The Wintergarden Theatre continued to delight local audiences for the next six decades, including famous Australian director Peter Weir, who is said to have attended the theatre as a young boy. It was closed on 17th April 1985 and in 1987, however, after exhaustive protests to save the theatre, it was finally demolished.

An apartment building now stands on the Wintergarden Theatre’s site overlooking Sydney Harbour - Notes by John Adey

Contributed by Greg Lynch -