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Uploaded on: July 30, 2025

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Source - From the collection of Kew Historical Society Inc

Ephemera - Hoyts Rialto Kew, Shirley Temple in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - It played Sat Matinee March 4, 1938 - then continued for a season of one week.

he ‘Rialto’ was a theatre built in 1921 along High Street near Kew Junction, following the boom of construction spurred on by a post-World War 1 sentiment. Nicknamed ‘Kew’s Dainty Theatre’, it became the monopoly provider of cinema entertainment for Kew and served many purposes for the community. This included the use of the stage on-site to create a school for the performing arts. It would be acquired by HOYTS in 1926, and after a host of issues including poor heat and air conditioning, rivals in the area and the advent of the television, led to the site’s acquisition in 1969 by a religious group. It would be renamed to the ‘Melbourne Revival Centre’, and would eventually be demolished in 1983 once the occupants moved sites.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -