History Week 2017 is coming up soon, and there is an amazing calendar of events happening all around this odd-shaped city we live in.
One of the most interesting so far is a photography exhibition celebrating the period in the early part of the 20th Century when going to the cinema or the theatre was a key part of the social fabric of the Inner West.
You’d get your three-pound pay-check, hop the 423 bus and swipe your shiny sepia Opal card, tip your hat at the conductor, check the newspaper for show times, chat to a black market bookie, then twirl your cane, tidy your army-grade hair with your fancy imported aluminum comb, and catch an evening of theatre. You know, olden days stuff?
There were far more cinemas in the city during the early half of the 20th Century, which seems counter-initiative seeing that Titanic didn’t even come out until 1997, and Ghostbusters wasn’t even conceived of until the mid-’80s. As Scratching Sydney’s Surface (great site) points out, in 1921, there were 18 movie theatres in the city centre, with 96 more in the outer suburbs. No Video Ezy, though.
Inner West Council Library and History Services is celebrating these halcyon days with the photo exhibition, ‘Popular Pastimes’, which showcases these long-gone buildings, with images captured from 1900s through to the 1960s.
The exhibition will run from Saturday 2nd September until Saturday September 30, at Leichhardt Library, and is free (although it’s best to book). In addition, historian Robert Parkinson will be discussing the history of cinema and theatre in the Inner West on September 6.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-uDnkH1V8
