MOVING PICTURES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 October 1929, Page 8

MOVING PICTURES

AUSTRALIA’S PIONEER DEAD

SYDNEY, Oct. 10,

Mr W. A. Gibson, whose death occurred in Melbourne on Sunday, was the true pioneer of moving pictures as an entertainment in Australia. His career was a most romantic one, in keeping with the romantic nature of. the industry from which he and so many others have made a fortune. Before Air Gibson came on the scene, the late Harry Rickards had certainly shown some flickering pictures at his vaudeville theatres, the uncovered operating lanterns being operated from the front row of the dress circle. It .was as the result of this that Mr Gibson became interested Down at the St. Kilda Junction, Melbourne, where Messrs Johnson and Gibson conducted a cnemist’s shop, the first experiment in local movies was made, but neither of the parties had any notion that there was any commercial value in the new photography. Their interest was scientific. But gradually the idea of the new entertainment took shape. Johnson and Gibson began to give exhibitions and these proved to be very popular. They trained operators and very soon they had a staff of 34 who were hired out with machines. Mr Gibson himself would operate at two shows on a Saturday night, one at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the other at the Temperance Hall. The risks ran with the crude apparatus and the exposed celluloid films was enormous, but nobody suspected that there was any danger.

From these early beginnings Mr Gibson was encouraged to produce an Ausralian photoplay, a whole evening’s entertainment of a five-reel picture. He engaged a company of actors, wno went out to Mitcham, in Victoria, where the various scenes of the ‘Kelly Gang’ were “shot.” . There was the murder of the police' at Bark Creek, the Murder of Aaron Sherrit—at a Mitcham, cottage—the local bank was held up, and some account books were burnt in a -local garden. Tho Commissioner of Police allowed the Mitcham lock-up to be'Used as the scene iof another of the Kelly exploits, the telegraph wires were cut, and a railway-line torn up, and a train stopped—all with the permission or tw. authorities. Then a cottage standing back from -the White Horse road was selected as the famous wTenrowan Inn. A suitable sign was erected over the verandah and the, police, comprising every , man in the company, including Ned Kelly himself, in a police uniform and with his beard discarded, attacked the inn. Then Ned Kellly’s capture was staged. All these exciting scenes, the filming of which occupied only six days, completely thrilled the people of Mitiharg. The necessary “interior” scenes were,. taken in tne naot yard of the chemist’s shop at St. Kilda. i[

The resultant picture was a very crude production, judged on presentday standards, but it was tremendously successful as an attraction all over Australia and New Zealand. When Mr Gibson died he was one of the directors of that vast, Australian organisation known as Union Theatres, Ltd., leaders of Australian picture enterprise, with millions of capital behind it.