Australian Cinemas to Install Talking Films Simultaneously

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 502, 3 November 1928, Page 27

Australian Cinemas to Install Talking Films Simultaneously

AS bolder' of tlie patents for talking film machines, the Western Electric Company of America lias decreed that the installation of the new apparatus shall be carried out simultaneously in the big Australian theatres.

Smith, managing-director of J. C. Williamsjon Films (N.Z.). He says that talking films will be introduced to Auckland early next

year, the Regent Theatre acting in association with Hoyts. The big rival exhibitors in Australia, Hoyts and Union Theatres, would open their talking picture shows probably on the same date. Four machines were on their way

out—two for Hoyts and two for Union Theatres—after which they would be coming at the rate of two a month. Up till the time he left Australia, 24 machines had been ordered. “The cinema business in Australia is inclined to be depressed at the present time,” he said. “The big new houses are affecting the business of the smaller shows, some of which are being turned into shops.” He mentioned that the Strand, in Pitt Street, Sydney, was being turned into shops and an arcade.

“One aspect of the talking and sound film business that shows promise of becoming a difficult problem is the question of music copyright,” he added. “J. C. Williamsons and music publishers are issuing a warning that they will seek an injunction against the showing of any sound film containing music covered by their copyrights.”