Australian Company Controls 60 Theatres

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 23

Australian Company Controls 60 Theatres

MILLIONS IN MOVIES

“Enterprise” is Burely the watchword of Mr. Stuart F. Doyle, managing director of Union Theatres, Ltd., Australia, who returned from America during the week, after purchasing 20 sound and talking equipments for his circuit.

His company controls 60 city theatres throughout the Commonwealth, and is at present engaged upon an immense building programme throughout Australia. The State Theatre, Market Street, Sydney, is among the largest of these projects, and in this the company is spending over £1,000,000. The building will contain 14 arcade floors of shops, fed by eight express elevators rising through plate glass enclosures, so that the whole of the 150 shops can be seen by the passengers. In addition, a beautiful theatre of Louis XVTI. design is in the building. It has a capacity of over 3,000 persons. The State opens early in the New Year.

The Capitol Theatre, Sydney, is part of the chain of theatres, with orchestras of 40 players, big stage presentations, and effects, while the Ambassadors, Perth, opened last month with a seating capacity of 3,000.

The largest theatre being built is the State, Melbourne, with a seating capacity of over 4,000 people. It opens In January. "Altogether, we are spending close on £2,000,000 on our bundling programme,” says Mr. Doyle.