“TALKIES” FOR AUCKLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 609, 11 March 1929, Page 11

“TALKIES” FOR AUCKLAND

MR. T. O’BRIEN S PURCHASE IN NEW CIVIC THEATRE “While in Australia I made arrangements by which the building of the new Civic Theatre will be speeded up—that was the principal object of my visit,” said Mr. i T. O’Brien, who returned to Auckland as a passenger on the Aorangi, i which arrived this morning. Mr. O’Brien is now quite certain that j his newest and most ambitious theatre will be completed and opened before ; next Christmas. He has purchased two Western Electric talking picture machines, one of which will be installed in §.e Plaza. Theatre, while the other win be sent to Dunedin for the New Empire Theatre there. The installation in the Plaza will be completed, by the end o£ April. "Talkies are still booming- in Sydney," he told a Sun man. "They were not going quite so well in Melbourne, but I understand of late the vogue there has extended and they are driving crowded houses. "Special prices are being charged in Australia, and will rule also in New Zealand. This is because ot' the big charges for talking and sound pictures." WELLINGTON DELIGHTED TALKING FILMS’ PREMIERE "Long before the advertised time of starting the theatre was packed to the doors, and an air of unusual anticipatory excitement pervaded the auditorium," says “The Dominion,” Wellington, in describing the New Zealand premiere of the new sound and talking films which took place at the Paramount Theatre on Friday evening. After a preliminary announcement the programme opened with a few' words from the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, spoken in a lowpitched and rather sepulchral voice, but quite audible to everyone, as a prelude to the roar and racket of ’Change in Wall Street on a busy morning. But better was to follow. The next picture was the American Ambassador in Madrid introducing Alphonso, the King of Spain, who makes a delightfully characteristic speech to the American public in excellent English.

Another treat was the appearance of George Bernard Shaw, who with measured tread walks up a gravel path into the eye of the camera, and gives the audience a most cordial greeting in a witty speech that reflected admirably the whimsicality of the famous author and dramatist. Such is the perfection of synchronisation in the Shaw picture that the attentive could hear th~ crunch of his feet as he walked up to the camera.