Attendance
World War Two, and the years immediately following it, saw movie-attendance peak both in New Zealand and internationally. In other developed countries attendance fell dramatically throughout the 1950s. In Britain audiences had been falling since the 1946 high of 1,635 million but the decline accelerated in the late 1950s, with yearly audience numbers at 1,101 million in 1956 but down to 501 million in 1960.2 American audiences peaked at an average
of 84 million per week during the latter war years, but dropped to 55 million per week in 1950, and were down to 18 million per week in 1959.3 In contrast New Zealand’s total
admissions increased throughout the 1950s and attendance figures were still a healthy 16.6 per person per annum at the end of the decade, as seen in Table 1.1.
Year Theatres # Admissions (000) Average Ticket Price (d.)
Yearly admissions per head of mean population 1949-50 600 36,353 18.4 19.3 1951-2 589 36,342 20.7 18.6 1953-4 582 37,368 23.6 18.1 1956-7 578 37,596 28.6 17.1 1958-9 547 38,208 30.5 16.6
Table 1.1: General cinema statistics, 1950-1959.4
1 Bronwyn Dalley, ‘The Golden Weather, 1949-1965’, in Frontier of Dreams: The Story of New Zealand, Auckland, N.Z.: 2005, pp.
306-335, p. 307.
2 Stuart Hanson, From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: A History of Cinema Exhibition in Britain since 1896, Manchester, U.K.:
Manchester University Press, 2007, pp. 92-3.
3 Joel W. Finler, The Hollywood Story, London: Wallflower Press, 2003, p. 378. 4NZOYB, 1960, p. 1160. Year runs from April 1 to March 31.
33 New Zealand ranked consistently highly as a movie-going country in the 1950s, according to United Nations statistics. In 1950, with 19.3 admissions per head of population, New Zealand was the third highest movie-going country, behind the United Kingdom with its significantly higher 28 admissions and the United States with 23. By 1954 the gap between New Zealand’s and the United Kingdom’s attendance per head of population had narrowed slightly, while New Zealanders were going to the movies more frequently than Americans. By the end of the decade New Zealanders were going to the movies more frequently than both their British and American counterparts, as presented in Table 1.2.
Year New Zealand United Kingdom United States
1949-50 19.3 28 23
1953-4 18.1 25 16.4
1956-7 17.1 17.8 14
1958-9 16.6 14.5 12.5
Table 1.2: Admissions per head of population.5
Theatres
The number of movie theatres in New Zealand fell throughout the decade, as seen in Table 1.1, although the significant decrease (almost 50%) was in the number of itinerant exhibitors, those who travelled a circuit of small towns and villages in rural areas, showing films in halls, schools or other available buildings. In comparison, permanent picture theatres had reduced by only 13, or 2.5%, by the end of the decade, as shown in Table 1.3. In the United States, the number of permanent theatres had fallen by 22%,6 and in the United Kingdom by 25%,7
over the same period. The number of New Zealand movie theatres operating six days a week increased marginally (by 2%) in the second half of the decade, while those operating
on fewer than six days a week decreased slightly (by 5%).
Theatre Screenings 1949-50 1953-4 1956-7 1958-9
Screening 6 days per week 202 195 206 206
Screening odd days per week 315 328 332 298
Total of Permanent Theatres 517 523 538 504
Circuit – itinerant exhibitors 83 59 40 43
Table 1.3: Theatre days of operation.8
The size of theatres remained fairly steady over the course of the decade, as presented in Table 1.4. While the table shows an increase in the number of theatres seating under 200, a notable decrease (15%) took place between 1956-7 and 1958-9. This is possibly due to a
5 NZ statistics from NZOYB, 1962, p. 391. US and UK statistics from UNESCO 1952 and 1956 Basic Facts and Figuresin NZOYB
1955, p. 1061 and 1957, p. 1142. US and UK 1958 figures from United Nations Statistical Yearbook in NZOYB 1960, p. 1160.
6 Finler, The Hollywood Story, p. 378. This figure excludes drive-in theatres.
7http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-british-film-industry-1980-10.pdf, retrieved October 28, 2015. 8NZOYB 1957, p. 1140; 1960, p. 1158.
34 rationalisation by theatre owners as a result of the ‘Black Budget’ of June 26, 1958, which, among other factors, saw taxes increase on petrol, and other goods.
Theatre seating capacity 1949-50 1953-4 1956-7 1958-9 Change over decade
Under 200 83 91 105 89 Increase of 7 %
200-499 216 220 215 206 Decrease of 5%
500-999 175 170 179 170 Decrease of 3%
1,000-1,499 32 32 29 28 Decrease of 12.5%
1,500+ 11 10 10 11 No change
Table 1.4: Theatre seating capacity.9
While the number of licences granted to itinerant exhibitors reduced significantly over this period, the number of licences granted to permanent theatre exhibitors in 1959 was almost identical to that of 1950, as seen in Table 1.5.
Year Exhibitors Itinerants
1950 582 35 1951 602 28 1952 581 27 1953 570 25 1954 570 25 1955 577 17 1956 580 15 1957 581 15 1958 577 17 1959 585 14
Table 1.5: Number of licences granted.10
These figures indicate the relative stability in the number of permanent movie theatres in the 1950s. This is also reflected in Wayne Brittenden’s study, which records the closing of only one centrally-sited theatre in each of the four main centres.11 The extent to which new
theatres were built and existing ones refurbished has always been a strong indicator as to the popularity of movie-going. The beginning of the decade saw a slow start to the building of new theatres, following years of inactivity due to building controls, high building costs,
9NZOYB 1957, p. 1140; 1960, p. 1158. Year runs from April 1 to March 31.
10AJHR, 1952, H. 22, p. 22;1953, H. 22, p. 30;1955, H. 22, p. 23; 1956, H. 22, p. 28;1957, H. 22, p. 29; 1958, H. 22, p. 31; 1959, H
22, p. 36. Up until 1954 these statistics were taken from January to September 30 of the previous year, so 1954 reported on 1953. (AJHR, 1954, H. 22, p. 30). From 1955 statistics are taken as ‘issued during the year’, so the actual figures for 1954 are missing. For continuity, AJHRs reporting used the ‘previous years figures’, hence the repetition of the 1953 statistics.
11 In central Auckland Amalgamated’s Roxy, a continuous double-feature theatre, closed in 1956; in central Wellington, the
‘quality’ Time theatre in upper Cuba Street closed ‘in the lamentably early year of 1951’. In Christchurch, Kerridge-Odeon’s Embassy, (previously the Grand), arguably the city’s roughest theatre due to audience disturbances that saw the screen regularly pelted with food, closed in 1959 and was demolished the following year. The St. James theatre in Dunedin, originally called the Princess and opened in the early 1850s, had its last screening on August 23, 1951 with the popular British film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Used primarily for vaudeville until 1930, it switched to movie exhibition and when Kerridge-Odeon took ownership in 1946 it became their ‘action house’, the somewhat euphemistic name given to theatres that showed ‘B- grade’, and older films, often with an emphasis on children’s matinees. Brittenden cites this ‘poor product’ as a contributing factor to the theatre’s downfall, along with its ‘unfavourable High Street location and relatively high overheads’. Wayne Brittenden, The Celluloid Circus: The Heyday of the New Zealand Picture Theatre, 1925-1970, Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit, 2008, pp. 147, 177, 119, 196, 203.
35 and fluctuating audience numbers. By 1954, one new theatre had been built, with a further three under construction. Plans for two new theatres had been approved, with two more in the planning process. It was reported that most of the new buildings were replacements for existing theatres that were no longer able to serve the needs of the community.12 A year
later three theatres of medium to large size were completed at Tokoroa, Paraparaumu Beach and Hawera, with two smaller theatres opening at Manutuke (Gisborne region) and Tokaanu (Taupo region).13 One questionnaire respondent remembered the new theatre in
Hawera, as she went there every week with her siblings. She recalled, ‘We had the new Regent open then and it was a lovely place to go. The ceiling twinkled and it had a lovely curtain that draped and went up and down.’14 Another respondent recalled their
experiences of the new theatre.
The Grand (the bug house) which sometime in the late fifties was replaced with the Kerridge-Odeon theatre The Regent. The first film to show there was "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong, (funny, I can't remember the female star? Maybe Deborah Kerr or Mitzy Gaynor). Anyway I was lucky enough to be seated in the front row. A full house […] I actually worked at the new Regent theatre (very flash and sophisticated) in the "The Nibble Nook". White coats and all.15
Two new theatres were under construction in 1956, one of them a Kerridge-Odeon theatre at Waimate.16 The ‘lag’ in building compared with the previous two years was attributed to
‘abnormally high building costs, [and] shortage of capital available for an investment in an industry which does not offer quick returns, and over which there hangs the threat of severe competition from television’.17
The first new picture theatre to be built in Auckland in 21 years was Kerridge’s Odeon Theatre, at the end of 1957. Publicity director, P.W. Maddock described in great detail this ‘very latest in luxury cinemas’, with the following paragraph only one of the seven he required to do justice to it.
The first public building to be fully air-conditioned, the first intimate theatre – specially built on the lines of the ‘art theatres’ overseas – to operate in the Dominion and the first New Zealand theatre to be constructed within an existing building. The Odeon and the St. James’ foyers merge on to Queen Street giving a total vestibule frontage of over
12AJHR, 1954, H. 22, p. 30. 13AJHR, 1955, H. 22, p. 23. 14 Female, born 1942.
15 Ralphe, born 1945. The female actresses in White Christmas (1954) were Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.
16 Memo from Publicity Department to Theatre Managers, March 11, 1957, Box 19, File 69, Circulars 4/56-8/57, KO Archives,
MS 98/39, AWMM.
36 50 feet. A stairway consisting of folded steel leads down to the theatre
and special illumination gives a lighting effect through the carpeted stairs. The wall which patrons see as they descend the stairs is an eye catcher, more than 160,000 small tiles of many colours have been arranged to form a mosaic mural.18
Also at the end of 1957, Kerridge-Odeon opened their new Regent in Mount Maunganui to cater for the population increase in ‘this fast-growing area’. The ‘spectacular gala opening’ was followed with a screening of the popular war film Battle of the River Plate (1956).19
Population growth also accounted for the building of a new theatre in the ‘populous and rapidly expanding city suburb of Spreydon’ [Christchurch], between 1958 and 1959, with another new theatre replacing its old counterpart in Greymouth.20 Robert Kerridge invited
the Prime Minister, Walter Nash, to open the Regent at Naenae on June 6, 1958, preceding a screening of another popular war drama, Carve Her Name with Pride (1958). The theatre seems to have met the approval of all who attended the opening function, with indications being that ‘the general picturegoer would take great personal pride in this first-class theatre of their own’, with its ‘spaciousness and quiet elegance and its acoustical perfection and general amenities for patrons which reaches a new high level in personal comfort’.21 These
comments, about Kerridge-Odeon theatres written by Kerridge-Odeon staff, indicate they had a different perspective on theatres being built in the 1950s than Tony Kellaway, who commented that ‘Although theatres continued to be built in the fifties, most lack any sense of occasion (with the possible exception of the “bubbled” Embassy Wanganui 1950) and the decade mainly consisted of architectural vandalism of conversion into sterile odeons and cineramas.’22
The building of theatres in ‘fast-growing areas’ indicates that while overseas commentators have suggested that post-war suburbanisation had a role in the decline of audiences overseas,23 in New Zealand evidence shows that theatres followed people to the suburbs.24
Wayne Brittenden’s inventory of New Zealand theatres in 1953 lists 43 theatres in Auckland’s
18 Memo from P.W. Maddock, Publicity Director, to Theatre Managers, December 23, 1957, Box 29, File 106, Circulars 12/57-
7/58, KO Archives, MS 98/39, AWMM.
19 Memo from P.W. Maddock, Publicity Director, to Theatre Managers, January 13, 1958, Box 29, File 106, Circulars 12/57-7/58,
KO Archives, MS 98/39, AWMM.
20AJHR, 1959, H. 22, p. 31.
21 Memo from Percy L. Curtis, Director of Publicity and Advertising, June 16, 1958, Box 29, File 106, Circulars 12/57-7/58, KO
Archives, MS 98/39, AWMM.
22 Tony Kellaway, ‘I Remember When it was a Picture theatre’, New Zealand Architect, 4, 1984, pp. 30-34, p. 33.
23 Douglas Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States, Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 1992, pp. 85, 87; Thomas Cripps, Hollywood’s High Noon: Moviemaking and Society Before Television, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p. 207.
24 For more on New Zealand’s suburban development see Mark Derby, 'Suburbs - New suburbs, 1950s–1970s', Te Ara - the
37 suburbs alone, supplementing the 13 in the inner-city. Wellington had 14 suburban theatres, Christchurch had eight and Dunedin four.25
Drive-in Theatres
A feature of the cinema industry in New Zealand in the latter half of the 1950s was the interest in and debate over drive-in theatres. The Cinematograph Films Amendment Act (1956) allowed the licensing of such theatres, resulting in a ‘period of feverish activity’ of applications, particularly from areas in and around the main centres of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, with the larger provincial centres of Hamilton, Napier, and Whangarei also featuring.26 Regulations introduced in June 1957 outlined application requirements and
these included the need to publicly notify open-air theatre applications so that anyone who felt potentially negatively impacted could object. There was no such requirement for the building of standard movie theatres, although it was thought to be ‘a matter for serious consideration’ that such a provision be extended to them. A second requirement stated that the licensee of a drive-in theatre was prohibited from screening any feature film that had not already been screened in a first-release theatre in the area.27
The threat of drive-in theatres deferred plans for the building of new ‘conventional’ theatres in 1957-8, although the government decision in March 1958 to postpone licensing of drive- ins was expected to revive building projects. The Government’s decision was made in light of the ‘serious economic situation facing the country’, with it being felt ‘prudent to re- examine the whole question of the present need and justification for establishing drive-in theatres’. All 16 applications lodged for drive-in theatres, which had all received objections from existing exhibitors, were suspended, waiting further direction from the Government.28
At the close of the decade the movie industry was still strong, with 19 applications for new theatre licences submitted, 16 of which were for the use of existing buildings, but ‘several’ being for the building of new theatres. This was seen as a ‘surprising development in view of the gloomy prognostications’ that had been circulating about the industry, with reports from overseas, and the United Kingdom and Australia in particular, indicating a ‘very serious’ situation, with every sign that the movie industry would ‘deteriorate further’.29 It was
25 Brittenden, The Celluloid Circus, pp. 286-296. 26AJHR, 1958, H 22, p. 25.
27 Ibid., p. 26. 28 Ibid.
38 believed that New Zealand’s still healthy situation at the end of the 1950s was due to its ‘not yet having to face the catastrophic decreases of patronage which have forced wholesale closings of cinemas in those countries where television is operating.’30 People were still
attending in strong enough numbers for the particularly record-conscious Kerridge-Odeon circuit to declare in-house, in March 1958, that business was ‘booming’ and it ‘was amazing the way the figures rolled in over the weekend’.31
Overall, when compared with the United Kingdom, the post-war construction of theatres in New Zealand was favourable, with London’s first theatre built since the end of the war not opening until September 1955. In November 1955, the Chancellor of the Exchequer reported that there were only three new cinemas under construction in London at that time. In comparison, the Department of Internal Affairs commented that New Zealand was doing better.32
Despite the ‘very serious’ position of the British movie industry, Lord Rank, of the British Rank Organisation, commented in his Annual Report of 1956-7, ‘I am in no way despondent as to the future of cinema’. Including Rank’s comment in a Memo to his theatre managers, Robert Kerridge added, ‘We in New Zealand who have not been subjected to the impact of television and other major diversionary factors can enthusiastically endorse his optimism’. Kerridge added, ‘We are partners in a worldwide Organisation of diverse activities and imposing financial strength. While the Report deals specifically with details of the Motion Picture Industry in Great Britain, the achievements of the year are a source of gratification and inspiration to each one of us.’33
In Australia too, Clyde Waterman, the General Manager of the Hoyts circuit and the Head of the South Australian Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Association, downplayed the threat of television by commenting that theatres were still being built in the United States. He believed the situation was a ‘rosy’ one, where the increase in leisure time meant that cinema and television could happily co-exist. Waterman’s optimism was not universally shared, however, and many Australian exhibitors were convinced the arrival of television would see
30 Ibid., p. 22.
31 Memo from P.W. Maddock, Publicity Manager to Theatre Managers, March 17, 1958, Box 29, File 106, Circulars 12/57-7/58,
KO Archives, MS 98/39, AWMM.
32AJHR, 1956, H. 22, p. 29.
33 Memo from R.J. Kerridge to Theatre Managers, January 7, 1958, Box 29, File 106, Circulars 12/57-7/58, KO Archives, MS
39 their livelihoods come to an end,34 a view shared by a number of those in the industry in New
Zealand.
That New Zealanders continued not only to go to the cinema, but continued to go on a regular basis is illustrated by responses to my survey, as seen in Table 1.6. Of the 195 movie- goers who said they went to the cinema most frequently in some or all of the years in the 1950s, 47% were going every week. Combined with those who were going two or three times a week, indications are that almost 60% of this cohort were going to the cinema at least once a week. One respondent was going to the cinema most nights of the week and as often as four times a day on Saturday, because they were accompanying a film critic. Only six percent of this group were attending the cinema less than once a month. Earlier United States research by the Motion Picture Research Bureau considered the term ‘movie-goer’ to refer to those who attended the cinema at least once a month, while Audience Research Incorporated referred to a movie-goer as someone who attended the cinema once every three weeks or more.35
Frequency Those going most often in 1950s %
Two or three times a week 9.5
Once a week 47
Twice a month 23
Once a month 12
Less than once a month 6
Other 2.5
Table 1.6: Survey respondents’ frequency of attendance.
An indication of the perceived importance of the cinema is seen in the inclusion of the picture theatre as an ‘index service’ in a ‘geographical stocktake’ of New Zealand cities and towns carried out after the 1951 census. The presence of a cinema was included with banks, chain