Bruce Cormack

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 4 December 2000
Subject: Cinemas & Theatres

Bruce Cormack. … After the Kinema, I don’t know what you call it, but just below the Fire Station in Military Road, was what used to be the Mosman RSL; and before that it was the Rex Theatre. They used to show old movies and old black and white movies, in the old black and white days. I remember my grandmother loved going there because they used to serve a nice line in the tea and scones at the matinees upstairs. I can remember my mother taking me to – it was one of the rare times I was taken to the movies in the evening, and we saw The Lost Horizon. From memory, it had somebody starring like Ronald Coleman, and at that time Ronald Coleman’s sister lived in Mosman up at Effingham Street, which is a nice little piece of trivia. But I remember having nightmares for days after we saw this one hundred year old man or this two hundred year old man in the movies.

Eve Klein. How old would you have been then?

Bruce Cormack. Well, we were in Lennox Street – seven or eight, possibly. When the school went out, every now and then, like on Empire Day, we would be let out and we would be taken to the movies, where we would sing patriotic songs and be shown patriotic movies. In those days we always went up to, what was then called The Kings Theatre at Spit Junction; it’s still the theatre at Spit Junction. A couple of hundred kids would all pour out of Mosman Primary and march up to the Kings Theatre – that was always interesting because we had a half holiday after it.