Save the Regent

On 8 November 2009, the Regent Theatre will celebrate 80 years of continuous use as an entertainment venue in Brisbane.
This is a record of unmatched service to the community, providing not only films but also live entertainment and music. Until QPAC was opened, the Regent, being larger than Her Majesty’s, served Brisbane as the premier theatre and was the largest proscenium theatre ever built in this city. Its prestige and opulence was unmatched, with almost unbelievable decor and luxurious surroundings inside.
The Regent was the first public building to have air conditioning in Brisbane and the first theatre in Australia to have aisle lighting. It had the biggest illuminated theatre sign in Australia at the time. It s proscenium was also the widest for a picture palace in Australia. It was also the last great picture palace built in Australia, opening just a week before the stock market crash in 1929 and was generally regarded as the best Regent that Hoyts built.It was designed by two Brisbane-born architects, Richard Gailey Jr and Charles Hollinshed. A J Dickenson built the auditorium part and J & E L Rees built the Regent building off Queen Street. Both were local builders. Materials used in its construction included fibrous plaster and stucco mouldings, gold leaf, marble, bronze light fittings, Belgian carpet, velvet curtains, cut glass mirrors etc.
The magnificent interior was all locally made and a credit to Brisbane tradesmen and interstate specialists who built it. What remains is an incredible snapshot of 1920s building techniques and materials used to create these splendid “cathedrals of the motion picture”. Even the Elizabeth Street rear façade is a rare example of 1920s-era commercial building brickwork still remaining today.
Nowadays the Regent is easily the most well known theatre in the city and one of the most loved and visited buildings in the CBD. The Aromas cafe in the foyer is probably the most popular coffee shop in the city. One can sit there and watch the steady flow of tourists, wandering in with heads craned upwards in awe at the splendour of the Regent’s décor around and above them.
Premier Anna Bligh recently stated in the media that she held fond memories attending movies there. Even the State Governor had reserved seats on the centre balcony to view the latest “talkie” screening. Its magnificent interior has seen many VIPs as well as ordinary citizens occupy the same seat year after year. Families booked weekly for the Saturday show. The theatre held 2,580 seats, but during World War Two, almost 3,000 crammed into the theatre for shows.
In December 1978, the magnificent auditorium was destroyed to make way for the Hoyts Entertainment Centre, a four-cinema complex on the Regent site. The smaller cinemas were deemed to be more viable and they came with modern facilities including Brisbane’s first cinema bar.
The Showcase Cinema and adjoining bar areas were created in the 1980 redevelopment of the theatre as a compromise for the loss of the original auditorium. Sections of the 1929 plaster decorations, furnishings, fittings and artworks from the original auditorium and upper mezzanine were reused in these areas.
Today only the entrance lobby and Gothic foyer remain intact from the original Regent and are now heritage-listed. These magnificent areas provide an insight into the grandeur and stunning beauty of this former movie palace.
The Regent Theatre was nominated as an “Icon of Brisbane we should never lose” in a recent Courier Mail survey (June 21, 2008).

A CHERISHED COMMUNITY RESOURCE

The original Regent was in the centre of Brisbane’s theatre district for more nearly 50 years. It was the focal point of Brisbane’s “Great White Way” on Queen Street from 1929 until its closure in mid 1978. Almost everyone living in Brisbane over the age of 40 would have sat in the wicker cane backed chairs of the theatre sometime in their life. The Regent was regarded as the theatre to attend in Brisbane and was the biggest and most palatial in the city and Queensland.
Everyone, from visiting tourists, to those who spent their childhood watching movies on the big screen, to today’s generation Y who walk through the current complex via the Gothic foyer into the four cinemas, have commented on the ethereal effect and feelings of being in a special place generated by the fabulous décor of the original theatre.
The Showcase Cinema is especially liked by cinema-goers who marvel at it impressive old plasterwork and fittings. One can only imagine how massive the old theatre was from the remaining décor on the walls and ceiling. The nearby bar and vestibule provide a glimpse of the elegant and regal former mezzanine complete with period furniture and artworks.
The Brisbane International Film Festival started life here in 1992 and has spent all but two years here (as of 2009). This is the perfect red carpet venue for BIFF and other major film events, and many of Australia’s film stars, critics and producers have walked the red carpet in from Queen Street.
Ask anyone in Brisbane if they know of the Regent and what it is used for, and all would immediately say it is Brisbane’s oldest remaining theatre still in use. It has a soul many other venues in Brisbane can only dream of having and a presence that is so familiar, so established and so cherished as a major part of Brisbane’s cultural and architectural heritage.
Spend some time this coming month to wander through the magnificence of the entrance lobby and Gothic foyer — and why not buy a ticket to see a movie in the Showcase Cinema or upstairs cinemas? You will be glad you did.