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While the city awaits the outcome of the redevelopment of the remains of this priceless treasure, a reflection on its past follows. Built in 1929 to the design of Richard Gailey Jnr and Charles Hollinshed (designer of the Melbourne Regent) it was one of four opulent Regent theatres constructed in Australia in the grand Hollywood style of the time. Its site had been acquired by one of the doomed Mayne children, William, in 1892 and after his death, passed onto his brother James and sister Mary. During Bjelke Petersen’s reign in the 1970s, the auditorium was sacrificed to a Hoyts multiplex cinema and the city lost what was amongst the grandest theatre venues in Australia. It had boasted a 25000 pound Wurlitzer organ from New York (now in GOMA’s Cinematheque), an oval dome above the auditorium with a one-ton bronze chandelier, and extraordinary decorative plasterwork in the foyer. After protests, only the foyer was retained. What lies ahead is anyone’s guess but it appears that unfortunately the lessons of the demolition era have not been learned and yet again Brisbane may be about to lose again one of its dwindling irreplaceable works of art. Source: www.mustdobrisbane.com/visitor-info-arts-culture-history/...

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REX THEATRE (Fortitude Valley) aka Town Theatre / Hoyts Rex / Rex Valley (1936-ca. 1974) Wickham Street (between Gipps and Brunswick streets). Although best remembered as a cinema, the Rex Theatre’s first lessee, Graham Mitchell, operated it as a vaudeville house for some 14 months. The building, situated on the northern side of Wickham Street, dated back to the late 1900s when it served as a warehouse. At the time of its purchase by E. Craft and A.J. Carter (Crafti’s Investments Pty Ltd), it was owned by Foy and Gibson. The basement was remodeled into a theatre, with the remainder of the building converted into three shops. The Rex was used for occasional live productions up until its closure. Sinbad the Sailor (featuring Peggy Ryan) was produced there in 1950, for example. Graham Mitchell’s Jesters opened the Rex on 9 May 1936. The feature artists were Nat Hanley, Syd Beck, and Len Rich. Source: ozvta.com/theatres-qld/2/ __________

Peggy Ryan worked hard for a living. She danced, she sang, she took her clothes off when required. She worked on stage and under canvas, entered competitions, opened dance schools, and directed. She helped out her father, an illusionist and character actor, and she was as versatile as all get out. And she was not, as one magazine put it rather brutally, A Star. In a human interest story in People in 1952, 26-year-old Peggy was described like this: “She is not a star; she never could be. Her stocks in trade are a warm, sometimes strident, voice, a pair of nimble feet, a stimulating smile, and a figure of considerable merit. Yet without her, and other backstagers like her, entertainment as we know it would collapse overnight. She is the indisputable unit of which a show is made, the foil, the prop, the silk-and-tinsel background against which the star gleams his brightest.” Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/hoofer-soubrette-and-nudie-cutie-...