CAARP
Cinema and Audience Research Project

"Canning Road Board was founded in 1871, and in 1907 divided into Queens Park Road Board and Gosnells Road Board, with also some of the district going to Belmont and Darling Range. The (Queens Park) Town Hall, with new offices adjoining, was built in 1909, but there must have been a hall in the district earlier than this, where Stevenson's Royal Biograph exhibited ´40 biographs and 50 limelight views' on 10 October 1904 (perhaps the Agricultural Hall?).

The Board was renamed Canning District Road Board in 1921, and in 1926 the old offices were demolished and new ones built in front of the Town Hall, which was also extended.

Local historian Fred Carden explains (p.127) how regular film screenings came to this venue:
Mr F.V.Hodges commenced showing ‘pictures’ in the Town Hall around 1923 and continued until the early 1930s. In March 1924, the C.R.B. granted him sole rights to screen pictures for the following twelve months, and later that year Mr Hodges’ offer of 200 tip-up seats was accepted by the Board and a new agreement drawn up re theatre rights. This form of entertainment required the seats to be fixtures on the floor and thus curtailed the hall’s future use for dancing. From this time onwards the Agricultural Hall, East Cannington Hall and Queens Park Memorial Hall became the venue of dances and balls.

There may have been a gap in the early years of sound, but from well before 1940 to the late fifties Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments was screening there regularly. Exhibitors in later years included A.E.Randell, Vic Lucas, and the Varne family. Screenings were suspended in 1961 because of lack of patronage: the lease was revoked, though it was announced that occasional screenings may occur in future. " (Bertrand 2001)

References
Cinemaweb:http://www.ammpt.asn.au/CinemaWEB/SITE/view.php?rec_id=0000000353