CAARP
Cinema and Audience Research Project

1930s Memorial Hall trustees called for tenders for the purpose of exhibiting motion pictures.

Films were screened at the Memorial Hall throughout the 1950s. In the late 1950s local businessman Pasquale De Fazio constructed another venue across the road from the Memorial Hall. The New Myrtleford Theatre was offically opened in December 1961. However, the two venues did not run movies at the same time as De Fazio did not want to appear to be competing with the Hall. Advertisements for film screenings at Myrtleford Theatres did not always distinguish between the two venues.

By 1964, The Myrtleford Times were advertising in Italian regular Italian film screenings held Thursday evenings by Myrtleford Theatres.

From January 1966, De Fazio's theatre came under the management of W. H. (Tiff) Rayner and Barbara Rayner.

In July 1967, local projectionist Tiff Rayner and his wife Barb Rayner renamed the show at Memorial Hall, "Myrtleford Theatre", also known as the "Big MT".

Sunday evenings were popular for Italian language films as people would come from up to 100km to see The Ten Commandments spoken in Italian with English subtitles.

References
CATHS notes

Taylor, J. and Troupe, C. (eds.) 2010, Parlato in Italiano: the heyday of Italian Cinema in Myrtleford in the 1960s, Myrtleford & District Historical Society Inc., Myrtleford.

The Myrtleford Times and Ovens Valley Advertiser