CAARP
Cinema and Audience Research Project

"Twelve years after Dan Clifford's acquisition of the Torrensville and Hindmarsh Stars, his circuit opened their most palatial picture house. Located on the Unley Road at Unley, opposite St. Augustines Church, the Unley Star was built at a cost of £36,000. The building was built in Spanish Mission style with a three story front section. C.A. Smith was the supervising architect and for W. Hagger, it was the third Star Theatre he had been contracted to build.

The decorative scheme of the new Unley Star was the work of E. Grant Walsh, "ably assisted by an old Unley boy, W.P. Skuse." Commenting on the interior of the theatre, The Advertiser (25 January 1928) reported:
A crystal candelabra standing ten feet high on its pedestal by the stairs might have graced the Opera House at Paris. Specially woven carpets in deep rich Persian colorings covered the whole of the vestibule, and the stairs leading to the massively designed dress circle. The same richness was apparent in all the upholstering. Comfortable lounges and chairs, very different from the seats which were once the lot of the picture lover, and artistically arranged hanging in blue and gold relieved at the exits by green and gold, were part of the elaborate scheme.
To gain entrance to the theatre, the patrons walked through a mosaic tiled arcade of sixteen shops.

The Unley Star was opened on 24 January 1928 and all of the 1,997 seats were occupied when the Mayor of Unley, G.W. Illingworth, took to the large stage and declared the building open. The manager of MGM Films took the stage next and, having congratulated Clifford on his 'pluck and enterprise', presented him with a floral horseshoe. Proceeds from the opening night's programme were donated to the Unley Central Kindergarten, St. Augustine's School and the Unley School of Mothers.

Two years after being a silent picture house, the theatre was wired for sound. The first talkie screened was Broadway Melody (1929) which screened here on March 3 1930. In the 1947 the Unley Star became known as the Unley Odeon following the acquisition of the Star circuit by the Greater Union Organization. The theatre, along with the Old Star, was demolished in 1965 and a shopping centre was built on its site." D. Walker, Adelaide's Silent Nights.