Enmore Theatre, Art deco theatre in Enmore, Australia
Enmore Theatre is a 1908 theatre at 118–132 Enmore Road in Enmore, Sydney, remodelled in 1937 by Charles Bohringer in Inter-war Art Deco style. Its long salmon-orange facade has horizontal bands near the top and a tall stepped pale-yellow and red fin above the right portion. A flat canopy over three pairs of doors carries the words "ENMORE THEATRE". It holds 1,700 seated or 2,500 standing.
Built in 1908, the theatre opened in 1912 as a photo-play house run by the Szarka brothers, William and George, screening silent films with a concert orchestra for three to six pennies. The brothers renovated it in 1920 in Spanish Mission style, opened by premier John Storey on 1 July at a reported cost of 24,000 pounds. Hoyts bought the venue in 1936 and in 1937 rebuilt it completely in Art Deco style to designs by Charles Bohringer & Associates, with J. Marron as builder.
The theatre's name changed to Finos Theatre in 1969, when the Louis Film Company screened only Greek films for an area where 13% of the population was Greek. It hosted Miss Globe pageants in the 1950s and 1960s. Today it stages comedy nights, Mardi Gras parties and children's acts such as The Wiggles.
The Enmore Theatre stands at 118–132 Enmore Road in Newtown, in Sydney's inner west. It is a medium-sized venue holding 1,700 people fully seated or 2,500 standing with seats removed. The dance floor collapsed during a sold-out Genesis Owusu show on 3 March 2022; the concert was halted and rescheduled, no one was injured, and the floor was repaired the next day.
William Szarka, who ran the theatre with his brother George, crowned himself "King of Newtown" on its stage in a pageant with pageboys and regal robes. He was also an elected local councillor from 1914 to 1928 and a boxing promoter.
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