Daytime street view of the whole facade: Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace lettering, vertical neon sign, curved canopy and shopfront. Blue sky; parked cars in foreground.

Orpheum, Cremorne

380 Military Road, Cremorne

George Newton Kenworthy. 1935. Art Deco.

Size
Six screens today. No height found; the drawing is estimated
Material
Rendered walls with horizontal banding
Status
State Heritage Register, 2024. Still showing films

The Virgona family, Italian-Australian cinema operators, spent more than £45,000 on this in 1935, and the Sydney Morning Herald rated it among the most up-to-date in Australia. It closed in 1979 as the suburbs lost their picture palaces, though the National Trust had already classified it. The television host Mike Walsh bought it and reopened it in 1987 as a multiplex, with a 1925 Wurlitzer organ from Fresno, California. On listing it in 2024, the Minister called it one of the last art deco suburban theatres still used as a cinema. Its sign and lettering may be later than the building.

Read about Art Deco in Sydney

Sources

  1. Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Wikipedia
  2. Cremorne’s Hayden Orpheum protected on the State Heritage Register (5 June 2024), Medianet newshub
  3. Cremorne Orpheum, Dictionary of Sydney
  4. Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, LSJ Architects