The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were acclaimed as a huge success. The first time that The Games were held in Australia was in Melbourne in 1956, also the year that television started in Australia. In November that year, Melbourne's much-loved Tivoli Theatre reopened after an extensive refurbishment with Olympic Follies, a David N. Martin extravaganza.

Take a trip down memory lane to 'The Tiv' - one of Australia's most famous vaudeville and variety theatre venues. Some highlights from the Olympic Follies Programme are reproduced here for your enjoyment...

A new era is beginning in the long and colorful history of the Tivoli, Melbourne's most famous variety theatre.

The £100,000 refurbishing project just completed has transformed Melbourne's best loved theatre into a theatrical jewel box, a perfect setting for the brilliant shows planned for future presentation.

Neither money nor effort has been spared to cater for the comfort of patrons. From both this, and the artistic point of view, Melbourne's Tivoli will stand comparison with any theatre, anywhere.

Tivoli architect, Dudley Ward, B.Arch., A.R.I.B.A., A.R.A.I.A., and builders, Lewis Construction Co. Pty. Ltd., working at top pressure over the past twelve weeks, may be justly proud of their work.

Gone are the wooded forms from "the gods." Gone are "those posts" which heretofore have inconvenienced patrons in the Circle and Stalls. Gone are the footlights, and hidden around the theatre is £10 000 worth of new lighting equipment, eliminating all shadows. The stage has been levelled so as to provide for the production of entertainment in the new wonder medium of Television.

But, of course, the Tivoli has much more to it than bricks and mortar, murals and modern equipment and comfortable seats.

The Tivoli, for example, has a tradition for staging fine entertainment that links two centuries, for there was a theatre on this site in the 1850's, in the days of the Victorian gold rush.

Over the years, a night at the "Tiv" has been a "must." The Tivoli policy of staging the world's best in entertainment is splendidly upheld in "OLYMPIC FOLLIES" by a group of truly talented performers, headed by "MR. PASTRY" (RICHARD HEARNE), and the international personality, JULIA.

"OLYMPIC FOLLIES", David N. Martin extravaganza, is being presented as one of Melbourne's major attractions at the time of the Olympic Games, so we therefore welcome Olympic visitors to Melbourne and to the Tivoli, and as our tribute to a memorable occasion we ask you to sit back and enjoy "OLYMPIC FOLLIES."

The Cinema And Theatre Historical Society of Australia Inc. Presents

this special feature on Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre

Richard Hearne

“Mr. Pastry”

Julia

“Toast of 5 Continents”

Alwyn Leckie

Australia's first TV star

 

Frank Ross & Anita La Pierre


Nicolas Darvas

The Lane Brothers

Unique dancing acrobats





The Architect For Melbourne's New Tivoli Theatre

MR. DUDLEY WARD, who designed and supervised the rebuilding of the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, was also responsible for the remodelling of the Sydney Tivoli, undertaken for the Royal Gala Performance, on the occasion of the visit of Her Majesty the Queen. Mr. Ward was also responsible for the designing of Sydney's well-known Minerva Theatre for Mr. David N. Martin in 1939.


Sydney architect Dudley Ward's forebears were Victorian pastoral pioneers. More than a century ago Henry Dendy his great-grandfather, established and named his eight square mile Brighton estate, which is now one of the group of cities comprised in the metropolis of Melbourne.



Dudley Ward graduated from the Sydney University in 1929 and was subsequently awarded the Australian Medallion by the Board of Architects of New South Wales. After five years in England, Europe and America, he established private architectural practice in Sydney in 1934. He has been personally responsible for many hotels, residential flat buildings, residences, commercial and government buildings, during twenty-two years as a private practising architect.


His interests also include active association with pastoral and grazing development in the New England district of New South Wales.

Above: Poster  that appeared on Melbourne’s trams advertising for Olympic Follies.

Photo courtesy Ross King


Below: The facade of the Tivoli was decorated with Greek / Olympic icons for Olympic Follies.

Photo courtesy Ross King.

 More Tivoli info...

The Tivoli Theatre site is also very significant, as on this site previously was The Melbourne Opera House. On August 22nd in 1896 at the Opera House, magician Carl Hertz* presented the first projected motion pictures to the Australian public. In 1901 the Opera House was replaced with a new theatre built for vaudeville king Harry Rickards. It was later called The Tivoli.

The Tivoli was the home of Melbourne vaudeville for 65 years until it closed on 2nd April 1966. It reopened in the following month as a cinema. At about midnight on 4th April 1967 a spectacular fire badly damaged the Tivoli. What was left of the theatre was demolished and a new office building erected on the site. Today the Bourke Street building, which includes The Tivoli Arcade, is home to the RMIT University Business School.

Credits:

Olympic Follies Programme courtesy of Marjorie Powell.

Thanks to Ross King for Tivoli Facade and Tram Poster photos, and for additional information.

Thanks to Ross Lambert for Tivoli Facade and Tram Poster photo scans.

This CATHS website feature prepared by Martin Powell

Cinema And Theatre Historical Society of Australia Inc.

www.caths.org.au


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Above:  The film screening when the Tivoli was badly damaged by fire, 4th April 1967.