Victory Publicity [History]
Following on Chris' thread started here, here's a little background on Victory Publicity's roots:
The Victory Theatre 20 Carlisle St. St Kilda South.
- Building commenced 1920, opened 1921 as a cinema 3000 seats. Efftee Pictures F W Thring et al
- By 1924 Mr Thring was on the board of Hoyts, and the Victory entered the Hoyts chain until 1971
- Major reconstruction undertaken in 1928 reduced seating capacity to 2550 and made theatre more luxurious to compete with new Palais and Regent Theatres.
- June 26 1929 converted to talking pictures
- October 6 1937 seating was 1650 (stalls), 354 (lounge) and 537 (dress circle)
- Purchased by National Theatre Movement 1971
- September 1972 - conversion of former stalls into Studios completed & schools moved in.
- 1972-74 Work underway to add new stage to former dress circle continued
- Opened as National Theatre 1974 - live venue using former dress circle as auditorium (800 seats). Current capacity 783
An interesting technical note was the transfer from the Regent Theatre in Collins St to the Victory theatre of the Regent's carbon-arc projectors and projection equipment sometime in the late 1960s. The equipment has been beautifully maintained and still operates at the National Theatre though much is from the 1940s and 50s.
Historically the building is of interest because of its association with F W Thring of Efftee Pictures (and the early Australian Film Industry) and more recently the National Theatre Movement ( Australia 's oldest professional arts company) and Gertrude Johnson OBE.
And the connection to Victory Publicity?
The publicity manager for the Victory Theatre was W.H (Bill) McKechnie. Bill began screen printing theatrical posters in the " flies" above the stage of the Victory Theatre (now the National Theatre) in St. Kilda in 1924. The company was formed in Swanston Street then moved to 262 Queen Street, later 186 Lygon Street, Carlton (a converted cinema). to become Victory Publicity - Screenprinters, lithographers and general commercial printers. Victory became well known for printing hand-drawn 24 sheet and other posters printed from stone.
They were certainly printing well into the 1960s.
W. H. McKechnie was made Vice-President of the St Kilda Football Club in 1932, the result of a successful coups d'état by the citizens committee to overthrow the existing committee. Bill was made Chairman of the Finance Committee and in 1933 the club's committee accepted an offer from its Vice President McKechnie to print The St. Kilda Review (Club Newsletter).
In 1937 Bill became president of St. Kilda but by October the following year he was defeated as President and in November was then rumoured to be forming a breakaway club, which he formally denied. In 1954 he was president of the Former Players' and Officials Association.
Bill was certainly active in many facets of the business world, sitting on the committee of the first post-war Advertising Arts Ball of 1946 (one of THE Balls of the year) and was chairman of the same committee a year later. He was Deputy Chairman of the Miss Australia Board in 1948 and Chairman by 1950.
Some of the staff included Ron Ridge whose skills in the art of hand lithography were legendary.
Victory Publicity was sold to the Todisco Brothers in 1984.
Head Artist; Victory Publicity
George Alexander Needham (1903-1985). Also known as George Robb (pseudonym).
George was born in London, England, on 3 May 1903. He emigrated to Australia in 1915. Needham studied at the Prahran Technical College in Melbourne, Victoria, and got a job at the Art Department of Union Theatres in Melbourne.
In 1923(?) he was Head Artist for Victory Publicity.
In the late 1920s, he created the comic 'The Dwight Family’ for the magazine Table Talk Magazine (Melbourne). In the 1930s he drew cartoons for the first Melbourne Age newspaper.
In the 1930s Needham also made illustrations and paintings, which were exhibited in a one-man show at Margaret McLean’s Gallery in Melbourne in 1938. That same year he moved to Sydney. During World War II, he made propaganda art. After the War, he created the black-and-white comic series 'The Bosun and Choclit’ using the pseudonym George Robb. This series became very popular and ran until the late 1950s.
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Great indeed. Good to read information on the history of the Australian printers.
Hondo