Melbourne's longest running cinema — VFL, pornography and the fight for survival

The forgotten cinematic history of a seedy CBD sex shop.

Chances are most Melburnians have seen the Crazy Horse sex shop on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne. Its flashing neon signs and suggestive posters are hard to miss.

It is the kind of place that could be shut down overnight and most people would not even notice, and if they did, they would not care.

What few realise, however, is that down the steps in the basement of Curlow House is the CBD's longest, continuously running cinema.

But as its patrons increasingly turn to the internet, Melbourne's film buffs fear the theatre, which was opened in the 1950s, could be forced to close before the wider population even knows of its existence and long history.

Film historian and drive-in cinema operator David Kilderry is among a group of people fighting to see to see the cinema survive.

He dreams of seeing the cinema being restored to its former glory.

"The fact that it has survived for so long — it would be a great tragedy for it not to survive into the future," he said.

For the uninitiated, down the steps there is a small sex shop selling all the usual goods you would probably expect; sex toys, the lot.

There are a few booths where people watch live dances.

It sounds seedy, and it is. It is enough to make your skin crawl if you are not into that kind of thing.

But just beyond the counter, past the burly man, there is a black curtain.

Behind that curtain, hidden from the swarms of people walking along Elizabeth Street, is a small theatrette.

The 50-odd seat cinema with a small, almost square screen shows pornography now, but long before it transformed into a basement sex theatre, the Crazy Horse was a bustling newsreel theatre called the Star.

It was opened in the early 1950s as an independent cinema and since then has screened everything, from news, children's cartoons and VFL (Victoria Football League) replays to bizarre mondo films.

The Star Theatre had a history of survival against the odds.

When it opened there were plenty of other newsreel cinemas operating and as a result the Star struggled to get access to major Australian content.

Instead, the cinema showed international news and even ventured into shooting its own footage.

One of the Star's first claims to fame was its coverage of the VFL, according to Mr Kilderry.

He said the operators would head down the road to the MCG and film matches that were later broadcast in the theatre.

"They would go out, shoot some some footage on 16-millimetre film, add some rough titles and commentary, and have it on screen during the week after the games were played," he said.

Some of that footage was discovered and preserved by the National Film and Sound Archive.

It was not long before technology caught up with the Star and it faced its first test of viability.

The emergence of television rocked the newsreel industry; many theatres went bust, others, like the Star, adapted.

The cinema started shifting towards feature length films. But being a relatively small, independent cinema it had to "pick from the crumbs" of the films around at the time.

"So they started to push a bit of the exploitation product," Mr Kilderry said.

Mondo films captured curiosity of Melburnians

In the late '60s most of the industry was regulated by the Hays code — a set of rules governing the film industry.

Profanity, drug use and especially nudity were no-nos. But many filmmakers and even theatres sought to push those boundaries.

There were few places that explored the grey areas of cinema more than the Star in the 1960s period, according to Mr Kilderry.

One popular and little-known genres to come out of the era was the mondo film.

"The mondo films teased in the newspaper ads, 'See heathen rituals, see cannibalism, see the topless natives of ... wherever'," Mr Kilderry said.

"Native nudity, believe it or not, was permitted. But if there was an Anglo-Saxon-looking blonde girl, well, she was covered up.

"These were the types of films that the Star really pushed in the '60s ... and it was very popular programming at the time."

R-certificate opened floodgates for edgy Star

When the R-rated certificate for films was introduced in 1970 in Australia, Melbourne's cinema porn scene took off.

The Star became Australia's first sex cinema, and then all the others quickly caught on.

At one point every almost every single theatre in Melbourne was screening pornography, according to theatre historian Dean Bradnum.

"It was infectious that these cinemas in Melbourne began screen R-rated content, mostly of a sexual variety," he said.

"Hoyts, for example, had Alvin Purple playing for close to a year, which was an Australian sex comedy.

"The Forum cinema for a period in 1974 was screening a great number of films with sexual content."

Village and Greater Union cinemas were also cashing in on Melburnians' interest in the racy content, according to Mr Bradnum, who said the films were hugely popular and were attracting a mainstream audience.

"The whole era is regarded as the porno chic-era, when porn was in fashion," he said.

"Not really many eyebrows were raised about it, it was just a natural thing."

Converted shopfront sex cinemas started popping up in Melbourne in the mid-1970s.

But once again the cinema industry was hit by another emerging technology, the VCR.

"Once people could watch this type of programming in their own home, why would they be caught dead with the chance of Mrs Brown from up the street spotting them emerging from one of these theatres?" Mr Kilderry said.

But like it always has, the Star survived.

It was taken over in the mid-80s by a company called HGC, run by the controversial and secretive Australian Club X sex shop kings, the Hill brothers.

A short catwalk and two poles at the front of the stage were added to the cinema and its transformation into the Crazy Horse was complete.

"It was not unusual to have a queue of patrons waiting at the door when a new movie was released," HGC spokesman David Ross said.

Fears a piece of Melbourne history could be lost

But the days of long lines out the front are long gone. People who watch porn have largely moved to the internet.

The Crazy Horse has limped into the modern era of cinema, surviving on a mix of buck's shows and an older generation of patrons.

The cinema does not make any money, but the addition of peep shows and sales from the sex shop have kept it in operation.

Owner Ken Hill is a major film buff and it is understood he is keen to see the cinema preserved.

But with the potential of rising operating costs, the cinema's future is under a cloud.

"We will keep it for as long as possible, we've got five years left on the lease ... but hopefully we can keep going if the rent doesn't go up by anything at all really," HGC spokesman David Ross said.

Mr Bradnum is less optimistic about the cinema's future. He predicts the Crazy Horse will probably only survive a couple more years in its current form.

Mr Kilderry agrees.

"I would say the medium-term future of the theatre is not looking bright," he said.

The pair are part of the group of film buffs in Melbourne trying to raise awareness about the Star's history in a bid to ensure its survival.

Mr Kilderry wants the Star registered on the National Trust and listed with Heritage Victoria.

He dreams of seeing the venue restored to its former glory.

"The Star will always have a special place in the hearts of many people. And if it's gone and just becomes a $2 discount [shop] — well, there's millions of those," Mr Kilderry said.

Topics: history, community-and-society, arts-and-entertainment, film-movies