the ritz

The link Wayne gave to the Aaron Chen guide to the Fisk set made me appreciate that the Lithuanian Club auditorium was almost certainly the Ritz Cinema, briefly I suppose, in the late 1970s. I don't know if this was my first exposure to Errol St North Melbourne, not far from where I currently live, but it was an early exposure. The Ritz was in the vein of the Valhalla which I saw as the original template for these kinds of 'revival houses' or as this article from the Age 'Weekender' section for 11 November 1977 p. 7 calls them, '"alternative" cinemas'. I wonder who the 80-year-old star of Australian silent screen was, and how she could afford a chauffeur-driven Rolls. 

fisk in errol st

This is close to a non-post but I just want to say that Fisk, which is a funny show, was (is?) I guess set in Errol st, or at least, a lot of the external scenes were shot in North Melbourne and the actual Gruber and Fisk windows are visible from the street, though I am uncertain about whether anything is actually filmed in those rooms up there surely there'd be too much noise from the street. 

I am a bit too stupid to understand this, as well. This doorway is the only doorway to the first floor:

But either they install a fake doorway into this doorway for the show (most likely explanation) or they use some amazing digital trickery. 

Or I am nuts. When I went to photograph the doorway above there was some dodgy character hanging around I didn't want to talk to so I took a quick picture then left and maybe I got it wrong, though I think the physio place is in the same position to the doorway in both images. 

Please don't think I think it matters.