From the very beginnings when travelling showmen set up their primitive equipment in a tent or hired a hall to present their programme before packing up to visit another town, the industry continued to evolve. Permanent projection facilities were gradually installed in town halls, then purpose-built local cinemas. Finally, the grandeur of the magnificent picture palaces built in capital cities and major regional towns epitomised cinema showmanship.

When television arrived, the travelling picture-showman was eventually added to the list of endangered species. Modern multiplexes mushroomed throughout the land. However with the transition to digital technology and high-power portable digital projectors a new breed of travelling picture-showmen emerged. Operating their temporary ‘pop-up’ cinemas in halls, parks or anywhere else they could obtain suitable audiences, they took their wares to scattered venues. The wheel had indeed turned the full circle and the travelling picture-showman was again back on the road.

This is the story of those years during which Allan Jones and his peers plied their wares throughout some of the most challenging country in the State - a time when the success of their efforts largely depended on their skills of South-West showmanship.

This book is intended to provide the reader with an appreciation of the development of the local motion picture industry and the technology and techniques used by Allan and his peers to entertain the public. To achieve this, it contains a basic description of the operational requirements of some long-forgotten cinema apparatuses as well as documenting the environmental, human and social conditions which existed at that time. No excuses are made for often deviating from the main theme to explain terminology and other relevant factors or including a couple of personal anecdotes by the writer that have a connection with the topics being covered, most unknown to younger generations. They are included to enable the reader to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the conditions under which the projection teams of the era had to work.

It begins with an account of the early pioneers in the region and their efforts to establish farms in the densely forested area. The relevance of the history of some of these settlers to the life of Allan Jones soon becomes apparent. It covers the physical effort of harvesting the forest giants by the many sawmills and the industry which followed which brought new settlers into the region including many families who were to endure severe hardship. It was to be these people of the many isolated and scattered settlements who were to form the first audiences for Allan’s shows.

The first projected images that Allan experienced from lantern slide and moving picture bioscope shows as a young boy at Deanmill and on visits to Perth made a lasting impression on him. A month before his 21^st birthday he began his first shows at the mill and was soon to extend his then part-time activities to include nearby settlements. Later a partnership was formed which allowed expansion of his screening circuit and full-time commitment to the fledgling silent motion picture industry.

Competition with existing travelling showmen and their circuits was intense but Allan’s tenacity and entrepreneurial skills gradually consolidated his commercial position and reputation in the region. By then he had married his pianist with both of them shifting to their new base of operations at Pemberton. With the advent of the talkies further investment was required which saw some of his competitors leave the industry.

Allan installed sound equipment in some venues he was hiring in other towns as well as in his first purpose-built cinema in Pemberton. With the previous partnership ended, the formation of Allan Jones Circuit Pictures in May 1930 saw the business expand to more distant locations. During one of his regular trips to Perth to visit the distributors, Allan noted an exhibition opportunity in the city of an outdoor cinema on the market which he took on for one very successful summer season. However due to the rapid expansion of his now multiple circuits in the South-West he returned to this region, basing himself and his family eventually at their new home in Busselton.

During the pre-World War Two (WW2) years the number of travelling picture-showmen reached their peak, with many eventually building their own permanent venues in several towns. The state-wide electricity grid had not been connected to many of these scattered communities and what was available was often subject to complete black-outs or ‘brown-outs’ as the load on the system’s generators resulted in low voltage at the end of the lines. The standards of presentation and reliability varied between the many film exhibitors, factors which inevitably contributed to their demise or success.

WW2 was an era which placed the whole nation under stress. It seriously impacted the travelling showmen with the rationing of vital commodities such as vehicle fuel, tyres and experienced projection staff conscripted for overseas deployment. With the outbreak of international hostilities, export of precision equipment such as motion picture projectors from America was suspended. This led to a resurgence of Australian manufacture of cinema equipment such as the Raycophone J3 projectors. These machines were to become the most popular projectors in the smaller suburban and country shows throughout Australia till their demise under the onslaught of competing mass entertainment.

Post-war attendances at the movies continued to encourage new travelling or temporary showmen to enter the market, many of whom had regular week-day employment elsewhere but ran their shows, mainly in their home towns, on Saturday nights. Allan was to build a permanent cinema at Busselton on the site of his pre-war picture gardens, and a new cinema at Manjimup.

Later, due to changing community entertainment choices, he closed the Manjimup venue and while continuing with the Busselton cinema, removed the left side block of seating which was curtained off to establish a museum display of his equipment used throughout his long career in the industry. While continuing a regular screening schedule as a cinema, the daytime museum display became a popular tourist attraction for the town.

Television and the advent of drive-ins proved to be the last nail in the coffin for most suburban and country film exhibitors. Allan had four drive-ins which were to be his last major investments in the industry. Social habits had changed dramatically since his first years in the business and threw up new challenges with his entire family working at several venues. In his final years Allan was formally recognised for his contribution to the welfare of those in the South-West region and awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in 1975 for his efforts.

As research for this book project evolved, the author became aware of the many other pioneering showmen and women who ran picture-show circuits in the region, now included in reels 20 and 21. Contact with their descendants resulted in new information and photographs which were not previously known to exist outside of the families involved.

While this book acknowledges their contribution to the entertainment of the community it is unable to include details of the far greater number who screened in other areas of this vast State. To do so would take a lot more time and effort than this ageing amateur author is capable of delivering. As such, the content of this book with a few exceptions has been limited to those known to have screened at venues which had at some time in history been included in the circuits of Allan Jones Circuit Pictures.

In these days of modern transport, technology and digital cinema, as well as movies which can be delivered to devices held in the palm of your hand, many may consider some of the following anecdotes and information hard to believe.

They can be assured, that’s the way it was.