I started this short video during last years lockdown 2020 and only finished it today during this years lockdown 2021.
I started as a trainee projectionist at the St James Theatre Auckland when I was 16 in 1968. The purpose of this video is to show the destruction of our heritage Buildings in NZ. In a matter of a few short years and sometimes overnight, theatres where pulled down “left right and centre” and no one cared. The St James and The Mercury are all there is left in Auckland, both ripe for restoration and yearning for the people of Auckland to return. After turning 69 this month I wonder will I ever see these two beautiful “Ladies in Waiting” restored and loved by all of us again….
Auckland City was once considered the “Golden Mile of Theatres” in New Zealand.
This was the glory days of cinema and in its hey-day there were a grand total on 29 screens in the main centre.
Today all the buildings are either demolished or converted to something else, only one can still screen film “The Civic”
There are a handful of newer cinemas that are not included in this video for reason of the tile “The Lost Cinemas of Auckland City”
They appear in order from downtown to uptown including, Karangahape Road area.
The theatres are named as the “name” that they were opened as, to the “name” they closed as. Their number up to 29 is displayed in the top right hand corner.
