The Hollywood Theatre started in 1920, established by Charles Allen. The theatre was originally 450m further north on River St, at Howard St, before relocating in 1927.
Hollywood Theatre entered its hey-days in the mid-1930s with a redesigned facade of art-deco design.
The theatre advertised in newspapers with brief adverts of the current feature, such as Under Two Flags in a September 1936 issue 
, and of The Ex-Mrs. Bradford in a March 1937 issue .
The theatre doesn’t exist anymore but the art-deco facade of the building reveals its history. Today, it is the Palace Arcade with shops at the front and through the arcade.
Maclean Talking Trail
Hollywood Theatre was part of the Maclean talking trail, the brown sign is there as part of the talking trail. Headphones were borrowed and audio played as you walked the trail. Below is what was included in the talking trail audio.
History
The Palace Arcade has one of the most intriguing histories of all the historical sites on your tour, for on this site once stood Maclean’s hot spot of entertainment ‐ the Hollywood Theatre.
The Hollywood began life as the Caledonian hall which was originally constructed further down River Street on the corner of Howard Street in 1902. Its purpose was to provide facilities for meetings and concerts of the Caledonian Society and headquarters for companye of the Scottish rivals.
In 1911 the Caledonian hall was occupied by Mr Walter Howard, grandfather of none other than the former Australian prime minister, John Howard.
In 1920 Mr Charles Allen purchased the hall with the prime purpose of establishing a picture palace. He named it the Hollywood Theatre.
The hall was re‐located in 1927 to the site you now see. A major refurbishment in 1935 including the construction of the art‐deco façade brought the Hollywood Theatre into its true glory. Sadly the theatre closed its doors in 1967 and two years later was transformed into the present Palace Arcade.
The original picture palace paving stone can still be seen in the footpath outside the arcade entrance.
Story
The operating box used to go out into the theatre, into the circle at least, and there were seats alongside that particular part.
We had one chap that that used to come when I used to show at Lawrence. This particular friend of mine, he used to come down, only a young chap, and he wanted to learn to show you see.
I said to him this day ‘Come down to Maclean, come and have a look at that’. So he eventually came down. I didn’t see him for weeks and weeks, and then I struck him in town one day and I said to him ‘Why didn’t you come back James?’ and he said ‘There’s too many switches there for me!’ Because there was this big switchboard on the bike, it had all the switches for all the house lighting and everything, you know. No good for Jim. Hehehe ‐ He wouldn’t come back!! Hehehe ‐ frightened him!
Merv Cousemacker, last operator of the Hollywood Theatre, Maclean Talking Trail Audio
