by Sorrel Hoskin

A black and white movie flickers silently on a large screen. The audience perch on the edge of their seats in suspense as the hero rushes to save a damsel in distress. Below the screen an enthusiastic trio of musicians add dramatic sound effects - cymbals crash, a piano thumps - will the hero save his heroine?

Silent movies hadn't long been in New Zealand when Garnet Saunders introduced New Plymouth to the new form of entertainment. He brought a little Hollywood glamour to the town with flickerless silent movies in 1910 - following that up with a plethora of movie theatres - earning himself the title of New Plymouth's King of theatre.

Garnet had come to New Plymouth to run a shoe repair shop - but the footprint he left behind was in the world of entertainment.

Cobbled beginnings

Garnet Hornby Saunders was born in Hamley Bridge, South Australia, on 14 June 1880. The son of brickmaker Richard Saunders, Garnet went to Adelaide public school and later trained to be a shoemaker.

But his real dream was to go into showbusiness. Garnet played the cornet in brass bands and is said to have won the Australasian solo championship in 1901.  Aged 21 he took his first steps into the world of entertainment when he joined Fitzgerald's Circus as a musician.

In 1902 Garnet travelled to New Zealand where he was soon appointed conductor of the Waihi Federal Band. He played cricket and bowled and batted "with the facility of most Australians".

Two years later Garnet moved south to New Plymouth, enticed by the offer of a shoe repair business. "The town was never quite the same after he arrived," wrote Brian Scanlan, in the Taranaki Herald. Garnet joined Garry's Band as solo cornetist, later moving up to conduct the band. He also played for the Taranaki Garrison Band. In New Plymouth Garnet met Harriet (Kitty) Williams and fell in love. The pair were married on 8 December 1909. They were to have three children: Garnet (Zig), Nigel and Warren.

Timing is everything

Timing is the secret of most everything and Garnet Saunders timing in Taranaki was perfect. The film industry was in its infancy, and, seeing a good opportunity to realise his dream, Garnet jumped aboard.

The early biographs, or "living pictures" as they were known had been introduced to New Zealand back in 1896, barely 12 months after the first motion pictures were screened by the Lumiere Brothers in Paris. Not long before, Thomas Edison had introduced the world to his invention the Kinetoscope - the beginning of the moving picture industry.

The early biographs were taken from town-to-town by vaudeville shows, or lone travelling showmen who would arrive in a brightly coloured horse-drawn wagon with their hand-cranked projectors and hang up a sheet in the local hall. The silent pictures had movement and excitement - people playing at the beach, snippets of European life, trains arriving at stations - but they flickered.

An "all star programme"

Electricity changed that. Its arrival brought rapid improvements to the film industry, replacing the hand cranked projectors and noisy oil-engined machines.

In New Plymouth Garnet saw potential in the new style of movies. In June 1910 he introduced Saunders Biograph Pictures to the Theatre Royal in New Plymouth. The company had a six month lease on the theatre, on the site of the present day TSB Showplace, to show biographs except for when the theatre was needed for productions.

Public notices advertised biograph pictures and orchestra with an "all star programme". Admission was 1/6 (one shilling, six pence) for the Dress Circle, 1/- for the stalls, pit seats were 6d (six pence) and children were 6d wherever they sat in the theatre.

The programmes were a strange combination of films, music and stage acts. Although he was the theatre manager, Garnet took up his cornet to play in the three piece "orchestra" that accompanied the films, playing music along with what was going on onscreen - exciting for chases, slapstick for comedies and romantic for "love" scenes. Kitty worked in the ticket office. The films were "clear and flickerless" as advertised.

Movies such as King Edward's funeral shown in July 1910 - just three months after the monarch's death - were popular and brought hundreds of people to the theatre.

The Jack Johnson - Stanley Ketchel heavyweight boxing match drew even more crowds despite a disgruntled letter to the paper from a man who thought women had no place in an audience watching what he called "brutal punching".

One of the most bizarre stage acts was an attempt at endurance piano playing. James Schubert Stirton, advertised as "the "world's champion" endurance pianist regained his title by playing non-stop for 74 hours and 12 minutes.

When the theatre was booked for other performances Garnet took his little show to Stratford and Waitara.

Trams rumble down Devon Street bearing advertisments for the Empire Theatre c1915. Image: Puke Ariki Pictorial Collection  A.1.63.

A permanent picture theatre

The biographs were proving so popular that soon the company was looking for new premises - ones that wouldn't be interrupted by theatrical bookings. In December 1911 Garnet moved to the Empire Theatre, leasing it from the Bellringer Estate.

The theatre was adapted to be the town's first all-cinema picture house. As film was highly flammable the projection box was tacked onto the outside of the theatre - hanging out over the street and only accessible by a ladder. Garnet didn't hold back on glitz and glamour - part of the cinema-going experience - large murals, showing people such as Thomas Edison adorned the walls, huge velvet curtains hung above the stage and a four piece "symphony orchestra" was hired to accompany the silent films.

The opening day saw hundreds of people attend shows from 11am through to 11pm. Three days later the first drama film came to the theatre - it was about an Italian brigand named Zigomar. Three years later when Kitty and Garnet's first son was born, he was nicknamed Zig after that popular opening.  The Saunders children all grew up in the theatre life - helping out with basic chores and sleeping out the back during performances.

A tall, thin man described as positive and determined, with extra helpings of "flair and energy," Garnet was a familiar sight standing at the door of this theatre or filming scenes around Taranaki. He drove an open car around the district, and projectionist Brandon Haughton operated a big hand-cranked camera to "capture" Taranaki life. They filmed race meetings, sports events, beach scenes, the mountain track up to North Egmont, basically anything that moved. The two men would develop the film in a room at the back of the Empire Theatre.

It was a great idea - locals loved to see themselves up on the big screen and flocked to the theatre on Saturday nights to see who and where the pair had been filming.

By 1916 Garnet was managing director of Taranaki Amusements Ltd. The company had bought the Theatre Royal and was building Everybodys Theatre (later the Mayfair) and was contracted to build theatres in Waitara, Inglewood and Stratford.

The Czar of theatres in New Plymouth?

Competition was also hotting up - in 1916 The People's Picture Palace (PPP) opened on Queen St. Originally the site of a Methodist church. The theatre had a pianist who played music according to what was happening on the screen. People's was renamed the Regent in 1930 before finally becoming home to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1970. Although it was later called "the bug house" (thanks to a few creepy crawlies in residence) People's was very popular up until the advent of television.

1916 was the year of the war in Gallipoli and the year that, despite being at the height of success, Garnett hit problems. In 1915 he had become involved in a slanging match in the Taranaki Herald as to whether or not he had been fair in negotiations with a travelling picture show the Kinemacolour Company. In a letter to the paper the company claimed that Garnet had refused to let out the Theatre Royal unless paid an outrageous sum of money.

Enraged that he was being portrayed as a monopolist and that he had deliberately tried to keep audiences away Garnet sued Henry Weston, owner of the Taranaki Herald for £1000. The libel hearing in 1916, in which Garnet was referred to by the defendants as "the Czar of theatres in New Plymouth," was long and heated and Garnet lost.  He was ordered to pay costs. Later that year an attempt to get a rehearing also failed.

The great fire of 1916

Devon St after the 1916 fire. Image: Puke Ariki Pictorial Collection A. 1. 103. 

Soon after, on 23 July 1916, the Theatre Royal and almost all the block of neighbouring businesses were completely destroyed by a fire which started in the theatre.

It was the biggest fire New Plymouth had seen and crowds gathered as the fire brigade struggled to get the blaze under control. Paint peeled off the walls of nearby buildings and the faces of wax dummies in the dress shop across the road melted in the intense heat

Although the Theatre Royal was insured Garnet and Taranaki Amusements lost 400 seats in storage for Everybody's.

The acme of perfection

Undeterred he went ahead with his plans. When Everybody's opened on 15 December 1916 it was declared to be the most beautiful cinema in New Zealand with the best orchestra. Everybody's was slightly more upmarket than the Empire and People's. An article in the next day's Daily News declared "Patrons went away  from Everybody's feeling that New Plymouth had a theatre that was the acme of perfection."

Everybody's Theatre - the most beautiful in New Zealand? Image: Puke Ariki Pictorial Collection A. 2a.104

In 1923 Taranaki Amusements and People's Pictures Ltd pooled their resources and built the Opera House on the former site of the Theatre Royal. The combined theatre had a large stage and screen. Opening night was 28 November 1925.

"Talkies", movies with sound, came to New Plymouth in 1929, heralding the end of an era. Orchestras were no longer needed, along with screen actors who had voices that grated or squeaked. It's around this time that the Empire Theatre closed - the exact date isn't known but a "talkie" never screened in its walls.

In 1935 big business came to New Plymouth in the form of Boon Bros, who set up the State Theatre in competition to Taranaki Amusements, who more or less had a monopoly in the town. It was the first cinema at the top of the town and seated nearly 1000 people. Of the big cinemas it was the only one not to have screened silent pictures. The first film shown was One night of love starring Grace Moore.

The theatre was to outlast nearly all the others, owners Amalgamated Hoyts finally closed the State in 1990, just three years before the Mayfair closed in 1993.

Garnet continued to be heavily involved in the cinema world up until his death on 7 September 1943. Throughout his years in New Plymouth he was always active in the community. Garnet was a member of the New Plymouth Cricket, Bowling and Golf clubs; president of the executive of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors; Association; managing director of the New Plymouth Opera House Company, Taranaki Amusements, and director of many others including Taranaki Brewery and Cordials Ltd and Egmont Frozen Products Ltd. When he died he was still general manager of the Mayfair and Regent Theatres and the Opera House.

He was buried at Te Henui cemetery. His wife Kitty died just one month later. Garnet Saunders brought a little of the glitz and glamour of the big screen to New Plymouth. In following his dream he brought a new form of entertainment to Taranaki and nurtured it - building a successful business in the process.