aso
Watch a clip and read curator's notes »

Marius Sestier Project
 Patineur Grotesque
Salon Lumière
The Marius Sestier Collection
Press Clippings
Salon Lumière Event
Special Feature - Screening the Past

Salon Lumière

Salon LumièreWithin a week of opening in Sydney on 28 October 1896, Marius Sestier’s Salon Lumière where he presented the Lumière Cinématographe was flourishing beyond expectations. In these first days of cinema in Australia this would hardly seem extraordinary but the Salon Lumière was not the first presentation of moving pictures in Sydney or throughout Australia at this time. However, the Salon Lumière was extraordinary both in quality of image, content and presentation. The Salon Lumière was Australia’s first cinema.

Sestier was one of the twenty-three frères Lumière operator/representatives to travel the world. While many of the representatives travelled to other European countries Sestier was one of a small handful who travelled beyond Europe. Marius Sestier, with his wife Marie-Louise Sestier, travelled to first, India, and then on to Australia.

On the 26 September 1896, within a fortnight of their arrival, the Sestiers had organised a preview of the Lumière Cinématographe at George Musgrove and J.C. Williamson’s Lyceum Theatre on Pitt Street, Williamson having donated the theatre for the afternoon preview. Subsequent reports of the preview promised the public a show not to be missed.

The Salon Lumière was situated at 237 Pitt Street, Sydney, a few doors down from the Lyceum Theatre. A two storey building of five rooms it had, throughout its life, provided premises for a tailor, a shoe shop, a fancy goods store and warehouse, as well as a studio for Stewarts Photographers. Prior to the opening of the Salon Lumière the ground floor of 237 Pitt Street had been a branch of Lewis Phillips Auctioneers.

As auction rooms the premises would provide a sizable open space for seating, the chairs placed towards the large 10 by 12 foot screen with its highly decorated ornamental frame. The Salon Lumière was open from midday through to late evening with screenings every 30 minutes. Once seated in the electrically lit room, the light would be turned off at precisely the half hour and the first image would be thrown onto the screen.

This practice was much lauded by the press as it allowed patrons to drop in at any time to view the current program. This was much appreciated by patrons who responded with long queues which often extended down and across Pitt Street. Unlike the competitors, whose limited evening screenings were part of a program dedicated to live performance, Salon Lumière only screened films.

Under the management of C.B. Westmacott, Musgrove and Williamson’s Sydney theatre manager, together with high society and theatrical photographer Henry Walter Barnett, the program presented by the Sestiers consisted of twelve films with new programs being constantly offered. The show was always fresh, entertaining and accessible.

It was on the Salon Lumière’s last night, 27 October 1896, that Australia’s first film Passengers leaving the ss Brighton at Manly was screened with the promise of more Australian films to come. The next day the Sestiers and Walter Barnett left for Melbourne to fulfil other commitments and where they would work together at the Melbourne Cup Carnival shooting fifteen films.

With the departure of the Sestiers and Barnett and the closing of the Salon Lumière at 237 Pitt Street, Sydney Australia’s first cinema closed, but only for a short while.  Capitalising on the Salon Lumière’s excellent reputation and screening format new tenant, and cinematographe competitor, James McMahon, reopened 237 Pitt Street as the Salon Cinématographe. And although successful the Salon Cinématographe could not repeat the phenomenal success of the Salon Lumière.

Photo: Advertising poster for Salon Lumiere, Sydney 1896
Photograph of original
Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune