Regent’s loss a cross Brisbane will have to bear

NEWS

Film lovers who watch the 1959 Hollywood biblical epic Ben-Hur over Easter should pause to ponder its connection with a soon-to-be-lost Brisbane icon.
The flamboyant Australian actor Frank Thring Jr, who plays Pontius Pilate in the sword-and-sandal classic, which will screen on the TCM pay-TV channel on Easter Sunday, was the son and namesake of the great impresario who once ruled over a chain of Regent theatres around the country. Both Frank Thrings have passed on, but the Melbourne Regent has been restored and is now a popular venue for large theatrical productions. The Brisbane Regent is facing closure and partial demolition to make way for a high-rise office tower.
Brett Debritz, who runs the savetheregent.com website, urged Brisbane movie lovers to attend screenings at the Regent, especially at the heritage-rich Showcase cinema, before the complex’s scheduled closure in June.
The planned office tower on the site will incorporate the 80-year-old theatre’s heritage-listed grand foyer – if it survives the demolition and construction process – but not the ornate bar area, the red-brick Elizabeth Street facade and former stage-door entrance, or any of the four cinemas.
The bar and the Showcase have been refused listing by the Heritage Commission, giving the green-light to developers to demolish everything except the already-listed foyer. Mr Debritz said the tenants, Birch Carroll and Coyle, were organising a film festival for the cinemas’ closing weeks in May and June, offering people a good opportunity to go and see what the city is about to lose.
“I urge people to attend not just the festival, but any other screenings in the complex between now and then – especially those at the Showcase cinema,” Mr Debritz said.
Mr Debritz said the Regent’s four cinemas would be replaced by three smaller rooms, two of them with the capacity of just 60 seats and none of them commercially viable venues. Under a deal with the Queensland Government, they will be open to the public but only on weekends – and it is not clear what kind of films will be screened or for how long this arrangement will stay in place.
“Sadly, the owners of the building, with government and council approval, have resisted attempts either to incorporate the Showcase cinema into their plans or to restore the original auditorium, giving Brisbane a badly needed second large multipurpose theatre,” he said.
“What we will have when this development is finished, assuming the foyer survives the demolition and construction work, is a red carpet to nowhere.”
Mr Debritz said the Brisbane Regent was sold several years ago by the estate of Dr James Mayne, who was also a benefactor of the University of Queensland and Wesley Hospital. The 2003 book The Mayne Inheritance put forward the theory that the Mayne family fortune was built after James’s father, Patrick, committed a murder for which another man was hanged.
John was determined to make amends for his father’s misdeed by bequeathing much of his property to the people of Queensland through a trust administered by the university. “James Mayne specified in his will that the Regent should be preserved if at all possible,” Mr Debritz said.
“Along with thousands of others who have signed a petition to the State Government and joined the Save the Regent Facebooks groups, I say it is possible and it can and should be restored to its original glory.”