1951

Bondi was home to Australia’s first drive-in cinema, which opened with a screening of ‘My Wild Irish Rose’ at dusk on a Friday evening in October 1951. Usherettes dressed in sarongs, leis and wearing hibiscus flowers were on hand to guide patrons to their seats on opening night.

Although short-lived, the Pacific Open Air Drive-in Theatre ran at the rear of the Bondi Pavilion Auditorium, with the movie screen suspended from the gatehouse. Movie-goers who did not have a car could watch films reclining in cane chairs. The cinema area was enclosed in a hessian wall with speaker boxes on poles. It could accommodate 27 cars and up to 2,000 people.

The drive-in was set up by Kenneth Easton Cook (1912-1987), a colourful Sydney identity with a history of espionage during World War II. He was the son of a prosperous footwear manufacturer and theatre developer in Melbourne.

Bored with studying medicine in 1930s Melbourne, Cook was given an open ticket by his father to tour the United States and the Far East, including China and Japan. He claimed to have been recruited as a double agent while there.

In 1938, Cook’s father fled Australia to avoid tax evasion charges, but left his son enough money to buy the Newsreel Theatrette on Darlinghurst Road in Sydney. The theatrette screened short news features called newsreels and Japanese films. Cook was a frequent guest of the Japanese consul.

During World War II, the government used its influence over newsreels and other media to control information and boost morale.

In 1940, Army military intelligence employed Cook as an agent – as did the Japanese consulate. By late 1941 his spying days were over, but he continued to trade on the notoriety to evade conscription.

After the war, Cook began challenging censorship and rules controlling cinema operation, including the ban on Sunday opening. Bondi’s open-air cinema was one of his innovations.

His friendship with the unionist Jim Healy saw him awarded the franchise to show the 1955 documentary ‘The Hungry Mile’, produced by the Waterside Workers Federation. In 1961, ASIO noted his theatrette was showing a Soviet propaganda film. Cook retired to the NSW town of Condoblin and died in 1987.

Images courtesy the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.