[KenRa Films Present: the Kenneth Rankine Home Movie Collection: Reel 18]

Kenneth Carruthers Rankine (1890 - 1968) was a keen amateur cinematographer and filmmaker. This collection of his home movies has been donated to ACMI by Kenneth’s granddaughter. The collection represents a wonderful slice of life in Australia; with contents including scenes of everyday life, major family occasions, holidays around Victoria and views of Melbourne.

This film records some of the scenes and events during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and her consort to Victoria in 1954.

Unusually for this Collection, this reel does not open with Kenneth Rankine’s signature title card (as seen in other reels) but instead uses an ‘iris in’ camera effect (where the image opens in a circle, surrounded by black, and then expands to fill the frame). The scene that then appears is of crowds lining streets as a motorcade drives past, followed by further footage of the crowds and mounted police in procession.

Selected highlights list:

00:00:37:00 a banner reading ‘Welcome to Moorabbin’ can be seen, erected at the side of a park, with the flags of Australia and the United Kingdom (the ‘Union Jack’) displayed nearby, as the motorcade passes through the shot. 00:00:41:00 a green tram passes very close to the motorcade. 00:00:59:00 another clearly visible banner reads ‘Welcome to our Royal Visitors’.

00:01:03:00 the scene switches abruptly to footage of an aeroplane in the sky. 00:01:14:00 the camera is back at street-level, as uniformed military personnel march down a tree-lined roadway. 1950s cars and clothing styles are on display in these shots. One interesting feature of the gathering is that quite a few people have brought ladders with them (to allow them to get a view of events over the heads of others in the crowd).

00:04:04:00 we see the tower of Government House flying the Royal Standard flag (this is only flown when a reigning monarch is in residence). 00:04:09:00 More crowd scenes, with Government House visible in the background. 00:04:11:00 An ‘iris out’ effect closes the sequence (the reverse of the ‘iris in effect that opened the reel).

00:04:14:00 the Josef Hochgurtel fountain (outside the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne) is seen illuminated at night. This is followed by more footage of night-time, and illuminated signs and decorations (installed in Melbourne’s CBD for the 1954 royal visit). 00:05:01:00 An illuminated cinema sign is advertising screenings of ‘The Robe’, ‘In Cinemascope’ (the film was made in 1953).
00:05:12:00 another ‘iris in’ effect opens the next sequence, which again shows crowds lining the roads leading to Government House, mounted police and motorcade. 00:05:55:00 The Queen’s car passes, with the Queen and Duke just visible in the back seat, and the camera tracking the car’s motion.

00:06:28:00 the old Commonwealth Bank building in Bourke Street, Melbourne (a heritage-listed Art Deco building erected in 1940) is seen, decorated with a large crown for the royal visit. 00:06:30:00 a diorama of kangaroo, emu and swagman is mounted above shopfronts displaying an illuminated ‘Coles’ sign. 00:06:35:00 a large arch, topped with a crown, straddles Bourke Street. 00:06:43:00 another shot of the arch and crown also clearly shows the Salvation Army Temple building (built at 65 Bourke Street in 1895) displaying a Salvation Army sign. 00:06:46:00 the front of the decorated Parliament House at the top of Bourke Street is seen, with a sign for a store of the (now defunct) grocery chain ‘Morgan and Cato’ visible at the left.

00:06:51:00 the scene shifts back to the crowds lining streets, with the Queen’s car again being slowly followed by the camera as it moves along the roadway. 00:07:35:00 another ‘iris out’ effect - with the tower of Government House in the centre of the frame – closes the sequence.

00:07:40:00 the city of Melbourne at night, with illuminated signs and decorations around the city. 00:07:48:00 Flinders Street Station illuminated (seen from Elizabeth Street) with an illuminated ‘Angus & Robertson Booksellers’ sign also visible. 00:07:56:00 illuminated “Foys” sign. 00:08:11:00 illuminated ‘Lyceum’ sign (indicating the Lyceum Theatre, Bourke Street, now demolished). 00:08:24:00 the illuminated dome of Flinders Street Station.

00:08:28:00 the camera is back in daylight, with further scenes of the Queen’s motorcade moving down crowd-lined streets. 00:09:31:00 crowds dispersing after the event, with the stands for roadside seating visible. (00:09:34:00 there is a brief – apparently unrelated – 5 second shot of people at a lumberyard?).

00:09:39:00 central Melbourne, with St Paul’s Cathedral visible on the left and the old Princes Bridge railway station also visible as an old green bus passes through the shot. Further footage of the Melbourne CBD streets, buildings and vehicles follows. 00:10:06:00 Woolworths building and sign. 00:10:08:00 Leviathan Building and Odeon Theatre building and sign. 00:10:11:00 more footage of the Queen’s motorcade starts, with a clear shot of the Queen in the back of her open car. 00:10:30:00 another ‘iris out’ effect closes the sequence.

00:10:34:00 Melbourne city at night, with illuminated signs and decorations around the city. 00:10:41:00 Ball & Welch building and sign. In the footage following this is it’s difficult to identify the locales being photographed due to the night-time camera work (without benefit of lighting).

00:12:07:00 another ‘iris in’ camera effect opens the scene at the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, before the camera shifts to the surrounding streets, the crowds lining them, and the motorcade moving through them. 0:12:54:00 the Shrine of Remembrance forecourt, with uniformed military personnel marching up the central avenue and the Shrine building in the background. Large numbers of people are gathered (this is almost certainly the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II dedicating the new forecourt and sacred flame on 28th February 1954). All these scenes are shot from an aerial perspective. 00:15:58:00 another ‘iris out’ effect closes the sequence.

00:16:35:0 back in daytime, a sign above a shop is advertising ‘Sennitt’s Ice Cream’ (this brand, started in 1904 and discontinued in 1961 may have produced Australia’s first commercial ice-cream). Crowds again line the street as the Queen’s car moves along it. 00:16:56:00 we see another good clear view of the Queen in the back of her open car.

00:17:39:00 a further daytime aerial sequence of the Queen’s motorcade and mounted police (the camerawork here is quite ‘jerky’ and rather blurred). 00:18:34:00 Government House is seen in the middle distance. 00:18:40:00 the front façade of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, is photographed in bright sunshine, with the Josef Hochgurtel fountain in front of it. Footage of the gardens surrounding the Exhibition Building follows.

00:19:13:00 Green trams are photographed moving along Swanston Street in Melbourne’s CBD, before further footage of the city’s decorations. 00:19:39:00 the reel ends with a final (rather jerkily-shot) scene of the Queen’s car – preceded by policemen on motorcycles – moving along a city street as a group of onlookers wave.