[John Anderson Home Movies: Reel 15]

John Robert (Jack) Anderson (1924–1993) was a film distributor, cinema owner and photographer as well as an enthusiastic filmmaker in and around Ballarat in Victoria. Jack developed an interest in film very early at cinema shows and gained his first film experience while serving in WWII, photographing wartime conditions and aircraft involved in the defence of Australia’s north, including the aftermath of the Darwin bombing raid.

It was whilst working in photographic studios that Jack met his future wife, business partner and fellow film enthusiast Marie Bourke. Starting out by hiring films and showing them around regional Victoria, Jack and Marie established cinemas such as the Astor Cinema in Ararat, Bell Post Hill Drive-In in Geelong and the Southern and Northern Drive-Ins and Vegas 70 Cinema in Ballarat. In the 1970s, the Anderson family acquired and restored the Regent Theatre in Ballarat which would then become the first multiplex in regional Victoria.

Along the way, Jack filmed his family and friends activities and outings, horse racing, Ballarat street scenes, motorcycle scrambling and travel scenes on the road – an unusual and wonderful look at life in regional Victoria during the 1940s to the 1960s.

This film presents scenes of families on holidays at the beach and the snow, along with suburban backyard activities,children’s parties, and some interesting glimpses of country Victoria in the 1970s.

This film was originally made using 16mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:48:00 exterior scenes of ski lodge with children in front
00:01:13:00 children snowball play
00:01:23:00 exterior shot of Mt. Buller landscape from lodge balcony
00:01:49:00 shot of lodge exterior with “Crosscut Lodge” sign
00:01:59:00 children skiing downhill
00:02:10:00 children catching a “stand-up” ski lift pole
00:02:29:00 close-up of 70s ski fashion
00:02:52:00 warm colours and well-lit fashion on ski slope
00:03:02:00 sit down ski lift
00:03:13:00 good close-up shot of man and child catching a seated ski lift; man wearing fashionable sunglasses from the era
00:03:25:00 some nice tracking shots taken while on the ski lift
00:03:53:00 man and child on ski lift – 70s fashion and hair
00:04:36:00 backyard children’s birthday party with costumes, balloons, bikes, trampoline, party, games
00:04:56:00 musical chairs and pass the parcel outside
00:05:47:00 backyard cricket
00:06:05:00 close-up women’s 70s fashion
00:06:14:00 purple Ford Fairlane in front yard with BP sign in the background
00:06:21:00 nice close-up of Ford Fairlane
00:06:32:00 children eating BBQ
00:06:43:00 child playing and jumping with “Space Hopper”
00:08:08:00 street parade with child riding a bike while in blackface – Ballarat 1974
00:08:39:00 interesting filming from inside a marching band while marching in parade
00:11:25:00 slow-motion reverse footage of kids falling “IN” to a rubber dingy from water
00:11:45:00 interesting moving shot of seagulls jumping from a pier
00:12:28:00 nice shot of child eating pastie and drinking Coke in front of old Sorrento front beach kiosk
00:14:03:00 nice beach scene with colourful umbrella and 70s beach fashion