[John Anderson Home Movies: Reel 22]

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 holiday footage shot along the Victorian coastline (Portarlington) along with mixed scenes of suburban family life in the 1950s.

This film was originally made using 16mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:08:06:00 Portarlington Post Office sign
00:08:15:00 panning shot of Portarlington Pier
00:08:45:00 woman in 1950s casual wear eating an ice cream in front of a caravan on the beach as she walks toward the camera
00:08:59:00 nice shot on the beach including umbrellas, boat, man lying down and 40s fashion
00:17:31:00 footage of a merry-go-round
00:18:10:00 Christmas tree, children, parents
00:21:28:00 pan across a bay and town with caravan and car in foreground
00:22:08:00 caravan and car in foreground as ship leaves port in the background
00:23:16:00 surfers
00:35:33:00 young girl with miniature Hill’s Hoist toy