The Rivoli. Parramatta's Bygone Entertainment Venue

Advertisement for Skating at the Rivoli. The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 7 April 1930 p. 4.

The nondescript, bureaucratic facade of the fourteen storey office block located at 130-134 Church Street, near the old Parramatta Fire Station, betrays the site of what was once a lively social hub for residents of the Parramatta district. Prior to the erection of the multi floored building in 1973 there stood on the same site the Rivoli Dance Hall. The “Riv” through its life attracted large crowds as a major entertainment venue. At various times it operated as an open air picture theatre, cinema, skating rink, boxing and wrestling stadium, dance hall, and markets.

Roxy Theatre - Australian Cinema Entertainment Program 1930s

Held in the cultural collection at the Parramatta Heritage Centre is an entertainment program from the Roxy Spanish Theatre.  This booklet lists a program of entertainment including a range of 1930s movies such as This is the Night with Cary Grant and No More Orchids with Carol Lombard.  There are many other films listed on the packed program as well as boxing matches, wrestling, vaudeville and an organ recital.

The Roxy Theatre opened on 6^th February 1930 with a packed audience coming to watch Maurice Chevalier’s, Innocents of Paris.  An interested crowd of several thousand observed the proceedings in the street opposite.  The Roxy is one of the few remaining examples of the “Picture Palaces” that were built between the wars.