[?]Y The Dress He Stood Up In. . .

I Rex Cinema, Noumea, was ►mpletely destroyed by fire on btober 31. (See above). \ theatre, which seated 800, ; operated by the Cinevog any, of which Mr. D. [inica is head. fire started at 7.30 ajn. and minutes after the flames were >n the stage they had reached rejection room. This latter concrete wall between it and auditorium but it had a on ceiling with the theatre. [ possible that without this [ the projection room, with luable equipment, could have

paved.

[fire started in a small room ing the stage. Over 100 feature films were stocked I without any safety pre ns. What fired this stock ns is not yet known. Half Dur after the outbreak the b roof fell in.

Somic note was provided by Iterator who lived in a small just back of the stage. This tnan was sleeping at the tf the outbreak, and just had ;o escape by a window. Due e hot night the gentleman ten sleeping completely in the [ On his entry, in Adam’s le, into the theatre courtyard, f the Tahitian women who d the cinema gallantly tore (r dress to give to him. As was wearing little enough [the dress herself, the situa vas more than embarrassing, operator lost all his wordly Bions in the fire. He was tending just with the dress d borrowed. |“Rex” was built in 1931 on te of a rice and cotton mill in 1929 burned to the ground, [presence of the large amount

of film on the premises is explained by the fact that French distributors often sell their copies to the colonial movie-house operators, who hold the rights of screening for a number of years. At the expiration of these rights the copies are supposed to be destroyed, but there seldom is any insistence on this point.

The films in the “Rex” fire

belonged to a former owner of the theatre. Up until a few weeks ago there were nearly 400 35mm nitrate features in stock at the rear of the theatre. If this stock had gone up, possibly half of Noumea would have gone with it.

The theatre was next door to the Gendarmerie headquarters the gendarmes being quite unaware of the powder keg on which they were sitting.

It is probable that the authorities here will now look closely into cinema safety measures. —Noumea Correspondent.