[1] For over fifty years before the coming of local television in 1964, cinema, as in other country towns, cities and suburbs, would provide not only entertainment but tacit cultural learning in behaviour, design, fashion, and current events.

The Laurantus' had to work hard, but fortunately, after an initial poor quality, sound films rapidly improved and even with the Depression attendances quickly rose.

[1] In one of the regular police reports to T&PH; (11/2/38) on maintenance of the theatre, it was noted that movies were shown six days a week except for about seven times a year when dances or concerts were held (on single nights).

Blanche Heffernan remembered that every church had a ball, the ambulance would present plays, Sorley's touring variety show would perform at the theatre, as too would McKays'.

At Junee, Allan McEwan, Dal Eisenhauer and Blanche Heffernan remember how a few early exiting patrons would get into the small milk-bar in the shop next to the theatre lobby, but the great rush was across the two roadways and the garden strip to the Allies Cafe in the Broadway Stores building to get a milkshake, cordial drink, ice cream, a bar of chocolate or packet of Minties (no popcorn or coffees).

Sensibly, the same Greek proprietor, from about 1935 Peter John Prineas of the island of Kythera assisted by his wife Nancy (nee MacDonald), ran both milk-bars, thus maximising his business.

[15] On 29 December 1958 the Fire Brigade, in one of its regular reports, noticed the proscenium opening being enlarged to permit a wider screen, Theatres and Public Halls wrote back to Mr Albert Thomas Manion, as licence-holder, pointing out that work could not proceed without approval.

[16][1] Earlier in 1958 the Registrar General's Land Titles Office showed a transfer to the Broadway Theatre (Junee) Pty Ltd (with a mortgage to the Commercial Bank of Australia) on 30 May.

[1] These immigrants frequently went to country towns to set themselves up in a small catering type of business - food shops or cafes that prepared Australian-style meals.

[1] Greek immigrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries mainly came from islands, (particularly Kythera), coastal towns and inland villages with what is described as a peasant background, often with little, if any, formal education.

A float that completely covered a small truck drove around town advertising Motion Picture Art in the Musical Gem, City of Song with Betty Stockfield.

There was the Pavilion at Shepherds Bush, London, in 1923 it winning an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) with large expanses of plain brick walling beneath its classical cornice.

(They are seen on grillework as painted on walls depicting theatres in Rome and Pompeii, and used by Richard C Beacham in his replicas of early Roman stages at Warwick University).

It was only after the Great Depression when a new style of decorative architecture later known as Art Deco took hold, that the whole truss, including the tension or tie rods, were covered beneath by generally, plaster ceilings.

[1] The other rather clever solution to the economic confines, presented by suburban and country cinema designs, was to visually express the subsidiary beams that tied the trusses together, and the system of panelling required for the lining material.

[1] The two shops at the side of the theatre entry have been converted into a store for chairs, mainly, and a kitchen / refreshment bar that opens into the back stalls area.

What has been confusing to observers of the interior are two elements of Art Deco style, and embellishments to the panels on the balustrade-front of the dress circle, and on the false side-of-stage walls.

In the late thirties he wanted to remain at the theatre but the elder brother, to put it in his son's word, forced George to leave and work on Nicholas' property outside of Narrandera.

[1] The former heritage adviser for Junee Shire Council, David Scobie, believes the present colouring of the false splayed walls and dress circle front was done at the time of the making of the film The Crossing (1990).

[1] Due to its now rarity, as a building-type, the Athenium Theatre symbolises, for the State, an association with past events, persons and groups who contributed or participated in an important and cultural phenomenon of the 20th century, namely "movie going".

[1] The building is highly representative as a good example of the design-work of theatre architects, Kaberry and Chard it being one of only three remaining relatively intact out of a large body of work across the State.

[1] The building has as association with Greek immigrant business and benefactor, Sir Nicholas Laurantus, and through its rarity, symbolises his interests in cinema operation in the Riverina region.

[1] Of the 116 movie theatres operated by Greek immigrants in NSW, this one unusually possesses added decoration (presumably by George Laurantus, brother of Nicholas) in the form of a trellis and vine leaf motif.

This exhibits significance in aesthetic terms in relation to the importance of the Greek contribution to developing cinema operation in NSW[1] Athenium Theatre was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 9 January 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.

The theatre generally exhibits the early 20th century efforts of Greek immigrants (with George Laurantus) to integrate into and supply entertainment facilities for the Anglo-Celtic population.

[1] The layering of the vine and trellis decoration uniquely exhibits the influence of the management of a Greek immigrant, providing a flavour of the "peasant" population of the island of Kythera that existed at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century.

From entertainment tax receipts, cinema attendance was greater than all other paid-for activities - sport, racing, concerts, dancing, live theatre etc., combined.

[1] Collectively in Junee, the pubs (and former hotels), the three quarter century old shops and the Broadway Stores, the theatre, the railway station, the banks, the post office, the engine roundhouse, the former printery, the mansion on the hill (Monte Christo), the former flour mill, all provide a social history of a town that is unique in New South Wales.

For this assessment a table of all country theatres in NSW was revised to omit areas now incorporated into Sydney or Newcastle where comparison of Census data becomes impossible.

With its wide frontage and substantial, imposing, but modest facade, the Junee theatre is a superior building to most constructed at the time in towns of up to four thousand people, and which, in 2003, have either been altered for other uses or demolished.