Empire Theatre, Sydney

Around 1940 it had a dual role and by 1950 it was hosting various kinds of stage shows, increasingly musicals, and was finally destroyed by fire in the early 1960s.

The theatre was designed by Kaberry and Chard,[1][2] and built by R. P. Blundell as a music hall for a syndicate led by leading bookmaker Rafe Naylor.

[4] By this time stage musicals as public entertainment had been largely usurped by "talkies" and the theatre was reconfigured as a talking picture house around June 1929.

[6] During World War II, the Empire again hosted live performances, mounted by the A.I.F.

From 1950 the Empire was used by "The Firm" of J. C. Williamson's for minor attractions: "The Great Franquin" (a stage hypnotist),[9] a season of Gilbert and Sullivan favorites,[10] — and ballet performances, hosting a three-week season of the National Ballet Company of Melbourne, which included the world premiere of Corroboree, with its composer John Antill conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.