In September 1910, before there were any indoor picture theatres in Semaphore, the Continental Wondergraph Company bought land on the esplanade, intending to establish a tea garden and open-air cinema.
The seating faced the sea,[3] and several silent films were projected onto a solid concrete "silver wall", a new technology claimed to have been brought to Australia by the European company.
[13] The Picturedrome, which seated 1,000 patrons, was adjacent to the Customs Boarding Station, which still stands today, on the corner of the Esplanade and Semaphore Road.
The magnificently fitted out building was designed by prominent South Australian architect Eric Habershon McMichael[16][17][a] and built by Messrs. Emmett Brothers.
[28] With the beginning of the TV era in 1959, attendances declined, and the cinema eventually closed on 13 November 1976,[22] and the building converted into a furniture shop.
It was reopened as the Odeon Star on 19 December 1991, initially with only circle seating, accommodating 320 patrons, while the stalls area continued as "Hoff's Secondhand Emporium" until 1997.