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The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Luis Valdez to appear at El Paso's Plaza Classic Film Festival with 2 film screenings
Legendary writer and director Luis Valdez is the first guest announced for the 2025 Plaza Classic Film Festival. This will be the 18th year for the El Paso Community Foundation's film series, which will run from July 17-27 in and around the Plaza Theatre. Valdez will appear for on-stage interviews before two of his classic movies — 1987's "La Bamba", about Mexican American rocker Ritchie Valens, at 7 p.m. Friday, July 18, and "Zoot Suit" (1981), considered the first major Chicano feature film, at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 19. Both events will take place at the Plaza Theatre. Tickets for each program will be $10 and will go on sale with the rest of the Plaza Classic Film Festival schedule, starting Tuesday, June 10, at the Plaza Theatre box office (no service fees) and (with service fees). Valdez is one of the most important American playwrights and filmmakers living today. He has been successful in theater, television and film. He wrote "Zoot Suit," which explored Los Angeles' racially motivated Sleepy Lagoon murder trial of 1942 and 'Zoot Suit Riots' of 1943, debuted in Los Angeles in 1978 and became the first Chicano play on Broadway a year later. La Bamba was written for the screen and starred Lou Diamond Phillips. Both films are preserved in the National Film Registry. Valdez founded the Obie Award-winning theater company El Teatro Campesino in 1965 in California's Central Valley, joining César Chávez in his United Farm Workers' rights movement. It is the longest-running Chicano theater in the United States, according to a news release. The prolific 84-year-old debuted his latest play, "Adiós Mamá Carlota," on May 10 at El Teatro Campesino Playhouse. Valdez's honors include the Presidential Medal of Arts, Mexico's Aguila Azteca Award, and the Peabody Award for his 1987 PBS documentary, Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution. The 18th Annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will take place from July 17 to 27. This year's Plaza Classic Film Festival will feature 100 movies over 11 days, including "Cabaret," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "The Godfather Part II", "Notting Hill", "Saving Private Ryan", "Toy Story", "Schindler's List", "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back", and many more. Festival passes are on sale for $200 now and include access to almost all ticketed festival movies, reservations for Philanthropy Theatre movies, special events, and discounts at nearby eateries. Festival tickets go on sale June 10 at the Plaza Theatre box office and Ticketmaster. More: Free summer concert series in El Paso: Your guide to outdoor music María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@ @ on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'La Bamba' director Luis Valdez joins Plaza Classic Film fest lineup
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Palm Springs to pay downtown restaurant $500,000 to settle dispute over Plaza Theatre
The city of Palm Springs and a restaurant with a patio next to the entrance of the Plaza Theatre have agreed to settle a dispute that threatened to delay the renovated venue's opening. Kalura Trattoria, an Italian restaurant with an outdoor patio on a walkway leading into the theatre, will receive $500,000 from the city "for loss of goodwill" resulting from the necessary relocation of the patio. The city will also provide a new patio to the restaurant at the front of the property. 'I am very pleased the City has reached an agreement with Kalura and have long been confident that we would find a positive solution," J.R. Roberts, president of the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation, said in a news release. "It has always been our goal that the theatre will continue to have a positive impact on the community and businesses that surround it." In November, the city revealed that the entrance to the Plaza Theatre did not contain enough space to comply with California law. The state building code requires the theatre to have 20 feet of space for entering and exiting in case of fire or another emergency like an earthquake. At the time, the city only had a 10-foot easement into the property. The patio for the Kalura Trattoria stood within the additional 10 feet required by the state. The city then took steps to proceed with eminent domain, a legal process by which private property owners are forced to sell land to the government for public benefit. The owners of Kalura, Ignazio Battaglia and Joseph Amodeo, had previously said moving the patio would harm their business. But on Thursday, they commended the city for the agreement they had reached. 'The new patio area, made possible through this agreement, will provide customers with a beautiful andinviting space to enjoy Kalura Trattoria's signature Italian cuisine," the owners said in a joint statement. "Furthermore, we are delighted to see the renovated Plaza Theatre take shape. This iconic landmark will undoubtedly become a vibrant hub of cultural and artistic activity, and we are honored to be a part of the downtown Palm Springs community.' The new patio will have seating for 60 people, a slight reduction from the capacity of 70 at the current patio. The city will also improve the courtyard area in front of the Plaza Theatre. Kalura will not be charged by the city to use the area in front of the restaurant. 'The City of Palm Springs is incredibly excited to add yet another cultural venue that will create more jobs and economic growth in our downtown while bringing our community an array of new and exciting entertainment programs,' Mayor Ron deHarte said in the statement. 'Our City continues to be a leader in promoting arts and culture in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. A big thank you to City Staff, the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation, and our community stakeholders for working together to find the best possible solution for all concerned." The Plaza Theatre first opened in 1936 and has been vacant since 2014, after the closure of the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies. A $26.3 million restoration is underway for a planned revival of the theatre, which will be operated by the Plaza Theatre Foundation. Oak View Group, the company behind Acrisure Arena, will be responsible for booking shows. The company plans to offer tickets at discounted prices subsidized by the foundation. A grand opening is planned for December of this year. Sam Morgen covers the city of Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@ This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs pays restaurant $500,000 to settle Plaza Theatre dispute
