Your Local: March 2023

Cultural emancipator celebrates 90!

By Alan Lander

FOUR score and ten years ago, a man was brought forth on this continent, dedicated to the proposition that all good movies – even foreign ones - should be able to be seen in Queensland.

His name’s Ron West, who turned 90 on February 3 and celebrated with many friends at Pomona’s Majestic Theatre on February 6, and his determination to challenge the stultifying monoculture of the BjelkePetersen years saw the Sunshine Coast –as it was in 1973 – become a film festival destination for what turned out to be an eager multicultural audience.

Ron, as many will know, still plays the huge Compton organ at the Majestic to accompany the silent movies which still run regularly at the theatre.

“I found this place (the theatre) in 1973,” he said of what was at the time a fairly moribund property.

“I was looking for a venue for a film festival out of Sydney.”

Ron had moved with his wife Mandy to the Coast from that city in 1971.

“I’d been with the Sydney Film Festival and while we shifted here, I still went back down there.

“They were just setting up a travelling film festival to take the six best movies from the previous year’s festival on a tour through Australia, giving more people a chance to see them.

“I was at the inaugural meeting and was asked where they should take them, and I said ‘the Sunshine Coast’.

“They wouldn’t wear it, because of the Bjelke-Petersen government – so the

second year I put [us] up again - and got the same answer.

“That was in January – then in March I got a call about 6am, from (then fellow board member and renowned film critic) David Stratton who said ‘do you still want that festival on the Sunshine Coast?’

“I said yes – but then he told me it would have to be in 10 days’ time, as one of the booked venues (in Orange, NSW) had burned down.”

Ron searched the Coast for a venue and things weren’t looking good – until he heard about the Majestic.

“I drove up one Saturday afternoon in a clapped out Mini – and got the same response as everyone else: ‘no-one comes to see these [films]’.

“I bought him a cask of muscatel and he changed his mind – he had no idea about films and was scared someone would come along and convince him to run foreign films – and he’d be left holding the bills.

“I told him he would be paid anyway,” Ron said - and that sealed the deal.

“So we ran the first film festival in 1973. David Stratton and other board members came up to help divert any flak that might result.

“We averaged 180 people per session over the entire week – and it retained its position in the top three venues in Australia for the travelling film festival, and it ran for 20 years.”

Ron and Mandy bought the Majestic and continued its revival as well as developing its reputation as a mainstream film destination in the process, maintaining its position in the market until 1985 when the twin-screen cinema in Noosa Junction opened.

“By 1988, we were seriously considering closing down,” Ron said.

“Then I got a call from a woman in Coolum who was looking for something nostalgic for a convention and asked if we could run a silent film.

“She brought a coachload of people up. We showed [1926 romance/ adventure silent movie] The Son of the Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino.

“[After that] the phones started ringing as word got around. We took enough bookings for two months.

“We thought the novelty would have worn off after that – but it didn’t happen – it just kept going.”

With Mandy passing on in 2002, Ron sold the Majestic in 2006, which is now held in trust by the not-for-profit Pomona Arts and run by volunteers –including Ron.

He may be a little less nimble on his pins these days, but his mind is as razor-sharp as ever. And he’s planning on sticking around a while.

“It doesn’t surprise me – I’ve traced my family back to 1223. My paternal grandmother lived to age 100.

“They were all very long-lived ... excepting the ones that were executed.”

He’s a classically trained pianist, learning from age five, and still plays the silent movie soundtracks on the Majestic’s complex Compton organ to a continuing flow of audiences on weekends and special tours during the week.

“The first silent movie I played to at the theatre was The Son of The Sheik,” he said.

“I’ve now played that film 4129 times.”