AustLit

Built and opened in 1913 by variety entertainment entrepreneur Harry Clay, the Bridge Theatre is possibly the only purpose-built vaudeville house still in existence in Australia today. Operated by Clay's Bridge Theatre Company, the 1500 seat venue was open six nights a week and catered to the densely populated inner city suburban districts of Newtown, Enmore, Glebe, Erskinville, Camperdown, Stanmore, Redfern, Annandale, Alexandria, St Peters and Darlington.

Among the best known of several thousand performers to appear at the Bridge Theatre under Harry Clay's management were Roy 'Mo' Rene, George Stevenson Wallace, George Sorlie, Amy Rochelle, Bert Le Blanc, Ted Tutty (a particular Newtown favourite), Arthur Tauchert, Vaude and Verne, Nellie Kolle, Charles Norman, Arthur Morley, Art Slavin and Leonard Nelson.

Following Clay's death in 1925 the theatre was run by several of his leading managers through until 1929, at which time it was leased out. From 1934 onwards it has been known as The Hub, and under this name was used almost exclusively as a cinema between 1939 and its closure in the late 1990s. Clay's company eventually sold the theatre to the Louis family (Louis Film Company) in 1966.

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]