IT was lights, camera and action for the Ideal Cinema in Graves Street Kadina when then-mayor Leslie Shepley declared it officially open on July 20, 1921.
One hundred years on, the now-Ascot Theatre remains an important building in the community, housing the Ascot Gallery and Statewide Cinema as well as various local events.
Using locally acquired limestone, builder Russell Hawke constructed the theatre at a cost of 18,000 pounds ($36,000), the money raised by local investors.
The Kadina and Wallaroo Times reported all 1050 seats in the cinema had been pre-booked for the opening night.
Admission was about 10 cents.
Considerable pride was expressed regarding the "advanced" lighting arrangement which allowed the operator to gradually fade out the house lights, and also the fact the 14 ventilators made the hall the "coolest and healthiest in the state", the Times reported.
The two projectors were also of great interest, eliminating the delay previously caused by projectionists changing reels.
The cinema was operated by the Peninsula Entertainment Co Ltd, in which Messrs Owen, T. Rodda and Art W. Ayles figured predominantly, the latter being appointed as the first manager of the cinema.
In 1956, the building was sold to United Insurance Co and continued to display films, but as drive-in cinemas become increasingly popular attendance declined and the Ideal cinema was closed on January 18, 1966.
Later that year John Harvey from the Orana Theatre, Maitland, purchased the Ideal and made extensive changes such as installing a new curved screen.
Mr Harvey reopened the renamed Ascot Theatre on October 11, 1967.
The theatre continued to operate for another nine years, but was closed again in 1976.
It then became the Cultural Centre in the 1980s before reverting back to the Ascot.