Photos > Diaspora Social Life

submitted by Irina Dunn on 07.04.2006

Unveiling of Kytherian founders - photographs.

Peter Prineas, grandson of Peter
Feros of Peters & Co., the firm that built the Bingara Roxy, unveils a plaque and photo display dedicated to the founders. Roxy Theatre, Bingara, 70th anniversary celebrations, Saturday April 1, 2006.

Gwydir Shire Council Mayor, Cr. Mark Coulton, is standing to his right.

The unveiling coincided with the launch of the book, Katsehamos and the Great Idea.

More photographs, pp.107-114, in Katsehamos and the Great Idea.

Photo's left to right, then proceeding clockwise:

Left: Peter Feros Katsehamos (left) and George Psaltis Katsavias. Bingara, 1920's.

Top: Roxy Theatre interior, Bingara, 1936, view to back.

Right: Emmanuel Theodropoulos Aronis (Emanuel Aroney), Bingara, 1920's.

Bottom: The Roxy Theatre with unfinished facade, and Peters and Co.'s cafe and shops. Bingara, April 1936.

PLAQUE

THE FOUNDERS OF BINGARA’S ROXY THEATRE

Bingara’s Roxy Theatre was founded by
Peter Feros, George Psaltis and Emanuel Aroney.
The three men came to Australia from the Greek Island of Kythera in the early 1920s and formed the cafe partnership of Peters & Co, Bingara.
The Roxy Theatre opened on Saturday March 28, 1936 to a packed house.
Mr George Psaltis addressed the crowd on behalf of Peters & Co. and
“expressed his appreciation of the support of the people of Bingara and district, whose friendship and encouragement had given them the inspiration to carry on in the face of all the obstacles that had beset them. They were but the servants of the people and they were out to give them the utmost value for money, both in entertainment and service.”

Mr GEORGE COSMAS PROTOPSALTIS, now in his nineties, gave a speech at the unveiling, about the qualities of the founders, and their hard work ethic. George came to Australia at the age of 14 in 1928.

George Cosmas Protospsaltis leaving Kythera as a youth

He worked in cafes in Armidale, and other country towns. He was a partner at the Golden Bell Cafe in Barraba in the late 1930s, a business which was previously owned by Peters & Co., the firm which built the Roxy. George was the only person present who knew personally. the three partners of Peters & Co.

See also:

Review(s) of the book

Professor Janis Wiltons' speech, Bingara book launch

Details of the book launch, photograph unveiling, and 70th Anniversary Ball

Flyer_-_Roxy_70th_Anniversary.pdf

Peter Feros's descendants

Descendants and freinds of Roxy Theatre founder, Peter Feros

The book Katsehamos and the Great Ideais available from the publisher,
Plateia Press,
32 Calder Road, Darlington, NSW,
or email here
phone (02) 9319 1513
and also from Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW, 2037 and selected bookshops.

Katsehamos and the Great Idea is also available in the New England and Northwest region of NSW, from the Roxy Theatre, Maitland Street, Bingara.
Phone: 02 67240003
or email here

For further information
Phone: Sydney, (02) 9319 1513
Mobile: 0429 322 857

1 Comment

submitted by
Jim Comino
on 28.04.2006

My fathers' name was Theodore Minas Comino Palavras, and my mother was Hazel Irene Comino, (nee)Donnelly, from Ireland. They were married at Bellingen NSW. Re: the Roxy Theatre in Bingara. I was born in Bingara in 1940, when Dad left Wee Waa - Comino Bros, he went to Bellingen and run the picture theatre there for 4 years and was credited with showing the first Cinesound films in NSW there according to a historian, [probably Kevin Cork], who recently made contact with my brother, Michael, in Merriwa. He went to Moree into a cafe from there, and due to the depression left Moree, eventually settling in Bingara. He worked at the Roxy, on and off. He was part of the history of that Theatre.