For most of the last century, the residents of Thirroul had King's theatre as a place of entertainment. It was the local movie theatre during the great years of Hollywood movies - and suffered decline as that era morphed into the style of multi-screen cinema complexes.
Demolition seemed on the cards until business man John Comelli bought the old theatre and undertook a complete re-build to create a live theatre which he named to honour his late wife Anita, who died of cancer in 2005.
Anita's theatre was refurbished to a style of charm and elegance reminiscent of some of the world's great theatres - and this cost over six million dollars. Unfortunately the world has fallen on hard times with this recession - and now Mr Comelli must part with this treasure.
The theatre is on the market with an asking price of two and a half million dollars, but a question mark hangs over it's future.
Are we to lose a nine hundred seat live theatre that can also double as a movie house simply because artistic tastes no longer apply ?
Or can lovers of the arts and the various tiers of government find enough money to preserve something that would be great value - far in excess of the asking price considering what has been spent on it's refurbishing ?
Sadly - a dream is fading. The likely outcome is loss of a link to more gracious times.
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