Most Melbourne people may have seen mad horse sex shops on Elizabeth Street.
Its flashing neon lights and suggestive posters are hard to miss.
This kind of place may be closed overnight and most people won\'t even notice it and they won\'t care if they notice it.
However, few realize that under the steps of the basement of Curlow House is the longest, running cinema in the CBD.
But as its audience increasingly turned to the Internet, fans in Melbourne were terrified of the theater that opened in the 1950 s, even before more people knew it existed and had a long history, may be forced to close.
Film historian
Film operator David Kilderry is one of a group of people fighting for the survival of the movie.
He dreamed of seeing the film restore its former glory.
\"In fact, it has survived for so long --
\"It would be a huge tragedy if it could not survive into the future,\" he said . \".
For those who are not active, along the steps, there is a small shop that sells all the normal items you may expect;
Sex toys, a lot.
There were several booths where the audience watched the live dance.
It sounds bad, it does.
If you don\'t like this kind of thing, it\'s enough to make your skin crawl.
But right behind the counter, through the burly man, there was a black curtain.
Behind the curtain is the crowd of Elizabeth Street, a small theater. The 50-
Today, the strange seating cinema with a small, almost square screen is showing porn, but before it turns into a basement sex theater, mad horse is a movie called star.
It opened as an independent cinema in early 1950 and since then it has been shown from news, children\'s cartoons and VFL (
Football League Victoria
Replay for the bizarre Mondo movie
The Star Theater has a history of survival in the face of difficulties.
When it opened, there were a lot of other news films in operation, and as a result the star had a hard time reaching out to Australia\'s main content.
Instead, the film shows international news, and even risks shooting its own shots.
According to Mr Kilderry, the star\'s first reputation was its coverage of VFL.
He said the operators will travel to the MCG and film competitions that will later be broadcast in the theater.
\"They will go out and shoot some 16-
\"This mm-level film adds some rough titles and comments and is released within a week of the game\'s end,\" he said . \".
Some of the footage was discovered and preserved by the National Archives of Film and Sound.
It wasn\'t long before technology caught up with the star, which faced its first test of viability.
The emergence of television shocked the news industry;
Many theaters have gone bankrupt, and other theaters, such as Star, have also been adapted.
The film began to develop in the direction of long films.
But as a relatively small independent cinema, it had to \"pick from the crumbs\" from the film at the time \".
\"So they started rolling out some development products,\" says Mr Kilderry . \".
At the age of 60, most of the industry was regulated by Hays regulations --
A set of rules governing the film industry.
No profanity, drugs, especially nudity. nos.
But many filmmakers and even theaters are trying to break these boundaries.
Mr. Kilderry said that in the 1960 s there were few places to explore the gray areas of the film more than the star.
A little popular-
Mondo film is a famous genre of this era.
Mondo\'s films were teased in newspaper advertisements, \"seeing pagans rituals, seeing diners, and seeing locals topless. . .
\"Said Mr. Kilderry.
\"Local nudity is allowed, whether you believe it or not.
But if there\'s a UKSaxon-
Looks like a blonde girl, she\'s covered up.
\"This is the type of movie that the star really pushed for in 1960s. . .
It was a very popular show at that time. \"When the R-
In 1970, Australia launched a film grading certificate, and the movie porn scene in Melbourne began.
The star became Australia\'s first sex film, and other films were quickly attracted.
According to drama historian Dean Bradham, almost every theater in Melbourne is showing pornographic films.
\"These cinemas in Melbourne are starting to show R-
\"Most of the content is sexual,\" he said . \".
\"Hoyts, for example, has played a role for nearly a year in Australia\'s sexual comedy Alvin Purple.
\"For some time in 1974, the Forum film showed a large number of films with sexual content.
\"Country and United cinema are also using melburnian\'s interest in vivid content,\" Bradham said . \" According to Bradham, these films are very popular and attract mainstream audiences.
The whole era is considered a fashionable erotic art.
\"This is an era in which porn is popular,\" he said . \"
\"There is not much concern about this, it is just a natural thing.
\"In Melbourne, the renovated storefront cinema began to appear in the medium term. 1970s.
But the film industry is once again hit by another emerging technology, VCR.
\"Once people can watch this type of show in their own homes, why would they be caught by Mrs. Brown\'s chance to see them coming out of these theaters from the street?
Mr. Kilderry said.
But as usual, the star survived.
It took over in the middle.
The post-80 s is run by a company called HGC, which is run by the controversial and mysterious Australian Club X sex store King Hill brothers.
A short walk and two poles in front of the stage have been added to the cinema, and its transition to Crazy Horses has been completed.
\"When a new movie comes out, it\'s not uncommon for customers waiting in line,\" HGC spokesman David Ross said . \".
But the days of long queues have passed for a long time.
People who watch porn have basically moved to the Internet.
Mad Horse limped into the modern era of the film, surviving the mix of Buck\'s performance and older generation of customers.
The cinema won\'t make any money, but the sex store has added peeps and sales to make it operational.
Ken Hill, the owner, is a major film enthusiast who is understood to be eager to see the film preserved.
But as operating costs rise, the future of the film is a cloud.
\"We will keep it as long as we can, and we still have a lease for five years. . .
But hopefully we can move on if the rent really doesn\'t go up, \"said HGC spokesman David Ross.
Bradham is not very optimistic about the future of the film.
He predicted that the mad horse could only survive for a few years in its current state.
Mr. Kilderry agreed.
\"I would say the media --
\"The future of the theater does not look bright,\" he said . \".
The two are part of the Melbourne Film Lovers Group, who are trying to raise awareness of star history to ensure Star survival.
Mr. Kilderry wants the star to be registered with the National Trust Fund and listed on the Victorian Heritage list.
He dreamed of seeing the venue restore its former glory.
\"In the hearts of many people, stars always have a special place.
If it\'s gone, it\'s just a $2 discount [shop]—
\"There are millions,\" said Mr. Kilderry.
Theme: History, Community-and-
society, arts-and-
Entertainment, movies