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The first movie shown in Australia was on Thomas Edison's Vistascope at the Atheneaum Hall, Melbourne, Victoria in October 1896. The same equipment was used a month later to film the Melbourne Cup. Said to be the world's first feature-length film, the Tait Brothers' The Story of the Kelly Gang premiered at the
Athenaeum in 1906.
Silent movies were enormously popular and by 1911 Sydney had over 100 permanent and temporary picture shows. As many as 65,000 people in Melbourne in 1913 went to the movies every Saturday night. One of the earliest was the 1906 movie The History of the Kelly Gang.
Talking movies came to Australia for the first time on 2 February 1929 with the debut of The Jazz Singer at the Athenaeum. The "talkie" was so popular, it had a year-long season at the Athenaeum.
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