CAARP
Cinema and Audience Research Project

Yeomans, Ernest Charles (“Son”), (1883-1955)
"Ernest Charles Yeomans was always known as “Son” and it is quite probable that few who knew him ever even knew his first name! Yeomans was born in Northcote and had a long association with the area and with several of its more treasured institutions.

In 1921 Yeomans was running his own real estate business in High St, Northcote, which wasn’t particularly successful. A group of business friends built and opened the Westgarth Theatre and installed Yeomans as its manager and secretary. From that moment on, Yeomans remained linked to the movie business, subsequently leasing the Grand Theatre in Footscray in 1935, and then building the Sun Theatre in Yarraville. The Yeomans family were also involved in theatres such as the Broadway Elwood and the Camden Caulified. One or both of Ernest and his brother Fred Yeomans became an owner or lessee of these theatres prior to WW2. Ernest himself managed the Grand while secretary remaining as the secretary at the Westgarth post the depression.

Ernest's son Bill later became the manger of the Sun and the Grand.

Fred Yeoman's son Peter acquired the Plaza Theatre.

In 1924 Yeomans was appointed Secretary to the Melbourne Cinema Alliance. Mr George Griffiths, the managing director of Hoyts Propietary LTD, was President.

In 1939 Yeomans was elected President of the Victorian Independent Exhibitors Association

Yeomans died in October of 1955 in Footscray Hospital after a long battle with illness." (Darebin Historical Encyclopedia)

References
Darebin Libraries, Darebin Historical Encyclopedia, viewed 30 March 2010, http://dhe.darebin-libraries.vic.gov.au/encyclopedia.asp?id=645
Hall, C 'The Westgarth Picture Theatre' The Westgarth Theatre: 80th Anniversary Commemoration Magazine 2001