Roscoe "Roc" Kirby (14 March 191825 January 2008) was an Australian businessman who founded the

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow Limited is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...

cinema chain and film production company.

Biography

Roc Kirby was born in

Leongatha Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. At the , Leongatha had a population of 5,869. Canadian dairy company Saputo which trades in Australia ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 1918. He entered the cinema business at the bottom end, selling ice creams and sweeping floors at his father's cinemas on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

, then graduating to managing the small chain of Kirby Cinemas. In 1954, Kirby took the financially risky step of constructing a

drive-in theatre A drive-in theater or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers ...

called "The Village Drive-in" at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, and soon afterwards the company owned around 40 drive-in theatres. With cinema attendances dropping due to the introduction of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, Village made a move into the metropolitan "hard-top" cinemas, and then into twin cinemas and

multiplexes In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

. In 1989, Village Roadshow went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

, making an aggressive move into other markets, such as film production,

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

s and radio.Boland, Michaela
Village Roadshow's Roc Kirby dies
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', 31 January 2008. After the public float, the Kirby family remained the majority shareholders, owning 51.5% of the shares in Village Roadshow. Roc Kirby retired as CEO in 1988, leaving the running of Village Roadshow to his sons, Robert and John, as chairman and deputy chairman, and "surrogate son", Graham Burke, as managing director. At his death Village Roadshow comprised "a production division, an extensive cinema exhibition business, three theme parks on the Gold Coast and a stake in the listed radio company Austereo". Kirby died at the age of 89 on 25 January 2008, after suffering an illness.

Impact

John Cain II John Cain (26 April 1931 – 23 December 2019) was an Australian politician who was the 41st Premier of Victoria, in office from 1982 to 1990 as leader of the Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch), Labor Party. During his time as premier, ...

, a former Victorian Premier, interviewed Kirby for his book on Australian entertainment pioneers, ''On with the Show''. Kirby is credited in the book for being "one of the few people to judge correctly that TV would not kill cinema, 'and refused to scuttle out of it when his contemporaries were deserting it in droves'".Kalina, Paul (2008) "He had no fear of television: the Roadshow went on: Roc Kirby (1918-2008)", ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', 2008-02-23 He has also been described as "probably Australia's most visionary cinema or entertainment company entrepreneur". Kirby also supported the local film industry and was a partner of

Tim Burstall Timothy Burstall AM (20 April 1927 – 19 April 2004) was an English Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for hit Australian movie ''Alvin Purple'' (1973) and its sequel ''Alvin Rides Again''. Burstall's films featured ea ...

in Hexagon Productions, which made some of the early films of the Australian film renaissance such as ''

Alvin Purple ''Alvin Purple'' is a 1973 Australian sex comedy film starring Graeme Blundell in the title role; the screenplay was written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall, through his production company Hexagon Productions and Village Roadshow ...

'' and ''

Petersen Petersen is a common Danish patronymic surname, meaning ''"son of Peter"''. There are other spellings. Petersen may refer to: People In arts and entertainment * Adolf Dahm-Petersen, Norwegian voice specialist * Anja Petersen, German operatic ...

''.

Honours

Kirby was appointed as a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for service to the entertainment industry in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1993.KIRBY, Roc
''It's an Honour'' (Australian Government).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Roc 1918 births 2008 deaths Australian film studio executives Members of the Order of Australia People from Leongatha