Relive the glory years of the Perth Entertainment Centre

Strolling through the city, it’s easy for us older (read: millennial) folks to get nostalgic…

“There used to be a bus station over there!” we’d cry. “And the city had hundreds of movie theatres… And a big arena, that all the most famous acts would come to!”

“Sure, grandma… Let’s get you to bed,” our Gen Z colleagues reply, pity in their eyes.

Well, we’re here to make sure some icons are remembered – including landmarks like the long-gone Perth Entertainment Centre.

We were also inspired by this great video by local Perth historian Brendan’s Odyssey, who discovered remnants of the centre and did his own deep dive:

To look back, we’ve delved yet again into the wonderful, fantastic, very excellent State Library of Western Australia Facebook page… And boy, have we found some corkers!

Officially opening in 1974, the arena was the brainchild of theatrical entrepreneur Michael Edgley and the then-General Manager of TVW (Channel 7), Brian Treasure – and upon opening, it was originally called the Channel 7 Edgley Entertainment Centre.

We’ve always thought it seemed a bit like a spaceship that’s floated down to Wellington Street – the space age design is thanks to architectural firm Hobbs, Winning and Leighton – but the process of getting the arena built wasn’t as quick as a flying saucer landing on the street. Industrial action that coincided with the construction period meant that the timeline and original $5 million budget blew out to a final cost of $8.3 million.

Thankfully, the Channel 7 Edgley Entertainment Centre finally did open its doors at the end of 1974, with a host of events including a rather glamorous gymnastics event on December 3, pictured below. When it opened, its 8003 seats made it the largest purpose-built theatre in the world – it was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records!

(Following the budget blowout, about a year after opening the WA Government would take ownership of the arena, renaming it the Perth Entertainment Centre.)

Of course, dinner and a show is a time-honoured tradition – and why not stop into the Stage Door Tavern for an elegant bite?

Other fun events in its early years included a sold out Wings concert in 1975, the 1979 Disney on Parade, and the 1980 World Professional Ballroom Dancing Championships… Perhaps most famously, though, the Entertainment Centre hosted the 1979 Miss Universe pageant.

Following the crowning of Miss Venezuela Maritza Sayalero, the stage collapsed from the sudden rush of journalists and photographers clamouring to get a photo of the winner. Shortly after the public broadcast ended, a total of 25 people crashed through a three metre by two metre hole in the plywood catwalk, with two contestants taken to hospital.

(Incidentally, the pageant also took place four days after the infamous raining down of Skylab wreckage across WA – so, naturally, a huge piece of the space station’s oxygen tank was displayed on stage alongside the contestants.)

Perhaps less glamorous than the dazzling Miss Universe pageant: the Entertainment Centre also hosted wrestling matches, like this one in 1975:

But how could you argue with the glamour of then-Premier Brian Burke having a yap on a Rococo-style telephone in a (needless to say, too small) Telecom-branded yellow wide-brim hat? That’s showbiz, baby!

This photo was taken at the Petroleum Technology Australia ’85: International Oil Gas Exhibition: a veritable hotspot of glamour, but perhaps no match for the returning glitz of the Computer84 and Computer88 technology conferences!

Not just limited to live performance and corporate conferences, of course the centre was also home to Academy Cinemas, accessible by its own entryway on the western side of the building.

The centre was eventually demolished in 2011 to make way for the Perth City Link, nearly a decade after its last show (Youth Alive WA, which was held in August 2002). While it was replaced by the Perth Arena, we look back wistfully on the good old, sequinned days gone by…

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Some photos are available to purchase via the State Library of WA. All photos, unless stated, via the State Library of WA.