The Magic of Melbourne
Jan. 11th, 2009 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharplittleteethJel and I went to the Hocus Pocus exhibition at the City Museum this afternoon.
It traces the history of stage magic in Melbourne, from the first performances in the gold fields onwards. There are lots of advertising posters, potted biographies of the magicians, and various props.
The posters were wonderful, but it's quite a small exhibition - just two little rooms. Not a patch on ACMI's Eyes, Lies and Illusions exhibition from a few years ago.
Still, it was only $5. And that included entry to the rest of the ground floor of the museum.
Where we saw a great documentary about Melbourne's old cable tram system.
It ran from 1885 to 1940. The trams were powered by clamping on to a moving cable that ran beneath the streets. The cable was powered by giant steam engines in the various powerhouses around the city, like the one on the corner of Nicholson and Gertrude street (photos at http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccoznz.html).
The documentary had lots of 1930's footage of the trams and the powerhouses in action. It took some wonderfully and absurdly elaborate engineering to make it all work. Very, very steampunk. Not to mention dangerous to maintain, as the documentary narrator explained in a jolly voice.
From the 1920s, the cable tram system was slowly replaced with electric trams. The last cable tram ran on October 26, 1940.
The weird thing?
No one told the public. Patrons caught the tram in to the theatre that evening. But when they came out, the trams had been replaced with double-decker buses.
It traces the history of stage magic in Melbourne, from the first performances in the gold fields onwards. There are lots of advertising posters, potted biographies of the magicians, and various props.
The posters were wonderful, but it's quite a small exhibition - just two little rooms. Not a patch on ACMI's Eyes, Lies and Illusions exhibition from a few years ago.
Still, it was only $5. And that included entry to the rest of the ground floor of the museum.
Where we saw a great documentary about Melbourne's old cable tram system.
It ran from 1885 to 1940. The trams were powered by clamping on to a moving cable that ran beneath the streets. The cable was powered by giant steam engines in the various powerhouses around the city, like the one on the corner of Nicholson and Gertrude street (photos at http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccoznz.html).
The documentary had lots of 1930's footage of the trams and the powerhouses in action. It took some wonderfully and absurdly elaborate engineering to make it all work. Very, very steampunk. Not to mention dangerous to maintain, as the documentary narrator explained in a jolly voice.
From the 1920s, the cable tram system was slowly replaced with electric trams. The last cable tram ran on October 26, 1940.
The weird thing?
No one told the public. Patrons caught the tram in to the theatre that evening. But when they came out, the trams had been replaced with double-decker buses.
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Date: 2009-01-11 11:35 pm (UTC)