David McGowan's love of cinema is a showreel of magic movie moments

David McGowan's collection of cinematic history feels all encompassing and bursting at the seams.

The 71-year-old collector began his lifetime passion with film at the young age of eight by sweeping the floors of the Triumph Cinema in east Brisbane.

By the age of 16, he had worked for four different theatres and began working for Greater Union, later running the Vogue Theatre in Sydney.

He strayed from the path to build a successful television production career for 30 years, before returning to pursue his cinematic passion at the Plaza Theatre in Laurieton.

His latest acquisition this year is seven semi-trailer loads of Australian film history from collector Phil Maddison in Drillham, Queensland.

"Cinema is my first love. As the technology developed they streamlined it and encased it but the early projectors are raw and visibly mechanical," he said

"Collecting it has been my own journey and when you do something you love, it keeps you young.

"Two-thirds of the collection here are from engineers who I grew up with and knew until their death. Each collection is reformed and passed on through the generations.

"Many people are unaware that when the film distributors sent the prints to Australia they never wanted them back, because the freight cost was so high.

"So they stayed here in theatres and sheds. Ninety-nine per cent were destroyed but there is that one percent out there still.

"I feel obligated to save this history. I might be wrong, I might be right or I might be right off the planet but I feel there is an obligation to keep it working and hand it down to the next generation."

His favourite piece is a Kalee front shutter machine from the 1920s, known in the industry for snatching the fingers off inattentive operators. It is 'the projector of projectionists', according to Mr McGowan.

Mr McGowan has significant pieces of cinematic history such as hand-cranked projectors from the 1920s and an original in-camera reel of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.

"I enjoy history in news reels because they are time capsules to me," he said.

"I also enjoy early Technicolor works from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. But more than the reels it is all about the machinery for me.

"The early projectors were built like a gearbox in a car and there are probably about a dozen of the oldest projectors left in Australia."

Theatres and shopping centre cinemas are facing their greatest challenge, far beyond the introduction of television and 'talkies' (talking movies), according to Mr McGowan.

"The internet is the most powerful medium known to man. It delivers learning, a historical library and is a carrier of entertainment," he said.

"Now the studios and suppliers of film have woken up and realised they can deliver through streaming. Disney, Fox and Paramount are making and streaming their own stuff.

"Our industry is going through a commercial transformation more powerful than I've ever seen and television is being impacted as well.

"I would like to think there will continue to be cinemas, but I'm a realist and at least 80 per cent of cinemas will be gone.

"Outside of my lifetime there possibly won't be any left and they will probably be a bit like a memory of a drive-in theatre."

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