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purchased a Bi-Unial Magic Lantern for
showing the photographic advertising slides
he was making. This double decker Magic
Lantern used two ‘limelight’ burners to
illuminate a large screen. He planned to
present his slide shows in the streets of
Ballarat on Saturday nights. Just as Joe was
preparing to take the Lantern out for a display.
Major Frank Barritt arrived from the Army's
Melbourne headquarters The Major was very
impressed with Joe’s enterprise and told him
to come to Melbourne as soon as possible and
“bring your Lantern with you”.

Joe's enterprise was immediately put to work
advertising the forthcoming tour of General
William Booth and his ‘Darkest England
Scheme’, a plan to reduce poverty in England
by re-establishing unemployed Britons in
Australia.

Following the great success of the advertising Above: The old Salvation Army's Headquarters at 69
campaign, Joe Perry was asked to prepare a Bourke St, Melbourne where the Limelight
Department was established in the attic in 1894 and
slide programme showing the squalor and
where Australia's first Film Studio was built — The
distress that existed in the slums of England
building is still an historic landmark.
and the Army’s work in supporting the
victims. The 50 slide presentation, In Darkest
England, toured the eastern states of Australia
illustrating Booth’s scheme and making a
healthy profit from admission charges.
In 1891 the enthusiasm of Commissioner
Thomas Coomes and Major Barritt resulted in
the establishment of “The Limelight
Department” as a permanent unit, with Barritt
in charge and Joe Perry as Equipment Operator. Above: Perry’s Studio seen at the rear of the build-
ing. The southern roof wall was originally a huge
The presentation of visual narratives had now glass skylight to admit sufficient daylight to expose
reached a high level of sophistication with the slow motion picture film. Photo by Chris Long.
mechanical attachments on the lantern
providing a wide range of optical effects.
Right: The “Colouring
Wipes, fades, dissolves, and super-imposures Studio” sign above the
could be used to dramatically enhance the door of the gutted Attic
presentations, a forerunner of similar effects Studio is a reminder of
later used in motion picture production. the Salvation Army
Lasses who hand
Joe also used the lantern to show moving coloured the masses of
glass slides and
chromotropes and leaver slides which
sometimes the motion
provided a colourful animated introduction to
picture film that flowed
entertain children and adults prior to the more through the Limelight
Department.
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