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The Waltons Department store chain (no K-Mart opened one of their very early
relation to Walton Films of the UK) were the Australian stores in Campbellfield, Victoria.
department store that went into Super 8 film The store was large, and just across from the
more than any other. They sold films from racks of rifles and shotguns, they had several
Columbia, IE International and others. They racks of Super 8 films. I bought many 50ft
had large dedicated sections in their city stores silent Three Stooges and Flintstones Super 8
and smaller Super 8 sections in their suburban films from K-Mart initially, and plenty of
and country stores. They had daylight viewing other Super 8 films and accessories from them
screens set up where they would run the latest over the years. They were perhaps best known
release Super 8 films to entice customers. for their Focal brand of photographic products
and Super 8 accessories, although they sold
Waltons also sold Super 8 projectors from Hanimex and other brands too. The Focal
Titan (rebranded Yamawa/Yelco from Japan), multi-packs of reels were very popular as they
Super 8 cameras from Titan and Cosina, were significantly cheaper than Tuscan and
screens, reels and a host of other accessories. other brands that sold alongside them. They
They produced a catalogue of films that were also sold their own brand of Focal Super 8
available for sale and also had a super 8 film camera film, which I believe was produced
hire section. and processed by Agfa in Nunawading, an
Eastern Melbourne suburb.
After the Waltons department stores closed,
their large Melbourne city store was converted
into the Village City Centre four screen
Cinema complex in 1986. I found myself
screening 35mm and 70mm films as a
projectionist in the very same building that
just a few years before I had been browsing
through Super 8 films.

Myer department stores carried a wide range
of Super 8 projectors, cameras, and many
films from several distributors. They came in
late to Super 8, but devoted a large section of
their Melbourne city store to Super 8. Almost A block away from our house was the local
as soon as the large dedicated Super 8 area in pharmacy. During the 1970s it took over the
Myer appeared, it vanished. vacant shop front next door. In addition to an
expanded range of typical pharmacy products,
they also started selling records, Viewmasters
and Super 8 projectors, cameras and films.
The films were priced higher than the
department stores and camera shops, but they
offered a full rack of digests and cartoons. I
was about to purchase ‘Mickey Mouse: The
First 50 Years’, a 400ft digest of cartoons put
out by Disney, but noticed the pharmacy was
selling it for $66.00, whereas in other stores it
was priced at $59.00. At this time across most
Super 8 outlets, colour and sound 200ft shorts
and cartoons sold for $29.00 while the 50ft B
& W silent shorts sold at department stores for
only $2.95.

10 REEL DEALS March 2025