It took Thomas Edison until 20 May 1891 to show the world moving pictures, and us until today to finally share Melville's cinema. Welcome to history week in Melville Untold. Read responsibly... the risk of falling irreversibly in love with this suburb is exceptionally high today.

In this week’s newsletter:

— Aubrey Moloto,

It was named after La Scala in Milan.

That was the official name, The Scala Kinema. Opening around 1929 on 87 Fourth Avenue, part of Isidore Schlesinger's African Consolidated Theatres chain, the cinema that arrived in Melville had a name that was, as one local remembered decades later, "a little pretentiously" borrowed from one of the world's great opera houses.

A certain generation of kids in Melville had their own names for it: The Bug House or, even, The Flea Pit. Names that carried, inside them, an entire world. Saturday matinees, the smell of biltong from the snack counter, children crammed into rows of velvet seats, and a multi-tasking usher who would sprint to pull the thick red curtains open before the projector flickered to life.

Before those nicknames stuck, though, this was a clean, safe, family-friendly cinema. When we sat down with Ms Nel Redelenghys, one of Melville's most trusted historians, to run our article past her, she was clear: "It deserves to also be said: a certain generation may have called it that, but that's not how we remember it. It was a clean, child-friendly place where parents could, with a good conscience, leave their children to enjoy a Saturday afternoon, and they would be safe." The nicknames came way later, possibly as the cinema aged. But it began as something parents were happy to send their children to, and her children loved it.

The Empire Behind the Screen

The Scala wasn't an indie neighbourhood cinema. It was one link in a chain that stretched across South Africa, all of it running through the ambitions of a single man, one Isidore Schlesinger.

Schlesinger built what became African Consolidated Theatres from a failing Empire Theatre purchase in 1913, growing his operation until it controlled national film distribution from the Cape to the Zambezi. His Killarney Film Studios, founded in 1915 as African Film Productions, supplied films to cinemas across the country. The Scala on Fourth Avenue was a suburban outpost in a national empire. By the 1950s, Twentieth Century Fox had bought the whole operation.

In Melville, one family's thread runs straight through the story of South African cinema. A Melville icon, Vincent Pienaar, the author we wrote about in Issue 63, had a mother who worked high up in the Killarney Film operation. We wouldn't be surprised if he spent a lot of time at 87 Fourth Avenue, too.

The Children Remember

What the children remember is this: The Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys. The Men of the Fighting Lady. The Andromeda Strain. Biltong. First dates.

"Had my first date with my late hubby there," wrote one old resident in a Facebook comment thread that ran to over 70 responses.

One ex-resident, whose family we're still hoping will make contact, had a grandfather who owned the cafe on the corner, and a father who owned Scala Market Gardens, the fruit and veg shop right next to the cinema, which later moved across the road to sit next to Fred's Scala Barber. She went to the Scala. Her son went to Fred's. Her two grandsons went to Fred's. Four generations of one family, on one stretch of Fourth Avenue, across nearly a century.

"My dad, myself, my son and 2 grandsons have all had their haircut there," she wrote. "Awesome barber. Fred."

Fred Moss ran Scala Barbershop for 40 years after taking it over as an apprentice. It was named after the cinema directly across the road. Four genuine old barber chairs, actors, TV personalities, residents, former Joburg mayor Clr Koos Roets: "Fred cut everyone's hair." Fred passed on in 2024. His shop is now called Blade Barber, a new barber on the same stretch of pavement.

The name is gone, but the chairs remain.

All Its Forms

The Scala era eventually ended, and the building operated briefly as The Casino before closing as a cinema for good.

Then it became The Mixer: a coffee house, theatre, and performance venue, run by the Van den Berg family. A couple of good nights with live performances, and a community started forming. The building came alive again in a new form. At some point, it became the Kaffiehuis.

And then, Red Pepper TV Productions used the space. The production company, now in Linden, filmed a TV show called The Fat Joe Show there. Don't laugh, but I know this because I was in it. They pulled me out of my grade 5 class and brought me to 87 Fourth Avenue to play Gary Coleman for a segment.

I did not know, at the time, but I was right there in the middle of the Flea Pit.

By 2008, a gym had moved in, according to Marie-Lais Emond in the Melville News, a Melville community newsletter published in August 2008. The old cinema side of the building was being used for The Biggest Loser reality TV show. "The red velvet curtains were long gone."

Today, in 2026, Bambanani occupies 87 Fourth Avenue. They intend to resurrect the theatre as a performance space. The building, as buildings in Melville tend to do, is still cycling.

What We Don't Know Yet

We do not know the exact year the Scala stopped showing films. We do not know the name of the last film shown. We do not know who managed it day to day. We have not found a single photograph.

But we've started piecing the map together, and this issue is the beginning, not the end.

If you remember the Scala, we want to hear from you. If your family had a shop on that stretch of Fourth Avenue, we want to hear from you. If you had a first date there, a nightmare from the flying monkeys, a haircut from Fred, or a biltong-stained memory you've never told anyone: send it. Voice note or email to [email protected]. We've been telling you stories for 82 issues. We'd love to hear one from you, this time.

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Is this the calm before the storm? Here are your Mapara Week things to do. Check out the full calendar for the weekly gigs and things. Pssst… We’ve added specials! Know of one we missed? Submit it here.

Some businesses survive 18 years in Johannesburg. Very few of them do it on the same stretch of road, with the same warmth, and the same commitment to the community they landed in.

Café Picobella Trattoria at 66 Fourth Avenue has been here for 18 years, and Melville is better for every single one of them. Community champions for the Melville Art Mile, community clean-ups, and hosts to local artists and book launches alike. They've been there for this suburb in the quiet ways that don't make headlines but hold a neighbourhood together.

From the Snaps On Seventh team and all who love Picobella: thank you for always being there for the hood.

Happy 18th, Café Picobella. To many more half-priced pastas on Mondays, pizzas on Wednesdays, and delicious roasts on Sundays.

Agterplaas Bed and Breakfast just won't stop scooping up awards. This must be the third in the last six months: the latest being a Top 10 Guesthouse in Gauteng recognition from the SA Top 100 Hospitality Awards, certificate issued April 2026. They were already on the SA Top 100 list. Now they're in the Top 10 for the province. Brilliant work from a Melville accommodation that keeps raising the bar. If you've got visitors coming from out of town, you know where to send them.

There's another good restaurant coming to the neighbourhood. Last week, we mentioned The Artisan, a hookah lounge and eatery opening where De La Créme was; this week, the restaurant that replaced Emzini near the Westdene Dam, has announced it's moving to Melville. Where exactly, we don't know yet. We've reached out and will follow up with an introductory interview as usual; watch this space.

In the meantime, we spoke to a resident who has already been to Confluence and met owner Charmaine: "She's very nice – they’re good at food. It will be a wonderful addition to Melville.”

The Citizen ran a lovely feature this week on Book Dealers Melville moving into the Sourcery Coffee Shop. Melville absorbs, adapts, and keeps good things going. Go buy a book.

You know that sound you only realise your fence makes at odd hours? The one you know should have a simple explanation, but you never get around to researching it? That annoying tick electric fences make.

The number one culprit is vegetation. Plants and flowers are "earthed" and carry liquid. A branch or a creeper touching the wire creates a dead short and that distinctive click. Walk the perimeter. Trim everything back. That fixes the problem in more cases than you'd think, and costs nothing but a few minutes.

If the fence is still clicking after the trim, check the insulators. Older insulators, particularly those not treated for UV exposure, crack and degrade over time, letting current escape in ways the system wasn't designed for. Nemtek now makes UV-treated insulators that last significantly longer. If your installation is more than a few years old, it's worth an inspection. On the wiring: galvanised steel rusts after roughly ten years. Aluminium wiring doesn't corrode and lasts, in the words of one of our local civil superheroes, "donkey years."

Jonathan Thompson, who does technical support for the Melville Security Initiative and visits the suburb two to three times a week at no call-out charge to Melville residents, tells a story about his own fence at Melville Koppies West. It kept going off at random. He checked everything visible. Eventually, he found one failing insulator, tucked away where no casual inspection would catch it. "I just went back to basics," he says. "I switched everything off, section by section, until I found it."

Bad installation is also more common than it should be. Ferrules not crimped properly leave open spaces in the wiring, and electricity finds those gaps every time.

The practical argument: "It's a small capital cost upfront," says JT, "but it helps make sure nobody can just jump over the wall." Two years ago, a resident passed on a repair quote because the price felt steep. Weeks later, someone came over the wall and broke in.

If you've trimmed the vegetation, checked the insulators, and the fence is still clicking, JT is reachable at 065 808 6245 through the MSI and does not charge Melville residents for call-outs since he's already doing work for the MSI here anyway.

Mark it now. Rand Water is doing scheduled maintenance starting 29 May 2026. The Commando System, which supplies Brixton, Crosby, and Hursthill and feeds into Melville's water supply, will be affected. Phase 1 runs from 07:00 to 19:00 on 29 May. The City directive: no garden watering, no pool filling, no washing machines, minimum toilet flushing, minimum use across the board. Fill what you can before that date.

The Melville Residents Association is hosting an evening with DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille on Tuesday 2 June, 18:00, at 34 Fourth Avenue (chiesa di Pazzo LUPi). Short address followed by a resident Q&A on infrastructure, water, safety, and planning.

This is not an endorsement. It is an opportunity to put your questions directly to someone asking for your vote, in your own suburb, on your own street. Come prepared.

(The MRA has extended the same invitation to any other mayoral candidate who wishes to engage with Melville residents.)

Melville turns 130 in October 2026, and the committee forming around that milestone has its first confirmed meeting: Tuesday, 26 May, 17:00. A few committed people can move something like this and really make an impact on how this suburb marks the occasion. Be one of them.

Join the WhatsApp group here: Melville 130 Committee

Applications for the June edition, Cosy First Thursdays on 4 June, close soon. If you're an artist, a venue, a performer, or a local business that wants a spot on the mile, this is your final call.

The Snaps On Seventh Private VIP Tour is the best way to experience the Melville Art Mile if you want the full story. It's a curated, guided walk through the mile with introductions to the artists, access to spaces the general crowd doesn't always get to, and the kind of neighbourhood knowledge that only comes from someone who lives here.

Every mile is different, with a host of artists from across the city, from emerging to renowned.

The last first Thursday, on May 7, was lovely. The art was exceptional, and several of the exhibitions that opened on the mile are still running, which means you have a few weeks left to catch them before the next Art Mile. Go See It, but first, make sure you get your next Melville Art Mile tickets!

A New Exhibition by Natasha Thom is opening on Saturday at Stokvel Gallery.

AFRICANARA Storytelling Weekend at Melville Koppies Central, 24 May. R100 adults, R50 children. A proper reason to go up the hill.

The committee is also looking for donated paving bricks from residents for a wheelchair-accessible path from the Kafue Road entrance to the lecture hut, a winter community project. And here's a tip: if you have any junk to offload, take it to Junkies in Linden. If you specify Melville Koppies as your beneficiary, the reserve gets a percentage of the sales. Two birds, one trip.

And a reminder worth repeating: linking your MySchool card to Melville Koppies earns the reserve around R1,000 per month in passive support every time you shop at Woolworths, Pick'n Pay, or any MySchool partner store. Same card, same spend, something good happens in your backyard.

I first met her on 7th Street while doing street photography. She was doing poetry. She'd stop by sometimes to read poetry for my customers while I shot. On the ground, we call her Scheme.

Her name is Thabile "Shorty" Gloria Mtshali, and this suburb has known her for years, on the pavements, on the corners, in all the complicated and human ways that a neighbourhood knows the people who live in its margins. Through all her hardships in her life on Melville's streets, she found the capacity to create.

Just Because I'm a Street Kid, a short documentary about Shorty's life, has been officially selected for the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. It screens at Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank on Saturday 6 June, and at The Bioscope on Friday 12 June. Cape Town screenings follow on 10 and 14 June.

We'll follow up with an interview and more on the screening closer to the time. Best of luck and well done to Shorty The Melville Poet and everyone who helped make this happen. Melville's taking centre stage again!

Tickets: bit.ly/shortyencounters | Trailer: bit.ly/shortytrailer | Books: bit.ly/shortypoet

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Stay sharp, stay stylish, stay safe.

Likkle more. ✌️