1928 The Government Savings Bank (now the Commonwealth Bank) in Martin Place was completed and opened on December 12. It was for this project that Tony resurrected the old Italian technique of scagliola (an imitation marble made of cement), the architect having requested columns too large to be cut from marble in one piece. Tony spent days and nights in the Melocco Brothers’ workshop refining both the technique and formula until he developed the much prized scagliola which became a Melocco Brothers’ trade secret. Indeed, during construction, the columns in the bank were surrounded by hessian screens to preserve the secret. Melocco Brothers also completed some of its most elaborate plaster and marble work for the interior.

Also in 1928 (on April 7), the Capitol Theatre opened near Central Station. Union Theatres had converted it, with Melocco Brothers’ craftsmanship, from a circus/hippodrome to what was, at the time, Australia’s largest and most sumptuous picture palace (though it was somewhat eclipsed by the even more showy State Theatre the following year).

“Melocco Brothers worked on nearly all the big picture palaces in the twenties. The one I liked best was the Prince Edward but they also worked on the Capitol, the Regent, the Liberty. The only one they didn’t do was the Paris, which was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. My father had a big argument with Walter Burley Griffin. They were both hard headed men. And Dad claimed Walter Burley Griffin’s flat roofs leaked.”

— John Melocco