Text Source: Hoch, Isabel. 2008. Pages 65,
New entertainment came to the Barcaldine district in December 1913 with the opening of the first picture theatre – the Glideograph – in Ash Street.
It was an UNROOFED structure with a gallery of seats at the back and a skating rink floor, and was one of the first Barcaldine buildings to have electric light.
Proprietors J. Nash and W. Ikin opened with a benefit night for Victoria Hospital.
Even so, the Western Champion always seemed to be critical. It had harsh words if the promised film did not arrive or a programme began late. After 1917, when the business was taken over by Stibbards, the paper changed to sympathetic comments for problems that arose. 
The first pictures – silent flickering images – were accompanied by a nineteen year old pianist, Miss Colman, and were so popular the Glideograph was able to show three nights a week with skating on the other nights and on Saturdays.
Within a few months most young people could skate.
In 1915, they opened a second theatre, the Lyric, in Oak Street.
