The State Theatre in the heart of Sydney is one of the last great flamboyant cinemas of fantasy erected in the late 1920s. The life of its architect, Henry Eli White, was just that. Flamboyant and prone to fantasy, fashioning himself on the Golden King, his rise was spectacular but his fall was meteoric.

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1876, the son of a local builder and developer White began his working life as a carpenter, graduating to larger and larger projects, introducing new structural elements into theatre and other design. Enticed to Australia in the mid 1910s by theatre entrepreneurs his early projects brought wealth and fame. Within a few short years this was all gone. His personal life in tatters, he died virtually penniless.

Ross Thorne has researched theatre and cinema buildings in text and video since the mid-1960s. He was an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney for a quarter of a century until his retirement in 1998. In 1997 an international panel of examiners initiated his promotion to Doctor of Architecture.

The author has investigated every aspect of White's life, seeking to understand what motivated this man, and what inspired him to create buildings such as Sydney's state theatre.

Buildings which White designed in Australia include: Sydney: the Capitol, the St James, the Majestic, the State Theatre. Brisbane: the Tivoli. Melbourne: the Palais.

Includes bibliographical references and index.