Russell Dennerly had been at the Civic, and its sister movie houses, in Queen Street for 43 years when it closed in February 1998. He started his working life as an assistant projectionist - and worked at a four-year apprenticeship to learn all there was to know about the job (in those days it was a good deal more complex than today). His most vivid memory of a movie is "The Sound of Music" which ran for 77 weeks in Auckland.