MJ and Alma Moodabe's three sons,
Royce Joseph Moodabe (born 1930),
Joseph Patrick Moodabe (1937 – 8 December 2019) and
Michael Barry Joseph Moodabe (15 December 1932 – 3 September 2009) grew up in
Epsom,
Auckland and were educated at
St Peter's College. The three sons used to visit their father's office in the
Civic Theatre,
Queen Street as they grew up, all were "promised a desk in the corner of that room and their father's supervision". However, each actually began "as office boy out the back, tediously filing admission receipt dockets until they learnt to carve their own niche". They were employed in Amalgamated Theatres from when they left school in the late 1950s. On the retirement of their father and uncle, Royce became managing director and Joseph and Michael had management roles. They continued to be involved in the management of the chain from the 1960s to the 1980s. The owner of the chain, 20th Century Fox sold out in the 1980s to the
Chase Corporation and then the chain came into the ownership of
Hoyts which continued to employ the brothers in senior management positions. Royce Moodabe became general manager of Hoyts Australian circuit. He retired in 2006 after 57 years in the business. In 1997 Joe Moodabe joined
Village Force Cinemas " ... which, as general manager, he built into the "country's biggest cinema chain". In 2006 the chain became wholly owned by
SkyCity and was renamed SkyCity Cinemas. Joe Moodabe became executive chairman of an in-house board that oversaw developments in the cinema business. ==References==