Strand Theater

I grew up in Key West and one of my best friends when I was young was Coni Carbonell whose father owned the Strand. I remember many afternoons of fun going to the Strand and hanging out in the theatre. When the movie “Ben-Hur” came to Key West it played at the Strand and the nuns from our school – Convent of Mary Immaculate – took us all to see the movie. It was a glamorous theatre to be sure. Donna

I reciently got back from what is definity my last trip ever to Key West! I am disgusted that such a land mark will be yet another Walgreens and on the other end of the street is a Eckerd’s… Basically Key West is now a string of T-Shirt shops seperated by Drug Stores and tacky theme park style attractions.

I worked in this cinema as a projectionist in the late 1960’s. It was a delux cinema owned by the Carbonell family which also owned the Monroe Cinema two blocks further South. I remember showing “Midnight Cowboy” at this cinema. The writer of the movie was a Key West local who put a local “joke” in the movie…when John Voight who ask do you know so and so it was a name of a corrupt local politician…which brought roars of laughter in the audience. what killed this cinema was the advancing age of the family and a local multiplex with plenty of parking.