Strand Theater

The Strand Theatre is located at 84 Washington Street and it seated 2083 people when it was a movie theatre.

I believe the Strand is currently open as a nightclub.

The Strand's official website is http://www.thestrandri.com/

This former movie palace looms high among my nostalgic memories. I remember, as a child of eight in 1950, going here with my parents to see Martin and Lewis in AT WAR WITH THE ARMY ("The Navy gets the gravy, but the a Army gets the beans, beans, beans...") We sat in the balcony of this huge theatre which was utterly packed! Here is where I saw REAR WINDOW, SAMSON AND DELILAH, TO CATCH A THIEF, THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, SANGAREE (in 3-D), PSYCHO, where the massive audience emitted a massive scream at the moment of horror, Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL, and hundreds of other films, the memorable and the forgettable. The theatre, though huge and not unbeautiful, was functional and without the ornate grandiosity of Loew's State, now the Providence Arts Center.

The Strand was built in 1915, was twinned in 1975, ran porno movies for a time, showed its last films (adult) in May, 1978. A fine article on the history of the Strand, with excellent archival photos, appeared in the Providence Journal, August 20, 1978.

Beautiful Interior

Does anyone have a picture that shows the Wurlitzer organ console in the Strand?? I have the original organ minus the console and would like to know what style it was and it looked like. Any help would be most appreciated. TK...

Oh, I have memories of this theatre, not fond ones though. I grew up in a suburb of Providence, Warwick, R.I. One Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s/early 1970s myself and three of my friends were dropped off my one of our parents to see a double-bill of Polanski's "Fearless Vampire Hunters" and one of the "Dark Shadows" films I think.

In any event, we get there and it is chaos. The place and is packed and the exclusively "urban" audience was going nuts in the theatre, with people milling around in the lobby, people running on stage. No one is paying attention to the film. We are not there for more than five minutes before we get shaken down and we lose our money.

Finally, we sense trouble and the four of us leave and walk to nearby Federal Hill where the family of one of the guys I was with owned a restaurant. The father, when he sees this motley lot come into his restaurant, starts berating us for not "fighting back."

In turns out it was prescient for us to leave because there was a riot at the theatre that day and the box office was sacked. I think the box office was one of those free standing facilities just outside the theatre. You had to go outside to get to the box office.

Providence really went downhill in the sixties, seventies and eighties before turning around in more recent years. I do remember when the Strand was a porno house, though.

It wasn't until the early 1990s that I finally got a chance to see "The Fearless Vampire Killers" when it was revived at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.

What a day that was!

The Strand is now the venue for Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, a rock club/theatre, tonight presenting the band "The Presidents of the United States."

I remember patronizing Lupo's many times in the late 1970s. Hasn't Lupos moved several times?

Yes, I believe the move to the Strand was rather recent.

I realize this is a bit out of school, but do you know what became of Lupo's previous home, Gerald?

No, I really don't, and I am not into that kind of music. It should be easy enough to check, though. I walk by there often, past the ghosts of lost theatres.

Here is a photo I took of the Strand a while back. It includes the length of the auditorium along the exterior.

The Strand Theatre opened on 12th June 1915 as a movie house with "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". In 1930 Paramount-Publix took a lease on the theatre and re-named it Paramount. But after four years the company went bankrupt and the theatre reverted back to the owners who re-named it Stand Theatre again.

It was in late 1975 that two small theatres were created beneath the balcony which screened mainly adult porn movies and this continued until the Strand closed in the summer of 1978.

Summary of a news article in January of 1930: a fire started in a millinery store on the second floor of the building that houses the Strand Theatre and other businesses. Although the management of the theatre was preparing to notify the patrons, the fire was contained in time and it became unnecessary. The location of the fire was on the other side of Union Street directly across from the entrance to Fay's Theatre. Patrons of Fay's were unaware of the event, but passers-by thronged the streets as fire apparatus thundered up to the door. Damage was minimal.

The Strand opened as the Strand (1915) before becoming the Paramount and then reverting to Strand again. Strand - Paramount - Strand.

PROVIDENCE THEATRES: "TEMPLES OF ILLUSION"
A book called "Temples of Illusion," by Roger Brett, was published in 1976. It is Mr. Brett's detailed history of all the old downtown area theatres of Providence from 1871 to 1950. It includes numerous rare photos, a list of theatres with name changes, and a map to show exactly where they all were. The book is an invaluable resource and is owned by many libraries in the R.I. CLAN system. I found a copy for sale online and will use it as a reference for future postings.

From "The Board of Trade Journal" of April, 1915:
"The new Strand Theatre on Washington Street, fast approaching completion, is a credit to the builders and an ornament to the city."

The place has just been converted inside to DIESEL..."mega club, lounge, event space."

On March 28, 1916 the great Irish tenor John McCormack gave a recital here.

Excerpts on the background on the Strand Theatre from Roger Brett's 1976 Temples of Illusion:

"The Strand Theater...was built by businessmen rather than showmen...The National Realty Corporation headed by Isaac Rose and Archibald and Charles Silverman, had a complex structure designed to cover the block bounded by Washington, Union, Worcester and Clemence Streets. The Strand itself occupies the northwest two-thirds of the National Building, while street level stores front on Washington and Union Streets and two floors of office space rise above them.. Their rent has saved the theater from the wrecking ball....

"The theater is of 'shoe-box' shape, as opposed to wide, shallow, and almost square size favored by designers of the era's legitimate and vaudeville houses. It was fashoned primarily for motion pictures.... An original capacity of 2500 was later reduced to 2200 by the installation of newer wider seats.

"Through the World War I years, the Strand presented Sunday afternoon and evening concerts of classical and 'middlebrow' music... They performed in front of the curtain, the footlights and concert border lights being the only installed stage lighting, and were accompaned by the Strand Theater Orchestra playing in the pit. With the exception of these concerts, live performance has never taken place on the stage of the Strand.

"The new Strand's major features were its then unparalleled size and comfort of its lobbies and lounges, and the music of its Wurlitzer theater organ, the first organ to be heard in a Providence theater.... The Strand's architecture followed that of the New York City Strand, one of the very earliest movie palaces, after which it was named.
(...)
"The opening [June 12, 1915] was not a big social event.... The feature film that opened this house was The Shooting of Dan McGrew (in five acts). A two-reeler, The House of a Thousand Relations, was the second feature; there were two shorts...and a...cartoon. In all, ten reels. Admission was ten cents in the balcony at all times, fifteen cents in the main part of the orchestra during afternoon hours, and up to a quarter for the best orchestra seats after six o'clock."

When the Strand Theatre closed in August of 1978, about 500 of its seats were donated to a non-profit froup from Jamestown called the Jamestown Theater, Inc. A Providence Journal article of August 20th said:

"The group plans to install them in that town's theater on which it holds a 90-day option to buy. There are hopes of renovating the Jamestown Theater and booking movies and live shows. Jane Sprague, president of the group, said, 'We took as many seats as we could possibly take with four U-Haul trips.'

"The projectors, a sound system and concession and lobby equipment also were removed to Jamestown. Other theater pieces will end up at the Lederer Theater, the Ocean State Theater and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf."

The original architect of the Strand was Thomas J. Hill Pierce.

Here is a 1930 photo of the Strand when it was called the Paramount Theatre.

Here is the Strand in 1941.

And in 1956.

And a view of the old screen from the balcony as the seats are about to be removed in 1978.

And a view from 1919 or so. Note the two vertical marquees, one on Washington Street, the other on Union Street. No horizontal marquee appears yet.

An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:

PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES

MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW'S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager

I recently bought a Lobby Couch reputed to be from the Strand in Providence. Does anybody have any pictures which might confirm ?

The THSA tour in Providence allowed me to tag along yesterday. There were three busloads of about 140 who saw Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, the Majestic (Trinity Rep), Strand, PPAC (Loew's State), Columbus, Avon, Stadium in Woonsocket. The Strand (Diesel) was a surprise to me, even as a local, since I had not been able to see it for several decades. The entire interior is virtually intact: proscenium, balcony with seats, projection booth (covered over) stairwells, many decorative details, other decorations. Sure, there is painting over, and leveled orchestra floor, but that place could easily be returned to its former beauty with a few million dollars, which, of course, would never happen. But I was glad to see so much remains and was reminded of the many good times there.

Mr. DeLuca is being too modest! He did not "tag along" on the THSA tour in Providence on June 29-- he was invited to serve (and very ably, too) as a local guide/historian. The tour began with a visit to the Zeiterion Th. in New Bedford. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day; and I know that there were many who were surprised to find so much detail intact inside the Strand/Diesel. We thank Gerry DeLuca for helping to make our day in Providence a success.

We had a pass to the Strand in the 1960s when it was on its last legs as a first run movie theatre and so I saw quite a few movies there with my Dad. It was a beautiful theatre with an amazing interior, much larger and more interesting than the smaller Majestic Theatre up the street. As a young child I remember going to a gala re-opening after it been rennovated in the early 60s after a fire had shut it down for a while. There's a story that one of the original owners, Archibald Silverman, placed three portraits in the lobby: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and himself.

During the time that the Strand devolved a porn theatre, and eventually closed as a movie theatre altogether, with just offfice rental space remaining for quite a while. The Majestic Theatre was taken over by Trinity Repertory Company and the Loew's State Theatre, now the Providence Center for the Performing Arts, was declared a national landmark. I always wondered why the Strand's fate had to be so different.

Architecturally speaking the Majestic, which was totally gutted by Trinity Rep, suffered a much worse fate than the Strand. The Strand interior remains virtually intact.

The Strand is now home to Roxy and Lupo's. Roxy nights still feature a big screen on stage with realtime video effects. It has been semi restored and features many vip booths now. Lupo's is home to the biggest nightclub live music venue in Rhode Island.

In his book Downcity: Downtown Providence in the 1950s, Carmen Maiocco gives this thumbnail history of the Strand:

"When the Strand Theatre at 85 Washington Street opened in June 1915, it unabashedly advertised itself to the public as a 'wonderful, big, beautiful place - and the shows presented will be fine always.' The Strand's first evening of entertainment included four silent features: The Shooting of Dan McGrew starring Edmund Breese; a comedy entitled The House of a Thousand Relations, and two dramas, The Struggle and Memory Tree. Like most of the other theaters built in downtown Providence in the early 20th century, the Strand was colossal in size, with seats for approximately 2,200 people (that's eight to ten times larger than the theaters we sit in today at the malls.) In the early days, especially before the advent of television, the Strand didn't have much trouble filling all those seats. Even in the 1950s and early 1960s - a period in which the Strand's manager was Stanley Sheen - big blockbuster movies still filled the house; films like Samson and Delilah (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Ten Commandments (1957)... By the early 1970s, however, the public's viewing habits had changed; big crowds just weren't coming downtown to see movies anymore. The last legitimate film shown at the Strand was in March 1973; a comedy entitled Shamus starring Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon. For a while after that the Strand ran as an X-rated movie house, but that didn't last too long. In 1978, the Strand Theater closed. Since then the building has been renovated, and in recent years the Strand has become a hot spot for the young kids, mostly by showcasing up-and-comoing, local rock music bands."

THS's Marquee magazine for 4th quarter 2005 describes the Strand constructed by National Realty Company, headed by Rose, Archibald and Charles Silverman, and opening June 12, 2005. Architect was Thomas J. Hill Pierce, organ (installed 1930, later removed) was a Wurlitzer 3/13, style Balaban 2. Originally seating 2,500.

In January 1916 the Strand Theatre Orchestra was formed, followed by the Strand Operatic Concert Company in April 1917. They both provided concerts Sunday afternoons and evenings that drew large houses. That was the only live action on the stage until the rock concerts of the 1980s.

In 1930 Paramount Publix leased the theatre, renovated it, rebuilding the proscenium and lobby. The console for the organ was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane. Paramount gave up its lease in 1934,.

Those early live concerts on Sunday were put into the theatre (and other Providence theatres) because in Providence at the time, blue laws made it illegal to have stage shows, plays, and movies on Sunday. Live musical events were exempt from the regulation.

1970 Photo

The Strand......The day it closed I was the projectionist on duty. That year....the mayor was trying to clean the city of porn. So if a theater was raided they'd arrest the cashier or manager. Well the licence board came up with a new law....instead of the manager or cashier, they would go after the owner of the business. That same afternoon the law was passed the owner came in told me to turn the film off...the audiance got their money back and told to leave... and that was the end of the Strand showing films. The last few years of its life it was actually twined. Under the balcony was walled in making 2 small auditoriums, the balcony the stage and stage fittings were left all intact, I actually went back stage once and awhile turning the lights up exploring. When it was twinned they left the original equipment in the booth upstairs, they figured it would be to much trouble to move down. Another interesting story...when the theater was a single, they decided to motorize the main curtain. Well the stage hand union told them... no you need a union stagehand to open and close the curtain for each show. Well that was the day the curtain opened......and never closed again.