Strand Theater

Here is another photo:
http://flickr.com/photos/bunchofpants/68319285/

MARSHAL ANDY STRAND THEATER

My name is Andy Smalls, but you may know me as the Knoxville Cowboy. I grew up in Georgetown South Carolina & my formative years were spent in a ½ block area of downtown around Screven & Broad Streets during the late 30’s & early to mid 40’s(World War 2 era). Both The Strand Theater & the Palace Theater are in that area & between them was a pool hall & a Walgreens. I played football at the time & I remember having to make sure our football coach didn’t see us going into the pool hall or we would have gotten into big trouble! Now, I have always had a love for the B westerns & the Strand Theater in Georgetown was instrumental in forming my love for the B westerns. I had always wanted to be a B western movie star due to this influence, & I had all the moves the Cowboy stars had. I could ride a horse well, twirl my 6 shooter with both hands like the stars I loved to watch in the B Westerns.
The Strand theater & The Palace theater were the 2 dominant theaters in Georgetown in the time of my youth. The Palace Theater is no longer there with only a placard on the bank building a half block down from the Strand. The Strand Theater, or Peerless as was also known is still in operation to this day but not as a movie theater, but more as a playhouse & live event venue! The Strand was owned by Morris Abram & his brother(they owned a lot of property in downtown Georgetown in this time frame). Back in the 1920’s, the Palace Theater showed silent films. The Strand started showing films when it opened then moved to more mainstream movies early in its existence. When I was 13 I saw Stagecoach(a John Wayne movie) & it had a lot of influence on me & my desire to become a western cowboy. Other movies featured were Oxbow Incident with Henry Fonda & I was also fond of movies featuring Bill Elliott. These times bring back memories of not only movies at the Strand Theater but also some personal stories of my youth. As I was seeing movies at the Strand, I had gotten a job with the theater changing the marquis. I was working with my brother Joe & an older gentleman named Ollie. There were nights that the Strand would show scary movies & after we saw the scary movies, we would be scared when we walked home. There was one night when I was walking home with Joe & we were very scared. Ollie had told us earlier to put taps on our shoes so that we would make a lot of noise as we walked home. What a sound & sight we must have been walking home that late making all that noise with the taps on our shoes & I can say we always made it home safely. As I was starting to mature & get older, the specter of war was changing the world around us in ways we couldn’t imagine. The world and America greatly changed on December 7, 1941 as Japan bombed Peal Harbor & drew the US into World War 2. Hollywood became increasingly pro America as the war waged on for 4 long years. This also was reflected in the movies I saw during World War 2 at the Strand. Movies I remember seeing are Back to Batan, In Harms Way with John Wayne and Patricia O’Neil and The Life of Jesse James. By the end of the war in 1945, these movie productions really reflected pro America status in Hollywood. As the war ended & we moved into a time of peace, my dream to become a cowboy star was now once again in the forefront.
Another personal story I fondly recall from my days working at the Strand was a little later in my childhood as I started to find that girls were becoming more interesting to me. There was one night when I offered to take a young lady named Doris(she worked as a ticket taker) home on my bicycle. I got onto the bike seat and she sat on the handlebars & we started for home. About half way there, she turned and looked at me and said “this ain’t working”. I did make sure she got home that evening, but it sure wasn’t on the handlebars as she walked the rest of the way. Later, we had a good laugh about it & it is one of my favorite memories from the Strand Theater. During the war, there was an acute housing shortage due in part to all the soldiers coming home from all branches of the service. In our household, we took in an Ensign from the Navy(I don’t remember his name). I was always interested in playing the guitar & the taught me 3 basic chords on the guitar & I have been playing ever since. The Ensign’s mother also worked at Universal Studios and so the Ensign spoke to her and she said she would love to have me come out and audition for a part in a B Western movie but first I would need to get my high school degree. So I worked to complete my education and as the 1940’s came to a close I received my diploma. Now, as you remember from earlier in this article, I had always wanted to be a B Western star. I had all the moves down as I could twirl a 6 shooter with both hands and was proficient in riding a horse. Now, as fate would have it, the Ensign staying with us once again contacted his Mother at Universal and told her I had gotten my degree and was ready to come out for an audition. At this time, the age of the B Westerns was in it’s twilight and I was advised through the Ensign not to come out for an audition as they won’t be making many more B Westerns. Although disappointed I understood so I enrolled at Clemson and completed my higher education there. It was one of those decisions that hurt at the time but really worked out well in the long run. As you can see, the Strand Theater really played an early role in developing my love for the B Westerns that has stayed with me to this day. To this day, I still have a TV show on PBS called the Riders of the Silver Screen where I keep the B Westerns alive by playing all the old movies and serials. Thanks for reading this & remember, if you don’t wear a white hat, please wear a smile so we can tell you from the bad guys.

                                                                                                  Andy Smalls
                                                                                                                    Marshal Andy, the Knoxville Cowboy