Strand Theatre

The Strand Theatre was a single-screen downtown cinema that operated without interruption until fire destroyed it in the late 1990s. My mom took me to see my first-ever movie there: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at a special Saturday daytime screening during the Easter season. I also saw my first R-rated movie there (The Blues Brothers). When I was a frequent patron in the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, it ran one new movie every week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. Soda was served in small cups without ice, and one could order a “suicide” mixture of all the flavors combined into one.