Strand Theater

Mr. J. M. Blanchard was mentioned as the operator of the People’s Theatre in a couple of 1913 issues of The Moving Picture World. In the November 1 issue, he was cited as being displeased that a cinematic version of “Quo Vadis?” was not being made available to movie theaters. The producers were attempting to attract an audience that didn’t usually attend movies, and they advertised that their production had never been shown in a movie house, but only in regular theaters.

The regular theater that showed the movie in Sunbury was probably the Chestnut Street Opera House, the only such theater listed at Sunbury in Julius Cahn’s guides during the period. Despite its name, the opera house played vaudeville for much of its history, and might have shown movies as part of the programs. If so, it should be added to Cinema Treasures.

Boxoffice Magazine has moved its archive from Issuu.com to its own web site, in a section called The Vault. The article about Harry Zimmerman is now at this link.

I’ve come across a couple of references to a movie house in Sunbury called the People’s Theatre, which was in operation by 1913. No address is available, but I’m wondering if it might have been an early aka for the Strand or the Rialto.

In the vintage photo of the Strand at Strandsunbury (the one taken when the street was flooded) the entrance building, at least, was of a style that could have dated from the early 20th century. The theater could have been built behind it at a later date, of course, and the lobby run through an existing building.

Is the marquee still there? Probably not!

The story is a well known fact with people familliar with the Warner in Pittsburgh, Pa. The one projectionist named Whitey had died in the upstairs booth..For years after that you would feel icy cold air and get a blast of fresh cigar smoke.. He had smoked cigars all his life… One day his long time friend came by to visit me,, When allm of a sudden the air got cold and you could smell a strong odor of cigar smoke..I was rewinding a 40 minute reel of film and Whitey’s friend said WHITEY if that’s you turn off the rewinder… You could see the switch go into the off possition and his friend who was very old and took forever to get up there made it down to the lobby and out the front doors in seconds…He himself died 2 weeks later…

jeffreyt: Sorry for the delayed reply, but my email provider has been blocking my Cinema Treasures notifications for a couple of years and I’ve only just started getting some of them again. The scan of the Boxoffice item about Harry is at this link.

I’m a big fan of DeAngelis designed theatres so am always interested in anyone’s photos! Thanks.

Hey Patsy
This building now houses a graphic arts / design shop.
Movietime and myself have toured this building twice in the last 3 years. The balcony is intact and the booth is still there. The lobby has a drop ceiling and has had partitions put up for offices but the space is still the same. The main auditorium has been gutted though and is used primarily as a warehouse. It probably could be resurrected as a theatre but with 12 screens less than 5 miles away, it would probably be a struggle. (and cost a lot ) I do have recent photos if anyone is interested.

Also, DeAngelis didn’t actually design the theatre. He was responsible for the new lobby and front of the building which was done in 1951. There was some remodeling done in the auditorium (the screen was moved forward) but I think the rest was cosmetic.

norelco: At least you have personal memories compared to the rest of us.

You are so right Patsy!!!

Could this theatre possibly be resurrected and made into a theatre again or did the electrical supply warehouse folks level the floor, etc.??

Hey Joe Vogel

Can you tell me where I can see the scans of Boxoffice magazine with these 2 articles ? We have started a Strand Theater website and would possibly like to include these. We are looking for any information and photos so any help would be appreciated.

www.strandsunbury.com

norelco, the Internets can help jog your memory of the date. The story of the Strand projectionist who died in the booth appeared in the November 2, 1970, issue of Boxoffice, and it said the event had taken place on Monday, October 9.

The scan of the magazine online is a bit fuzzy, but it looks like it says the unfortunate projectionist’s name was Clermont M. Zimmerman. If my given name were Clermont, I think I’d prefer to be called Harry, too.