Strand Theatre

Another theatre I worked at as a projectionist. The booth was a torture chamber. It had an open cider block outside wall. Birds used to nest in the open holes. In the winter you froze and in the summer melted between the outside heat and the heat from the carbon arc lamphouses. Same booking policy in the 70’s that the Liberty had;horror, black expoltiation ,porno and cheap Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

TC, I wonder if you’d be able and willing to provide a larger version of that image — I’d love to have it as the desktop background on my monitor.

The theater has been closed for a few years, apparently.

Sadly, the Strand now seems beyond the reach of renovation or restoration. Its new owner has completely stripped the interior seating, demolished and stage and eliminated the interior lobby where the candy stand had been, leaving an enormous whitewashed interior which, word has it, he plans to outfit as retail space. That would have to have zoning board approval and may not meet muster. In any event, it is sad that the town officials have not done more to use it as an anchor in the downtown redevelopment plans (unlike Montclair, where the Wellmont Theatre looks likely to become a performance venue that will helpt their downtown handily).
See my posts below. Dan Damon, Plainfield Today

I have posted two items recently on the fate of the Strand Theater ( make sure to get the entire URL in your browser address bar)—

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and
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This is a shame. Its too bad it couldn’t have been saved like the Ritz in Elizabeth.