Strand Theater
310-12 E. State Street,
Ithaca,
NY
14850
310-12 E. State Street,
Ithaca,
NY
14850
5 people
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The Strand was razed in 1993 or so. I arrived in 1992, and they had a save the Strand push going on. The owner threatened to raze the structure, and the preservationists got a stay. I can only assume this happened many times in the past, and this time the owner ignored it, and knocked the bulding down, promising to rebuild something there. Last I checked, the only thing erected were parking meters. But that was 2004, so maybe they did something since then.
If someone does, please add that Strand to Cinema Treasures.
Still wondering if anyone has photo(s)and/or information on the Strand that was in Seneca Falls NY?
MichaelWeinstein—
If you walked from Collegetown to downtown via Buffalo Street, you’d make a left turn at Aurora Street and reach the Strand first on State Street (the near-near). But if before State Street you turned right on Seneca Street, you’d reach the Temple a block and a half away (the near-far). If instead you continued to State Street, then turned right and walked three blocks, you’d reach the State Theater at the corner of Cayuga (the far-near). To reach the Ithaca, you’d have to continue down State Street for four more blocks (the far-far).
You evidently attended Ithaca theaters before the fifth theater was built in the late ‘60s, the Triphammer at the Triphammer Mall: now that was really far (over a mile from CU’s North Campus) and I don’t believe that Tompkins Co. Transit ran buses there until the late 70’s. The construction of the much larger Pyramid Mall on Triphammer at Route 13 brought the Hoyt’s (now Regal) multiplex (first four, now eight screens). I don’t have it in me to volunteer a new listing for that outfit.
I went over the pages for the theaters on this website and found the street addresses as follows:
The Ithaca Theater was at 413 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The Strand Theater was at 310-12 E. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The State Theater was at 107 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 United
The Temple Theater was at 114-16 East Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
This means that, as I remembered, the Temple was NOT on the same street as the others and therefore I don’t think it was on the near/far spectrum, and that the Ithaca and Strand were closer together than I remember, and that the STATE was the first down the hill, not the Strand. That would make the STATE the near-near. And maybe the Strand was the near-far, not the far-near. Does that make something none of us remembers the far-near? Or somehow did the Temple get that label even though it was on a side street? Again, I remember referring to 5 theaters: near-near, far-near, near-far, far-far and armpit (Temple). This all seems such a lame exercise, but it would be great if someone remebered it all!
michael: Thanks so much for this Ithaca info!
I remember that there were 4 theaters on state street, the near-near (Strand) the far-near (State), near-far (?) and far-far (Ithaca). The Temple was on Seneca, not State, and we called it “the armpit” and it’s description on this website confirms that. I was sure there were FOUR on State plus the Temple, which means the Temple is not the near-far. Something else was the near-far. Or is my memory of the ‘60s at Cornell tricking me and there were only 3 theaters on State Street, with the near-far being on Seneca. Anyone else remember?
BoxOfficeBill: Do you have any information/photos of the Strand Theatre that was in Seneca Falls NY?
In all fairness to the neo-Cons and traces of their roots in Ithaca that we’d prefer to forget, a local son of the ‘50s is Paul Wolfowitz, of Pentagon and soon World Bank misfame. If I were to call him redoubtable, it’s only because one can’t doubt him enough. Did Wolfowitz derive his benighted thinking from attending the Strand in those years?
Paul: That’s mad! I never heard of such benighted practices, and never knew that Ithaca had such Blue Laws in the ‘50s. Ithaca today is wholly progressive (despite some neo-Con students on campus)—some refer to the town (now identified as a “metropolitan area” comprising all of Tompkins County) as “The People’s Republic of Ithaca,” where anything goes.
More memories about the Strand….
Ithaca blue laws prohibited theaters from beginning performances until 2 PM on Sundays. So the continuous schedule of 2-hour shows began at 2 PM with the second hour of the movie, and then, regular shows at 3, 5, 7, and 9. Of course, at 4 PM, with an ackowledgment of “this is where we came in,” the theater emptied and the standees in the long uncomfortable lobby filled up the theater for the second half of show 2.
This was particularly excruciating when the Strand presented the 3-D “Hondo” with John Wayne, boasting in the newspaper ads that the theater had been “re-engineered” to give the best possible 3-D experience. The curtains opened at 2 about 30 minutes into the picture, and, yes, the 3-D was the best ever. Then, came the intermission, the change of the interlocking reels, and the rest of the movie. Then, at 3 PM, following another intermission, the news and cartoon. Then, another intermission, and the beginning of the first set of interlocking reels.
During the fifties, when I was a Cornell student, the Strand was known as the “near-near,” since it was the first theater one reached coming down “the Hill” from the university. The other three theaters, the State, Temple and Ithaca, were the near-far, the far-near, and the far-far. The Strand’s screen was enormous, filling the entire proscenium, but because the screen began almost at stage floor level, short balcony viewers like myself couldn’t see the bottom of the picture unless we sat on our coats!