Strand Theatre

rsalters (Ron Salters) on December 24, 2008 at 7:34 am

Denis- without actually going to look at the building, I’m 99% certain that the Howard Johnson’s was located in the Granite Trust building, but in a wing that stretched back from the tower itself in the front. I went there often at lunch time on Saturdays circa- late 1950s. It was right across Chestnut Street from the Strand.

rsalters (Ron Salters) on February 27, 2011 at 10:49 am

The old building right next to the Strand, on its left, was recently demolished. So now there is one big lot there waiting for “development”.

Joe Vogel on January 9, 2014 at 3:31 pm

The September 24, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had this item:

“Fred B. Murphy has named his new theatre at Chestnut and Maple streets, Quincy, the Quincy-Strand. Orders have been placed for his marquee and electric sign and the opening will be within the next three to four weeks.”

The September 11 issue of the same publication ran this update:

“Fred S. Murphy’s new theatre in Quincy, Mass., opens for the first time on Labor Day with a program of pictures and vaudeville. It seats approximately 1,500.”

The September 25 issue carried a longer article about the openings of the Quincy-Strand and the Mark-Capitol Theatre at Everett, Massachusetts. Here is the portion dealing with the Quincy-Strand:

“THE Stanley-Mark Strand interests have opened two new theatres in Massachusetts, the Quincy-Strand at Quincy and the Mark-Capitol at Everett. The former seats about 1,800 and the latter 2,300, thus adding 4,100 seats to the Stanley-Mark interests within a week.

“The Quincy-Strand was erected by ex-Mayor William A. Bradford and leased for a long term of years to the Quincy-Mark Strand Co., of which Fred B. Murphy, who is active manager of the house, is president; Joseph B. Levenson is treasurer and Morris Sharaf, vice-president. The theatre is located at Hancock and Chestnut streets, Quincy Square. The American Seating Co. did the seating, a Wurlitzer organ is installed. Simplex projection machines are used and Ray Stewartson’s Broadcasting orchestra supplies the musical numbers. The house is of first-class construction throughout, seating 1,000 on the floor and 800 in the single balcony.

“There was no formal opening of the new theatre and a ten-year-old boy, Edward Pearlin, of Quincy, who stood in line six hours and went without his supper, had the honor of getting the first ticket. There were no speeches and the management’s announcements were made on the screen. The policy is straight pictures, continuous performance from 1.30 to 10.30 p.m. daily.

“Both theatres are equipped with ample stages so that full stage productions or vaudeville may be presented at any time. Roth houses have eleven exits and both are of first class construction.”

Although the article doesn’t give the opening dates for either theater, this comment by barrygoodkin on our page for the Capitol Theatre in Everett cites a reliable source for the opening of that house on September 6, 1926, so they both opened on the same day.

dickneeds111 on September 24, 2015 at 8:09 pm

Went to the Strand a few times. It was the first theatre to add cinemascope in 1953. Opened with the “Robe”. The next theatre on the South Shore to put in Cinemascope was the Scituate Playhouse a couple of months after the Strand. Also opened with the Robe. One of the pictures I did see here was The Sound Of Music. It played here right after the Boston first run. Probably in 1967. Also saw Bedknobs and Broomsticks here in 1971.

rsalters (Ron Salters) on November 30, 2017 at 10:33 am

The Quincy Patriot Ledger has an occasional feature titled “Whatever happened to…”. In the Nov. 29 print edition the subject of this feature was the Strand Theatre. It says it opened in 1926 with nearly 1800 seats and was on Chestnut Street. In the late-1970s it was sold to one Tony Delpidio whose proposals for the building were always shot down. There is a photo of half of the marquee which reads: “Fri Sept 19 715 & 915, Live on Stage Heavy Metal Plasmatics”. The article states that this was in 1981, but Fri Sept 19 was in 1980. Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics did not have a very good rep. So the city yanked the theater license and the show was cancelled. Delpidio threw in the towel and sold the theater to the bank across the street. The article says that the final show was the Julie Andrews movie “Victor, Victoria” on June 26, 1982, and that the Strand was demolished “later that year.”