Strand Theater

dallasmovietheaters on December 10, 2024 at 5:13 pm

Sorry to be a contrarian but I don’t believe this is an accurate listing. Reading the daily newspapers from the era and checking the local phone directories, there are two Gem Theatres. The first was at 110 Main Street and it was opened by F.W. Jones of Texarkana in an existing, retail building that also housed a billiard parlor, cigar store, and had been home to the Walker Drug Company. The Gem Theatre opened on February 15, 1912. It was billed as “The home of mirth and laughter.” The merriment subsided when the Gem went out of business less than three months later on May 5, 1912. After some meetings later in the year in that space, it was converted for other business purposes.

The second Gem Theatre appears to have repurposed the sign over in the Miller Building at 213 State Street. The photo above is from the three-story Miller Building at 213 State Street as it has the attorney Neely W. Shelton’s office, the barber shop, the cafe and the other folks in the three-story brick building. To rectify this error, there is now an entry for the second Gem Theatre in the Miller Building so that picture has a place to properly go. It was an important, African American multipurpose commercial building and the theater was opened for African American patrons. There was no Miller Theatre at 110 Main Street but there was in the Miller Building on State Street (makes more sense, really)

The good news on this entry - the Strand Theatre was at 201-203 Main Street. But it was neither the Gem nor the Miller and does not date back to the silent era. It appears to have been an auto service location in the 1930s.

Silicon Sam on August 11, 2009 at 9:05 pm

The pictures says the Gem / Miller / Strand was at E. 2nd and State St. Nothing is there at that corner any longer except some empty lots or new construction.

The drugstore mentioned above is at 2nd St and Main. The picture linked above on 2/12/09 shows a building with vastly different windows up top.

Just down the street across from the Community Theater (207 W. 2nd) would have been the AMUSE-U Theater (208 W. 2nd St.)

A busy couple of blocks for theater back then.