Strand Theater
118 S. Santa Fe Avenue,
Salina,
KS
67401
118 S. Santa Fe Avenue,
Salina,
KS
67401
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox Midwest Amusement Corp.
Architects: Carl Boller, Robert O. Boller
Firms: Boller Brothers
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Fox Strand Theater
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News About This Theater
- Nov 18, 2009 — Happy 50th, "Ben-Hur"
The Strand Theater was opened on May 10, 1916. It was remodeled in 1938, and closed on July 4, 1966.
Contributed by
Michael Coate
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Probably died when the USAF closed the big base there.
Boxoffice of October 23, 1937, said that the Fox Strand Theatre at Salina was being extensively remodeled and expanded. The January 15, 1938, issue said that Fox Midwest would open the Strand within 30 days. The project had cost $35,000, and the expanded theater would seat 750. The original seating capacity was not mentioned.
A house called Shanberg’s Strand Theatre, Salina, Kas., was listed as one of the theaters showing the Pathe release “Play Ball” in an ad in The Reel Journal of August 8, 1925. This was most likely the same Strand Theatre that Fox Midwest later acquired.
Listings for the Strand stopped in 1966.
May 10, 1916 was the grand opening of the Strand launching with, “The Crippled Hand.” Appears to have completed its run July 4, 1966. A 1967 article says the space was converted for retail use.
The auditorium was behind the storefronts, and is now a parking lot, like about 2/3 of the old downtown. Can anyone explain the significance of the F.C.-A.O. flanking the York name on the facade? Sadly, some of the streamline ornamentation was removed between 2013 and 2018. I don’t know why, but I never got a picture of this. The storefronts are now a grocery store.
The 1938 remodel was fairly cheap, considering the demolition of the three story building which fronted the auditorium, and its replacement by a ‘modern’ one story storefront section.
The original building behind which the auditorium was constructed was the Grand Central Hotel, the northern half of which appears on the 1884 map, with the rest completed by 1887. It was oddly shallow, and divided into quite a few narrow storefronts. It appears to have been deepened to connect it to the auditorium.
The February 9, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the proposed Strand Tehatre: “The Strand Theatre is to be the name of a new moving picture house to be opened in Salina, Kan., by Herbert Thacher, the middle of March. This is one of the best towns in Kansas for moving pictures, and for that reason a good house will be erected. The seating capacity will be about 1,100.”
A slightly longer item about the project had been run in the December 4, 1915 issue of the same journal:
“H THACHER BUILDING A FINE HOUSE IN SALINA ΚΑΝ
“Hail to Herbert Thacher, who is going to give Salina, Kan. a touch of real high life in the moving picture business. Mr Thacher is having plans made for a fine playhouse at Salina which will be opened March 1. It will be one of the best in the state and in the West. It will have a seating capacity of 1,000, artistic decorations, everything of the best, from projection equipment to rugs; will be built of reinforced concrete and the whole will cost around 100,000. Mr. Thacher knows Salina through and through, and he knows the town wants something like what he is going to give it. He lives there. His brother ‘Bill’ runs the Royal theater there, and Mr. Thacher himself was formerly a partner in that enterprise. Latterly, Mr. Thacher has been traveling for the Universal Film & Supply Kansas City and has been accomplishing some very substantial good for the industry through his co-operative work with the exhibitors. The new theater will be on Main street in the heart of the city.”