Strand Theater
16 Mill Street,
Orono,
ME
04473
16 Mill Street,
Orono,
ME
04473
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Closed in March 1957.
The Strand Theatre opened in 1921. In 1922, as reported in the February 2 issue of the Bath Independent, Frank Owen, lessor of the rival Orono Theatre, bought out the owner of the Strand and moved his operation to the new house.
Circa 1956 photo added credit Brent Shaw.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Strand in Orono. It’s Card #422. Address is Mill St. There is an exterior photo taken Feb. 17, 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it opened in 1921, was playing MGM films and had 650 seats. 1940 population of Orono was 3,700.
The Strand dated back to the silent era. In The Child Called Nanoot, Evangeline H. Commeau’s memoir (Google Books preview), she recalls watching Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, and the Keystone Cops with the accompaniment of a piano played by Madeline Duffey. The Strand was owned by the Goldsmith family, who also owned a men’s haberdashery next door.
It appears that both the Strand and the store have been demolished, the former replaced by a modern building housing the Orono Pharmacy and the latter by its parking lot.
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
16 MILL STREET
This is a way to get answers, even when I’m in Illinois. I emailed Laurie Carpenter Library Director of the Orono Public Library “SERVING THE INFORMATION AND READING NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE OF ORONO, MAINE” AND CINEMA TREASURES. Laurie gave me the above address and the below paragraph from “ORONO, MAINE, A BICENTENNIAL VIEW” published in 1976.
THANK YOU LAURIE, FOR TAKING THE TIME TO LOOK THIS UP!
“The Strand Theater deserves top billing in any discussion of Orono’s recreation over the past two decades. For thirty-five years it was located on the site of the present day LaVerdiere’s Super Drug Store on Mill Street, and in it’s advertisement in the Sequicentennial brochure shows that it was functioning in 1956. In the pre-television era and before the University’s Memorial Union was built the building housed an excellent theater and bowling lanes, the latter on the lower level. It was a popular center of entertainment for adults, children and university students. It also had an educational angle as the management cooperated in scheduling performances of foreign and cultural films recommened by University faculty.”
It does make me wonder if the Uniersity’s Memorial Union had a theater?
Cinema Tour lists that the Strands address was 76 Main St. and listed it as Old Town, ME
so at-least we know it existed just not if it building still stands or not
From Boxoffice of March 16, 1957: “The Strand Theatre, Orono, Me., will close its doors March 25 because of poor business. Connie Russell jr. is the owner.”
Then the April 6 issue of Boxoffice said: “Connie Russell jr. closed the Strand, Orono, Me., and completed plans to turn it into an office building.”
The earliest mention of the Strand I’ve found in the trades is from the September 1, 1932, issue of New England Film News, which listed the house as one of half a dozen theaters in the region that had recently reopened. The item did not mention how long the Strand had been closed.