Strand Theatre

The original architect of the Strand was Thomas J. Hill Pierce.

Excerpts on the background on the Strand Theatre from Roger Brett’s 1976 Temples of Illusion:

“The Strand Theater…was built by businessmen rather than showmen…The National Realty Corporation headed by Isaac Rose and Archibald and Charles Silverman, had a complex structure designed to cover the block bounded by Washington, Union, Worcester and Clemence Streets. The Strand itself occupies the northwest two-thirds of the National Building, while street level stores front on Washington and Union Streets and two floors of office space rise above them.. Their rent has saved the theater from the wrecking ball….

“The theater is of ‘shoe-box’ shape, as opposed to wide, shallow, and almost square size favored by designers of the era’s legitimate and vaudeville houses. It was fashoned primarily for motion pictures…. An original capacity of 2500 was later reduced to 2200 by the installation of newer wider seats.

“Through the World War I years, the Strand presented Sunday afternoon and evening concerts of classical and ‘middlebrow’ music… They performed in front of the curtain, the footlights and concert border lights being the only installed stage lighting, and were accompaned by the Strand Theater Orchestra playing in the pit. With the exception of these concerts, live performance has never taken place on the stage of the Strand.

“The new Strand’s major features were its then unparalleled size and comfort of its lobbies and lounges, and the music of its Wurlitzer theater organ, the first organ to be heard in a Providence theater…. The Strand’s architecture followed that of the New York City Strand, one of the very earliest movie palaces, after which it was named.
(…)
"The opening [June 12, 1915] was not a big social event…. The feature film that opened this house was The Shooting of Dan McGrew (in five acts). A two-reeler, The House of a Thousand Relations, was the second feature; there were two shorts…and a…cartoon. In all, ten reels. Admission was ten cents in the balcony at all times, fifteen cents in the main part of the orchestra during afternoon hours, and up to a quarter for the best orchestra seats after six o'clock.”

The place has just been converted inside to DIESEL…“mega club, lounge, event space.”

PROVIDENCE THEATRES: “TEMPLES OF ILLUSION"
A book called "Temples of Illusion,” by Roger Brett, was published in 1976. It is Mr. Brett’s detailed history of all the old downtown area theatres of Providence from 1871 to 1950. It includes numerous rare photos, a list of theatres with name changes, and a map to show exactly where they all were. The book is an invaluable resource and is owned by many libraries in the R.I. CLAN system. I found a copy for sale online and will use it as a reference for future postings.

Summary of a news article in January of 1930: a fire started in a millinery store on the second floor of the building that houses the Strand Theatre and other businesses. Although the management of the theatre was preparing to notify the patrons, the fire was contained in time and it became unnecessary. The location of the fire was on the other side of Union Street directly across from the entrance to Fay’s Theatre. Patrons of Fay’s were unaware of the event, but passers-by thronged the streets as fire apparatus thundered up to the door. Damage was minimal.

Here is a photo I took of the Strand a while back. It includes the length of the auditorium along the exterior.

I realize this is a bit out of school, but do you know what became of Lupo’s previous home, Gerald?

I remember patronizing Lupo’s many times in the late 1970s. Hasn’t Lupos moved several times?

Oh, I have memories of this theatre, not fond ones though. I grew up in a suburb of Providence, Warwick, R.I. One Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s/early 1970s myself and three of my friends were dropped off my one of our parents to see a double-bill of Polanski’s “Fearless Vampire Hunters” and one of the “Dark Shadows” films I think.

In any event, we get there and it is chaos. The place and is packed and the exclusively “urban” audience was going nuts in the theatre, with people milling around in the lobby, people running on stage. No one is paying attention to the film. We are not there for more than five minutes before we get shaken down and we lose our money.

Finally, we sense trouble and the four of us leave and walk to nearby Federal Hill where the family of one of the guys I was with owned a restaurant. The father, when he sees this motley lot come into his restaurant, starts berating us for not “fighting back.”

In turns out it was prescient for us to leave because there was a riot at the theatre that day and the box office was sacked. I think the box office was one of those free standing facilities just outside the theatre. You had to go outside to get to the box office.

Providence really went downhill in the sixties, seventies and eighties before turning around in more recent years. I do remember when the Strand was a porno house, though.

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that I finally got a chance to see “The Fearless Vampire Killers” when it was revived at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.

What a day that was!

Beautiful Interior

This former movie palace looms high among my nostalgic memories. I remember, as a child of eight in 1950, going here with my parents to see Martin and Lewis in AT WAR WITH THE ARMY (“The Navy gets the gravy, but the a Army gets the beans, beans, beans…”) We sat in the balcony of this huge theatre which was utterly packed! Here is where I saw REAR WINDOW, SAMSON AND DELILAH, TO CATCH A THIEF, THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, SANGAREE (in 3-D), PSYCHO, where the massive audience emitted a massive scream at the moment of horror, Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL, and hundreds of other films, the memorable and the forgettable. The theatre, though huge and not unbeautiful, was functional and without the ornate grandiosity of Loew’s State, now the Providence Arts Center.

I believe the Strand is currently open as a nightclub.