Strand Theatre

Jamestow on May 9, 2013 at 1:17 pm

Apologies, i just saw your picture. What a change from the 50’s to the 80’s. Sad!

RickB on April 23, 2009 at 8:56 pm

Since the store next door is boasting “the widest selection of Atari cartridges,” the 1982 date on this picture may well be correct.

dandamon on February 13, 2008 at 12:06 pm

Sadly, the Strand now seems beyond the reach of renovation or restoration. Its new owner has completely stripped the interior seating, demolished and stage and eliminated the interior lobby where the candy stand had been, leaving an enormous whitewashed interior which, word has it, he plans to outfit as retail space. That would have to have zoning board approval and may not meet muster. In any event, it is sad that the town officials have not done more to use it as an anchor in the downtown redevelopment plans (unlike Montclair, where the Wellmont Theatre looks likely to become a performance venue that will helpt their downtown handily).
See my posts below. Dan Damon, Plainfield Today

I have posted two items recently on the fate of the Strand Theater ( make sure to get the entire URL in your browser address bar)—

View link
and
View link

kencmcintyre on January 14, 2008 at 4:14 pm

The theater has been closed for a few years, apparently.

skyvue on March 4, 2007 at 12:18 pm

TC, I wonder if you’d be able and willing to provide a larger version of that image — I’d love to have it as the desktop background on my monitor.

rrettino on February 3, 2007 at 9:52 am

Another theatre I worked at as a projectionist. The booth was a torture chamber. It had an open cider block outside wall. Birds used to nest in the open holes. In the winter you froze and in the summer melted between the outside heat and the heat from the carbon arc lamphouses. Same booking policy in the 70’s that the Liberty had;horror, black expoltiation ,porno and cheap Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

teecee on March 24, 2006 at 8:26 pm

Opened in 1921. Opening features: The Gilded Lily starring Mae Murray and Neighbors starring Buster Keaton.

source: Plainfield: 300 years, page 117.

teecee on March 2, 2006 at 4:17 am

Listed as a Brandt Theater in the 1976 International Motion Picture Almanac.

teecee on August 8, 2005 at 11:05 am

Go to this link and type in “Strand” in the search box for an old postcard:
View link

The Strand is barely visible on the right side.

teecee on June 22, 2005 at 12:33 pm

The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), July 14, 1999 p035
NEW LIFE FOR AN OLD THEATER; Plainfield’s Strand reopening as hub of Asian Indian film. (UNION)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1999 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.

Byline: Jennifer Golson

The Strand Theater in Plainfield is about to become a moviehouse again.

A group of investors hopes its work will turn the venue into a hub for Asian Indian films and performing arts from all cultures.

Tonight, the East Front Street theater will screen its first film since the 1980s, under a new red- white-and-blue marquee for the Strand Center for Performing and Visual Arts.

The owners of an Indian music distribution company have signed a three-year lease with Edison resident Qasim M. Qasim, who owns the 20,000-square-foot theater.

While the theater will be the weekend home of movies that go for $8 a seat, it will be available other times for cultural groups and others to hold plays and small concerts. The music distributor has entered a pact with Qasim, naming the endeavor Strand Entertainment Inc., said Suri Gopalan, one of the owners of Vista India and vice president of Strand Entertainment.

Renovations have been under way at the 65-year-old former movie house for about a month, with little talk of the project outside the Indian community.

But for the South Asian population in neighboring Middlesex and Somerset counties, a taste of ‘Bollywood’ will be within 20 minutes, Gopalan said, citing the Bombay-based movie industry that thrives in India and rivals America’s Hollywood.

‘'We’ve got a big, huge entertainment culture of our own,“ Gopalan said. "We love watching movies. The stars are as big, if not bigger, than here.”

There are few Indians residing in Plainfield, but more than 50,000 in Central Jersey, according to Pradip (Peter) Kothari, president of the Edison-based Indo-American Cultural Society and the Indian Business Association.

Members of the community already come into the city for cultural programs at Plainfield High School, Kothari said. “So Plainfield High School is popular in our community as it is,” he said.

There are few venues for Indian movies, according to Rohit Vyas, news director of TV Asia in Edison. Some distributors lease movie theaters to show the films that feature the sounds, music and scenery of home, he said.

‘'They usually have packed houses,“ Vyas said. "There is nothing that seems to pull together Indians more than a motion picture from India.”

In New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, there are 14 theaters owned or leased for Indian films, said Lal Dadlaney, who owns the Center Theater in Bloomfield, and Bloomfield-based Video Sound, a movie distribution house.

India produces more than 400 movies a year, with 50 of them released in the United States. “The potential for this is immense,” he said, adding that the Indian movie industry in the United States rakes in up to $7 million a year.

Merchants in Plainfield hope it rakes in at least enough to keep the theater up and running. The Strand was one of four movie houses in the city, including the Liberty, Paramount and Oxford theaters. All closed. Last year, the nearby Blue Star Cinema in Watchung closed its doors.

Qasim, who purchased the Strand and surrounding properties in 1973 for $245,500, said he has received a number of pitches for different projects at the Strand, but none of have come to fruition.

‘'We’ve made agreements and at the last minute they don’t even show up,“ said Qasim, who is a retired math professor. "These gentlemen, I’ve found that they are serious. They are credible.”

So far the investors in the Strand have revamped the stage inside the building and painted the lobby a salmon pink. The 1,350 seats have been reupholstered in a sea green, and Dolby stereo sound will pump out the showing of “Mann,” Hindi for “Listen to Your Heart.”

Two of the stars, Amir Khan and Manisha Koirala, are expected at tonight’s opening.

Norm Golden, owner of Golden Jewelers on East Front Street, said it was a surprise for a city of Plainfield’s size not to have a movie theater at all, even if it caters to a certain culture.

But he added that he didn’t expect much foot traffic since there is a large shopping district in Edison that caters to Indian tastes.

Robbie Walker said he was more optimistic, hoping that potential shoppers would return to the area. The city needs something to further draw shoppers to the area. Last year, Plainfield Plaza, a mini- mall, opened a few doors down on East Front Street.

‘'With the plaza and the theater, they will see a little life coming back into town,“ said Walker, a Plainfield native.

CAPTION(S):

1. Suri Gopalan is bringing Asian Indian films to the Strand Theater in Plainfield.

2. Workers do a final cleanup at the Strand, which opens tonight.

PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN W. PERLETT

Article CJ81488820

MikeH on June 9, 2005 at 11:28 am

Back in the early 60s the Strand-Plainfield was a Walter Reade theatre and was one of two first-run theatres in the town. The other was the Liberty Theatre owned by an independent operator.
The Strand lasted as a first-run for some time after that but I’m not sure how long. It was fairly unique in those days because it had a women manager. Her name was Ann DeRagon. Reade also had another theatre in Plainfield called the Paramount Art Cinema. It showed art (foreign) film and, because it wasn’t air-conditioned, closed during the summer months. The Paramount also had its own little art gallery/coffee room where patrons could wait for the show to start. It was a very old theatre, looked like a vaudeville house built near the turn of the century. The walls in the lobby were painted with red dragons from floor to ceiling which was about two stories high. The auditorium floor was wood. It never was very successful as an art theatre. Reade kept it open as an outlet for his own art distribution company. The name of the distribution company escapes me right now.
The Strand wasn’t nearly so dramatic but it was a nice theatre. The auditorium was a stadium type. The lobby was wood paneled.
The Plainfield theatres were supervised by a man named Joe Somers and his district also included the Community-Morristown, the Majestic-Perth Amboy and the Woodbridge drive-in-Woodbridge.
MikeH

jackstrike on February 1, 2005 at 12:34 pm

Its in good shape with a big stage- I did the sound for a concert there about three years ago. But it is very plain inside. Probably seats 1000. No balcony