Memories of the Strand

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This article was published 24/03/2018 (2932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Memories of the Strand Theatre are hanging heavy in the hearts of Brandonites this month, while the building is dismantled in preparation for its ultimate demolition.

Its longtime vacancy has no doubt helped ease theatregoers into its destruction, which is expected to take place within the next few days.

Even by its 2005 closure, the theatre was well past its heyday, with its final day of operation finding only a “trickle” of an audience showing up to see the critically panned superhero movie, “Elektra,” according to The Brandon Sun at the time.

Despite efforts to keep the building open following its final night, including a years-long effort by the Brandon Folk, Music and Art Festival’s leadership to turn it into an events venue, the building slowly degraded until it was deemed unsalvageable.

Last year’s media tour of the building’s interior revealed its dilapidated state, with extensive water damage noted throughout.

But it’s not the theatre’s disappointing swan song and the building’s slow death that has stuck in local movie fans’ memories.

Instead, it’s of their first movie, the close-knit community atmosphere the theatre fostered and other fond memories.

Brandon General Museum and Archives vice-chair and lifelong Brandon resident Brent Chamberlain said that his fondest memories of the theatre date back to the early ’60s, when as a youngster he’d attend Saturday matinees with a group of friends.

“We’d save our bus money and walk, especially in the summers, and we’d usually have enough for admission and popcorn and a drink or something,” he said.

His first movie at the Strand was the Disney animated feature “The Sword in the Stone.”

After watching a movie, Chamberlain would join his friends in walking over to the Prince Edward Hotel, which had the only colour television they knew about.

They’d watch Bugs Bunny for a while and then walk back home.

John Pungente grew up at the Strand Theatre, which he considered his “babysitter.”

“It was a clean environment and a safe place to leave kids on their own,” he said.

His father, also named John, managed the Strand from 1943 to 1987, and while Pungente said that he hadn’t gone to a movie at the Strand since 1953, the experience stuck with him.

There was something about the loud noise, big screen and larger-than-life atmosphere that he said “you get drawn into.”

“You don’t have to do anything but sit there and let it envelop you,” he said.

Now a film critic based in Toronto, Pungente looks back on the Strand and other single-screen theatres like it with fond nostalgia, the likes of which few people of today’s generation can relate to.

“The kids today, with social media, are quite happy to watch movies on their phones,” he said. “It’s just not the same.”

When the Strand Theatre opened in late 1916, it was hailed as a symbol of “western progress and development.”

The first movie screened at the theatre was the American silent drama film “The Honorable Friend” on Nov. 27, 1916, whose opening night The Brandon Sun reported as being an “unqualified success.”

“From the time the doors opened, every seat was filled and there was not a moment for several hours afterwards when the long corridors were not crowded with men and women waiting their turn to go in and see the show,” The Brandon Sun reported.

The building’s interior was written about using grandiose verbiage, with The Brandon Sun writing that “its floor of inlaid tile and artistically wainscotted walls prepares the visitor for the high-class tone of the interior conditions.”

Despite the building’s interior undergoing a number of renovations over its lifespan, it began showing its age during its final years.

Mike Waddell said that the seats “weren’t the most comfortable” by the time he started going to moves in the ’90s.

“It wasn’t modern, but it was truly a movie theatre… It wasn’t like stepping into a spacecraft like the new ones are,” he said.

Not all the seats worked properly, so patrons had to move around until they found two next to one another that were comfortable.

He said that the floors were uneven and there was popcorn grease embedded in everything, but that it remained a unique experience that he remembers fondly.

The first movie he remembers seeing at the theatre was “Titanic.”

While lined up to gain admission, he said that he remembers hearing someone say, unsarcastically; “I really hope the boat doesn’t sink.”

Lifelong Brandonite Diane Nelson said that the theatre “went from old world elegant to modern chic design” during its final years.

Her first movie at the Strand was either “Mary Poppins” or “Oliver! The Musical.”

A reporter for The Brandon Sun at the time, Nelson attended one of the more notable events the Strand Theatre hosted during its nearly century-long history in 1994; the premiere of the movie “For the Moment.”

Filmed in the Brandon area in 1992, including at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, the movie, set during 1942 wartime, premiered at the Strand on Aug. 25, 1994.

A grand event featuring the likes of writer/director Aaron Kim Johnston and star Russell Crowe, the premiere found the theatre packed solid, necessitating a second showing that evening.

“The excitement was palpable,” Nelson said.

It was loud in the theatre, with people excitedly chatting in anticipation of the movie they were about to see. With various local area people serving as extras in the movie, including Nelson, she said that they were excited about both the movie and who they might see in it.

“It was really electric in there,” she said. “There was a buzz.”

Former mayor Rick Borotsik, whose first movie at the Strand was “Old Yeller,” said that although Crowe was not yet the movie star he would later become, people in Brandon were convinced he’d be the next Mel Gibson and were excited to meet him.

One of his favourite photographs was taken of Crowe and himself at the municipal airport, where they met in advance of the premiere.

Despite one of its high points coming during its final decades, the Strand’s future remained in flux for much of this time.

Famous Players closed the Strand in 1991, with the movie house opening a few weeks later under new management.

Landmark Cinemas subsequently purchased the building, after which they opened the four-screen Capital at Shoppers Mall in 1998.

When they announced plans in 2004 to expand the Capital by five screens, they also signalled the beginning of the end of their downtown theatre.

Within six months of the building’s 2005 closure, the Brandon Folk, Music & Art Festival’s leadership began looking at reopening the space as an events and arts venue.

Shandra MacNeill headed this effort, and said that one of their motivators was the idea of renewing the community hub vibe that existed through much of the theatre’s lifespan.

She said that she remembers coming out of the theatre during the late evening and hitting a crowd of people who gathered along 10th Street, either lined up for a movie or hanging out afterward.

“It was just a very active and wonderful time and place in Brandon,” she said.

MacNeill, whose first movie at the Strand was “The Empire Strikes Back,” said that while their effort failed to find success, she’s optimistic that Brandon University’s purchase of the property will result in the same kind of community renewal the arts group was striving toward.

Although those contacted for this story were unanimous in celebrating Brandon University’s purchase of the property and its newfound potential, they couldn’t help but get nostalgic for the Strand.

“It brings back good old memories,” Borotsik said. “The atmosphere was great. In its heyday, it’s the best place you could possibly have for a movie theatre.”

“It was very special to me, and I’m sure a ton of folks in the Brandon area,” Nelson said.

“It was a huge part of the everyday goings on of Brandon and southwest Manitoba, and it was missed when it was closed down,” she added.

Although it has been closed for more than a decade and has become unsalvageable, she said that the thought of the building being reduced to vacant land “leaves a little empty space in my heart, too.”

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB