The Strand Theater: From Movies to Drive-In Garage

The Strand Theater opened to the silent-movie-going public in Syracuse at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17, 1915.

Construction had begun the previous August, and the Syracuse Herald touted the project’s use of “local capital, local labor, and local brains.” Entertainment offered at this theater was different from the live stage shows that attracted residents less than a generation before. Motion pictures were still relatively new to Onondaga County. The Strand wasn’t the first motion-picture theater; that honor most likely belongs to the Crescent Theatre, which opened in 1909 on S. Salina Street. The Strand followed the Crescent and Novelty (both 1909), the Empire (1911), the Eckel (1913), the Temple (1914), as well as other smaller theaters. By the time the Strand opened in 1915, more than 50 theaters had been built or converted in Syracuse to show “the once despised” movies. Stigmatized by a reputation of being sleazy peep-show dives, early movie-house owners began to promote their theaters as wholesome visual-entertainment venues. “Devoted exclusively to [showing] the highest class [of] motion pictures,” the Strand was the latest grand movie theater to open in Syracuse to show motion pictures.

The Strand Theater, located at 501 S. Salina St. in Syracuse, was designed by Thomas W. Lamb at a cost of $200,000 (valued at $4.7 million in 2016 dollars). Lamb was the same architect who designed the Strand Theater in New York City. He also designed the Temple, RKO Keith, and the Loew’s State (now the Landmark) theaters in Syracuse. The Mitchell Mark Company of Buffalo built the Strand from Lamb’s design; it was its 13th movie theater. In promoting the physical attributes of the Strand, Mitchell Mark said, “There are so many new ideas in it; it’s so complete, so metropolitan. It cannot fail to take the city by storm, Syracuse is certainly awake to the drawing power of the motion pictures, as the Twentieth century form of amusement, and the deluxe pictures that will be presented here will bring the public in droves.”

Several local businessmen invested in the Strand, including Isaac Rosenbloom, co-owner of the Rosenbloom & Son department store, George Tickner, VP of Syracuse Trust Company, and William E. Kane, an inventor, industrialist, & amateur archaeologist who developed a hoist bridge for the Erie Canal in Syracuse and was present at the discovery of the tomb of the famed Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun (King Tut). The Syracuse Herald praised these local businessmen (known as the Syracuse Strand Theater Company) for putting forth their best efforts and instilling civic pride in Syracuse by constructing an upscale, aesthetic entertainment site, whose very presence in the community fostered civic pride for a new Syracuse.

The theater’s interior was designed in the French Renaissance motif, decorated in ivory and gold colors, with rose-colored curtains. It featured mezzanine and balcony levels, boasted the latest in amenities and comfort, and accommodated nearly 1,700 patrons. A full orchestra placed on the theater’s stage provided the musical accompaniment for the silent films, supported by a $15,000 pipe organ.

On opening night, a large crowd filled its seats, even as over 1,000 disappointed patrons were turned away. As the curtain rose, revealing the orchestra and organ, the crowd enthusiastically applauded, and then rose to their feet as the national anthem commenced. The first movie shown at the Strand that night was a dramatic love story entitled, “The Warrens of Virginia,” produced and directed by Cecile B. DeMille, and starring Blanche Sweet as Agatha Warren. Within the backdrop of the American Civil War, the plot featured Ned Burton, a Union soldier in love with Agatha, who leaves her to fight the war. During the film, Agatha protects Ned and saves him from certain death, while she remains torn between her love for the soldier and her loyalty to the Southern cause.

During its opening days, the Syracuse Strand Theater received first-run movies directly from the New York City Strand Theater, and showed them before other Syracuse movie theaters received them. The films featured popular silent-movie stars such as Elsie Janis, Gaby Deslys, and William H. Crane. Crane, a notable comic actor, starred in “David Harum,” a silent film made in 1915 that was based on the 1898 novel of the same name, written by Edward Noyes Westcott of Syracuse. The Strand showed the movie on March 21, four days after the theater opened. The film titles changed frequently, almost daily. Theater owners wanted the public to return regularly, making profits to pay their investors, and cultivating customer loyalty, as well as an atmosphere that transported viewers to other lands, times, and circumstances. With World War I raging throughout Europe and the Middle East, violence, natural and man-made disasters, and political agitation in the United States, movie goers often escaped into make-believe, where the virtues of truth and justice prevailed.

The Strand Theater was successful during the Roaring ‘20s. In 1925, the theater hosted an impressive children’s Christmas party. More than 1,500 children attended the party inside the theater, while hundreds were turned away. The theater continued to show the newest motion pictures and it smoothly transitioned from silent films to talkies late in the decade. In October 1928, advertisements for the Strand promoted the theater as “The Home of Talkies.” At this time, the theater also became more cavalier with its reputation for showing respectable films. Advertising a film titled, “Show Girl,” the theater portrayed the lead actress, Alice White as the new, vivacious movie favorite and “Hotsy Totsy.” Also listed were the Strand Debutantes, an all-girl band. The ad also exploited the status of Franklin Chase, a well-respected newspaperman & editor of the Syracuse Journal, local historian, and civic leader. Chase was quoted as saying, “See it and become merrymakers. Don’t miss this picture.” The Strand wasn’t alone in its attempt to capitalize on society’s vacillating mores at the end of the 1920s; other Syracuse movie theaters followed suit with more adult-oriented plots, seemingly colliding head-on with earlier attempts at disassociating themselves with less-dignified movie story lines.

In August 1929, the Syracuse Strand Theater Company leased the theater to Warner Bros. Studios for 10 years, having rejected an earlier purchase offer of $400,000 by Paramount Pictures. Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. also had considered buying the Strand but reconsidered its purchase offer. The days of independently owned movie theaters were being challenged as these theaters were becoming absorbed by producer-distributor-operator corporations. By 1933, RKO operated the Strand on behalf of Warner Bros. In Syracuse, RKO also owned the Keith’s and the Paramount theaters.

In 1935, the Strand became part of a movie-theater management pool controlled by RKO and Schine Enterprises. J. Meyer Schine started Schine Enterprises in Syracuse in 1915. Subsequently moving to Gloversville, N.Y. by the time of the operations agreement, Schine Enterprises owned more than 75 movie theaters in New York state. The agreement between RKO and Schine divided control of the Syracuse movie theaters between the two management companies, and they dictated which theaters would show first and second-run movies. The Strand then became known as the RKO Schine Strand.

By 1940, the Strand was offering live entertainment along with its movie presentations. In between showing the most recent films of the day, audiences could also go to the Strand to watch variety-show revues, Blackstone the magician, or drummer Gene Krupa and his swing band.

In April 1943, the RKO Schine Strand joined the Loew’s State theater chain and became known as the Loew’s Strand Theater. This new association with Loew’s, which occurred during the height of World War II, was marked by a campaign to sell $328,000 in war bonds. The Back Your Buddy with a Bond campaign culminated on April 28 with a parade through downtown Syracuse that ended at the Strand. Inside, patriotic exercises were conducted on the Strand’s stage. A capacity crowd joined in the festivities, free of charge, with Loew’s staff giving each patron who purchased a war bond a souvenir admission card. Theater management announced that the new Loew’s Strand would show only first run movies in its newly decorated theater.

Throughout most of the 1950s, the Loew’s Strand Theater continued to offer a wide variety of movies. During the early to mid-1950s, westerns were a popular genre, along with other hits featuring Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Burt Lancaster. However, the 1950s also saw the end of the Strand Theater’s existence.

On Aug. 16, 1959, the Strand showed its last movies. The lineup included a Tom & Jerry cartoon, Loew’s News of the Day, and the feature film: “A Hole in the Head,” starring Frank Sinatra & Edward G. Robinson. The advertisement in the Syracuse newspapers simply stated, “Last Day.” After 45 years, the Strand Theater closed its doors to its loyal movie-going patrons that Sunday night.

The closing was precipitated by the City of Syracuse offering to buy the Strand Theater from Loew’s for $225,000 and build a parking garage on the site, providing the court approved the sale. After some wrangling with one city councilman, the city won court approval, passed local legislation to sell $1 million in bonds to build the garage, and proceeded to demolish the opulent theater. When it opened on Monday, May 1, 1961, the Strand Garage was the first mechanical parking garage in Syracuse, featuring staff-operated elevators that raised or lowered vehicles throughout the multi-level structure. Unfortunately, the new garage opened to a lackluster response by downtown drivers; only 100 garage patrons parked in the available 360 sites while other parking garages filled to capacity. Almost from its opening, the Strand Garage was plagued by losing money. During its first month, the $1 million garage had only made $1,965, falling drastically behind the anticipated revenue. By 1962, collecting fees from too few parkers, paying staff salary, and facing constant repairs to the elevators and other equipment, the garage was losing $10,000 a month. By 1966, Lee Alexander, Democratic candidate for councilor-at-large, suggested that the city sell the garage, citing lost revenue and the construction of the MONY Center garage as a major competitor. As the 1960s came to a close, the Strand Garage was still losing more than $10,000 per month. By 1975, after 15 years of losing income on the “white elephant” garage, the now Mayor Alexander decided to close the Strand garage. Four years later, the closed parking garage was demolished, and in June 1980, Alexander opened another city-owned garage, built on the site of the old Strand Garage at a cost of $3.5 million and accommodating 570 vehicles. The new garage was connected to the Hotel Syracuse by a skyway bridge and was called the Hotel Syracuse Parking Garage. Because of Hotel Syracuse’s financial troubles in the 1990s and early 2000s, the garage had deteriorated and the city closed it in 2002. However, the city reopened the garage in 2007 and it remains open today. It will now serve a revitalized hotel and downtown Syracuse.

Thomas Hunter is the curator of museum collections at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.