Brandon’s Strand Theatre has date with wrecker’s ball

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This article was published 23/03/2018 (2225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Memories of the Strand Theatre are hanging heavy in the hearts of Brandonites, as the building is dismantled in preparation for demolition.

However, its longtime vacancy has no doubt helped ease the minds of former patrons. 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 a Brandon Sun report.

Despite efforts to keep the building open, including a years-long effort by Brandon Folk, Music & Art Festival leadership to turn it into an events venue, the building slowly degraded until it was deemed unsalvageable. A 2017 media tour of the interior revealed its dilapidated state, with extensive water damage noted throughout. Demolition is expected to begin next week.

It’s not the theatre’s disappointing swan song nor the building’s slow death that has stuck with local movie fans. Instead, it’s memories of their first movie, the close-knit community atmosphere the theatre fostered, and other fond recollections.

Brandon General Museum and Archives vice-chairman Brent Chamberlain said his fondest memories of the theatre date back to the early 1960s, when 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.

John Pungente grew up at the Strand Theatre, which opened in 1916. “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 1943-87. There was something about the loud noise, big screen and larger-than-life atmosphere, Pungente said, “you get drawn into. You don’t have to do anything but sit there and let it envelop you.”

Now a film critic based in Toronto, Pungente looks back on the Strand and other similar single-screen theatres with fond nostalgia.

“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, it was hailed as a symbol of “western progress and development.”

The first movie screened at the theatre was the silent drama film The Honorable Friend on Nov. 27, 1916 — an 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 building and “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 in its final years.

Mike Waddell said the seats “weren’t the most comfortable” by the time he started going to moves in the 1990s.

“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.

Waddell said the floors were uneven, and there was popcorn grease embedded in everything. But it remained a unique experience he remembers fondly. The first movie he remembers seeing there was Titanic.

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

A former Brandon Sun reporter, Nelson attended one of the more notable events the Strand Theatre hosted — the 1994 première of For the Moment.

Filmed in the Brandon area in 1992, the wartime story was set in 1942. (It was not released in the U.S. until 1996.)

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

“The excitement was palpable,” Nelson said.

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

When Landmark Cinemas announced plans in 2004 to expand its other local theatre, the Capital, it signalled the end of the downtown venue.

— Brandon Sun