Opened: 1914. It was on the south side of the street a few doors west of Euclid Ave. This early trade magazine photo was a find by Cinema Treasures contributor Elmorovivo for that site's page about the theatre.
Architects: Train and Williams -- Robert Farquhar Train and Robert Edmund Williams. Hugh Howe Hinds and O.N. Land were the contractors for the project. It was a two story building with shops, offices and the theatre. It was constructed for $26,000 for owner Frank Dale. Thanks to Joe Vogel for the research. He found the architects listed in an item in the June 6, 1914 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor.
An illustration and article about the project appearing in a June 1914 issue of the L.A. Times. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for posting these as comments on a thread about Pasadena theatres on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
Seating: 782
In 1921 the Bay Area circuit Turner & Dahnken came to town and made several theatre owners offers they couldn't refuse. This
May 5 story appeared in the Long Beach
Press. Thanks to Ron Mahan for locating it. The four theatres involved were Clune's Pasadena (later to be called the Fox Pasadena) the
Raymond, the Strand, and the Florence, later rebranded as the State.
Claude L. Langley had worked
for T&D in San Francisco and moved south. Soon the Pasadena
theatres of the firm were being known as the Turner, Dahnken &
Langley circuit, or T D & L. In early 1923 West Coast Theatres
bought out the 2/3 interest in the mini-circuit that was held by T&D
and the chain was then known as West Coast-Langley. See the page about the Palace Grand Theatre in Glendale for more data about the circuit's evolution.
A c.1924 ad for the four Pasadena theatres operated by West Coast-Langley. The Los Angeles Public Library has this as a pdf in their California Index.
A
March 1925 ad for the Strand and the other West Coast-Langley houses.
In May 1925 they would add a fifth Pasadena theatre, the Washington,
much later called Cinema 21. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for posts on the America in the 1920s and Ken's Movie Page Facebook groups.
West Coast-Langley gave the theatre a remodel in 1924 to give it more of the then-popular
Spanish look. Joe Vogel found an article in the June 14, 1924 issue of the Pasadena Star-News about the reopening. C.L. Langley sold his 1/3 interest in the circuit in the fall of 1925 and
all their theatres were then operated directly by West Coast. After William Fox bought a controlling interest in 1929 the firm was called Fox West Coast. The theatre was then sometimes advertised as the Fox Strand.
"The Coolest Spot In Town." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing the Pasadena Post page this June 27, 1929 ad was on as a post for the America in the 1920s Facebook group.
An October 1929 "William Fox Silver Jubilee" ad located by Ken McIntyre.
A 1931 ad for the Strand and two other Fox West Coast houses, the Park and the Florence, later known as the State. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.
Closing: The date is unknown. Bill Gabel puts the last year of operation as 1956.
Status: It may have been used for retail after closing. The buildings on the block were demolished for construction the Plaza Pasadena shopping center, which opened in 1980. See Matt Hormann's 2009 Hometown Pasadena story "Ghosts of Malls Past: The Plaza Pasadena." That mall was demolished in 2000 and has now been redeveloped into the Paseo Colorado.
Interior views:
A trade magazine photo showing the auditorium before its Spanish Revival redo. Note the curiously off center screen. Thanks to Elmorovivo for posting the photo on Cinema Treasures.
A 1924 post renovation look at the auditorium. It's a Harold A. Parker photo in the Huntington Library collection.
A detail from the previous photo.
A lovely look at the Strand's curtain. It's a photo taken by Dwyer studios that was in the collection of Tony Heinsbergen. Presumably Heinsbergen's firm did the decorating for the 1924 remodel. The photo is now in the Ronald W. Mahan collection. Thanks, Ron!
A 1924 Harold A. Parker photo of the theatre's lounge area. Presumably it didn't look nearly so opulent when the house opened in 1914. The photo is in the Huntington Library collection.
More exterior views:
c.1915 - A view looking east along Colorado Blvd. with the Strand over on the right. The photo is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection where they date it as 1917. A version also appears in the L.A. Examiner Photographs Collection of the USC Digital Library where they date it as 1918.
Joe Vogel dates it earlier: "It’s a view of Colorado Street east of Marengo, with the new Post Office under construction on the near corner of Garfield Avenue in the foreground. The large white building beyond that is the Hotel Maryland, which was at the northwest corner of Colorado and Los Robles. The front of the Strand can be glimpsed at far right, with its side wall displaying the theatre’s name. The Post Office was completed in 1915, so this dates the photo to about the time the Strand opened. Every nearby building in this photograph, excepting only the Post Office, is now gone."
c.1915 - A detail taken from USC's version of the photo.
1924 - The ticket lobby after the theatre's Spanish Revival remodel. It's a photo taken by Harold A. Parker for the theatre's operator, Turner Dahnken & Langley, soon to become West Coast - Langley. The photo is in the Huntington Library collection.
1924 - A detail from Harold A. Parker's ticket lobby photo.
1925 - The theatre running "Man and Maid." Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for finding the photo for a post on Cinema Treasures. The manager, Charles F. McManus, had rigged up a projector and rear projection screen to promote the film.
1927 - "The Fire Brigade" at the Strand. The photo is from the July 15, 1927 issue of the West Coast Theatres magazine "Now." The caption: "The fire department, Pasadena, Cal., cooperated in the effective exploitation of 'The Fire Brigade' at the Strand Theatre." Thanks to Brooklyn-based theatre historian Cezar Del Valle for sharing the image from the magazine in his collection.
1927 - Another view of the promotion for "The Fire Brigade." Thanks again to Cezar Del Valle for sharing the photo. Keep up with his latest explorations on his Theatre Talks website and Facebook page.
1929 - A Harold A. Parker photo in the Huntington Library collection. The theatre was playing "The Awakening" with Vilma Banky along with Charley Chase in "Is Everybody Happy?"
c.1943 - A postcard view looking east on Colorado Blvd. with the Strand marquee on the right next to the Route 66 sign. The store flying the flag is The Broadway, built on the site of the Maryland Hotel at Colorado and Los Robles. Thanks to Roger for sharing it on Flickr. He comments:
"This is shortly after the Broadway department store opened (1941) and note the fairly large crowd of people on the south sidewalk; presumed to be lining up for a show at the Strand theatre just west of Euclid Ave., wherein you can just make out its marquee, extending out over the sidewalk. Note that this group of people appears to be predominately women. Maybe, because so many men are now away in military service when this was taken? Note in this linen photocard, the trolley tracks and overhead wires have been airbrushed out."
1945 - A photo by J. Allen Hawkins. Perhaps the dairy trucks were there for a promotion of some sort. The photo comes from the Pasadena Museum of History and was on the website of the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration. It appears to have been lost in a website makeover. Two from the Museum that are on the site: lobby war bonds display - 1945 | marching band on stage - 1945 |
1949 - Looking east from Garfield Ave. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor SoCal1954 (aka Roger) for sharing this card from his collection. On Noirish post #13744 he notes that he bought it at the Thrifty Drug seen on the card and it was published by the Kurt Teich Co. with the year identifiable by the code on the bottom right. He determined that the Strand, on the right, is playing "One Sunday Afternoon" with Janis Paige and Dennis Morgan, a film that ran February 10-12.
Roger adds: "In the distance you can see the twin radio towers on top of the old Star-News building, used to transmit/receive wire-photos and teletypes. William Pitt Jewelers (with the large clock 11:25) was the corner across from Thrifty's; and two doors down, closest to the Broadway, with the reddish awning was the Woolworth store. From the corner of Euclid back west and past the Strand, is the current location of the Paseo de Colorado mall. Interestingly too, for many years, there was a one-armed/one-legged man who sold newspapers and magazines at a small news-stand in front of Thrifty's; I am sure he is the person you can just make out with the gray hoodie, just behind that green 1940's sedan at the left of the photo."
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Strand for some nice comments. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database also has a page on the Strand.
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