Martha Bradford (c1915 - 2010)

Today Martha Bradford, mother of a good friend of mine, will be buried.

She raised three children, Larry, Glenda, and Kenny.

I remember one time Larry, I, and some others got kicked out of The Strand Theater, for life, I believe the usher said. And when Mrs. Bradford heard about it she exclaimed, "HUMBUG!"

That was the first time I heard the word "Humbug" used other than Old Scrooge, at Christmas time.

She went down to The Strand Theater and had a talk with the usher and the manager. She was not only defending Larry but also his friends. Any parent that would go out of her way to defend her child and her child's friend was number one in my book.

Whatever she said was convincing. We were allowed back in.

Judging from the number of people at the funeral home last night she will be missed greatly. She was 95.

The Phantom at the Movies

The white marquee was the marquee for the Cobb Theater in the 40s through at least the 60s. Then it became a number of things, the two I know of is a disco and the latest before it closed was a restaurant that served healthier choice foods. It must not have went over too big.

Just down the side walk a few stores is the newly renovated Strand Theater. You can see its marquee that at the time I took the picture “Smokey Joe’s Café” was playing. Smokey Joe’s Café is a high energy paced music show. I saw a version on HBO and it is good. And there has been other musical type of entertainment or musicals.

As far as I know the newly renovated movie house is lacking one thing so far: Movies. True, there are some movies scheduled but they are not new releases. They are classic movies – time proven movies that movie lovers are in general agreement that these movies were/are great, such as Citizen Cain and Casablanca.

It will be nice for the Strand to show such movies… but what about just plain everyday newly released movies. Those would be nice too.

The price for admission to any of the shows I considered at the Strand is expensive.

So, we still don’t have a theater on the Square that is a movie house that just shows movies. We have a movie house that show classic movies and musical performances and we have another theater, Theater In The Square

What used to be the Cobb Theater is now empty. The last time I looked, it still has its stage, a place for a big screen, and a sloping floor. What is wrong with having a movie theater on the square that features regular newly released movies?

Not that it should matter, but I understand that what used to be the Cobb Theater is now haunted (the person that told should know).

Maybe if they get renovated they should specialize in horror flicks.

Strand Memories

Sunday, as previously mentioned, we went to an opened house at the Strand Theater.

We have already been once after it was renovated. We went New Years Eve to hear Billy Joe Royal in concert. But that was to see and hear the concert, we didn’t have a chance to look around.

I have many memories from my Strand days.




"Baby Bird" (David Green)




Me

Back before I was 12 years old attendance was mandatory for kids my age on Saturday morning. We would see normally see a cowboy movie or sometimes a movie featuring the Bowery Boys, a cartoon, a newsreel, and a cliff hanging serial – which insured us being back the next week to see how the hero got out of that fine mess he found himself in.

Then, a lot of times Saturday or Sunday night I would return with my family to see a good grownup movie, maybe a musical, maybe a shoot’em up cops and robbers movie… movies that are on the Turner Classics today.

I remember one time in the day time (why in the day time?) I was playing with a Roman candle and the blast of white-hot flames licked the palm of my hand which was a very painful ordeal. Also, it presented me with a problem. I was afraid to tell my parents of my blunder because fireworks were illegal and Daddy was a policeman. The only solution I could think of going to a Strand Theater matinee and buying a large Coke and sitting there lost in the movie with my hand down in the cola and ice. It worked. It helped to be on friendly terms with the girl behind the counter – I explained to her what I was going through and what I needed and she told me to keep the cup and she would refill it for me with mostly ice.

I’m sure there were better solutions – but at least this way I could be entertained while wallowing in misery.

After being a teenager we went a lot to movies in mid afternoon after school. Back then you could buy your ticket and go in anytime. If you entered a movie midway you would just wait until that scene rolled around again to leave. Many times you are your companion would say, “This is where we came in.”

As teenagers the ushers kept on us. We would make comments and wise-cracks throughout the movie which the usher kicked us out on more than one occasion and we have even been banned. We knew we just had to wait it out a few months until a new usher was hired… it was music to the ears when we heard “the Strand has a new usher.” We could return.

One time an usher made us leave and told us not to come back Larry B. told his mother. She listened to his “watered down version” and said “Humbug!” It was the first time I heard someone use “humbug” as an expression, other than Charles Dickens. She went down to the Strand and complained to the manager and came back and said we were allowed to return – providing we used our best behavior.

Our best behavior wasn’t saying much, but we got to go back and the usher sort of ignored us – just a nod.

A little man that was a ticket taker was Sharkey. Sharkey was nice, quiet and polite, and not all that observant. We found we could enter from the outside and light up. There was a small area between two sets of doors that smokers smoked… it was also where Sharkey was stationed. After we smoked a cigarette and talked to Sharkey a while, we would ground our cigarettes in the container, and go into the lobby of the theater as if that is where we came from.

Once there was a manager at the Strand named Tiny. Tiny was a big fat brute. He was a Marietta Policeman until he was fired for shooting blacks on several occasions. He later moved on up in the Theater business world to be the manager of the Rialto on Forsyth Street in Atlanta.

I remember watching all the old scary movies when I was young and movies like Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon and I am not quiet sure where and when I saw them. That type of movie either rated a Saturday morning audience or a grown up audience anytime… however, they almost fell into the “B Movie” category, which in that case they would fall in the Cobb Theater group – they were always showing B movies.

Strand Open House last Sunday

Sunday was all about the Strand, the organ music of the Strand, and self-guided tours of the Strand during their open house day.

With a full house audience they treated us to different types or organ music. A large part of the Friends of the Strand belong to another organization of organ connoisseurs. They play organs, restore organs, and know all abut them. The name of the organization, local-wise, is: Atlanta Chapter of the American Theater Organ Society and their email address is ronhcarter@msn.com.


It reminded me of “Moe” the giant Organ at The Fox in Atlanta…. Which reminded me of Moe’s main player Bob Van Camp, who also was an announcer on WSB Radio, and at one time was co-host with Bert Parks a TV show daily at 1:00pm that had a room full of women as an audience…. And that reminded me the music entertainment for that show “Boots Woodall and the Peachtree Cowboys”… but back to the present.

One of the things one of the organs players did was accompanied a silent movie up on the screen. The movie was hilarious! It had all the makings of a good old fashion black and white silent movie. The only name I recognized in it was Walter Berry, who was the villain. It was a great movie. Walter Berry even tied up the sweetie on the railroad tracks – just like Oil Can Harry often did in Mighty Mouse. The organ music complemented the action greatly.

They promised The Strand would have more silent movies and the organ complementing the action.

I wondered, since they were talking and demonstrating all kinds of organs, and they were asking for donations, it would be appropriate for them to come out with an organ grinder with a small organ and his pet monkey with a cup that would scamper around and harass members of the audience and maybe screech at them and threaten them by showing his teeth until they threw money in his cup.

They also had some old time favorite sing –a-lone songs with the words rolling on the screen. Ron Carter announced he was going to have ushers walk around keeping their eyes on the audience to make sure they were singing. If they caught somebody not singing they were going to haul them up on stage to sing. I had horrors thoughts of me up on stage singing solo with the audience laughing at me, not with me.

I sung with all my heart. It is first time I ever sang along with a big group of people.

Also a girl about ten or so sang two solo songs. She was very good. A good deep voice that would carry good. She dedicated the second one to her cat that died last Tuesday. The song was written by Dolly Parton and was named, “I will always love you.”

Oh - I didn't mean the little girl was dragged up on the stage for not singing. She was part of the program. She was all dressed up to sing solo.

I found the tour very interesting I have never been back stage at the Strand to see the dressing rooms, or up high near the top where we went out on the terrace.

Here are interiors shots of our walking tour:


Above - A self-portrait of me while looking at one of the four dressing rooms.

Jones Drug Store

Here is a rare picture of the Strand Theater showing that Jones Drug Store was right next to it.

If I remember correctly Jones Drug Store lead off from under the marquee of the Strand, about even with the box office.

It was small store, shaped something like a lopsided pie. One end, closest to the Square was almost to a point and the other end was wider, which was the pharmacist area. Everything was neatly organized with no wasted space.

The Square also had four other drugstores: Hodges (Dunaway’s), William’s, Atherton’s, and Reynolds & Ferrell. The other drug stores had the floor space to have a soda fountain and luncheon area and a magazine rack. Not Jones’ Drugstore where ever square foot counted.

Eventually, Jones’ moved over a mile away across from Roswell Street Baptist Church where they had a big merchandise section, cosmetic section, soda counter with a grill, with lunch booths, and a big magazine section.

Mrs. Jones, Doc Jones’ wife, seemed to be all over the place with her eyes on everything.

I remember two females behind the soda fountain, one had an eye problem, and the other was Cora. Mrs. Thomas was in cosmetics, she had a son named Dickie about a year younger than me.

My, where does time go?

Here is a rare picture of the Strand Theater showing that Jones Drug Store was right next to it.

If I remember correctly Jones Drug Store lead off from under the marquee of the Strand, about even with the box office.

It was small store, shaped something like a lopsided pie. One end, closest to the Square was almost to a point and the other end was wider, which was the pharmacist area. Everything was neatly organized with no wasted space.

The Square also had four other drugstores: Hodges (Dunaway’s), William’s, Atherton’s, and Reynolds & Ferrell. The other drug stores had the floor space to have a soda fountain and luncheon area and a magazine rack. Not Jones’ Drugstore where ever square foot counted.

Eventually, Jones’ moved over a mile away across from Roswell Street Baptist Church where they had a big merchandise section, cosmetic section, soda counter with a grill, with lunch booths, and a big magazine section.

Mrs. Jones, Doc Jones’ wife, seemed to be all over the place with her eyes on everything.

I remember two females behind the soda fountain, one had an eye problem, and the other was Cora. Mrs. Thomas was in cosmetics, she had a son named Dickie about a year younger than me.

I think I remember but not positive that after Jones Drug Store moved from next door to the Strand Theater Fox Jewelers moved into their spot.

My, where does time go?

Me & Smiley Burnett (A.K.A. Frog Milhouse)

Here is picture of me and my old sidekick Frog Milhouse joshing around.

By the sweater I am wearing I think this was made in or near the year 1948. That was about 58 years ago.

You may recall Frog. He was the general funny man, or general fool in some Gene Awtry and Roy Rogers movies.... the comic relief.

The picture was taken under the marquee sign of the Strand Theater, the social gathring place for my peers and me on Saturday mornings at 10:00 A.M.

My Strand Theater

Save the Strand.

That is the name of the movement to, well, save the Strand Theater.

The Strand was owned by the Martin family, who owned movie theaters and drive-ins all over Georgia.

I don’t know but I think I think I probably averaged visiting the Strand at least once a week for about 19 years. It started when I was about 3 years old and pretty much lasted until I went into the Navy at age 22. That is about 988 times, give or take.

From age 7 to about 11 or 12 I went at least two times a week. On Saturday mornings I would ride my bike up, park it in the bike rack, buy my ticket at the unique ticket booth and go in for the first showing of the day. There would be a cartoon, then a newsreel, a serial segment that stopped on us the last Saturday just as our hero had a horrible fate happening to him, like one I remember he was shoved out of an airplane in midair. But this week you see it from a different angle and the hero grabbed a wheel bar, or a wing brace or something, and climbed back in…. but he would have another death-scare at the end of that segment.

Until about 1970 The Strand Theater was a magnificent gaudy theater with loud red and gold all over, a huge sparkling chandelier, a pretty stair case with beautiful rails, leading up to a balcony that overlooked the lobby where the concession area was. It all had a nice plush look, if you like “busy plush”. Think of The Majestic.

Before I was 6, when I was more mature, when my sister carried me to the show, I remember one serial that I was just plain scare of…. It had a fan that when it started whirling it would issue commands and somehow there was a bad guy that wore a skull mask. I would hide down between the seats scared shitless.

Usually the movie for the Saturday matinee was a cowboy movie with something like The Drango Kid, Red Ryder, Roy Rogers, Lash Larue, Gene Autry, Tarzan, or some that I forgot.

Someplace around my belongings or my late parents’ belongings is a picture of me sitting on Smiley “Frog” Burnett’s lap, taken in front of The Strand Theater. In the picture it game the image that it was just me and Old Frog. I had to pay a quarter for the picture and stand in a long line, and afterward the click, “move on kid!”. I’m still looking for that picture.

I think the admission fee for under 12 years old was 10 cents. Twelve and older was either 12 or 15 cents… either way, it was expensive. So, I slipped by with the under age ticket for as long as I could before one day I was caught. I think I got by almost a full year. But when the manager looked me straight in the eye and asked me wasn’t I 12 years old I nodded my head and almost cried. I was terribly embarrassed.

Then usually on a Sunday or Monday night we as a family went to the movies. And many times after school we few of us would go to the movies.

One time in the daytime, near the 4th of July, I was playing with a Roman cannon. I lit it and it was spewing off a flame jet and it fell over. I went over and lifted it up to point it upward again and when I did the flame jet shot hot flames on the skin of the palm of my hand. YIKES!!!! That was painful. I had a problem. I didn’t want to want to tell my parents because fireworks were against the law in Georgia, and since my father was a policeman, I was afraid he would take a dim view of me playing with something like that. So, I decided to ride the pain out.

I went to the movies. I bought a large coke and sat there with my hand submerged in the cup letting the cold ice and cool liquid comfort me. I think I sat through the same movie about 3 times. The girl at the concession stand told me to keep my cup and she would refill it with ice for me. Which I did. Whew!

The ticket taker for years was a little runt named Sharkey. He wore a red blazer and chewed gum in a confident way. After you got to know him you would soon realize he was dumb as a rock.

Sharkey’s work station was at the door in a kind of a foyer. The room also served smokers. If you couldn’t wait until the movie was over, you could come out to the foyer and smoke, shoot the breeze with Sharkey while he took up tickets and then snuff it out in the big cylinder shape thing with sand in it, then return to your seat. After high school sometimes we would drop by, walk in where Sharkey was (from the outside). Light up a cigarette, talk a while, include Sharkey in our conversation, and look like we concur with his opinions, snuff our cigarettes and go in (to the movie).

I think I started smoking because of our plan with Sharkey.

As teenagers we would cut up in the theater. It came to pass where a wise manager would post an usher near us, by the exit door. When we got too noise he would come over and tap his flashlight and shake his head. One time when we were too routie the usher kicked us out. One friend’s mother came up to defend her son, and when the usher tried telling her that her son was causing a disturbance she said, “Humbug!” That is the first time I heard Humbug used except when Ebenezer Scrooge used it.

I think because of a many shopping centers opening out in the country side that had movie theaters, people just didn’t have a reason to go into town for anything, not even movies. So, The Strand died of lack of interest.

Now as you walk by you see debris in the lobby and maybe fast food sacks and cups. It is closed with no lights, it is dark. For a few years it served as a church, that had primitive leanings. I used to like to go downtown and run on Sunday mornings. I could here the hymns being sung along with a piano and tambourines. It was enjoyable to listen to as I ran up and down the streets near by.

After the church got enough money they moved out and into a modern looking building.

Then The Strand became a place for concerts. Punk rock kind of music and clientele. Then, it got junky looking with graffiti and broken windows.

And now the group to save it has put up some money and it is empty and unused.

A couple of doors down was the Cobb Theater, also owned by the Martin family. It had no balcony for the blacks. It was an alternative kind of theater. It showed artsy kind of movies and a lot of foreign movies. I remember it showed a lot of black and white movies.

It dwindled in popularity like The Strand and became a discotheque about ten or twelve years ago. Now it is a upscale restaurant serving healthy food.

The Good Old Days

This is the side view of the now closed Strand Theater in Marietta. It is run down because the lack of interest. There is a group "Save the Strand" who is trying to get it restored back to the way it used to be.

Around front was a huge glittering with light bulbs awning holding a giant marquee. A beautiful handcarved ticket booth. Several big glass displays of posters of coming events. All the movie glamor you could ask for.

However, that was for the whites only. This picture is the "Colored Entrance". No weathering protection awning, no glamorous posters. They had to sit in the very back of the balcony, far from the screen. And be thankful that movie house accepted them, the other two didn't. Separate but equal?

I wonder if when they restore everything like it used to be, I wonder if that will include the "Colored Entrance".

When someone says he/she wishes things would go back to the way they were, you can bet that person never walked through the above doors.