(calm music) (calm music continues) - [Announcer] For over a century movies have brought us together.

They entertain us, they enlighten us.

They take us places we've never been.

Through the movies we are able to see the world through others' eyes.

Imagine with others' imaginations, feel with others' hearts.

Movies can inspire us, challenge us.

And despite our differences, they can unite us.

In small towns and large cities around the world, movie theaters have served as gathering places for communities to come together and share a common link to humanity through the experience of cinema.

(upbeat piano music) At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was entering a period of sweeping transformation.

By 1916, 25 million Americans attended a movie every single day.

The movies and the theaters that exhibited them were fast becoming the most important source of entertainment for a prosperous nation.

(upbeat piano music) The small coastal city of Rockland, Maine was no exception.

(upbeat piano music) (upbeat piano music continues) In the early 1900s, Rockland was still a city powdered in the success of the lime industry.

Its future prosperity, however, was anything but certain.

Transportation and building practices were changing across the country.

Signaling the beginning of the end for Rocklands lime manufacturing and ship building industries.

Fishing, which would become vital to Rocklands prosperity in the coming decades, was just beginning to emerge as an economic force.

(upbeat music) By 1910, there were already two movie theaters operating in Rockland.

The new Dreamland Theater, later renamed the Empire, sat on Oak Street and the Rockland Theater, renamed The Park in the mid twenties, was located on Park Street.

As the new century's second decade began, downtown Rockland was a vibrant commercial and social hub and Main Street bustled with activity.

The horse and carriage shared Main Street with the automobile.

Evidence that Rockland, like so much of the nation, was in transition.

But Rockland Cityscape was about to undergo a more dramatic and unplanned transformation.

(sad music) Just after 2:00 AM on June 16th, 1920, Daniel Churchill, the night man at the Perry Lunch Room, discovered a fire in the rear corner of the central garage, part of the Berry Brothers livery stable on Main Street.

(fire crackling) Mere seconds after pulling the fire alarm, flames had already shot through the main garage and burst through the front of the building.

The fire quickly gathered momentum, making easy prey of wooden structures as it moved northward.

Fire crews from Rockland, assisted by those from Thomaston, Rockport, and Camden rushed to the scene.

But despite their efforts, the fire continued and soon brick structures along the stretch began to crumble, their front walls crashing onto Main Street.

Before it was finally brought under control, the fire had destroyed over a dozen businesses and numerous apartments, ravaging Main Street.

(sad music) For more than two years, a key part of Rocklands prosperous downtown lay in ruins.

(sad music) Joseph Dondis had come to the United States from Russia at the age of two.

His wife Ida, born in New Jersey, had moved with her family to Ellsworth where she had become a teacher.

In 1914, Joseph and Ida married and settled in Rockland.

Joseph struggled to find his business footing, trying a variety of businesses that included pedaling small wares, running a grocery and crockery store, as well as a fish business.

In the Fall of 1922, with property along the site of the fire still vacant, Ida, who had a keen business sense, saw opportunity.

Using money she had put aside from her own business endeavors, she purchased land along the devastated section of Main Street for $7,500.

A little over a month later, she and Joseph formed the Dondis Amusement Company, a company for the management of theater and amusement, which she then sold the property to.

- It was really my grandmother who was the force behind the idea for this theater.

And she had a small dress shop in Rockland and she saved some money and she saw an opportunity to buy a piece of property, and her husband agreed with her, but he didn't necessarily agree with what she wanted to do with that property.

I learned from my great-aunt, who was my grandmother's sister, that she and her husband had this relationship where they had sort of spirited disagreements, shall we say, and they argued about this.

So she was really the force behind this.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] In 1914, Paramount Pictures Corporation formed the first national distributorship of feature films.

Three years later, in an effort to promote the recreational activity to middle class Americans and increase the number of potential theater outlets, the company began a campaign in national magazines, such as "The Saturday Evening Post" and "Ladies Home Journal" with a slogan insisting that you can have "The Strand" in your own town.

This campaign referred to the Strand Theater of New York City, an early and elaborate movie palace designed by Thomas Lamb in 1914.

Whether Ida saw the evocative ads can't be documented, but nevertheless, she did see possibilities in the movies and a business that she believed Joseph could run and excel in.

- It was a time that movie theaters were thriving, so perhaps that is true that this was a business that my grandfather could thrive in, and my grandmother recognized that.

However, I think the timing was right too.

It was really a good business at the time.

If she saw what was happening in Hollywood, she came from a close knit immigrant Jewish family.

And I think the fact that there were Jews that were pioneers in the film business really made her, gave her a certain comfort level with moving forward with this venture.

(calm music) - [Announcer] In the winter of 1922, Ida and Joseph hired general contractors, WH Glover and Company, to construct The Strand.

And their new enterprise soon began rising from the ashes.

It would be the first building to emerge from the fire devastated area.

And just six weeks later, a unique steel framed building with a brick facade was completed.

Framing the entrance to The Strand where two small storefronts, a cigar store, run by Joseph's brother James, sat on one side, and a flower shop on the other.

(calm music) (calm music continues) On Washington's birthday, 1923, the theater opened its doors.

That evening, the people of Rockland filled the seats of the New Strand theater for showing of the silent film, "My Wild Irish Rose".

Entering the theater, they passed under a traditional vaudeville style canopy.

Above it, a stunning illuminated blade sign.

The word Strand glowed in the evening sky.

Attendees of that first screening must have marveled at their newest movie theater with its ornamental brick facade and terracotta tile walls it was unlike anything else in town.

The Strand also boosted a gilded proscenium arch, a stamped tin ceiling, jade green plaster walls, an organist loft, and an auditorium seating over 600 patrons.

(upbeat music) In the beginning, admission to the strand was 22 cents, but in the spring of that year, ticket prices rose to 25 cents after Joseph had installed a $10,000 Robert Morton Organ.

Patrons were encouraged to leave musical scores for their favorite tunes at the box office as they entered, and then organist James O'Hara would serenade them with a 10 to 15 minute recital preceding each show.

- And I always wondered where my grandfather got that much money, because that was a lot of money.

- [Announcer] In order to compete with the already established Park and Empire Theaters, Joseph soon added a stage, a fly tower, and a balcony.

This enabled The Strand to accommodate local dance recitals and theatrical productions, in addition to popular vaudeville acts, and even a film of the 1927 boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Gene Toney.

In addition to entertainment, the Strand would host many fundraising events for local clubs and organizations.

Rocklands newest theater was fast becoming the community gathering place.

(upbeat music) By the time of The Strands opening movies with sound were already on the horizon.

- It certainly by 1927, they were showing talkies in theaters around the country, so they had to invest in a sound system, which they did.

I don't know how much that first sound system cost either, but I know that two years later they upgraded to another sound system.

And that sound system, I believe, was $10,000.

So within the space of four or five years, they sank at least $22,000 or $20,000 into this theater.

I don't know where they got all the money for that.

I know my grandmother had saved some money, but I don't know.

That's a lot of money in today's dollars.

- The Deforrest Phonofilm system used to record vaudeville acts, musical numbers, political speeches, and opera singers was first featured at The Strand in May, 1927.

An early Strand advertisement explained the phenomenon, "Sound and sight are perfectly interwoven "in the Deforrest Phonofilm records "so that you have vaudeville as well as pictures."

Two years later at considerable expense, the Strand was fully outfitted with the more popular Vitaphone and Movietone sound and picture systems.

And in 1929, the theater premiered its first talkie, Metro Golden Mayor's "Alias, Jimmy Valentine".

- See, there were two competing systems.

There was Movietone and Vitaphone.

Movietone was a descendant of the Deforrest Sound on Film process.

And Vitaphone, which produced better audio, used sound on big 16 inch discs that were mechanically linked to the projector so that it would stay in synchronization.

And Warner Brothers used Vitaphone for all of their early talkies.

So it kind of had the cachet of being where you would go to find Al Jolson, where you'd go to find the biggest star.

But when the Dondis's decided to go full blown with talkies, which everyone was doing in early 1929, they went out and they got a system that featured both Vitaphone and Movietone, which made it possible to show anybody's films.

And that was a very forward-thinking measure, because Vitaphone eventually fell out of favor because it was simply too clumsy to deal with.

And everything went to sound on film by 1930, '31.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] As an independent theater owner in the mid 1920s, Joseph had difficulty obtaining the first run films he wanted and needed.

He received a letter from Adolph Zuckor's Publix Theaters Corporation, which had acquired Paramount as well as other producers and exhibitors.

Publix was already running the Strands competition in Rockland, and the letter threatened to run The Strand out of business by blocking the bookings of popular Paramount films.

Without these bookings, Joseph knew that The Strand would struggle.

Perhaps Joseph saw the letter as an opportunity to shake things loose, and so he sent it to the trade publication Motion Picture Herald.

The Herald then sent it on to the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, where a committee investigating possible violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act by Zukor and Publix was beginning to hold hearings.

Soon Joseph was on his way to Washington to testify in front of the committee.

The effect of Joseph's trip to Washington was soon apparent.

For not long afterward, Publix Theaters Corporation and their policy toward any new exhibitors softened.

And in the spring of 1928, they entered into a partnership with Joseph to manage all three theaters in Rockland, The Strand, The Empire, and The Park.

By then, the Dondis family also partially owned and managed theaters in Skowhegan and Callous, Maine, and eventually managed the Waldo Theater in Walterboro as well.

(upbeat music) Ida had been right about the movies.

Joseph had found his business niche.

(upbeat music) Like the rest of the nation, Rockland was not shielded from the ravages of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

People felt the damaging effects of the economic storm throughout that decade.

Businesses retrenched or closed, unemployment skyrocketed and wages declined for those who were lucky enough to have jobs.

Government programs and local aid provided some transient relief, but economic contraction persisted.

People had little money to spend, and what they did have went for necessities.

Despite the drop in movie attendance during the Great Depression, The Strand continued to thrive.

In a talk to the local Lions Club in the early 1930s, Joseph Dondis stated that The Strand was the only motion picture theater in the country, which had shown a prophet in 1931 and 1932, although materially reduced.

- And of course, when the depression happened, my grandmother always told me that people lined up around the block to come to the theater.

Even when they could barely afford food, they would spend a nickel or whatever it was.

I don't know what the ticket prices were then to come to the theater just to stop thinking about their lot in life at that particular moment.

So it was really important time.

And it was a time when the movie business was increasing its effect.

Its reach exponentially.

People want it to be entertained.

- [Announcer] Paramount itself had to go into receivership and reorganization during the early thirties.

Most theaters added novelties to increase attendance.

Around 1933, popcorn, candy and soft drinks were offered for the first time in theaters.

And soon, James Dondis's tobacco shop next door, now known as the Strand Theater Store, began selling candy to theatergoers.

Sometime in the late thirties, to take advantage of Main Street traffic, Joseph added a new Marques to The Strand in order to display the titles of current features.

It was also during this time that the flower shop was moved across the street, creating room in the lobby for an expanded lady's room.

During those difficult financial times of the 1930s, there would be bank nights in which the theater held drawings to give away money to struggling families.

Community members came to The Strand for a chance to escape the struggles of everyday life and share in a welcome diversion.

By the late thirties, things were beginning to bounce back, but it had been a difficult decade for the nation and Rockland.

(calm music) Then in the spring of 1940, Joseph suffered a heart attack.

Throughout the summer and into early fall it seemed as though he would recover and continue his work.

But in late October, he died suddenly.

Ida, grieving the loss of her husband and partner, had little choice but to add the running of the theater to her business responsibilities.

And so she and The Strand carried on.

By the fall of 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, war had begun.

In Rockland life continued as normal, but citizens kept a wary eye on the development of the conflict in Europe.

Then on Sunday afternoon, December 7th, 1941, patrons enjoying the matinee at The Strand were surprised when suddenly the house lights illuminated.

Strand Manager Danny Danielo mounted the stage and solemnly announced that the Japanese had attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.

All servicemen in the audience were to report to their bases immediately.

The US was at war.

(dramatic music) In February of 1942, Walter Winchell announced during a radio broadcast that the government had certified the motion picture business as a necessary war industry.

Not only did movies boost morale, but theaters were used for recruiting purposes.

And newsreels shown before movie features kept citizens informed about what was happening overseas.

(upbeat patriotic music) The Strand played its part and the theater's role as a community center strengthened.

In 1944, the Women's Army Corps held a recruiting event at The Strand, involving a military uniform fashion show.

(upbeat music) Rubber drives became regular events at the theater.

The Strand also participated in a war bond campaign.

Patrons paid the price of a bond instead of a ticket in order to be admitted to the week's feature premier.

And the program raised over $100,000 for the war effort in a single night.

Rockland itself was drawn heavily into the war effort, because of its well protected deep harbor, suitable for major naval trials, the operating shipyard, a Coast Guard base, and the airport at Owl's Head.

This drew additional people to the city.

The potential audience swelled with the servicemen and women in the area, but also with the growing labor force.

There was daily bus service from Rockland to Bath Ironworks for each of the three shifts.

Special midnight showtimes were added to accommodate the laborers working the round the clock production shifts necessitated by the war.

Finally, with the German surrender in 1945, the world and Rockland celebrated the end of six years of conflict.

(upbeat music) Rockland and The Strand experienced a boom throughout and just after those years at war.

The Strand saw a nearly 30% rise in attendance during the period matching the national trends.

But in the coming decades, a new rival would appear on the horizon and tempt the public away from their local theaters.

Theater attendance in the 1950s and sixties began a steady decline as television was rapidly becoming the dominant entertainment medium in the United States.

Ida hadn't been content to simply let business drain away, and so she kept improving The Strand experience.

(upbeat music) And in the early fifties she closed the theater for a short time in order to upgrade the screen and projection systems.

The Strand reopened fitted with the new wide screen cinema scope projection system and a screening of the first ever Cinemascope movie, "The Robe".

Other films that made use of the new wide screen would follow.

(upbeat music) But television was proving to be a serious rival.

The US Census Bureau estimated that weekly movie attendance across the country dropped from a high of around 90 million in the mid forties to 60 million in the mid fifties.

And finally, by the mid sixties, the figure was closer to 40 million.

But while attendance at movie theaters dropped, The Strand survived.

And by the early 1960s, The Strand was the sole remaining movie theater in Rockland following the closure of its two companions.

Also in the sixties, the advent of multi screen movie theaters was becoming commonplace across the country as theater owners realized they could increase profits by adding additional screens and still operate with the same size staff.

The Strand continued as a single screen theater through the sixties and most of the seventies.

Until finally in 1979, Ida followed suit and twinned The Strand, splitting it into two cinemas, the main screen downstairs, and a second screen in the converted balcony.

On Main Street, A new Strand, cinemas one and two marquee was built over the existing 1930s marquee.

The following year in 1980, Ida retired from the movie business and her son Meredith, took over the management of the theater.

The Strand continued to show first run films in the newly remodeled theater through the 1980s and 1990s.

Since it first opened in the early twenties, the Strand had served Rockland and the Midcoast region as a recreational center, a community touchstone, and of course a teller of timeless tales through the movies.

It had outlasted the Park and Empire Theaters and enjoyed the success of being Rocklands only movie theater for many decades.

In 1997, following the trends of modern movie going, the Flagship, a huge multi-screen theater was constructed just outside of town.

With this new multiplex came hard times for The Strand and Rocklands downtown movie theater struggled to remain competitive.

In June, 1999, a fire ignited in the theater lobby when a popcorn warmer used to melt butter malfunctioned causing damage to the candy counter.

Meredith Dondis announced a few days later that he was closing The Strand.

He said the fire was not the reason for the closure, but that after more than 50 years of work, he was ready to retire.

In July, 2000, the Dondis family sold the strand to Peter and Denise Vivian of Roslyn, New Jersey, who continued to operate it as a second run movie theater.

But finally, in December, 2001, the financial difficulties of operating in the shadow of the multiplex became unsustainable, and the Strand was sold to the owners of the Flagship.

Rather than becoming an extension of the multiplexes offerings, it quickly became apparent what the new owners had in mind.

Not long after the sale was finalized, they shuttered Rocklands only remaining downtown theater, thus beginning a dark period for The Strand.

For three long years, the once vibrant community gathering place sat empty and decaying.

Rockland's last surviving movie theater was now just an eye sore on Main Street.

The ensuing controversy over the multiplexes refusal to reopen The Strands doors led to public outrage by the citizens of Rockland.

In January, 2004, the Main Attorney General's office stepped in and began an antitrust investigation.

Finally filing a lawsuit against the owners of the Flagship multiplex.

Maine's Attorney General directed that the theater must be sold to an independent unaffiliated buyer.

Matt and Ellen Simmons had started visiting Midcoast Maine in the 1980s, and soon it had become an important part of their lives.

Over the years, The Strand had become a part as well.

They had seen movies at The Strand for years depending on it for entertainment for themselves and their five daughters during those inevitable rainy days of Maine summer vacations.

- For five of us kids, and we didn't have TV at home and we, on rainy days, you couldn't go outside and sharpen sticks or play on the beach.

So perhaps they thought, "Oh, we can take all five "to the theater and entertain them with some popcorn."

And again, this was a two room theater at the time, so looked a bit different, but it was a nice adventure to get to Rockland.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] The boarding up of Rockland Strand was something Matt and Ellen took to heart.

- Just we wanted to restore this.

And we had been very active with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and we thought it would be a wonderful idea for both Rockland and Rockport and the towns in the area.

- [Announcer] To the Simmons family, such restoration was American history reclaimed for generations to follow.

They realized that it would be expensive, but doing it right would be important.

It was not a dazzling movie house like some they had seen, but it was an important theater, central to the town, and certainly a local landmark.

- There was a lot more work than we realized.

We were a little concerned about the cost that it was going to be, but we had such good helpers too, good people, good people to work with and for.

And you know, we thought, "Well, this is a very important part "of what we wanna be and what we wanna do to help."

(upbeat music) Ahead we went and we are so glad.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] In bringing back the theater, many aspects of The Strand were preserved or reproduced.

The seats that were added in the 1950s were repainted and reupholstered.

The rusting stamped tin ceiling was copied exactly.

And the original green shade of paint was used throughout.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) In the end, the restoration costs three times what Matt and Ellen had imagined, but they were not deterred by the expense.

They saw the potential to rebuild a downtown movie theater that would play a vital role in a Rockland that was building a new identity and vibrancy.

(calm music) To celebrate the reopening on July 3rd, 2005, The Strand threw a block party in collaboration with Rocklands appreciative civic leadership.

The community turned out in large and enthusiastic numbers to share in the festivities.

- I just remember this huge crowd of people and just everybody looking so happy.

And people who have been here for so long, born, raised, lived here, who saw this iconic theater coming back to life.

And just the excitement on people's faces that is pretty priceless.

- It is just a very strong bond.

When a theater sits idle for three years, people were angry, they were frustrated, 'cause somebody owned the building and they would allow movies in it.

And so Matt Simmons changed all that, and also he brought it back.

It's not like he changed the place.

I look around now, the balcony, all of this is what we remember growing up.

- [Announcer] The Strand quickly assumed a major role in the continued revitalization of Rockland.

Alongside the Farnsworth Art Museum and numerous other art related enterprises, The Strand helped bring in more business for Rocklands thriving downtown.

- Well, my parents had such a passion for the arts and historic preservation, and this was such a special place for us.

We've been coming to the Rockport-Rockland area for 36 years, and they had this vision and foresight of what it could be for the community and, you know, the arts, it could bring people from around the world to Rockland.

And it was just such a special thing to be able to be a part of.

- It's just been a blessing.

I mean, for our family, we've enjoyed it and we're so glad that people go to The Strand.

And then, so we have no regrets.

And I wish my husband were still here to enjoy it too.

But I know he, he's so proud of it and so glad we did it.

And we love the, we all love The Strand.

(mellow music) - [Announcer] Independent movie theaters are closing down all across the country, and in doing so, many communities are missing the chance to experience important films rather than simply viewing them on a smartphone.

Film is at its most powerful when witnessed with others, and The Strand is committed to offering that continued opportunity to Rockland.

- It's only in a movie theater where you can totally lose yourself in what's on that screen.

And the other thing is, I'm a big fan of comedy.

You don't laugh as much at home by yourself.

You have to come to a theater and laugh with everybody else.

And if they're not laughing, of course, maybe the movie's not so good.

- The more we interact with each other as people, the more we interact with each other as part of a community face to face out in the real world, the more we understand each other, the more we relate to each other, the more we see the human being behind the ideologies that we're throwing at each other these days, which is something we need to stop doing.

You need to go to the movies.

You need to, they say on the internet, you need to touch grass.

I say what you need to do is touch popcorn.

(mellow music) - [Announcer] The Simmons family had underwritten the Strands operation with generous financial support over its first five years of operation.

Following Matt Simmons untimely death in 2010, the family formed a committee to explore future ownership options for The Strand and put the theater on a more sustainable financial path.

That committee and the family agreed that the best option for both The Strand to continue as a viable business and for the community to reap the economic and cultural benefits this historic institution offered, was to follow a path being taken by other independent theaters across the country and to become a non-profit organization.

- So we need to look at theaters around the country to see what else is going on.

And we started to discover there were theaters that had become nonprofits and some of them were thriving.

- The Simmons family gifted the theater to the community under the stewardship of the newly formed nonprofit, The Friends of the Strand Theater.

- We couldn't personally just keep this theater going and we weren't looking to do that.

It wasn't a business proposition for us.

We were hoping it would be a gift to the community.

So wonderful people working here, just you can see that as people still, some of the same people here who started day one.

So it's really been with our interest in preservation and giving back to your communities, a very important part of our life.

- [Announcer] The New Friends of the Strand was tasked with raising $300,000 to offset three years of projected operating deficits.

- And raising that 300,000, we raised more than that, because people did not want this place to close.

- The community enthusiastically responded, meeting those early goals by becoming members of their theater.

- It gave people a chance to really invest in the theater by becoming members.

We got to a thousand members within a year.

- I remember the Lobster Festival parade during 2014.

I marched in the parade handing out membership blanks.

One of the kids was pushing a bike with a stack of them in the basket.

And we emptied that basket three or four times, because people were so hyped about "The Strand is taking members?

"I want to become a member."

And I was handing these out all over the place.

And that was the moment that I knew personally that it was going to work.

- You know, it's such a special thing to see people come together and to bring that joy.

And you could see Rockland really starting to boom.

And that for the theater to be part of that starting 20 years ago was just such a treat.

- One of the things that I do here when I'm at the door is if anyone asks me, and this is a question that I'm often asked, the most frequent question I'm asked is, "Where's the bathroom?"

The second most frequent question I'm asked is, "How do I get involved?

"How do I help The Strand?

"How's The Strand doing?"

People want to know.

And when I tell them, "Well, The Strand needs your help."

They say, "Where do I sign up?"

And out comes the membership application and we sign up another member.

And that's how it goes.

And it's been great, very gratifying to see that.

- And it just shows how everybody is so grateful to have this place here.

And so you feel that all the time.

- Well, dad always loved being able to bring the arts to people.

And he's done that in Houston and got to do that here in Rockland.

And the programming here is just what he would want it to be.

It's theater, it's arts, it's an entire way to bring people of the community together.

- [Announcer] Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in recognition of its cultural, architectural, and historic significance, The Strand Theater is once again at the heart of Rocklands thriving downtown district.

By offering a slate of rich and diverse programming, the Strand continues its mission to entertain, engage, and empower in the theater and throughout the community.