I never knew the theater as being named anything other than the “Cricketâ€. The Cricket’s days did not end completely in 1964. In 1966-1967 Millard Weaver, more for nostalgia than profit, reopened the Cricket on Friday and Saturday nights to show mostly “second run†movies (recent films that had completed their showings in major theaters.) Unfortunately, television, automobiles (driving to Gadsden or Ft. Payne to see a current movie wasn’t that big a trip,) and demographics (Collinsville is in a rural area and only had slightly over 1,100 residents) fairly much doomed this venture. The city of Collinsville itself is slowly wasting away, so it is likely that the Cricket will never again open in any capacity.
I have good memories of the Strand Theater. The Strand was really just your basic neighborhood movie house, nothing fancy. In the late 1970’s it was a “second run†movie house – that is playing fairly recent films that were no longer being shown in the more mainstream theaters for about a quarter of what the “first run†houses charged and also showed some indies that probably wouldn’t have been shown anywhere else. On Friday and Saturday nights, the main event was the “Rocky Horror Picture Showâ€; I must have seen it at least 12-15 times. The Strand rocked on those nights. The Strand was a cheap way to spend an evening; the theater showed 3-4 different movies each week. I’m sorry to hear it’s no longer open, but after 25 years later I’m not real surprised. The Strand was a real treasure in the Ocean Beach district of San Diego; I’m sure there are many others with fond memories of the place.
I never knew the theater as being named anything other than the “Cricketâ€. The Cricket’s days did not end completely in 1964. In 1966-1967 Millard Weaver, more for nostalgia than profit, reopened the Cricket on Friday and Saturday nights to show mostly “second run†movies (recent films that had completed their showings in major theaters.) Unfortunately, television, automobiles (driving to Gadsden or Ft. Payne to see a current movie wasn’t that big a trip,) and demographics (Collinsville is in a rural area and only had slightly over 1,100 residents) fairly much doomed this venture. The city of Collinsville itself is slowly wasting away, so it is likely that the Cricket will never again open in any capacity.
I have good memories of the Strand Theater. The Strand was really just your basic neighborhood movie house, nothing fancy. In the late 1970’s it was a “second run†movie house – that is playing fairly recent films that were no longer being shown in the more mainstream theaters for about a quarter of what the “first run†houses charged and also showed some indies that probably wouldn’t have been shown anywhere else. On Friday and Saturday nights, the main event was the “Rocky Horror Picture Showâ€; I must have seen it at least 12-15 times. The Strand rocked on those nights. The Strand was a cheap way to spend an evening; the theater showed 3-4 different movies each week. I’m sorry to hear it’s no longer open, but after 25 years later I’m not real surprised. The Strand was a real treasure in the Ocean Beach district of San Diego; I’m sure there are many others with fond memories of the place.