Thanks. This is not The Strand. I’ve been away for a while but I recognize this now as a facility on Washington street a couple of blocks over from the Strand site that is used for live performance of commuity theater. You can look this up on Anywho.com as the “Sugar Creek Players Vanity Theater”. The Vanity, it seems, is still in existance but The Strand was demolished.
The photo is not attached that I can see. I think the name isn’t a problem, seems it could have been named that. If you can get the photo to me at or successfully post it I can verify the building. I spent a lot of time changing the marquee and working in the poster windows. Where did you get the photo?
I don’t ever remember seeing an organ in the place, and 1959 is about when I started going there as a child for matinees. The Crawfordsville Journal Review may be a source of photos. You’d have to arrange to look through old boxes of photos if they’d let you. The Crawfordsville library (about a block or two from the Strand site) has a great local history room. I’ve seen lots of old pictures in there.
I don’t remember seeing any pipes in the theater either and I had to many occasions to work in the place with the lights up.
My family has a lot of history with this theater. When I was about 8-10 years old (1958-60) my grandfather became the janitor. We had a continuous supply of free passes! He helped me get a job there when I was a teenager and I worked there from 1965 to 1967 as an usher, janitor and in popcorn/candy sales.
One of my duties was to change the posters and the marquee. The letters for the marquee were in the dirt floored basement. Along a hallway down there were dressing rooms and posters from vaudeville. I remember seeing a bill for Smiley Burnette. My grandmother said she saw Houdini at the Strand too. She was known to craft a good story on occasion, so I was never sure it was true. In the 80’s it was rigged into a twin screen theater by extending a ceiling from the bacony. Never liked that idea much. It was a grand old theater and I was sad to hear it had collapsed and had to be demolished.
Thanks. This is not The Strand. I’ve been away for a while but I recognize this now as a facility on Washington street a couple of blocks over from the Strand site that is used for live performance of commuity theater. You can look this up on Anywho.com as the “Sugar Creek Players Vanity Theater”. The Vanity, it seems, is still in existance but The Strand was demolished.
The photo is not attached that I can see. I think the name isn’t a problem, seems it could have been named that. If you can get the photo to me at or successfully post it I can verify the building. I spent a lot of time changing the marquee and working in the poster windows. Where did you get the photo?
I don’t ever remember seeing an organ in the place, and 1959 is about when I started going there as a child for matinees. The Crawfordsville Journal Review may be a source of photos. You’d have to arrange to look through old boxes of photos if they’d let you. The Crawfordsville library (about a block or two from the Strand site) has a great local history room. I’ve seen lots of old pictures in there.
I don’t remember seeing any pipes in the theater either and I had to many occasions to work in the place with the lights up.
My family has a lot of history with this theater. When I was about 8-10 years old (1958-60) my grandfather became the janitor. We had a continuous supply of free passes! He helped me get a job there when I was a teenager and I worked there from 1965 to 1967 as an usher, janitor and in popcorn/candy sales.
One of my duties was to change the posters and the marquee. The letters for the marquee were in the dirt floored basement. Along a hallway down there were dressing rooms and posters from vaudeville. I remember seeing a bill for Smiley Burnette. My grandmother said she saw Houdini at the Strand too. She was known to craft a good story on occasion, so I was never sure it was true. In the 80’s it was rigged into a twin screen theater by extending a ceiling from the bacony. Never liked that idea much. It was a grand old theater and I was sad to hear it had collapsed and had to be demolished.