Sidney Theatre

Joe Vogel on October 19, 2018 at 3:34 am

Trying again with the comment that was suspected as spam:

Now that I’ve seen the vintage photo showing this theater, I believe that the marquee does say Strand on it. Enough of the town’s buildings survive that, comparing the photo to modern Google street view, it is clear that the Strand was on Clay Street. The building has “Masonic Temple” just below its cornice, and the theater’s entrance was in the space that now has a sign for Fremont County Veteran’s Affairs, which the Internet says is at 414 Clay Street.

That the Strand is the same house that was previously called the Cozy seems very likely. The Cozy was listed in the 1926 FDY, along with a theater called the Opera House, though no seating capacity was given for either theater. Sidney does not appear in the 1927 FDY, but the 1928 edition lists only the Cozy, with 250 seats. In 1929, the Cozy is listed with 250 seats and the Opera house reappears, no capacity given. In 1930, the name Strand first appears, along with a house called the Liberty, with no capacity given for either.

In 1931, somewhat improbably, three theaters are listed at tiny Sidney: The 350-seat Liberty, the 300-seat Royal, and the 250-seat Strand. From 1932 through 1943, only the 250-seat Strand is listed, and from 1944 through 1957 only a 250-seat house called the Sidney is listed, suggesting a name change rather than a new theater. The consistent listing of the Cozy, Strand, and Sidney with 250 seats makes it likely that they were the same house, operated under three different names. As the FDY dropped the policy of listing by city after 1957 we don’t know exactly when the theater closed, but it had definitely done so by July, 1963, when Boxoffice noted the sale of its equipment and the conversion of the space to retail use.

However, in this article from the Fremont County Historical Society web site, a Mr. Bob Crawford recalls the Sidney Theatre closing “…about 1956 or 7….” The reminiscence also mentions that the Opera House was located on the east side of the Square, which would be Indiana Street.

I suspect that the Liberty Theatre listed in 1929 and 1931 was the old Opera House, reopened, and the Royal Theatre also listed in 1931 might have been a double-listing of the same theater (double-listing of a theater that had changed hands and/or names was not an extremely rare thing for the FDY to do.)