The Strand Theatre was built in 1914 as part of the chain of
movie theaters owned by the Mark Brothers,
Mitchel and
Moe. It cost US$1 million () to build and is believed to have been the first lavish movie palace built only to show motion pictures. It was designed by
Thomas W. Lamb and served as a model for many other similar theaters built at the time. The
New York Times favorably reviewed the opening of the Strand, helping to establish its importance. To manage the theater, Mitchel Mark personally hired
Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel. Rothafel developed his luxurious style of presenting films at the Strand which he later perfected at the
Capitol and
Roxy Theatres, becoming the best known motion picture showman in New York City. The theatre was under contract and mostly showed films distributed by
Paramount Pictures. In 1928, the Mark Strand became the Warner Strand when
Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the theatre to showcase its films on Times Square. It was eventually renamed the Warner Theatre in 1951. After closing for renovation in 1952, the theater reopened as the Warner Cinerama Theatre in 1953 with the widescreen film
This Is Cinerama (1952). The Warner was the primary New York home of
Cinerama films during the remaining years of the 1950s and in 1963 installed an even larger screen to present such 70mm films as ''
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963). In 1968, the theater was converted into three separate cinemas by RKO Stanley Warner Theatres. The 1,000 seat Warner Cinerama now occupied the original theater's main floor. The 1,200 seat Penthouse Theatre occupied the former balcony and the Cine Orleans was created in the stage house of the old Strand, entered from 47th St. The Cinerama and Penthouse were renamed again in the 1980s as the RKO Warner Twin. The entire building closed on February 8, 1987. It was demolished to make way for the
Morgan Stanley Building, part of the redevelopment of Times Square. Memorable films that had their New York premieres at the Strand include
Captain Blood (1935) starring
Errol Flynn and
Olivia de Havilland,
Oliver! (1968),
Huckleberry Finn,
Black Beauty,
Romeo and Juliet (1968),
Man of La Mancia (1966) and
1776 (1972). ==References==