Relics - The Strand

Gone, but not (quite) forgotten, ca. 1936

Beginning with The Floorwalker in May of 1916, Charles Chaplin created a series of twelve two-reel shorts for The Mutual Film Corporation, and enthralled the world with the finest comedy ever produced for the screen. Over the next fifteen months theater owners turned away crowds and grew rich. Chaplin worked for The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in Northern California during 1915, before signing with Mutual. While his departure was more amicable than acrimonious, Essanay managed to enrage Chaplin, when they cobbled together his unfinished and discarded work for theatrical release, while attempting to stave off bankruptcy. Litigation followed, and the months surrounding Chaplin’s Mutual contract became a marketing nightmare. While Essanay released the 1916 Chaplin Revue, moviegoers struggled with a confusion of negative advertisements. Essanay films announcing "Brand new! First time shown!" were followed up by Mutual ads claiming, "Not a re-hashed, shelf-worn fake. It’s brand new!"

All twelve Mutual films played Seattle. Their original screenings, scattered across the central business district, reads like a road map of local theaters. The group included The Alhambra, Coliseum, Grand and Colonial. One Seattle theater was the opening night home to more of Chaplin’s Mutual films than any other, six opened at The Strand. On Thursday, November 16, 1916, The Seattle Daily Times announced Behind The Screen,"It’s new, that’s why we’re proud to show it. Charlie Chaplin in ‘Behind the Screen’, his funniest comedy scream. Thousands that have seen it in the past four days acclaim it his masterpiece."

Ticket prices were 10¢ for adults and 5¢ for children at, "The theater beautiful with perfect ventilation. It’s a smashing, crashing howling riot of fun! Play the matinee and avoid the evening rush." Rounding out the bill for this one-week engagement, "The third and fourth adventures of The Scarlet Runner, The Masked Ball and The Hidden Prince, starring the great screen favorite, Earle Williams."

The Rink opened at The Strand on Sunday, December 10, 1916 for a weeklong run with "Blake’s Royal Hawaiian Troubadours" and Margarita Fisher in "A great six act drama full of adventure and action, Miss Jackie of The Navy."
Easy Street played at the Strand beginning on Thursday, February 8, 1917. William Russell in High Play, was the featured photoplay sharing the opening night program on Sunday, April 14, 1917 with Chaplin in The Cure, and Russell again starred, this time in The Sea Master, opposite The Adventurer on Sunday, October 28, 1917. The Seattle Daily Times described the musical entertainment in glowing terms, "Phillip Pels and his sixteen piece orchestra delighted the large audience with popular airs and light classic music. Pels is indeed an appreciated addition to the motion picture game of Seattle for he is a clever director and in addition is a great cornet soloist.
Mlle. Bertina, a young and beautiful dramatic soprano, won encore after encore with her rendition of John McCormick’s famous selection ‘I Hear You Calling Me.’"

The Temple of Charlie

The Strand, ca. 1922

The Alaska theater opened the doors to its soaring, stained-glass embellished, marble-tiled foyer and 1000 seat auditorium, for a public open house on Saturday, May 9, 1914. The first paying customers were admitted the following Tuesday. The name was short lived, changing within two years and the moviehouse at 1114 2nd Avenue, between Spring and Seneca Streets operated as The Strand into the nineteen-thirties. Prior to The Alaska, a theater existed at the same location beginning with The Ideal in 1909 and The Black Cat in 1911. A 1936 tax photo from the WPA survey shows the elegant white tiled façade, on the east side of 2nd Avenue described as "Vacant building, except for two stores, needs renovating." Built as a palace for "The best shows on this side of the Atlantic," and clinging to life like a stately, shuttered, ghost for another twenty-two years, the building once known as The Strand was demolished in March, 1958. The Security Pacific Building, built in 1906 and visible on the right in the 1936 photo, survives.

Photos courtesy of Washington Secretary of State, Puget Sound Regional Archive and Paul Dorpat. Special thanks to The Puget Sound Theater Organ Society (PSTOS) and Seattle Public Library.