Back in the day, screen time in Quincy meant movies at the Alhambra and Strand theaters

This summer we take a look back at the playgrounds of yesteryear in our series THE SOUTH SHORE AS IT WAS.

QUINCY − Once upon a time in Quincy, the theater was an essential part of the social fabric. At the time, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, there were few other places of mass entertainment where a ticket costing a few coins led you to a brief escape from everyday life.

Of course, movie theaters and playhouses still exist today. But during the last century, at least a half dozen theaters in Quincy alone at one time competed for an audience, whether that was through putting on a slapstick vaudeville performance or showing the latest silent movie and, eventually, “talkies.”

Two of these theaters reigned for decades in Quincy Center, just two blocks from one another: the Alhambra Theatre and the Strand .

The Alhambra, also known as the Art

The Alhambra, later known as the Art, was the first of these two to open, on Feb. 19, 1917. Henry L. Kincaide – a colonel in the Spanish-American war, owner of a successful furniture business, and a state senator – built the theater on a lot near the intersection of Hancock and Chestnut streets.

It cost him $50,000 to build the 800-seat theater, which had shops on either side that at some points held a cafe, a hair salon, a shoe store and a candy shop. In today’s dollars, that’s $1.5 million.

Five years before, Kincaide built the Capitol Theatre on Hancock Street – then known as the Kincaide Theatre then the Quincy Theatre, and of “Banned in Boston” notoriety when Eugene O'Neill's play “Strange Interlude” was forbidden to be shown in theaters in Boston but was allowed to be performed in Quincy.

Opening day at the Alhambra happened on just a few hours’ notice that Monday afternoon, but it didn’t matter. From The Quincy Patriot archives: “The state inspector passed the building shortly after six o’clock and as the audience entered the front door the workmen left by the rear. It was decided only a few days ago to open the playhouse yesterday and work was rushed to the limit to make everything in readiness for the first audience. And taking into consideration the small notice given (to) the public, the response was a flattering one.”

Almost all the seats were filled. The audience saw a few pictures before prominent men in the city spoke to the audience. The seats were “especially comfortable” and the lack of a balcony made it so no one had an obstructed view of the screen.

The theater was “very artistic throughout,” the article from opening day said, and while the purpose was chiefly for moving pictures, there was a large stage so that vaudeville “may be put on at any time, should such a policy be adopted.”

In the early days, theatergoers paid as little as 10 cents for a matinee and as much as 25 cents for the reserved section in the evening. In January 1945, the theater’s name changed to the Art.

“Local theaters were important really up until through the ‘60s,” said Ed Fitzgerald, executive director of the Quincy Historical Society. “They were rites of passage as you grew up. It was where you went for entertainment.”

Fitzgerald remembered going to both the Art and Strand theaters as a teenager. He would see horror and action movies at the Art, but “big-budget movies with big stars” at the Strand.

“The Art was the smaller theater. The Strand was bigger,” Fitzgerald said. “Looking back at it, the Strand was probably the more prosperous one. It kind of got the big features. The Art was probably getting movies they could get cheaper.”

The Strand often had larger advertisements in the Ledger compared to the Alhambra's.

When the Art closed for good in December 1961, the Strand was the only theater in Quincy Center, with the Wollaston and Lincoln theaters elsewhere in Quincy.

The Art’s owners at the time, who also owned the Strand, blamed the theater’s closing on “poor business conditions and a shortage of enough good pictures for the two Quincy movie houses.” The theater was later demolished.

The Quincy-Strand, later going by the Strand

The Strand emerged on the scene about a decade after the Alhambra opened. The Quincy-Strand Theatre, as it was known then, was built by former Quincy Mayor William A. Bradford for $300,000, or $5.3 million today. The theater at Foster and Chestnut streets could accommodate 1,650 people in all, with 700 people on the concrete-reinforced balcony.

A crowd of about 1,200 people lined up for the opening night on Aug. 30, 1926. From the Quincy Patriot Ledger archives:

“The opening was unique and the only one of its kind ever attempted in New England in connection with a theater. No invitations were issued. All sought tickets on the same basis, Fred B. Murphy holding to his original decision to give one and all an equal opportunity to compete for them. The result was that Quincyites and those who came from the South Shore to attend the opening were attended to in turn.”

The first person to get a ticket was 10-year-old Edward Pearlin, who waited in line for three hours. The Ledger reported that he “sacrificed his supper but didn’t appear to mind his long wait.”

The inside of the theater was decorated with a “mild, warm gray, devoid of elaborate frescoes,” and the “very simplicity strongly appealed to patrons,” according to the article. Once the curtain rose after 8 p.m., the audience was met with a radio broadcasting orchestra, a few moving pictures and Margaret Porter, a Boston soloist. The last of the audience trickled out of the theater by midnight.

The Strand opened at a point in the history of film when technology had evolved to allow for synchronized sound in film, made possible by Vitaphone and Movietone. That meant the audience could hear the actors speak for the first time. Before, dialogue was expressed chiefly through intertitles.

The first feature film considered a “part-talkie” was Warner Bros.' “The Jazz Singer” in 1927. The following year, talkies were introduced to Quincy when the Strand received the latest Vitaphone and Movietone technology.

The first one shown locally was “The Lion and the Mouse,” starring Lionel Barrymore. (If the last name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s actor Drew Barrymore’s grand-uncle). It received a “rousing reception” by the audience, the Ledger reported on Dec. 17, 1928.

The Strand – and other theaters, to be sure – were welcome distractions during the Great Depression and World War II. They were places to take dates and grab an ice cream or a meal at Howard Johnson’s nearby.

Mark Carey, media director for the Quincy mayor’s office, remembers seeing a double feature at the Strand on one of his first dates.

“As a child, I spent every weekend going to the Wollaston or the Strand theater because that’s what we did,” he said.

Unless you were playing sports or had something else to occupy your time, bowling alleys and movie theaters were prime entertainment, he said.

With the location, tucked away off Chestnut Street, and its toned-down décor, Fitzgerald marveled at how the Strand became a top theater for Quincy.

"You don't normally expect a movie theater to be off down a side street where you don't necessarily see it," Fitzgerald said. "It wasn't fancy, not like a movie palace like you would have found in Boston in the '50s. It was nice and serviceable."

During its final year, the Strand hosted rock concerts to boost revenue. But that use didn’t fit with the theater’s license. The city pulled the Strand’s license for three days ahead of a planned “Queen of Shock Rock” Wendy O. Williams concert in September 1981.  Six months later, the theater's license was again up for discussion after fights broke out during a showing of the Led Zeppelin documentary “The Song Remains the Same."

Ultimately, the owner decided to sell the theater, saying it was a “casualty of changing times and tastes in entertainment,” pointing to increasing energy costs, fewer customers and cable TV. The last movie shown, on June 26, 1982, was “Victor, Victoria” with Julie Andrews and James Garner.

Purchased by South Shore Bank for $300,000, it was razed for a parking lot.

“It wasn’t that long ago, when you think about how much things have changed over the years. We had a TV with four or five channels on it. Then came cable,” Carey said. “It’s a different world today."

The closure of Flagship Cinemas on Hancock Street left Quincy without a movie theater since 2006. Today, the nearest movie theaters to Quincy are in Dorchester and Braintree.

Hannah Morse covers growth and development for The Patriot Ledger. Contact her at hmorse@patriotledger.com .

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Back in the day, screen time in Quincy meant movies at the Alhambra and Strand theaters