Left: a crowd gathers in front of Mtount Horeb's Strand Theater to watch Old Yeller, "in Technicolor." The year? Not known for sure, but Old Yeller was released in 1957.
Strand Movie Theater
Brought Hollywood
to Mount Horeb
by Neil Bartlett
It was 80 years ago that construction started on Mount Horeb's movie theater, the Strand. The theater offered area residents the latest in Hollywood fare. As time goes by, fewer of us know the story of how that theater enriched local life for nearly 50 years.
The story starts in 1922, when the commercial vernacular brick building at 132 East Main Street (now occupied by Isaac's Antiques) began being constructed to house the Strand Theatre. The second story of the building still displays the Mediterranean Revival style.
Construction of the theater was started for Fred Luder, Jr. in 1922 but was discontinued when he died in 1924. In 1928, Joseph Buechner bought the property and completed the theater. It opened on March 9, 1929. According to a 1977 article in the Mount Horeb Mail, Buechner finished the building at a cost of $50,000. The theater was located on the ground floor with a ballroom and apartment upstairs.
Buechner and his wife operated the theatre for a while and it reportedly changed hands several times during the Great Depression. Then in 1940, Floyd Albert bought the property and operated the theater until it closed forever in 1969.
Two local churches Immanuel Lutheran and the Mount Horeb Evangelical Lutheran Church held services at the theater while their own buildings were being constructed.
Rod Sale is a lifelong Mount Horeb resident, and the grandson of Floyd Albert. He ran the Strand's projectors off and on when he was in high school and college, from the late 1950s through about 1967. He remembers that his grandfather would let him and some of his high school friends in free.
"It didn't seem so special at the time, but looking back, they were good times," says Sale. " Everyone was sad when it closed." Sale said the theater added to what was already a strong sense of community in Mount Horeb.
But the advent of television and easier access to movie theaters in Madison spelled the end of the Strand's run.
"In the end, it was mostly kids who came to the theater," said Sale. In its heyday, the Strand ran 2-3 shows a night.
Barb Witte Johnson, who graduated from Mount Horeb High School in 1972, remembers often attending the Strand on Friday night.
"It was a social gathering when I was in junior high," she said. "There weren't a lot of other things to do. I remember a lot of candy throwing." Movies cost only 35 cents or 50 cents. At that time, she says, Madison movie theaters were located downtown and not as easy to get to.
Many great movies from Hollywood were shown at the Strand. The original King Kong played there, as well as Gone With the Wind four times. Old Yeller was a favorite, too. The Strand advertised itself as "In the Heart of America's Dairyland."
With the proliferation of movie theaters in Madison, it looks like a local Mount Horeb movie theater is probably a thing of the past. But in the minds of many long-time residents, memories of weekend matinees or the excitement of a first date must still linger. The movie theater played a role in establishing the community's "sense of place."