Thanks to Ben Budick, Class of 1967
For This Piece of Rockaway History
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Long Story Short….In the Spring of 1969 I was friends with some of the people that ran the Fillmore East.  They were looking for a place to do Summer Concerts….I suggested the Strand…Which had been an old Vaudeville house and at that point had only been closed a couple of years and was STILL in very good condition…

I escorted a group of people on a tour of the Strand….the owners even sent me the relevant papers…The DRESSING ROOMS were a bit dusty but still in good shape and I don’t think those rooms had been used since the early 30’s…We ALMOST opened the Strand as a Summer Fillmore….UNFORTUNATELY the zoning Laws gave a church that was within, I believe, 100 or 200 yards of the place a veto on anything going on and of course St Mary’s wanted NOTHING to do with long haired dope smoking hippies…Remember this was 1969…So the idea died.

However I kept these papers….It might clear up some historical questions about when The Strand was built, how much it held, etc….If you notice Mal’s PAL gym was originally a dance hall!...I don’t remember much of the specifics. Remember this was almost 40 years ago!...but I do remember that while the theatre had 1775 seats at the time it was converted into a movie theatre in 1940, the actual number of seats in 1969 was 1520…So there must have been some sort of renovation done to the Strand somewhere between 1940 and 1969.

Ben      Email Address:  bbudick@comcast.net
 

If you have any photos to share, send them to rockaway@astound.net

 


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