This past week we had something happen at the Strand.  You might have noticed it, our marquee is finally going together!   Under the guidance of Strand performer (and sign company owner) Ron Moenter, we came up with a plan to totally renovate the marquee.  Ron fabricated new aluminum panels (purchased locally at O’Neil Steel).  There were 60 pieces in all.   They were taken to Lester’s Body Shop for the color.   They were painted with an automotive finish, then clear coated.  The historical “S” on the side corners was done by our friend Rachael Ackley of H2O Designs.  This is a replica of the “S” that first appeared in the newspaper for the Strand in 1916.   That is not a decal or sticker, but automotive paint.  It will give decades of use and still look as good as the day it was installed.   The interior lighting was fabricated by Ron and Steve Dennis this summer.   The Strand Volunteers are wiring the 274 sockets for the outside chase lights.   The sockets will be installed, then the poly carbonate panels will be installed.   On the north and south faces, we will use 6″ slide-in letters.  The front (east) panels will retain their Wagner Style marquee letters.

The marquee has a total of 294 lights.  There will be several settings.  When the theatre is in use, you will know it.   All 294 will be on.   When we are not in use, we have an energy efficient switching system that will allow us to run only 10 fluorescents to make the marquee messages visible.   After the lighting is finished, we will use color filters to turn the fluorescent lights into a warmer more historic color.   The marquee, as we know it, is in a picture from 1935, so we know it goes back at least that far.  The original structure, which we suspect is under the present marquee, was very small and not lit.

We still have one or two surprises in store.   So keep looking, the marquee will be changing before your eyes every time you pass by.   Hopefully if the weather cooperates we can be completed by December.    Thank you to Ron & Steve for providing the professional guidance.  Gordon originally stripped and cleaned the marquee to get us to this point, all the work now is because of his preparation.  Bob S. helped get all the panels installed.  It is, like everything else at the Strand, a team effort.

Last weekend we had a full schedule.  There was a successful Art Auction on Friday, the Snowflake Princess Contest on Saturday, a wedding reception (congratulations Tom and Christine) in the mid-afternoon, and a country music concert in the evening….whew.    In addition to the events at the Strand, Mike R. and Whitney R. went to our storage location and sorted and identified all our old projection equipment.  This was made possible by the efforts of the Wabash College Alums that volunteered last month.  They moved the stuff from the 2nd floor office to the warehouse.  Mike wrote a nice article for our web site.

This week on Thursday night is the Freeman Family Funeral Home Remembrance Service.   On Friday night we are showing “Holiday Inn” after the festivities of the Downtown Holiday Parade.   This is FREE thanks to our friends and partners at Shelby County Bank…Thank You!   Since everyone will be in the theatre for the movie, Strand Performers Cindy Houpt, Willandra Macklin and Kim Wallace will perform “White Christmas” in beautiful 3 part harmony on the Strand stage before the show.

On Saturday we will show “Holiday Inn” at 1:00pm.   At 7:30 Push/Play will perform.  They have something new…comedian Robert Lewis will be the warm-up act.  “Robert!” you say….we know.   It will be worth the $5 admission just to hear him.

Sunday the trio will return to perform before the 5:00pm showing of “Holiday Inn”.   Help start a tradition at the Strand.

On the theatre pipe organ front, Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations finished another instrument.  This makes the Strand organ project one step closer.  There is an excellent link on our web site to listen to this newly installed instrument.  It is played by Strand friend Justin Nimmo.  Check it out.

Thanks for all the support.  All of us at the Strand are pleased that you take an interest in the project.  We work each and every day to help, in our own small way, to improve the quality of life for our community.  It is because of you that we are successful.   Thanks.

As the holiday season approaches, movie fans, music aficionados or just ordinary citizens will have three chances this weekend to see, hear and enjoy an icon of Americana as The Strand Theatre presents Holiday Inn, a 1942 black and white movie –musical, which features the first version of Bing Crosby crooning  Irving Berlin’s timeless tune “White Christmas.”

The third person of this musical triumvirate starring in this film is legendary dancer Fred Astaire who also sings two Berlin tunes in this movie which revolves around the trials, tribulations and joys of team of night-club performers.

As a creative sidebar, the soundtrack to this musical masterpiece was recorded by the Bob Crosby Orchestra, the younger brother of Bing, and each tune should ring resplendent across the acoustically enticing confines of the Strand.

Getting back to the seasonal festivities, the first viewing of this movie about music is free and will begin at the Strand Theatre Friday night at eight, following Shelbyville’s “Holiday Celebration Parade.” Like the melodic reprise of the tune “White Christmas “throughout the movie, this film will be shown twice again during the weekend: Saturday afternoon at 1 and Sunday evening at 5. Each of these showings will cost $5.

For most people this movie is memorable for Bing Crosby’s rendition of “White Christmas,” which won Berlin an Academy Award for Best Original Song despite being only 13 lines long.

“My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country” Berlin said. “Usually I compose my tunes and then fit words to them, though sometimes it’s the other way about. It’s the lyric that makes a song a hit, although the tune, of course, is what makes it last.”

And this song was an immediate hit, staying number one on the charts for 11 weeks after its 1942 debut. Significantly, it also reached number one for three weeks on the charts in Harlem and then returned to top the national charts in both 1945 and 1947.

Such success was nothing new to either Berlin or Crosby; as a point of fact, Crosby recorded 41 number one hits, 383 top 30 songs and had hits on the charts every year between1931 and 1954.  In the era before Elvis and the Beatles, Crosby fused popular music with artistry long before Warhol and proved that a pop star could be a true musician.

Equally famous was Berlin, and his rags-to-riches story. This son of an immigrant cantor went from a 14-year-old living on the streets of New York City to a Bowery singer and then became an international star at the age of 20 for his musical, ragtime tunes and scores for Tin Pan Alley musicals.  Yet, this legendary maestro instantaneously knew that “White Christmas” was and would become, even as he wrote it and called his secretary.

“Grab your pen and take down this song,” he said.” I’ve just wrote the best song I’ve ever written. Hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody has ever written.”

Crosby, however, was not so ecstatic when he first heard the tune laconically saying, “I don’t think we have any problems with that one, Irving.” Crosby and nearly everyone else involved in the movie thought the hit would be the Valentine’s Day song “Be careful, it’s my heart.”

Berlin considered Astaire the equal of any male interpreter of his song, as good as  Crosby, Al Jolson or Frank Sinatra.  Of the 15 songs in “Holiday Inn”, Astaire sings two by himself and the opening tune with Crosby and co-star Virginia Dale.  It was, however, the dancing of this inspired perfectionist that made him a super-star in his own right. In “Holiday Inn,” Astaire dances four times and practically steals the show with his virtuoso performance during ““Let’s Say it with Firecrackers.”

“Working out the steps is a very complicated process—something like writing music,” he said about his working methods.” You have to think of some step that flows into the next one, and the whole dance must have an integrated pattern. If the dance is right, there shouldn’t be a single superfluous movement. It should build to a climax and stop!”

After such a legendary cast performing iconic roles to the music of man described by George Gershwin as “America itself,” patrons of the Strand can walk out with these lines ringing with this classic refrain:

“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten,

And children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow.”

Submitted by:  Terrance Aldridge

This preview does not express the opinion of the Strand Theatre.

The Strand hosts many private events.  There was an unusual event on Wednesday November 18, 2009.   The day started with a music video filmed on the Strand Stage.  After that was finished, the theatre was configured for a private event.

Film director Joe Leavell rented the Strand for the cast premier of his new film “In the Deathroom.”   This film is based on a Stephen King story of the same name.

Joe came to the Strand several months ago to use our theatre for some location filming.   The opening scene of the film takes place in our unrenovated upstairs offices.

Over 120 people associated with the cast or film attended the screening.  Below are Executive Board Members David M. Finkel and Steven R. Frazee with the director.

Our friends at Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations finished their project at the Dixon Theatre in Dixon Illinois.   This 3 manual 12 rank Barton Organ was recorded last week by Strand Friend Justin Nimmo.   Justin works for Carlton and did much of the renovation work.   Justin writes:

Here is a slide show video of the new 3/12 Barton organ that now lives in the Dixon Theatre in Historic Dixon, IL. The restoration and installation was performed by Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations where I work. The slide show shows images of the theatre interior as well as selected shots of the console during restoration and in its new home. The music is me performing It’s Delovely during its demonstration performance, and it certainly is! – Justin Nimmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3zpJCbt9Q

Check out the video link above.   Slowly Carlton and Justin are finishing work that will allow our Strand organ project to come to the top of the To Do list!

The often rebellious spirit of country music with its honky-tonk hymns and moody ballads echoed off the walls of the Strand Theatre Saturday night during a two-set concert by the Eastern Wing Band.

This five-piece band is an exceptionally tight group of musicians who revel in contemporary country songs and classic rock and roll tunes in an entertaining style that evokes the intimate atmosphere of a bar-room.

Originally formed in 1994, by lead singer Ricky Myers, the Eastern Wing Band came to Shelbyville Saturday night to play for family, friends and fans in a concert produced and filmed by Smashed Productions and benefitting the ongoing renovations at the Strand.

The band’s final song of the evening, a tune by Tim McGraw, was dedicated by Myers to a local woman who influenced his life:  his recently deceased grandmother.  Prior to this the band spent nearly two-hours in an extended, musically significant, romp through several styles of country  mixed with smattering of rock tunes featuring a Chuck Berry classic and two songs by Indiana legends Guns N Roses and John Mellencamp.  The band also played an original song “Overheat in a Heartbeat,” a rather haunting and lament-full ballad inspired by love gone wrong.

This band’s version of “Every Rose has its Thorns” was  particularly unique, a slowed down, countrified take on Guns N Roses which highlighted both the fine play of lead guitarist Chris Reeves and the strong vocal harmonies of Myers and bassist Johnny Ray. Equally significant was the hard, fast and crisp virtuoso guitar work of Reeves on Chuck Berry’s classic  “Johnny B Good,” a tour-de-force rendition which saw Reeves walking out among and into the crowd while wailing on his guitar.

However, the primary strength, focus and fan favorites of this band is country music ranging from the tunes of Buck Owens and George Jones to the more modern style of Brooks and Dunn.

Eastern Wing Band emphasizes the jamming aspect of country, especially in the animated fiddle and keyboard style of Preston Kerns and Myers’ tenor crooning, which works exceptionally well  on slow-ballad like tunes, where his crooning style resonates well with the talents of the seasoned musicians who make up this very professional sounding band.

“I think that the Eastern Wing Band put on a very good show and have a very good energy between them,” said audience member Stephanie Jones. “I hope they come back to play again.”

In short, Saturday night’s show was an entertaining and lively tour of country music performed by an accomplished 5-piece band of skilled musicians who revel and seem to live in the music of Good Ole Boys. It was a concert full of fat sounds, raucous energy and smooth harmonious songs as this band varied its tempo and style to fit the many moods and tones that comprise country music.

Submitted by:  Terrance Aldridge

This review does not express the opinion of the Strand Theatre.

Ron Moenter & Bob Schlick plus one bucket truck…