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From vaudeville to film, the Strand has staged it all

Longtime manager Cleon Point made movie-going memorable

Cleon Point

By CHAD SIEVERS
and DENNIS NARTKER
KENDALLVILLE — One of Kendallville’s oldest buildings, the Spencer Opera House, 223 S. Main St., which has housed the Strand Theatre for the past 80 years, holds many memories for Kendallville citizens.
Originally built in 1890, the Spencer Opera House was built by E.B. Spencer for $26,000. Spencer built the opera house because he believed Kendallville was in need of some culture.
Spencer built the opera house under the verbal understanding with the county commissioners that he would not have to pay taxes on it. Little did he know he would have to pay taxes, so he eventually sold it to Al Boyer, who renamed it the Boyer Opera House.
Long before the days of moving pictures, actors would come through Kendallville from larger cities and put on a show while here.
The opera house opened on Sept. 30, 1890, with the famous Marlande Clarke Company, according to local historian Russell Frehse.
At the turn of the century, vaudeville acts also were popular and the opera house would hold different acts. On May 5, 1911, it hosted Vaudeville Tonight that featured several vaudeville acts.
No record can be found of any opera ever being performed in the 750-seat auditorium. Musicals, heavy and light drama productions and minstrel shows were staged there.
The opera house also served as a community meeting place. On Jan. 15, 1892, it held the funeral for Capt. Hiram Iddings, a respected Kendallville citizen. The City Council also met there, renting space before it met in the City Hall.
It also held 5-cent photoplays, which were not moving pictures.
During World War I, the opera house closed. Not until Aug. 1, 1919, did it reopen as the Strand Theatre.
Even then, Frehse said the building was used for different functions.
“When I was in high school, we had our school play there,” he said.
Back before the days of air conditioning, the theater management would open the floor of the opera pit to the basement. Down there they would have a large blower from a thresher machine. With large blocks of ice, they would blow the air over the ice to cool the theater, Frehse said.
In 1928, after attending a theater convention where he heard about Kendallville, Robert Hudson Sr., owner of Hudson Enterprises, purchased the Strand Theatre. This was the beginning of a long-standing tradition of the Hudson family and its association with the building.
Hudson, who at one time owned 24 theaters in Indiana, including the old Hi-Vue Drive-In south of Kendallville, also owned the Princess Theatre downtown, his wife, Juanita Hudson of Richmond said. Hudson Enterprises still owns the Auburn-Garrett Drive-In north of Garrett.
During the early 1940s, Mrs. Hudson would sell tickets. She said children could see a movie for a dime. There were special prices for servicemen, matinees and then the regular evening prices.
In 1946, Mrs. Hudson trained Cleon Point to be a manager at the Tivoli Theatre in Richmond. Cleon soon came to the Strand where he would be the manager for 27 years.
Mrs. Hudson laughingly said the joke for years was that all because of her, Cleon wound up in Kendallville.
Kidding especially grew when all of Kendallville’s citizens, including Mrs. Hudson, many times fell victim to his column he wrote for years at The News-Sun. She said she respected the Points.
It was Cleon’s unique character that many people in Kendallville remember about their visits to the Strand.
Marianna Reick of Rome City was a teen-ager in the early 1960s when Cleon Point managed the Strand Theatre.

The Strand Theatre, 223 S. Main St., Kendallville
News-Sun photo by Dean A. Orewiler

Downtown was once home to 3 movie theaters

By DENNIS NARTKER
KENDALLVILLE — At one time there were three movie theaters downtown, the Princess, the Colonial and the Strand.
One week in 1923, “A Blind Bargain” starring Lon Chaney was playing at the Colonial at 108 S. Main St., Ethel Clayton was starring in “For the Defense” at the Princess at 134 S. Main St., and the Strand Theatre marquee at 221 S. Main St. featured Dorothy Phillips in “Hurricane’s Gal.”
The late Ken Patterson, in a Kendallville Public Library video recorded in 1987, remembers the Colonial Theater’s player piano.
“The theater had a player piano in front of the screen and it played as the picture was shown,” he said. “Those were silent movies then and I remember the serials with week-to-week episodes.”
Jean (Stiver) Cochard of Kendallville remembers paying 10 cents for a matinee movie at the Strand Theatre in the 1940s.
“Frank C. Templin was the manager with his one usher, a small, slightly-built man named Arnold Schneeberger. Occasionally we would see the movie over through the supper hour and our parents would come and have us paged,” she said.
A story in the Sept. 16, 1936, News-Sun indicated meetings held in Mitchell Hall were moved to the opera house, “As fine an opera house to be found in northeast Indiana.”

“The Rotary Club gave away tickets at the Youth Center for the Strand on Wednesday nights,” she said. “We’d make so much noise I remember one time Cleon stopped the movie, turned on the lights, moved to the front of the movie screen and yelled at everyone to shut up.”
John Hutchins of Kendallville worked as an usher there while he was a teen-ager. He joked and said Cleon was the only person who had ever fired him. Hutchins said an usher started work in the balcony and after being promoted, went to the main floor along the aisles. He said the “big time” position was working the center aisle.
One day Hutchins said he was working the sides and he became sick. Cleon sent him home because of it, and this became a joke between the two men as Hutchins’ “firing.”
Hutchins laughed and said he and the projectionist, Ralph Hill, enjoyed playing practical jokes on Cleon. Many times they would move his car and hide it when he left it running in the alley.
The best joke, though, was when the two young men sent Cleon a cow patty in a Curtis Candy Co. box. He opened it and stuck his hand in the box at the concession counter while talking to a lady. Hutchins said Cleon could be heard yelling a long way off with that joke.
Pearl Point said she would hear many stories from her husband when he came home from the theater. She said Cleon really liked the children and would show children’s movies for them.
“Mothers kidded him and said he was the best baby sitter in town, and the cheapest,” Mrs. Point said.
In 1956, the Hudsons remodeled the Strand. While it was being remodeled, the Princess Theatre stayed open, Mrs. Hudson said. After the Strand reopened, the Hudsons closed the Princess for good and sold the building.
After the Strand was remodeled, it seated 953. With the new remodeling came a new screen and new stereo system.
It’s the old theaters like the Strand that are unique, Mrs. Hudson said. “You don’t get the same effect as you do in old theaters.”
Hudson and Cleon brought candy and popcorn to the Strand and it caught on like a wildfire. At that time in 1946, no other theater in Kendallville sold candy.
The Strand used to show double features, and the serials were popular on Saturdays, she said. To get more people to come, Cleon would conduct stage shows, hoola-hoop contests and give-away drawings at the Strand.
Known as a strict disciplinarian at the theater, Cleon would keep kids in line if they talked. Yet he was respected by many of the patrons as they knew he meant business.
Mrs. Point said one time Cleon heard noises coming from upstairs in the men’s restroom. He walked in and two young boys were sneaking in from the top of the roof through a vent. He waited for them there and acted like he was really mad, giving them a hard time.
One of his more embarrassing moments was in April 1966 when the Strand was playing “The Singing Nun.” He received a phone call at home, telling him something was wrong with the marquee, the original marquee since the Strand opened. When he arrived at the theater, he saw the marquee said, “The Sinning Nun.”
The Strand used to have morning shows and give prizes away to children when Cleon was manager, Mrs. Hudson said. She also said the movies would be run continuously, seven a day.
Cleon semi-retired from the Strand in 1973, but continued to help out until 1979, retiring after 50 years in the theater business. Cleon died in November 1995.
The availability of movies was much different in the old days than it is today, Mrs. Hudson said. The Strand used to buy pictures at a flat rate. She said salesmen from the movie companies would come in and bargain with the Hudsons to get their movies on the screen.
Today movies operate on a percentage basis, depending on the company and how big the film is.
Mr. Hudson died in 1972 and Mrs. Hudson maintained the Strand, remodeling it again in 1980, making it into twin theaters.
Prior to the remodeling, the Strand had a box office outside and one inside. During remodeling the Strand expanded into an area that had been leased by the Chicago Motor Club. In that area restrooms, an office and small lobby area were added.
During the remodeling the Strand was closed for about five weeks. When Mrs. Hudson reopened the theater with “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and a Disney film on a Wednesday, she said she ran the films for seven weeks and the theaters were full for four of those weeks.
Today the balcony is still used for blockbuster movies like “Twister,” said Ron Hudson, the Hudsons’ son, who now manages the Strand.
The Hudsons owned the Strand until 1984. In 1991, they again took ownership, and then sold it in late 1992 to David John, owner of the Northway Cinema in Auburn. Ron Hudson continues to manage the Strand, keeping alive the 69-year relationship with the building and the Hudsons.
As Mrs. Hudson looks back on all the years in Kendallville, she said, “Kendallville is a small town, but it is a good theater town. The main reason is Kendallville could open big first-run movies on the day they were released, like the upcoming “Lost World.”