Strand Theater (Paw Paw)
115 E. Michigan AvenueI took a personal day last Friday because the kids had some things going on during the day that I didn’t want them to miss. It’s J’s busy time at work and I was kind of in a lull so I offered to use one of my days off to get the kids where they needed to be.
The day started with skating practice at Wings Event Center. We then went down to Ramona Park for an end of summer party with some of the other skates in the club.
We were home fairly early in the afternoon. J still had to come home and run L over to Battle Creek to get one of her dresses altered before Solo Dance Nationals next month.
When they got home, J said she didn’t fell well and she went to bed. The problem with that was B. His room is right next to ours and he was playing video games. He gets a little rambunctious when he does that.
I was already thinking about going to a movie so I went and asked him if he wanted to go with me. He likes going to movies so even though he didn’t know what the movie I was going to see was about, he said yes.
Perfect, I get to see a movie and we got B out of the house so J could sleep.
B thought we were going to Celebration Cinema. Not sure why he thought that. I never said that. I guess he just realized we were going south on US-131 and assumed. He was thrown for a total loop when I turned on to westbound I-94.
I was heading towards Paw Paw. I’ve been wanting to go to The Strand Theater in Paw Paw for years but could never time it just right.
The small, one screen theater is on East Michigan Avenue between Gremps and Kalamazoo Street in downtown Paw Paw. The building is right next to the Village Hall. It was built in the late 1920’s to house vaudeville performances and eventually transitioning movies in the 1930’s. The theater went through that period of transition in the 70’s and 80’s when multiplexes started taking over. The theater was saved from demolition in 1984. It was bought by the current owners in 2010 and continues to run as a first run movie house…with a slight delay. There were several Strand Theaters in Michigan at one time including the one in Sturgis. They’re remaining theaters are independently owned now and have no relation other than the name.
The first thing you notice when walking in is that the theater is very small. As soon as you walk in the door, you’re in the lobby for the tickets and concessions. Both are done from the same counter on the east end of the building. There were two people working when we walked in about at 6:40 PM for a 7:00 PM movie. One of them rang up our tickets then asked about concessions while the other started filling popcorn buckets. We got a large popcorn, a large drink, a medium drink, Milk Duds and two tickets to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The cost was $35. It would have cost us almost that much just in tickets had we gone to one of the bigger theater chains in Kalamazoo.
If you turn to your left from the concession stand, you are immediately in the theater. There is no long hallway getting you to the auditorium. There’s just a set of double doors that leads to a short hallway between the two entrances to the auditorium.
The theater is exactly what you’d expect from a 100 year old vaudeville house. It’s a classic movie theater. No stadium seating. No recliners. Just the traditional movie theater seating on a rise from the front to the back. There even appeared to be balcony seating but I didn’t look to much at that. We just found a seat in the middle of the theater. The screen is much smaller than most modern movie and they don’t have any pre-show entertainment playing. I, once again, mistimed the drive and got there way to early for B. We were only 15 minutes early by the time we got concessions and sat down but he can’t sit there and wait for 15 minutes. My bad.
The large bucket of popcorn was comparable in size to the bigger chains but it cost much less at $9. B didn’t want his own popcorn but he did snack on some of mine. It still lasted us until about halfway through the movie.
I’ve been wanting to go to this theater for the longest time but it hasn’t been easy timing it. The Stand only plays one movie a week…usually from Friday-Thursday. The movies are all first runs but they’re a few weeks behind the wide release. In this case, The Fantastic Four: First Steps released about a month before The Strand got it. It seems like every weekend that I have free, they’re not playing a movie I want to see. The stars finally aligned. I purposely didn’t go see this movie somewhere else hoping the weekend it was at The Strand was a weekend I’d be home and dagummit, it all worked out.
You really can’t beat the price at The Strand. B loves going to movies with me but it can cost the two of us well over $50 if we go to one of the chain theaters. He doesn’t like these old movie houses as much as I do because he wants the recliners but I’m still thrilled with the nostalgia of these places. Just like it’s counterpart in Sturgis, The Strand Theater in Paw Paw is a fantastic throwback to my childhood. This theater reminds so much of the theaters I went to growing up in the 80’s and 90’s and while they don’t have all the bells and whistles of a modern movie going experience, you can’t beat the value and the nostalgia.
SW Michigan Dining 