Vintage roadside

[Fading Fast]

It was frowned upon. During the silent era, people would bring in bagged peanuts and you'd hear shells cracking all thru the picture, and find shells all over the floor after the show, which led the better operators to ban food altogether, while the neighborhood houses turned to concessionaires to try and control what sort of food got in.

Beginning around 1939, our place had "The Strand Store" in one of the ground-level storefronts, where snacks, soda, and even beer were sold -- one of the pictures we have has a "Pickwick Ale" sign visible in the window. The beer was strictly for takeout though -- they wouldn't let it in the theatre! In the early 1950s, they knocked thru the wall between the store and the theatre lobby, and the space became the in-house concession stand.

Candy bars and fruit drops like "Assorted Charms" were the most popular concession items in the thirties, although some houses allowed hot dogs in. Popcorn was considered declasse, the mark of a hick theatre, until sugar rationing cut into the availablity of candy during the war. The in-theatre popper didn't become common until after the war.

I had one relative (a great aunt) who said theater food wasn't clean and she only ate the packaged stuff at movie theaters. She specifically said there were cockroaches in many of the popcorn machines. She died when I was pretty young and I don't remember any more of what she said or if she was half cracker house or not, but the implication was there was a time when that - theater concessions aren't clean - was the popular perception. Was there anything to that or was she just nuts or extrapolating from some one off (any food business will have the occasion bad actor)? As a kid, I ignored her completely - the places looked okay (certainly never saw a roach in the popcorn) and was very happy if I had the money to buy popcorn, candy or soda.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, ours is clean -- we clean the popper nightly and boil out the kettle with a caustic solution once a week, and I personally clean the under-counter soda fountain area with bleach to take care of any syrup drippage. So I know one theatre that's clean at least.

But yes, there are some real horror stories out there. I remember seeing an article in a trade magazine a couple years back about "Ten Health Violations That Will Get You Busted," and some of the under-counter/sink areas shown were really horrible -- mold, guck, bugs, everything you can think of. Fountain dispensers are particularly attractive to roaches, and if they're not kept sanitized and free of drips, they can get overrun pretty fast. Drive-ins used to be particularly awful, given the sale of hamburgers and hot dogs, the over-worked french-fry machines, the poorly-screened windows, and the indifferent staffing.

There are also horror stories of bugs getting into candy-vending machines, which I'd think would be very attractive and easy to breach for a determined and hungry insect. We don't have any of those here, but we used to have a couple at the gas station. I think the rancidity of the peanuts we kept in one of them discouraged colonization.

 

[Fading Fast]

Well, ours is clean -- we clean the popper nightly and boil out the kettle with a caustic solution once a week, and I personally clean the under-counter soda fountain area with bleach to take care of any syrup drippage. So I know one theatre that's clean at least.

But yes, there are some real horror stories out there. I remember seeing an article in a trade magazine a couple years back about "Ten Health Violations That Will Get You Busted," and some of the under-counter/sink areas shown were really horrible -- mold, guck, bugs, everything you can think of. Fountain dispensers are particularly attractive to roaches, and if they're not kept sanitized and free of drips, they can get overrun pretty fast. Drive-ins used to be particularly awful, given the sale of hamburgers and hot dogs, the over-worked french-fry machines, the poorly-screened windows, and the indifferent staffing.

There are also horror stories of bugs getting into candy-vending machines, which I'd think would be very attractive and easy to breach for a determined and hungry insect. We don't have any of those here, but we used to have a couple at the gas station. I think the rancidity of the peanuts we kept in one of them discouraged colonization.

I had the feeling that her opinion was formed in her youth (which was the '30s and '40s), so I was thinking there might have been a "scandal" about theater food concessions back then (that was probably not bleated too loudly as newspapers weren't going to hit a big advertiser that hard).

 

[LizzieMaine]

She wasn't wrong --theatres did have a big sanitation problem in the Era: fleas, lice, and bedbugs. The cheap velveteen upholstery and the often-indifferent personal hygiene of the clientele made for a dangerous combination. I have the original operations manual put out by M&P Theatres, who operated our place in the 1940s, and there's a whole chapter on disinfecting the seats and exterminating crawling and leaping vermin. There's also a helpful suggestion that ushers' uniforms be disinfected regularly.

Neighborhood theatres were often disparaged as "fleapits" in the Era. This is why.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Do you have any photos of your theater, Lizzie?

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

She wasn't wrong --theatres did have a big sanitation problem in the Era: fleas, lice, and bedbugs. The cheap velveteen upholstery and the often-indifferent personal hygiene of the clientele made for a dangerous combination. I have the original operations manual put out by M&P Theatres, who operated our place in the 1940s, and there's a whole chapter on disinfecting the seats and exterminating crawling and leaping vermin. There's also a helpful suggestion that ushers' uniforms be disinfected regularly.

Neighborhood theatres were often disparaged as "fleapits" in the Era. This is why.

About a decade ago, NYC had a bunch of reported bed bug issues in movie theaters and attendance slipped (it is insanely hard and expensive to get them out of your house). Since then, the theaters have become (overall, there are still exceptions) incredibly clean to the point of being almost obsessive. We almost never go (mainly only to TCM showings of old movies), but when we do go, I am amazed at how clean they are today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

1941. The geography is different today -- the grocery store at right was demolished in the 70s, and the drive-thru for a bank is now in that spot, while the gas station whose sign is seen at left was taken down in the 1950s and a small single-story storefront was built in its place, which now houses a bakery.

The "Strand Store" was located in the storefront visible on the left hand side of the building. That space is now a dual stairway up to the balcony and down to the restrooms.

Post renovation, c. 2007. The marquee is a reconstruction of the original 1923 version, replaced by the triangular neon one in 1939, a version too damaged by neglect to restore.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

It's a beautiful representation of the species, Lizzie...you should be proud.

Our local Florida theater...of which we attend frequently...was constructed in 1940, and is still owned by the same family. Although it's interior has been renovated to a certain degree, it still retains most of it's Era charm... and, by no means is it ADA- compliant.

1941. The geography is different today -- the grocery store at right was demolished in the 70s, and the drive-thru for a bank is now in that spot, while the gas station whose sign is seen at left was taken down in the 1950s and a small single-story storefront was built in its place, which now houses a bakery.

The "Strand Store" was located in the storefront visible on the left hand side of the building. That space is now a dual stairway up to the balcony and down to the restrooms.
View attachment 125663

Post renovation, c. 2007. The marquee is a reconstruction of the original 1923 version, replaced by the triangular neon one in 1939, a version too damaged by neglect to restore.

View attachment 125665

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Ours.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's an Architectural Digest magazine article about the renovation. Fourteen years later, the seams are showing and fraying along the edges -- 7 million berries doesn't buy as much as magazine writers think it does.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's an Architectural Digest magazine article about the renovation. Fourteen years later, the seams are showing and fraying along the edges -- 7 million berries doesn't buy as much as magazine writers think it does.

It is stunningly amazing how expensive restoration is. Any quality construction work is expensive, but thoughtful restoration is significantly more - space for space, if you will - as every aspect of it from sourcing material, to careful demolition (of muddled work done before) to custom installation of older or reproduced materials is time consuming and demanding.

 

[Fading Fast]

Debated putting this here or in vintage neon, but seems to tilt just a bit more toward roadside. And, I could be wrong, but I think they sell doughnuts here:

 

[3fingers]

In my lifetime there were two standalone donut shops in town. Both are long gone now, replaced by the grocery store bakeries, which are not even close to the same thing. A new Dunkin Donut store recently opened which shares its space with a Baskin Robbins ice cream store. I have not been to either counter, but reviews from others and surveying the parking lot tells me they likely aren't going to last.

 

[Fading Fast]

In my lifetime there were two standalone donut shops in town. Both are long gone now, replaced by the grocery store bakeries, which are not even close to the same thing. A new Dunkin Donut store recently opened which shares its space with a Baskin Robbins ice cream store. I have not been to either counter, but reviews from others and surveying the parking lot tells me they likely aren't going to last.

NYC has done an admirable job of keeping individual businesses alive versus chains, but a few battles have been lost and others don't look good.

While there are a few Domino's in the city, the majority of the pizza places are mom-and-pops ones - so far, the line is holding and looks very strong on that front. There are still many individual bakeries, but the supermarket bakeries have been grabbing a larger share of the business (with their bland product) - and some notable "one-man" shops have been closing.

Starbucks and smaller chains and "one-man" shops continue to battle aggressively with, IMO, the smaller places having made a modest advance lately after giving ground for two decades. Ice-cream is a harder call. There are a billion old-style trucks that pop up once the weather warms - that's great. And with the "artisanal" thing, there have been some new parlors opening, but man are they expensive.

Funny, right near me there is one of those combined DD and BR places (I'm assuming they have the same parent ownership, but don't know that). I like BR ice-cream and, while I'll eat a DD doughnut now and then, it is a pale comparison to a real doughnut-shop doughnut. Like ice-cream, there have been several new fancy doughnut places opening (with truly crazy prices), but fortunately, some of the old-school ones are hanging on as well. But the real places to get an old-school doughnut in NYC are at the large number of extant mom-and-pop coffee houses and diners.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still have a local donut bakery that services grocery and convenience store accounts around the county, and their product is superior in every way to the mass produced stuff you get at Dunkies (they no longer make their own donuts in the shop, and haven't since the '90s). A couple of my Kids worked second jobs at this donut place a few years back and would bring me the cull donuts -- the broken ones, the misshapen ones, that would otherwise be thrown away. Heaven in a greasy paper bag.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

"Time to (not) make the donuts"...but, maybe they did, back then.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, "Classic Dunkies" was the real stuff. The current version is trying to be more of a coffee place than a donut place, and it shows.

 

[Fading Fast]

Probably should be over in Vintage Neon, but seems to fit the current theme of this thread:

 

[3fingers]

The movie theater in the county seat town where I grew up was still selling assorted charms at least into the 1970's.
They also sold sour Crowns which would give you a sore mouth before the movie ended.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob