At 100 years old, the iconic Strand Theatre is a performing arts center in downtown Shreveport, with an interesting history and beautiful design.
If the walls could talk, they could tell of the vaudeville and silent movie beginnings, the long-standing movie theater, and the musicals and concerts and celebrities that have graced the stage over the decades.
The first performance at the Strand Theatre was the operetta “The Chocolate Soldier” on July 3, 1925. “We were fully air-conditioned in 1925 and electric so all of that was kind of brand-new,” Executive Director Jenifer Hill told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate.
“We were built during the time when segregation was the law in the state of Louisiana, so we had a separate box office, separate entrance for patrons. We were the first, as I understand it, the first theater that allowed everyone in. You had black theaters and you had white theaters, but you didn’t have one that allowed everyone in. And we were it,” she said…