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Times were happy in 1946, when people flocked to see movies on the big screen.
Little is known about this iconic scene at the Grandin Theatre in 1946, when a crowd turned out for the release of “Centennial Summer,” an Oscar-nominated musical starring Jeanne Crain and Cornel Wilde. Ian Fortier, the Grandin’s executive director, says it’s the only photo that exists of the theatre before at least the 1960s.
This photo reflects a happy time in the community, Fortier says, because World War II was over. That may explain why people flocked to watch this film story of two sisters who fall in love with the same Frenchman in Philadelphia.
The Grandin Theatre remains an icon in the Roanoke Valley, where it opened in 1932 on Grandin Road for a screening of “Arrowsmith,” an Oscar-nominated film about a medical researcher sent to handle a plague outbreak. The Grandin was the first Roanoke theatre with a talking picture, and when it opened, tickets were 25 cents for adults.
The theatre was a cinema all but seven years of its existence. From 1976 to 1983, Mill Mountain Theatre purchased the space for stage productions.
Despite financial troubles that forced the Grandin to close and reopen at two separate times, in 1985 and 2001, the theatre maintains a lively presence. A “Save the Grandin” fundraising campaign, spearheaded by Roanoke developer Ed Walker and the Grandin Theatre Foundation, kept the popular landmark’s legacy alive and forged its reopening in 2002.
It’s clear that the Grandin is a community keepsake.
Today, the theatre still is going strong with showings of new movies and vintage flicks. Only now, you’ll pay $9.75 for a ticket.
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