Last week we discovered that the Braden Theater could be, in fact, the only theater in the U.S. of A. named after a horse. The horse passed on in 1929; it would be 21 years later that someone would suggest that a new theater being erected in Presque Isle could be and eventually would be named after that locally-famous racer, John R. Braden.
Okay, that aside, let’s go back almost 58 years and take a glimpse at the grand opening of the Braden and a little history of the theater in the years which followed.
On a rainy day in April of 1950, the Braden Theater formally opened its doors with the showing of “Nancy Goes to Rio,” an MGM production about two actresses (mother and daughter) both after the same part in a movie. The movie was described in “Halliwell’s Film Guide” as a “mild shipboard musical.” It starred Jane Powell, Ann Sothern, Carmen Miranda, Barry Sullivan and Hans Conried, all actors and actresses with whom I grew up in the local movie halls. There are many of you out there (must have been born in 1942 or thereabouts) who recall them well. A queue of more than 200 moviegoers stood – despite the rain – for nearly an hour waiting for the doors to open. The Star-Herald reported that Mary Griffiths, mother of Dr. Ben Griffiths, was first to purchase a ticket.
The new theater seated more than 900 patrons and, on this day, every seat was filled for the 2 o’clock showing. Those were the days before television and movies were a great way to spend a rainy afternoon, besides, the vast majority of the movies in 1950 were suitable for kids. Didn’t need ratings in those days; parents could depend on the movie companies to police its own industry for unacceptable content. That isn’t true any more and ratings have been required to advise parents for many years now. Members of the consortium who built and operated the new movie hall included Mark Turner, Frank Hussey, George Barnes (all of Presque Isle) and Charlie Brooks of Ashland.
In 1970 the theater was sold to James Bernard and sons, Reginald and Richard. A year later James sold his portion to son, Mike, following his (Mike’s) discharge from the Army. Bernard then converted the one-screen hall to a three-screen. In April of 1982, Mike acquired sole ownership of the theater and operated it until January of 1994 when the final curtain closed because of increased competition from the new eight-cinema theater at the Aroostook Centre Mall. Bernard would continue to operate the Caribou Cinema. The theater was placed on the market for sale and finally sold 10 years later, but was never operated as a movie hall during the first few years of new ownership. It wouldn’t be until the summer of 2007 that still another owner and operator (the Dow family) would purchase the theater with movies in mind. Nine months later on March 1, 2008, the Braden opened its doors once more, much to the excitement of the community.
To conclude our trip down Braden memory lane, a few little tidbits might be interesting. Thanks to John Hone’s rapping at my memory door, we have these few factoids. Oh, what the heck, let’s coin a word – how about “histoid” (a history factoid). Okay, that done in good fashion, let’s see what these histoids are.
• Sometime in the 1920s when John R. Braden was the talk of the town, the Presque Isle House (Northeastland Hotel) hosted a banquet for the famous horse. We have understood through the years that a silver cup had been designed for the occasion. Braden was then led through the front door into the banquet room and allowed to drink from the cup. I can well imagine the crowd went wild. Remember, the hotel of yesteryear isn’t the same hotel of today; a new one was erected on the same site in 1932.
• Before Claude Taylor (self-styled Presque Isle historian for the Star-Herald for many years) coined the name “Wildcats” for the P.I. High School basketball team in 1932, the locals referred to the team as the Blue and White team and/or the Bradentown team, obviously named after JRB.
• Back 80 years or so, maybe fewer, an Anton Nichols owned and operated a small store down on North Main St. almost across from Church St. He not only sold groceries, but also had learned the trade of making cigars. I have suspected for a number of years that he studied under the watchful eye of U.J. Hedrich who made cigars in Presque Isle for many years. One of those Hedrich cigars was called the John R. Braden cigar. I reckon when Hedrich decided to quit the cigar business, Nichols either purchased the cigar-making equipment or was given same. Nichols and his family lived on Hall St. Wouldn’t it be something else to find a fully-wrapped JRB cigar in amongst a box of junk one would find at a local auction or in grandma’s attic?
So, now I leave the history of the Braden Theater. I have no idea what my next piece of local history will be, but you can bet your last gallon of fuel oil that thunder will strike and I’ll be in your face once more with another slice of our long-forgotten past.
Stay tuned to this paper for more local stuff whenever the mood hits.
Comments should be directed to the letters to the editor section of the Star-Herald. You may reach me any time at rgraves001@maine.rr.com. A response is guaranteed . . .
Photo courtesy of Dick Graves
THE BRADEN THEATER, as it appeared in 1966.
FORGOTTEN TIMES
by Dick Graves
