Dan MacEntee (left), representing Senator Betty Little, Strand Theatre owners Helen Zyma and Bob Card. Courtesy photo
Strand Theatre owners Helen Zyma and Bob Card were honored by the Adirondack North Country Association at the ANCA annual meeting held Friday, September 25 in Lake Placid.
ANCA Executive Director Kate Fish initiated in 2013 a campaign to save small North Country movie theaters when the film industry announced that only digital movies would be distributed instead of traditional film.
Several North Country theaters, such as the Tamarack—formerly The Gaiety—in Inlet, faced with overwhelming conversion costs, got out of the movie business altogether.
ANCA created grant funding to help the theaters, but, in order to qualify, theater owners were required to convert all of their operating projectors to digital.
The cost of each conversion was upwards of $100,000 per projector.
The Strand in Old Forge, like The Palace in Lake Placid, had long been operating four theater rooms.
A vigorous local fundraising campaign, combined with financing arranged by Bob Card, proved invaluable.
It was revealed that the Strand was not eligible for supplemental funding secured by ANCA and the North Country Regional Economic Development Council.
All of Herkimer County is included in the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council.
ANCA members recognized the Strand for being one of the first two theaters to secure the required funding, and also one of only two North Country theaters offering 3D projection capability.
Among the local attendees at the meeting were Richard Bird, an ANCA director and recent past president, CAP-21 Executive Director Nick Rose, and ANCA director Mike Farmer.
