Construction began in October 1923 on a 2,500-seat opera house and movie theater that became known as The Strand. It was funded by the Saenger Brothers and the Ehrlich Brothers, who went on to own 320 theaters throughout the South. Of all the houses they owned, The Strand is considered the most elegant. In 2008, The Strand doubled as the Apollo Theater in the feature film Soul Men. The movie starred Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, and Isaac Hayes and was a story about a band reuniting. It was the last movie Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes ever made, and their untimely deaths happened before the film's premiere and within a day of each other.