The History of The Clyde Theatre

The Clyde Theatre was built in 1937—the height of the Depression--by Norman and Hazel Clyde. Although a lot more humble than the grand movie palaces being built in the big cities, The Clyde was greeted warmly by folks on South Whidbey. The first movie to show at The Clyde when it opened September 16, 1937, was You Can’t Have Everything starring Don Ameche. Our discovery when we screened the first reel of that film for The Clyde’s 50^th anniversary party that the last line on the reel was “Just call me Blake,” provoked more than a few discussions about karma.

The community-minded Norm and Hazel ran The Clyde Theatre, as well as Clyde Motors and the Clyde garage, for decades. Vandalism and other bad behavior caused Norm, then Town Sheriff too, to close the theater for a while in the 1960s. It was being leased and run on a very limited schedule by a local banker when Blake Willeford bought the theater from the Clydes in February of 1972.

Blake was newly out of three years in the Punjab of India with the Peace Corps, and really knew nothing about running a movie theater. His realtor aunt, Margaret Kish, somehow convinced him it was the perfect small business for a guy with two years of graduate school in philosophy under his belt. He experimented a lot over the next few years, showing a Shakespeare festival one winter, and adding foreign and art movies to the slate the next. He talked local artists into designing the quarterly calendars, which soon became standard décor on everyone’s refrigerator.

Blake added a stage so The Clyde could host musical acts like street troubadour Jim Page, Country Joe McDonald, and Eric Tingstad, and provide a home stage for the excellent productions of Island Theatre. Hundreds of local children have also made their stage debuts at The Clyde in the plays and revues of Martha Murphy’s Whidbey Children’s Theatre (including our own son Brook in 1986).

Lynn slowly worked her way up as sweeper, then Sunday night ticket seller, then girlfriend/bookkeeper, and finally married Blake in 1978. At last she had the power to change the ugly colors of The Clyde, which inside featured tan acoustic wallboard and red plastic seats, and outside was an awful mustard color. After a few different color schemes The Clyde segued into its current teal, aqua, rose, and purple exterior, and soft rose interior. Blake did an extensive seismic retrofit of the building in 1992 to make it safer for all of us. In 2002 we retired the 65-year-old seats and installed more comfortable seats, with cupholders. Blake continually upgrades the equipment at The Clyde as well. We installed Dolby surround sound and switched to xenon bulbs from the old carbon-arc power supplies in time for Amadeus in 1985, and upgraded to Dolby Digital Sound in 2000. We added hearing-assisted devices in the late 1990s.

The staff at The Clyde hasn’t changed much over the years. We’ve only had eight snack-bar ladies in more than 30 years, three of whom (Eve Carty, Emily Baker, and the late Ethel Landers) worked with us for more than a decade. One of our projectionists, Mark Dworkin, has been with us since about 1973, despite having a PhD and a thriving documentary film business. Ticket-sellers Deon Matzen Baerg, Karen Grossman, Paul Samuelson, and Brandon Henry have all been with us for ten or twenty years. It’s employees like these who make The Clyde the warm, friendly, very South Whidbey place it is.