The show must go on: Historic movie theater in Langley remains relevant

The longest-running owners of an 86-year-old movie theater in Langley can agree on one thing: COVID didn’t kill The Clyde.

Starting July 25, the historic theater on First Street will have shows all seven days of the week, something that hasn’t happened since before the pandemic.

It’s all part of the plan to bring The Clyde back to a viable state after a few rocky years. Father-and-son duo Blake and Brook Willeford, who own and manage the theater, hope that a series of new programs will help attract moviegoers who perhaps haven’t sat in the rows of plush blue seats in quite some time.

“Almost every week, someone comes and says, ‘I haven’t been here in two years,’” Blake said.

Norm and Hazel Clyde built The Clyde Theatre in 1937, next door to Clyde Motors. In the 1950s Norm Clyde was the town marshall, an intimidating figure who was known to be tough on kids who visited the theater not on their best behavior.

Enter Blake Willeford, who had just got out of the Peace Corps and was visiting his favorite aunt on Whidbey Island. He purchased the Langley theater from the Clydes in 1972.

“The first time I walked in here, he ran me out of here because I was a hippie,” Blake said of Norm Clyde. “When he learned that I was thinking about buying it, his attitude changed.”

Blake recalls being terrified by the monthly mortgage payment of $153. His plan was to get a hot plate and move into the balcony, but fortunately he found a place of his own to live in.

The only one who found himself sleeping in the balcony turned out to be his son, Brook, when he was young. In the pre-digital days, the Willefords had to load reels of film they spliced together themselves onto a projector. The reels had to be switched at least once during the movie, and whoever started the film had to stay in the projectionist booth to make sure nothing went wrong. Many times during his childhood in the 80s, Brook went to bed in his “The Empire Strikes Back” sleeping bag while his parents played a nightly movie.

Blake met his wife Lynn when she was building her own house on South Whidbey in 1976. Lynn founded a series of nonprofit organizations on the island, including Hearts and Hammers, Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund and South Whidbey at Home. She passed away in 2021.

“She is the one who put the ‘heart’ in our business through our various fundraising efforts, always spearheaded by her,” Blake said. “She liked to call The Clyde ‘the theater with a heart.’ Brook and I are trying to maintain that tradition in her honor.”

While The Clyde doesn’t take tips, donations can be placed inside the Magic Change Jar, which collects money for some of the organizations that Lynn started, among others. One dollar becomes seven, because there are six matching partners, including The Clyde, Island Athletic Club, Kevin and Mary Jane Lungren, Richard and Christine Epstein, Mutiny Bay Blues and South Whidbey Assembly of God. From 2009 to 2019, the Magic Change Jar raised a total of $82,870 for local nonprofits.

Along the way, Lynn taught the Willeford men how to book movies.

“She discovered and honed what it means to be a Whidbey Island movie, because it’s a very particular type of movie that does well here,” Brook said. “We can’t show horror films or most of the big superhero films, because they don’t do well. The movies that are tentpoles of America’s film consumption just don’t do it here.”

Whidbey moviegoers seem to enjoy films with heart, witty dialogue and character, like “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” or “Woman in Gold.” They are movies that don’t always tend to do well in foreign markets.

“They don’t translate well to the international audience because it’s all verbal, it’s all in the dialogue, whereas an ‘Avengers’ movie or ‘Transformers’ translates well because it’s all action,” Brook said.

The younger Willeford has worked every job at The Clyde, from janitor to ticket taker to projectionist. The theater went digital in late 2011, which meant an end to film reels. In the olden days, the Willefords had to watch out for film jamming, which could melt down from the heat of the light. Film could also arrive in poor quality, like the time some relatives running a movie at The Clyde encountered sesame seed shells wound up in the film that came spitting out at them.

When the film arrived, the projectionist had to build the movie by putting the film together on the reel. A few times over the years, Blake remembers building a film incorrectly with the reels out of order. During one of the showings he realized he had done it wrong.

“And then I realized it was ‘200 Motels’ and no one would know the difference,” he quipped, referring to the 1971 surrealist musical film written and directed by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer.

Now, movies arrive on an external hard drive about the size of a VHS tape. An electronic key, which is only valid for a certain amount of time, prevents early showings. The large files are downloaded onto a server. A program is built to run the movie with light and sound cues and previews.

The Clyde stayed open and the staff was paid during the tumultuous times of the pandemic, thanks to a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant from the federal government.

“Some of our employees have been here longer than I’ve been alive,” Brook said. “It really is The Clyde family when it comes to the employees.”

The Willefords are now seeking ways to support The Clyde by generating income that doesn’t go through the distributors. Theaters are required to show films for a certain length of time, and with a single screen in its movie house, The Clyde is at a disadvantage compared to theaters with multiple screens that can shuffle a film off to another screen.

So they’re starting Nostalgia Nights, classic movies that will be shown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Recent releases, like the new Wes Anderson flick, “Asteroid City,” will be shown Friday through Monday.

The first movie in the Nostalgia Nights lineup is “E.T.” The films are currently booked to show July 25 through Sept. 7.

“If they do well, I’ve got a list of about 50 movies that I want to show, and we’re taking customer suggestions,” Brook said.

Patrons can also now get a glass of red or white wine at the theater’s pint-sized snack bar, which Blake likes to say is the biggest grossing business in Langley per hour per square foot. The line usually filters down the aisle before each movie.

The Willefords have also opened up room for still image advertisements to play on screen before each film. In addition, they are working on rolling out a membership program with different tiers that will allow the buyer to save money on tickets and snacks.

Even with fewer films being released after the pandemic than before, The Clyde is on track to make money in 2023 for the first time in a few years. Though the Willefords anticipate a dip in releases as a result of the ongoing writers’ strike in Hollywood, they remain hopeful that streaming platforms are seeing the value in a theatrical release.

From time to time, the Willeford men do ponder the future of this historic theater, which will turn a century old in a little over a decade.

“My daughter’s 7,” Brook said. “I’m hoping she wants to take it over after I’m done.”

For more information about The Clyde, visit theclyde.net.

Brook Willeford holds up an external hard drive containing “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The majority of movies shown at The Clyde these days come in this form.

Photo by David Welton Blake Willeford holds up the Magic Change Jar, which turns one dollar into seven for South Whidbey nonprofit organizations.

Blake Willeford stands beside the projector that The Clyde Theatre used to show films until moving to a digital format in 2011.

Photo by David Welton The Clyde seats about 250 people.

Photos by David Welton Blake and Brook Willeford are the longest-running owners of The Clyde, a historic movie theater in downtown Langley that opened in 1937.