Lewis and Clark Theatre

I’m looking for an old friend who worked at Lewis and Clark in the 80’s. His name is Greg and he was from Auburn.

I grew up a few miles from the Lewis & Clark, and when my family or friends saw movies it was usually there. I’m sure I saw 500 movies there… And of course, even in its single-screen era it was never a fabulous movie palace, but it was so much better than any cinema I’ve seen built after the 1970s.

Mostly, what made the Lewis & Clark terrific was the ownership, management, and staff that kept the place spotless, the seats comfy and clean, the projection sharp, the service friendly, and the popcorn hot and yummy, right up until the day SRO sold it to Cineplex Odeon (or as we called it, Cineplex Odious). The broken chairs, unfocused presentation, and odd odors started within a few months of that switch, and within a year or so of the sale I gave up and started driving miles out of my way to see movies elsewhere.

My sincere thanks to Allet’s father (the 1960s manager) and projectionist Mike Bridgham for their good work. It was appreciated, and at the risk of sounding really old, it was a level of giving-a-damn that’s rarely seen any more.

And, Spencer, I forgot to add: I love your memories of Lewis & Clark. I wish I could’ve experienced that movie-going experience.

I was a doorman (in a green and gold uniform) at the Lewis and Clark when I was in high school starting in 1957. At that time the theater was the pride of John Danz who owned Sterling Theaters, and was already quite elderly.
It was an enormous single-screen house with a gracious lobby, a children’s nursery with a nanny and a television lounge for patrons waiting for the film to start. In the back of the auditorium there was a sound-proofed room for people with small children and a party room that could be reserved for special family or group gatherings. It was not at all unusual for all 2000 seats to be sold-out for huge films like “Spartacus” “The Vikings” “Auntie Mame” and “Peyton Place.”
The theater managers wore white dinner jackets in summer and tuxedos in winter. The ushers wore snazzy uniforms, and people who worked the concession counter had to pass a fingernail inspection before their shift and wore washable clothes and aprons that were color coordinated with the décor. On weekend evenings there was an usher at the top of every aisle to show people to their seats.
The grounds were professionally maintained and there was a rather lavish garden of exotic looking plants on both sides of the walkway between the theater and bowl up to the box-office.
Later I became an assistant manager (got my tux and dinner jacket paid for by the company) and subsequently worked at other theaters the company owned. (One was the Palomar in downtown Seattle that I don’t see mentioned on this site. Too bad, because it was a gorgeous house.)
In those days the theater was located in a family district. It was the biggest and most successful venue for miles. The airport with its attendant problems hadn’t dominated the area. The streets around the theater weren’t havens for thugs, druggies and hookers as they are now.
In its day the Lewis and Clark was elegant and successful.

P.S I forgot to mention That Dad was an excellent painter, he worked in SRO’s graphics dept. also, likening the possibility it was him, Im almost certain he must have helped if it had been the lady mentioned.The original owner did care, he visited my father at home once when he was not doing well. Allet

I can sympathize with “bluejack’s” horrendous “Spiderman” experience at the Lewis & Clark toward the end of its life, but what made this theatre a treasure is what it was, not what it became. But it sounds like the treasure had already turned to trash by the end, and I’m sure there was no going back.

I went to this theatre almost every week between the years of 1963 and 1966. Then it was truly a rather “posh” mid-century modern movie palace in its own way. Even if it wasn’t the ornate sort of Hollywood movie palace of the 20s and 30s, it was still a far cry from the utilitarian black-box multiplexes of today. Yes, there was only one very large screen. You walked up a long plushly-carpeted curving incline to get to the theatre, and it split halfway up and another long curve went up to a very spacious balcony. The theatre was always impeccably clean, and the seats were comfortable.

I couldn’t even think of listing all the great early 60s movies I saw there. The original “Pink Panther” and “The World of Henry Orient” both with Peter Sellars, “Charade” with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, just to name three.

Movie audiences — not yet in the habit of watching most of their movies in their own living rooms — were just a tad more civilized then. There were ushers, who stood in the back of the theatre during the showings, and if anybody talked out loud during the movie or created any other type of commotion, they got a talking-to, and were summarily “ushered” out if they didn’t shape up.

Yeah, the Bowling Alley was pretty blue-collar, but so was my family. We used to often go there after the show and have a burger and fries, and it was quite a treat.

I’m glad I never saw the sub-divided horror they turned it into.

The Lewis & Clark was considered fairly lower-class venue even in its heyday when it had but one screen; people who remembered movie palaces (or were able to attend one or another of the few remaining movie palaces) lamented this new suburban look for theaters alongside stripmalls. After it was turned multi-screen it lost whatever slight charm it once had. Originally it was painted throughout with murals about the Lewis & Clark Expedition, painted by a local muralist who history seems to have forgotten, but who in the 1950s & 1960s & early 1970s had her murals in A&P Grocery, The Spanish Castle dance club, the Pioneer Village restaurant in Federal Way (on the inner walls of authentic pioneer homes that had been moved to a single spot as a tourist attraction that failed big time), & all manner of businesses most of which have since been demolished.

With renovation to turn the Lewis & Clark multiplex, some portions of the murals remained, interupted by new walls. By the late 1980s the place always smelled bad & was an eyesore inside & out, & when during its last gasp it came to be used as a hillybilly revivalist christian enclave, it was obvioiusly time to tear it down. It was never in the running for any kind of architectural treasure, it was “early stripmall” all the way, a semi-enclosed complex that was a precursor to the wholly enclosed malls to follow.

I think the only nostalgia anyone can feel for it is that it was a hang-out for sub-working-class teenagers who would accumulate in or around the bowling alley (but never bowl) & there’d be minor “rumbles” in the parking lot & the sixteen year old boys would bully & beat the crap out of the thirteen year olds, & junior highschool girls would have their first sex acts with junior-college boys in that parking lot, then sometime after midnight the cops would harrass all the kids who’d go home & come back the next weekend. But in the 1970s when the first big enclosed mall was built (Southcenter), it marked the end of the Lewis & Clark parking lot as even a teen hangout, & seriously, it might as well have been torn down way back then.

They have indeed started to demolish the theater. They have started from the west side, claiming the four new theaters and the old split-level balcony. All that is left is the front of the first auditorium and some Lewis and Clark murals on the walls. Someone else was taking pictures there today too. I’ll post my picture when I get it developed.

I remember seeing the first Superman and Star Trek movies in the big auditorium in great 70mm, and barely seeing Apollo 13 in very dim Cinemascope. They showed Beverly Hills Cop in very narrow full frame 35mm because they had previously shown a revival of Pinocchio and had neglected to change back to the proper aspect ratio.

You might change the function of this theater to Church, that is it’s current purpose. Does anyone know the name of this church? 03/10/05.

A treasure???

The Lewis and Clark Cinema was undoubtedly the most vile theater in the Seattle area — the staff looked like zombies dredged up out of the Duwamish; the theater itself was filthy (sticky floors, etc.)…

The one time we went there we actually thought maybe the place had shut down: there was a vast, empty parking lot; an empty, windswept concrete corridor with banks of old dried leaves. Eventually we found the “front” of the cinema which was at the end of this unlit tunnel. Once inside, we were baffled by the peculiar museum-like quality of the lobby: there were various Lewis and Clark displays without any particular explanation.

We had come to see the first Spider Man film, and with some trepidation made our way through the cavernous, deserted lobby to our designated theater. Somewhere along this dim, hushed journey we found a forlorn concessions stand where some slackjawed adolescent, more pimple than face, prepared a bucket of popcorn.

Finally we found our theater, took our seats, and settled in for… a nightmare!!!

Four girls in the row behind us spent much of the film idly kicking our seats, and at some point they spilled their soda pops. Elsewhere in the theater, a family brought their infants and young children who hollered and capered about the theater for much of the film. At one point an usher — an old guy wielding a flashlight — came down the aisle peering under everyone’s seat. This failing to turn up the presumably lost article, they eventually stopped the film and turned on the lights for about ten minutes: right at the climactic end of the film. I can’t remember if they started the film from the same place they left off. It didn’t matter… it probably wasn’t much of a movie to start with, but it was truly a ruinous way to watch it. I have loathed Spider Man films ever since.

And as for this “treasure”… Bulldoze it! Bulldoze it now! I can hardly think of a better use for that atrocity than a parking lot.

-bluejack

Hi my name is Lucille Rossmeier and I am a resident of the City of SeaTac, and a member of the church that was mentioned in the previous email. FYI. The company that has leased the land that Lewis and Clark theaters sits on just so happens to own Budget rent a car, on of the same lot. They actually are a “HUGE” software company and a good one I might add. They take possetion of the property on July 1st. They have signed a one year lease and the first thing they plan to do is bull doze it! “OVER MY DEAD BODY” Parking lots and repairs shops for Budget does not make GOOD NEIGHBORS — MOVIE THEATERS, BOWLING ALLEY’S AND CHURCHES DO. Send an email to “CENTRA” or “BUDGET” and tell them NO WAY!! I am sending them the CD from Counting Crows “BIG YELLOW TAXIE” orginally done in the early 70’s by Joni Mitchell. “PAVE PARADISE AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT” DO WHAT WHAT! This Sunday before church both the owners of the land and the new leasers are going to hear our message loud and clear. Once this building is gone the property is worthless to this community. We the people of the United States of America have the Power to make this happen. BIG BUSINESS WITH THEIR BIG BUCKS CAN MOSEY ON DOWN THE ROAD IN SERCH OF ANOTHER LOCATION! Even if the church does not come up with all the money we still need to save the building if we can. Rally Sunday morning 6/27/2004. STAND UP AND BE HEARD. Join ME won’t you!
Mother, neighbor and wife,
City of Sea Tac resident and tax payer (I might add)

Lucille Rossmeier

Yes, I saw that it was closed too and although I wasnt surprised given the fact that they had little business recently and the bowling alley has been closed for years – I still was sad. I had been going there since Jr High and loved the 1 huge theatre it still kept with the murals on the wall. It is a “church” of all things now which I think is temporary. I have a feeling the Port of Seattle has plans to do something with it (so I’ve heard).