Historic Clayton Theater is one of a kind

Throughout most of the 20th century, every city and town in Sussex County had at least one movie theater.

While there are multiplexes now, Delaware has only one first-run, single-screen theater still in operation – the Clayton Theater in Dagsboro, which dates back to 1949.

Most of the early theaters not only offered movies but also live stage shows, including traveling western shows. Seaford residents were over the moon when western legend Roy Rogers visited the Palace Theater.

Many early theaters were the first buildings to be air conditioned. They attracted large audiences with comfortable seats and a variety of movie treats, including popcorn, which has become a theater staple.

Throughout the years, theaters have had to adapt to changes, including their first real competition when TVs came on the scene in the 1950s and 1960s. Then came VHS and DVD rentals, and technology only continued to offer viewers many movie-viewing options.

Even with an overload of options, including streaming, pay-per-view and video-on-demand, large theaters have been able to keep up.

However, the competition was too much for nearly every single-screen theater, and most Sussex theaters closed by the 1970s. Today, large-screen multiplexes are the norm, such as Movies at Midway, including its addition of The Cube, and Milford Movies 9, which opened in January 2021.

The historic Clayton

Purchased by Joanne and the late Ed Howe in 2000, the Clayton Theater has endured for nearly 75 years, but a change in Hollywood nearly led to the theater's demise. After 60 years, Howe was forced to switch to a digital format by the end of 2013, with no more 35mm films. The Save the Clayton fundraiser drive was started to raise $100,000 to make the conversion. The Friends of Clayton and other organizations in town held benefit stage shows, solicited donations and held special movie events to raise the funds in time.

Then in 2020, the COVID-19 state of emergency forced the theater to close from Nov. 1, 2020, to Memorial Day 2021. More than 3,000 theaters across the country were forced to close, with no first-run movies to screen. The Clayton returned to its roots and showed its Clayton's Classics until Hollywood started production again.

It also seemed divine intervention played a role in the Howes’ purchase of the historic theater. Feb. 2 (its opening date in 1949) is Joanne's birthday, and an old movie poster in the theater highlighted the movie “Sands of Iwo Jima,” a battle in which her father fought during World War II.

The opening of Clayton in February 1949 was a big event. Gov. Elbert Carvel with state and local officials attended, as the John M. Clayton School Band performed. The romantic comedy musical “One Touch of Venus,” starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, was the first film on the screen in the 530-seat theater. Its managers were Alvin “Skeet” Campbell and Elwood “Pete” Hancock, brothers-in-law who hired family members to operate the theater. Several of their relatives still live in the Dagsboro area and continue to support the theater.

The theater has two storefronts on either side. Ironically, at one point a video store occupied one of the units.

The Clayton also hosted appearances from traveling country and western acts, as well as live stage shows and local talent. The late actor James MacArthur, of “Hawaii Five-0” fame, visited the Clayton. Though the theater underwent various renovations during the 20th and 21st centuries, its classic Art Deco architectural integrity has been largely preserved, including the green-glowing neon marquee.

The theater runs newly released films for a two-week period, in addition to Clayton Classics that are shown once a week. Shows are nightly at 7 p.m., with matinees at 3 p.m. on weekends.

Why the name Clayton? The theater is named after John Middleton Clayton (1796-1856), who was a lawyer and politician from Dagsboro who served as a U.S. senator and secretary of state.

Theaters are everywhere

It's amazing to comprehend that Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Milton, Georgetown, Bridgeville, Bethany Beach, Frankford, Dagsboro, Selbyville, Greenwood, Laurel, Seaford, Milford, Millsboro and Delmar have had at least one movie theater. Several towns had more than one theater, and some had drive-in theaters, including Delmar, Laurel, Milford and Midway, between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

In Rehoboth Beach, the Casino Theater came first in the early 20th century followed by Blue Hen Theater, which showed silent films until 1927.

The long history of movie theaters in Rehoboth mostly centers around one family. William Derrickson was father to Richard, who opened Movies at Midway. William opened the Center Theater in 1945 across from his Avenue Theater, which opened in 1938 along Rehoboth Avenue in the heart of Rehoboth Beach.

The Avenue was destroyed by fire, along with Candy Kitchen and the Avenue Restaurant, in November 1962. The Center was located where you can find Browseabout Books today.

Midway Enterprises started with a two-screen theater along Route 1 at Midway, and by 1990, it had expanded to seven screens. Most of the building was torn down to make way for the Movies at Midway, which opened in May 1999 with 14 screens and more than 2,100 seats.

The Derricksons also opened Midway Palace in 1965, which later expanded to Movies at Midway. The Derrickson family also operated the former Rehoboth Mall Cinema.

Lewes had the Blue Hen Theater along Savannah Road. Somewhere in the files is a historic photo of the theater after a fire with the movie “Up In Smoke” playing.

The year 1962 was not a good one for local movie theaters. Not only did Rehoboth's Avenue burn down, but the Milton Theatre, which had survived three downtown fires over its history, had to close its doors because of flooding damage from the Storm of 1962. It took several decades, lots of money and determination from a dedicated group of theater lovers to bring it back to life. That's a subject for another column.

Today, Milton Theatre is one of the most active small venues anywhere, with 300 events scheduled this year.

Just a sampling of the many movie theaters in the county:

Seaford: Layton and New, which became Palace, theaters and Seaford Twin Cinemas.

Georgetown: Ayers, Ryon's theaters.

Bridgeville: Keller's, Opera House and Sidney theaters.

Laurel: Waller Theater and Sussex West Drive-In.

Milton: Fox and Milton theaters.

Delmar: Avenue Theater and Delmar Drive-In.

Lewes: Blue Hen Theater.

Rehoboth area: Casino, Avenue, Blue Hen, Center theaters, and Rehoboth Cinema, Midway Drive-In and Movies at Midway.