The Clayton Theatre in rural Dagsboro was the dream of Marian and Elwood “Pete” Hancock and Marjorie and Alvin “Skeet” Campbell. The women were sisters. The men were dubbed “Pete and Skeet,” according to the Hancock’s daughter, Cassandra “Sandie” Gerken.
The family was torn between buying beachfront property in North Bethany and building the theater. “The beachfront property was a little too risky,” Gerken recalled. Inspired by a friend who had a theater in Harrington, they opted for the business.
The Clayton was named for John M. Clayton, a U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator from Delaware. He was also the namesake of the local school for grades 1-12. The theater opened on Feb. 2, 1949 with “One Touch of Venus,” starring Ava Gardner and Robert Walker.
Clayton Theatre memories
Excerpts of interview with Sandie Gerken - her parents opened the Clayton Theatre in 1949
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Initially, the Clayton ran movies every night but Sundays, due to blue laws, and then every night when the Sunday movie ban was lifted, Gerken said. For the most part, the movies changed three times a week, with first-run films showing Sunday through Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to science fiction and Frankenstein flicks, popular in the 1950s, and Friday and Saturday were for family movies, such as cowboy films. A cartoon and possibly a newsreel preceded the films.
Some blockbusters lingered throughout the week. Take, for instance, “The Ten Commandments,” a saga that lasted about five hours with intermission. “I saw that five times,” Gerken said.
The theater is flanked by storefronts, occupied over the years by a dentist, a barber and Gerken’s grandmother’s furniture, after she moved to town. At one time, the family ran a soda fountain and over-the-counter drug store, which also sold makeup and toiletries. In their early teens, Gerken, her sisters and their cousins were groomed to work the soda fountain and make milkshakes.
But before they earned soda jerk status, they cleaned the theater on weekend mornings. “We swept everything to the aisle and brushed it up,” Gerken said. Occasionally, they found a quarter or two. More often, they found spilt milkshakes.
Popcorn, which cost 10 cents, came pre-popped in boxes so big the children used them as playhouses. Patrons put the dime in the machine and held a paper bag to the shoot to catch the popcorn. Any overflow fell into a cup, which also caught any dropped dimes, which Gerken and her friends retrieved.
As television became more prevalent in the late 1960s and 1970s, the family found it hard to make living. Pete and Skeet both worked second jobs for the same animal health company in Selbyville, Gerken said. They sold the theater in 1972.
The property had several owners after that, including the Derrickson family, which currently owns Movies at Midway, and at one time owned a Seaford theater and a drive-in in Pocomoke, Md., says Tiffany Derrickson, vice president of Atlantic Theaters, the holding company for Movies at Midway.
In 2000, while searching for a business opportunity, Joanne and Ed Howe purchased the theater. The couple has upgraded the seats, except for four original seats in the balcony, which was used for African American customers during segregation. Now it’s the children’s favorite place to sit.
But otherwise, much remains the same, and that’s the way customers want it. As longtime customer Joann Joachimowski of Frankford puts it: “The Clayton Theatre is part of our life.”
The theater represents a time when movies were the top form of entertainment, Gerken said. And for the fans of the Clayton, they still are.
