Lewis and Clark Theatre

I was reading my online news last night and must unfortunately report that the Lewis & Clark theater (by the SeaTac Airport) just had its final showing this past Thursday, January 9, 2004. When I read of the closing, I was stunned. As a younger person and teenager, I viewed many movies there and had gone to the bowling alley with others. Some of the movies I have seen there are "Superman," "Star Trek 3," "Star Trek 5," "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Die Hard." Many, many other memories and movies I have had there. My goodness I cannot believe it is gone. As a huge movie and movie theater fan--Lewis & Clark, may you rest in peace and in our hearts. We'll never forget you.

Oops! It was January 8! My apologies!

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).

I also remember as a child seeing the epic "How the West Was Won" at this theatre, with the mural scenes of the American West on the walls. I was probably about 5 or 6, and the memory has become indelible. This theatre, though thoroughly up to date with online ticketing and major releases, had other nostalgic touches, such as original posters from "Cat Ballou" and "Major Dundee" on the walls. My own kids saw many movies here, including the first Harry Potter and first Lord of the Rings. I will miss this theatre.

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

Community Gathering at the Lewis and Clark theaters is set for 8:00am through 10:00am Sunday morning 6/27/2004. Be there or be square. Afterwards join us for our service which begin at 10:00am or head to Angel Lake for the International Fest. Celebrating diversity!

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

Well, I lived in SeaTac from 1986-1992 and my family until 2004. I've seen TONS of movies at Lewis and Clark.. bowled many gutter balls at the bowling alley... good times, even if the theater was a bit run down. It's sad to see that happen. My mom told me that at one time it was just one large screen but was chopped up into smaller theaters.

They would have to do alot of remodeling/restoration work if they are going to get that theater back and running. If they can't keep the theater, I'd rather something other than another parking lot be built on the site. Maybe a retail/ residential mixed use complex (as there are no shopping centers to speak of in the area.

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.

Hello everyone! I was the only Union film projectionist at the Lewis & Clark Theatre when I quit my job on May 31, 1996, before moving to Southern California the following day. The Theatre was originally opened in 1956 by the Sterling Recreation Organization (SRO) as a very large single-screen auditorium. The first film shown there was "War and Peace". There were over 2000 seats in the auditorium and the screen was 60-ft. wide. I remember seeing several films there shortly after that time. In 1972, I began to train as a film projectionist there and remember that the operation was of a very high quality throughout the theatre. There was a lot of very good equipment in the projection room which was capable of stereo sound presentation. Later, after working at several theatres throughout the greater Seattle area, I began to work at the Lewis & Clark Theatre. By this time, as of 1975, it had three auditoriums. They very carefully had divided the large auditorium by using the front half for the main screen (still 60-ft.). They installed 70-mm. capability there. The back half was two side-by-side auditoriums of about 325 seats each. Automation and xenon-bulb projection equipment made it practical for one projectionist to do all three. Later, without stopping operation for even one day, they added four more auditoriums across the "back". By this time it was 1982 and the operation under SRO's management was very good indeed. The theatres were clean and well maintained. We had three Union projectionists who took care of all shifts in the house. One person could easily run all seven. We could show 70-mm. in two of them, and we could "simul-twin" several selected pairs of auditoriums. Moving film around to take advantage of the best use of the varying numbers of seats was relatively easy there. The newer four auditoriums had seats ranging in number from 225 to about 400 each. The theatre had very thick concrete ceilings to prevent noise from over-flying airplanes (from SEA-TAC airport) from bothering the customers. Also, the sound separation between auditoriums was nearly 100 percent under all conditions. In other words, it was very high class all the way! At some point, Dolby stereo had been installed in all seven theatres. DTS (Digital Theatre Sound) was first used there for the showings of "Jurassic Park". Still later, SDDS was installed in the large 1100 seat original auditorium. About 15 years ago (more or less!) the operation was taken over by Cineplex-Odeon of Canada. From that point, the operation declined gradually, although it was still pretty good when I left. Economic pressures in the industry led to them using management personnel in the projection room more and more, until there was only one Union position left, and it wasn't quite full-time in terms of the theatre operation. We also were responsible for setting up the films for the neighboring Southcenter Theatre, another SRO house featuring 70-mm. capability and good operation. I have an extensive listing of films shown at the Lewis & Clark up until the termination of my employment there. -- Mike Bridgham

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.

I think I might have been the "someone else" referred to above. I am also the Union projectionist that replaced Mike Bridgham in 1996. I stayed for less than a year before I also quit in disgust. When I had worked in this theatre under the previous ownership in the early and mid 1980's; it was a spotlessly clean, well run showplace. Good management, good projection booth operation, and ownership that was willing to pay what it cost for a first class operation. All this changed in December of 1985 when the theatre was sold to a large chain by the family owned circuit that had built it. When I returned in 1996, it was a completly different operation. Cheapness ruled in every aspect of the operation, and it was not a nice place to work.

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.

Does anyone have demolition photos? I'd love to see them.

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.

My father was manager for most of the 60's.During its heyday it was full of life & light.Dad took pride in his work & was enthusiastic about new feature promotions(Camelot,Dr.Zhivago,ect.)Saturday matinees had a live clown who once flopped over & played dead for the whole movie(must've been a good nap!)They had prize giveaways, some lucky Kid won a pedalcar,but not before my sisters & I drove it on those great carpeted ramps W/cement horsehead.Ira,the projectionist was happy to give a tour of the booth I remember being fasinated.My mother thinks my father painted the murals, he passed some time ago,so I dont know for sure. Growing up there greatly enriched my life. Thank you, Allet Jr.

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 remember seeing several movies here from 2002-2004. In Theatre 1, I saw The Tuxedo, Scary Movie 3, X-Men 2, Shanghai Knights and The Core. I saw Die Another Day in Theatre 4 and Willard in Theatre 7, but never got to see a movie in Theatres 2,3,5 or 6.

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.

Spencer ... The Palomar is on here; it's just listed under the Rex -- the last name it went by.

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 one of the few who saw "Last Action Hero" here in 70mm...

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.

The Lewis and Clark Theatre was designed by the Seattle firm of John Graham & Associates, which also designed numerous major office buildings, hotels, and shopping malls in the northwest through the first two thirds of the twentieth century. Their most famous work is undoubtedly Seattle's Space Needle. Decoration of the theater was done by the A.B. Heinsbergen Co. The orginal single screen auditorium had 2200 seats.

The mid-century modern facade of the Lewis and Clark Theatre was featured on the cover of the March 7, 1957, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The October 19 issue of Boxoffice that same year published three additional photos of the theatre, including two of the lobby and one showing the free-standing sign and attraction board.

The lobby was 112 feet long, with a 24x48 foot TV and smoking lounge at one end. The lobby walls were mostly glass, and fronted a broad loggia with a boxoffice that featured glass walls tapering upward to the ceiling from counter height. The exterior corners of the original building were faced with rough native stone. All of this was drastically altered when the four additional auditoriums were added to the house.

CinemaTour has 40 photos of the Lewis and Clark, all dating from after the additions.

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.

Joe, great pictures!! I worked there from 1986 off and on until 1993. Was great to flash back, even though the changed it since I had worked there last.

Was great to remember a time when my whole life was still in front of me.

Had a great time there.

Thanks again!!

Matt, Do you remember Greg? It would have been around 1986.

Moviefone gives the address of the Lewis and Clark as 15820 Pacific Highway South.

Moviefone still lists the theatre? Its been closed for a while...

I've found a few theaters still listed on sites such as Moviefone that have been closed for years. In this case it was helpful because the address was given.

A pre-renovation photo of the auditorium of the Lewis And Clark Theatre can be seen on this page of Boxoffice, June 8, 1957 (upper right corner.)