The Clyde and the Movie Critic

We got an email from Susan Pennington Merry recently about how all things come back to The Clyde:
“I spent my summers at Sandy Point, starting in 1958, when I was 11. One of the joys of the summer was to ride or bikes into the Clyde along Edgecliff Drive on Saturday nights. Mr. Piper, the Sandy Point caretaker, was the projectionist. If not enough people showed up for the Saturday night show, Mr. Piper would give us each a pack of gum and send us home. While we would have preferred the movie, it was certainly a win-win and added to the adventure of the bike ride.
After I graduated from the UW, I married a guy from Gig Harbor and we ended up living and working in the Washington, DC, area for nearly 40 years. As our three kids came along, they would come and spend several weeks a summer in Gig Harbor and Sandy Point. They, too, came to view Sandy Point as an idyllic spot to have some independence and be part of a gorgeous, outdoor community. Each of them loved going to the Clyde with grandparents, parents and friends.
Our youngest daughter, Stephanie Merry, absolutely fell in love with the movie art form, watching many, many movies with her similarly smitten father, studying film genres in high school and starting a movie blog in her late teens. She is now one of the movie critics at The Washington Post (where she especially loves writing documentary reviews). A few years ago she was writing a review on The Whale. In talking with the Vancouver BC director/producer, she asked what they were doing to promote the movie. The producer said, “I was just at a wonderful art theater in a small town on Whidbey Island promoting the movie last weekend.” Apparently this gentleman was stunned when Stephie said, “Oh, The Clyde?”
Saturday, we were checking out what was coming to The Clyde, and I saw that you had posted Stephie’s review of Sunshine Superman. I was, of course, inordinately proud of that. We have now retired to Sandy Point and completed the circle. Our children, their spouses, family friends from back east and now the grands love coming to visit us here. And, The Clyde and Langley is still a wonderful part of our joy with being here.”

We love hearing stories about the young people whose love of film was nurtured at The Clyde and who have gone on to become the makers, scorers, actors, and reviewers of movies.