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A Polaroid photo of the historic Clyde Theatre at Quimby Village in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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The Clyde Theatre #2 The Clyde Theatre #2

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The Clyde Theatre #2

Polaroid snapshot of The Clyde Theatre in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was opened as a movie theater in 1951 by Clyde Quimby, who also owned the Quimby Village shopping center, where the theatre is located. The theatre was later renamed the Quimby Village Theatre and changed to a two-screen movie theatre. That's how it was when I was young, when my parents often took my sister and I there to see movies.

The tall "Clyde" sign sticking up from the top of the marquee was gone by the time I began going to see movies there in the early 1980s. The theatre closed in 1993, and after being briefly used as a church, it was abandoned. By the time I photographed it the first time, back in 2008, it had already sat empty for nearly fifteen years.

In 2017, the old theatre was purchased by Chuck Surack, founder of Sweetwater Music, and a nine million dollar renovation began. The outside was restored to nearly the same configuration as it had back in 1951; the theatre got back its original name and the original "Clyde" sign was rebuilt. The inside was transformed into a live music venue, but the art deco lobby was restored to look much as it had originally. In May 2018, the Clyde Theatre reopened after it had sat vacant for more than twenty years.

5-17-22