When Pollyanna was shown during the grand opening of Sea View Theater in 1960, the scent of flowers filled the air.

“The very first showing was well attended,” owner John Mount said. “On opening night the porch underneath the marquee was loaded with flowers that other businesses and customers had brought there; it was just jam-packed with flowers to pay tribute to the opening night.”

Sea View Theater is the longest running, singly owned business in Eastsound, and Mount plans to keep the theater open for the foreseeable future.

The 80-year-old business owner closed the Sea View Video Center on Dec. 31, after 25 years of operation. He also had the theater on the market, but took it off last month after a change of heart.

“There is a group of people in the community who have expressed interest in getting together, buying it, and making it into a theater pub where people can get together and watch movies,” said Dr. Evan Buxbaum, who introduced the idea to the community.

But that notion was placed on the back burner after Mount decided not to sell the movie theater.

Mount says that online DVD rentals like Netflix and Blockbuster have provided stiff competition in recent years.

“The video rental store was a drag and was just not paying its way,” he said. “But there’s still a definite interest from people who like to see movies in a theater environment.”

For now, Mount is keeping his employees on part-time to continue running the theater. He has ideas for the future of the former video rental area, but is keeping his cards close to his chest.

When Mount opened Sea View Theater 50 years ago, Eastsound was a much different place.

”When we opened, the road was just a dirt track and there were no other businesses around, just open space,” he said.

Mount’s first neighbor was Cherie Lindholm real estate, still in its original location on the corner of North Beach Rd.

“There was an outdoor theater running at that time in the summers and into the fall, and I just had the feeling that it might be well supported to run a theater all through the year,” he said. “So I got an architect and had him design a theater for us.”

It was built by long-time islander Fred Nichol.

Back in 1960, tickets were 85 cents each for adults, 50 cents for seniors and 35 cents for children.

“At that time we were basically a small, struggling community. The population was about 1,100 year-round,” remembers Betty Jean Densmore, who was thirteen at the time. “We always thought it was such a great blessing that they opened it. They did it as a service to the community. It was such a treat to have a movie theater on our little island. I remember [classmate] Tina [Davidson] and I sitting next to each other at Ben Hur with Charleton Heston in it, giggling.”

“We didn’t get to go that often. It was always very special to get to go; it was a huge event,” adds Davidson.

Back then, it was unheard of to go off island just to watch a movie, says Densmore.

“We called it going to the mainland. We didn’t use ‘off island’ as a term then,” she said. “There were two ferries a day in the winter, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You can’t believe this. It was a $1.10 round trip for car and driver. For my family there were five children and we might have gone off the island once in the fall to go shopping for some shoes.”

The video rental store was added in 1984, the same year theater manager Ingrid McClinton joined Mount as a business partner.

Lethal Weapon and Superman film director Richard Donner and his wife, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, have provided Sea View with previews of new films for Orcas Animal Shelter fundraisers in the past.

“John Mount has created an incredible theater and I think the goal of the community is that it continue to be a theater,” Buxbaum said. “It’s an incredible asset to the community, and if it were to close it would be a terrible loss. We love movies and we want our kids to have access to a theater. To create a theater on an island like this is a huge undertaking. If that theater was torn down, there would not be a theater on Orcas Island.”