The Cloverdale
Your Weekly Clover Valley Newspaper May 24, 2012 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y 604-575-2405
A Cloverdale classic turns 65
Our ‘community theatre’ celebrates a milestone
By Jennifer Lang Saturday marks a special date in Cloverdale. It’s the Clova Cinema’s 65th anniversary, a date that will be quietly observed at the family-owned, single screen movie house. It was a grander occasion on May 26, 1947, when the spanking new Clova Theatre, as it was then called, showed its first film – Dead Reckoning, a black and white film-noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott. Patrons paid $1 a ticket for the show, a fundraiser for the Surrey Memorial Hospital Society. Regular admission was 35 cents for adults, 20 cents for kids. From its earliest days, the Clova was billed as a community theatre, reflecting the co-operation it took to make it a reality. (Even its name was chosen in a democratic fashion – “Clova” was the winning entry submitted by three separate hopefuls.) Back in 1938, local businessmen
– recognizing the important role a movie theatre played in a well-rounded community – tried to convince the owner of New Westminster’s Columbian to build a theatre in Cloverdale. He wasn’t interested, but promised to put the word out. Eight years later, when U.S. businessmen Lester B. Toffey and Owen Bird promised locals their own theatre, Cloverdalians snapped up $1,000 bonds to pay for construction. The movie house was built, and the bonds were repaid within two years, notes current owner Craig Burghardt, who’s assembled a dossier of historic documents outlining the movie house’s six-plus decades. Someone once gave him a faded black and white photograph taken during construction. There’s a handwritten note on the back. “Dear Mal,” it reads, in blue ink. FILE PHOTO
See ‘CLOVAMILY’ / Page 6
Clova Cinema owner Craig Burghardt with Martha and Ethel, the theatre’s twin film projectors.
Daughter yearns for murder clues Surrey RCMP say Cloverdale night club murder was a targeted hit gone wrong
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Christopher Whitmee and Lexus in an undated photo.
By Jennifer Lang Last Wednesday marked a sad anniversary for the daughter of a man killed in Cloverdale three years ago. Lexus Whitmee, 12, made an emotional plea to the public to help solve the murder of Christopher Whitmee. “I just wish that everyone would know that I think of him every single day. I miss him every day,” Lexus said, speaking at a press conference at the Surrey RCMP May 16 – three years to the day after her father’s death. The investigation remains open, but Surrey RCMP say it’s been difficult to move the case forward because it’s gangrelated.
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Whitmee, a 34-year-old father of two, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, police say. A second shooting victim, a 28-yearold Surrey man, was known to police. At about 11 p.m. May 16, 2009 Whitmee was shot to death in the bathroom of the Legacy Show Lounge in Cloverdale. The establishment has since been shut down. Last year, family and friends staged a flyer campaign, hoping to elicit clues from the public. “Whoever did this to my dad and to my family is out there somewhere, just living their life like everyone else,” Lexus said. “Maybe even having fun times and
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doing things with their own kids, and it’s because of them that I’ll never get to do that again with my dad.” Her mother Heather Brecht described Lexus as a strong girl, a fighter who’s hoping someone will come forward with information. “She will never heal from having her dad ripped from her life,” Heather said. RCMP are asking anyone with information regarding this homicide to contact the IHIT tipline by calling 1-877-551IHIT(4448) or by email at ihittipline@ rcmp-grc.gc.ca. Anonymous tips can be made by calling CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or at the website Solvecrime.ca.
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