The Island Theatre stands as the largest and one of the oldest buildings on Circuit avenue — Motif No. 1 in Oak Bluffs. No other building has been photographed and painted as many times as The Island Theatre, including being on the cover of Life Magazine.

Every spring the questions would start: “When are you going to open The Island?”

On the 20th anniversary of Jaws, we ran the film all summer long, out-grossing all the summer product of Universal Pictures. A nine-foot standee with photos of the making of Jaws on the Vineyard with day-glow giant letters “JAWS” stood in front of the Island theatre. Tourists could not pass it by without a snapshot.

Actor Richard Dreyfuss was seen one night in the audience and got a round of aplause every time his image was on the screen.

One year, when the late Art Buchwald wrote a national article about not being able to find a restroom on the Vineyard, we opened the “Art Buchwald Free Toilets” matinee at the theatre.

The Island Theatre has survived through every major storm for over a century, wars, bad winters, even a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Show, where a large house of patrons thought that it was okay to light newspapers on fire in their seats (a custom in London).

It would seem that few remember when the old Edgartown Theatre was taken down after a fire. It sat as an empty lot for years until Edgartown rented the space as a park. But a park won’t bring folks over on the Island Queen and Oak Bluffs will have torn down the one theatre that made money.

Fred McLennan operated the Island Theatre in the 1990s.