The "Jacron" house in Montara is filled with light and cheer and books, a "sill" stage of dancing figurine and a great many windows that sweep one's view out over trees and wind and ocean. The house was designed by Ron Thomas. He and his wife of 71 years have lived in Montara since 1972.
Jackie and Ron Thomas, along with Susan Hayward, Chuck Johnston and Mark Heath, co-founded Half Moon Bay's This Side of the Hill Players (now Coastal Repertory Theatre) in 1986. Prior to that, Jackie founded the Thomas School of Dancing, also in Half Moon Bay, in the late 1960s.
The couple is revered along the coast, and like silent film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks of Pickfair, Jackie and Ron's names have been mingled to create a moniker for their home. A portrait of the couple -- a detail in joie de vivre by artist Julie Brinckloe -- holds a place of honor at Coastal Rep. During this interview, Ron sat quietly in his big living room chair, content to read and nap, occasionally offering commentary to the guffaw-riddled conversation that his wife and her interviewer were having in the kitchen.
"My first name is Joyce," Mrs. Thomas pointed out. "And my maiden name is Ackroyd. There was this girl in my class whose last name was Luckington. I applied the initial of her first name to her last and called her Muckington. I don't think she enjoyed it as much as I did. She threatened to call me Jack which really worked out."
Jackie was born in 1922 in the village of Bishop Monkton, in North Yorkshire, England. She was the first girl in the family and third child. She was preceded by her brothers Stan and Ken, and followed by her sisters Stella and Doreen.
Ron was born in 1919 and he is from East London. The couple met in East London in 1940 during the Blitz, a nine-month period of intense daily bombings by the Germans on English cities and towns (September 7, 1940 — May 11, 1941). Jackie worked for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) and Ron was a mechanical engineer with Standard Telephones and Cables. STC did significant defense projects during the War, and due to the nature of his work, Ron was exempt from military duty.
"I met Ron when I was 18 1/2," Jackie said. "And it's all because of my friend, Nora. Nora and I liked to go to the dances almost every night. The fact that the War was on didn't make any difference. Nora went to a dance with Ron and he couldn't dance a step. After a few more dates, Nora told me that was it, because Ron couldn't dance."
"Two days later there was a knock at my door," Jackie laughed. "It was Ron wanting dance lessons."
Jackie taught Ron to dance and he became quite good. "And he never went back to Nora and neither minded."
Jackie, who studied with the Royal Academy of Dance, said however it happened, she was just a dance natural. She became quite passionate about ballroom dancing beginning at age 8, and throughout her childhood she created a number of dances.
"I was a Brownie and a Girl Guide and three friends and I used to create dance steps we'd call: 'Chickapee, Walkapee, Chickapee, Walkapee,'" Jackie laughed. "We were young choreographers."
Jackie said the Blitz was actually quite rough.
"In East London we were hammered every night. But after a while, you just sort of shrugged your shoulders. People went out during the Blitz because we thought, if this is our last fling, if I'm going to be killed, I might as well be killed dancing."
Jackie lost someone very dear to her during the Blitz. Her mom's sister and her husband adopted Jackie when she was five and both were hit by enemy fire during a blitz. Jackie's uncle died. Her aunt, whom Jackie called 'Mum,' was badly injured but recovered.
Jackie and Ron became engaged on Jackie's 19th birthday, September 12, 1941. They married one year to the day at St. Bartholomew's Church in East Ham, London. Not long after, the couple moved with Ron's company to the county of Somerset in South West England. To Jackie's surprise she was hired by STC to do drafting, even though she had never: "drawn a triangle in my life." But she learned. Meanwhile, the town they lived in was starved for theater. Through STC, the couple started a dramatic company in 1944, and in 1947, in the town of Ilminster, they started the Ilminster Entertainment Society, which is still going today.
"We put on plays and concerts and dances," Jackie said. "We performed in church halls and the occasional factory. We put on an annual pantomime which had everything: singing, dancing, music and a story that everyone knew."
Jackie had parts in all the performances, or taught the dance, and loved every bit of it. She also made the costumes and did costume repairs. Ron directed.
Their two children, Graham and Lynda, who both live locally, were born in Somerset. (Jackie and Ron are also grandparents and great grandparents.)
In 1963, after Jackie and Ron founded the Paint and Pantomime Society in England, the family moved to San Carlos. Ron got a job with Eimac.
"My sister Stella and her husband were living in Belmont and they were having such a wonderful time," Jackie said. "We just had to come."
One day Jackie was out in the garden in her shorts, when she read the notice that the newly opened Circle Star Theater in San Carlos (now gone), was looking for people to take part in their children's theater, or as Jackie translated: "pantomime." With minutes to spare before auditions closed, Jackie arrived at the theater. She was told, "Read the Queen," and she got the part. Jackie had other parts in the children's theater. She also worked in wardrobe, including for the nighttime star-studded events and met folks like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1969, Jackie founded the Thomas School of Dancing. She taught ballet.
"I was teaching Royal Academy syllabus and people were coming from England to show us the new syllabus," Jackie said. "I was in their class and I realized the woman in front of me had an English accent."
That woman was Susan Hayward, originally from Bath. The two became instant friends. Jackie hired Susan to teach at her school and the two formed the British Dance Teachers Association of America. Jackie closed her school in the mid-1970s and in 1979, Susan opened her own school, the Susan Hayward School of Dancing, which is still going strong in Montara.
Jackie discovered the lot in Montara which now holds "Jacron," in between dance classes. Not long after she and Ron settled in, Jackie and Coastsider Grant Baldwin formed the HAMS (Half Actors and Musicians). They put on shows at the El Granada Mobile Home Park.
For Jackie and Ron, co-founding "This Side of the Hill Players" was just a natural step.
"Our first play was 'The Torch Bearer,'" Jackie said. "I had quite a nice part in it. I played a busybody who was always right."
They had performances in different venues until the theater found a permanent home in the Mel Mello Center for the Performing Arts in 1993.
"We were all volunteers," Jackie recalled. "But we got members and they started paying, which helped make a theater home possible."
Jackie loved performing and doing costume work, teaching dance and getting the word out. Ron often directed.
"When you are part of a theatre troupe it is fantastic," Jackie said. "It's about the camaraderie and the moment. Once you are on stage, you move forward, you never pull the curtain and start again."
"Theater is ageless," Jackie went on to say. "Everyone is welcome and anything can happen and everyone comes to the same place to enjoy the magic of make believe."
Jackie noted that dull, heavy plays are not for her. She wants comedy or a musical.
"Though I've not sung in a musical," the 91-year-old spitfire laughed.
"You can't sing," noted the voice from the living room.