I'm so glad I'm not the only one experiencing this problem . . .
Just a quick update:
My first post was slightly errous.
Skype video does not work on THIS machine with Siduction 64 bit OR 32 bit.
It doesn't work with Manjaro 64 bit.
It does NOT work with Mepis 64 bit or 32 bit.
Audio in all three distros works fine, webcam is recognized, just black screen.
Now, on my Pentium IV machine (32 bit), Skype is working fine with both Siduction and Mepis with no loading changes for Skype required.
It appears to be a machine specific problem here, no idea why. At least two different kernels are involved so it's not kernel specific I don't think.