Fox Redondo Theatre
300 Diamond Street,
Redondo Beach,
CA
90277
300 Diamond Street,
Redondo Beach,
CA
90277
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 134 comments
Thanks for the new picture, ken mc. It’s a beauty!
I ran out of things to say about the Fox a while back, but I still visit this site now and then, and I was just thinking about the Fox this evening while I listened to my soundtrack CD of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (a movie I never actually saw at the Fox but which must have been great there).
Still hoping to see the lobby again someday.
I’m still using a Fox interior shot for my computer screen. Thanks again for another photo for the collection! Scott S.
1937, courtesy of the UCLA Digital Collection:
View link
BrucieB: Thanks for sharing your stories about the Fox Redondo. I am interested in possibly purchasing several one-sheets if you have any left. Please email me at thanks!!!
I also have many wonderful memories of the Redondo Fox. The Fox and the pier were our main forms of entertainment when I was very young (5-8). We would walk to the show from our house on Maria St, just off of Diamond Ave – past the High School. I remember the Sat matinee – and for 75 cents you’d get to see two movies, news clips, cartoons and more. On Saturday (I think) during intermission, the house lights would come on, a guy (manager I guess) would come out on-stage with a brand new bicycle. The lights would dim, the projectionist would hit him with a spot light and he’d pull a mirror out of his pocket and face it to the audience. An ocean of kids as I remember. He would direct that bright reflection all around the theatre many times finally stopping on some lucky kid – who would win the bike. What a wonderful memory – so vivid after 45 years. My Mom used to usher there around 1950 I guess. Her name then was Bertha Perry. My gramma (Freddy Perry), my great Aunt (Peggy Lamar) and my mom used to do some vaudville type stage work there also. I will have to get the photo’s from my Mom and post them here. Thanks, looking forward to any comments – Thank You for bring these memories back. Chuck Shuey
Sorry Manwithnoname, it was Moviemanforever, that saw his first movies at the Fox in 1971.
I really loved this theatre!! It was FOR-SURE a grand movie palace! I was only 11 when I saw the one and only movie there, it was: Soylent Green, I believe it was 1971. Was living in Lomita at that time. The same year Manwithnoname saw his first films there. There are so many posts for this GRAND movie palace!! I got to dive-in and get to reading, saw some VERY interesting posts!….Have a great weekend all!!
My Grandfather lived on Earnest Ave; my Grandmother farmed the area that was TRW. My father moved a house when the Hollywood freeway was being built. The house is still standing on Farrell Ave.
My father started little league baseball in Torrance, and the field was named Tibben/Texaco field. We have three generations that graduated from Redondo Union High School.
The old Fox was a beautiful place one where I got the crap scared out of me when the movie ‘Cyclops" played. I think that is the correct spelling? When the old place came down it was a sad day for sure. I still have a piece of Blue/Purple marble that was part of the building. I was a surfer spending all of my time at Knoll Hill, Sapphire, and of course Hermosa Beach.
It is great to see so many people with such memories of the Fox. I was just showing some of my grandchildren the piece of the building I have and the story that goes along with it.
I went on the Internet to find some more information to show the kids when I came across this site.
Thanks it brings back nothing but good memories, that is except for the movie Cyclops!
Greetings
Tom
I noticed that some of us also enjoyed the Fox Palos Verdes.
I also worked there, and I wrote about some interesting times which I’ve posted on that page. I hope you’ll come there and join in with your comments.
Tricia: 75 cents! Admission, popcorn and a Coke. And to think, you spent all that on high-profit items, too. Hold on, gang. Next thing in theaters may be pay toilets.
In the 60’s my dad gave me 75 cents to go to the Fox Redondo to see a movie and get popcorn and a coke!
Tricia
BrucieB: I was sort of kidding about the bookmarks anyway. The one poster you might have that I might be interested in is the one for DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE. Also—the night I saw NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD there was no poster outside, just some stills, and I saw the one where Duane Jones is helping Judith O'Day to put on her shoes. I thought they were in a shoe store and he was waiting on her. All through the movie I was thinking the people trapped in the house would get out eventually, because there was a scene coming up in a shoe store—and I remember the awful moment it dawned on me that they really weren’t getting out at all … So that’s a still I might be interested in later on. In the meantime I am enjoying your comments and only wish they could be gathered together in a book with lots of photographs. I told a friend a while back that if I could have two lives I would want one of them to be yours. I’d rather have grown up around a hotel and at the Fox than almost anywhere else.
Schrader….I do have several hundred posters and their stills from the 1960’s. I sold zillions when I lived at my college dorm in ‘67, but I still have some great ones left, from Elvis to Disney. But I’m not interested in bookmarks or other memorabilia. Perhaps we could discuss some other goods or services to trade for them!
I will trade authentic old Either/Or Bookstore bookmarks for posters or any other memorabilia people may have from the Fox.
She went to Hillcrest Junior High for certain, and she might also have gone to Redondo High. I think there may have been two daughters but Lisa’s the one I remember. And Fallbrook is somewhere near San Diego. My dad calls it “Avocado Country.”
Schrader….I’m glad I’m not alone remembering Danny, whether here when talking about the Fox Redondo,or anywhere. Thanks for telling me. What school? When was that? Where’s Fallbrook?
My dad remembers Dan Ashcraft as one of the most level-headed officers he ever worked with. Dan retired about twenty years ago and moved to Fallbrook. His daughter Lisa was about the prettiest girl in my school.
Terrance….Yes, I do! Beside Roy Gordon’s weekly live entertainments there were other Saturday live distractions, most unadvertised.
Bruce…Do you remember any live performances on the stage? And were you around when talk of the wrecking ball first started to emerge? Terrance
Either/Or is long, long gone. Re/Style Two is now occupying the space. That was a great bookstore, though.
Speaking of bookstores in that area … is Either/Or Books still there, near the Hermosa Pier?
Thanks to all of you for not complaining about my longer comments. While “the book” doesn’t look like it’s likely to be written, this has been the place for me to recall those sweet memories of my life for over a decade at the Fox Redondo. And knowing that some of you were there, and that we share the same mental images, creates a unique kinship among us. Writing and posting here has been therapeutic for me, and, I hope, not too self-centered to bore any of you. When I write down more of my memories, I hope you’ll overlook the self-indulgent aspect, and rediscover some lost Fox Redondo memories of your own. —Bruce
(More of) MY LIFE AT THE FOX
In the early 60’s, an off-duty, but uniformed, Redondo Beach police officer was often hired for weekend nights. You’re smart enough to know what he was there for, and because he was meant to be visible, we seldom needed assistance to handle any troublemakers. The officer that I remember being there most often for that job was named Danny Ashcraft. I felt very close to Danny, and he was the third and last person who assumed permission to call me “Brucie Boy”.
For me, working as doorman after a feature started, was the most boring of jobs, and while Danny, in full uniform, was free to move about, he often just stood and talked to me. He would tell me his exploits as an officer, and I’d ask, no doubt, stupid questions. I don’t remember any particular lessons from him, but felt like a family member with Danny, and I missed him when I grew up and moved away from the Fox Redondo.
There was one other semi-regular, private, off-duty cop that I remember, but I’m sorry to say, not his name. He was a funny fellow, talkative with just a hint of a country twang, always joking, and was never in uniform nor armed. He was sort of a scrawny guy and seemed to have more problems to handle than Danny did. As I look back on it, I’m sure that’s because of the lack of a uniform. He must have had a badge on his belt, but I don’t recall that, and I don’t think in those days that an off-duty officer had to necessarily identify themselves as being one before saying to a patron, “You’ve been told to shut up five times tonight. Open your mouth again, and I’m going to toss you outside.”
That was probably the most often used phrase by any of the private officers. I do remember one time when this scrawny cop dragged a gorilla-sized guy out to the street and mashed his face into the cement for about 15 minutes while waiting for a patrol car to arrive. He didn’t even carry handcuffs. I was very impressed that night and all of the times when he grabbed a punk by the back of the neck and tossed him through the front door.
Of course, these days, I suppose that private, off-duty police may be required to be a bit more polite. Remember, as I said before, in those days, an usher carrying his flashlight was considered an authority figure commanding at least a minimum of respect. But those days were coming to an end fast, and it was the beginning of a time when higher numbers of rowdy adults would think a geeky teenager, wearing an ill-fitting jacket and crooked, clip-on bow-tie, was worth ignoring.
Kids, of course, were easy to scare straight. But I can remember only a handful of times when I had to use the threat of throwing an adult out if they did not stop whatever it was they were doing. Of those, it only came to that end a few times. Most likely, they continued their offenses because they didn’t believe I could do it. They were right. I couldn’t. I was just a geeky teenager in an ill-fitting jacket and a clip-on bow-tie. I got Danny to do it. And Danny did it with a single finger, and a come-hither motion, so as not to disturb others. They respected him, but they gave me murderous looks. But I was armed…with a flashlight and Danny. And hey, at this point, I had my own private bodyguard to walk those guys out to the street! Was I scared? No, only once, when a jerk came back, but he only came close enough to yell that he would be waiting for me after work. I could see him later that night, still waiting. I was no fool. I hope he waited all night. I walked the one block home after exiting from back stage.
Many years later I stopped in at the Redondo Beach Police Department to see if Danny was still around. He wasn’t. I’ve forgotten about him until recently. He was an extra nice and quiet man who did his job well. I miss him all over again.
My name is Bruce Berns. If you worked at the Fox Redondo in the 50’s or 60’s I’d like to hear from you.
Vaguest Fox Memory (for Manwithnoname): HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL played at the Fox, too, I think, sometime in the early sixties. I was sitting toward the front with my sister.
Movie I Would Most Like to Have Seen at the Fox in the Late 1950’s: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. (I’ve read that Richard Matheson got the inspiration for his novel while sitting in a movie theater in Redondo Beach. I like to think the theater was the Fox and the movie was LITTLE WOMEN …)
I remember the plastic animals at Marineland! You put coins in a machine and the machine “made” the animals. Like the one at Graumann’s Chinese Theatre.
I remember beatnicks! I thought they were all pretty dangerous until my cousin became one, then they were dangerous but family.
I went to school with a kid named Robbie who may have been the son or nephew of Fred and Alice.
Remember the plastic whales and stuff you got at Marineland? You could just about eat them. Thick soft plastic and my whale was blue.
Favorite movie promotional item: Little white plastic Angeliques they gave out when NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS premiered. (Also I’d love to have got a barf bag, but I didn’t get to see THE CORPSE GRINDERS, etc.)
Worst Marineland memory: I’m playing on our front lawn in Redondo and my dad drives up in his new sports car and says jump in. So I jump in and we head up through Palos Verdes and the whole way he’s shouting, Guess where we’re going! guess! guess! and I have no idea, until finally Marineland comes into view and I say, Marineland? Is it Marineland? and he says, Yep! Marineland! and we turn around and head home. The ride was the thing, he really loved that car.
The best thing about going to the Fox with my dad was that he was a cop, so we got in free and I felt more important than the average moviegoer.
Here’s a great Dad-memory to make up for the last one: He figured out ahead of time what Soylent Green was, so we left the movie and went for a ride in a police boat. Man, it went fast! Pretty scary and pretty fun! (Picture me in the boat and the Fox somewhere over my shoulder …)