Fox Oakland Theater

I am told that Oakland had 2 Fox theaters; Fox Oakland and Oakland Fox… how confusing.
Will someone please enlighten me on this situation

As a life long resident of Oakland, I often saw the Fox Oakland as a forgotten and neglected piece of theater architecture that demanded to be reborn. During the 60’s and forward, I never considered the Fox to be what it was in its early days. Although I never went inside the Fox, I often thought that it must indeed been a sight to behold. When I first saw the inside, it was via the Internet and I was not disappointed at what I saw. The stage and auditorium are magnificantly grand. I also appreciate the history of the Fox Oakland during a time of, sad to say, discrimination in which minorities were not welcomed at other movie palaces. Yet, the Fox Oakland indeed had a no discrimination policy. Therefore, I think people of all races should take part in the restoration and future life of the Fox Oakland Theater. Also, the Paramount, which is I believe a triumph of art deco architecture, second to none outside of Egypt would give Oakland the tourst attraction appeal that it deserves. Lastly, I often wondered what was the reason for demolishing the Fox San Francisco. I saw pictures of it and it was absolutely awsome.

For more current information regarding the Fox Theater renovation project, it’s a good idea to periodically check the following websites, in particular the Friends of the Oakland Fox site.

Friends of the Oakland Fox:
http://www.foxoakland.org

City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency, Central District webpage:
View link

Traffic Management Plan (tends to have more up-to-date construction pictures):
http://www.business2oakland.com/uptowntmp/

The Fox Oakland’s last double bill was “Lady Sings The Blues” and “The God Father”, it played there in 1973. From 1968 to 1973, the Fox showed movies for 50 cents, then changed to soft core porn showing movies like “All The Loving Couples” and “I am curious yellow”. What was interesting the San Leandro Oakland Drive In showed the same movies as the Fox at the time. However, the Fox had live concerts during that time. The Oakland Tribune, attending the first concert starring Donny Hathaway and Ann Peebles, called the Fox a future “west coast Apollo Theatre”. The tribune, said “the fox rocked and rolled like it never did before, despite several outages of the sound system”. The Fox Oakland did quite well on those concerts, until a series of fires were deliberately set. It was rumored in the Oakland community where I grew up in, that the Black Panthers were responsible for it. But strictly rumor. There is a movie called “Nightmare In Blood” available on DVD, that was filmed in its entirety at the Fox Oakland during the seventies before the seats were removed. There are excellent interior shots as well as a wonderful nighttime shot of the Avenue Theatre in San Francisco, lit up in it’s glory. I am pleased that the Fox is being restored.

Dear gsmurph,
I was glad to hear about that. Only because the great days of the theater has seemed to pass us. I am so happy that I was within those last heydays of the movies and the theaters. when going to the newer “cinemas” it is so discouraging to walk into a cold theater with no class of yesteryear. It’s sorta like “Here you go. Here’s a building with 4 or more small theaters combined. go in a watch a movie…. oh give us all that money we want too. And then only 1 film. Remember? we got Movietime News reels, Cartoons, a class "A” film and a class “B”(most of the time) or another “A” film. Everyone dressed for the movies. People were nicer to each other. I am happy for the restoration planning. The young can see the greatness, but will never experience our experiences of the whole entertainment.

The Fox. Many Saturdays were spent there. My Grandmother worked practically across the Street at Capwell’s. I would catch a matinee. Always great movies there. .25 got me in for the afternoon. As a young boy in the late forties and early fifties it was easy to be overwhelmed by the magnificant architecture of the theater itself. Although obviously built before the forties this theater was magnificant. After the matinee my Grandmother and me would go to eat and then often headed to the Paramount theater(just awesome) or down to the old T&D theater if something special was playing. It (the T&D)wasn’t as “high class” but did play some good films here and there.

It’s so unfortunate that the young will not have those meaningful experiences we all did during the hey days of this magnificant theater.

And apparently set on fire at one point. What an amazing story! Looks like the preservation organization is still at it to me. There are Board Meeting listings for 2006 here:

http://www.foxoakland.org/events.html

There is a recent photo of the interior of the Fox Oakland at this website: View link

This website has some photos of the Fox Oakland Theater. Click on the Fox photo and then click the thumbnails to enlarge them.

An issue of Architechural Digest (date uncertain, but probably late 1920’s-early 30’s [it was a page clipping]) listed the Fox Oakland’s (original) architect as Thomas W. Lamb. Possibly this was a confusion on the writer’s part, being that Lamb was the architect for San Francisco’s Fox (Weeks and Day are generally credited as the Fox Oakland’s architects, and A.A. Cantin as having done the 1935 renovation of the entrance and marquee), but the interior photos on the page were definitely of the Fox Oakland.

What is the latest on the Fox Oakland? Have they started the ruins project, becuase I believe the City Council has approved it. I sure hope the project gets under way before Jerry Brown leaves office as Mayor of Oakland. Restoring the Fox-Oaklnad would give Downtown Oakland a huge boost along with the Uptown project and put a positive spin on the City which suffers an image problem.brucec

Just the fact that the theatre have not been demolished and is waiting for restoration is a good news .