Fox Theatre

1350 Market Street,
San Francisco, CA 94102

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Showing 101 - 125 of 163 comments

wurlitzer11
wurlitzer11 on September 1, 2007 at 7:06 am

Does anyone know if there is any info about a VHS video documentary about the fox? I remember it had a section about the organ with Ev Nourse as well as the facade falling down at the end. What was the name of the video and where can I get it?

bruceanthony
bruceanthony on August 17, 2007 at 10:25 am

The sad thing about the San Francisco Fox not only was it one of the greatest theatres ever built in the United States along with the Roxy in New York it would have been a huge hit today.The three most successful theatres in the United States are the Detroit Fox, Atlanta Fox and the St Louis Fox. The San Francisco Fox was the grandest of them all. Had it survived it would have housed concerts, Broadway Shows and conventions.It would have been a great site for classic film and organ conerts.brucec

bruceanthony
bruceanthony on August 6, 2007 at 11:45 am

The bookings for the Fox in the 1960’s were not very good and the film studio was having financial difficulties so little wonder that National General wanted to drop this large house. Attendance and film production declined in the late 1950’s which hurt many theatres across the nation. The major studios now were only producing two event films a year presented at the long run roadshow reserved seat theatres with desired seating between 1200-1500. This left the Fox without the big fims they were playing such as the “Robe” a few years earlier. Its to bad that the Fox wasn’t divided into two theatres playing the roadshow fims which may have saved it from the wrecking ball and then could have been restored back at a later date. The balcony could have been turned into a second theatre without damaging the decor because it was such a large space. I wonder if anyone had thought about doing that at the time because the Golden Gate was divided two years later.brucec

Steve2
Steve2 on August 5, 2007 at 5:24 pm

This is really facinating reading. My older brother and sister told me we saw a “Sampson” movie there which means I was 3 years old then.

Hard to believe there were once 2 dozen movie theaters between 4th & 10th on Market street. What a MAGICAL time that must have been. And so tragic that most all are gone. Sad.

William
William on July 17, 2007 at 9:14 am

Don’t forget the chain offered the theatre building to the city of San Francisco on a bond measure. The city would just have to buy the land the theatre sat on and they would get the theatre building. The citizens of San Francisco voted againist it. This was around the second round of property down sizing the chain did. On the East Coast they closed and razed the Famed Roxy Theatre in NYC.

bonanza65
bonanza65 on July 16, 2007 at 2:26 pm

what months in 1963? i remember driving by it when the stage was gone and the wrecking ball was demolishing the balcony seats. it was so vast to see it from the street. Sad

bonanza65
bonanza65 on July 16, 2007 at 2:21 pm

I wish someone would research it and could tell me who was the actual executive in charge that made the decision on behalf of National Theatres & Television Inc.. to demolish the Fox.
So many treasures, investments, large companies are demolished, bancrupted, or destroyed and you never know who the person is truly responsible and should be held accountable. only recently the government has focused in and the press has pin-pointed execs like ken lay (Enron and MCI Worldcom) that were the persons that made the decision.

Who was the man that made that decision. Thats what we need is a web site called “Executive held responsible”

aarundell
aarundell on February 25, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Thanks again, Warren. I remember seeing the Fox from this vantage point in the former San Francisco Merchandise Mart building on the opposite side of Market Street. That building is no longer there, either. This photo must be from the same time as the street shot showing that pie shaped vacant corner lot.

aarundell
aarundell on February 24, 2007 at 12:27 pm

I have enjoyed looking at these slides in both formats. The color brings out the richness and suptious plushness of the interiors.

aarundell
aarundell on February 24, 2007 at 6:31 am

I will wait with baited breath!

aarundell
aarundell on February 24, 2007 at 6:29 am

I will wait with baited breath!

Swain
Swain on February 23, 2007 at 8:09 pm

Recently, a dozen more high class negatives taken in 1929 of the Fox Theatre’s public rooms have been lent to me. Richard Apple has offered to post some of them on his web site, after the positives have been run through PhotoShop. They came from his father’s collection.

Bill Swain

aarundell
aarundell on February 22, 2007 at 7:18 pm

Thanks for the link, Bill. Richard’s access to information and details on this palace are unique, and his contributions are priceless, and very generous. Combined with the photos posted by Ken, there is a complete pictoral history of the building’s interiors as it stood before demolition. Charles Lamb would be very pleased.

Swain
Swain on February 19, 2007 at 9:43 am

Some of your viewers might be interested in Richard Apple’s excellent web site on the Fox Theatre.
He recently has posted a number of pictures that I reconstructed from old publicity photos, many of which were taken between May and July, 1929.

View link

More will be added from time to time, as they are completed. I would welcome your comments.

Bill Swain, San Francisco

aarundell
aarundell on February 17, 2007 at 6:40 pm

This photo really shows the fine detail in the Art Deco decor of the intimate areas of the building. I hadn’t seen this one before – thanks for posting it, Ken. I wonder how many others are in the USC archives.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 17, 2007 at 3:25 pm

This lobby photo from the USC archive is dated 1915, which is before the theater opened. Perhaps the date is a mistake.
http://tinyurl.com/3y5vkc

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on September 15, 2006 at 3:27 pm

It is not too often that I say something like, “it was a crime to demolish this theatre.” Much as I love old buildings there simply is not a place in the modern world for every 1920’s cinema. But this was quite a place. It certainly should have been preserved. I think I would trade the Warfield, Golden Gate and the Castro if we could have the Fox back.

aarundell
aarundell on May 3, 2006 at 6:59 pm

Thank you, William
This kind of research is fascinating indeed. We are lucky to have access to this website. I found one of my boyhood movie houses in these archives as well. An Art Deco movie house, the Cascade Theater in Redding Ca, which has been faithfully restored and is now a performing arts center operated by Jefferson Public Radio of Ashland, OR. They have a broadcast studio in an area where the adjoining soda fountain had been. I think it was named The Golden Pheasant…not sure.
I will try to get a copy of the book and Annual you mention.
Thanks again, William.
Linden Carlton

William
William on May 3, 2006 at 1:15 pm

The Preston J. Kaufmann book “Fox, The Last Word” is the one to read and see all those great pictures of the theatre. The Theatre Historical Society of America has an Annual (#30) from 2003 about the Fox Theatre in San Francisco, It’s 36 pages long. The former projectionist from the Fox has a VHS tape that shows the final days and the razing of the theatre in 1963. I got mine at a screening at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland a few years ago.

aarundell
aarundell on May 3, 2006 at 12:53 pm

Those would be very interesting to see, William. I would also enjoy reading the book. I have two books that acknowledge the Fox but not to great extent. (American Picture Pacaces – Naylor, and Movie Palaces – Pildas)

I know that some of the auditorium seats were acquired by a small S.F, performance theater, but I can’t recall it’s name..One of its triumphs was Alec Teague’s Beach Blanket Babylon.

I knew Alec when he relocated to Ashland Oregon in the early 80s and produced entertainments (Aside by Aside, Alec Teague’s Scrooge) on the stage of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Angus Bowmer Theater.

The three bullet shaped bronze ash urns are well located and admired in an exclusive B&B in historic Jacksonville, Oregon.

William
William on May 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm

Linden, I have those program plus the original opening programs for the theatre.

aarundell
aarundell on May 3, 2006 at 11:25 am

Yes William, as documented. (Read my first paragraph again) I think the film must have opened on the following day, June 29th for its regular engagement. I don’t know why I wrote July 1st…sorry.

The theater was closed to the public on that day until the festivities began in the evening, and I don’t remember what time that was. It was a Gala Event, and invitational, I am pretty sure. Perhaps one of the historians might have a record of that event?

That piece describes the 30th anniversary and it’s printed program handout, which quoted the opening day speech given by the then Mayor of San Francisco. I did not buy one of the fancy programs, if there was one, and I didn’t stay to see the film, “Say One For Me”.

William
William on May 3, 2006 at 10:26 am

The Fox Theatre opened on June 28th, 1929.

aarundell
aarundell on February 26, 2006 at 2:45 pm

I no longer have the photos taken on the grand staircase.
I did find three of the small Art Deco bullet shaped ash urns in vertigre cast tripod stands at a flea market, and sold them to a B&B