Inside the Westlake, it feels as if it’d be so easy to restore. The murals need touched up of course, but they’re in considerably good shape for a building that has been a swap meet. The swap meet’s walls are built in front of the theatre’s walls and balcony stairs, similar to the way the Broadway theatres have been temporarily repurposed.
During a visit to the theatre in July, a vendor inside told me that they were “making a museum” of it soon. I told him that we were there to take photographs, unfortunately my Spanish is very little as is his English, I would have so much liked to have tried to get up into the balcony, or better yet, the projection booth…
(I posted a link to some of my Westlake pictures on the Westlake’s page.)
Has anyone been by the theatre recently? I am doing an LA/Pasadena theatre photo tour this weekend and am wondering if it is still the same/similar as in ken mc’s photos from March or if work has begun.
The option of showing films, though, like so many other theatres-turned-performing-arts places have done, would have been nice for the Fox. Hard to do with no projection booth.
During the movies that I saw at the Ohio, the intermissions were all smartly placed and included an “intermission” short, the reels didn’t just end arbitrarily with tails flapping or anything. I did not see “North By Northwest” there, and agree that the crop dusting scene is not a place to put an intermission. I write only of my experiences there over three summers and many wonderful films.
I believe that they took out one of the carbon arc projectors a couple/several years ago and put in a xenon lamphouse on the remaining one, which I believe can hold a 6,000FT reel, therefore requiring an intermission. I believe they did this out of convenience rather than necessity, and to be completely honest, the intermissions add a suspense (“Psycho”, anyone?) and a feeling of going back in time to when the movies were originally released that would not be there if the intermissions were not.
The Ohio Theatre is my all time favorite place to see a movie. If you have to opportunity to catch even one feature there this summer, do not hesitate! The cover price is a steal for the great films, stunning architecture, Clark Wilson’s organ skills, and the “air conditioned splendor” that the Ohio has to offer.
TimBuck, it was not a live theater in the past. Like you and Rootmedia mentioned, the mark is definitely being missed here. Good luck to them attempting to make a successful live theater venue, I am skeptical but look forward to see if I am proven wrong.
Linda21, that is great! My husband has taken some photos of the work as well, he drives a cement mixer and has gotten a chance to pour there a few times so far.Hopefully you’ll be able to share your friend’s photos with us!
Here’s a “behind the scenes” update from the Riverside Outlook’s May/June issue:
“It’s calm on the outside, but inside the Fox Theater there’s a huge unseen construction effort to restore the historic theater while transforming it into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
The 18-month construction period began in May 2007.
The most pbvious change is the new rear wall of the stage house. Large buttresses now support the sidewalls. At ground level, all concrete flooring of the back stage area is gone and the new stage house foundations are installed.
Along Market Street and Mission Inn Avenue, the concrete floors and dividing walls of the storefront shop area have been removed, leaving only exposed dirt floors and concrete encased steel supporting beams. The Market Street storefronts will be consolidated into a theater lobby with a concession lounge area.
On Mission Inn Avenue, hte space will become performer dressing rooms, a backstage support area and a ticket office. The space above the old storefront shop areas will accommodate additional dressing rooms, wardrobe and flex space for community meeting.
Within the auditorium, renovation efforts have gone into full swing. The concrete wall between the auditorium and the backstage area has been removed. All theater seats have been taken out and the tops of all the concrete air tunnels have been demolished to enlarge the air conditioning capability. Finally, the balcony projection booth has been removed [pardon me for a second…. gasp!!!!] to provide space for additional theater seats and to create space for a new center spotlight.
Scaffolding will soon fill the entire auditorium. The Theater’s interior walls and ceiling will be cleaned and repainted to resemble the original designs and colors unique to the Riverside Fox Theater.
The exterior of the Fox will remain as Riversiders remember it, with only subtle change in the heating and cooling ducts and new roofing.
Inside the Westlake, it feels as if it’d be so easy to restore. The murals need touched up of course, but they’re in considerably good shape for a building that has been a swap meet. The swap meet’s walls are built in front of the theatre’s walls and balcony stairs, similar to the way the Broadway theatres have been temporarily repurposed.
During a visit to the theatre in July, a vendor inside told me that they were “making a museum” of it soon. I told him that we were there to take photographs, unfortunately my Spanish is very little as is his English, I would have so much liked to have tried to get up into the balcony, or better yet, the projection booth…
(I posted a link to some of my Westlake pictures on the Westlake’s page.)
Six recent photos of the Westlake can be seen at my Flickr page:
View link
A recent shot of the State’s marquee:
View link
Here’s a current photo:
View link
The door is bricks? What do you do, throw your cartoon black circle up on the wall and then jump through?
Recent photographs I took of the Orpheum can be seen here:
View link
View link
View link
Here is a link regarding the Broadway theatres:
http://www.bringingbackbroadway.com/index.html
Two recent (July 2008) photos can be seen here:
View link
and here:
View link
The Rialto Theatre on July 27, 2008:
View link
Here’s a July 2008 photo I took:
View link
Here is a link to a Polaroid diptych of the Rialto, taken July 27, 2008:
View link
I posted a diptych of the Tower and the Rialto on my Flickr page:
View link
I posted a diptych of the Palace and the Roxie on my Flickr page:
View link
I posted a diptych of the Roxie and the Palace on my Flickr page:
View link
I posted a diptych of the Tower and the Rialto on my Flickr page:
View link
I am really excited about the swap meet, I love that kind of thing. Thanks for the update, Ken, hopefully you’ll get your book.
Has anyone been by the theatre recently? I am doing an LA/Pasadena theatre photo tour this weekend and am wondering if it is still the same/similar as in ken mc’s photos from March or if work has begun.
Great news!
The option of showing films, though, like so many other theatres-turned-performing-arts places have done, would have been nice for the Fox. Hard to do with no projection booth.
During the movies that I saw at the Ohio, the intermissions were all smartly placed and included an “intermission” short, the reels didn’t just end arbitrarily with tails flapping or anything. I did not see “North By Northwest” there, and agree that the crop dusting scene is not a place to put an intermission. I write only of my experiences there over three summers and many wonderful films.
I believe that they took out one of the carbon arc projectors a couple/several years ago and put in a xenon lamphouse on the remaining one, which I believe can hold a 6,000FT reel, therefore requiring an intermission. I believe they did this out of convenience rather than necessity, and to be completely honest, the intermissions add a suspense (“Psycho”, anyone?) and a feeling of going back in time to when the movies were originally released that would not be there if the intermissions were not.
The Ohio Theatre is my all time favorite place to see a movie. If you have to opportunity to catch even one feature there this summer, do not hesitate! The cover price is a steal for the great films, stunning architecture, Clark Wilson’s organ skills, and the “air conditioned splendor” that the Ohio has to offer.
I grew up just a few blocks from this drive in. A very early memory of mine is seeing it razed on the local news.
TimBuck, it was not a live theater in the past. Like you and Rootmedia mentioned, the mark is definitely being missed here. Good luck to them attempting to make a successful live theater venue, I am skeptical but look forward to see if I am proven wrong.
Linda21, that is great! My husband has taken some photos of the work as well, he drives a cement mixer and has gotten a chance to pour there a few times so far.Hopefully you’ll be able to share your friend’s photos with us!
Here’s a “behind the scenes” update from the Riverside Outlook’s May/June issue:
“It’s calm on the outside, but inside the Fox Theater there’s a huge unseen construction effort to restore the historic theater while transforming it into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
The 18-month construction period began in May 2007.
The most pbvious change is the new rear wall of the stage house. Large buttresses now support the sidewalls. At ground level, all concrete flooring of the back stage area is gone and the new stage house foundations are installed.
Along Market Street and Mission Inn Avenue, the concrete floors and dividing walls of the storefront shop area have been removed, leaving only exposed dirt floors and concrete encased steel supporting beams. The Market Street storefronts will be consolidated into a theater lobby with a concession lounge area.
On Mission Inn Avenue, hte space will become performer dressing rooms, a backstage support area and a ticket office. The space above the old storefront shop areas will accommodate additional dressing rooms, wardrobe and flex space for community meeting.
Within the auditorium, renovation efforts have gone into full swing. The concrete wall between the auditorium and the backstage area has been removed. All theater seats have been taken out and the tops of all the concrete air tunnels have been demolished to enlarge the air conditioning capability. Finally, the balcony projection booth has been removed [pardon me for a second…. gasp!!!!] to provide space for additional theater seats and to create space for a new center spotlight.
Scaffolding will soon fill the entire auditorium. The Theater’s interior walls and ceiling will be cleaned and repainted to resemble the original designs and colors unique to the Riverside Fox Theater.
The exterior of the Fox will remain as Riversiders remember it, with only subtle change in the heating and cooling ducts and new roofing.
For more information, log onto http://www.riversiderenaissance.org