Fox Venice Theater

This was one of the Landmark chain's original theaters, although I think its programming policy predated Landmark's acquisition.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I lived there, the Fox Venice showed a different double feature every day -- generally classic Hollywood films, foreign films, and obscure art films. The programming policy was very similar to Landmark's Nuart theatre a few miles away in West LA.

I'll never forget going to the Fox Venice to see a science fiction film festival there in 1975. A good time was had by all as it was around the time of the Filmex show and there were a lot of sci-fi and Star Trek fans in town and we all had a blast. I love its marquee and tower - and would love to see the colorful neon at night in all its glory - as I recall, the stars would flash up and down in sequence. A proper monument to cinema.

Remember the monthly Fox Venice Calendar printed with the films/events for each day of the month and their description?
As for the owners, in the mid 1970's the monthly revival calendar listed The Cumberland Mountain Group, and I seem to remember the Landmark chain took over the theater in the later 70's. At the time, I was concerned that the Fox Venice would become more like the Nuart and it did slightly, but overall was of good character.
btw, correct me if I'm wrong.
I've been looking for info on the Net about The Cumberland Mountain Group. Was hoping someone might scan and post a vintage copy of the
Fox Venice Calendar/Cumberland on a webpage too.

EDIT: (I wish). That should be The Cumberland Mountain Film Company and not The Cumberland Mountain Group. My apologies.

If anyone has a direct contact with the owner/leasee of the theater please contact me at WiseGuyRewind@earthlink.net , I'm involved with a business opportunity and I'm looking for space - Thanks - Matt

The Fox Venice continues as an indoor swap meet. Very little of the original theatre remains although the ceiling dome is there and the vertical sign remains without the name and neon. The closest cinemas are now in Marina del Rey or Santa Monica.

A link for the Fox Discount Store (former Fox Venice Theatre):
http://www.asianbizguide.com/shopping/shopping/display.asp?tel=310-392-3477

Was there anywhere else where you could see "The Godfather" and then a trailer for "Dawn of the Dead"? A truly amazing, groundbreaking venue that defined what a revival house should be. In it's heyday it was incredibly popular. Only the Beverly Cinema comes anywhere near it today.

I remember regularly riding my bike from Mar Vista (and I never was harrassed) from 1979 - 1981 to see movies at the Fox Venice. I loved the design of the theater, it's great double features, inexpensive admission tickets, and large selections of hot teas at the concession stand.

It's very sad that contemporary audiences (except in select major cities) will probably never see movies in these single screen majestic palaces. They can't imagine the experiences they're missing.

Dear Fox Venice Fans,

I have been enjoying reading your comments regarding the Fox Venice!

As President of Cumberland Mountain Theaters, Inc. during the heyday of theatrics at the Fox - 1973-1979 - I had the great joy of working with our large crew of film lovers and showfolks who worked so hard to develop the daily-change repertory cinema format in Los Angeles.

I will not try to provide corrections or a chronology here, but will direct you to several web pages with a lot of information.

First do visit the Virtual Venice site at http://www.virtualvenice.info/and explore it for a number of mentions of the Fox Venice and the history of Venice Beach.

A very nice article there on the history of the Fox is at http://www.virtualvenice.info/media/fvt.htm

A related story from a 1978 Free Venice Beachhead is at http://www.virtualvenice.info/media/tale.htm

Some of you may know that some of the Single Wing Turquiose Bird light show folks were very involved, and we have a site for it at http://www.swtb.info - be sure to see the link there to the pOoterLand article about the SWTB, which discusses the Fox.

Reading your comments took me right back to a magic time quite a number of years ago! May the best of those vibes resonate forever!

Cheers,

Rol Murrow

I'm 59. I spent my teenage years in Venice. The Venice Fox was one of my favorite theatres. It had a separate room in the back for mothers with babies. I saw "Westside Story" there. It seems like a lot of well heeled intellectuals live nearby now. They should restore it somehow. It should be designated a historical landmark. It could be made the focal point of an upscale shopping experience.

I am 60. I spent many a Sat. afternoon at the Fox Venice in the late 50's and early 60's. I remember going to see I Want to Live with my parents one evening.

Butch Stone, Jan 24, 2005.
Knoxville, TN

There is remnants of the old theatre still when you visit. The concession area lighting and moulding is there, all the ceiling moulding in the auditorium remains, and much much more.

I moved to Los Angeles in 1984. I saw a screening of the film "Streetwise" at the Fox Venice in 1985, which was a film about homeless teens in Seattle. I think the theater closed not too long after that.

Here is an interesting picture of the Fox, courtesy of the LA Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015709.jpg

Also from the LA Library:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028660.jpg

Great pictures of the Fox! Do you have any of such theatres as the Vagabond, WArners Hollywood, Gordon, Pan Pacific, Hollywood, and Wiltern?

Or perhaps the downtown LA theatres?

I lived in LA in the late 70's-early 80's - took pictures of some of these theaters that I will find and scan in for this site. Also did some volunteer work for the LA Conservency and have some of the old tour brochures somewhere with some good pictures. Worked at the Vagabond, will write about that soon on that page.

One day in the summer of 1979, my Tiffany staff & I took a day off from Rocky Horror, and went to an all day Beatle Film Festival at the Fox Venice. The manager & staff were very hospitable, and took us on a tour of the theatre. Upstairs, there were couches, and windows that overlooked the marquee. You can see them in the above picture.
Meredith, do you remember that day? I loved it!

Meryl, yes I remember that day so well, we sat in the back row in front of the old glass enclosed seats (for the moms and babies as I've read above!)and the staff took very good care of us. That upstairs office was very authentically hippie shabby chic.
I saw so many great double features at the Fox Venice, even though later I had moved away I was so sad when I heard it closed. I think it was the first or second theater I went to when I moved to LA in 77. Seem to recall seeing all of Herzog's films there (the few that had come out then).

The one and only time I ever made it to the Fox Venice was in late 1985. I had just moved back to Los Angeles to attend college, and I was listening to KROQ, as all teens were required to at the time. So one night, there was a call-in contest to win tickets to a sneak preview of something called "Grunt: The Wrestling Movie" which would be playing the following evening at the Fox Venice. Never one to turn down the chance for a free movie, I called in... and I won. While the movie was pretty bad, the theatre (which also had a video store catering to more independent films in one of store fronts with a common door between the store and the theatre) was inspiring. As I lived and went to school in Long Beach at the time, I did not make many trips to Venice, so it would be years before I ended up driving down Lincoln Boulevard again. By that time, it had become the lousy indoor flea market it is now. Blech.

In the "memory of my days" in LA, I think I saw all of Werner Herzog's and other German Directors films at the Nuart (at least the first time).

A movie fan couldn't go wrong attending double features at either the Nuart or the FOX Venice.

Even when the foreign movies were poor (like a Nuart doubleheader of sadistic Pasolini features), they were always interesting (bright note for 1979 after that Pasolini doubleheader - I got laid - I STILL remember that night of highs and lows).

Artist's sketch, from the LA Library:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044365.jpg

I just went in this theatre the other day, into the Swap Meet. You can still see some ornamental plaster on the ceiling. It's pretty modest, but you can still see it, and you can tell that the back wall is a "stage" area.

I was born in 1950 and grew-up in Venice. From a child's eyes, the Fox Venice was magnificent! My Saturdays were often spent at the Fox taking in a double feature - War movies or Westerns, cartoons, shorts and newsreels. Sometimes there were activities for the kids, pie eating contests with prizes; a new Schwinn bike was given away one time, but most often, the prizes were candy or free tickets. I remember standing in line at the concession stand and buying my "Sugar Daddy" or "Charms" sucker with what was left from my fifty cent allowance. Either one was the good deal - long lasting. I'd get popcorn - if I had enough money. The game was, after you'd eaten the popcorn, you could flatten out the box, bend the bottom flaps down and presto! The coolest UFO you ever saw! The air inside the theater during intermission was often saturated with these "UFOs" - until the ushers started singling kids out with their flashlights. We'd immediately stop. (Sooo different from the story of the gang kids flicking cigarettes at the security guards years later). What an innocent time it was back in the late fifties and early sixties. I'll never forget, so many times, walking into the theater, my snacks in hand, past the "crying room", and sitting down in one of the red velvet-upholstered seats. I would rest my head back and look straight up at that beautiful domed ceiling. It used to remind me of an upside-down swimming pool. The gold-leafed decorative rim hid the purple neon lights that circled the giant oval and gave off a mystic glow. I used to love just staring at that ceiling. It was a magical time.
After the sixties had passed, and the Vietnam war had wound down, I attended Santa Monica College. My monthly check from the GI Bill was enough to pay tuition, books and help with the rent. I spent time at a fellow art student's studio named Ken, who did the artwork for the new monthly Fox movie schedule. It was a great connection, because we'd get into the movies for free. I have to say, the folks who had given the Fox it's second life really did a great job breathing new life into it. Along with everything else by then, the Fox had lost a bit of its luster, but early memories kept a warm spot in my heart for the old girl. After a couple of years, I moved to Long Beach to attend Cal State Long Beach. Since then, I've been back to Venice less times than the fingers on one hand. I'm a bit saddened to hear that the Fox now houses an indoor swap meet but on the other hand, the old girl is still there, and has somehow managed to avoid the wrecking ball. And now, after writing this, I suddenly have a real desire to leave my little San Clemente beach house, get in my car and head up to Venice. Who knows? Maybe in the very near future, some vendor at the Fox indoor swap meet might find himself getting smacked upside the head with a flying UFO in the shape of a flattened popcorn box! (Thanks for the site and thank you to the folks who posted links to the old Fox Venice photos - wow!).

Thanks Buckuna for a wonderful memory of the childhood moviegoing experience! I was born in 1952 and had very similar moviegoing memories, but mine were in Charleston, SC.

Hope you made it back to Venice to see the FOX (my last visit to the FOX was around 1985).

I grew up in Santa Monica and spent many hours at the Fox Venice Theatre. As a child, I remember seeing "Yellow Submarine" and other films there in their original releases. Later, as a teenager, I went often to see films when it was a revival theatre-seeing "Rebel Without a Cause," "La Strada," and many other films for the first time there. It was a beautiful theatre with murals on the walls, art deco design and I have warm memories of it.

I didn't make it to the Fox Venice very often. I couldn't, however, pass up a double feature which played sometime in the mid-seventies.
It was "The Cincinnati Kid" with Steve McQueen and "The Hustler" with Paul Newman. How do you pass up a double feature like that?
George Clooney and Brad Pitt just don't make it.

In 1978-79, I worked as a waiter in a place called The Brandywine on Lincoln Blvd. I often atended films at The Fox Venice. Lastone I can rmember was Zardoz . Don't think it was a first run but I can't recall. It was a great place to enjoy movies . Robbie

I just picked up on eBay the wooden Fox Venice Theatre calendar box from the box office.

Here is a photo of a department store formerly the Fox Venice Theater.

The marquee says Department Store, the vertical says Swap Meet. Which is it?

I would say a swap meet.

Perhaps it was formerly a swap meet. A business search reveals Fox Discount Department Store

620 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, CA, United States

Phone: (310) 392-3477

Location Type: Single Location

Embroidery Services's Discount Department Store

There is a Smart and Final behind the theater. I think the swap meet is in the parking lot on weekends.

I live near there. Inside what used to be the auditorium/lobby is a bunch of little stores, not separated by walls. I've bought stuff there, and all the prices were negotiable. Maybe that's why they call it a swap meet. Behind the building, besides Smart N' Final, are a produce store and a toy store. I've been there lots of weekends, and have never seen anything going on in the parking lot.
I MISS THE FOX VENICE!

I was born in Santa Monica in 1944, and I lived in Santa Monica, Ocean Park and Venice the next ten years. My mother was divorced with two young boys and she would drop my brother and me off at the Dome theater in Ocean Park on Saturday mornings for about four hours watching cartoons and old movies. (This was before TV). We moved to Venice just before the Fox Venice opened. I lived down the street, so my brother and I were at the Fox on opening day (I believe it was a Saturday). It was a really big deal! There were hundreds of kids there, an emcee, some local celebrities, prizes, and so forth. They even had three or four World War II searchlights on at night during the opening period. I spent many a Saturday morning at the Fox Venice and the memories are all pleasant.

The marquee neon from the Fox Venice was once a part of LA's Museum of Neon Art's permanent collection, and though i haven't seen it resurface in many years, it was in good working condition last i saw.

From the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015705.jpg

Moved to Venice in 1975 when I was 23, and my first night in town went to the FV for a benefit for the Venice Renters League -- Hearts of the West and The Apple War (Max von Sydow played an elf!). I sat next to a woman, started talking -- we've been friends now, more than 30 years. In 76, I got a job there inspecting films. The Fox cared about projection quality and paid me or someone like me to ensure a good time for the audience. I ran every reel through my fingers and repaired broken splices and bad sprockets.

Amazing things happened at the Fox beyond the great double bills. Next to the projection room, the Fox had an editing bay they let filmmakers use. As a benefit for the director, who was there in person, they showed Les Blank's great documentary about New Orleans culture in 'Smellaround.' We made huge vats of red beans and rice and wheeled them around the auditorium during the section of the movie where Irma Thomas showed how to make the dish, then had a post-film party in the theater for the entire audience with the beans and music playing.)

Toni Basil had a run of a live show with break dancing and punk dancing. I remember a chorus line of woman dancers in blood-spattered nurse's uniforms as Suffragette City blasted away.

The Fox had 'cry rooms' at the back, glassed in rooms with their own speakers ostensibly for theatergoers to bring their babies to -- though they were used most often by dope smokers and the lustful. It was my family, as it was for most of us who worked there.

This is an S. Charles Lee sketch that the LAPL labeled as "unidentified theater". It resembles the Fox Venice to some extent, but there's been no mention of Lee as the architect. The sketch could have been for a project that was never built.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042583.jpg

I've seen that sketch somewhere. The sketch does look a little like this theater.

Here are some July 2008 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/6lfbxl
http://tinyurl.com/5hkt2y
http://tinyurl.com/5zkn9v

To respond to the May 2007 comment by brett421 a few posts above: On the marquee of the multiplex at Universal Citywalk, there is a salvaged and resused neon plume which looks exactly like the one which once graced the middle of the Fox Venice marquee. I believe it is the original from the Fox. I saw it at Citywalk in 1998. As that complex contains numerous vintage pieces of neon from the Museum of Neon Art, I suspect this to be the case.

Apologies: In the first sentence of my above post, the non-word "resused" is supposed to be the word REUSED.

Here is a new addition from the LA Library. The photo is dated 1983:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics53/00076437.jpg

I have a couple year's worth of Fox Venice programs from the late 70s. I don't know exactly what possessed me to keep them, but I'm glad I did. Spent many hours there from around 76-82. I think I went to see Rocky Horror there every month, sometimes sat thru both showings.

Here is a 1981 photo.

This was a great theater! I remember this place doing great business too as a revival theater for Landmark! I don't know why they closed this place, as it was always popular, and for good reason! I loved this place.. Much better than the Nuart in EVERY WAY!

Here is a 1982 photo. The city is misidentified:
http://tinyurl.com/p3txvv

hey folks, check out my Facebook cause page, "Restore the Fox Venice Theater" http://apps.facebook.com/causes/342571/18933630?m=6d54c0aa -S

Essay on local theaters here:
http://tinyurl.com/yeypqxn