Fox Dome Theatre

In the 1950 Universal-International feature, Woman on the Run,
the amusement park finale is supposedly taking place
in San Francisco, where the rest of the film was lensed,
but it was actually filmed at Ocean Park, in Santa Monica,
and the Dome Theatre is quite visible in several shots.
You can even read what's playing: Montgomery Clift in
The Big Lift, a 20th Century-Fox release.

There were two Dome Theaters at this location. The first was mentioned in Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 9/16/1921, on the occasion of the construction of a pier near the theater. Then the SB&C issue of 2/1/1924 tells that: " Venice Improvement Company and West Coast Theaters... propose to expend immediately more than $1,000,000 for a 2000 seat theater to replace the Dome Theatre destroyed by the recent conflagration...."

The Los Angeles Times of 4/9/1924 ran an article about the new theater, saying "Work will be started tomorrow." Then, an article in the Santa Monica Outlook of 6/30/1924 says "Thousands welcome new Dome Theater at Ocean Park." That must be a record construction time. They were probably anxious to get the place open before the height of the summer season, and start making back that huge sum they spent on it.

There are also mentions of the Dome in SB&C issue 2/21/1936, saying that Clifford Balch had made plans for alterations to this theater.

The Dome Theater building at Ocean Park was used for the Magic Carpet Ride at Pacific Ocean Park when it opened in 1959. There is a good photo of the back side of the Dome Theater as the Magic Carpet Ride in Jeffrey Stanton's book Venice of America, 'Coney Island of the Pacific' on page 216. Pacific Ocean Park closed in after the summer season in 1967 and now there is now trace of the park or the Dome Theater left.

The address of the Dome Theatre as listed in telephone directories of the early '30s was 3014 Ocean Front Promenade.

An aerial view of the spectacular 1924 conflagration which destroyed both the original Dome theatre and the adjacent amusement piers can be seen at this page.

From the LA Library:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics06/00022596.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics06/00022660.jpg

En fuego:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044402.jpg

Spent many afternoons and evenings at the Dome - what a great theater it was. My grandparents lived at the Hotel St. Regis, which was located on the opposite side of the boardwalk (literally across the street from what would become the entrance to POP). Great pix above!

Here are some more photos of the Dome, from the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015667.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015668.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015670.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015669.jpg

Just a little bit of trivia. It's my understanding that the very first Mickey Mouse Club was created at the Dome Theater in 1939! I saw many a movie and Saturday morning cartoons at the Dome. I lived in Ocean Park at the time. Very fond period of my life.

Johnny V: You are mostly correct. Web references to the theatre-based Mickey Mouse Clubs of the 1930's do usually name the Fox Dome Theatre in Ocean Park the home of the first chapter. However, your date of 1939 is off. The date most commonly given for the inauguration of the club is January 11, 1930 (though some websites give dates as early as 1929). What is certain is that the Disney Company published a bi-monthly newsletter called "The Official Bulletin of the Mickey Mouse Club" for distribution to club members, and the first issue was dated April 30, 1930.

Does anyone remember POP having a wall at the entrance adorned with lions heads spouting water from their mouths? My husband found a lion head years ago in a field in Venice and was told it was from POP. We both grew up lucky enough to have visited POP on several occassions, but neither of us can place the lions heads. Thank you for anyone responding. J Wuethrich

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Dome Theater, Dome Hotel Ocean Park California:
Wow I started out to write a brief note to my grandchildren about the late 1940’s when I lived I a old Hotel (the Dome) how we had a Dumbwaiter in the kitchen, whatever had been below was blocked off but it still worked we could pull ourselves up and down via the ropes still in place.
Looking at the picture the 2d floor windows are the room/apartments ours was on the other side of the Dome a one bedroom, large living room with pull down from the wall bed, Kitchen between with an ice box and pull down from the wall table. My father was a bookmaker on the front, and I had an almost full cart blanch every where! Theater free, Rides Free, some of the concessions even slips me a quarter or so to shill.
All in all it made for magical memories.

tiber

Here are two undated photos:
http://tinyurl.com/ywlyuh
http://tinyurl.com/2bbm2m

Clearly both from the late 20s/early 30s.

8/11/2007 20:26 Hawaiian

Fantastic!

Thanks for posting them!

ARTiber

Fox Dome is #21 on this 1922 map -
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/mapsdocs/plp-map.htm
and a photo view -
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/mapsdocs/plp-map12.htm

This theatre is used as a scene backdrop in the 1950 Film Noir "Quicksand", starring Mickey Rooney, Peter Lorre, Jeanne Cagney, and Barbara Bates. Many believe this film to be Rooney's finest performance!
www.amazon.com/Quicksand-Barbara-Bates/dp/6304680813

I rented Quicksand from Netflix a few months ago. Most of the film was shot in the Venice area. Interesting to see the area before the Marina was completed, lots of oil wells and seedy neighborhoods.

These maps show two theatres named (#21 & red dot between #13 & #26)Dome, and one (#18) Strand Theatre. Is this Strand listed on CT?
www.westland.net/venicehistory/histmaps.html
and
www.westland.net/venice/history.htm

Here is a 1922 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/4zlcy8

Can anyone confirm the date of the first 1930s Mickey Mouse Club meeting at the Fox Dome?

I'm writing an article for my blog, which will be illustrated with vintage items from my own collection.

Fox Dome Manager Harry Woodin originated the idea. Does anyone have an image of him?

Oops...sorry - forgot the address of my blog, that should have been:

http://www.vintagedisneymemorabilia.blogspot.com

BTW I did see the earlier posts on the MMC, but I have an image of a sample herald included with the MMC Campaign Manual announcing the inauguration of the Fox Dome chapter on July 20, 1929.

I also have an image from a publication indicating Walt Disney would be attending a chapter meeting, along with Studio artist Ub Iwerks and Studio composer Carl Stalling and that issue is dated September 13, 1929.

My parents and grandparents owned a grocery store on the Venice side of the boardwalk, without hearing distance of Welk's band playing int he Aragon Ballroom on Lick Pier. What was the entrance to the Ocean Park Pier, later became the exit to Pacific Ocean Park (POP). I remember seeing Mighty Joe Young in sepia tone at the Dome, and Commando Cody serials. I saw the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers there and had the nightmares that went along with the film. The manager of the theater was a huge man, very "portly" who always wore a tuxedo. When the Dome closed, I was surprised to see him working in the lobby of the Bundy (Pico and Bundy...now the Bundy offramp from the Santa Monica Freeway).

The link I put in my comment of Sept. 18, 2005, is dead. A photo and description of the 1924 fire which destroyed the Dome Theatre can now be seen near the bottom of this web page.

This looks like the photo at the top right side of this page only it's larger and in color.

Johnny Vegas - am interested in learning more about the Langley theaters in CA. I am Linda Langley, Claude Alexander's daughter.