Jacobs Music Center

I attended a presentation last weekend of the 1922 silent version of “Robin Hood” starring Douglas Fairbanks. The original score was played by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. During the intermission, the newly restored Fox Theater organ rose up out of the stage floor and we in the audience watched and listened with a sense of true awe. Altogether this was a wonderful experience I would like to see much more often.

The Fox was hosting rock concerts in the late ‘70s. Also, found this interesting nugget on IMDB, RE Todd Browning’s career-destroying 1932 film Freaks:

Although production chief Irving Thalberg decided to re-cut the picture immediately after the disastrous test screening, he could not cancel the world premiere on January 28, 1932 at the 3,000-seat Fox Theatre in San Diego. This is the only venue at which the uncut version of “Freaks” is known to have played. Ironically, the unexpurgated “Freaks” was a major box-office success. Crowds lined up around the block to see the picture, which broke the theatre’s house record. By the end of the run, word had spread that “Freaks” was about to be butchered, and the theatre advertised, “Your last opportunity to see ‘Freaks’ in its uncensored form!”

While stationed in San Diego in 1962 I remember going to see The “Music Man” at a theatre called the Fox. It wasn’t downtown and it certainly wasn’t the same as the theatre shown here. If my memory is correct I remember the theatre being long and narrow and no balcony, It probably had around 1000 seats. It did have a great stereo sound for its time. Were there 2 Fox theatres or did it have anither name?

Actually the interior decoration and color scheme of the Fox (Symphony Hall) is exactly the same as it was when it first opened. The company that painted it in 1929 was still in existence in 1985, and they were rehired to come back in and re-install their original color scheme. The restoration of the auditorium was meticulous, and nothing has been removed. It is a magnificent theater, which has hosted San Francisco Opera on tour during the 1950’s, and has its original Robert Morton theater organ fully operational. In fact, the organ was removed from the Balboa when in converted to sound in ‘29, but the builder of the Fox insisted on having an organ in his movie palace. Thank heaven. I assisted organ builder and technician Wendell Shoberg in getting the organ “buzzed out” for the first Nickelodeon Series concert after a cable had been accidentally cut during the installation of dressing-rooms under the stage. That first showing in 1986 was “Robin Hood” with Douglas Fairbanks, featuring Dennis James at the organ, with about 30 members of the San Diego Symphony playing the original score for orchestra and organ. It was a magnificent evening, which has led to many more. Long live the lovely Fox Theater/Copley-Jacobs Symphony. One of the finest theaters I know of in which to both hear, and SEE a concert!

This footage of the September 1929 opening just appeared on Youtube, taken from an old ¾" U-Matic broadcast videotape found at a liquidation sale of things owned by veteran San Diego anchorman Jack White, the newscaster who coached Will Ferrell for his role in Anchorman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6NBDxakLFs