Aurora Fox Arts Center
9900 E. Colfax Avenue,
Aurora,
CO
80010
9900 E. Colfax Avenue,
Aurora,
CO
80010
2 people
favorited this theater
The Fox Theatre was built for Fox Intermountain Theatres, opening on October 30, 1946, with Robert Young and Dorothy McQuire in “Claudia and David”. It was one of the early Quonset Hut style movie theatres to open, and was unusual for the fact that it had a stepped stadium seating area at the rear. It is now used for stage shows and concerts.
Contributed by
Richard Peterson
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
“Quonset huts” were a WW2 invention, prefabricated steel structures built in ever-expanding domed hemispherical sections. In the immediate aftermath of the war they were an obvious way for enterprising ex-servicemen to start up businesses, and neighborhood movie theatres, then, seemed like a hot idea. How the Aurora house got to be a “Fox” house, though, suggests that Hollywood might have been thinking in such terms as well. Any thoughts, Mr. O'Malley?
Here’s the official website of the Aurora Fox.
It says (among other things) that the theatre was designed by Denver architect Charles Strong; was operated by the Fox Intermountain Amusement Company; was opened on October 30, 1946; closed as movie theatre following a fire on November 18, 1981; was renovated for use as an arts center in 1984. It also says that the original auditorium was, like its replacement, a quonset structure.
Quite a few quonset-style theatres were built in the late 1940s. I know of three that were built in the San Gabriel Valley area est of Los Angeles alone: Clarence J. Smale’s Colorado Theatrein Pasadena, and S. Charles Lee’s Star Theatre in La Puente and Garmar Theatre in Montebello. Cinema Treasures currently lists 47 theatres as being in quonsets (the Aurora Fox is not yet on the list, by the way), and is probably missing about as many.
Photos of the Fox appear on page 271 of the November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The original auditorium, like its replacement, was a quonset structure, but Charles D. Strong’s designs for the facade and decoration were all decidedly Moderne.
That comment should read page 265, which is page 23 of the Modern Theatre section. There are two additional photos on the following page. Issuu renumbers the pages for the digital version.
Here is a 1984 photo of the Fox Theater.
Here are some recent photos:
Photo1
Photo2
Photo3
Photo4
Do they light the Fox name at night?
Nice photos looks like they are fixing her up.
2010 photo of the Fox Theatre courtesy Army Arch.
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2010 side view of the Fox Theatre courtesy Army Arch.
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