Fox Uptown Theatre

vokoban on September 10, 2010 at 6:01 am

Here is a 1958 photo of the Uptown. It was in a term paper I found at an estate sale:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/4975407995/

William on December 11, 2009 at 2:47 pm

The demolition was done by the Cleveland Wrecking Company.

kencmcintyre on June 17, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Sure looks that way. Nobody’s perfect.

Joe Vogel on March 8, 2008 at 2:20 pm

There is a strong similarity, but the Golden Gate opened to a courtyard, not a street. Also, it had only the one central window over the entrance, not the pairs of windows to each side and the row of five up top. But the architect’s rendering doesn’t look much like the Uptown. It looks more like it might have been a preliminary sketch for the West Coast Theatre in Long Beach. The tiny writing at the bottom does say West Coast Theatre (the Uptown was also built for West Coast, of course), and also L.A. Smith is named as designer in the bottom line.

My guess would be that Smith made this plan for the West Coast Circuit, then died before it was built, and Clifford Balch altered the details of the final design, adding the fancy top and all for the Long Beach house. Balch probably used the basic form again when he and his brother designed the Golden Gate a couple of years later. As for the Uptown, as built it much more closely resembles West Coast’s Westlake (also a Smith design), with its two-story front.

Also interesting, the Vega Building which surrounded the Golden Gate’s courtyard did bear a strong resemblance to the commercial building attached to the Uptown.

kencmcintyre on September 14, 2007 at 9:06 pm

Here is a 1948 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2kdvws

kencmcintyre on August 5, 2007 at 3:06 pm

Here is another USC photo from 1926:
http://tinyurl.com/2g39au

kencmcintyre on November 28, 2005 at 2:43 pm

Here are some additional photos from the LA Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015500.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015491.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015493.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015495.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015494.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015497.jpg

KenRoe on December 6, 2004 at 6:13 am

The Fox Uptown Theatre opened on 29th December 1925 with a first-run feature film “Graustark” starring Norma Talmadge and Eugene O'Brien. On stage was Charlie Nelson and His Playboys.

William on October 20, 2003 at 6:14 pm

When the Fox Uptown Theatre opened it had a Wurlitzer Theatre organ (opus#1208) style 215, it was installed on 11/24/1925.

Bill H on September 15, 2002 at 8:00 pm

The architect of this theater was L.A. Smith.