Fox Theatre
837 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
837 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 42 comments found
September 27th, 1929 reopening ad as Rialto and August 12th, 1954 Fox opening ad has been uploaded in the photo section for this theatre.
The Fox’s grand opening described in this 1954 trade report: boxoffice
Now that is a great looking marquee.
*
Dang! William don’t miss a thing, great catch.
And I thought I was getting pretty good at reading these fuzzy marquees. Good call William!
Looks like “Robin and the 7 Hoods” is coming soon on the Fox’s marquee.
From 1963 a photo postcard view of the Fox Theatre along with the Paramount in Portland.
Information about this theater is given in the Historic Note section near the top of this web page, which contains the finding aid for the Heilig Theatre Photographs Collection, held at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library in Portland (none of the photos are on display at this page, unfortunately.)
The Historic Note says that this Heilig Theatre, the second of the name in Portland, opened on October 10, 1910. It was designed by architect Edwin W. Houghton. The Heilig operated primarily as a stage and vaudeville house until 1929, when it reopened as a movie house called the Hippodrome. During the 1930s it underwent three more name changes, operating as the Rialto, the Music Box, and finally the Mayfair. The house was purchased by Evergreen Theatres in 1953 and, after being extensively remodeled, reopened as the Fox Theatre in August, 1954.
As can be seen in the fourth photo on this page (this is the same link posted above by strawberry in a comment of July, 2007), the name Hippodrome was on the street-spanning sign in front of what is unmistakably the Heilig Theatre building, and the house also had a vertical sign proclaiming it the Hip.
A June, 1912, Architectural Record article about Portland architecture features this photo of the Heilig Theatre. The caption also identifies the original architect of the Heilig as E. W. Houghton. I’ve been unable to discover who designed the theater’s 1954 remodeling into the Fox.
I’m searching for some information about a Vaudeville show that may have performed at the theatre in the late 1920’s somewhere between 1927-1929. The show was called “Jungleland” which was a traveling contortionist show. If anyone could help out, that would be great.
For the postings above concerning the name Hippodrome, this was never a name for the Fox. The theater opened as the Heilig, renamed the Rialto in 1929 when Paramount/Pubix took control, then a couple years later under still new management it was renamed the Mayfair. Finally it became the Fox. A block north, the theater best known as the Orpheum used the Hippodrome name for a short time around 1916.
Kirk, it is great to see someone post a comment contrary to what someone else feels and not be nasty about it, but as far as posting an article about something that is already listed in the history of the theatre it is repititious. And as for the tickets that were found giving pices of 25 and 10 cents you would also have to know a little of the history of the theatre and its type of run, first, second or third run house. The ticket prices wouldn’t ordinarily reflect a time frame. If the Apache in the fifties was 25cents and 12cents and a walking distance away the Gravois was 35cents and 15 cents at the same time you couldn’t really go by the ticket price for a time frame. But I do honor your comments even if I disagree with them.
I must disagree. Newspapers are the first draft of history. Whilst not all the stories are acurate, neither are the fading memories of someone who worked there 30 or 40 years ago.
I would also say that the price of admish in a given time frame is VERY much part of the history of the theatre.
Instead of wanting people to censor what they post, I say post it. Only by publishing it can we decide how important it might or might not be.
I know what you mean Chuck. I get tired of it myself. To be fair, many articles contain useful information. They might include an address, previous names for a theater, some sort of timeline for the theater, etc. Some articles are nothing more than gossip. And sometimes the information given in the article is just plain wrong. When you post older articles, you have to become the editor and determine what information is useful and which information isn’t. Common sense should tell you what information is relevant to a particular theater. I’d rather read comments that people post about the old neighborhood than to read newspaper gossip. As for the number game, anyone that posts alot of garbage just to play number games, should be the winner of a one way ticket off this site.
LM, some of those newspapers articels are as useless as tits on a bull, they have no significance as to the history of the theatre. Once in a while there might be some interesting facts but in general they are repititious as to facts already listed on the theatre page itself. Most of the time now if it is a newspaper article I just delete the email. They remind me of Warren and his number game.
I’m surprised that the article didn’t say that the theater was “destroyed” by fire as they usually do.
This was in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin on May 21, 1952:
PORTLAND, (AP) â€" Fire from a waste basket in a janitor’s supply room halted the movie at the Mayfair theater Tuesday night. When the door to the room was opened the fire blazed up and although firemen appeared quickly and put out the blaze, smoke filled the theater and the program was not resumed. Firemen estimated damage at $750.
1982 Night photo of the Fox Theatre.
View link
1987 photo of the Fox Theatre.
View link
That is a beauty.
Here is a December 1973 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d5mrxs
1970 Photo
1980 Photo
1982 Photo
This is the same 1964 photo that I posted about two years ago only this one is a little larger. Two of the movie titles on the marquee appear to be “Dr. Strangelove” and “Lilith”.
Salt Lake City’s (still open) CAPITOL THEATRE once had a huge sign across the street.
I love that idea of the theatre name strewn right across the street from building to building- ive never seen that before.