Tower Theatre for the Performing Arts

Church has closed now reopened under the. Name of the prior theatres name and the church is fighting the sale of the church to the city of Fresno with way it is now open as a performing arts venue again!

sad day indeed what a shame stupid church group.

Grand opening ad posted.

On my Twelfth Birthday, my parents took me to see Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” here!

do they still show films here. such a classics like the fox theater in visalia. just curious.

Very nice looks great all lit up a night.

The tower, especially the sparkle-y ball on top, looks a great deal like another S. Charles Lee marquee, the Alex Theatre in Glendale, which was added to that theater a year after this one was built.
/theaters/8/

Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ykmm3g9

If you have an extra 4.2 million lying around, it’s yours:
http://tinyurl.com/298b3k

www.myspace.com/marlalk

I wish there was some more intformation on the history of the theater besides when it opened and when they did the restoration. I know that somewhere around the mid to late 70’s the theater stopped showing first run films and started showing indie/second run/ and re-releases. They also ran midnight movies along with the old radio station KKDJ for a couple of years before Rocky Horror took over after it’s run ended over at the Northgate Theater. My Grandmother was the bank manager for First Interstate Bank which was a little down the street it’s now a Blockbuster video and she doesn’t have any photos that she knows of the theater from around this time. I know that Jeff over at the Movies video store has a flyer up on this wall from the theater that must have been mailed out or came with the Fresno Bee promoting what was going to be showing at the theater for the week.

Here is an excerpt from the Fresno Bee re the grand opening:

The Tower Theater, newest local amusement enterprise and
Fresno’s first large neighborhood motion picture house, will be
formally opened to the public at 1:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon
at Olive and Wishon Avenues.
Construction work on the building, which also embraces
eight retail store premises in addition to the theater proper, has
Ijeen underway since Spring when long term leasing arrangements,
representing an eventual rental outlay of more than $200,000, were negotiated by the Fox West Coast Theaters, Inc.

Entire Block Included
The property includes the entire block bounded by Olive, Wishon,
•Linden and Fern Avenues, and includes a large, newly paved parking
lot adjoining the building which was erected at a cost approximating
$80,000, exclusive of the large amount of fixtures, equipment and
decorating.
Formerly the site of the Wishon Playground, the land and new
building are owned by A. Emory Wishon, formerly associated with
his father, the late A. G. Wishon, in the management of the San Joaquin,now a division of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, of which Wishon was a vice president.
Many Notables Present
In Fresno for the opening of the theater are a number of figures
widely known in the Pacific Coast and the national amusement field,
among them Charles Skouras, presidentof the Fox West Coast concern;
Charles Buckley, vice president and general counsel; A. M
Bowles, Northern California division manager, and Nick O. Turner,
district manager.
The opening bill, with the performance starting at 2 P. M tomorrow,
will feature two pictures, Dancing Coed, in which Artie
Shaw, Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford are starred; and Henry Goes to
Arizona, with Virginia Weidler and Frank Morgan in the lead roles.
Rare woods from the tropics, gold beaten to the thinness of a hair,
and silver flattened to paper thickness went into making the intenor
of the Tower Theater one of the most beautiful on the West Coast.
Tiger wood, cut to a veneer and mounted on canvas, is used to decorate the lobby columns and to set off the walls which are paneled in a special variety of birch. Tropical woods go toward making up the lobby decorations. But it is in the theater decorations
itself that the work of the gold and silver beaters is apparent.
Several thousand square feet of ceiling and wall space is covered
with silver foil, and the interior columns, decorations on the
doors and rails and other fixtures are covered with gold leaf.
The gold and silver used in the decorations are estimated to have
cost several thousands of dollars.

How about the current historic Tower District “revitalization?” With most of the old timers gone, no one realizes what has taken place right under our noses. With all of the store-front shops, how was Olive Ave. widened? Most likely in 2000 when the road was closed for 1 entire year for the $12 million sewer upgrade. Take a good look at these buildings, including the perimeters. Not caused by “normal aging.” Look at all the nearby homes. Windows/doors/moldings switched; lawns excavated and replaced with the same bright green; unique alcoves/ornate bay windows flattened on sides; walls taken down and set back 1-3 ft. Extended eaves prevent aerial views from exposing the ongoing sewer vandalism being carried out for what is to come. All pictures of the Tower Dist. from 1970-1999 seem to have vanished from the face of the earth; books no longer available, leaving us nothing to compare the current condition/appearance to. All of my family’s old photos were either stolen or scanned and altered.
Operation: Misguided Focus. The City of Fresno now has us paying for “repairs” while refusing to address the issue of all the fraud, missing persons, and forged legal documents linked to this.