Fox Theater

Erie Avenue has been renamed Denison Parkway. I’ve found three historic references to theaters being built on Erie Avenue:

The May 1, 1910, issue of The American Contractor said that bids were being taken for a theater to be built on West Erie Avenue. The project was to include a third storey that would be used as a 14-room addition to the Hotel Cascade.

A notice in the January 22, 1921, issue of The American Contractor contracts had been let for a 1,268-seat theater at 14 E. Erie Avenue for the Liberty Theatre Company. I’ve also found a reference to a Liberty Theatre being designed for the Schine circuit in 1928 by Victor Rigaumont on a site at at 16-18 Erie Avenue, so it’s possible that the original Liberty was replaced by a new building at that time.

American Classic Images also has photos of a Corning Cinema, which might have been a later name for the Fox. Unfortunately, no address is given so I don’t know if this one was on Erie Avenue or not.

FrankW: Thanks for confirming that the Corning Cinema was the former Fox Theatre. The old Corning Opera House was a different theater, located on Pine Street, and is listed at Cinema Treasures under its later name, the State Theatre.

Given its location, I think that the Fox must have been either the 1921 or the 1928 project for the Liberty Theatre company that I mentioned in my previous comment. The 1928 project by Victor Rigaumont might have been either a new theater on an adjacent site, or a remodeling of the 1921 house that was to be built at at 14 E. Erie. Either way, I think it’s safe to assume that the Fox was at 16-18 E. Denison Parkway, and was designed by Victor A. Rigaumont.

The earliest mention of the Fox Theatre I’ve found so far is from a 1934 issue of the Corning Evening Leader.

My father was manager of the old Palace Theatre from 1946 through 1952. He was known as ‘Mister B’ because our last name was not easy to pronounce. Tobias ‘Toby’ Ross was manager of the Fox Theatre for Schine’s for a lot of years and was also the regional manager for Schine’s in the area. My father looked after the Fox Theatre whenever Toby had to go out of town. Although there were times when Schine’s called them both out of town for meetings at the home office in Gloversville, NY. The newspaper ad that my father and Toby put together for the theaters is from 1950. By that time, the third Schine theater in Corning, the State Theatre, had been closed down. In the late 1940s, the government pursued Schine’s in court for monopoly. I have added an image of a newspaper article of the time. There was another small theater in Corning in that era that was called the Keeney Theatre. I don’t believe that was a Schine theater. I think it was an independent.