Showing posts with label Fox Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox Theatre. Show all posts

Monday, June 7, 2021

Montrose-Fox, 27 S. Cascade Avenue, Montrose, CO

 

“The theatre [Montrose-Fox] is decidedly alien to the American scene in its design.” -Exhibitors Herald-World, December 21,1929


Excerpts from Exhibitor’s Herald-World, December 21, 1929:

“The Fox theatre in Montrose, Colo., is highly decorative in both design and furnishings, it is comfortably furnished, it has entirely modern equipment, there is a stage, and the seating capacity is 789. Yet Montrose has no more than 4,000 inhabitants, nor is it a suburb of a large city.”

“[The theatre] presents a very pure adaptation of Moslem architectural art, as applied to the mosque. It was designed  by Dick Dickson, Denver. M.S. Fallis, Denver, was the architect.”

 


 
“Passage from the lobby is into a foyer formed by a corridor curving around the rear of the auditorium. The walls are done in rough-finished plaster, with the expanse broken by arched window niches and arched doorways.”

 


 “The auditorium has only one floor and relies principally on its shape and on cove lighting effects for its beauty. This chamber is vaulted, with a polygon painted centrally  on the ceiling, from the center of which is suspended a large chandelier. Two rows of coves, one above the other where the ceiling begins to converge upward toward the middle, run the length of the auditorium from each side of the proscenium arch. The latter is of the Moslem variety employed throughout the house. On each side of it, at the location of the organ lofts, Moslem bays project out, with niches shedding light from concealed sources.”

 

 

The theatre is still in operation as the Fox Cinema Center, a two screen multiplex.

Exhibitors Herald-World, December 21, 1929, is part of the Theatre Talks collection.

 

 

 

Since 1997 theatre historian,  Cezar Del Valle, has conducted a popular series of  theatre talks and walks, available for  historical societies, libraries, senior centers, etc.
Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough theatres.
The first two chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in September 2014.
Currently seeking funding for “Editing & Formatting” the first three volumes of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, 3rd Edition

Friday, December 16, 2011

Fox and Paramount, North Platte, Nebraska


Merely Colossal* by Arthur Mayer, Paramount director of advertising, exploitation and publicity:
"...we acquired a seven-hundred-seat theatre in North Platte, a prairie town with a population of twelve thousand souls which also had a smaller independent theatre. William Fox, powerfully entrenched in the Rocky Mountain area, regarded this as the first step in an invasion of his God-given territory, and in retaliation ordered the construction of a palatial new theatre which could well have graced Broadway or State Street. On hearing this, [Adolph] Zukor reacted as he would to the rape of the Sabine women and declared an unprovoked assault had been made on one of his towns.
In order to teach Mr. Fox and all his other competitors a lesson, he issued instructions that regardless of expense we should build an even larger and more deluxe playhouse. We did. Before the competitive battle was over, North Platte had three beautiful theatres, all losing money."    

*Merely Colossal: The Story of the Movies from the Long Chase to the Chaise Lounge by Arthur Mayer, published by Simon and Schuster, 1953.






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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Fox survives today, vertical sign intact, as the Neville Center for the Performing Arts.
Both the Paramount and the Fox were built by Keith Neville, a former governor of Nebraska. His daughters sold the Fox to the North Platte Community Playhouse for a dollar in 1983.
The former Paramount building also survives but closed as a theatre on February 6, 1963.



Links:
Fox Theatre
Paramount Theatre

And the Fox is haunted.



Above postcard from the collection of Theatre Talks LLC

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, chosen 2010 Best Book of the Year by the Theatre Historical Society.