In 1904, William Fox took a $1,600 investment, purchased a run-down Brooklyn Nickelodeon, and by every definition of the word, turned it into a true empire worth over $400,000,000. Before his empire began to crumble at the end of 1929, Fox-Metropolitan Playhouse division of the Fox Films Corporation was composed of over 1100 movie houses. Of all those theaters, the last five constructed stood out as some of the most incredible movie palaces ever created; The Detroit, St. Louis, Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Atlanta Fox Theatres. Today, we are most fortunate that three of these four movie palaces still survive.

As I have described in other sections of this web site, all of the grand movie palaces were built in downtown districts that over the course of the second-half of the 20th Century, fell out of favor with the movie-going public. The mass populace that once lived in the big cities migrated to the rural life of suburbia. They preferred the convenience of the neighborhood cinema when they went out to see a movie and would only rarely travel to the downtown districts for entertainment. The theaters in the downtown districts across the country lost the majority of their patrons and one by one, they began to be shuttered. The palaces often sat on valuable real estate and most were sold off so they could be torn down and the property re-purposed.

While we have lost some other true treasures such as the Paradise, the Michigan, and the great New York City Roxy theaters, we are incredibly lucky that of the five grand Fox theatres, we have only lost two. While the San Francisco Fox was lost in 1963 and the Brooklyn was razed in 1970, the Detroit, St. Louis, and Atlanta Fox Theatres all have managed to go through their dark days and are now enjoying a true renaissance.

2211 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201
Opened September 21, 1928
Seating Capacity: 5,000
Architect C. Howard Crane employed a combination of Asian ideas, dominantly featuring Burmese, Hindu, Persian and Chinese architectural styles into the Detroit Fox. Construction cost $12 million and took more than one year with the completion in 1928. At its height, the auditorium is 105' in height, featuring a motif of Asian, incorporating salient features of Hindu, Persian and Chinese architecture, which have been blended into a 1920's modernistic adaptation. The Auditorium Chandelier is 13 feet in diameter; weighs two tons; features 200 light bulbs and contains more than 1,240 pieces of stained glass. The Grand Lobby is 87' long and six stories high. The Stage is 130' wide with a 77'9" proscenium arch. Backstage, there are 8 floors that house 21 dressing rooms of varying size. The Projection Room, one of the largest in the world, features both 35 and 70 mm film capabilities, stereo sound and three spotlights. The Detroit Fox was the first movie theatre in the world built with sound equipment for talking pictures incorporated into the design. There are two organs: The auditorium organ is a 36 rank Wurlitzer pipe organ containing more than 2,500 pipes. Entertaining patrons as they enter the Grand Lobby is a smaller 12 rank Möller pipe organ.

The restoration that started in 1987 took approximately one year, and cost approximately $12 million, the same amount it originally cost to build the theatre. In 1997, the Fox added a $200,000 scenery dock to house The Radio City Christmas Spectacular and other larger shows.

Note: On December 1, 2004 The Detroit Fox suffered an electrical fire that caused damage to its grand marque. Fortunately, the building suffered little or no damage.

527 N. Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO, 63103
Opened January 31, 1929
Seating Capacity: Originally 5,060, Today 4,500
The Fox Theatre opened in 1929 as one of the crown jewels in William Fox's motion picture empire. C. Howard Crane, one of the most distinguished movie palace architects of the era, designed the Fox at a cost of six million dollars. With a seating capacity of 5060, the Fox was second in size only to New York's Roxy Theatre.

The Fox was justifiably billed as "St. Louis' largest and most magnificent temple of amusement." It is legend that Fox's wife, Eve Leo Fox, filled the theatre with paintings, sculptures and furnishings gathered from her travels around the world for the astronomical sum of $700,000. (Webmaster's note: From what I've learned about the Atlanta Fox Theatre, this is highly dubious and nothing more than propaganda generated by the Fox publicity machine.) For 35 to 65 cents (depending on the time of day) a visitor could buy an entire afternoon or evening in the company of the Fox's own elephants, lions, monkeys, peacocks, and dolphins. Fierce rajahs armed with wicked, curving scimitars glare down from their niches in the lobby. Indian Vishnu's meditate on either side of the stage. From the dome in the auditorium hangs a fantastic 2,000-pound chandelier, 12 feet in diameter and glittering with 2,264 pieces of jeweled glass. And, to find a resting place, one couldn't ask for a better vantage point than one of the many gilded velvet throne chairs adorning the lobbies.

In 1981 an incredible restoration project was launched. With scrupulous attention to detail, thousands of square feet of ornate plaster were recreated: long-lost art glass was beautifully duplicated; 4,500 seats were completely re-upholstered and restored; 7,300 yards of carpet were woven in the original elephant pattern; even the 106 foot high ceiling was meticulously vacuumed. The awesome chandelier was restored to its original brilliance, and the majestic Wurlitzer organ rebuilt to perform its rapturous melodies. Also undertaken was the additional task of updating and installing state-of-the-art sound, lighting and stage equipment to handle a wide range of contemporary entertainment. All this and more was accomplished at an expense in excess of $2 million and within a single year!

The St. Louis Fox is privately owned by Fox Associates, which is composed of Leon Strauss, Robert Baudendistel, Dennis McDaniel and Harvey Harris.

Opened June 28, 1929
Closed February 16, 1963
Razed: 1963
Seating Capacity: 4651
Like other Fox Theatres, the San Francisco Fox was called "The Last Word", but for this Super Fox, the term carried extra meaning. The Fox Theatre in San Francisco opened in 1929 as one of the grandest theatres ever built for the showing of motion pictures. The Fox was meant to be a part of a large office complex, which was never finished. The San Francisco Fox Theatre was perhaps the greatest of all movie palaces. Never the largest, nor, in a few places, the best detailed, it nonetheless stood unrivaled for its overall blend of size, grace, and elegance.

Thomas W. Lamb designed and appointed the Fox. Everything that Lamb had learned previously from designing other movie palaces went into the San Francisco Fox. Unashamedly Baroque in almost every aspect, the Fox also anticipated the coming of Art Deco in such details as light fixtures and the balcony cosmetic room. A minor disappointment was the treatment of the lobby and auditorium ceilings: intricate stencil work replaced the coffering initially proposed. William Fox made sure his wife, Eve Leo Fox, was kept at arms length away from the project. Mrs. Fox considered herself to be an interior decorator and she had insisted on being allowed to personally oversee the decoration and appointments of the other three "Super Foxes" built during that period. With her work on the Detroit, St. Louis, and Atlanta Foxes, she was kept too busy to oversee the appointment of the San Francisco Fox.

The Fox was San Francisco's last major movie house. More than half again as large as anything else on Market Street, and three long blocks from the hub of the movie house district, the Fox was not always a spectacular money maker, but neither was it, as too often pictured, a white elephant. Nevertheless, by the late 50s, its mighty overhead and shrinking revenues were converging perilously. When neither the city government nor the voters could imagine the big house as a performing arts or convention facility (an idea but half a decade ahead of its time), the Fox was doomed. A memorable benefit show closed the house on February 16, 1963. By late summer it was gone, eventually replaced by a common and bland combination office & apartment tower. The San Francisco Fox existed for a mere 34 years. Before demolition, the interior furnishings and decorations were auctioned off. I am told the Wurlizter pipe organ was removed and later installed in the El Capitain Theatre, also in California.

In an historical note, in designing the Los Angeles Theatre, S. Charles Lee apparently copied the Fox in 1932. The Los Angeles looks much like the Fox, just on a smaller scale.

600 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Opened December 25,1929
Seating Capacity: 4,518
(Webmaster's note: Since this is my tribute site to the Atlanta Fox, I felt I needed to put something here, so this is a very concise history of the building. To learn more about the Atlanta Fox Theatre, see the other pages of this site.)

The Atlanta Fox is a Movie Palace that was not meant to be one. Designed by Olliver J. Vinour and P. Thornton Marye, the Yaarab Temple's Shrine Mosque was to "Out Baghdad Baghdad" with its opulent Arabic and Moorish design. Prior to the start of construction in 1928, Fox Films Corporation signed a 21-year lease to use the mosque's civic auditorium as a movie theater. The lease was used to acquire a loan from Trust Company of Georgia to provide funds to complete the building project. (The project was totally funded by the Shriners; Fox Films did not provide any financial help.)

The Atlanta Fox Theatre opened Christmas Day 1929 and was the last great Fox Theatre movie palace. Thanks to the Great Depression, Fox Films ceased to operate the Atlanta Fox in August of 1930 and its operation was taken over by Loew's Incorporated. The Shriner's organization was financially crippled by the Depression and after it could not pay its mortgage, the Atlanta Fox closed its doors in 1932 after 125 weeks of operation in anticipation of its impending foreclosure. The Atlanta Fox went through a tumultuous period until 1936 when it became the property of Mosque, Inc. During its life between 1929 and 1975, the Fox operated as a movie house with occasional live performances. In 1974, Mosque entered into an agreement to sell the Fox to Bell Telephone for its Southern Bell Division with the express purpose of it being razed. The citizens of Atlanta protested their beloved Fox's impending fate and through the support of the Atlanta City government, a plan was conceived to save the Fox. Atlanta Landmarks, a non-profit organization, was formed and through a complex loan arrangement and property swap, the Fox was spared from the wrecking ball. The Fox quickly reopened in October of 1975 as a omnibus performing arts theater. In 1978, the Fox's mortgage was paid off and the building was declared officially "saved".

The Atlanta Fox Theatre is owned by Atlanta Landmarks, a non-profit organization specifically created to save, preserve, restore, and operate the Atlanta Fox. While its charter leaves open the organization's "mission" to save other landmarks in the Atlanta area, Atlanta Landmarks' only interest is the Fox.

Brooklyn Fox Theatre
Seating Capacity: 4,305
Opened: August 21, 1928
Shuttered: 1968
Status: Razed/Demolished 1970-1971

The Brooklyn Fox resided at 20 Flatbush Avenue and the address of its surrounding office building to have been: 1 Nevins St. Like a lot of its brethren, the Brooklyn Fox resided inside a much large building that was used for business offices and for at least one lucky resident, a large luxury apartment! The building came to a virtual point at the junction of Flatbush Avenue & Nevins Street.

In addition to the operating the theater, Fox also operated an AM radio station from the Brooklyn Fox Building. From November 1929 to October 1933, WFOX was licensed to Paramount Broadcasting Corporation and broadcast at the 1400 AM frequency.

On the 8^th Floor, William Fox himself resided in his own luxury apartment. From what can be found in the information I have found, Mr. Fox maintained his residence at the Brooklyn Fox from 1928 until probably 1930-1932 after he lost control of the Fox Movie Studios Empire. In 1934, Fox's apartment was renovated and was used as offices and studios for the AM radio station WBNY. It would be logical to conclude that this was used in addition to the already existing offices and studios that were in place for the then-defunct WFOX radio station.

The Fox Theater was once a centerpiece of "Downtown Brooklyn". The architect was C Howard Crane who also designed the Fox theaters in St Louis and Detroit. The builder was listed as the Aronberg-Fried Co. It is rumored that Fried was a relative of William Fox since William Fox's original name was William Fried. The Brooklyn Fox was an example of the adaptation of the GOTHIC style of decor, which was extremely popular and pretty much the standard of theatre décor for that period. The auditorium featured an extremely steep and slanted balcony arrangement that theater-goers still reminisce about how high up they felt when in the upper rear portion of the balcony.

There was one item in the Brooklyn Fox that was similar to the St. Louis, Detroit and San Francisco Fox Theaters. All of them had Wurlitzer pipe organs, known as "Specials." There were five of these instruments built: the first was for the New York Paramount Theater with the other four being installed in the above mentioned Fox Theatres. Wurlitzer spared no expense on these instruments. In addition to their 36 sets (ranks) of pipes, each organ had a set of 12d tune kettle drums which look like large wash tubs. One additional Celeste was added to the Brooklyn Fox’s Special and, therefore, that made it the largest Wurlitzer built until 1932 when Wurlitzer installed the organ in Radio City Music Hall. All of the Specials had one fully working main console and a second slave console that looked like the main console, but only the keyboards were operable. The only installation by Wurlitzer with two independent consoles is the Radio City Music Hall. Two organists can actually play independently utilizing the same pipes. Four of the Five Specials still survive with the 2 in the Detroit and St. Louis still in their original theaters. During the Brooklyn Fox’s demolition, the organ was dismantled for parts. While there are claims that the organ is still in existence in Washington State are incorrect. The only portion of the Brooklyn Fox’s Wurlitzer there is the console and perhaps a few stray parts. The rest of the organ is scattered about the country as donor parts for other pipe organs. There are no recordings of the Brooklyn Fox instrument known.

While today, we wax romantically on about the greatness of the grand movie palaces of days gone by, the Brooklyn Fox is remembered the most as a concert venue for Rock 'n Roll shows in the 50s and 60s during the darkest days for the movie palaces. While most grand movie palaces were being shuttered; then razed, the Brooklyn Fox thrived and actually prospered by becoming the New York City home for the new musical genre. The more renowned shows were emceed by “Murray The K" (Murray Kaufman). Rock ‘n Roll shows at the Brooklyn Fox began in 1955 and lasted through 1968. The $2.50 price of admission to those shows included a movie after the show. At some shows, if you arrived early enough, you got a free Murray the K album.

There were about four to five shows per year during that 13 year period. The engagements in the earlier days lasted 10 days. 12 to 15 acts performed 5 times a day for 10 days. On occasion, some of the performers would be rotated in and out during engagements, thus promoting patrons to come back and see the show twice. The grosses for these 10 day engagements reached a staggering $180,000, crushing even the best of Broadway grosses of the day. Compared to the grosses of motion picture engagements of the same era never grossed more than $30,000-$40,000 a week, one can easily see why the management of the Brooklyn Fox was so eager to stage the Rock ‘n Roll shows instead of movies.

Using what evidence I have found on the Brooklyn Fox and combining that with the information I have learned from reconstructing the history of the Atlanta Fox, I believe the Brooklyn Fox was operated by Fox Theatres from its opening in 1928 until the fall of 1930 when Fox turned over its theater operations to Loew’s Inc. From 1934 to 1966 the Brooklyn Fox was leased to Fabian Theatres. (Historical Note: The Fabian Theatres movie house chain was operated by Jacob Fabian and his sons. Fabian, not related to the pop-teen star Fabian of the 1950s and 60s, had the distinction of building the first motion picture palace in the United States, The Regent, in 1914. He and his sons went on to establish a famous chain of theaters. In later years, Fabian became known as a very generous philanthropist in the New York / New Jersey area.) During its 32-year management by Fabian, the Brooklyn Fox was advertised as “Fabian's FOX”. I do not know who operated the Brooklyn Fox from the time Fabian pulled out from the Fox until it was permanently shuttered in 1968.

The Fox ended its run as a movie house on Sunday, February 6, 1966 with the last showing of "Where The Spies Are", but the rock concerts continued on for over two more years until they came to an end in April of 1968. It was next used by the Salmaggi Grand Opera Company for a few months. The last time the auditorium was used in the theater was for a Hubert Humphrey for President Rally in 1968 before it was permanently shuttered. The building then sat vacant for approximately two years before it was razed.

The last owner of the theater was the Barton Candy Company being purchased by the Borough of Brooklyn, in NYC. The Brooklyn Fox sustained a fire before it was demolished shortly after the filming of the George C. Scott/Joanne Woodward film "THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS”. Demolition took place starting on November 7, 1970 and concluded January 4, 1971. The offices of The Consolidated Edison Company of New York constructed on its former property.

Other Memorable Fox Theatres

As I said, I've received email asking me to include other Fox Theatres to the list of Super Foxes, but because of one reason or the other, I felt in my little world, I could not elevate those beloved theatres to "Super Fox" status, at least up to this time. I am always looking for more information about all of the Fox Movie Theatres, so if you have any information you'd like to share with me, please feel free to write me with that information!

The following Fox Theatres have been brought to my attention as being worthy of consideration as a Super Fox

Washington (DC) Fox Theatre
Seating Capacity: 3,342
Constructed: 1925
Opened: 1927
Closed: September 8, 1961
Status: Razed/Demolished (Theater portion of the building repurposed) 1963

Finding information about this Fox took some work but finally after discovering the Fox was part of the National Press Building, a lot more information was told to me by Christina J. Zamon, the Archivist for the National Press Club. According to Wikipedia "In 1925, then Club president Henry L. Sweinhart, appointed a special building committee to plan for a permanent Club headquarters. A deal was negotiated with the Ebbitt Hotel, allowing the Ebbitt to move to the Albee building and allowing the National Press Club to demolish the hotel to build the National Press Building. The building included retail space and office space intended for Washington news bureaus with the Club occupying the 13th and 14th floors. In order to increase their funding, the National Press Club struck a deal with Fox to build a theater as part of the building."

Ms. Zamon added: "There was indeed a Fox Theatre located in the National Press Building. William Fox signed on as part of our building project as described in our upcoming centennial history book: "As that month passed, both the Famous Players-Lasky (later to become Paramount Pictures) and the Fox Theater Corp. showed an eagerness for obtaining a move theater in the nation’s capital. Negotiations ensued, and William Fox agreed to advance $500,000 in cash, to be applied to future rent. When the papers for this theater portion of the transaction were drawn, actor Charlie Chaplin, then a guest in Fox’s house, was invited to witness the signings. With dramatic flourish, he penned his name in green ink – the color of money.""

The entrance to the theatre was located on F street and lead to the mezzanine level of the auditorium. The theater space was designed by the architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp while the rest of the building was designed by the National Press Club's architect. A Wurlitzer organ (make and size is currently unknown to me) was installed in the theater.

The Theatre was called the Fox Capitol and operated as a Fox Theater until the fall of 1932 when most, if not all of the Fox Theater's management was taken over by Loew's Inc. At that time, the theater was renamed the Loew's Capitol. Loew’s theater lease ran out in 1961 and because of the theater's low attendance, it was decided to let Loew's continue operating the theatre on a month-to-month basis until it was decided what to do with the theater. According to Ms. Zamon and the Press Club Archives; “In June 1963, the National Press Building Corporation began taking bids for the most ambitious project to date to modernize the Press Building and remodel the six floor and the 3,342 seat auditorium into stores and offices. Because no acceptable proposal had been received for long-term rental of the theater, in its day the largest and most opulent theater in Washington, the gold curtain before the great stage came down for the last time on Sunday, September 8, 1963, after the last showing of the Shirley Jones/Gig Young movie, A Ticklish Affair. Demolition of the historic theater began soon thereafter, although part of the exterior façade, including the arched entranceway, was saved.”

Return to the Fox Theatre Main Index

The Super Foxes & Their Brethren

Other Memorable Fox Theatres