Fox Theatre
1430 Spring Street,
Paso Robles,
CA
93446
1430 Spring Street,
Paso Robles,
CA
93446
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 37 of 37 comments
I was told that the Fox Paso Robles is gutted and its masonry remains unreinforced.
My uncle, Al Stanford owned all 3 of the theaters in Paso Robles as well as others. There was a small theater around 13th and Spring which became a bowling alley for a while and then was broken up into small shops. The Fox was further north by a couple of blocks and was open until sometime in the late 70s. And the drive-in was out at 101 and 41 intersection. Al sold it to a developer in the early 80s and it did run bad movies (and some very softcore xxx) for a whle afterwards. It is now where a bunch of big box stores are.
Al worked for Fox (and probably a whole lot more) back during the depression. I can remember his stories about making tomato soup by putting ketchup in hot water. He eventually owned a number of theaters (11 comes to mind) but had sold out most of them by the time I was old enough to know what he did. He was always my favorite uncle.
From Cinematour.com:
View link
1,049 seats is good size for Paso Robles even today. The silent era Park Theatre certainly had an older Wurlitzer. I wonder if the proposed T & D in 1929, presumably built in 1930, replaced the Park?
T & D was found all around this area of Monterey (Strand), Salinas (T & D), Hanford (T & D), etc.
Joe; Details for the T & D Theatre, Paso Robles from the Film Daily Yearbook; 1950 edition give an address at 621-23 12th Street, Paso Robles, CA. 93446. A seating capacity is given as 1,049 if you care to add this one to CT. Thanks
Well, back to square-one on the ID and location of the Park.
If the Park Theatre was operating during the silent era, then it was not the T&D, plans for which (by San Francisco architect Albert A. Larsen) were announced in The Los Angeles Times on November 24th, 1929.
Much further downtown was the Park Theate. I assume this was the T & D Theatre Gary mentions above. The Park was in operation during the silent film era and contained a 2 manual 4 rank Wurlitzer style 135B. The organ was given to a local Methodist church who did nothing with it and the organ seems to have ended up as junk.
As far as pigeon roosts go it isn’t very ornate, really. It’s actually a very plain building. I don’t think it had any earthquake damage in the 12/22/03 quake but it was gutted by fire quite a while back. It has been for sale or lease for a few years now, I think, since the current owner bought it at a foreclosure or auction and has done nothing with it.
The Fox was formerly known as the Hi-Ho Theatre. As the years have gone by and the red paint in between the FOX letters has continued to fade, outlines of the old HI-HO letters and the patched holes for neon have become more visible. When named the Hi-Ho, the present vertical sign was crowned by a rainbow-like top with concentric half-circles of neon.
I am told that the Fox appears in one of the Disney “Witch Mountain” movies from the 1970s.
Paso Robles also once had the T&D Theatre, further downtown.
It’s also currently for sale (the realtor’s sign was vaguely newish).
Apparently, this also suffered earthquake damage about a year ago.
The Fox primarily played second-run fare after theaters in San Luis Obispo played them first-run. The same outfit(this was late 1970’s-mid-1980’s) also operated the Bay in Morro Bay and the Fair Oaks in Arroyo Grande.
Paso Robles also had the Oaks Drive-in, outside of town near Hwy 101 and State Route 46 West. This drive-in, now demolished, played a lot of XXX fare in the winter months before it closed in the 1980’s.