Fox Theatre
1600 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19102
1600 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19102
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 66 of 66 comments
One of the greatest first-run movie theaters in the country. I went there often when I lived in Philadelphia (1940s-1960s). It was truly a beautiful theater.
I ran one of the last shows at the FOX. I rented the theatre regularly from Bill Milgram and held giant ALL NIGHT MOVIETHONS that started at midnight and lasted til dawn. The police came by and asked us to stop them because we were flooding breakfast merchants with 1,000-1,500 people at 7am and they were harassing customers and clerks. We hired security and things calmed down. When the FOX closed we moved to the MILGRAM, but it didn’t hold as many people and when we turned them away, they became unruly. This was the end of the martial arts and blaxploitation era.
Bob Ketler:
I just recently learned first hand exactly what you’re saying about the Main Line’s being indifferent to the arts and historic preservation here in Philadelphia. Here in Northeast Philadelphia where I reside — which had been Philadelphia’s original Main Line (and, from what I can gather had been a thousand times better for Philadelphia than what we call the Main Line today!) — we have an excellent theater building in Northeast Philadelphia’s Holmesburg section which had been designed by the great 20th century movie theater pioneer William Harold Lee. Built in 1929 and called the Holme Theatre, it was renamed the Pennypack Theatre in 1946 after nearby Pennypack Park. It closed its doors as a theater sometime in the late 1950s and currently is being transformed into a type of mini mall which, when completed, will have a Dollar Tree Store, Pizza Hut Express, Cold Stone Creamery plus possibly a laundromat, the last not fully decided yet. But while this has been going on, I’ve been campaigning very heavily for it to become a movie theater once again. Yet it appears no one has fought my efforts more than those out on the Main Line. Case in point, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance has totally refused to lift a finger in helping me to attain for this building historic landmark status. Undaunted by this, however, I feel Northeast Philadelphia is long overdue for reacquiring its Main Line standing once more and that restoring this theater building as a theater would be a very positive step in that direction.
As for the Fox in Center City, it was indeed a very beautiful movie palace, and I saw Superman there in 1978.
The Fox was for many years one of the FEW glories of center city Philadelphia. Born in 1935 I grew up at the movies in the in the suburbs of northwest Philly and spent my youth at the Erlen, Renel, Lane, Yorktown and Keswick…all reachable by trolley and/or bus during the war years of WWII. What a time that was despite the horrors of the war! The films were glorious and the theaters were also.
I live in Connecticut now…and have seen the demise in Philly of the great palaces of the past. Thank God that the Friends of the Boyd apparently have saved it. NO NYC center city Broadway movie theater exists from the golden age, except Radio City which is not strictly speaking a movie theater today. (And the Ziegfeld wasn’t even built until the late 60’s and is SMALLER than many of the neighborhood Philadelphia movie theaters from my youth.) SOOOOOOOOOO sad…..
Here in Connecticut many of the great palaces and atmospherics like the Erlen…HAVE been saved…..like the Keswick was…..by turning them into legitimate theaters. As the sun seems to be setting on movies because of the poor prints, lousy projection, end of continuous showings, elimination of short subjects, cartoons or ANY sense of LIFE and community….and the addition of ENDLESS ads and previews in ugly curtainless auditoriums from hell….theater seems to be booming. The 3,000 seat Palace in Waterbury, CT, which, like the Erlen, was closed for decades and rotting away, roof collapsing, etc….was restored last year TOTALLY….and today is a SMASH with touring Broadway shows, concerts, ballet, singing groups. WHY was a MAGNIFCENT theater like the Erlen allowed to die?
Philadelphians for many years….most of my life…..had NO appreciation for theaters and even as other cities began to save them, renovate them, and use them…Phildelphians just let them rot until they were torn down. To have lost the Keith/Randolph, the Fox, the Stanley, Stanton, Arcadia, Earle, Aldine, and Karlton/Midtown as well as the Goldman is just heartbreaking. And the MASTBAUM…operated for awhile by Roxy Rothafel himself….the loss of that INCREDIBLE structure was a CRTME.
My mother used to say that the rich in Philadelphia…those on the Main Line….and elsewhere….were the least supportive people in America of the arts. Yes…yes…the Art Museum….but WHAT ELSE from the golden age survives besides that and the Academy of Music. Even the GORGEOUS Erlanger legitimate theater is gone….as is the Locust. How sad….when other cities preserved their heritage by adapting it to new forms.
The Fox was a beautiful theater in its day…..and home to SO many of the great films from 20th Century Fox….THE ROBE (first film in Cinemascope), Captain From Castile, Letter To Three Wizes, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Viva Zapata, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, An Affair to Remember, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Call Me Madam….those and SO many more I saw at that wonderful place.
To tear it down was a disgrace only surpassed by tearing down the Mastbaum. If money alone is the criteria by which we live, then we are condemning ourselves to the dustbin of history.
In Asian countries they have curtains in THEIR movie palaces. Are we sooooo far along toward third worldism…that we cannot?
What a sad ending for a great American industry.
In the early 1940’s, The Fox Theatre was part of Warner Brothers' Stanley Warner Theatres division, along with the Stanton, the Stanley, the Karlton, the Boyd, the Aldine, the Earle, the Palace, and the Mastbaum. Today, only the Boyd (closed as REG United Artists Sameric 4 Theatre), the Karlton (AKA William Goldman’s Midtown Theatre, AMC-Budco Midtown Twin Theatre and Prince Music Theatre) and the Aldine (AKA Viking Theatre, Rugoff’s Cinema 19 Theatre, Sameric-United Artists Sam’s Place Twin, and CVS/pharmacy) is all that remains from the Stanley Warner-RKO Stanley Warner chain.
I saw the first Star Trek film at the Fox in the fall of 1979. The theater was great. The film was not great.
Right, “Exorcist” opened at the Stage Door, which was actualy built into the stage house of the Fox Theatre. Needless to say, because of its limited seating capacity, it ran for months on end.
i actually have a newspaper ad showing “the Excorist” opening at The Stage Door Cinema Theatre, not the Milgram/Stanton Theatre.
The final film to show at the Fox was not “Star Trek,” but one of those “Sun” 4-wall deals, “The Life of Jesus” or something like that. As for the note above, that the house didnt run 70mm films initially….it reopened in 1959 with a 70mm print of “Solomon and Sheba,” many years later ran a reissue of “Sound of Music,” a moveover run of “Star Wars,” and “Capricorn One”, all in glorious 70mm and 6-track sound.
I also attended the pre-demolition sale during which I got, among other items, parts of a 4-channel pre-amp, several glass slides reading “Starts Wednesday,” many 35mm “snipes,” and on a core, about half a reel of a 70mm print of “Capricorn One.” A church purchased the seating…I don’t know who got the screen. One nice thought to keep in mind: the Fox didn’t close because of lack of business. The owner, Bill Milgram, simply got what really had to be called (inasmuch as “Godfather” premiered there) an “offer he couldn’t refuse.” Newspaper reports at the time mentioned the huge sum he had already turned over to Fox to book the upcoming 3rd “Star Wars” film.
A bit of techno history. Of course, this was the Philly house for CinemaScope and CinemaScope 55. But how many of us remember “Thrillarama,” the 2-projector system that played only 5 or 6 theatres anywhere? The one and only film, “Thrillarama Adventure,” ran on a 72-foot screen installed specifically for this presentation for an amazingly short six days only and then quietly left town.
During the 1959 “theatre renovation” period around the country, the Fox closed for nearly a month not so much renovating but restoring, opening in December 1959 with brand new 70mm projection equipment with “Solomon and Sheba.” For years, one of the glass display cases on the 16th street side had a poster announcing that the Fox could show any widescreen process around. Clearly a bit of hype, but fun to look at. Milgram updated his 70mm equipment to include the newest flavor of Dolby called “Baby Boom” with “split surrounds,” opening with “Superman” in 1978, I have memories of Mr. Milgram on opening day running up and down the aisles trying out different seating positions to check on the sound levels. There weren’t many like him.
To Ciani;
“The Exorcist” played at the Milgram next door, the lines for both theatres would go down Market Street and turn down 16th street.
Andy P.
If I remember correctly, didn’t “The Exorcist” also play at the Fox in 1973? It seems like I remember lines around the corner of Market Street for that movie, and I think it was at the Fox. Anybody know?
Another great movie palace permitted to be demolished. For many years I would walk past this theatre on my way to the Stanley, Boyd, Goldman, Midtown, or Randolph. The Fox did not play any of the 70mm films until near the end of it’s existence. I did see “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Superman 1” at the Fox. Only then did I appreciate what I had been walking past all those years before. Having visited the theatre during its “pre-demolition sale” I have in my collection a poster of “Star Trek,” a marquee letter, and piece of marble from the lobby. Again, what a waste!
The Shubert Foundation bought many of the seats. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the final movie to play here. The Fox still reguarly grossed $50,000 to 100,000 per week even in its final years. The 15-story building in which the theater was housed was also demolished.
The Stage Door Cinema on 16th Street was built into the Fox backstage. The Milgram (Stanton), the Fox’s neighbor just to the west on Market Street, closed along with the Fox and Stage Door. All three were demolished in 1980.
The Fox had a wonderful neon marquee.To bad Philly let it get away. I remember when the Godfather played the Fox, Variety reported the theatre was selling out and had the largest gross in the entire state of Pennsylvania.brucec
The Stage Door Theatre was a smaller theatre that was added to the back of the Fox Theatre in the mid 1960’s