Fox Venice Theatre
620 Lincoln Boulevard,
Venice,
CA
90291
620 Lincoln Boulevard,
Venice,
CA
90291
22 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox West Coast Theaters Corp., Landmark Theatres (USA), National General Theatres
Styles: Art Deco
Nearby Theaters
Opened August 17, 1951 with a major studio feature preview: Betty Grable in “Meet Me After the Show”. The opening was attended by George Jessel and stars in person. The Fox Venice Theatre was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres Corp. as a District 4 theatre.
A nice Art Deco style theatre, the Fox Venice Theatre showed standard Hollywood fare until the early-1970’s when it became a very popular revival theatre. It has also been operated by National Cinema, Cumberland Mountain Theatres, Rafigh Pooya, as well as the other chains listed here.
In the 1980’s it turned briefly into an art house, but is now, sadly, an indoor swap meet. Its marquee remains intact. Renovations were planned for summer of 2021 to convert into office space. Plans announced in April 2026 to convert into a Trader Joes store.
Contributed by
B Erickson, Ray Martinez, William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 75 comments)
PS –
I forgot to mention a Wendy Reeves interview which was published in the Free Venice Beachhead newspaper while our company was still operating the Fox Venice – enjoy it at
http://www.virtualvenice.info/media/tale.htm
In reading the New York Times article about the website, the first theater mentioned, the Fox Venice, brought back a flood of memories. My father was a district manager for Fox West Coast (the theater arm of Fox before antitrust laws required the studios to divest themselves of their theater chains)in the late 40’s through the end of the 50’s. His district included Venice and the overseeing of the new Fox Venice theater. We were so excited when the theater opened to great fanfare with a weekend filled with events to mark this opening: searchlights out in front for the first evening movies being shown, a Saturday western double bill with an in person visit by Monty Montana a B western movie “star” at the time. The theater was state of the art with a baby “crying room” available for parents, a loge section with cushier seats that required a more expensive ticket, a huge screen and for the time a good sound system. In the days before digital, the films were delivered to the theater by motorcycle riders called taggers who carried the prints from one theater to the next and I remember one time there was great concern that the films hadn’t arrived in time so my father had to go on stage to announce the delay just as the tagger was running in the front door. These theaters had projection rooms with guys (always guys) who ran them that always looked a little strange, usually smoked prodigiously but I remember one in particular that used to let me sit with him while the movie ran while he showed me how it all worked and how he timed the changing of the reels. During one particularly bad rainstorm, the theater lobby flooded in spite of the sandbags at the doors which necessitated all of the fairly new, expensive carpeting having to be replaced. Many more thoughts too numerous to recount about his many adventures managing the other Fox theaters in Santa Monica, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach but the opening of the Venice was the highlight. When I drive by I just remember what it was and not what it has become.
I worked at the Fox Venice when it first opened. I didn’t hold a management position, I simply manned the ticket booth and the concession stand for about a year or so. The working conditions were unique and memorable, the crew was amazing and on the cutting edge of art cinema in the US in those days. I believe they were only one of two theaters like this in the US at the time. I knew Rol and he was brilliant and eccentric fun (Hi Rol, if you read this! Remember me? I was Linda’s friend.) I loved everyone there, it was an exciting time and place, one of the best experiences I had living in Los Angeles. Anyone who worked in the projection room knows the secret of the stairway to the stars (That’s how I can tell the real ones from the storytellers). It’s a shame what became of the Fox, I had hoped it would live on as a vital part of Venice culture as it was.
August 17th, 1951 grand opening ad in photo section. There was a strike: http://latimes.newspapers.com/clip/6128268/fox_venice_strike/
Orson Bean mentioned this theater, when he did the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (First Aired: Sep. 23, 1976) also with Orson Welles; And actress Carol Lawrence and actress Kay Lenz.
Another grand opening ad posted.
Renovation in the works.
https://urbanize.city/la/post/venice-620-lincoln-fox-theater-renovation?fbclid=IwAR2yaTWxiTvT2s8iL8qN6k6iJ2-FSpQbR1sJH1-Hn9mf2R4fToPkDoqcL9E
Office space as a renovation? Is there a way we can have this historically monumented? It’s a damn dirty shame if it would be office space’d like the Loyola. It will just sit vacant or not be completely filled.
Was there a Denny’s (or Denny’s-like) restaurant across the street from that theater in the mid-‘70s? I’m trying to figure out if I saw a movie there in '76.
The former theatre is going tobe turned into a Trader Joes Market soon.