Fine ArtsTheatre

The Fine Art Theater (not called the International Theater) probably had closer to 500 seats. In a ragged Southeast Fresno neighborhood across from the horse race track on the Fresno Fairgrounds, it was originally a low priced sub run neighborhood cinema called the Mayfair that Gerald Hardy once operated. When Art Theater Guild, who had venues in San Francisco and Los Angeles, took over, they eliminated popcorn and a snack bar, but did sell imported chocolates, and offered complimentary coffee to give it a cool vibe. For a time it was next door to a live arts venue known as Fresno Community Theater which helped make the neighborhood seem more vital. The Fine Art had no matinees and always advertised “Free Supervised Parking” in their adjacent lot. The ran foreign language films – I saw Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa classics there. They ran “Underground” movies at midnight, a lot of the Andy Warhol stuff. As the years rolled by they relied more and more on soft core erotic titles, Russ Meyer films, and ultimately abandoned the art house programming and went full time pornhouse.