Fox Theatre
710 MacDonald Avenue,
Richmond,
CA
94801
710 MacDonald Avenue,
Richmond,
CA
94801
3 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox West Coast Theatres
Architects: Albert W. Cornelius, Carl G. Moeller
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Costa Theatre, New Fox Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Costa Theatre was opened by Fox West Coast Theatres on January 29, 1944. It was remodeled and renamed New Fox Theatre, reopening April 3, 1952 with Marlon Brando in “Viva Zapata” & Leo Gorcey in “Hold That Line”. The Fox Theatre was closed as a regular movie theatre in December 1957. It was reopened and by June 1969 it was screening adult movies.
Contributed by
Garrett Murphy
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
I remember seeing Love Me Tender with Elvis back in 1956 at the Fox. We lived at Easter Hill, on S. 26th St in 1954 then moved to S 28th St across from Cortez School, we lived there til 1957 then moved to Wisconsin. We roamed all over Easter Hill in the 50’s. Walked to the Richmond Plunge to swim, Nichol Park cause it has the round slide. Anyone remember Mrs Long or Mr Brown, teachers at Cortez? Summers were filled with activies at the school, conducted by Paul and Shirley and Cecelia…..Take me back to those wonderful times …to be young again. Carol Maki
I have several exterior color pictures of the Fox Theater at 812 MacDonald and one black and white of the auditorium
There are a few photos of the Fox on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2rhyd7
Ken, thanks for the link to the great page of pics… it is so long ago, and the city has changed so damned much.
Hey Trainmaster, could you contact me about pics of the old Fox? — — Would love get a few, glad to lay some scratch on ya for copies the same. My Great Uncle, Dad and Grandfather all worked the trains at one time or another. The only real railroad man was my Great Uncle E.L. tho; he ultimately retired from the railroad as a brakeman. My Dad and Grandfather were both gamblers. As a kid, we wandered down to the tracks and the day all the time to play. Hell, lucky to still be here. One of my best pals made the front page of The Independent in ‘64. He and another kid got stuck when the tracks switched, you know the rest of that story… not good.
Cortez… might’ve been the only grade school in the country with a freeway running thru it. Our version of a river I suppose.
Happy New Year all.
cheers,
S.A. Griffin
During WWII, when Richmond’s population boomed due to the development of the Kaiser shipyards, photographer Dorothea Lange took hundreds of photos of the city. A large selection of these pictures are now available in digital form from the Online Archive of California. While most of the photos were related to the shipyards and their workers, a number depicted McDonald Avenue and, among those, a few of the street’s movie houses appeared.
So far I haven’t seen any photos of the Costa/Fox in the collection, but there are few pictures of the earlier T&D/Fox Theatre down the street, before it became the United Artists, and its neighboring theatre, called the Studio during the war but later renamed the Crest (I can’t find the Studio/Crest listed at Cinema Treasures.) There are also a couple of close views of the State Theatre.
Going though some old stuff in the basement, I found a copy of the Berkeley Barb newspaper, dated June 1969. The back of the paper had an advertising section, mostly sexual related but what I found was a page of movie theaters open and what they were showing. The Fox had a ad, with a picture of a cartoon fox with its tongue hanging out. Underneath it said, “Now showing Adult movies starting at 9:00 a.m., we do hope that you come” and underneath that was a picture of a man waist down with an erection. When I saw this I laughed so hard, I didn’t know that the Fox showed those. Alongside of that was a ad from the Fox Oakland, showing “All the loving couples” with a bare breasted woman, and alongside of that, a ad for the T&D showing a movie called “Love Triangle” with 3 women bare chested. Amazing! I wish I could post these somehow for all to see, but the explicit photos may offend some.
According to the Theatre Historical Society, the Fox Richmond opened April 3, 1952. Carl Moeller, Architect. Seating was 1118.
Growing up in Richmond I remember the conversion of the Costa into the Fox as well as the old Fox into the UA. I saw lots of movies at the Fox and even though I preferred the UA the Fox was always a pleasant experience. I remember seeing the first CinemaScope film “The Robe” there as well as my first 3-D film “Sangaree”. Sometime around 1957-58 both the UA and Fox closed for a short time due to lack of business, leaving downtown Richmond with the run-down Rio as the only game in town! Fortunately both reopened (with a new one man in the booth agreement from the projectionists union as I recall) and lasted a few more years. Hard to believe that in 1950 there were 8 theatres on McDonald Avenue, from the Rio to the Uptown…and then in just a few years there were none!
One of the most exciting nights of my childhood was when “The Richmond Story” premiered at the Fox Theatre. There were two searchlights and movie stars and a huge crowd and it was one of the first times I was allowed to stay up after 9!
The Fox is also where I went on Saturdays to watch the Tom Mix and Cisco Kid serials. I saw my first “grownup” movie, The Long Long Trailer there, sitting in the last row of the balcony. When they were driving on the mountain roads, I felt almost as if I was going to fall over the edge!
Opened January 29th, 1944. Ad posted.