When the Fox Theater was built in 1929, it seemed as if there weren’t enough adjectives to describe the movie theatre’s magnificence. The new video features its history and final days in 1963.
- The San Francisco Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and magnitude that it seemed rather a fancy of one’s mind rather than the inaugural night of another commercial enterprise.
- But the life of the 4,651-seat theater was a lesson in how tenuous loyalty and devotion can be in San Francisco, whether it’s politics, business, or even architecture.
- Three decades later, the Fox was declared a “monument to bad taste.”
- The people who wanted to save it were a “sad cult.”
- Chronicle columnist Herb Caen openly mocked the theater, while business journalists wrote breathlessly about the tower complex that would be built in its place.
NEW FOX THEATRE VIDEO
Featuring the Fox Mighty Wurlitzer Organ playing San Francisco.
NEW VIDEO – SAN FRANCISCO’S FOX THEATRE
- Featuring the Fox Mighty Wurlitzer Organ playing San Francisco.
- Three decades later, the Fox was declared a “monument to bad taste.”
- The people who wanted to save it were called a “sad cult.”
- Chronicle columnist Herb Caen openly mocked the theater, while business journalists wrote breathlessly about the tower complex that would be built in its place.
Fox Theatre replaced by this. Celebrated architect Frank Gehry was right when he called 98% of modern architecture is SHIT!
America’s architectural losses during the 20th Century were staggering to make way for perhaps some of the ugliest modern buildings ever created. In San Francisco, the fabulous Fox Theatre was replaced by a monstrous skyscraper that would qualify for what noted architect Frank Ghery called 98% of modern architecture: “…it’s Shit!”