It was very wise to preserve a wonderful movie palace for the future generations. Unfortunately other theaters, like the Fox of San Francisco were not between the few luckies that had survived!
This was a crime not only to San Francisco but to ALL AMERICA to lose such a National Treasure. I can hardly stand it. How could any of them be smiling?? I would have had to been sedated to leave it.
So hard to press a "Like" button on this video. Absolutely painful to see but I am thankful that you have posted it. After sitting empty, decaying for over thirty years, The Loew's Kings in Brooklyn will be reopening after a 93 million dollar restoration. The Fox was in pristine condition, shame on the greed of all involved.
Can't help but eyes are wet. I was privileged to hear the Wurlitzer in Frank Lanterman's home in '75. Brother Julius took us on a crawl of the chambers. Never saw such large scale tuned tympani.
You can't make me believe that out of all those wealthy people in their Rolls Royces and classical cars wouldn't be able to stop the destruction of one of the finest buildings in America.
As a kid I saw movies at the Fabulous Fox! I was working across the street from the Fox at my fathers business as a kid at 45 Polk Street and spent many hours inside the theatre in the days before and even during the beginning of the demolition. I remember the projection booth and walked on catwalks over the ceiling and climbed down on the stage. I saw the machinery that lifted the orchestra pit and many of the secret rooms. I have almost every record recorded at the Fox on the mighty Wurlitzer and play back on special surround sound equipment to recreate the actual acoustical experience of being in the Fabulous Fox!
I wish the theatre was still around. Even though there are surviving examples of these grand Fox Theatres in Detroit, St. Louis, and Atlanta today, none of them have the same architectural details this theatre has.
What a horrendous shame this wasn’t saved! It would cost so much to rebuild it now(even though it should be!) I think the organ was saved. I’m so thankful our St Louis Fox here in Missouri has been preserved. It’s like a Time Machine that transports it’s visitors to the past.
I'm just old enough to remember seeing first-run movies at our local movie palaces (nothing like the Fox, but still pretty cool) in the 1980s. The seats weren't as comfortable as a modern cinema's, but the atmosphere made up for it, even if they were getting kind of shabby by that point. Since then I've been lucky enough to attend and even work on special events in restored movie palaces all over my state, but nothing is quite the same as just going to a regular Saturday night movie in such splendid surroundings.
Following the death of Frank Lanterman, whose home contained the organ, the Disney company purchased the instrument and had it rebuilt and installed in the El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood. I worked on it at El Cap for several years.
What an absolute TRAVESTY that someone (the MAYOR of SanFrancisco back then) could be such a stupid, ignorant DUMBASS & decide to just destroy such an historic, beautiful theatre! I hope he rots in the HOTTEST HELL for his decision! ok...now that I have THAT off my chest, THANK-YOU for posting this RARE FULL-version of this documentary! I have wanted to see it for years! I literally CRIED like a baby as that Mighty Wurlitzer descended into the orchestra pit for the very last time! How very SAD! I'm glad the organ was saved, but it'll NEVER sound as grand as it did in the theatre it was custom built & accoustically designed for! AGAIN...it just makes me SICK how we as a society allowed this to happen! SOMEONE should have stepped up & bought it or...SOMETHING! WHY did we just stand there & allow such an irreplaceable historic strucure to be demolished & the UGLY ass "Fox plaza" to be built? I sure wish I could have been an adult back then! I would have stood in front of the wrecking ball & been arrested before I would have let it get torn down!
Ross Tvdoctor I thought I was the only that cried as the organ descending into the orchestra pit for the last time. I never got to experience the Fox Theater because I was still in Ohio in it's heyday. This was such a waste of beauty, history, and taxpayer money. Why? Why? Why?
They truly were . A place of magic & dreams, Growing up most of the lights in our home were from theatres that are gone . Most from toledo. We lost our grandest the paramount. The detroit fox was my play house since age 2 . By second grade i was repairing on tuning the organ. Thank GOD it is still there & restored.
It's such a shame that theaters and other precious buildings were not made landmarks by the United States Government until the late 1960s early 1970s. I am sad to see this theater go without a commission. However, we cannot fix the buildings we wreck, and saving movie palaces like what we did to Radio City Music Hall in NYC is a lesson we can learn from. There are still some Fox Theaters in Atlanta and across the US that still stand, though.
Thanks for the memories of the S.F. Fox. Movie palaces like the Fox were places of dreams but possibly most kids today are not interested in dreams anymore, their world is too cold and calculating. Amazing how little respect people, politicians especially, had for their irreplaceable heritage back in the 50's 60's and 70's. Thomas Lamb was possibly the finest of all the Movie Palace architects though I think he went over the top in the lobby area here, bordering on kitsch - his masterpiece was undoubtedly the NYC Capitol IMO the finest of all the "palaces" but regrettably also lost to the greedy developers. Remarkably the Chicago Uptown still stands though in appalling condition, hopefully it will be restored as it is possibly the finest still in existence..
I concur, Dennis. What a tragedy! The demolition brought tears to my eyes. So unfortunate that no one (including the mayor) had the foresight to preserve this majestic structure. I am so grateful that the Fox in Saint Louis has been preserved and restored. I believe it to be even more Fabulous than the San Francisco Fox! Five Grand (Super) Fox Theatres were built in San Francisco, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Detroit and Saint Louis. Only three of the five remain. As I have seen the Saint Louis Fox, I can attest to the fact that it is beyond fabulous! The 436 Mighty Wurlitzer built in 1929 still lives and resides at the Fox! I urge anyone visiting Saint Louis, Atlanta or Detroit to visit or tour one of these incredible structures. The Saint Louis and Detroit Theatres are referred to as the twin theatres, as their architecture is quite similar. There are some beautifully restored average sized Fox Theatres out there, too! The one in Hutchinson, Kansas is a lovely example. Thanks for the upload, Organloft! (-:
People were idiots in the early 1960's. The Fox Theater in San Francisco and the Roxy Theater and Penn Station in New York -- all demolished and replaced by architectural trash.
It was so sad whether it was railroad stations, theaters, municipal buildings, all bit the dust. Seemed like an insecurity complex that those alive then felt driven to demolition of everything in sight That was wrong.
I know this is an old video, but the demolition took place in the 1960s. I was a little boy at the time this was torn down. Even back then, all San Francisco wanted was big corporations to take over the area where the theater once stood. We could say the politicians back then should have been found guilty of murder (murdering a theater).
I have played theater pipe organs and while I didn't play the SF one.....I saw the console in the theater right before it was shipped down to Disney land. I was able to get into the building as part of my job. They recorded the last days there on radio and put three LP records out which are fabulous. I have all three....later two of them were put on a CD and I have that also...that may still be available.. Thing that really hurt me was after they tore the theater down they built a high rise office building over it.....and for 2 years my office was in the building ;-( For those that ask why it wasn't saved......yes it lost money and needed restoration....but that was the same story at the Oakland Paramount theater which was made into a gorgeous civic building. SF has a real problem keeping its historical treasure/buildings and jumps at every chance to let some developer trash real treasures. It is all for money and no doubt a lot of money goes under the table to corrupt politicians. Remember the fiasco at Playland at the Beach? By the way the console (keyboards and switches to change rank selection, etc.) is not the organ on a pipe organ....the organ is comprised of the ranks of pipes. While the console went to Disney I head that many of the pipe ranks were damaged or sold off to other locations so what is at Disney is not the same as what was at SF. I believe there were only 3 of that model of the organ made which was the largest model.
It's quite heartbreaking to see them tear that wonderful theatre down, and strange how they seemed to celebrate it's demise at the time, but whey did they let it happen!
The Fox Theater (1921) in Salinas CA, is being threatened. The building is a solid concrete building and the city is claiming the neighboring building (brick URM building) is supporting The Fox building. The owner is fighting tooth and nail to save this BEAUTIFUL building, with NO help from the city. They closed his doors April 12th, and WILL NOT let him re-open unless he fixes a wall by June 12th, or they will abate and demolish. These city officials only think of development, new buildings and new money. The Fox has 1,000 seats of water credits and 1,000 parking credits...that's what they want. Very sad, these gorgeous iconic landmarks need to be cherished and preserved.
There should have been a law created in the 1940s that made it to where any building that is 25 years old can't be torn down, in the punishment would be heavy fines, if that was the case then all the beautiful movie palaces would be saved and people would be unable to tear them down
It's a complete tragedy to lose such an iconic theatre. I could not watch the demolition part of the video, this hits too close to home for me....and I'm an Aussie! I still feel the loss for my fellow theatre and organ lovers from here though. At least the organ hos been saved and is functioning well in the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood but it still seems criminal that such a beautiful theatre as the San Francisco Fox has been torn down....and for what? Another office building!
It was replaced by a hideous concrete apartment building, called Fox Plaza. Totally unnecessary. The original blueprints called for an apartment/hotel to be built around the theater, but the Depression stopped construction. All they had to do was complete the original design, not destroy the theater.
+acoow The voters of SF, under advice of their short-sighted mayor, turned down purchasing the Fox for $1 million - a bargain even in those days. Other super-Foxes in Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis have proved the viability of using the palaces for touring shows and concerts.
Just think of it! Atlanta, St. Louis, and my home metroplex of Detroit all saved their Fox Theatres, complete with their theatre organs (4/36 Wurlitzers in Detroit and St. Louis and the massive 4/42 Moller in Atlanta) and their sheer opulent decor...and they are now landmark entertainment destinations that draw crowds and top-flight entertainers. And the San Francisco Fox was said to be the most opulent of them all! I'm not a "building hugger", but when you lose landmarks like this, as opposed to taking care of them, you're robbing your populations of that supremely important ingredient: TIMELESSNESS! When I first saw the Detroit Fox and heard its Wurlitzer, the combined effect of the architecture and sound blew me away like no other entertainment venue ever.
I sit here balling - I wasn’t even born yet (69) Nothing recycled? Seats 💺 should have been offered to those attending. What an absolute waste - I just don’t / I don’t think I’ll ever understand the mass destructions that are so widely spread across our nation. The love the art the work in building some cervical point that should bring forth to generation to generation Have people completely thrown away any & all kind of tradition not even having respect in trying to upgrade infusing new to the old • that would have been better than a full erasure. I’m literally sick but so very grateful & thankful for the extremely thoughtful camera work allowing a first & unfortunately final look at this most magnificent structure. I’m truly sorry for San Francisco’s loss. Would like to try a little giggle if I may, no disrespect intended but it just dawned on me lol Regarding the women’s lounge... was shown ... what about the men’s? Was it like said of other parts... the right being as the left? I just felt the need to ask. I also wonder, after being another lifetime now, 2022, the Wurlitzer is it still located in SoCal? Is it still surviving?
I wish the San Francisco Fox had been saved. It is nearly impossible to make a single screen movie house pay. In fact, the multi screen theatres in the malls are failing financially as I write this. The Fox could have been used for stage shows and other purposes.
Gorgeous theater. Such a shame. I'm happy that my hometown of Chicago is getting ready to fully restore the magnificent UPTOWN theater. Once finished, it will be the most incredible 1920's movie palace in the entire United States.
I can't watch this, demolition part of the video it's too much for me, as a 13-year-old today, I think the historic society should have been made in the early 1940s, so they could start saving the movie palaces that were going to be tore down including the fox in 63, truly, no theater will ever be like the fox
The Oakland Paramount was mentioned at first so I looked them up and found their website. Nowhere on that site was the organ mentioned. I then went to their Facebook page and was about to give up when I finally found an auditorium photo showing the console in 2012. I get the impression that they don`t care much for it.
Let’s look at the sad facts: The SF Fox was a 5,000 seat behemoth, a theater built for NYC or Chicago, in a city of 400,000, in a region where even the center of movie making itself, Hollywood and Los Angeles had theaters not much bigger than 1,200 seats. Then, look at all the empty space on both sides. A hotel was to have been built alongside the Fox to subsidize the auditorium the way the offices above the nearby Orpheum, Warfield and Golden Gate theaters subsidized their auditoriums. That hotel was killed by the Depression, and its absence, combined with the vast size of the Fox, doomed the theater. 2Oth Century Fox itself nearly went bankrupt until a tiny little girl tapped her way onto a Fox soundstage and saved the studio; Shirley Temple, of course. Today you can still hear some semblance of the Fox’s mighty Wurlitzer in Hollywood itself, at the El Capitan, while the Los Angeles theater, on Broadway, is a nice miniature of the SF Fox, inside and out. And, once the Castro Theater emerges from its restoration in 2025, it will house the world’s largest electric organ. It’s not all bad news
Fox capacity was 4,651 seats. Fox Wilshire, RKO Hillstreet, Orpheum and Pantages in Los Angeles each had more than 2,500 seats. Hillstreet was demolished, but the others are still standing.
Yes but it was still a giant without a hotel or retail to subsidize it like the Pantages. The other two were significantly smaller and LA hadn’t been as unkind to its theaters as SF has.
An unforgivable crime!!! How about those wonderful old movie palaces in New York like the Roxy (opened 1927) and boasted a large 5-manual Kilgen I believe would rival The Fox and the Paramount? I wonder if there are any films about those? At least New York hasn't destroyed Radio City Music Hall and its magnificent Wurlitzer -- yet!
kraftpr - The organ at Roxy was actually a Kimball. Some sources say that the organ was poorly designed as the pipes were located in the basement and they spent too much money on the consoles. As a result, the organ looked larger than it actually was. When the Fire Codes were updated, the basement had to be sealed, thus making the sound muffled. They stopped using the organ for quite a while before the demolition.
TRIVIA: IN JULY of 1976 the indisputably great Southern Rock band, LYNYRD SKYNYRD played a major roll in saving the indisputably great ATLANTA,GEORGIA FOX THEATRE, home of the second largest theater pipe organ- " MIGHTY MO'*. `Skynyrd's last remaining founding member, Lead guitarist Gary Rossington (plays the beautiful slide guitar on Free Bird), recalled this in a 5/27/2015 Billboard article by Gary Graff(search) : >> Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gary Rossington Recalls When 'Free Bird' Took Flight at Atlanta's Fox Theatre What makes The Mighty Mo, The Fox Theatre’s organ, so special --------------I love playing my home theater organs and my electric guitars. I started playing guitar in 1977'. In fact it was 7 days into my 13th year when tragedy struck Lynyrd Skynyrd's charter plane. The band has had to endure more hardships than one can imagine, but their music, and the music from The Atlanta Fox Theatre will play on forever. The great album made at the Atlanta Fox in 3 shows that week is titled' ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD [MCA RECORDS ]. Only in bits and pieces (due to copyrights on CZcams), but here is a remarkable '40th year since the crash:( ' tribute. Wonderfully rendered and delivered by TOMS ROCKING GUITAR dot com. CZcams video title: One More From the Road Full Album Cover | Lynyrd Skynyrd 40th Anniversary | tomsrockinguitar ' The only thing that could have made this story more interesting is if the humble, master classically trained pianist-turned Skynyrd' roadie- turned Skynyrd Piano player, BILLY POWELL were to have played Mighy Mo' ...if even for a moment. A moment is all it took the band to hear Powell, their roadie, sit at a piano the on a night the band was rained in after a show. Powell sat at the piano and said, " Now if I was going to play Free Bird this is how I'd do it.' Powell was promptly fired from his roadie job that night, and hired as their piano player. Watch FREE BIRD THE MOVIE (1996). Another unforgettable story is how while on the road, Skynyrd back up singer Cassie Gaines talked the band into letting her brother, totally unknown to the band, play guitar with them for a song after his Holiday inn gig around the corner. Just search video title words, " LYNYRD SKYNYRD GARY ROSSINGTON TALKS ABOUT STEVE GAINS JOINING BAND .
@@lewwilliams9617 OK so I figured out what the music is starting at 11:35, it's by Pietro Deiro (1914), and called "Pietro's Return" / "Accordion March"
Another "palace" with zero construction photos, drafting plans, or receipts for all the tech, brick, marble, silk, wool or 3d trim work. "Found-ed" indeed, which is why we can only build crap buildings a hundred years later.
The embarcadero freeway was a engineering failure and had significant damage from the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. It was an isore to the beautiful waterfront!!!!!!!!!!! Glad it’s gone
the demolition of the Embarcadero was a godsend. the only silver lining of the 1989 earthquake. the city doesn’t need highways. they’re ugly, and the Embarcadero being destroyed was what saved numerous historic buildings and districts
We are lucky here in Detroit. Our Fox Theater was beautifully restored in 1988.
It was very wise to preserve a wonderful movie palace for the future generations. Unfortunately other theaters, like the Fox of San Francisco were not between the few luckies that had survived!
This was a crime not only to San Francisco but to ALL AMERICA to lose such a National Treasure. I can hardly stand it.
How could any of them be smiling?? I would have had to been sedated to leave it.
It was so bad I couldn't watch it be destroyed on video, the architecture and craftsmanship was too beautiful and the fox was too good to be torn down
Disgusting that such a place was allowed to be demolished. Absolutely disgusting.
I had my first date there in 1963. So sad that it's gone.
Sham on those who made the decision to destroy this work of art steeped in magical history.
"Shame" I meant.
So hard to press a "Like" button on this video. Absolutely painful to see but I am thankful that you have posted it. After sitting empty, decaying for over thirty years, The Loew's Kings in Brooklyn will be reopening after a 93 million dollar restoration. The Fox was in pristine condition, shame on the greed of all involved.
Mark Bender
Across the river, Jersey City’s Loew’s theatre has managed to survive too
Can't help but eyes are wet. I was privileged to hear the Wurlitzer in Frank Lanterman's home in '75. Brother Julius took us on a crawl of the chambers. Never saw such large scale tuned tympani.
Joe Loewy
At least the organ survived
You can't make me believe that out of all those wealthy people in their Rolls Royces and classical cars wouldn't be able to stop the destruction of one of the finest buildings in America.
Why are they laughing? They should be weeping.
As a kid I saw movies at the Fabulous Fox! I was working across the street from the Fox at my fathers business as a kid at 45 Polk Street and spent many hours inside the theatre in the days before and even during the beginning of the demolition. I remember the projection booth and walked on catwalks over the ceiling and climbed down on the stage. I saw the machinery that lifted the orchestra pit and many of the secret rooms.
I have almost every record recorded at the Fox on the mighty Wurlitzer and play back on special surround sound equipment to recreate the actual acoustical experience of being in the Fabulous Fox!
Friend, might I ask if you have a list of said albums that you might be willing to share?
At least St. Louis has restored their Fox, That was a terrible shame about the San Francisco FOX. A real tragedy.
At least the organ lives on....in the el capitan theatre
I wish the theatre was still around. Even though there are surviving examples of these grand Fox Theatres in Detroit, St. Louis, and Atlanta today, none of them have the same architectural details this theatre has.
What a horrendous shame this wasn’t saved! It would cost so much to rebuild it now(even though it should be!) I think the organ was saved. I’m so thankful our St Louis Fox here in Missouri has been preserved. It’s like a Time Machine that transports it’s visitors to the past.
Wait, movie theaters were actually comfortable and beautiful. Bring this back!
I'm just old enough to remember seeing first-run movies at our local movie palaces (nothing like the Fox, but still pretty cool) in the 1980s. The seats weren't as comfortable as a modern cinema's, but the atmosphere made up for it, even if they were getting kind of shabby by that point. Since then I've been lucky enough to attend and even work on special events in restored movie palaces all over my state, but nothing is quite the same as just going to a regular Saturday night movie in such splendid surroundings.
Following the death of Frank Lanterman, whose home contained the organ, the Disney company purchased the instrument and had it rebuilt and installed in the El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood. I worked on it at El Cap for several years.
Thank you Organ Loft 2001. Very wonderful show.
What an absolute TRAVESTY that someone (the MAYOR of SanFrancisco back then) could be such a stupid, ignorant DUMBASS & decide to just destroy such an historic, beautiful theatre! I hope he rots in the HOTTEST HELL for his decision! ok...now that I have THAT off my chest, THANK-YOU for posting this RARE FULL-version of this documentary! I have wanted to see it for years! I literally CRIED like a baby as that Mighty Wurlitzer descended into the orchestra pit for the very last time! How very SAD! I'm glad the organ was saved, but it'll NEVER sound as grand as it did in the theatre it was custom built & accoustically designed for! AGAIN...it just makes me SICK how we as a society allowed this to happen! SOMEONE should have stepped up & bought it or...SOMETHING! WHY did we just stand there & allow such an irreplaceable historic strucure to be demolished & the UGLY ass "Fox plaza" to be built? I sure wish I could have been an adult back then! I would have stood in front of the wrecking ball & been arrested before I would have let it get torn down!
Ross Tvdoctor I thought I was the only that cried as the organ descending into the orchestra pit for the last time. I never got to experience the Fox Theater because I was still in Ohio in it's heyday. This was such a waste of beauty, history, and taxpayer money. Why? Why? Why?
It was not the Mayor, it was the dumb voters, who voted to reject the purchase of the splendid theater.
Dear God! What a lost treasure!
They truly were . A place of magic & dreams, Growing up most of the lights in our home were from theatres that are gone . Most from toledo. We lost our grandest the paramount. The detroit fox was my play house since age 2 . By second grade i was repairing on tuning the organ. Thank GOD it is still there & restored.
It's such a shame that theaters and other precious buildings were not made landmarks by the United States Government until the late 1960s early 1970s. I am sad to see this theater go without a commission. However, we cannot fix the buildings we wreck, and saving movie palaces like what we did to Radio City Music Hall in NYC is a lesson we can learn from. There are still some Fox Theaters in Atlanta and across the US that still stand, though.
Thanks for the memories of the S.F. Fox. Movie palaces like the Fox were places of dreams but possibly most kids today are not interested in dreams anymore, their world is too cold and calculating. Amazing how little respect people, politicians especially, had for their irreplaceable heritage back in the 50's 60's and 70's. Thomas Lamb was possibly the finest of all the Movie Palace architects though I think he went over the top in the lobby area here, bordering on kitsch - his masterpiece was undoubtedly the NYC Capitol IMO the finest of all the "palaces" but regrettably also lost to the greedy developers. Remarkably the Chicago Uptown still stands though in appalling condition, hopefully it will be restored as it is possibly the finest still in existence..
I still think some people still have dreams. Just not as many appreciate true craftsmanship.
SonicMaster Sword
Yes I guess you're right.
Blaming it on "kids today" that something was torn down in 1963 seems a bit dishonest. That's more your generation, or maybe your parents.
What a shame the S.F. Fox is gone, lucky to still have the Fabulous Fox in Detroit.
cameronpaul
It was sad this didn’t survive.
Atlanta & Detroit’s Fox have survived and been restored
I concur, Dennis. What a tragedy! The demolition brought tears to my eyes. So unfortunate that no one (including the mayor) had the foresight to preserve this majestic structure. I am so grateful that the Fox in Saint Louis has been preserved and restored. I believe it to be even more Fabulous than the San Francisco Fox! Five Grand (Super) Fox Theatres were built in San Francisco, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Detroit and Saint Louis. Only three of the five remain. As I have seen the Saint Louis Fox, I can attest to the fact that it is beyond fabulous! The 436 Mighty Wurlitzer built in 1929 still lives and resides at the Fox! I urge anyone visiting Saint Louis, Atlanta or Detroit to visit or tour one of these incredible structures. The Saint Louis and Detroit Theatres are referred to as the twin theatres, as their architecture is quite similar.
There are some beautifully restored average sized Fox Theatres out there, too! The one in Hutchinson, Kansas is a lovely example.
Thanks for the upload, Organloft! (-:
48Sage
What happened to the Brooklyn theater?
The Atlanta Fox has a 4/42 Moller "Deluxe" Theater organ. It never had a WurliTzer.
@@bobbeaumont324 It was demolished
Watching that organ descend for the very last time absolutely broke me. What a shame.
People were idiots in the early 1960's. The Fox Theater in San Francisco and the Roxy Theater and Penn Station in New York -- all demolished and replaced by architectural trash.
They are still idiots. The City of Salinas is fighting the owner of The Fox ...they want to abate and demolish. It's terrible.
It was so sad whether it was railroad stations, theaters, municipal buildings, all bit the dust.
Seemed like an insecurity complex that those alive then felt driven to demolition of everything in sight
That was wrong.
OMG , Just cannot understand why that Beautiful Place would be Tore down.. A Historical Crime..SAD
I know this is an old video, but the demolition took place in the 1960s. I was a little boy at the time this was torn down. Even back then, all San Francisco wanted was big corporations to take over the area where the theater once stood. We could say the politicians back then should have been found guilty of murder (murdering a theater).
I have played theater pipe organs and while I didn't play the SF one.....I saw the console in the theater right before it was shipped down to Disney land. I was able to get into the building as part of my job. They recorded the last days there on radio and put three LP records out which are fabulous. I have all three....later two of them were put on a CD and I have that also...that may still be available.. Thing that really hurt me was after they tore the theater down they built a high rise office building over it.....and for 2 years my office was in the building ;-(
For those that ask why it wasn't saved......yes it lost money and needed restoration....but that was the same story at the Oakland Paramount theater which was made into a gorgeous civic building. SF has a real problem keeping its historical treasure/buildings and jumps at every chance to let some developer trash real treasures. It is all for money and no doubt a lot of money goes under the table to corrupt politicians. Remember the fiasco at Playland at the Beach? By the way the console (keyboards and switches to change rank selection, etc.) is not the organ on a pipe organ....the organ is comprised of the ranks of pipes. While the console went to Disney I head that many of the pipe ranks were damaged or sold off to other locations so what is at Disney is not the same as what was at SF. I believe there were only 3 of that model of the organ made which was the largest model.
I really loved the SF Fox Theatre and Whitney’s Playland at the Beach. SF cared nothing at all for its historic buildings
It's quite heartbreaking to see them tear that wonderful theatre down, and strange how they seemed to celebrate it's demise at the time, but whey did they let it happen!
+Kinofilm Manchester - I concur. )-; (SNIFF)
Kinofilm Festival Manchester
Agreed
The Fox Theater (1921) in Salinas CA, is being threatened. The building is a solid concrete building and the city is claiming the neighboring building (brick URM building) is supporting The Fox building. The owner is fighting tooth and nail to save this BEAUTIFUL building, with NO help from the city. They closed his doors April 12th, and WILL NOT let him re-open unless he fixes a wall by June 12th, or they will abate and demolish. These city officials only think of development, new buildings and new money. The Fox has 1,000 seats of water credits and 1,000 parking credits...that's what they want. Very sad, these gorgeous iconic landmarks need to be cherished and preserved.
There should have been a law created in the 1940s that made it to where any building that is 25 years old can't be torn down, in the punishment would be heavy fines, if that was the case then all the beautiful movie palaces would be saved and people would be unable to tear them down
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!! I have been searching for it for so long.. I won't even say how I feel about this demolition :-( :-(
At least the organ was saved. It is currently installed at Disneys El Capitan Theatre.
It's a complete tragedy to lose such an iconic theatre. I could not watch the demolition part of the video, this hits too close to home for me....and I'm an Aussie! I still feel the loss for my fellow theatre and organ lovers from here though. At least the organ hos been saved and is functioning well in the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood but it still seems criminal that such a beautiful theatre as the San Francisco Fox has been torn down....and for what? Another office building!
It was replaced by a hideous concrete apartment building, called Fox Plaza. Totally unnecessary. The original blueprints called for an apartment/hotel to be built around the theater, but the Depression stopped construction. All they had to do was complete the original design, not destroy the theater.
thank you for posting this something that beautiful should be a landmark
The FOX Theaters in Detroit, St.Louis and Atlanta are still standing.
What a terrible tragedy! Today this theater would have been saved!!
Truly a tragedy! Demolished at a mere 35 years old. How could they?!
A lot of people are saying this building should have been saved, but no one is saying how to pay for it.
+acoow The voters of SF, under advice of their short-sighted mayor, turned down purchasing the Fox for $1 million - a bargain even in those days. Other super-Foxes in Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis have proved the viability of using the palaces for touring shows and concerts.
The Fox theaters in St. Louis, Detroit, and Atlanta are all thriving concert halls. The SF Fox could be also.
Just think of it! Atlanta, St. Louis, and my home metroplex of Detroit all saved their Fox Theatres, complete with their theatre organs (4/36 Wurlitzers in Detroit and St. Louis and the massive 4/42 Moller in Atlanta) and their sheer opulent decor...and they are now landmark entertainment destinations that draw crowds and top-flight entertainers. And the San Francisco Fox was said to be the most opulent of them all! I'm not a "building hugger", but when you lose landmarks like this, as opposed to taking care of them, you're robbing your populations of that supremely important ingredient: TIMELESSNESS!
When I first saw the Detroit Fox and heard its Wurlitzer, the combined effect of the architecture and sound blew me away like no other entertainment venue ever.
I sit here balling - I wasn’t even born yet (69)
Nothing recycled? Seats 💺 should have been offered to those attending. What an absolute waste - I just don’t / I don’t think I’ll ever understand the mass destructions that are so widely spread across our nation. The love the art the work in building some cervical point that should bring forth to generation to generation
Have people completely thrown away any & all kind of tradition not even having respect in trying to upgrade infusing new to the old • that would have been better than a full erasure.
I’m literally sick but so very grateful & thankful for the extremely thoughtful camera work allowing a first & unfortunately final look at this most magnificent structure.
I’m truly sorry for San Francisco’s loss.
Would like to try a little giggle if I may, no disrespect intended but it just dawned on me lol
Regarding the women’s lounge... was shown ... what about the men’s?
Was it like said of other parts...
the right being as the left? I just felt the need to ask.
I also wonder, after being another lifetime now, 2022, the Wurlitzer is it still located in SoCal?
Is it still surviving?
what a shame this treasure is for ever lost ..... :(
Maybe the blueprints still exist? Who knows?
+SonicMaster Sword the government likes to keep archives of building treasures.
I wish the San Francisco Fox had been saved. It is nearly impossible to make a single screen movie house pay. In fact, the multi screen theatres in the malls are failing financially as I write this. The Fox could have been used for stage shows and other purposes.
Thank you so much for uploading this!!
What happened to the Fox’s other (lobby) organ?
I looked that up and it was removed, restored and installed elsewhere.
Thank you for a lovely tribute!
Gorgeous theater. Such a shame. I'm happy that my hometown of Chicago is getting ready to fully restore the magnificent UPTOWN theater. Once finished, it will be the most incredible 1920's movie palace in the entire United States.
Extremely interesting
I can't watch this, demolition part of the video it's too much for me, as a 13-year-old today, I think the historic society should have been made in the early 1940s, so they could start saving the movie palaces that were going to be tore down including the fox in 63, truly, no theater will ever be like the fox
The Oakland Paramount was mentioned at first so I looked them up and found their website. Nowhere on that site was the organ mentioned. I then went to their Facebook page and was about to give up when I finally found an auditorium photo showing the console in 2012. I get the impression that they don`t care much for it.
May I ask wich song is being played in the background at 24:40 ?
Let’s look at the sad facts: The SF Fox was a 5,000 seat behemoth, a theater built for NYC or Chicago, in a city of 400,000, in a region where even the center of movie making itself, Hollywood and Los Angeles had theaters not much bigger than 1,200 seats.
Then, look at all the empty space on both sides. A hotel was to have been built alongside the Fox to subsidize the auditorium the way the offices above the nearby Orpheum, Warfield and Golden Gate theaters subsidized their auditoriums.
That hotel was killed by the Depression, and its absence, combined with the vast size of the Fox, doomed the theater.
2Oth Century Fox itself nearly went bankrupt until a tiny little girl tapped her way onto a Fox soundstage and saved the studio; Shirley Temple, of course.
Today you can still hear some semblance of the Fox’s mighty Wurlitzer in Hollywood itself, at the El Capitan, while the Los Angeles theater, on Broadway, is a nice miniature of the SF Fox, inside and out.
And, once the Castro Theater emerges from its restoration in 2025, it will house the world’s largest electric organ.
It’s not all bad news
Fox capacity was 4,651 seats. Fox Wilshire, RKO Hillstreet, Orpheum and Pantages in Los Angeles each had more than 2,500 seats. Hillstreet was demolished, but the others are still standing.
Yes but it was still a giant without a hotel or retail to subsidize it like the Pantages. The other two were significantly smaller and LA hadn’t been as unkind to its theaters as SF has.
Virgil Fox performed here a few times in the 50s I think.
An unforgivable crime!!! How about those wonderful old movie palaces in New York like the Roxy (opened 1927) and boasted a large 5-manual Kilgen I believe would rival The Fox and the Paramount? I wonder if there are any films about those? At least New York hasn't destroyed Radio City Music Hall and its magnificent Wurlitzer -- yet!
kraftpr - The organ at Roxy was actually a Kimball. Some sources say that the organ was poorly designed as the pipes were located in the basement and they spent too much money on the consoles. As a result, the organ looked larger than it actually was. When the Fire Codes were updated, the basement had to be sealed, thus making the sound muffled. They stopped using the organ for quite a while before the demolition.
The Beacon Theatre on Broadway is another palace still standing, and still used. The Kings in Brooklyn has been restored, happily.
This makes me sad. :(
What song is played at 9:08 ?
TRIVIA:
IN JULY of 1976 the indisputably great Southern Rock band, LYNYRD SKYNYRD played a major roll in saving the indisputably great ATLANTA,GEORGIA FOX THEATRE, home of the second largest theater pipe organ- " MIGHTY MO'*.
`Skynyrd's last remaining founding member, Lead guitarist Gary Rossington (plays the beautiful slide guitar on Free Bird), recalled this in a 5/27/2015 Billboard article by Gary Graff(search) :
>> Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gary Rossington Recalls When 'Free Bird' Took Flight at Atlanta's Fox Theatre
What makes The Mighty Mo, The Fox Theatre’s organ, so special
--------------I love playing my home theater organs and my electric guitars. I started playing guitar in 1977'. In fact it was 7 days into my 13th year when tragedy struck Lynyrd Skynyrd's charter plane. The band has had to endure more hardships than one can imagine, but their music, and the music from The Atlanta Fox Theatre will play on forever. The great album made at the Atlanta Fox in 3 shows that week is titled' ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD [MCA RECORDS ].
Only in bits and pieces (due to copyrights on CZcams), but here is a remarkable '40th year since the crash:( ' tribute. Wonderfully rendered and delivered by TOMS ROCKING GUITAR dot com. CZcams video title:
One More From the Road Full Album Cover | Lynyrd Skynyrd 40th Anniversary | tomsrockinguitar '
The only thing that could have made this story more interesting is if the humble, master classically trained pianist-turned Skynyrd' roadie- turned Skynyrd Piano player, BILLY POWELL were to have played Mighy Mo' ...if even for a moment. A moment is all it took the band to hear Powell, their roadie, sit at a piano the on a night the band was rained in after a show. Powell sat at the piano and said, " Now if I was going to play Free Bird this is how I'd do it.'
Powell was promptly fired from his roadie job that night, and hired as their piano player. Watch FREE BIRD THE MOVIE (1996).
Another unforgettable story is how while on the road, Skynyrd back up singer Cassie Gaines talked the band into letting her brother, totally unknown to the band, play guitar with them for a song after his Holiday inn gig around the corner. Just search video title words, " LYNYRD SKYNYRD GARY ROSSINGTON TALKS ABOUT STEVE GAINS JOINING BAND .
Could some kind soul tell me what all the songs in this soundtrack are called? Particularly the ones starting at 16:03 and 16:40. Best Regards.
16:40 is a 1951 song entitled "Slow Poke." The earlier music was written by Robert Farnon, but I'm not sure of the title.
Excellent! Also I just found out that the 16:03 tune is called "Westminster Waltz" from 1958, by, as you mentioned, Robert Farnon. Many Thanks!
@@lewwilliams9617 What is the music starting at 11:35 ?
@@lewwilliams9617 OK so I figured out what the music is starting at 11:35, it's by Pietro Deiro (1914), and called "Pietro's Return" / "Accordion March"
Whats the song at 27:31?
''Sanfrancisco open your Golden gate'' from movie ''Sanfrancisco'' taken in 1936
why??
DOES ANYONE KNOWS TANGO WHICH IS PLAYED IN 9:19 ?
It is "El Choclo," written in 1903. It was also given the English title of "Kiss of Fire."
Thank you :)
Sad
Another "palace" with zero construction photos, drafting plans, or receipts for all the tech, brick, marble, silk, wool or 3d trim work. "Found-ed" indeed, which is why we can only build crap buildings a hundred years later.
Our modern "theaters" are just pre-fab shoeboxes, overpriced and uncomfortable.
San Francisco continues to do dumb things like this. Like destroying the Embarcadero freeway.
The embarcadero freeway was a engineering failure and had significant damage from the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. It was an isore to the beautiful waterfront!!!!!!!!!!! Glad it’s gone
the demolition of the Embarcadero was a godsend. the only silver lining of the 1989 earthquake. the city doesn’t need highways. they’re ugly, and the Embarcadero being destroyed was what saved numerous historic buildings and districts
That freeway was an eyesore. Good riddance.
Incredible, but possibly the most vulgar movie theatre l have ever seen!
That is a matter of personal taste.
Extremely interesting