Opened as a cinema in 1949 with 1,008 seats, designed by architect S. Charles Lee and Carl G. Moeller for Fox West Coast Theatres, in a style often referred to as the Skouras style, with its typical neo-Baroque décor instead of the more modernist streamlined look typical of the late 1940s. Prefabricated elements such as holdings and low-cost aluminium sheeting were used to create ornamentation in a mass-produced way at Fox’s assembly plant, thus allowing greater economies of scale. Hundreds of theatres were redesigned or created in this particular style.

William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs, 1879 - 1962) was born in Hungary and arrived at the age of nine months to America. He purchased his first nickelodeon in 1904 and started film production and distribution by founding the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. In 1929, while he was trying to acquire Loew’s/MGM, fighting against government antitrust action, he was severely injured in an automobile accident and his fortune collapsed due to the stock market crash. Fox lost control of his company in 1930 during a hostile takeover. Fox Film Corporation would later merge with 20th Century Pictures, becoming 20th Century-Fox, while Fox West Coast went into bankruptcy and was sold to National Theatres Corporation ad later to Mann Theatres.

Fox Theater was equipped with assistance for the hearing impaired, automatic opening lobby doors, and a soundproof “crying room” for mothers with small children. It was a first-run movie theatre and served as a main site for Hollywood premiers during the 1960s, hosting stars such as Shirley Temple, Marilyn Monroe, and the Three Stooges. It eventually switched to exploitation and Spanish-language films until it closed in 1968.

In 2012, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently vacant.


Editions available:

95 x 120 cm, edition of 9 plus 2APs
#1/9 available

150 x 190 cm, edition of 6 plus 2 APs
#1/6 available