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Fox Theatre (St. Louis)
Encyclopedia
The Fox Theatre, a former movie palace
, is a performing arts center located at 527 N. Grand Blvd. in St. Louis, Missouri
. Also known as "The Fabulous Fox", it is situated in the arts district of the Grand Center
area in Midtown St. Louis
, one block north of Saint Louis University
. It opened in 1929 and was completely restored in 1982.
as a showcase for the films of the Fox Film Corporation and elaborate stage shows. It was one of a group of five spectacular Fox Theatres built by Fox in the late 1920s. (The others were the Fox Theatres in Brooklyn, Atlanta
, Detroit
, and San Francisco.)
When the theater opened on January 31, 1929 it was reportedly the second-largest theater in the United States, with 5,060 seats. It was one of St. Louis's leading movie theater
s through the 1960s and has survived to become a versatile performing arts venue.
The Fox was designed by an architect specializing in theaters, C. Howard Crane
, in an eclectic blend of Asian decorative motifs sometimes called Siamese Byzantine. The interior is the architectural twin of another Fox Theatre
built in Detroit in 1928. Reporters in 1929 described the Fox Theatres in St. Louis and Detroit as "awe-inspiringly fashioned after Hindoo (sic) Mosques of Old India, bewildering in their richness and dazzling in their appointments … striking a note that reverberates around the architectural and theatrical worlds." William Fox nicknamed the style the "Eve Leo Style" in tribute to his wife, who decorated the interior with furnishings, paintings and sculpture she had bought on her trips overseas.
The Fox Theatre closed in March 1978 and was purchased by Fox Associates in 1981. The theater was restored at a price of at least $3 million dollars and in comparison, the Fox cost $6 million dollars to build in 1929. It reopened in September 1982 with the Broadway musical Barnum
.
The Fox currently seats 4,278 theatergoers plus 234 in the private Fox Club.
In September 2007, the venue celebrated the 25th anniversary of its re-opening with a concert featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell
and Linda Eder
and a day of the theater showing movies in a throwback to its beginnings.
film Escape from New York
as an abandoned Broadway theatre. Kurt Russell's character, Snake, is seen approaching the theatre from the east, hearing music within, then entering. (A close look at the graffiti on the building clearly reveals the words: FOX THEATRE.) However, the shots immediately following are the interior of the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Theatre hosted a 60th birthday concert for St. Louis–born, early rock and roll pioneer, Chuck Berry
in 1986. Keith Richards
, of The Rolling Stones
, was the project's musical director and backing band leader. Taylor Hackford
incorporated the concert into a documentary film about Berry and released the film as Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
, as a feature. In the film, Berry mentions that, as a child growing up in St. Louis, he was denied entrance to the Fox to watch a film because he was black.
The Theatre played host to the politically-motivated Vote for Change
Tour on October 6, 2004, featuring performances by James Taylor
and The Dixie Chicks
.
The Fox is also featured on an episode of stand-up comedian Kathy Griffin
's show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
(Season 4, Episode 2: "Home is Where The Profit Is"). Griffin brought the show's crew to film her personal assistants raising more money from merchandise during a stand-up show at the theatre.
cost $75,000 in 1929. It has four manuals, 36 ranks and 348 stops. Restoration of the organ was undertaken by Marlin Mackley in 1981.
Tom Terry was the theater's resident organist from 1929 to 1935. The organ was not played for the public from 1935 to 1952.
In 1952, Stan Kann
was named resident organist. He served as organist at the Fox for 22 years and became something of a legend to theater organ aficionados.
A second Wurlitzer organ was installed in the lobby during the theater's renovation in the 1980s. It replaced the original Möller
organ which had been removed. The smaller lobby organ has two manuals and 11 ranks and had been originally installed in the Majestic Theatre in East St. Louis, Illinois
in 1930.
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
, is a performing arts center located at 527 N. Grand Blvd. in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Also known as "The Fabulous Fox", it is situated in the arts district of the Grand Center
Covenant Blu/Grand Center, St. Louis
Grand Center is located in Midtown St. Louis Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places north of the Saint Louis University campus....
area in Midtown St. Louis
Midtown St. Louis
Midtown St. Louis is three miles west of the St. Louis, Missouri riverfront at the crossroads of Grand Boulevard and Lindell Boulevard. It includes the campus of Saint Louis University and the Grand Center arts district.-Historic status:...
, one block north of Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
. It opened in 1929 and was completely restored in 1982.
History
The Fox was built in 1929 by movie pioneer William FoxWilliam Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
as a showcase for the films of the Fox Film Corporation and elaborate stage shows. It was one of a group of five spectacular Fox Theatres built by Fox in the late 1920s. (The others were the Fox Theatres in Brooklyn, Atlanta
Fox Theatre (Atlanta)
The Fox Theatre , a former movie palace, is a performing arts venue located at 660 Peachtree Street NE in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, and is the centerpiece of the Fox Theatre Historic District....
, Detroit
Fox Theatre (Detroit)
The Fox Theatre is an ornate performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Grand Circus Park. It was originally completed in 1928 as the first movie palace in the world to have sound systems for films. It was listed on the National Register of Historic...
, and San Francisco.)
When the theater opened on January 31, 1929 it was reportedly the second-largest theater in the United States, with 5,060 seats. It was one of St. Louis's leading movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s through the 1960s and has survived to become a versatile performing arts venue.
The Fox was designed by an architect specializing in theaters, C. Howard Crane
C. Howard Crane
Charles Howard Crane was an American architect.Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane established a practice in Detroit, Michigan early in the 20th Century. Like Thomas W. Lamb and John Eberson, Crane specialized in the design of movie palaces in North American...
, in an eclectic blend of Asian decorative motifs sometimes called Siamese Byzantine. The interior is the architectural twin of another Fox Theatre
Fox Theatre (Detroit)
The Fox Theatre is an ornate performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Grand Circus Park. It was originally completed in 1928 as the first movie palace in the world to have sound systems for films. It was listed on the National Register of Historic...
built in Detroit in 1928. Reporters in 1929 described the Fox Theatres in St. Louis and Detroit as "awe-inspiringly fashioned after Hindoo (sic) Mosques of Old India, bewildering in their richness and dazzling in their appointments … striking a note that reverberates around the architectural and theatrical worlds." William Fox nicknamed the style the "Eve Leo Style" in tribute to his wife, who decorated the interior with furnishings, paintings and sculpture she had bought on her trips overseas.
The Fox Theatre closed in March 1978 and was purchased by Fox Associates in 1981. The theater was restored at a price of at least $3 million dollars and in comparison, the Fox cost $6 million dollars to build in 1929. It reopened in September 1982 with the Broadway musical Barnum
Barnum (musical)
Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
.
The Fox currently seats 4,278 theatergoers plus 234 in the private Fox Club.
In September 2007, the venue celebrated the 25th anniversary of its re-opening with a concert featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell is an American stage, film and television actor. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s...
and Linda Eder
Linda Eder
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...
and a day of the theater showing movies in a throwback to its beginnings.
Notable events
The facade of the Fox briefly appears in the 1981 John CarpenterJohn Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
film Escape from New York
Escape from New York
Escape from New York is a 1981 American science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security...
as an abandoned Broadway theatre. Kurt Russell's character, Snake, is seen approaching the theatre from the east, hearing music within, then entering. (A close look at the graffiti on the building clearly reveals the words: FOX THEATRE.) However, the shots immediately following are the interior of the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Theatre hosted a 60th birthday concert for St. Louis–born, early rock and roll pioneer, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
in 1986. Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, was the project's musical director and backing band leader. Taylor Hackford
Taylor Hackford
Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director, and the current president of the Directors Guild of America.-Early life:Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary , a waitress, and Joseph Hackford...
incorporated the concert into a documentary film about Berry and released the film as Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll is a 1987 documentary film directed by Taylor Hackford that chronicles two 1986 concerts celebrating rock and roll musician Chuck Berry's 60th birthday. A soundtrack album was released in October 1987 on the MCA label....
, as a feature. In the film, Berry mentions that, as a child growing up in St. Louis, he was denied entrance to the Fox to watch a film because he was black.
The Theatre played host to the politically-motivated Vote for Change
Vote for Change
The Vote for Change tour was a politically-motivated American popular music concert tour that took place in October 2004. The tour was presented by MoveOn.org to benefit America Coming Together. The tour was held in swing states and was designed to encourage people to register and vote...
Tour on October 6, 2004, featuring performances by James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
and The Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
.
The Fox is also featured on an episode of stand-up comedian Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin
Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, stand-up comedienne, television personality, New York Times best-selling author and an LGBT rights advocate. Griffin first gained recognition for appearances on two episodes of Seinfeld, and then for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom...
's show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List is a reality show starring Kathy Griffin. The series aired on Bravo. It debuted in August 2005, and was cancelled in November 2010....
(Season 4, Episode 2: "Home is Where The Profit Is"). Griffin brought the show's crew to film her personal assistants raising more money from merchandise during a stand-up show at the theatre.
Theater organ
The theater's Wurlitzer pipe organTheatre organ
A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
cost $75,000 in 1929. It has four manuals, 36 ranks and 348 stops. Restoration of the organ was undertaken by Marlin Mackley in 1981.
Tom Terry was the theater's resident organist from 1929 to 1935. The organ was not played for the public from 1935 to 1952.
In 1952, Stan Kann
Stan Kann
Stan Kann received national recognition in the 1960s when he was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show and daytime television talk shows, showcasing his collection of vacuum cleaners. Kann also was known among theatre organ aficionados for his 22-year tenure as resident organist at the Fox Theatre...
was named resident organist. He served as organist at the Fox for 22 years and became something of a legend to theater organ aficionados.
A second Wurlitzer organ was installed in the lobby during the theater's renovation in the 1980s. It replaced the original Möller
M. P. Moller
Mathias Peter Møller was a prolific Danish organ builder. He was a native of the Danish island of Bornholm. He founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania in 1875...
organ which had been removed. The smaller lobby organ has two manuals and 11 ranks and had been originally installed in the Majestic Theatre in East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 27,006, less than one-third of its peak of 82,366 in 1950...
in 1930.