 |
| Fox Theater, Anaheim, CA |
Johnny - Those of us who grew up in Anaheim will remember the Fox Theater on the north side of downtown Lincoln. I spent many hours there from the early 1960s until it closed in the 1970s. I saw some of the best movies, and loved the art deco architecture, even though I didn't know what to call it as a kid. Before the city developers ruined downtown Anaheim, it was always great to walk or ride bikes to the Fox Theater for matinees on Saturday!
Cox Pilot - The Fox was where I first saw Bambe in the early '40's. We live just off Lincoln on East street, and my Mother and I would walk to the movies, and then she would do her shopping down town. Dad took the only car to work (a '29 Chev 2-door.) We finally moved to Santa Ana in 1947.
Anonymous - Johnny, I remember the Fox Theater on Lincoln Ave in Anaheim very well. I grew up on Ball Road between Harbor and Anaheim Blvd (originally called Los Angeles Street). The house is a chiroprator's office the last I saw and it is across the side street from Oasis, a rehab/treatment center (sometimes used on the Intervention TV program). The Rose family used to live there. We had orange groves across the street and at the end of the tract on the Harbor side where we would play alot of the time. Ball Road was just a two lane street at that time and the Helms Bakery truck would come through the neighborhood, and milk was delivered in glass bottles to your front door. We moved to different areas of Anaheim through the years and my high school years were Lincoln and State College area, where somebody mentioned the Boston Store and Grant's. My mom worked at Grant's in the late 60's, early 70's. But it is my early childhood, growing up a block from Disneyland, that I remember the most fondly. Things have really changed since then.I used to visit the Fox Theater in San Diego, in the North Park community along University Ave during the early 1970s. Us kids would come in for the matinee and watch Little Rascals, Lone Ranger, and the old black & white Popeye cartoons. Kids would run around, yell and scream, and the floor would get littered with popcorn and spilled sodas, and it only cost us $0.25 to get in.
What were your memories?
I'm a blogger and internet marketer, motorcycle rider, and craft beer lover.
I was fortunate enough to go to a couple Saturday kid's matinee shows at this theater in 1972. It was a shame that the civic leadership of the past was so short-sighted to let the historic downtown of Anaheim be obliterated.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous who posted the Fox Theater (San Diego) comment.....my foster parents and I moved to San Diego from Oklahoma in early 1941 and I lived in the Normal Heights area for a number of years......went to John Adams Grammar School on Adams Avenue and lived right across the street from the school.
ReplyDeleteThe Fox Theater was NOT in North Park.....the Fox was "downtown" at 710 "B" Street .....now it's the Copley Symphony Hall.
Used to take my "steady" there.....we'd sit in the balcony ....the seats were large, leather and had "arms" between the seats. One could move the "arm" into an upward position and create a "love seat". Great for making out!! Too, if one wanted, one could smoke in the balcony.
Every other month,certain Junior Traffic Patrol "divisions" (coordinated by the San Diego Police Department) would meet at Park Avenue and "B" Street and march down "B" to the Fox Theater to watch a film. We'd all wear our "uniforms", red sweaters and yellow "overseas" caps (we had a different name for them in the military)and were provided free transportation to the staging area and back "home" after the movie courtesy of the San Diego streetcar system. Great memory of a more simple, innocent time. The years? 1945/46.
You may be thinking of the Egyptian Theater which became the Capri or the North Park Theater.
For a fun "visit" to some of the old theaters in/around San Diego, go to: www.sandiegohistory.org/collections/theaters/theaters.htm
Bob King majskyking@gmail.com
I remember going to a Fox Theater in North Park because it had the words "Fox Theater" painted on the building. But I suppose I could be wrong. BTW, I attended John Adams also, from 1-3 grades, I think it was 1972-1974.
DeleteWhat has happened to the Cosmodome, across the freeway from UCI MedCenter? I've been 'exiled' out here in Kansas since the mid '80s, and that was one of my fave theaters to go to at the time. I'll never forget the time I was there for the first showing of one of the Star Trek movies, and everyone gave a tearful standing ovation when the words "Dedicated to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger" came up on the screen.
ReplyDeleteAnd what has happened to the "Orange Drive In" that was next door to the Cosmodome? I remember so well going there with my parents, who would put down the back seat in our red Pontiac stationwagon, and make up a bed there for me, in case I fell asleep. But I would always drag my blankets up onto the roof, and make a bed on the roof rack to watch the movie in my pajamas! It was fun to be a kid in the 1960s!
Californian Exiled in Kansas
@ Cali Exiled > Kansas
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Anaheim thru the 70,80,and 90's till and the last 10-15 years we've seen the most development ever. With the boom of the 2000's the Cinadome was closed due, I believe, competition from the bigger theaters like AMC, Edwards. Not sure if the Dome was family owned but I'm sure someone got a big $$ from selling the lot. The drive in became the weekend bizzar or swap meet but I haven't lived in OC since 07 - will haft to Google map the area. I too miss all the things I grew up with in the 70's and 80's in OC but change is a constant.
Jim
And (shock!) we went to the movies by ourselves, without a cell phone for our parents to keep tabs on us. How on earth did we survive?!
ReplyDeleteI remmeber going to Fox Anaheim,(as well as Fox Fullerton) we saw many of the early Disney movies there, Mary Poppins, Flubber, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and of course The Love Bug. We could also buy tickets at school for special shows on Saturday afternoons. They would give away prizes, so you had to hold on to your ticket in case it had the winning number. My mom would shop at the SRQ store across the street. What a shame they tore it all down. Fullerton did well to keep it's downtown.
ReplyDeleteI SO-O-O-O MISS THE "OLD DOWNTOWN ANAHEIM" STARTING WITH THE FOX THEATER, THE RECORD SHOP, SQR, (WHERE MY GYM CLOTHES UNIFORMS WERE BOUGHT) THE VARIETY STORE THAT HAD A LUNCH COUNTER, THE BEAUTY COLLEGE. MY UNCLE GRADUATED FROM THERE, AND OFTENTIMES I WAS USED AS HIS MODEL :) THERE WAS ALSO THE 'BEAN HUT' ON WHAT IS OW ANAHEIM BLVD & LA PALMA. MY FAVORITE CHINESE RESTAURANT THE "CHUNG KING" ON LINCOLN. WE ALSO HAD A GROCERY STORE ON THE CORNER OF CLEMENTINE & BROADWAY, AND ALSO ON LEMON ST. & ELM ( OR MAYBE IT WAS HELENA). LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WHY DID THEY REMOVE FREMONT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL?? THE ONLY 2 THINGS WHICH ARE STILL STANDING ARE THE "EL NOPAL MEXICAN RESTAURANT" WHICH IS NO LONGER ON LINCOLN, BUT HAS NOW MOVED TO EAST & SYCAMORE, AND THE LIBRARY WHICH OF COURSE IS NO LONGER A LIBRARY BUT "THE MUSEO" ON ANAHEIM BLVD. I REGRET THAT THESE BUSINESSES ARE NO LONGER THERE, THAT "CHANGE" HAD TO OCCUR!! I CAN NOT MENTION THE "PLUNGE" @ PEARSON PARK. THERE WAS SWIMMING @ NIGHT, FROM 7:00PM-9:00PM FOR A QUARTER! HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE CHARGE IS NOW. THERE WAS ALSO A LIQUOR STORE ON LEMON ST & HELENA THAT GAVE YOU DEPOSIT-CREDIT FOR RETURNING YOU GLASS SODA BOTTLES. "I REALLY MISS THE "OLD ANAHEIM" ESPECIALLY THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ON LINCOLN ALONG WITH THE CHRISTMAS & THANKSGIVING PARADE. SO-O-O-O-O SA-A-A-A-D CHANGE HAD TO HAPPEN : (
DeleteI grew up in east Anaheim, State College & South st. area. I spent many saturdays at the Fox Theater. We would ride our bikes there and for .49 cents...that's right .49cents you could see TWO movies. It's a shame downtown was torn down, I spent alot of time there as a kid. My friends and I would sit on the steps of the old City Hall eating candy and waiting for the Halloween Parade and at Christmas it was so cool, with the lights strung across Lincoln Ave. Pearson Park plunge was around the corner (learned to swim there) and for .50 cents you could swim all day, which we did, every summer.
ReplyDeleteHow can we forget the fox theatre. I remember they sold tickets through the PTA for 35 cents each when you bought a package deal. We would go to Kerns market on La Palma and get 10 or 15 cents of penny candy to bring with us. They had double features too and a cartoon what a deal!! I lived on East street. My parents had wanted to live out in the country what a laugh it ended up to be an off ramp on the freeway. I went to visit Anaheim but was sad to see the changes. My home was torn down and now has condos on it and my church that I loved so much on Broadway torn down with a boys club on it. Still have the good memories tho...Armstrongs, Charlies drug store at 5 points, Halloween parades,SQR and silver bonus days,etc. It was a great time to grow up ride your bike everywhere and feel safe and secure but at least for those of us that did grow up here we have fantastic memories in our hearts. Gayle Spielman Banker
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the Fox Anaheim. That place had class! I remember the seats were like lazyboys, real plush. i worked nearby at Eastmans market on broadway in the mid 1970s, what a neighborhood, with its old hotels, and quite diverse clientele. When the hotel Valencia burned down it was the beginning of the end for that whole scene. There was a pizza restaurant on the ground floor of that hotel called DeAngelos, I believe, that had absolutely the best pizza I have ever or will ever eat. Anyone else?
ReplyDeleteI remember spending all day at the theater in the late 1950s. They always had a drawing between the two movies with all kinds of prizes. Everyone went and our parents got a break. The line used to go around the block!
ReplyDeleteI spent many Saturdays at the Fox back in the late 1950s. There were always 2 movies, news, shorts and cartoons. We made a day of it and Mom and Dad got the day off. I'm glad I was a kid during those years when I walked or rode my bike to Katella Elementary and never, ever put a lock on it. My brothers and I walked to Disneyland, paid 60 cents to get in and then begged tourists for their left over ride ticketbooks as they left the park. Sometimes, if they had little kids, we even scored E tickets LOL.
ReplyDelete