The Fox had the coolest ticket booth (art deco) and the theater was magnificent. As it was ready to close, the seats were breaking down, the felt was torn, carpet filthy. Totally sad to me. The entire block was cleared for Tom Moyers Fox Tower. Located in the middle of the block was the Music Box. Portland lost two cinema jewels for another tower and a few chain clothing stores. The Fox was built by National Cinemas and sold out to Moyer's Luxury Theaters in the 1970's. There were 1,458 seats in this massive single screen movie house. The corner was the home for the Mayfair and Heilig Theaters before it was named "The Fox"
The Fox neon was put up on this day in 1954 after a $230,000 remodel and the town was talking about it's new state of the art 61X30 Cinema Scope Screen & full 4 track Magnetic stereo sound. This gave off a 122 foot projection throw from the booth to the screen. When it was the Mayfair the room had 1,500 seats. My cousin had the Jewelry store on the corner for over 30 years. When we were kids he would give us free movie & Portland Beaver Baseball tickets. Great memories, never lost.
Saw "Its a mad mad mad world" in technocolor
Posted by: Sharon | June 05, 2009 at 05:26 PM
Hmm, I thought "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was done in Cinerama--and shown at the Hollywood.
Posted by: Don from Salem | June 05, 2009 at 06:38 PM
The popcorn was the best at the Fox-Orpheum and Music Box
Posted by: steve | June 05, 2009 at 09:01 PM