Post by Jonel on Sept 24, 2003 14:27:39 GMT -5
Bejeweled Fox marks diamond anniversary
By ROBERT MUSIAL , Of the Daily Oakland Press 09/20/2003
September 20, 2003
DETROIT - They called it a "movie palace" - and they weren't kidding.
When Detroit's Fox Theatre opened Sept. 21, 1928, it had cost nearly $8 million to build, an amount that would equal more than $79 million today. The cost was palatial (more than $8 million was also spent to restore it in 1988), and the place resembled a Hollywood fever dream of a palace.
Architect C. Howard Crane, who designed it and an identical one in St. Louis as part of a chain for movie mogul William Fox, did several theaters in Detroit and 52 altogether.
But the 5,000-seat theater on Woodward Avenue - which is 75 years old Sunday - was considered the most beautiful and dramatic of them all, attracting passers-by from blocks away with its ornate 10-story marquee.
Its interior is described as "Siamese-Byzantine," a pastiche of styles borrowing from Oriental, Egyptian, Babylonian and Indian architecture.
Its interior is awash in gold leaf, with hand-stenciled designs on the walls and leather-lined elevators. Thousands of colored glass "jewels" sparkle from decorative figures and the lobby is ringed by 16 massive, red-veined columns that look like marble and stretch upward to the six-story ceiling.
In the back of the lobby, a grand staircase of pink carrara stone guarded by lions with red-jeweled eyes leads up to 17 private suites, carved out as part of the 1988 restoration.
Through walnut-paneled doors trimmed in brass and leaded glass, patrons enter a soaring auditorium to find more visual delights.
Red carpeting emblazoned with gold-tusked elephants sets a pachyderm pattern repeated in the ornate plaster decorations, the wrought iron railings and the crowned-and-jeweled elephant head above the stage.
The cavernous auditorium is engineered to match the decor with an 1,800-seat free-spanning balcony unsupported by columns. It offers an unobstructed view of the stage, which is only 165 feet away at its farthest point.
More than 100 feet above the main floor, the ornate ceiling resembles an Arabian tent with a giant sunburst and decorative panels speckled with more glass jewels and sculptured tassels.
Suspended from the ceiling is a huge, 2-ton chandelier that is 13 feet in diameter. Boasting 1,240 pieces of leaded glass and more than 200 light bulbs, it is hollow, and Fox's wife, Eve, who was responsible for much of the decor, once posed inside it for the couple's Christmas card.
Siamese goddesses wrapped in more gold leaf flank the stage. Above, a fixture resembling an ornate Oriental incense burner once held sound equipment.
Backstage, there are 21 dressing rooms on eight floors, plus an autograph wall signed by hundreds of performers who have played at the theater since its restoration. The theater's large projection booth also is equipped to show both 35 and 70 mm stereo movies.
On that opening night in 1928, the Fox showed the silent film "Street Angel," starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. A 60-piece orchestra also played, and an eight-episode pageant depicted "the evolution of transportation" as part of "a fitting tribute to the progressive enterprise" of the Motor City. English author George Bernard Shaw also appeared, sauntering down his garden path, thanks to a newsreel.
After it opened, patrons who paid 20 cents could spend hours in cool comfort listening to a live theater organ concert, watching the "Movietone News" and one of those new "talkie" pictures.
During the Depression, the Fox gave audiences a Hollywood escape from hard times - for 35 cents, the cost of a lunch. Later in the 1930s and during World War II, big bands headed by Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Benny Goodman showcased such singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The war also prompted Fox managers to add 2 a.m. movies to their bill for night shift workers at busy war plants.
Even with the advent of TV, crowds still came downtown on dates to see the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and a few years later, that young rock 'n' roller Elvis Presley - for $1.50 a ticket.
The 1960s brought the legendary Motown revues each December so that hometown hit makers Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations and others could be with their families at Christmas.
But soon, with Detroit's decline and the growth of the suburbs and new theaters outside the city, the Fox was forced to eke out an existence showing horror and kung fu movies and scheduling the occasional rap concert.
In 1979, Robert Werbe bought the Fox for $250,000 in back taxes. He began some repairs and also began showing better movies. In 1984, Chuck Forbes acquired the Fox as part of the "Detroit theater district" he steadily promoted at a time when people thought he was daft.
Three years later in a complicated deal involving the city, Mike and Marian Ilitch bought the theater. With profits from their Little Caesar's pizza chain, they moved their headquarters from Farmington Hills down into the Fox and began a year-long project to restore the theater to its former splendor.
Mike Ilitch said the theater's 75th anniversary and the 15th anniversary of its restoration are "a proud moment for us."
"It is wonderful that so many people have found something special to enjoy in this historic theater," he said.
His wife, Marian Ilitch, agreed, estimating that throughout the years, millions of metro Detroiters had come to the Fox for concerts, movies and events.
"And we look forward to creating more great memories for years to come," she said.
On its second opening night, in 1988, the Fox offered a star-laden bill - Smokey Robinson, Hall & Oates, Billy Eckstine, the Count Basie Orchestra, magician Harry Blackstone Jr. and comedian Dave Coulier.
Since then, it has hosted movie premieres (among them "Gettysburg," "Days of Thunder" and two of the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies), made the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show with the Rockettes a local holiday tradition and become the No. 1 theater in ticket sales in North America.
Not a bad run for an ornate old movie palace celebrating its diamond anniversary.
©The Oakland Press 2003
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10196174&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=467992&rfi=6
By ROBERT MUSIAL , Of the Daily Oakland Press 09/20/2003
September 20, 2003
DETROIT - They called it a "movie palace" - and they weren't kidding.
When Detroit's Fox Theatre opened Sept. 21, 1928, it had cost nearly $8 million to build, an amount that would equal more than $79 million today. The cost was palatial (more than $8 million was also spent to restore it in 1988), and the place resembled a Hollywood fever dream of a palace.
Architect C. Howard Crane, who designed it and an identical one in St. Louis as part of a chain for movie mogul William Fox, did several theaters in Detroit and 52 altogether.
But the 5,000-seat theater on Woodward Avenue - which is 75 years old Sunday - was considered the most beautiful and dramatic of them all, attracting passers-by from blocks away with its ornate 10-story marquee.
Its interior is described as "Siamese-Byzantine," a pastiche of styles borrowing from Oriental, Egyptian, Babylonian and Indian architecture.
Its interior is awash in gold leaf, with hand-stenciled designs on the walls and leather-lined elevators. Thousands of colored glass "jewels" sparkle from decorative figures and the lobby is ringed by 16 massive, red-veined columns that look like marble and stretch upward to the six-story ceiling.
In the back of the lobby, a grand staircase of pink carrara stone guarded by lions with red-jeweled eyes leads up to 17 private suites, carved out as part of the 1988 restoration.
Through walnut-paneled doors trimmed in brass and leaded glass, patrons enter a soaring auditorium to find more visual delights.
Red carpeting emblazoned with gold-tusked elephants sets a pachyderm pattern repeated in the ornate plaster decorations, the wrought iron railings and the crowned-and-jeweled elephant head above the stage.
The cavernous auditorium is engineered to match the decor with an 1,800-seat free-spanning balcony unsupported by columns. It offers an unobstructed view of the stage, which is only 165 feet away at its farthest point.
More than 100 feet above the main floor, the ornate ceiling resembles an Arabian tent with a giant sunburst and decorative panels speckled with more glass jewels and sculptured tassels.
Suspended from the ceiling is a huge, 2-ton chandelier that is 13 feet in diameter. Boasting 1,240 pieces of leaded glass and more than 200 light bulbs, it is hollow, and Fox's wife, Eve, who was responsible for much of the decor, once posed inside it for the couple's Christmas card.
Siamese goddesses wrapped in more gold leaf flank the stage. Above, a fixture resembling an ornate Oriental incense burner once held sound equipment.
Backstage, there are 21 dressing rooms on eight floors, plus an autograph wall signed by hundreds of performers who have played at the theater since its restoration. The theater's large projection booth also is equipped to show both 35 and 70 mm stereo movies.
On that opening night in 1928, the Fox showed the silent film "Street Angel," starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. A 60-piece orchestra also played, and an eight-episode pageant depicted "the evolution of transportation" as part of "a fitting tribute to the progressive enterprise" of the Motor City. English author George Bernard Shaw also appeared, sauntering down his garden path, thanks to a newsreel.
After it opened, patrons who paid 20 cents could spend hours in cool comfort listening to a live theater organ concert, watching the "Movietone News" and one of those new "talkie" pictures.
During the Depression, the Fox gave audiences a Hollywood escape from hard times - for 35 cents, the cost of a lunch. Later in the 1930s and during World War II, big bands headed by Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Benny Goodman showcased such singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The war also prompted Fox managers to add 2 a.m. movies to their bill for night shift workers at busy war plants.
Even with the advent of TV, crowds still came downtown on dates to see the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and a few years later, that young rock 'n' roller Elvis Presley - for $1.50 a ticket.
The 1960s brought the legendary Motown revues each December so that hometown hit makers Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations and others could be with their families at Christmas.
But soon, with Detroit's decline and the growth of the suburbs and new theaters outside the city, the Fox was forced to eke out an existence showing horror and kung fu movies and scheduling the occasional rap concert.
In 1979, Robert Werbe bought the Fox for $250,000 in back taxes. He began some repairs and also began showing better movies. In 1984, Chuck Forbes acquired the Fox as part of the "Detroit theater district" he steadily promoted at a time when people thought he was daft.
Three years later in a complicated deal involving the city, Mike and Marian Ilitch bought the theater. With profits from their Little Caesar's pizza chain, they moved their headquarters from Farmington Hills down into the Fox and began a year-long project to restore the theater to its former splendor.
Mike Ilitch said the theater's 75th anniversary and the 15th anniversary of its restoration are "a proud moment for us."
"It is wonderful that so many people have found something special to enjoy in this historic theater," he said.
His wife, Marian Ilitch, agreed, estimating that throughout the years, millions of metro Detroiters had come to the Fox for concerts, movies and events.
"And we look forward to creating more great memories for years to come," she said.
On its second opening night, in 1988, the Fox offered a star-laden bill - Smokey Robinson, Hall & Oates, Billy Eckstine, the Count Basie Orchestra, magician Harry Blackstone Jr. and comedian Dave Coulier.
Since then, it has hosted movie premieres (among them "Gettysburg," "Days of Thunder" and two of the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies), made the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show with the Rockettes a local holiday tradition and become the No. 1 theater in ticket sales in North America.
Not a bad run for an ornate old movie palace celebrating its diamond anniversary.
©The Oakland Press 2003
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10196174&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=467992&rfi=6
