Fox Theater (Spokane, Washington)

The Fox Theater opened with seating for 2,350 patrons (1,450 on the ground floor and 900 in the balcony)[4] on 3 September 1931. The cost of construction was publicized as US$1,000,000 (equivalent to $16,800,000 in 2019), and the Fox opened with a live production of Fanchon and Marco's About Town,[5] followed by the film Merely Mary Ann one week later.[6] Anita Page, Mitzi Green, George O'Brien, Victor McLaglen and El Brendel attended the opening performance gala.[7] Interior decorations and appointments, designed by Anthony Heinsbergen,[8] were singled out for praise in contemporary newspaper accounts.[9]

In May 1961, The Fox Theater sold its organ to a Los Angeles-area collector, who disassembled it and had it shipped to California. The process of dismantling the organ took approximately one week.[10] The Fox Theater subdivided its main screen and opened as a three-screen complex (with one main screen downstairs and two balcony screens upstairs) on 14 November 1975.[11] In 1989, the theater began showing second-run movies[12] at US$1 (equivalent to $2 in 2019) per ticket.[13] When Regal Cinemas built the new 12-screen megaplex at NorthTown Mall, it sold half of its eight Spokane theaters,[14] including the Fox. The final movie, a screening of Gladiator, was shown on 21 September 2000, and a small ceremony marked the sale of the theater to the Spokane Symphony.[12]

The Art Deco interior in 2007

The adjacent Spokane Club sought to purchase and demolish the building to build a parking garage.[15] Although the club had entered into negotiations with the then-owners, Regal Cinemas, the Club dropped its plans to purchase the theater when they learned the Spokane Symphony was interested in the site.[16] The theater was saved when the Spokane Symphony purchased it[17] for US$1.1 million in June 2000.[18] Once the Symphony determined whether the renovations were feasible and the funds could be raised,[19] it began an extensive fund raising campaign to raise the budget needed for restoration.[20] Part of the funds were raised from state sources.[21] Prominent architectural features were renamed in honor of significant donors.[22]

The restoration designer was NAC Architecture of Spokane. Restorers cleaned and painted, recreated lost architectural details and lighting fixtures.[23][24][25] They also removed partitions installed in 1975 which converted the theatre into a multiplex. They reduced the original 2,300 seats to 1,700.[2] The Wurlitzer 3-manual, 13-rank theatre organ installed when the building was constructed in 1931 was removed in 1961.[15]

The total cost of the renovations was $31 million and it was completed in November 2007.[26] The theatre was renamed the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox in honor of the father of a donor who contributed $3 million towards the renovations.[27] It re-opened as the home of the Spokane Symphony on November 17, 2007,[26] presided over by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire.[28] The re-opening included a special celebration featuring a performance by Tony Bennett on November 19, 2007.[29][30]