If the theatre was well preserved as well as this one there no structural problems and they had a difficult time tearing it down. THere was a lot of politics here and there was no money in it for the corrupt mayor and his lackeys so it got torn down. What is strange is that the theatre was busy with conventions, etc and would have been good venue . The convention center built a few blocks away cost 35 times the cost for buying the Fox intact.
@GooglFascists There are many preserved old theaters with ornate plaster around the world. There is no need to condemn because they are old, but unfortunately some owners of these old theares don't spend th money they need to on maintenance and upkeep to keep them safe and useable.
Can someone direct me to where this entire film can be seen. If someone has it can you post it in it's entirety. I think it should be shown for everyone to see so that it never happens again. Another tragedy is the people who are buying the classic Wurlitzer and Hammond organs and destroying them for their tube amps inside need to wake up! First of all, there are so many more tube amps that sound better for the range of HIFI and guitar than the these organ amps. SAVE ALL WURLITZER 1940'-1961'!!!
Congratulations San Francisco, perhaps one of the biggest blunders you've ever pulled, you should be proud of your accomplishment, even Oakland, Sacramento and Fresno to name a few, were able to keep and restore theirs. But you so proudly made room for a parking lot, congratulations. Now what have you got in store for the Golden Gate?
@Mrphatbastard1 Well, as the song goes..."Don't it always seems to go, that you don't know what you had until it's gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot". Please note that I capitalized "Paradise". That of course is a nod to the destruction of the Chicago Paradise Theatre, along with the equally beautiful Granada & Marbro Theatres in that same city. Fortunately the grand Uptown Theatre still stands, but still needs to be restored.
We need more press to expose this horrible act of inexcusable destruction. The act was committed by greedy people in the name of greed. Those guilty should be exposed for the record, and their memories should be tainted by shameful acts.
Only a country deserving of the name "great satan" would destroy such a place. America has lost more to its own domestic terrorists than to anyone else. No further evidence is needed. This video says it all.
Honestly, I can say that this is a horrible thing that people have done. I am only 17 years old, and I still teared up when I saw this beautiful piece of history torn down for something so trivial as a skyscraper. I would loved to have seen such a magnificent place in person and imagined what it was like to be there in the heyday. It's heartbreaking that the Fox Theater met the expansionist America before historical preservation and restoration could have saved it from this horrible fate.
On a brighter note, KUDOS to Oakland. And, from what I understand, same to former Mayor Brown for saving the FOX Oakland. It is a wonderful theatre, and a major contributor to the new revitalized downtown. Too bad for SF! Due to "bad decisions", many large SF movie palaces (Fox, Paramount, State) are gone. No real hope to revitalize Market Street, unless SF's idea to do so involves IKEA - YUCK!!
Did Mayor Christopher and/or his friends either directly and/or indirectly receive benefits from interested parties? What kind of ties did Christopher have to Ben Swig and real estate developers? I think most sane people would agree that it was a crime to have pushed this magnificent theatre into the ground and permit construction of the most hideous building in San Francisco. Shouldn't any guilty parties be held accountable after the fact? I'm curious to hear people's thoughts . . .
I was on Mayor Art, a kid's TV show, in July of 1963. I'll never forget passing by the Fox on our way back home to Sunnyvale (South Bay). The lobby was gone and you could look inside, as shown in the video. Even as a kid, it was hard to look at. What a loss to San Francisco!
Mayor Christopher hired Justin Herman to head the Redevelopment Agency. Herman began a campaign to tear down "so-called blighted areas of the city" that were really working class neighborhoods. Enacting eminent domain, he favored modern construction. It has been suggested that Christopher turned public opinion against the Fox through Herb Caan, which may be why Proposition I was defeated. City departments are located in the first 12 floors of Fox Plaza. This deal really smells!!
I cannot bear to watch this. How completely stupid people were back then. They treated the destruction of these irreplaceable works of art as some kind of gala event to be celebrated. Their legacy is one of concrete and steel eyesores which need to be demolished themselves.
and for what ? Redevelopment I guess to build some monstrosity in it's place? How very sad and another wonderful musical instrument lost her home . Very sad thank goodness societies like ATOS exist to preserve these wonderful instruments for generations to come !
It is getting to the point where everything about San Francisco is becoming increasingly ugly - from the architecture and the filth ridden streets to the subhuman scum that inhabit them. I lived there a long time ago but now the city falls into the category of "to vile to visit".
Thanks for posting this...I used to own this video, but it deteriorated from age and use, and is no longer watchable. I actually found the original video on VHS in a railroad museum, of all places...I often wonder why train fanatics are often theatre organ fans.
@deancook652 Yes, that's the last place I checked. They had a few VHS copies years ago, but they didn't own the rights to reproduce it and couldn't point me in the right direction. It might qualify under the new abandoned copyright provision.
...if it had to go, the least they might have done was build the new structure around the beautiful facade of the old theatre.....since it was still standing 'till the end.....sad,but having seen the beautiful old hotels in Atlantic City demolished (especially the Marlborough-Blenheim/to make way for the UGLIEST black glass box on the boardwalk/Bally's) just to save a buck.
yes I have seen Fox Plaza. I watched it rise out of the rubble that was Fox Theater, and passed by it for 22 years. I have never entered the property, just passed by the building on my way home.
I was 9 when this happened and it infuriated me even then. I pestered my mom into taking me to see a movie there, while there was still time. It happened to be Roger Cormans' 'The Raven'. This was all too common at the time. 2 years later, we lost the Hayward high school, once voted the most beautiful in THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, then the Alhambra, in Sacramento and, in the 70s, the original Brown Derby resataurant.
@talochIV I remember the news about Hayward because I am an architecture buff. Charlotte has always tried to copy Atlanta. So, we tore down nearly everything historic in our downtown area. The Carolina Theatre remains as a burned out hulk awaiting somebody with money to restore it. There have been lots of ideas, all of them bad, and thankfully all of them have failed. We await. BTW, we still have our old Central High School building because it was reused by Central Piedmont Community College.
@talochIV Watching this video made me cry! How could this wonder palace have been treated so badly by San Francisco? Shame on everyone for letting this happen!
@talochIV And not to mention, the building that replaced the wonderous FOX (it is called Fox Plaza) should be voted the most ugly concrete box in San Francisco. If you want to demolish something, you can start with that POS.
I remember the last days of the Fox Theater (although I was rather young at the time). I never saw a picture there but passed it every week and saw it go dark, then see it demolished bit by bit until it was an empty pit. This was the early days of historic preservation and few knew what was being lost. All they saw was an old theater being demolished for a brand new skyscraper. This was long before other lesser theaters were preserved for other uses.
@dannyzad17 Read the first paragraph of the description to see what I know. I have tried for years to contact the rights holders. Jim Crank speaks and he's still around but he doesn't own the rights. I would *love* to restore the entire video (which was originally 16 mm film) but I have to get permission or risk a law suit. :(
people are so close minded they could not think that they would have made thousand or millions of dollars out of this today because of its history. stupid bastards!!
Around 1972-73, the same fate awaited the Fox theater in Atlanta, Ga. We lived just outside Atlanta at the time and the Bell Telephone company either bought or was about ready to buy the theater to tear it down and put up a parking lot. There was a great protest by the citizens of Atlanta, and the people raised enough money to purchase the building and stop the planned demolition. The Fox in Atlanta is still operating there today!
@Eurt76 Yes, its in the El Capitan cinema now I think. Good that the organ was saved, but, its a shame the theatre doesnt, thats where it was designed for!
The people responsible for the demolition of the Fabulous Fox in San Francisco, CA are dead, but you would think that they would have had enough foresight to preserve a beautiful movie palace of this quality for future generations to appreciate such intricate architecture. One good thing came of the pipe organ though, the Walt Disney Company purchased it & the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles & restored both building & organ to their former glory! THE LOS ANGELES THEATER COULD USE SOME TLC!
Sad. I'll bet someone paid $5 for that pipe organ masterpiece.
I have a slightly sympathetic understanding on why these were going away in the '60's. We hadn't hit the preservation movement yet, and these old buildings required constant upkeep, which is what scared developers away. The brand-new "cookie cutter" buildings of urban renewal were too tempting against an old building requiring a mountain of updates, Their elaborate and ornate qualities worked against them in this way. Very sad.
Our Ohio Theater was spared in just a few hours before the wrecking ball was to make it's descent. There was plans for a parking lot, but fortunately a few brave souls went to the mayors home and woke him up and pleaded to save it. It had sat unoccupied for years and few had memories of what it looked like inside. When they finally turned on the lights they were amazed to see it was going to become a worthless pile of rubble. Anyone know if the Robert Morton theater organ was original?
Your lucky my local Fox was closed and abandoned and when it was purchased it was discovered the interiors were in ruins.
The current owners spent millions just closing it up to the elements but the interiors are gone but they did follow the blue prints restoring the common areas to a similar appearance. All I know is it is safe from the wrecking ball and being used as a event center but the flashing neon marquee is gone along with so much of it's original beauty.
Thank god the citizens refused to let the same fate fall on the Fabulous Fox in Atlanta, it was only hours away. Now it is like new and one of the most beautiful theaters in the world.
One of the world's most beautiful movie palaces, & torn down for the sake of so called progress, look at what's there now; a shoddy looking dated hi-rise & run-down porno theaters. SF lost out when they allowed an ignorant mayor & greedy developer to oversee the decision making on the fate of this glorious gem. Had this building survived the 60's, it would have been restored by now & utilized as a multi-purpose complex, such as live concerts, theater plays, conference meetings & movies, etc.
Yeah boo hoo hoo, this video is ridiculous propaganda... it's just one persons opinion that an old building should be saved... times change people should move on.
Fortunately for posterity, George Wright recoded a few albums for HIFIRecords on the Fox Wurlie, and the masters have been digitized. The organ suvives, as well, in the "new" El Capitan in Hollywood. It doesn't sound nearly as impressive as it did in the Fox, though, but if you have a good ear, you can definitely tell it's the same organ. The Fox fell because of real estate greed and political payoffs, and for the fact that there was no preservation movement back in the '60s.
it was a decent little Fox there in SF but the best one, hands down, is that huge Fox in Detroit... god that place is amazing. I've been to all of the existing Fox's in the USA, they are all very cool.
@CrazyChitTV Yeah, but look where it's at...the jungle. So much of Detroit has already been destroyed by neglect and vandalism, it's like being in Mogadishu. It's the US' largest ghetto, and it's getting worse every year. No doubt about the Detroit Fox, though....it's quite a place. So's the Fisher.
@GypsyFairy85 Sometime in the late 50's if I recall. I graduated from Berkeley in 1962 and then I went to Univ of Mich for my MBA and I had a chance to see the larger grander Fox theaters in Detroit and NYC. Sad to see that SF was too small of a town to save it's own little Fox, oh well, doesn't matter since SF is all going to be Chinese or Mexican someday lol.
its no wonder the america has to buy up all the old bit and pecies from around the world and complane that you have no history to show.WE in the uk sold you the old london bridge so you could make a man made lake with some history you buy our antiques like ther going out of fasion but when it comes to a masterpecie of a building you go and wreck it . We get historic building listed to protect them from cowboys who want to spoil the best we have and save them for our nation the UK. R.I.P FOX
The old movie houses and theatres were true works of art and testaments to the brilliance of the workmanship that went into each one. It was painful to watch this, and all I could think of was what a sacrilege and truly shameful.
I will never forgive George Christopher (the Milk Man) and the Board of Supes for what they didn't do. That theatre was a work of art through and through. I remember going to it many times and hearing that organ as a young kid in the late 40's. It really was special place. I once saw Martin and Lewis perform there, too.
Going to the Fox was like stepping into another world.
In the final minute and a half or so where the console is lowering, is it a video of Everett Norse playing something else, with the recording of "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gate" from the "Farewell to the Fox" radio programme dubbed over it? Because his motions don't seem to match up with the sound, and the sound is almost the exact as that from the radio show. Thanks!
@tregnier279 Original was 16mm film, so the sync was not perfect, but it doesn't sound like an LP. I'll have to dig it out and listen. My impression was that the sound recording for the film camera was a separate unit from the reel-to-reel that recorded for the record.
@michaelsmusicservice If the recording isn't the same as the one from the LP, would it be possible for you to post the LP version? I've been completely unable to find the LP anywhere (not even the CD re-release) and the tracks are some I'd really like to have.
@tregnier279 Be sure to make this tiny distinction: Same performance, different recording equipment. There's no market for this stuff anymore, sadly. The CD set of the first two volumes is gone and there wasn't enough interest to do the other two.
It was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a hideous apartment building. It was not only beautiful, it had splendid acoustics. There were proposals to convert the theater into a symphony hall for about $9 million. It was rejected as too expensive. Instead they built a new symphony for about $50 million which is ugly as sin and is acoustically dead. "City that knows how," indeed.
One of the most beautiful theaters I have ever seen, and one of the saddest finales. Kudos to Disney for buying the Wurlitzer so it can be heard and appreciated at the El Capitan theater on Hollywood Blvd.
At least San Francisco's complete stupidity in tearing this down gave Los Angeles a really fantastic Wurlitzer organ to put in the Hollywood El Capitan Theatre, where it still sounds great and performs before each show. So at least that much was saved and is still cherished, even if its home city couldn't wait to get rid of it.
The Fox was the most beautiful theater in San Fransisco. The interiors were inspired by the palace at Versailles. It made the Golden State and the Orpheum look shabby by comparison. Well at least we still have them (Broadway shows play in them now.) and the great Castro Theater still stands and they play the old organ every night. But it is a shame we were so short sighted about this once great theater. Thanks for sharing this video.
why did you have to wreck it? that is a really cool theater and you just destroyed it for no reason. what is the world coming too. That was a beautiful old theater and now it's gone, just so you could make a video on youtube.
Detroit's famous Fox Theatre almost shared in the same fate as San Francisco's. Detroit developer and pizza baron, Mike Illich bought it just before the city could condemn it for demolition. He has since refurbished and reopened the building, and it's now a prime entertainment destination in Detroit. At least they saved the organ! It would have been a shame for a magnificent instrument to go with the building!
I was not yet seven and still felt this a great loss to SF. The Coronet, gone. Alhambra, gone. Coliseum, gone. The Alexandria sits rotting away. Now the lovely, if not as ornate, repossessed Redwood City Fox faces an uncertain future. Thank goodness there are a few movie palaces saved, like the Castro and Oakland's Fox and Paramount. (and tomorrow night I'll be at the Balboa watching a documentary about another lost SF treasure, Playland!)
kinda makes me wanna tear up. before I was born. this opulant- grand structure gone forever. I love these old buildings.not paper thin, disposable crap like most buildings today. A real loss of art. like a death in the family.
Another good example of previous generations screwing over younger generations. At the very least somebody took video and pictures so we younger people could get to see what we have missed out on. I hear so very often from my elders that we don't have any respect for our history. I find it rather odd that in the 60s and 70s these same people are the ones that rallied for the destruction of and redevelopment of historic downtown buildings all in the name of progress.
It reminds me of the fight to save Penn Station in New York. Itwould up as landfill in the Jersey meadows. At last Grand Central Station was saved due to a tremendous effort by leaders in New York. Jackie Kennedy was one of the leaders.
I guess there was no one to stand up for the Fox theater.
It goes to show how stupid politics can get. San Francisco is supposed to be a city with historic preservation. Not a city for nothing but corporate greed! Today's politics have an attitude towards historic buildings that smell! The way the see a historic theatre is let it sit and rot so they can scrap it! The elevators at the St. Louis Fox has already been ruined! Now they have ELECTRONIC BUTTONS ON THE INSIDE!!! It is TIME for politics to SHUT UP AND LEAVE THE HISTORIC THEATRES ALONE!
How Sad. San Francisco really loss a grand palace. Shame on the mayor at that time. It would be a much beloved place to go to now. What were they thinking!! I guess they weren't.
This may have been the grandest of our theaters, but it certainly wasn't the last to fall. San Francisco has demolished more movie theaters than any other US city and the count grows. Of the few movie palaces still standing on Market street, only two are in use as performance spaces. Another is a porn theater and the rest are closed for eminent demolition. Other palaces in the neighborhoods have been gutted--and recently, too.
I understand that San Francisco has no Iaws protecting historic interiors, only some exteriors. Many of SF's grand mansions have been gutted and restyled inside into modern loft-style spaces by wealthy people who want to appear hip.
You're right: "historic preservation" in San Francisco is an oxymoron. We do have a recent law, but that's it, and it almost never holds. You're right, a walk through any wealthy neighborhood will find construction crews carrying out debris from grand old houses getting the Airport Hyatt touch. Seismic laws have also been used to gut virtually every old structure of its grand public spaces--to the extent that some are simply shells and no more--a new structure stands within.
I like your term "the Airport Hyatt touch." That is what it feels like to me. It is sterile, clinical, boxy and cold. I work in a hospital. I don't want to live in one. I feel lucky every day to live in a 1929 Spanish Revival that mostly survived modernism except for an occupant in the 1980s who put a thick layer of industrial white paint on the baseboards, the California vintage tile countertops, the wrought iron fixtures, the mantle, and all built-in dark wood cabinetry and window frames.
The San Francisco Fox theater was the most beautiful theater I have ever seen. It is such a loss for our children to never have the opportunity to see it up close. The inside of the theater was absolutely beautiful. So sad!!
American Idiots - I hope Mayor George Christopher and whomever else allowed this travesty to occur all spent their senior years sitting alone in some nursing home, neglected, and forgotten.
I feel robbed to have never seen this theater. It was not even 40 years old when they tore it down. We have gone through an era in the US that I call the architectural dark ages 1950-90s when people were not even able to appreciate previous eras let alone build anything of lasting value. Hopefully we can begin to preserve older buildings and start building something better than the garbage of 2nd half of the 20th century. I have seen a glimmer of hope in the past 10 years.
No. I can't think of anything post WWII that would be a great loss except maybe some rock and roll neon diners but that stuff seems to be more valuable to most people's sense of nostalgia than the better architecture that preceded. We are very lucky in Oakland California that an extended economic downturn made it too expensive to destroy the Fox and Paramount, now two of the jewels of the city, fully restored.
That particular Wurlitzer is now beautifully installed at the Hollywood El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Thank goodness the Mighty Wurlitzer from this Theater was saved. The Los Angeles Theater on Broadway (still standing) is very similar to this Theater, and hopes are to get it restored and it will be very similar in size and design to this Theater. Let's just hope the Los Angeles Theater can be saved.
@PerrrfictKats I like that suggestion. Sadly this scene was repeated over and over in most large American cities. Toledo, Ohio lost a beautiful theater in 1965 and it became a parking lot.
Now, I'm too farklemt to talk! Good thing I'm typing, instead. Playing San Francisco with the organ descending for the last time is more than I can handle. I'm crying like a baby. So much of America's hope, idealism, and optimism descending into that pit with the organ.
"A few years later, to "beautify" Market Street, San Francisco made all the theatres tear off their Marquees and Signs." WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING?????!!!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness that the Midland Theater in Kansas City (a smaller version of the SF Fox (just as grand) is still in operation - just wish they could get their Organ back.
I feel like I could vomit. I actually had my hand over my mouth as I painfully watched this grand old lady fall to the ground. I don't even want to know what tawdry junk now stands on this site!
It was replaced with a high rise skyscraper and it was named you guessed it The Fox Plaza.
I have been to the site of the former Fox and it is very clean and modern and when you think of what was lost it really makes you value the old beauty versus the new replacement.
So much for urban renewal and ripping down the old and replacing it with the new.
Knowing that this video could be watched over and over does not diminish the sadness of listening to Everett Nourse play "San Francisco" while it descends for the last time into the pit. It is nice to know that the organ continues to play and is under the care of an organization that cares about its' historical significance. The acoustics in a building that large must have been quite something!
STUPID POLITICS!!! That makes me so mad that some people stand for corporate greed rather than a beautiful old theatre. The people the residents hire to lead the city needs to shut up and listen to what the public has to say. I would love to take a stick of dynamite and blow up the office building and rebuild the old Fox Theatre with the exact same specs it had.
I nearly had to cry, when I saw this! It's a shame to destroy such a beautiful building! Thank you for uploading, so that we're able to keep the last sounds-and pictures-of the theatre in mind! R.I.P.
It's such a shame that such beautiful buildings & architecture of these theaters & public places were not appreciated for the works of arts they truly were. To see that most theaters had been replaced with buildings tha have a complete loss of artistic asthetics & a somewhat sterile atmosphere is a testament to our so called "progress." What's more amazing to me is that this destruction took place almost a decade before I was born. What a sorry world we live in...
It's sad to watch such a grand old movie palace meet it's fate with the wrecking ball. We should definitely save our historical treasures. I'm thankful the Orpheum theater in Los angeles was saved, It's now a successful concert venue.
Now just a minute!!! Maybe the demolition crew ought to demolish your fantasy land. That theater was a piece of California history. Not too many cities are lucky to even have such a beautiful theater along with the organ that comes with it.
For awhile in the 1980s, the city of Glendale, CA, owned the Fox's organ. They bought it to install it in the old Alex Theatre, to replace the Wurlitzer that was removed decades ago, but it turned out to be too big to fit. The El Capitan in Hollywood was built in the 1920s with space to install a huge Wurlitzer, but they never actually installed one until they bought this one from Glendale. They play it before most shows, or else they'll play a recording of it, which Disney sells on CD.
What a sad but inspiring video! Many thanks to Michael's! Does anybody know the artist and title of the song played during Jim Crank's description of the chambers? Many thanx again from Mike. Hope we can save the CAROLINA in Spartanburg, SC.
If the theatre was well preserved as well as this one there no structural problems and they had a difficult time tearing it down. THere was a lot of politics here and there was no money in it for the corrupt mayor and his lackeys so it got torn down. What is strange is that the theatre was busy with conventions, etc and would have been good venue . The convention center built a few blocks away cost 35 times the cost for buying the Fox intact.
hsmoller 4 days ago
Of course this landmark should have been preserved but some
of those old fancy theaters the gold bric-a-brac was made of
painted over plaster. After time the plaster would crack up and
chunks of it would fall on people in the seats. We had a pretty
old theater in my home town that finally had to be condemned
because of that. When they started to demolish it the backside,
away from the wrecking ball, just collapsed onto the street,
crushing several cars. Everything ends its useful life.
GooglFascists 1 month ago
@GooglFascists There are many preserved old theaters with ornate plaster around the world. There is no need to condemn because they are old, but unfortunately some owners of these old theares don't spend th money they need to on maintenance and upkeep to keep them safe and useable.
leaderofearth 3 weeks ago
Can someone direct me to where this entire film can be seen. If someone has it can you post it in it's entirety. I think it should be shown for everyone to see so that it never happens again. Another tragedy is the people who are buying the classic Wurlitzer and Hammond organs and destroying them for their tube amps inside need to wake up! First of all, there are so many more tube amps that sound better for the range of HIFI and guitar than the these organ amps. SAVE ALL WURLITZER 1940'-1961'!!!
paulj0557 2 months ago
This makes me sick
Brian319 2 months ago
Congratulations San Francisco, perhaps one of the biggest blunders you've ever pulled, you should be proud of your accomplishment, even Oakland, Sacramento and Fresno to name a few, were able to keep and restore theirs. But you so proudly made room for a parking lot, congratulations. Now what have you got in store for the Golden Gate?
Mrphatbastard1 2 months ago
@Mrphatbastard1 Well, as the song goes..."Don't it always seems to go, that you don't know what you had until it's gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot". Please note that I capitalized "Paradise". That of course is a nod to the destruction of the Chicago Paradise Theatre, along with the equally beautiful Granada & Marbro Theatres in that same city. Fortunately the grand Uptown Theatre still stands, but still needs to be restored.
jukingeo 2 months ago
We need more press to expose this horrible act of inexcusable destruction. The act was committed by greedy people in the name of greed. Those guilty should be exposed for the record, and their memories should be tainted by shameful acts.
MoviePalacesf 2 months ago
Only a country deserving of the name "great satan" would destroy such a place. America has lost more to its own domestic terrorists than to anyone else. No further evidence is needed. This video says it all.
MooPotPie 2 months ago
Honestly, I can say that this is a horrible thing that people have done. I am only 17 years old, and I still teared up when I saw this beautiful piece of history torn down for something so trivial as a skyscraper. I would loved to have seen such a magnificent place in person and imagined what it was like to be there in the heyday. It's heartbreaking that the Fox Theater met the expansionist America before historical preservation and restoration could have saved it from this horrible fate.
TheShadowsoftheDead 2 months ago
On a brighter note, KUDOS to Oakland. And, from what I understand, same to former Mayor Brown for saving the FOX Oakland. It is a wonderful theatre, and a major contributor to the new revitalized downtown. Too bad for SF! Due to "bad decisions", many large SF movie palaces (Fox, Paramount, State) are gone. No real hope to revitalize Market Street, unless SF's idea to do so involves IKEA - YUCK!!
MoviePalacesf 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Did Mayor Christopher and/or his friends either directly and/or indirectly receive benefits from interested parties? What kind of ties did Christopher have to Ben Swig and real estate developers? I think most sane people would agree that it was a crime to have pushed this magnificent theatre into the ground and permit construction of the most hideous building in San Francisco. Shouldn't any guilty parties be held accountable after the fact? I'm curious to hear people's thoughts . . .
MoviePalacesf 3 months ago
I was on Mayor Art, a kid's TV show, in July of 1963. I'll never forget passing by the Fox on our way back home to Sunnyvale (South Bay). The lobby was gone and you could look inside, as shown in the video. Even as a kid, it was hard to look at. What a loss to San Francisco!
Cestcop 3 months ago
Mayor Christopher hired Justin Herman to head the Redevelopment Agency. Herman began a campaign to tear down "so-called blighted areas of the city" that were really working class neighborhoods. Enacting eminent domain, he favored modern construction. It has been suggested that Christopher turned public opinion against the Fox through Herb Caan, which may be why Proposition I was defeated. City departments are located in the first 12 floors of Fox Plaza. This deal really smells!!
MoviePalacesf 3 months ago
Comment removed
MoviePalacesf 3 months ago
sad that all the great movie houses are gone
pretty much why i dont go to the movies anymore...the experience sux
brabon1 3 months ago
Makes me feel sad..
Hauptwerkgek 3 months ago
I cannot bear to watch this. How completely stupid people were back then. They treated the destruction of these irreplaceable works of art as some kind of gala event to be celebrated. Their legacy is one of concrete and steel eyesores which need to be demolished themselves.
MeinnameistDreck 3 months ago 6
@MeinnameistDreck You would have a sick stomach if you watched the whole program. I don't ever see the whole thing anymore, only parts.
michaelsmusicservice 3 months ago
Such a waste of such a beautiful building.
and for what ? Redevelopment I guess to build some monstrosity in it's place? How very sad and another wonderful musical instrument lost her home . Very sad thank goodness societies like ATOS exist to preserve these wonderful instruments for generations to come !
gillyyorkie1965 3 months ago
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till its gone. Tear down paradise and put up a parking lot.
JohnMGilbert 4 months ago
Detroit has lost dozens of buildings such as this..
ELECTRICCLOCK 4 months ago
Makes me fucking sick. We have no respect for our beautiful old buildings these days!
SnappyPenguins 4 months ago
It is getting to the point where everything about San Francisco is becoming increasingly ugly - from the architecture and the filth ridden streets to the subhuman scum that inhabit them. I lived there a long time ago but now the city falls into the category of "to vile to visit".
tucsonorganist 4 months ago
Thanks for posting this...I used to own this video, but it deteriorated from age and use, and is no longer watchable. I actually found the original video on VHS in a railroad museum, of all places...I often wonder why train fanatics are often theatre organ fans.
deancook652 5 months ago
@deancook652 Yes, that's the last place I checked. They had a few VHS copies years ago, but they didn't own the rights to reproduce it and couldn't point me in the right direction. It might qualify under the new abandoned copyright provision.
michaelsmusicservice 5 months ago
@deancook652 Has the organ been destroyed?
softbear30 4 months ago
What the Hell was wrong with them letting this place be torn down.Sheer vandalism.
simonsteam 5 months ago
...if it had to go, the least they might have done was build the new structure around the beautiful facade of the old theatre.....since it was still standing 'till the end.....sad,but having seen the beautiful old hotels in Atlantic City demolished (especially the Marlborough-Blenheim/to make way for the UGLIEST black glass box on the boardwalk/Bally's) just to save a buck.
dirtyedna 5 months ago
Not all cities are as stupid as San Francisco. Please watch link - a smart city is restoring the Lowes King.
MoviePalacesf 5 months ago
The Fox, just SAYING IT sounds amazing.
scoobydoorocks10 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I sobbed and cried all through this. I'll never watch it again!
TouringSFO.info/SwingCha/Memories.html#Fox
SwingCha 6 months ago
I sobbed and cried all through this. I'll never watch it again!
file:///K:/TouringSFO/SwingCha/Memories.html#Fox
SwingCha 6 months ago
I sobbed and cried all through this. I'll never watch it again!
SwingCha 6 months ago
@michaelsmusicservice,
yes I have seen Fox Plaza. I watched it rise out of the rubble that was Fox Theater, and passed by it for 22 years. I have never entered the property, just passed by the building on my way home.
NobHillBorn 7 months ago
I was 9 when this happened and it infuriated me even then. I pestered my mom into taking me to see a movie there, while there was still time. It happened to be Roger Cormans' 'The Raven'. This was all too common at the time. 2 years later, we lost the Hayward high school, once voted the most beautiful in THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, then the Alhambra, in Sacramento and, in the 70s, the original Brown Derby resataurant.
talochIV 7 months ago
@talochIV I remember the news about Hayward because I am an architecture buff. Charlotte has always tried to copy Atlanta. So, we tore down nearly everything historic in our downtown area. The Carolina Theatre remains as a burned out hulk awaiting somebody with money to restore it. There have been lots of ideas, all of them bad, and thankfully all of them have failed. We await. BTW, we still have our old Central High School building because it was reused by Central Piedmont Community College.
michaelsmusicservice 7 months ago
@talochIV Watching this video made me cry! How could this wonder palace have been treated so badly by San Francisco? Shame on everyone for letting this happen!
MoviePalacesf 5 months ago
@talochIV And not to mention, the building that replaced the wonderous FOX (it is called Fox Plaza) should be voted the most ugly concrete box in San Francisco. If you want to demolish something, you can start with that POS.
MoviePalacesf 5 months ago
I remember the last days of the Fox Theater (although I was rather young at the time). I never saw a picture there but passed it every week and saw it go dark, then see it demolished bit by bit until it was an empty pit. This was the early days of historic preservation and few knew what was being lost. All they saw was an old theater being demolished for a brand new skyscraper. This was long before other lesser theaters were preserved for other uses.
NobHillBorn 7 months ago 3
@NobHillBorn Have you seen the Fox Center that replaced it? If not use Google Street View to check it out ... and weep for the past.
michaelsmusicservice 7 months ago
Who is narratting this vdeo?? does anyone out there have this complete video??
dannyzad17 7 months ago
@dannyzad17 Read the first paragraph of the description to see what I know. I have tried for years to contact the rights holders. Jim Crank speaks and he's still around but he doesn't own the rights. I would *love* to restore the entire video (which was originally 16 mm film) but I have to get permission or risk a law suit. :(
michaelsmusicservice 7 months ago
....stupid bastards. >:(
ARMORSCREWS 7 months ago
I had to stop watching at five minutes....I couldn't stand to witness the stupidity of the demolition.
peacewavenow 7 months ago
people are so close minded they could not think that they would have made thousand or millions of dollars out of this today because of its history. stupid bastards!!
potamiag 9 months ago
Heartbreaking!
jasonws1972 10 months ago
Around 1972-73, the same fate awaited the Fox theater in Atlanta, Ga. We lived just outside Atlanta at the time and the Bell Telephone company either bought or was about ready to buy the theater to tear it down and put up a parking lot. There was a great protest by the citizens of Atlanta, and the people raised enough money to purchase the building and stop the planned demolition. The Fox in Atlanta is still operating there today!
banjo9052 1 year ago
This is SO sad. I want to cry.
skylighter15 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
makes me sick
redifreddy14 1 year ago
I wanted to cry watching that. Bastards!
3dwurli 1 year ago
@3dwurli I did too. My mouth was gaping wide open the whole time I watched the demolition. Hopefully, at least the organ was saved.
Eurt76 1 year ago
@3dwurli oops, didn't watch the whole thing, or read more. The organ was saved.
Eurt76 1 year ago
@Eurt76 Yes, its in the El Capitan cinema now I think. Good that the organ was saved, but, its a shame the theatre doesnt, thats where it was designed for!
3dwurli 1 year ago
Such a beautiful old place. I felt sick watching them destroy it.
Clarrisani 1 year ago
The people responsible for the demolition of the Fabulous Fox in San Francisco, CA are dead, but you would think that they would have had enough foresight to preserve a beautiful movie palace of this quality for future generations to appreciate such intricate architecture. One good thing came of the pipe organ though, the Walt Disney Company purchased it & the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles & restored both building & organ to their former glory! THE LOS ANGELES THEATER COULD USE SOME TLC!
stp88661 1 year ago
The people responsible for that demolition are probably throwing up today.
kasteman1 1 year ago
Sad. I'll bet someone paid $5 for that pipe organ masterpiece.
I have a slightly sympathetic understanding on why these were going away in the '60's. We hadn't hit the preservation movement yet, and these old buildings required constant upkeep, which is what scared developers away. The brand-new "cookie cutter" buildings of urban renewal were too tempting against an old building requiring a mountain of updates, Their elaborate and ornate qualities worked against them in this way. Very sad.
kasteman1 1 year ago
Our Ohio Theater was spared in just a few hours before the wrecking ball was to make it's descent. There was plans for a parking lot, but fortunately a few brave souls went to the mayors home and woke him up and pleaded to save it. It had sat unoccupied for years and few had memories of what it looked like inside. When they finally turned on the lights they were amazed to see it was going to become a worthless pile of rubble. Anyone know if the Robert Morton theater organ was original?
paulj0557 1 year ago
@paulj0557 Yes, indeed, an original installation.
michaelsmusicservice 1 year ago
@paulj0557
Your lucky my local Fox was closed and abandoned and when it was purchased it was discovered the interiors were in ruins.
The current owners spent millions just closing it up to the elements but the interiors are gone but they did follow the blue prints restoring the common areas to a similar appearance. All I know is it is safe from the wrecking ball and being used as a event center but the flashing neon marquee is gone along with so much of it's original beauty.
happymike44 1 year ago
Thank god the citizens refused to let the same fate fall on the Fabulous Fox in Atlanta, it was only hours away. Now it is like new and one of the most beautiful theaters in the world.
pumkinvine 1 year ago
One of the world's most beautiful movie palaces, & torn down for the sake of so called progress, look at what's there now; a shoddy looking dated hi-rise & run-down porno theaters. SF lost out when they allowed an ignorant mayor & greedy developer to oversee the decision making on the fate of this glorious gem. Had this building survived the 60's, it would have been restored by now & utilized as a multi-purpose complex, such as live concerts, theater plays, conference meetings & movies, etc.
stp88661 1 year ago
Yeah boo hoo hoo, this video is ridiculous propaganda... it's just one persons opinion that an old building should be saved... times change people should move on.
ny1news 1 year ago
@ny1news HISTORICALLY IGNORANT...
redifreddy14 1 year ago
Fortunately for posterity, George Wright recoded a few albums for HIFIRecords on the Fox Wurlie, and the masters have been digitized. The organ suvives, as well, in the "new" El Capitan in Hollywood. It doesn't sound nearly as impressive as it did in the Fox, though, but if you have a good ear, you can definitely tell it's the same organ. The Fox fell because of real estate greed and political payoffs, and for the fact that there was no preservation movement back in the '60s.
DeserTBoB93535 1 year ago
Such a sad story, but a great video, thanks for sharing!
MichaThom 1 year ago
Yep, Mayor shold have been shot! That theatre would be just as amazing today!!
mvvish 1 year ago
it was a decent little Fox there in SF but the best one, hands down, is that huge Fox in Detroit... god that place is amazing. I've been to all of the existing Fox's in the USA, they are all very cool.
CrazyChitTV 1 year ago
@CrazyChitTV Yeah, but look where it's at...the jungle. So much of Detroit has already been destroyed by neglect and vandalism, it's like being in Mogadishu. It's the US' largest ghetto, and it's getting worse every year. No doubt about the Detroit Fox, though....it's quite a place. So's the Fisher.
DeserTBoB93535 1 year ago
@CrazyChitTV
The Fox Theatre was hardly just "decent" and certainly not "little"!
Its only rival was The Roxy in NY. Read up,do some research. This was an GRAND palace,
not some little rinky dink neighborhood theatre.
GypsyFairy85 7 months ago
@GypsyFairy85 Sorry buddy, The Detroit and NYC Fox's are far far nicer. My guess is you have never been in either or you would know this.
San Francisco was just too small and basically an unimportant city at the time to spend the big money like Fox did in Detroit and NYC.
CrazyChitTV 6 months ago
@CrazyChitTV
When were you ever at the Fox SF? It has been gone for almost 50 years.
GypsyFairy85 6 months ago
@GypsyFairy85 Sometime in the late 50's if I recall. I graduated from Berkeley in 1962 and then I went to Univ of Mich for my MBA and I had a chance to see the larger grander Fox theaters in Detroit and NYC. Sad to see that SF was too small of a town to save it's own little Fox, oh well, doesn't matter since SF is all going to be Chinese or Mexican someday lol.
CrazyChitTV 6 months ago
@CrazyChitTV
So you are in your 60's, pushing 70? Wow! For all the remarks and the nature of the videos
you have saved I am shocked to say the least.
GypsyFairy85 6 months ago
Comment removed
CrazyChitTV 6 months ago
what a waste the mayor should have been tied to that fucking wrecking ball
Sodiumreactor 1 year ago
its no wonder the america has to buy up all the old bit and pecies from around the world and complane that you have no history to show.WE in the uk sold you the old london bridge so you could make a man made lake with some history you buy our antiques like ther going out of fasion but when it comes to a masterpecie of a building you go and wreck it . We get historic building listed to protect them from cowboys who want to spoil the best we have and save them for our nation the UK. R.I.P FOX
MrMarkarmitage 1 year ago
The old movie houses and theatres were true works of art and testaments to the brilliance of the workmanship that went into each one. It was painful to watch this, and all I could think of was what a sacrilege and truly shameful.
digikitty11 1 year ago
A reminder to all to save all the old buildings we can as we can never replace them
like they were built back in the day!!!
gokomets77 1 year ago
I will never forgive George Christopher (the Milk Man) and the Board of Supes for what they didn't do. That theatre was a work of art through and through. I remember going to it many times and hearing that organ as a young kid in the late 40's. It really was special place. I once saw Martin and Lewis perform there, too.
Going to the Fox was like stepping into another world.
flylooper 1 year ago 2
Is this the full video? was there more to it?
jon6444 1 year ago
This is so sad
Turntabletard 1 year ago
In the final minute and a half or so where the console is lowering, is it a video of Everett Norse playing something else, with the recording of "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gate" from the "Farewell to the Fox" radio programme dubbed over it? Because his motions don't seem to match up with the sound, and the sound is almost the exact as that from the radio show. Thanks!
tregnier279 1 year ago
@tregnier279 Original was 16mm film, so the sync was not perfect, but it doesn't sound like an LP. I'll have to dig it out and listen. My impression was that the sound recording for the film camera was a separate unit from the reel-to-reel that recorded for the record.
michaelsmusicservice 1 year ago
@michaelsmusicservice If the recording isn't the same as the one from the LP, would it be possible for you to post the LP version? I've been completely unable to find the LP anywhere (not even the CD re-release) and the tracks are some I'd really like to have.
tregnier279 1 year ago
@tregnier279 Be sure to make this tiny distinction: Same performance, different recording equipment. There's no market for this stuff anymore, sadly. The CD set of the first two volumes is gone and there wasn't enough interest to do the other two.
michaelsmusicservice 1 year ago
@michaelsmusicservice Well, do you have the LP of the full concert with Tiny James and Everett Nourse playing alternatively?
tregnier279 1 year ago
@tregnier279 I'll email you if I find it.
michaelsmusicservice 1 year ago
@michaelsmusicservice Thank you! (:
tregnier279 1 year ago
It was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a hideous apartment building. It was not only beautiful, it had splendid acoustics. There were proposals to convert the theater into a symphony hall for about $9 million. It was rejected as too expensive. Instead they built a new symphony for about $50 million which is ugly as sin and is acoustically dead. "City that knows how," indeed.
robert3302 1 year ago
One of the most beautiful theaters I have ever seen, and one of the saddest finales. Kudos to Disney for buying the Wurlitzer so it can be heard and appreciated at the El Capitan theater on Hollywood Blvd.
castingvaldes 1 year ago
At least San Francisco's complete stupidity in tearing this down gave Los Angeles a really fantastic Wurlitzer organ to put in the Hollywood El Capitan Theatre, where it still sounds great and performs before each show. So at least that much was saved and is still cherished, even if its home city couldn't wait to get rid of it.
davendea 1 year ago
"Look what San Francisco lost!'
Jesus! It makes me weep! What was built there? A stupid apartment building-
the Fox Plaza. Another great loss was The City Of Paris department store.
We will never see the like of this movie palace again. Sad!
GypsyFairy69 1 year ago
The Fox was the most beautiful theater in San Fransisco. The interiors were inspired by the palace at Versailles. It made the Golden State and the Orpheum look shabby by comparison. Well at least we still have them (Broadway shows play in them now.) and the great Castro Theater still stands and they play the old organ every night. But it is a shame we were so short sighted about this once great theater. Thanks for sharing this video.
MGMstar 1 year ago
why did you have to wreck it? that is a really cool theater and you just destroyed it for no reason. what is the world coming too. That was a beautiful old theater and now it's gone, just so you could make a video on youtube.
6969Wolf6969 1 year ago
Detroit's famous Fox Theatre almost shared in the same fate as San Francisco's. Detroit developer and pizza baron, Mike Illich bought it just before the city could condemn it for demolition. He has since refurbished and reopened the building, and it's now a prime entertainment destination in Detroit. At least they saved the organ! It would have been a shame for a magnificent instrument to go with the building!
mackbee628 1 year ago
revealing the prevailing thinking of the time - stupid!
BillButlerB3Organs 2 years ago
I was not yet seven and still felt this a great loss to SF. The Coronet, gone. Alhambra, gone. Coliseum, gone. The Alexandria sits rotting away. Now the lovely, if not as ornate, repossessed Redwood City Fox faces an uncertain future. Thank goodness there are a few movie palaces saved, like the Castro and Oakland's Fox and Paramount. (and tomorrow night I'll be at the Balboa watching a documentary about another lost SF treasure, Playland!)
ar0tam 2 years ago
kinda makes me wanna tear up. before I was born. this opulant- grand structure gone forever. I love these old buildings.not paper thin, disposable crap like most buildings today. A real loss of art. like a death in the family.
madinventor13 2 years ago 2
damn, you might as well break the eifel tower down in paris!!!! and the white house in washington!!!!
royraaijmakers 2 years ago
Another good example of previous generations screwing over younger generations. At the very least somebody took video and pictures so we younger people could get to see what we have missed out on. I hear so very often from my elders that we don't have any respect for our history. I find it rather odd that in the 60s and 70s these same people are the ones that rallied for the destruction of and redevelopment of historic downtown buildings all in the name of progress.
silencedogood2525 2 years ago
It reminds me of the fight to save Penn Station in New York. Itwould up as landfill in the Jersey meadows. At last Grand Central Station was saved due to a tremendous effort by leaders in New York. Jackie Kennedy was one of the leaders.
I guess there was no one to stand up for the Fox theater.
sumikumo 2 years ago
It goes to show how stupid politics can get. San Francisco is supposed to be a city with historic preservation. Not a city for nothing but corporate greed! Today's politics have an attitude towards historic buildings that smell! The way the see a historic theatre is let it sit and rot so they can scrap it! The elevators at the St. Louis Fox has already been ruined! Now they have ELECTRONIC BUTTONS ON THE INSIDE!!! It is TIME for politics to SHUT UP AND LEAVE THE HISTORIC THEATRES ALONE!
Streetcar1743 2 years ago
How Sad. San Francisco really loss a grand palace. Shame on the mayor at that time. It would be a much beloved place to go to now. What were they thinking!! I guess they weren't.
elmorocco7 2 years ago 5
This may have been the grandest of our theaters, but it certainly wasn't the last to fall. San Francisco has demolished more movie theaters than any other US city and the count grows. Of the few movie palaces still standing on Market street, only two are in use as performance spaces. Another is a porn theater and the rest are closed for eminent demolition. Other palaces in the neighborhoods have been gutted--and recently, too.
hedablinka 2 years ago
I understand that San Francisco has no Iaws protecting historic interiors, only some exteriors. Many of SF's grand mansions have been gutted and restyled inside into modern loft-style spaces by wealthy people who want to appear hip.
CalifaJohn 2 years ago
You're right: "historic preservation" in San Francisco is an oxymoron. We do have a recent law, but that's it, and it almost never holds. You're right, a walk through any wealthy neighborhood will find construction crews carrying out debris from grand old houses getting the Airport Hyatt touch. Seismic laws have also been used to gut virtually every old structure of its grand public spaces--to the extent that some are simply shells and no more--a new structure stands within.
hedablinka 2 years ago
I like your term "the Airport Hyatt touch." That is what it feels like to me. It is sterile, clinical, boxy and cold. I work in a hospital. I don't want to live in one. I feel lucky every day to live in a 1929 Spanish Revival that mostly survived modernism except for an occupant in the 1980s who put a thick layer of industrial white paint on the baseboards, the California vintage tile countertops, the wrought iron fixtures, the mantle, and all built-in dark wood cabinetry and window frames.
CalifaJohn 2 years ago
The San Francisco Fox theater was the most beautiful theater I have ever seen. It is such a loss for our children to never have the opportunity to see it up close. The inside of the theater was absolutely beautiful. So sad!!
sandee20 2 years ago
American Idiots - I hope Mayor George Christopher and whomever else allowed this travesty to occur all spent their senior years sitting alone in some nursing home, neglected, and forgotten.
Alleghenymike 2 years ago 2
I feel robbed to have never seen this theater. It was not even 40 years old when they tore it down. We have gone through an era in the US that I call the architectural dark ages 1950-90s when people were not even able to appreciate previous eras let alone build anything of lasting value. Hopefully we can begin to preserve older buildings and start building something better than the garbage of 2nd half of the 20th century. I have seen a glimmer of hope in the past 10 years.
CalifaJohn 2 years ago 2
@CalifaJohn I'm 32 and TOTALLY agree with you. My home town tore down their only Movie Palace built in 1928 in 2007.
The destruction was utterly senseless.
monkeywho 2 years ago
Can you imagine anyone lamenting the demolition of anything built in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s?
hotmarriedgays 2 years ago
@hotmarriedgays NOPE.
monkeywho 2 years ago
No. I can't think of anything post WWII that would be a great loss except maybe some rock and roll neon diners but that stuff seems to be more valuable to most people's sense of nostalgia than the better architecture that preceded. We are very lucky in Oakland California that an extended economic downturn made it too expensive to destroy the Fox and Paramount, now two of the jewels of the city, fully restored.
CalifaJohn 2 years ago 2
Agony! I weep!
Larsky1010 2 years ago 2
Does anyone out there know where One might find a copy of the music for San Francisco?? I have looked al over and Haven't had any luck ! !
dannyzad17 2 years ago
That particular Wurlitzer is now beautifully installed at the Hollywood El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Thank goodness the Mighty Wurlitzer from this Theater was saved. The Los Angeles Theater on Broadway (still standing) is very similar to this Theater, and hopes are to get it restored and it will be very similar in size and design to this Theater. Let's just hope the Los Angeles Theater can be saved.
RICHARDDAVISMCLEOD 2 years ago
Should have taken the wrecking ball and used it on the Mayer instead....
PerrrfictKats 2 years ago 17
@PerrrfictKats I like that suggestion. Sadly this scene was repeated over and over in most large American cities. Toledo, Ohio lost a beautiful theater in 1965 and it became a parking lot.
bdzmusicprod 1 year ago
@PerrrfictKats Can you imagine anyone being that big of a SH*T-HOG to have a priceless masterpiece
of architecture like the Fox torn down?! Next time we go to San Francisco we gonna find out where that
POS is buried and GO PISS ON HIS GRAVE!
He must have been the type we have in office now in the U.S. TEARING DOWN THE ENTIRE NATION!
4freespeech 1 year ago
Comment removed
debmckay 2 years ago
Brings back memories. I was lucky enough to have attended the last George Wright concert there in an attempt to save the theatre.
amiganutt 2 years ago
Absoultly heart breaking. What a horrible decision that mayor took. I don't understand idiots like him. Heart breaking.
irgrip53 2 years ago 4
Now, I'm too farklemt to talk! Good thing I'm typing, instead. Playing San Francisco with the organ descending for the last time is more than I can handle. I'm crying like a baby. So much of America's hope, idealism, and optimism descending into that pit with the organ.
megaswenson 2 years ago
"A few years later, to "beautify" Market Street, San Francisco made all the theatres tear off their Marquees and Signs." WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING?????!!!!!!!!!!
This is absolutely surreal. And for nothing!
megaswenson 2 years ago 2
Does anyone know the name of the song played by the organist 55 seconds into the video??
nedzargo 2 years ago
Slow Poke is the song under Jim's narration. Search wikipedia for Slow Poke.
michaelsmusicservice 2 years ago
Thank goodness that the Midland Theater in Kansas City (a smaller version of the SF Fox (just as grand) is still in operation - just wish they could get their Organ back.
KCB3Player 2 years ago
The demolition of this building was one of the great architectural tragedys.
rickw1954 2 years ago 3
What a shame. Too many of these building are being lost to modern shitty shopping complexes made to last 20 years or so. Its a crying shame
fcarp1685 2 years ago 3
I couldn't have put it any better!
rickw1954 2 years ago
why would you destroy something so amazing?
people confuse me sometimes
CannibalKlok 2 years ago 2
The Abortion that is there now is called Fox Plaza believe it or not. A real piece of shit....The loss is inestimable...
CwazyKat 2 years ago 5
I feel like I could vomit. I actually had my hand over my mouth as I painfully watched this grand old lady fall to the ground. I don't even want to know what tawdry junk now stands on this site!
salem67pa 2 years ago 25
@salem67pa I am with you. I get physically ill watching this. So sad, so sad.
JustinHEMI05 2 years ago
@salem67pa Anton LaVey Cursed the site when the Fox got torn down.
He was a Wurlitzer Afficianado.
The New Structure has had problems ever since.
vinnieagogo 1 year ago
@salem67pa
It was replaced with a high rise skyscraper and it was named you guessed it The Fox Plaza.
I have been to the site of the former Fox and it is very clean and modern and when you think of what was lost it really makes you value the old beauty versus the new replacement.
So much for urban renewal and ripping down the old and replacing it with the new.
happymike44 1 year ago
What is the name of the piece played at the very end?
djseverus1 2 years ago
"San Francisco," by Bronislau Kaper and Walter Jurman, lyrics by Gus Kahn, is known as "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gate."
michaelsmusicservice 2 years ago
Anyone who would like to hear it should watch Vic Ferrer's outstanding video. Search for video bz9cIPkZ7G0.
michaelsmusicservice 2 years ago
Knowing that this video could be watched over and over does not diminish the sadness of listening to Everett Nourse play "San Francisco" while it descends for the last time into the pit. It is nice to know that the organ continues to play and is under the care of an organization that cares about its' historical significance. The acoustics in a building that large must have been quite something!
KPO6859 2 years ago
I forget the name of the brilliant mayor
they mentioned who refused to save this
priceless work of art, but I'll bet the folks
in San Francisco who loved the Fox
remember it, and go out to the cemetery
each August 12 and spit on his grave.
4freespeech 2 years ago
That was George Christopher, the last Republican mayor of SF. Look him up in wikipedia for some interesting stuff.
michaelsmusicservice 2 years ago
Thanks for posting this much at least. How incredibly sad to see the console sink into the pit! But the organ lives on in spite of everything!
Larsky1010 2 years ago
Its easy to see why this theater was called "The Fabulous Fox". Its not easy to understand destroying a unique piece of Americana.
prausch65 2 years ago 2
STUPID POLITICS!!! That makes me so mad that some people stand for corporate greed rather than a beautiful old theatre. The people the residents hire to lead the city needs to shut up and listen to what the public has to say. I would love to take a stick of dynamite and blow up the office building and rebuild the old Fox Theatre with the exact same specs it had.
Streetcar1743 2 years ago 2
TWO sticks please!
Steamer15hp 2 years ago
Bring it on sir!!
prausch65 2 years ago
Who cannot respect and appreciate the things of the past will never learn to regard the future generations.
basselyrique 2 years ago
I nearly had to cry, when I saw this! It's a shame to destroy such a beautiful building! Thank you for uploading, so that we're able to keep the last sounds-and pictures-of the theatre in mind! R.I.P.
Eisenschwein64 2 years ago
The really sad thing is that this theatre looked to be in good condition too as much of the interior plaster work was intact. It is a shame.
jukingeo 2 years ago
What fu*ck-bag orderd the destruction of this beauty???
DaveMurdoch81 2 years ago 3
It's such a shame that such beautiful buildings & architecture of these theaters & public places were not appreciated for the works of arts they truly were. To see that most theaters had been replaced with buildings tha have a complete loss of artistic asthetics & a somewhat sterile atmosphere is a testament to our so called "progress." What's more amazing to me is that this destruction took place almost a decade before I was born. What a sorry world we live in...
kerry5101971 2 years ago 2
man will not be judged by the monuments they built, but by thosethey destroy.
ramonnie007 2 years ago 3
So.....have you seen Market St. lately? Yikes!
Beelzebird 2 years ago
Hmm never knew San Fran was run by idiots back then too. Sad.
JustinHEMI05 2 years ago 2
san fran is still run by idiots
circusboy90210 2 years ago 3
ugh I hate this video. It pisses me off to see all of that art work smashed.
thespianalb 2 years ago 2
It's sad to watch such a grand old movie palace meet it's fate with the wrecking ball. We should definitely save our historical treasures. I'm thankful the Orpheum theater in Los angeles was saved, It's now a successful concert venue.
VideoEnthusiast1 2 years ago
Stupid politics!!! Such a beautiful theater!
Streetcar1743 2 years ago 4
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Give me a break!... This is typical California crap... Especially San Fran Faggots. Not for a minute do they cry for old time values of ANY sort.
tonysshadow 2 years ago
Now just a minute!!! Maybe the demolition crew ought to demolish your fantasy land. That theater was a piece of California history. Not too many cities are lucky to even have such a beautiful theater along with the organ that comes with it.
Streetcar1743 2 years ago
They better not do this in Atlanta
destawsom 2 years ago
For awhile in the 1980s, the city of Glendale, CA, owned the Fox's organ. They bought it to install it in the old Alex Theatre, to replace the Wurlitzer that was removed decades ago, but it turned out to be too big to fit. The El Capitan in Hollywood was built in the 1920s with space to install a huge Wurlitzer, but they never actually installed one until they bought this one from Glendale. They play it before most shows, or else they'll play a recording of it, which Disney sells on CD.
davendea 3 years ago
What a sad but inspiring video! Many thanks to Michael's! Does anybody know the artist and title of the song played during Jim Crank's description of the chambers? Many thanx again from Mike. Hope we can save the CAROLINA in Spartanburg, SC.
crrhogger 3 years ago