Oakland's "Foxy Lady"

Historic photos of the Oakland Fox movie theater, built in 1928. It is scheduled to re-open in the Fall, 2008. Video by BART Director Bob Franklin, composer/pianist is Joyce Whitelaw, lyrics by Judith Offer, vocals by Jessica Deardorff (Mezzo-soprano) and Christa Pfeiffer (Soprano). Historic photos provided by Phil Tagami's office.
lyrics:
Oakland's Foxy Lady
It was the palace of the people,
From Ali Baba's land,
Built to make a pasha out of every movie fan.
You could get there on a Key Route Car,
A nickel for a ride
To a place that made you royal once you stepped inside.
The ushers wore gold braiding
In that gilded, massive hall
A place that made a movie fan the lord of all he saw.
Barrymore and Rogers
Pickford, Fields and Chan
Could take you on a "carpet screen" to a magic land
Where your boss was all forgotten, And your uniform, and job,
and of course you'd never been an ordinary working slob.
And even while you waited
In your comfy Eastern throne,
Special entertainments, live, were shown--for you alone!
Dancing ladies, bare of leg
Selections from the Student Prince,
A Wurlitzer, a banjo boy, magic tricks unheard of since.
Restaurants and ice cream parlors
Waited when the show was done,
All to make sure the Royal Crowd had had its fun.
Majarajah, majarani,
On a magic carpet ride,
At the Oakland Fox at night: all you did was go inside!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• history
• Oakland
• Fox
• Theatre
• Theater
• Telegraph
• Bob
• Franklin
• Joyce
• Whitelaw
• Movies
• film
• green
• day

[sicktkdchick]

im guessing there are no floor seats?