The Fabulous Fox - Last sounds of its Great Organ

This is a couple of excerpts from "The Fabulous Fox" made by Bartel - Thomsen in 1988. I cannot find a source to buy this video and have not been successful in finding the creators. If I could get permission, I would post and distribute the entire, emotional documentary.

This organ was sold in 1963 to a California state legislator who installed it in his home. After his death it was put in storage. When Disney bought the run down El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, they tracked it down. They spent million on the refurbishment of the theater and the San Francisco Fox Organ lives on. http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/about2.html

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Movie
• Theatre
• Palace
• Fox
• Theater
• Architecture
• Demolition
• San
• Francisco
• Organ

[MeinnameistDreck]

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.

[michaelsmusicservice]

@MeinnameistDreck You would have a sick stomach if you watched the whole program. I don't ever see the whole thing anymore, only parts.

[deancook652]

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.

[michaelsmusicservice]

@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.

[NobHillBorn]

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.

[michaelsmusicservice]

@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.

[GooglFascists]

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.

[paulj0557]

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'!!!

[jukingeo]

@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.

[Brian319]

This makes me sick

[Mrphatbastard1]

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?

[MoviePalacesf]

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.

[MooPotPie]

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.

[TheShadowsoftheDead]

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.

[MoviePalacesf]

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!!