Fox Theater in Pomona back on road to glory

People lined up early, cameras and memories, all in hand to enter doors that they had not entered in over 20 years....The Fox Theater opened its battered doors on Saturday afternoon for a sneak peek, a chance to give the historic landmark one last look before work begins to restore it to its former glory.

Not much of the original Fox is still intact, except for the art-deco ceiling, the glitz and glamour that once was the Fox Theater in is mostly gone.....So is some of the plaster on the walls and sound ceilings......Yellow Caution tape is everywhere, and so is the graffiti..

The theater's new owners, the city and the non-profit Pomona Fox Theater Corporation are hoping to bring the glamour back to the Fox, restoring it for an unveiling expected sometime in the summer of 2008.....It will take a lot of blood sweat and tears to bring the Fox to the beauty of its opening in 1931, but backers say Pomona needs the Fox.

The Fox closed as a movie theater in 1976, the beginning of a downward spiral that saw the National Register Landmark playing host to rave parties and boxing matches.....I remember going to the Fox when I was in High School and watching Jane Fonda in "Barbarela".....I fell in love with Jane with that movie....I grew to hate here a few years later in Vietnam, but that is a story that does not belong here.

In its heyday in the 1930s and 40s, the preview sign on the tower would light up, drawing movie fans for a sneak peek at Hollywood's latest offering......Built for $350,000, the Fox featured not only the best sound and projection system of the time, according to the Pomona Fox Theater Corp., but the first refrigerated-air conditioning east of Los Angeles.....And is that is something I and all of my friends relished during the hot humid summer months in the IE.

The battered and bulbless "Preview" sign found in the rafters of the 1,700-seat theater was on display outside the theater on Saturday, along with photos of the Fox's premier April 24, 1931.

The first movie to be show in the Fox was even before my time, 1931, a Spencer Tracy movie, There was also a Laurel & Hardy short, 'Laughing Gravy,' about a dog named Laughing Gravy....I guess you had to have been there....I don't remember seeing it on TV or later.

Another movie I saw was "Paint Your Wagon" with a singing Clint Eastwood....Now that was a bit weird, but then Lee Marvin was singing along with him....Everytime I hear that song or watch the movie on TV to tape i start humming along.....I think the /second movie was "Blackbeards Ghost" or something like that from The Disney studios.
I also saw the "Planet of the Apes", "Sound Of Music." and a lot of carton shorts, like the "Pink Panther"

I also remember you could buy a huge box of popcorn and a giant coke for about $2.00....My times have changed.

The Historical Society of the Pomona Valley was there with a scanner to copy people's photos of the Fox and a video camera recorded visitors memories for an oral history project.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter