National Register visit 210: Fox Theatre Inglewood📍115 N. Market Street, Inglewood
Opened in 1949, the Fox Theatre Inglewood was one of the grandest movie houses in a neighborhood that used to be full of them. It was also the final LA-area theater built by Fox before a federal consent decree required the major studios to divest themselves of their theater holdings. This was another classy theater by architect S. Charles Lee and interior designer Carl Moeller, a dynamic duo who worked on numerous Fox projects together. The outside was all art deco height, mass and neon; the inside offered seductive curves, floral motifs and the crest/wave motifs that gave Fox West Coast theaters from the ‘40s and ‘50s their signature look.
For a couple decades this was a first-run movie theater, and a popular place for preview screenings. But it closed in the ‘80s after a decade of independent ownership. Since showing its final reel, the Fox has been shut off from the public, with all of its original interiors intact - a slowly decaying time capsule, waiting for whatever's next. It’s weird to think that the Fox has been closed for longer than it was open.
There’s a lot to this story that I didn’t get to cover in the video, so fill in the gaps at Etandoesla.com: etandoesla.com...
Photo credits, in order:
COVER 📷: Matt Lambros, After the Final Curtain: afterthefinalc...
📷 1: LA Transit Lines bus, 1955 - Alan Weeks Collection, Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society
📷 2 & 3: Market Street, 1961 & 1975 - Inglewood Public Library
📷 4: auditorium - Matt Lambros, After the Final Curtain
📷 5 & 6: curtains/seats & plaster crest detail - Michelle Gerdes
📷 7-10: Matt Lambros, After the Final Curtain
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