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Author
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Topic: Tucson Fox Theatre Restoration
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Will Kutler
Phenomenal Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/770.jpg)
Posts: 1506
From: Tucson, AZ, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 04-29-2002 10:13 PM
This past Saturday night the Tucson Fox Theatre Foundation had its third annual Light Up The Fox Gala Fundraiser.Cost was $75 per person with about 300 or so patrons I believe. It consisted of an evening under the stars with dinner, dancing to a big band and live/silent auction of film memorbalia. 40 or so volunteers made the event possible. Yours trully was one of those, and I put a Super/SH1000 on static display. The Fox does have a web site. Anyhow, the restoration of the theater is progressing nicely. The roof was completely redone. The main chandalier has been restored and relit and the 4 smaller one are being worked on. The current major project underway is a complete scratch building (recreation) of the origonal marquee...I believe that this is about a $300,000 or so undertaking!
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Will Kutler
Phenomenal Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/770.jpg)
Posts: 1506
From: Tucson, AZ, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 05-13-2002 07:54 PM
Sorry, gang...I do not currently have a way of scanning pics. AZ Daily Star Sunday May 12, 2002 "Marquee returns to Fox Theatre" B1/5 by Arek Sarkissian II: A sign mirroring Downtown Tucson's past was installed Saturday as workers hung the new marquee on the Fox Tucson Theatre. The beige-and-black marquee is a replica of the origonal that was installed when the building was opened 72 years ago. Herb Stratford, executive director of the Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation, said the marquee was meticulously designed using pictures of the building at its opening in 1930. Stratford said the origonal marquee was scrapped in 1940 for metal to be used during WWII. He said that although the majority of the 21/2 year renovation has been conducted behind the wall of the building, out of the view of the public, the new marquee is progress toward letting people know the theatre is rising again. "It's an important step because it sends a symbol that5the project is working and things are happening," Stratford said. Mike Saladino, 51, manager of the theatre's neighbor, Italian Kitchen, 27 W. Congress St., said the marquee is a signal that Downtown is also on a rebound. "It's just great. It's going to help Downtown and the merchants also," Saladino said. The 1300-seat theatre was closed in 1974 and was slanted for demolition in the mid-1980s. Stratford said the origonal vertical "Fox" sign that sat above the marquee is also being replicated and will be installed Saturday. He said the vertical sign was taken down in the mid-1980s and thrown away. He also said that the $300,000 cost of the marquee and vertical sign matched the origonal cost of the building's construction. Peggy Johnson, board member of the Fox Tucson THeatre Foundation, said the crowning moment will be when the lights on the two signs are lit. A ceremony will be held on the night of June 1 lighting both the replicated marquee and vertical sign for the first time. Stratford said he hopes the theatre will open in 2004.
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Will Kutler
Phenomenal Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/770.jpg)
Posts: 1506
From: Tucson, AZ, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 06-29-2002 04:25 PM
Tonight at 8pm, the brand new vertical sign and marquee for the Fox Tucson Theatre is being relit in a community event! Please refer to article "Slowly, The grandeur's returning" AZ Daily Star section B p.1 Sunday, 16 June 2002 by Bonnie Henry...the article is as follows: At last. On June 29-barring floods, conflagration or giant asteroid attack-a new Fox sign will once again blaze forth, down on West Congress Street. The sign, a replica of the one that hung so long outside the venerable movie palace, was installed Saturday. It joins the theatre's new marquee-also a replica of the origonal-that went up last month. Both are scheduled to be lighted for the occasion around 8 p.m. Won't it be grand? Once, again, the street out front will be roped off for merrymaking, as was done on opening night, April 11, 1930. Dancers will tap, kids will do rope tricks. Cameras will flash. But unlike that night 72 years ago, there will be no walk across plush carpeting, no sinking down into Moroccan leather chairs, no curtain parting, no movie flickering on the screen. Patience, friends, Patience. Best-casescenario, this century's grand opening of the Fox is still two years away and change away. So says Herb Stratford, executive Director of the Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation, which owns the building. Fact of life: When your dealing with the ravages of time-and of the demands of new codes-hang-ups happen. Take the new sign. Both it and the marquee were supposed to be lit up first of June. Never happened, owing to the rather inconvient fact that the sign wasn't yet up. "Were're talking about a 72-year-old building, so we wanted to make sure, obviously, that if you hang a 2000-pound sign on it...it's safe'" said Stratford. "Before, what held up the sign was this big steel structure that looked like an oil derrik. The city did not want to see that again, so we engineered that it be contained with the building." Dimmed in 1974 after the theatre closed out its 44-year run, the sign came tumbling down-literally-in Feb. 1986. Seems that during the dismantling by its then-owners, the sign "fell apart as it was being taken down," according to a story in the Star. Incidentally, all this occured following a notice from the city that the sign was "no longer up to code." Oddly, the cost of the new marquee and sign-much of it donated-just about matches the $300,000 (granted, in 1930 dollars) it took to build the Fox. That's chicken feed, of course, compared to the $8.5 million figure now being tossed around as what it's going to take to get this grand old girl kicking again. To date, about $650,000 has been raised through in-kind donations, with another $1 million in donations and fund-raising, says Stratford. Add to that a $1 million federal grant that will be used for sprinklers and alarms. Another $3.5 million should come flowing in as part of the Rio Nuevo redevelopment plan. So, what are we getting for our money so far? Well, the roof has been replaced, the main chandalier repaired, cleaned and relit, and close to 15 roll-aways of trash hauled off. The orchestra pit is being engineered to go up and down, the better to flaunt a 1928 organ console that once held forth at the Brooklyn Paramount. It and the circa-1922 organ pipes, origonally from the circle Theatre in Indianapolis, were donated, as were moving costs. "The whole thing filled a 40-foot truck," said Stratford. Also on the immediate to-do list: cleaning 40 years worth of grime and cigarette smoke off the art deco ceiling and reupholstering every one of the theatre's 1,300 chairs. By the way, Stratford guesses there could be quite a residue of chewing gum sticking to the undersides of those chairs. Thankfully, not one wad qualifies as "historic".
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