The Fox Theater Pomona is a fully restored
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
movie palace from Hollywood's golden age in
Pomona,
Los Angeles County, California. Today the Fox Theater Pomona is a state-of-the-art venue for concerts, cinema, performances, and parties. It is the flagship attraction of the Pomona Arts Colony, a vibrant neighborhood of galleries, nightclubs, lofts, and restaurants.
History
Opened on April 24, 1931, the Fox Theater Pomona operated as a
first-run motion picture theater for 50 years. The classic "Hollywood Style" art deco building with its soaring tower was designed by the firm of Balch & Stanberry and was frequently used by Hollywood studios to host sneak previews of their upcoming films in order poll general audience reactions. The theater went into decline along with other large, single screen theaters in the early 1970s as a result of the increasing popularity of multiplex theaters. It survived for a few years showing Spanish language movies, then closed in 1977.
Partly as a result of citizen activism, the city of Pomona bought the building. In 2002 the non-profit Pomona Fox Corporation was founded to explore means of preserving and reusing the theater, but they were not able to secure enough funding for their restoration efforts. In February of 2007 the building was sold to its current owners, the Tessier family (who are also responsible for the creation of the Pomona Arts Colony concept and re-developers of many local buildings of historical importance) and their family-owned Gerald Investments. 10 million dollars was spent restoring the building into a beautifully revamped venue for the arts, music and film. After two years of restoration, The Fox Theater Pomona reopened on May 21, 2009, with a capacity for roughly 2,000 attendees. It has been ranked #23 in LA Weekly's top 50 Venues in LA.
Location
114 W 3rd St.
Pomona, CA 91766
Pomona, California
Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Pol ...
External links
Fox Theater Pomona's Official WebsiteFox Theater Pomona - LA Conserancy
References
Cinemas and movie theaters in Los Angeles County, California
Movie palaces
Buildings and structures in Pomona, California
Theatres in Los Angeles County, California
Cinema of Southern California
History of Pomona, California
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California
Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Theatres completed in 1931
1931 establishments in California
Art Deco architecture in California
Concert halls in California
Music venues in California
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