Hoping for a Rerun

FULLERTON —  Here’s a movie script in the making.

The first scene: a glimpse of the old Fox Fullerton Theatre as it stands today, boarded up, decaying and condemned.

Next scene: a local preservation group meeting to devise a plan to “Save the Fox!” The plot thickens as they launch a signature-gathering campaign, rallying public support for their cause, which includes trying to persuade city officials to take over the building by fiat.

But this is no make-believe tale, and the outcome is the cliffhanger.

Past drives have failed to restore and reopen the much-loved movie house, which was designed by the same acclaimed architects who drew up the blueprints for Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

This time, a campaign is being waged by members of Fullerton Heritage, a nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve local landmarks such as the Harbor Boulevard theater, which opened in 1925.

“Nothing’s going to happen unless someone’s a catalyst to do it. We’re the logical group to provide that catalyst,” said Katie Dalton, a Heritage board member leading the effort. “Our primary goal is to restore it as close as we can to its 1925 grandeur.”

And there is no time to waste, she said. The theater is neglected and in disrepair. “Time is really this building’s worst enemy right now.”

A major part of the group’s plan is to enlist public support and to pressure the Redevelopment Agency, also known as the City Council, to take the unusual step of seizing the neglected property and selling it to someone who will rehabilitate it.

The City Council has met in closed session to discuss the request but has not made its views known. .

Fox admirers, who would regularly visit the theater in its heyday, called it a gem worth preserving.

Joyce Sullivan, 70, remembers going to the Saturday matinees “because they used to hand out foreign stamps and everyone collected them.”

“It’s just always been there, forever and ever,” said Sullivan, who was born and raised in Fullerton and still lives there. “I’d hate to see it go.”

When the theater opened, it featured silent films and vaudeville. Patrons remember looking at the half-dozen vibrantly colored murals on the walls that depicted California history and tapping their toes to the pipe organ accompaniments that played while the pictures rolled on screen.

Illa Foster, 89, was a teenager when she started going to the theater. Admission cost about a dime. She performed in the skits onstage before the films began.

“I was a drama student and got chosen to do some of the prologues,” said the longtime Fullerton resident. “The theater was just thrilling.”

Foster has fond memories of the place despite an episode that almost cost her husband his life.

“It was the early ‘30s, and my husband was a police officer,” she said. “The theater was being robbed, and he was sent to the back door where this robber knocked him down and took his gun and was going to kill him. They struggled, and my husband, Kenny, got his gun back and conked the guy on the head.”

In appreciation of the officer’s action, the Fosters were given movie passes.

The 908-seat theater, complete with balcony, was built by C. Stanley Chapman, son of Fullerton’s first mayor, Charles Chapman, at a cost of nearly $300,000. Originally, it was named Alician Court, after C. Stanley Chapman’s wife, Alice.

It has changed hands, and names, several times. Los Angeles attorney Edward G. Lewis has owned the theater for about a decade. He pulled out of a plan to renovate the theater about five years ago, citing funding problems.

Lewis did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In 1994, a fire believed to have been started by transients destroyed the stage, city officials said.

After the fire, Lewis notified the city of his intention to demolish the building, but he didn’t pursue the action after being told that lengthy paperwork and public hearings would be required because it is a local landmark.

City officials said they have had no subsequent dealings with Lewis.

The structure’s condition now threatens the safety of adjoining downtown businesses and has been declared a blighted property that fails modern-day seismic standards.

The theater was shut down in 1987, a few years after it had begun deteriorating.

“I stopped going in 1986 because it got so shabby,” said Abbie Macy, 72, of Fullerton. “It wasn’t maintained very well. You’d get chewing gum on the bottom of your shoes.”

Heritage members say the time to save the building is now, before it gets too old and decrepit with no chance for survival. They plan to canvass local strip malls, theaters, grocery stores and neighborhoods Sept. 27.

Volunteers are being recruited, and Heritage members say they hope the city’s leaders will decide to buy the property through condemnation proceedings.

The city cannot force Lewis to sell his building unless it intends to take it over for the specific purpose of bringing it up to code, officials said.

The community would feel a great loss if the theater, which has played a big part in the city’s cultural history, isn’t preserved, Fullerton Heritage member Jane Reifer said.

“We’re in danger of losing it, and we just want to do everything we can to save it.”

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* Fast Fox Facts

Historical notes on Fox Fullerton Theater:

* In 1925, opened as the Alician Court Theater at a cost of $300,000

* Built by C. Stanley Chapman, son of first Fullerton mayor Charles Chapman. Named after C. Stanley Chapman’s wife, Alice

* Theater architects Meyer and Holler also designed Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian theaters in Hollywood

* Six murals on inside theater walls, depicting the history of California, were covered during remodeling

* Projecting marquee and restaurant in backstage area were added in 1955

* Closed since 1987

Source: California Department of Parks and Recreation