Hollywood Heritage Board Member Named to Board of Fox Pomona

The Pomona City Council, in an action at their September 22 meeting, appointed Hollywood Heritage board member John Clifford (who also serves as Hollywood Heritage’s secretary, newsletter editor, and webmaster) to a position on the board of directors of the non-profit Fox Pomona Corporation. The Fox Pomona Corporation is charged with restoring and operating the historic 1931 Fox Theater, located at the corner of Garey Avenue and Third Street in downtown Pomona. The theater is an Egyptian-deco building, designed by C.A. Balth of Balth-Stansberry, who also designed the El Rey Theater on Wilshire and the Fox theaters in Riverside and Stockton. The theater underwent a major remodeling in 1957 with a modernized marquee, and the addition of a concession stand (originally concessions were sold from a corner store in the building) and CinemaScope screen. However, there was no remodeling done to the interior of the auditorium, which today retains its 1931 charm.

The theater, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, was closed by Fox West Coast Theaters in 1977. After a few years of screening Spanish language films, it was leased by Amos Wallace, who used it as a venue for wrestling matches and rave parties. After a number of incidents including a stabbing and riots, the city of Pomona revoked Mr. Wallace’s business license and the theater went dark again. Due in large part to the efforts of Pomona Heritage’s current president, Mike Showalter, who is also on the Pomona City Parking Commission, the city identified funding and purchased the decaying theater in late 2001.

Shortly after the purchase, then Hollywood Heritage president Robert Nudelman was invited to inspect the theater and report to a committee of the city council regarding ways that the city should go about restoring and utilizing it. Taking local resident John Clifford, and Hollywood Heritage member and preservation artist Amy Higgins along with him, Nudelman was impressed with the overall state of the theater. While there was obvious damage from the rave parties and from a history of neglect, much of the original fabric of the theater remained. Nudelman was especially intrigued by the seating in the lower section of the balcony (or the mezzanine area). Here were some of the widest movie theater seats that he had ever seen, and each seat was fully upholstered in leather, including the armrests. It was theorized that since the Fox Pomona was a key theater for “sneak previews” of the studio’s newest film releases, that these extra comfortable seats were installed for the studio executives who would be watching audience reactions.

The city recently contracted with Pen-Wall construction for the clean up of the theater in a “historically sensitive” manner. The creation of the non-profit organization to handle the restoration and operation of the theater is the first step toward beginning the work ahead. In a series of meetings with the community, a number of suggestions have been floated as to uses for the theater. These have included use by Cal-Poly Pomona’s theater department, coordinated programs with the Pomona Arts Colony (including their annual Smogdance Film Festival), graduations for the local high schools (who do not have a facility of their own adequate to stage graduations), lectures in cooperation with the neighboring Western University of Medicine, and other civic uses. A hoped for premiere of The Cat In The Hat, which was partially filmed in the downtown Pomona antique row, was not possible due to the amount of work it would take to get the theater fixed up for the November release.

On October 19, Pomona Heritage included the Fox Pomona on its 19th annual historic homes tour. John Clifford and his wife Deborah acted as docents at the theater. John’s enthusiasm for the theater was evident to all those who “caught his show.”