Fox Performing Arts Center
When the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside first opened its doors on January 11, 1929, it was just the Riverside Theater serving as a cinema and vaudeville theater as part of the West Coast Theaters chain. It was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by Los Angeles-based Clifford Balch and Floyd E. Stanberry, who designed many of the West Coast, and later, Fox Theaters. At about the time the theater opened, West Coast Theaters group was finalizing a deal with William Fox of Fox Studios and the theater was renamed Fox Riverside Theater. Used in the 1930s and 40s to show previews of future releases before final editing, on September 9, 1939, the Fox made its mark in Hollywood history when it held the first public screening of “Gone With the Wind.” Shuttered for years in the 1990s, the City of Riverside purchased, renovated and reopened the venue in 2010.
Riverside, Riverside County
Photographer: Al Russell
Photographer: John Bare
Riverside, Riverside County
Images by Al Russell