Oakland's Fox Theater, historic jewel of the City

Fox Oakland Theater, Oakland, c.1935

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This fanciful “Brahmanian Temple” movie palace opened in 1928. One of the
largest theaters on the Pacific Coast with more than 3,400 seats, it was designed by
San Francisco firm Weeks & Day, and constructed by Oakland builder Maury I. Diggs.
The architecture was described as Indian, Moorish, Medieval and Baghdadian. On opening day,
West Coast Theaters bought the entire Key System line for an hour, allowing patrons to ride
inbound trains for free, resulting in the turnout of 20,000. 

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Redevelopment Story - from Theater Fox Website

History of Fox Theater - from the Fox Oakland Website



Timeline of the Fox slideshow (unfortunately only small thumbnails and no captions)

Boy scout troop assembled in from of the Fox Theater awaiting the Eddie Peabody

"KING OF THE BANJO"show - c1935

Articles and stories in this post are © Bennett Hall / San Francisco Images / Business Image Group
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Source: Unless otherwise indicated, these images were sourced from the Oakland History Room, Oakland Public Library, and have been digitally mastered by San Francisco Images / Business Image Group.  You can acquire copies of these images framed and unframed through our World Wide Archive Web Galleries. A portion of all sales will be donated to the History Room to assist them with their work preserving local history and to maintain their collections.

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Note: If you like what you see and would like to help support local history, please become a member of the Oakland Public Library History Room.(Oakland History Room)

I will post more on how to do this shortly - stay tuned - or send me an email with your interest - they need our help!!