Fox memories
“When I was a boy it cost 10 cents to see a movie at the Fox if you were 12 or under. I was big for my age, and the summer I was 11, I constantly had to show my birth certificate to get the kids’ admission price.”
– Tom Foley, former Speaker,
U.S. House of Representatives
“The first movie I ever got to see without my parents was at the Fox. I was about 10 when I went with my girlfriends to see ‘Grease.’ We had to promise my parents we’d stay out of the balcony.”
– Marty Dickinson, Spokane
“I was an usherette at the Fox in 1952, and I saw ‘South Pacific’ eleven times!”
– Roberta Croase, Valley, Wash.
“On April 25th, 1932, Ignatz Jan Paderewski came to Spokane to perform in the beautiful new Fox Theater.
“Mother purchased tickets for balcony seats, two in the rear and one closer to the front where I, a sixteen-year-old piano student was seated, while she and Dad took the rear ones.
“As the evening progressed, so did the heat in the upper balcony causing my father to cough. No cough drops to be had! I’m sure Paderewski was dreadfully annoyed, while I was deeply humiliated.
“The gorgeous sound Paderewski produced on that grand Steinway remains forever in my memory, especially with the performance of the Mozart Sonata.”
– Janet J. Miller, Spokane
“On December 7, 1941, my husband-to-be and I walked into the Fox Theater to see a show. As we looked toward the mezzanine we saw a crowd of people hovering around a console radio. We soon learned that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked – and people were more concerned about the impending war than seeing the show.”
– Maxine Reitmeier, Spokane
“I was an afternoon papergirl for the Spokesman-Review back in 1977 and 1978. We had contests in each district and the carrier who acquired the most new customers won a ticket for a Saturday Matinee at the Fox. I won every month in my district and truly enjoyed all the movies I got to see at the Fox. I miss it.”
– Anna Dunn, Spokane
“My then-girlfriend Kyrsi and I went on our first date at the Fox in March of 1994. We watched Disney’s The Three Musketeers. I was still rather new to Spokane (I’m from Pennsylvania), but I was enamored with the ‘hidden’ elegance of the building.”
– Chris Connelly, Spokane
“I remember going to the Fox with cousins from Puyallup to see ‘Frankenstein.’ They were older, and I was probably 10-12. I got so scared I went to the lobby but could still hear the sound. I am 76 years old and I still remember!
“I always thought of the Fox as a fairy-tale castle. My parents were great movie fans so we attended as often as wartime gas rationing allowed.”
– Virginia Hutsell, Davenport Wash.
“I grew up in St. John, south of Spokane near Colfax. Though we lived in the country, my family would come to Spokane a lot and we would visit the Fox Theater. We went there for opening day, but I don’t remember much, I must have been 10-years-old.
“Mother would take us to the opera. She was a big opera buff. And of course we went to the movies. I can’t remember any specific ones, but we must have seen some Shirley Temple-type films then.
“I was in the WSU Glee Club. There were a lot of us. We traveled all over to sing at different concerts. Paul Robeson was a very big star, a huge opera star. I remember riding the bus up to Spokane just thrilled to death we would be singing with someone so famous. I can’t remember what we sang, but I remember what a great time we had.”
- Allison Schuster, Spokane