This
account of the history of the Fox Theater compiles information from a number of
different sources, including the 2002 Corazon de Trinidad Historic Buildings
Survey, Ken Fletcher’s 2013 pamphlet “Flickering Images Come to Trinidad,” interviews with the current owner and other
residents of Trinidad, and this author’s personal experience. Original newspaper articles and advertisements were drawn from the extensive microfiche collection of the Trinidad Chronicle-News, located at the Carnegie Public Library of Trinidad.
When the Jaffa Opera House
of Trinidad closed in 1906, rancher Edward West decided to make use of his
empty lot on Main Street, one that he had owned for more than twenty years.
Hiring the Rapp Brothers as the architects for the building, West expected the
theater to cost between $60,000 and $65,000. Final costs would be more than
double this amount. Unless copies remain undiscovered within the theater
itself, blueprints or original architectural drawings for the West Theater do
not exist. Copies of such materials located at City Hall were destroyed in a
fire. Two drawings, published in the Chronicle-News on February 12, 1907,
present the only known original architectural plans. To reproduce these
drawings in their newspaper, the Chronicle-News commissioned engravings to be
completed by a company based in Chicago. These drawings were republished in Ken
Fletcher’s 2013 pamphlet “Flickering Images Come to Trinidad.”
Groundbreaking on the
theater began in February 1907, and the foundation was finished in May 1907. The
foundation and masonry of the theater was said to cost as much as construction
of the rest of the theater combined. The West Theater opened on March 16, 1908
as an independently owned and operated performance venue, with a performance of
the play The Bondsman. A society
ball, held in May, 1908, was the inaugural event in the Ballroom at the West.
The original occupants of the storefronts adjacent to the theater lobby were
the Hausman Brothers’ Drug Store (later The People’s Drug Store) and a saloon,
which was later converted to office space.
1920 was an important and,
thankfully, a well-documented year in the history of the West Theater. On March
21, 22, and 23, 1920, three different operas were presented by the Sonora Grand
Opera Company (Verdi’s Rigoletto and Il trovatore and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor). On March 24,
during the screening of a film, a shooting occurred in the exterior lobby,
between a man named Vito (last name unknown) and August Mahizia.
The first moving pictures presented at the West were in
conjunction with a series of plays presented by the Kempton Komedy Kompany, over
two weeks beginning on May 3, 1920. 1920 also saw the beginning of regular
public use of the Ballroom at the West Theater, hosting many local and regional
events. After twelve years of ownership, the West Theater was sold to the
Kohn-Fairchild Amusement Company, who also owned the Curran Theater in Boulder,
one theater in Las Vegas, New Mexico, the Rialto of Trinidad, and others.
On June 2, 1920, the West family sold the theater to the
Kohn-Fairchild Amusement Company. The new owners, who included West Theater
manager Max Kohn, operated the theater on a regular basis, offering patrons a
combination of film and live performance. On November 3, 1920, a Cameraphone—a
combination of an early record player
and moving picture projector—was installed.
In 1925, the Kohn-Fairchild
Amusement Company installed a Wurlitzer ‘Hope Jones’ theatre organ in the
auditorium. Robert Hope-Jones, a British organ maker famous for his organ at
St. John’s Church, Birkenhead, came to America in 1903. His patented
innovations—including electro-pneumatic action on all pipes, stop-tabs instead
of stop-knobs, and others—gained much acclaim. In 1914, Hope-Jones merged his
successful company with Wurlitzer, a successful organ manufacturer in upstate
New York. The organ installed at the Fox Theater was likely produced in early
1925; in the same year, Wurlitzer installed organs in many venues across the
United States. According to the building history presented on the Architectural
Inventory Form, the new organ “featured many special effects keys (such as
train whistle, audio horn, sleigh bells).” The Organ Historical Society
database notes that four 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organs have been installed in
Chicago theaters, but each has been relocated to private residences.
The West Theater closed for
two weeks in January, 1929 and underwent extensive remodeling. Many of the
changes made during this remodeling of the West Theater are still evident
today: new light fixtures, carpeting and draperies, and an expansion to the
pipe organ (likely the additional bank of pipes were located in the upper box; behind
the lattice, the original louvers are still present). Projection equipment was
upgraded, to fully accommodate sound films, and the projection booth was
encased in sheet metal. The West re-opened on January 24. These upgrades were
reported to have cost $33,000.
The economic collapse of
the early 1930s made Trinidad’s Fox-West a center of community activity and
engagement: in January, 1933, the theater introduced ‘family night,’ during
which two adult tickets admitted one’s entire family; on February 2, 1933, a
wedding was performed on the stage of the Fox-West, which filled the auditorium
to beyond its capacity (Gladys Yource and Sam Reeves, both of Trinidad, were
married on stage); on May 25 of that year, “Prosperity Night” began a series of
cash giveaways to random audience members. These practices would continue as
“Bank Night” into the 1950s, at which audience members were chosen at random to
win cash prizes. The steel-cage wheels, once filled with ticket stubs from
audience members hoping to win a prize, are currently sitting backstage at the
Fox. In 1935, the façade of the Fox-West Theater was renovated; these changes
included the addition of the current marquee and box office.
The Fox West Coast Theatre Co. continued to operate the
Fox-West of Trinidad by offering a combination of live performances and film
screenings. Sometimes, gala events would combine the two modes of performance.
On March 26, 1942 hosted the only “World Premiere” of its history, screening
the film Two Yanks in Trinidad, a
comedy set in the West Indies. The premiere was well-attended, and included
live musical performance both on stage and in the street in front of the
theater, appearances by celebrities, and a live radio broadcast.
The Fox-West became known
as the Fox after October 8, 1942, perhaps with the appointment of H.L.
McCormick as general manager. McCormick served in that capacity for years, and
in 1949 presented a grand renovation to the Fox, including removal of the
second balcony, a lowering the auditorium’s ceiling, a new projection booth,
and a new stainless steel and glass façade. The closest McCormick came to
implementing any of his vision for the Fox was his decision to purchase the
current concession counter, its brushed stainless steel front depicting
mythological scenes (the dates of installation and service to this concession
counter are written in pencil, on the interior, upper left hand corner of the
unit). The concession counter currently in the lobby of the Fox was installed
in the late 1940s, as part of a larger effort by the Fox-West Theater group,
under the direction of Charles P. Skouras (Kaufmann, 1987).
Due to corporate reorganization, the Fox-West Theater group was renamed Fox Inter-Mountain Amusement Corporation in the early 1950s. The pair of upright pianos, the current theater speaker cases, and other items located in the theater are stamped as property of the Fox Inter-Mountain Amusement Corp., “Unit 11.” The Fox Inter-Mountain group likely used the Fox-West of Trinidad as a storage facility for projectors and other equipment removed from other theaters.
Through the 1950s, the Fox
Theater continued to offer audiences both events of live performance and
first-run film screenings. In 1951 and 1952, musicals were staged at the Fox,
specifically featuring a cast of local talent. On March 19, 1954, Safeway
Stores presented a cooking class at the Fox that was free and open to the
public; over one thousand people were in attendance. On February 19, 1959, the
ownership of the Fox changed hands once more. John, Marie, and Salma Sawaya
purchased the Fox from Fox Inter-Mountain Theatres. The Sawaya family had the interior of the Fox
repainted in its current color scheme. Marie and Salma Sawaya opened the Sal-Mar
Shop in one of the theater storefronts in 1964; the other storefront was walled
over, creating office and storage space for the theater. During the early
1960s, the Fox-West was one of the first in the country to be equipped for
Cinemascope (wide screen) projection. This was a substantial technical upgrade
to the theater, requiring a new sound system, screen, and projector.
During the 1970s, John Sawaya installed the fiberglass
paneling seen when facing the theater from the street, intending on their being
a means of collecting solar energy. During the 1990s, modifications to the
audio system included replacing existing systems with modern amplification
equipment, and swapping out original speaker components for affordable and
modern replacements. On September 25, 1981, the Los Angeles Times published an
article by Bill Steigerwald, “The Movie Biz in a One-Mogul Town.” This article
is based on interviews with Sally and Marie Sawaya (identified in this article
as “Mary”), and their experience operating a theater in a small rural town. A
local resident who identified himself as a former projectionist for the
Fox-West told me the last time he saw the theater filled to capacity was for a
screening of the 1987 film “La Bamba.” After decades of operation as a
first-run movie theater, the Fox ceased operation in 2013.
References
Aultmann, O. (n.d.). West Theatre [digital image file].
Denver (CO) Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Collection.
CHS.X4842.
Fletcher, K. (2013). Flickering
Images Come to Trinidad. Trinidad National Bank: Trinidad, CO.
Kaufmann, P. (1987). Skouras-ized
For Showmanship. Theatre Historical Society of America: San Francisco, CA.
League of Historic Theatres. (2016). “Colorado Member
Theatres.” League of Historic Theatres. Retrieved from http://network.lhat.org/lhat-brightfind/resources/theatre-inventory/mbr/co
Steigerwald, B. (25 Sept. 1981). “The Movie
Biz in a One-Mogul Town.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles,
CA.
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