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Fox West Coast


It's a long and tangled web. West Coast Theatres, Inc. dated from 1920 when it was formed from the holdings of the Gore Brothers, Sol Lesser, Adolf Ramish and others. This "Big Merger" article appeared in the January 11, 1921 issue of the L.A. Times:


 
That 4,000 seater they mention that would be built at Mercantile Place, on Broadway between 5th and 6th, never happened. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the article.

Joe Vogel notes that the formation of the company was also reported in the January 19, 1921 issue of The Film Daily.

An affiliated company in the 20s, West Coast-Langley, started when C.L. Langley teamed up with the Bay Area chain Turner & Dahnken to form Turner, Dahnken & Langley, or T.D. & L. See the page about the Palace Grand Theatre in Glendale for some data about that evolution. At the bottom of the page is a January 25, 1923 L.A. Times article about West Coast buying out the T&D interests.

Before it became West Coast-Langley, there was a short period in 1924 when the company was called Southwest Theatres, Inc. At the bottom of the main page about the Alex Theatre see an article from the February 7, 1924 issue of the Glendale Evening News that discusses the structure of the company and their holdings. 

 

Langley sold his interest in West Coast-Langley in the fall of 1925. Thanks to Mike Hume for locating this September 12 item from Moving Picture World. An October 1925 opening for the circuit, after Langley had left the company, was the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena. Yet, Langley wasn't quite done with the theatre business. In 1926 he formed a new company, Associated Theatres, to purchase the Colonial/Monrovia Theatre.


William Fox comes calling: Mike Hume has come up with a number of articles about the transition of West Coast Theatres into Fox West Coast

It was persistent rumor in mid-December 1928, then by 22nd December 1928 Harold Franklin was reported as having been in conference with William Fox in New York about building new theatres (I wonder what else was discussed?), and by 12th January 1929 a solid deal was being reported.

“Fox Said to Be Seeking Franklin’s West Coast Contract” (right page, column 2)

“More Than $15,000,000 for 50 Fox Theatres” (left page, column 1)

“Fox Closes Deal with N.Y. Independents for 184 Houses” (left page, column 1 – mentions the West Coast deal)

“U.S. Radio Commission Honors William Fox” (right page, column 2 - notes that West Coast are a unit of Fox)

“Fox West Coast Theatres Official Name of Circuit” (right page, column 2)

“Fox Acquisitions” (left page, column 2)

“William Fox Name Supplanting West Coast On Theatres” (right page, column 1)

And finally, as a bonus, there are bios written about Fox and Franklin in the Motion Picture News Booking Guide of 1929.

Thanks, Mike!

Fox in receivership: Times were tough in 1932 and 1933 with the company in bankruptcy. The holding company for the theatres was called National Theatres, a subsidiary at that time of Fox Film. 

The 1940s and 1950s construction spree:

New construction in the L.A. market included:

1946 - Loyola Theatre

1947 - Crest Theatre, Long Beach

1947 - Culver Theatre

1949 - Fox Inglewood

Major Skouras-style remodels included:

1940 - Alex, Glendale

1940s - date not known: California, Huntington Park  

1940s - date not known: Boulevard, Washington at Vermont

1949 - Fox Uptown 

1950 - El Portal, North Hollywood

1951 - Fox Westwood Village

 
Fox West Coast and the Consent Decrees: National Theatres, the subsidiary of what became 20th Century Fox was headed at the time by Charles Skouras. In addition to Fox West Coast, there were other regional theatre circuits such as Fox Intermountain and Fox Evergreen. As a result of the consent decrees, starting in 1949 the United Artists Theatre circuit began operating a number of theatres formerly managed by Fox in the L.A. area, many of these being locations they already owned, but also including other major houses such as the Egyptian and Loew's State

National was spun off as a separate corporation in 1951 with Charles Skouras remaining as the CEO. Part of the deal with the Feds was that they would sell off a number of their theatres to other operators, reducing their number of theatres by 50% within six years. In some cases they were required to divest specific theatres. In 1951 the Fox circuit still had 550 theatres. In 1957 they were down to 275. Skouras died in 1954 and was succeeded by Elmer C. Rhoden, the mastermind who was later behind the circuit's Cinemiracle fiasco of 1958. By 1960 the holding company was known as National Theatres & Television.

Fox West Coast becomes National General: By 1963, National Theatres had been absorbed into National General Corporation, a holding company run by Eugene Klein. The top of the circuit's directory ads still said "Fox West Coast Theatres" but National General was added. Klein had been an investor in National Theatres and stepped in to organize a restructuring when the company was in difficulty. The other interests of NGC and Klein included insurance, sports teams and thoroughbred racing. By 1968 some theatre marquees began appearing with the NGC logo, such as at the remodeled Fox on Hollywood Blvd.

Ted Mann comes west: He had previously run a circuit based in Minneapolis. In 1973 National General sold their theatre division to Mann for $67.5 million. At the time there were 240 theatres in the circuit.

WF Cinema Holdings for the final chapter: The Mann circuit got seriously over extended in the 80s and 90s and, after a reorganization, was acquired by WF Cinema Holdings, a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Paramount/Viacom. After the initial enthusiasm of the new partners subsided, the circuit, later called Cinemerica, gradually began disposing of properties as buyers emerged or leases expired. For the public, the theatres were still branded with the Mann name. By 2012 the once mighty circuit was no more.

For a run-down on the declining fortunes of the Fox West Coast / National General / Mann Theatres empire see the 2009 posts on Cinelog by Christopher Crouch: "End Credits," "Rise and Fall" and "National General's Chinese."

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