Fundraising to Save Fullerton Theater Still $1.3 Million Short

With a Nov. 1 deadline looming, a fundraising campaign to save the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Fullerton has raised less than a third of its $1.8-million goal.

Preservationists are hoping an eleventh-hour rush of donations will save the 1920s-era landmark from being sold to a developer, who plans to raze the structure and build apartments.

Momentum may be on the side of theater boosters.

The Fullerton Historic Theatre Foundation started the year with only about $10,000 in the bank, raised through a golf tournament, a hair-salon cut-a-thon, classic film screenings and rummage sales.

The property owner wants $3.3 million for the theater. After preservationists raised $300,000, the city pledged $1.5 million in redevelopment funds if theater backers succeeded in raising $1.5 million by Nov. 1.

The foundation has since raised an additional $200,000 after a fundraising mailer was sent to 35,000 residents and supporters, some of whom responded with $1,000 pledges, according to Chuck Estes, who launched the foundation in September 2001.

But the foundation is still $1.3 million short.

“I’ve seen other theaters in similar or more precarious circumstances saved and revived,” said Jon Olivan, a spokesman for the group that was involved in saving the Orpheum theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Fundraising strategies include selling various naming rights, which led Robert and Linda Weide to contribute $25,000 in order to have the theater’s box office carry their names. Robert Weide is executive producer and a director of the HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“We’re actually benefiting from this dangerous situation,” Estes said. “We have this time limit, and as it sinks in to more and more people that this is real, they seem to come to the realization that they should do something.”

Supporters of the effort hope they can convince people that the Fox, now a decaying eyesore at the tail end of a reborn downtown, is more than just an old theater.

They envision the Fox as a cultural hub for independent and classic films and live performances, attracting more people downtown, where sidewalk cafes, bistros, restaurants and boutique shops opened during a revitalization effort that began in the 1970s.

But the Fox would still require considerable work even if the foundation raised the purchase funds.

“It’s a major responsibility for a nonprofit to raise half of the value, and on top of it they’re going to have to rehab the building,” Olivan said.

That is expected to cost another $8 million, much of which has been pledged in the way of materials and labor, said Jane Reifer, foundation president.

The effort to save the Fox is part of a national awareness of the historic and cultural significance of old movie and vaudeville houses.

Many, having been closed for years, were demolished as housing and commercial developments replaced old downtown centers. Interest in saving the remaining theaters grew as national groups raised awareness of their value. Attention was heightened when the National Trust for Historic Preservation put the nation’s older theaters on a list of “most endangered historic places” in 2001.

The Fox is one of several theaters that were built when Orange County was still mostly rural.

The Balboa Theater in Newport Beach, built in 1913, was bought by the city and leased to the Balboa Arts Theater Foundation, which is still working to raise more than $6 million in renovation costs.

The Miramar Theater, a 1937 Spanish Revival-style building in San Clemente, has been closed since the mid-1980s. A preservation group is trying to raise $2 million to buy the building.

The Fox stands out among them, said architectural historian Alfred Willis.

Built by the firm Meyer and Holler, which also built the Grauman and Egyptian theaters in Hollywood, it was designed by Raymond Kennedy, “an architect of amazing talent,” Willis said during a rare tour inside the theater.

Raising the $1.3 million is a tall order, but Councilman Leland Wilson said he believed the group would succeed. And if they finish just shy of the mark, “I’ve made the commitment to make up the difference with redevelopment agency help,” he said.