Tower Theater

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Re: Tower Theater

by Richard Frey » Sun Aug 02, 2020 11:35 am

I was raised one block west of Fresno HI and just about every Saturday morning my brother and I would ride our bikes to the Tower Theater to watch the program just for kids. There were cartoons, funny films like Abbott and Costello or the Three Stuges and, of course, a western serial that ended each week with a cliff hanger. I also remember one time I got to go into the projection booth where the operator explained how he switched from one projector to the other. Several years ago I attended an event there and when I went to the men's bathroom, what I saw was exactly what was in use in the early 1950's when I was a kid. I never got back stage, but there is a complete stage and dressing rooms for the performers.

Re: Tower Theater

by Lost Fresno » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:12 pm

From the "I wish I had thought of that" file, we see this early promo of the Tower Theater. Here, we are informed of the birth of Patricia Carol and she weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce. She stared in the Premiere Showing of "A Daughter". Kinda cute, for 1946!
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Re: Tower Theater

by Lost Fresno » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:04 am

This photo was taken in 1987 when the Theater had just completed a restoration. They had a special event to honor the original architect: S CHARLES LEE who is 89 years old in this picture. The Tower Theater's owner, Dotty Abbate, presented Mr. Lee with a medallion which commemorated his contributions to art deco design.
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Re: Tower Theater

by Ulrike » Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:03 am

Visited the Tower Theatre on Saturday Night to see the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience Show. The show was " Unbelievably Great" it surpassed my expectations on every level.

Re: Tower Theater

by cabeef » Sun Feb 27, 2011 3:06 am

To recap what has been said here before: I spent many, many great nights at the Tower Theater in the late 70s/early 80s during their heydey of being a "repertory" movie theater showing cult/indie/foreign/classic films long before the rise of online/DVD changed the landscape - for years, if you lived in Fresno, this was the only way you could catch all the cool/unknown flicks.

I used to comb through Tower's fold-out/double-sided calendar to see what movies I eagerly waited to see in the coming weeks - for a young teen, it was a great education in the art of cinema - films I saw at the Tower for the first time ranged from My Dinner with Andre to Walkabout to Zardoz to Decline of the Western Civilization to Taxi Zum Klo to Spetters to The Last Wave to Eraserhead and on & on.

I wish Fresno still had a repertory theater that showed movies like that, but I understand how today's home-video/DVD/pay-per-view/online/YouTube marketplace spelled doom for movie palaces like Tower. I still think they host live concerts there, though?

Re: Tower Theater

by Christopher Stone » Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:11 pm

I remember a short time in the late 1950s, or the early 1960s, when the Tower showed very racy films from Europe and the UK. The Brigitte Bardot nudie movies were exhibited there. The racy "Room at the Top," and "Darling," also found a Fresno home at the Tower. Later, the Fine Arts, on Maple showcased these sexy imports, but, for one brief shining moment, sexploitation films reigned in the Tower District.

Re: Tower Theater

by Lost Fresno » Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:48 am

Long before the weekly Rocky Horror Scene, the Tower was THE place for B-movies, midnight features, cult cinema, the whole shooting match... "Dawn of the Dead", "Slaughterhouse Five", "Eating Raoul", every oddball film you could think of. A pretty handy place to have in the neighborhood in the days before home video (that protracted air-release sound was me realizing how old I am). This is how I will always remember the Tower District- the center its own little universe while the outer rings of Fresno tapered off into clusters of strip-malls. Bill Bixler's The Wild Blue Yonder (named after his old band); the Olympic Tavern (replaced by Cafe Fred); the first video store: The Movies... Like the Tower, a haven for specialty films and cult flicks in the days before Blockbuster gobbled up the market.

Re: Tower Theater

by Dale Stewart » Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:13 am

I read a story in the paper the other day about "Premium service movie theaters", where they serve you dinner and drinks while watching a movie. It reminded me of smoking in theaters, including the Tower years ago.

Re: Tower Theater

by Guest » Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:13 pm

My family moved to Fresno in the summer of ’56 when I was three and a half. Our first house was a small rental on Alhambra St., around the corner from the intersection of Palm and Olive. Our next door neighbor’s back yard consisted of a huge thicket of bamboo with multiple pathways slashed through it -- where my two older brothers and I would play endless games of cops & robbers and cowboys & Indians. The house beyond that was rented by a bunch of Fresno City College football players who would play football with my brothers and me on their front lawn. These huge jocks seemed to get a big kick out of letting us little kids tackle them, score touchdowns, and feel like tough guys.

But in the fall my brothers enrolled at John Muir School and I was left home alone with my mom, who would drag me along while she shopped and we got acquainted with our new neighborhood. I soon had Olive Ave. between our house and the Tower Theater wired to my liking. I had an old red tricycle with only one pedal, which in my little fantasy world was my trusty palomino horse named Blacky. After a few chaperoned trial runs, mom would give me 25 cents to ride around the corner all by myself to the little bakery to get us a loaf of bread.

On the way I would yell “Wo Blacky!” as I screeched to a halt in front of a little pizzeria where I would watch through the window with fascination as the man would prime the dough by hand and shape it into rounds by throwing it in the air. Then just before the bakery was the barber shop where my dad always got his flat top cropped. Cecil Tubbs, the barber, would wave at me and smile as I rode by. The bakery always smelled wonderful and the lady behind the counter would give me a free doughnut hole or a broken piece of a fresh pastry whenever I went in there. When I turned four my mom taught me how to use the crosswalks and I started venturing farther down Olive Ave. toward the Tower. The man at the meat counter in Mayfair market would always give me a free weenie or piece of baloney whenever I stopped in there. On the next block was a flower shop where the guy would sometimes give me a half-wilted flower to take home to mom.

I must have been a pretty cute little kid for all those neighborhood venders to take such an interest my well-being. One thing for sure, though; it was a different world back then. How many parents today would feel safe letting their preschooler wander up and down a busy city street by himself? That year I too saw my first film at the Tower Theatre – a Disney kid’s movie about boy and his horse, Tonka. In the spring my folks bought a house across town, off Fresno St. north of Shields. But I revisited the Tower many more times during my childhood for 35 cent and 50 cent matinees. One Saturday afternoon when I was 13 I met a girl from Fort Miller Jr. High there, and we held hands all through the movie. What a thrill! The following summer my family moved to LA. I never set foot in the Tower again, and I’ve always wondered whatever became of that girl!
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Re: Tower Theater

by Hamm On Wry » Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:37 pm

I used to make the walk from Wilson Avenue to the Tower Theater on many weekends to catch the Saturday Matinee. Could get admission, a coke and a huge popcorn for chump change.

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