Harmon’s Histories: Fox Theater site boasts star-studded, yet sad, history
By Jim Harmon
I see the Missoula City Council has approved selling the so-called “Riverfront Triangle” property to the development group, Averill Hospitality.
It would be nice to finally see something happen at the old Fox Theater site - vacant since the 1980s.
Let me take you back in time to explore the wonderful history of this site, by way of a story I wrote in 2016.
It’s early December in 1949. In Hollywood, Shirley Temple was granted a divorce from actor-husband John Agar, whom Temple claimed was a cheater and a drunk who caused her to contemplate suicide.
But in Montana, the mood was festive as Hollywood stars arrived for the gala opening of Missoula's Fox Theater, a modern, air-conditioned $400,000 marvel of a building, described by one company executive as the "most beautiful thing I've seen."
20th-Century-Fox stars Mark Stevens, Nancy Guild and Betty Lynn flew into Butte the day before the big grand opening, then motored to Missoula escorted by the state highway patrol. They had a busy schedule planned the next day.
On December 8, 1948 there would be media interviews, a film shoot at the university, a luncheon, a parade through downtown Missoula, then the dedication of the new theater that night.
The local paper reported the stars checked into the Florence Hotel, but didn't mention whether they had a restful night's sleep. There were a lot of early morning sirens.
Night watchman Homer Williamson discovered a fire in the sawdust storage building at the White Pine & Sash Company just after midnight. It quickly went to a general alarm fire in the 16-degree cold. Luckily the fire department's aerial truck was able to spray the flames from above, controlling the fire.
The next morning, with smoke still in the air, the Hollywood stars participated in a radio interview at KGVO, then moved to the MSU (now, UM) campus for a noon "stunt" filmed by Fox Movie-tone News. The Daily Missoulian described it this way: "Taking their cue from the Indian tribes which abound in Montana, the buckskin-clad Grizzly twirlers (initiated) the guests into their tribe."
Later, it was back to the Florence for a mid-day luncheon followed by rehearsals for the evening dedication.
Missoula's 40-piece city band, directed by Alex Stepanzoff, led the evening parade through the downtown to the Fox Theater. The Elks band and the Grizzly twirlers joined in. Missoula Mayor Ralph L. Starr and Fox officials addressed the crowd.
But, the real star of the night was the building itself, and it knew how to show off for the crowd. The "81-foot neon lighted tower (flashed) the word 'F-O-X' in three sizes up to eight feet high."
Inside, soft music played in the thickly-carpeted lobby. Patrons sat on a plush davenport below a large hanging mirror. One could even make a phone call from the booth near the manager's office.
The washrooms (as they were called in the day) offered no hand towels. Instead they featured new gadgets called "Electric-Aire Evapo Hand Dryers." We're used to such devices today but in 1949 they were a nifty novelty.
A Fox promotional ad declared, "The soothing warm air, and the gentle massaging of the hands while being dried, invigorates and makes them feel alive and clean – also, relaxes tired arm and finger muscles. So the hands become 100% moisture dry, smooth, and look and feel younger after this SKIN-CONDITIONING treatment."
Entering the sloping, stadium-style theater, patrons found over a thousand specially-designed sponge rubber seats which retracted and swiveled to allow people to pass by without having to get up. Imagine!
Hightower & Lubrecht, the general contractors, in a special Missoulian advertising supplement, called "the new Fox Theater building...one of the finest structures of its kind."
Technicians had installed the new "Simplex Four-Star Sound System" which "ensures even distribution of all sound frequencies and uniform coverage to every seat in the theater."
In the basement was the latest in heating and cooling technology designed to "automatically prevent air from entering the auditorium too hot or too cold ... (and removing) devitalized air."
Adjacent to the state-of-the-art theater was the Fox Pharmacy and the Parkway Drive-In Cafe, both locally owned and operated.
Francis Peterson, who earned his PhC degree in Missoula ran the pharmacy and a couple of Butte boys who had moved to Missoula, Elwood Nelson and E.L. Peterson, operated the restaurant.
The Parkway featured the new "Burgermaster" machine which made uniform-sized hamburgers, "each pattie generously like its predecessor."
Businesses in the area took out newspaper ads to applaud the opening of the theater and congratulate everyone involved in its construction.
Oh, I nearly forgot. The movie for the premier was hyped as a "button bustin' comedy" called "Everybody Does It" featuring Paul Douglas, Linda Darnell, Celeste Holm and Charles Coburn. The storyline: Housewife wants to be an opera star, but has no talent. Junkyard-owner husband turns out to have wonderful voice & goes on tour. Housewife, not happy.
Anyway, Missoula's Fox Theater, popular for decades, was by the early 1980s losing business to the multi-theater complexes, and was reduced to running dollar-night movies for a sparse crowd.
The California-based Mann Theater Group tried to sell the Fox, but couldn't find a buyer. So they offered to give the theater to the city, if they promised to turn it into a performing arts center. The city said no. So finally, Mann just gave the building and grounds to the city as a tax write-off.
The once-glamorous, star-studded old theater closed, unceremoniously, in early July 1984. The city mothballed it.
In December 2016, I attended a forum in which Jeff Crouch of CTA Architects of Missoula outlined a wonderful plan they and the city had been working on for five years. City approval of the plan was expected within the next few months.
Since the Fox site alone was not large enough to accommodate a conference center, Crouch said, “talks proceeded with Providence St. Patrick's, for a parcel of land to allow for that.” He said the proposal was the "first in 50 years" that valued the river in its design. All of the 1890s buildings faced Front Street - not the river. The riverfront was simply a dumping ground.
The proposal included a hotel and conference center, medical center, housing, restaurants, bike trails, a foot bridge to McCormick Park, and urban-sized box stores (smaller). A mini storm sewer/water treatment system would be incorporated into the site. The city would assist with operational costs of the conference center, and a footbridge by the river.
When would it open? Answer: After a year of design and infrastructure work, it would take a year and a half to construct a medical building and the conference center. So, said Crouch, we were (in 2016) two and a half years away from the development being ready for occupancy. Sadly it never happened.
Most Missoulians know the rest of the story. The Fox Theater and the neighboring Mustard Seed restaurant were razed. Same fate for the old Super America gas station, with its wonderful three-for-a-dollar hot dogs.
Eventually, the city excavated the site, removing the old dump-material on which the buildings once stood, relocated utilities, and built a huge retaining wall and parking lot.
Now, in 2025, 40 years after the screening of the last dollar movie, there may be a viable project for the old Fox Theater site, and with that, an expansion of what’s considered Missoula’s downtown.
Orange Street has long been what one planner called downtown Missoula's western "DMZ." As he put it, "No one crosses to the west. That's the end of the downtown area, as far as most people are concerned."
Now, with the new library to the east and a possible Riverfront Triangle project to the west, Missoula's downtown perimeter may be expanding.