Fox Theatre has changed hands many times in the past 80 years, carrying a legacy and its rich history from generation to generation.
Located on Main Street in Pincher Creek, the brick-and-vinyl building, adorned with a fluorescent logo of a red fox, has been an important cultural landmark and community gathering place, drawing famed persons to the town for particularly memorable movie screenings, giving rise to historically significant works of cinematographic art and supporting technological advancements that have improved the moviegoing experience.
Edith Becker, owner of the theatre, is glad to see the legacy of her establishment carry forward.
鈥淚鈥檓 just pleased that it鈥檚 still open because a lot of small-town theatres have closed their doors,鈥 she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 pleased that I was able to keep it going during Covid. It鈥檚 a fun business.鈥
Covid posed a unique challenge for the theatre, leading to an 18-month operational hiatus, but movie lovers are beginning to fill the seats again now that Edith has reopened the doors, and with delayed Hollywood blockbusters set to be released soon, she鈥檚 expecting her numbers to return.
Preparing for future crowds, Edith recently upgraded the seats in the theatre, something she鈥檚 been wanting to do for the past 20 years.
鈥淧eople who were uncomfortable in the seats before are now able to attend a movie,鈥 she says, adding that there鈥檚 more leg room with the newer models.
A total of 190 seats were added to the theatre, financed through out-of-pocket funding and Telefilm Canada.
She has also had all the equipment in the theatre serviced and the surround sound, which wasn鈥檛 working, has been restored.
Edith bought Fox Theatre in 1979 and ran it for almost 20 years. It was leased out for a time, but for the past 10 years or so, she has continued to run the local theatre with help from her kids.
The theatre itself was built in the 1940s by Del Fox, who had come to Pincher Creek as a young boy from Grand Forks, B.C. His inspiration to make a career in the movie industry came from his mother, Tillie Fox, a businesswoman who had bought a theatre back in their hometown.
Del鈥檚 daughter Eleanor, who lives in Pincher Creek, grew up in the apartment on the second floor of the movie theatre with her younger sister Carolyn.
By the age of seven, Eleanor was already standing at the door cutting guests鈥 tickets and when she was a little older she made the popcorn and guided people to their seats.
To this day, each time Eleanor passes the theatre, she feels a wave of nostalgia as memories of her former life come rushing back.
Living in a movie theatre was a child鈥檚 ultimate dream, she says. She held sleepover parties with her friends there and rode her bicycle up and down the aisles when movies weren鈥檛 showing.
Sometimes she and her friends would dress up in costume and perform on the theatre鈥檚 stage. Whenever she or Carolyn had a birthday, her father, Del, would play Disney cartoons.
At Christmastime, he would set up a tree with big bright lights on top of the marquee and play carols through the loudspeakers.
Eleanor fondly recalls the time when he accidentally scared her date away after mistaking the young fellow for a patron who had disregarded the no-parking sign in their driveway, which was attached to the side of the theatre.
鈥淢y date was so embarrassed,鈥 she remembers. 鈥淗e drove away real fast and I ran down the stairs and I said, 鈥楧ad, you chased my date away!鈥 鈥
Not all her memories are happy ones. She watched the old Scott Block on the south side of Main Street burn down in a fire one year from an upstairs window in the theatre. Although frightening at the time, it makes for a good story now.
鈥淥h it scared us that night,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 could see the flames and hear the explosions.鈥
When her family ran the theatre, people would line up down the block to see the latest film, Eleanor recalls. They ran a movie every night, and a matinee and two movies on Saturdays.
Religious films depicting stories from the Bible were always popular and her father would invite local nuns and priests for free screenings. Western shoot-鈥檈m-up flicks were classics.
Big blockbusters like Gone With the Wind and Cleopatra made a round in the community with many young adults bringing a plus-one to the screening, taking full advantage of the two-person loveseats in the theatre.
On particularly hot summer days, her father would leave the exit door open to get air circulating in the building, and young boys would sneak in to see how much of the movie they could watch before getting chased out.
Sometimes the Foxes would screen locally made movies.
One of the more memorable was a short 12-minute movie called Canadian Roughriders, which had been filmed in 1946 in Brocket on Piikani First Nation. Pincher Creek held a celebration for it on April 21, 1949, complete with a parade, a dance and, of course, multiple screenings of the film at Fox Theatre.
Directed by Dave Oliver of RKO Pictures, the film depicted a wild horse roundup on Piikani First Nation with additional scenes from the Calgary Stampede. It captured a culture and way of life seldom seen by elite society in Hollywood.
The film, which received rave reviews, was screened at the acclaimed Radio City Musical Hall in New York and was even nominated for an Academy Award.
Eleanor, being only six years old at the time, was too young to remember the celebration, but the family saved a variety of old pictures and newspaper clippings from the event, which Eleanor keeps in a scrapbook.
Reporters covering the event described it as an early western revival. A colourful parade full of Mounties, members of Piikani First Nation in traditional dress, and cowboys and cowgirls made its way down Main Street.
There were 3,000 people in attendance, many of whom took part in a townwide square dance and watched as Art Elliott, manager of RKO Pictures in Calgary, was declared honorary chief of Piikani First Nation. He was presented with a war bonnet and given the name Chief Running Wolf.
To add to the festivities, Elliott, alongside Pincher Creek Mayor Henry Hammond, president of Pincher Creek Board of Trade C.J. Bundy, Piikani Indian agent Tony MacMillan, and famous cowboys Frank MacDonald, Frank Duce, Jimmy Robertson and Pete LaGrandeur, all placed their footprints in cement outside the theatre.
The event would go down in history as the first premier of a Canadian movie in the town.
The Fox family eventually sold the theatre to the Hartley family in 1969 and Eleanor moved to British Columbia with her husband, Ian Mackenzie, later returning to Pincher Creek in 2011 after his death. Later, it was passed into the hands of Duncan Russell, who did extensive renovations on the building and sold it to Edith Becker in 1979.
Edith had her first foray into the movie industry as a teenager when she worked the concession at a theatre in Calgary. She moved to Pincher Creek after buying Fox Theatre, Waterton Lakes Movie Theatre and the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod, although she has since sold the latter two.
She too lived on the upper floor of the building with her children, an experience that was cherished by all.
鈥淭he kids loved it and it was easy,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 just put the kids to bed and went downstairs to work. It was easy for me to be a full-time mom and a businessperson so that was wonderful.鈥
Currently, her son Thomas lives there with his wife, and her daughter Jillien helps with the business too.
It鈥檚 a family endeavour and Edith says she can鈥檛 wait to see what the next chapter of history in a post-pandemic world has to offer.
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