The first real movie house and a neon beacon of Fresno culture. Tower Theatre turns 85

On a Thursday night in December of 1939, Fox West Coast Theatres opened Fresno’s first true movie house.

It was a moment The Fresno Bee described as having “all the pomp and circumstance of a first night at the opera.”

“House lights dimmed, pastel hues of the walls faded to a florescent glow in which the swirling patterns of the modernistic decorations stood out and the Tower Theater had made its debut.”

The Art Deco theater, with its 80-foot spire tower and marquee lit by nearly five miles of neon tubing, would become the anchor and namesake of one of Fresno’s most vibrant commercial districts and, at 85 years old, remains a beacon for culture and entertainment in the city.

Fresno’s first suburban theater

The Tower Theatre was built at Wishon and Olive avenues on what had, for the decade prior, been a neighborhood playground. The project included not only the theater, but a block’s worth of retail space and was reported to cost $200,000.

It represented Fox West Coast Theatres’ confidence in Fresno as a growing center for entertainment.

The Tower was one of four theaters the company operated in town at the time. It also ran the Wilson and Kinema theaters on Fulton Street and the State Theatre on Fresno Street.

Later, it would operate the Crest Theatre, which still screens movies and is available to rent as an event space. The Wilson Theatre still operates as the home and headquarters for Cornerstone Church.

While Fresno’s other theaters were originally built to showcase vaudeville performances, and adapted as film became a popular entertainment choice, the Tower Theatre had been specifically designed to show movies.

This was the city’s first suburban cinema, situated a full two miles north of downtown in an area that was becoming a shopping and entertainment destination of its own, one with acres of free parking (a draw at the time and maybe to this day).

On its opening day, it showed two films: “Dancing Coed” starring Lana Turner and the Western “Henry Goes Arizona.”

From the beginning, the theater was a landmark.

Newspaper advertisements at the time included proximity to the Tower as a selling point. Stores were “one block west” or “walking distance from” the theater. By 1943, Tower Realty Company was advertising homes within the Tower Theatre District.

For decades, the theater was known for screening first-run films, along with the occasional series of foreign and art movies. That lasted until 1980, when the Tower became a revival house theater, showing only older films. Several years after that, it was known for hosting a foreign film series.

The first hints of the theater becoming a performance space happened around 1978, when the first three rows of seats were removed and a “makeshift plywood performance platform” was installed, according to information submitted to the National Register of Historic Places.

By the 1980s, the theater had begun hosting concerts and other live events.

The two-day Tower Blues Festival was headlined by John Lee Hooker in 1985.

In 1986, the theater hosted the second annual William Saroyan Festival, which include a screening of “Time of Your Life” (adapted from Saroyan’s original play), plus performances from the Arax Dancers and the Chookasian Dorian Armenian ensemble.

New life as a performing arts space

The theater was temporarily closed in 1989 as the owner sought to rehab the building and its business model.

Historic features that had been lost or damaged over the years (the etched-glass doors, hardwood paneling, ceiling murals and blacklight wall sconces) were replaced, restored or replicated.

The marquee and ticket booth were brought back to life.

Moreover, a new stage was installed, along with backstage dressing rooms and aluminum trusses for sound equipment and stage lighting.

When the Tower Theatre reopened the following year, it was as a fully functioning performing arts space.

Over the next decade, it hosted a series of annual entertainment lineups that brought in 150 or more top-name performers, according to a story in The Bee. The list included artists Harry Connick Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, the Neville Brothers, Dave Brubeck, Joan Rivers, Johnny Cash, Gregory Peck, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett and Eartha Kitt, who performed in 1991.

It also became home to a number of long-running cultural arts and community events and helped cement the Tower District as Fresno’s hub for artistic expression and inclusivity.

In 1996, it hosted Opera San Joaquin’s inaugural production “A Dickens of a Christmas.”

In 2002, it gave space to the newly formed Fresno Filmworks, after the nonprofit had outgrown its original venue at the Fresno Art Museum’s Bonner Auditorium. Its monthly art-house and foreign film screenings ran at the theater for nearly two decades.

The Tower also served as the main stage for the Fresno Reel Pride Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the kick-off spot for the annual Rogue Performing Arts Festival and the final home for the indie movie-making Swede Fest.

Church controversy and a city takeover

The Tower Theatre went dark for events in 2020 as state and local governments worked to stop the spread of the conornavirus. As with venues across the country at the time, there was a question whether it would survive the closure.

As the theater’s owner at the time, Laurence Abbate, told The Bee: “It’s probably going to become something else, a church, a warehouse.”

And indeed, a conservative congregation known as Adventure Church did begin using the theater for its services and ultimately sought to buy the theater as a permanent home.

Though the church promised the Tower would remain open for public use, community members, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community, wondered what impact the sale would have on cultural events like Reel Pride and the annual gay pride parade (which culminates on the corner of Olive and Wishon avenues in front of the theater).

For a year, there was contentious debate about usage and zoning within the Tower District, with weekly protests (and counter protests) outside the theater. A series of lawsuits ultimately blocked the sale and allowed the city to step in to purchase the Tower (for $6.5 million) and contract out its daily management.

What’s in store at the Tower Theatre

Last weekend, the Tower Theatre celebrated its milestone anniversary with three days of programming.

There was a comedy night and a concert (both with full lineups of local performers), plus a screening of “The Wiazrd of Oz,” which seemed apropos given its release in 1939.

For many, it was a reintroduction to the theater and a glimpse at the work the management team has done since it official took over in July 2023 — most visibly perhaps, the massive LED visual wall installed at the back of stage. It’s used by artists and also serves as a digital movie screen.

The theater’s old film projector is still in the booth upstairs.

During its first year under new management, the Tower averaged seven to 10 events per month, booked either through the theater’s in-house promotions (Numbskull Skull Shows and Good Medicine Presents) or other outside organizations.

It was a 110 percent increase in bookings year over year, according to general manager Nick Kennedy.

The theater ends this year with a calendar of movie screenings (“The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life) and a Christmas concert from Mariachi Los Camperos.

Already booked for next year:

• A full slate of comedy, including tour stops from Chris D’Elia, Dusty Slay, Steve Trevino, Paula Poundstone, Stavros Halkias and Ismo.
• A special screening of the anime classic “Cowboy Bebop,” with the soundtrack performed by a live jazz orchestra.
• Community events, like the two-day Central California Psychedelic Summit, which held its first conference at the theater in March.