Riverside Fox Theater, Spanish Colonial Revival theater in Riverside, United States

Riverside Fox Theater is a 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival building at Mission Inn Avenue and Market Street, designed by Clifford Balch with engineer Floyd E. Stanberry. Its white stucco facade rises to a square tower with a red-tiled cupola and thin corner finials; below it a marquee carries the FOX and RIVERSIDE signs. Three large arched openings sit at street level, with three arched windows above and iron balconies on the side wings.

Designed by Los Angeles architects Clifford Balch and engineer Floyd E. Stanberry, the theater opened in 1929 as part of the Fox West Coast Theaters chain. In 1939 it became the first cinema to screen Gone with the Wind. The Skouras Brothers took control in 1932, and Hollywood studios used Riverside for previews because it represented small-town America.

The name comes from William Fox, whose Fox West Coast Theaters took a controlling interest in 1928; the Skouras Brothers ran it from 1932 as part of the National Theaters chain. The facade keeps the cursive "Premiere" script and the FOX marquee, and the venue now hosts concerts, Broadway shows and film screenings under Live Nation, which took over operations on December 1, 2013.

The theater stands at Mission Inn Avenue and Market Street in downtown Riverside, a short walk from the Mission Inn. It reopened in January 2010 after a $35 million renovation, so the auditorium and lobby are fully restored. Check the operator's listings before visiting, since the venue hosts touring concerts and Broadway shows rather than daily film screenings.

During World War II, the military temporarily used the hall as sleeping quarters for soldiers before an additional cinema called the Lido opened in 1942. This transformation shows how the building adapted to the needs of the era.