Fabulous Fox Theatre

When Mary Strauss toured the dark, dilapidated Fabulous Fox Theatre with a flashlight on a cold morning in 1981, she could never have imagined all that it would become.

When she and her late husband, Leon, a prominent real estate developer in the area, toured the run-down theater with a leaky ceiling, broken-out windows and a foul stench, it tugged at her heartstrings.

"Leon and I loved the building and what a jewel it was – and we had to save it," said Strauss, the Fox Theatre's co-owner and director of restoration. "It was part of my youth and I kept telling my husband, 'We have to save the Fox,' and I'm very persistent."

"In 1981, there was no way we would have ever thought this is what it would be today," she said, looking around the lobby of Fox Theatre and referring to it as ostentatiously adventure for all of us."

The Fox Theatre opened in 1929 as a movie palace in William Fox's motion picture empire, but closed nearly 50 years later in 1978. It sat vacant, deteriorating until the Strausses and their partners breathed new life into it.

As the 30th anniversary of the Fox Theatre's 1982 re-opening approaches, Strauss still remembers the moment her husband told her they had bought the theater – she was at the swimming pool with her children in the summer of 1981. The day after her kids started school that fall, on Sept. 7, 1981, she set to work on restoring the Fox – and hasn't stopped since.

That first year leading up to the re-opening on Sept. 7, 1982, was particularly grueling. The $3 million restoration project was immense – the 4,500-plus original seats were taken out and re-done, more than 7,300 yards of carpeting were ripped out and new carpet was rewoven in the original elephant pattern, plaster molds were recreated, art glass was duplicated, the ceilings were vacuum-cleaned, the Wurlitzer organ was rebuilt, the chandelier was restored with new lamps and the stage was completely re-equipped with state-of-the-art sound, lighting and technology.

"It was a very exciting time and everyone was excited that the beautiful theater was re-opening," said Morgan, a Fox Club member and season ticket holder.

The Fox has never stopped striving to improve the theater and its productions. Restoration, renovation and improvement projects have included the opening of the box seat level Fox Club in 1988, a $2 million stage addition in 1995, a major lobby renovation in 2000, the addition of a state-of-the-art video marquee in 2005, the installation of a new historically accurate vertical blade sign in 2008, a major renovation of the box office in 2010, and the installation of a new energy efficient air-conditioning system, LED lighting and a new front facade in 2011.

Strauss is particularly fond of the addition of "Peacock Alley," which was created in 2008. The fourth-floor exhibit showcases the more than 1,500 shows and stars that have appeared at the Fox since 1982 with a photographic mural representing each year. Images of stars Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace and Dionne Warwick grace the murals, as do images for "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "Hello, Dolly" and "Phantom of the Opera."