VANCOUVER , B.C. — The Fox Cinema, Vancouver’s last XXX theatre, is being converted into a cabaret and lounge, local news reported.
The operation was spearheaded by the folks behind the Rickshaw Theatre and Waldorf Hotel, who got the city’s blessing to renovate the space.
“We took out the chairs and basically sanitized the place,” Thomas Anselmi, one of three partners in the enterprise, told MetroNews. “I don’t think you can print how dirty it was .”
Located on Main St. in the center of town, the forthcoming venue will likely offer liquor alongside live music and dancing performances.
Heather Deal, a local council member, said she was happy about the conversion, because the Fox Cinema will remain a “cultural space.”
Deal hopes that other unprofitable, single-screen theatres of the non-erotic variety will make similar leaps, maintaining a balance between the rights of property owners, the community’s heritage and cultural ties.
Out of 150 community responses to the application, only four opposed the venue due to concerns regarding “noise and drunkenness.” Next week the city council will on whether or not to approve the new venue’s liquor license application.
A 1970s census showed that there were 750 adult theaters in the U.S. By 1989, that number dropped below 250 and continued to fall.
