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Fox Theatre (Atlanta)
Encyclopedia
The Fox Theatre a former movie palace
, is a performing arts venue located at 660 Peachtree Street
NE in Midtown
Atlanta, Georgia
, and is the centerpiece of the Fox Theatre Historic District
.
The theater was originally planned as part of a large Shrine Temple as evidenced by its Moorish design
. The 5,000 seat auditorium was ultimately developed as a lavish movie theater
in the Fox Theatres chain and opened in 1929. It currently hosts a variety of cultural and artistic events including the Atlanta Ballet
, a summer film series, and performances by national touring companies of Broadway show
s. The venue also hosts occasional concerts by popular artists.
When the Fox Theatre first opened, the local newspaper described it as having, “a picturesque and almost disturbing grandeur beyond imagination”. It remains a showplace that impresses theatre-goers to this day. The principal architect
of the project was Olivier Vinour of the firm Marye, Alger and Vinour.
The original architecture and décor of the Fox can be roughly divided into two architectural styles: Islamic architecture
(building exterior, auditorium, Grand Salon, mezzanine Gentlemen’s Lounge and lower Ladies Lounge) and Egyptian architecture (Egyptian Ballroom, mezzanine Ladies Lounge and lower Gentlemen’s Lounge).
The 4,678-seat auditorium
, which was designed for movies and live performances, replicates an Arabian courtyard
complete with a night sky of 96 embedded crystal
"stars" (a third of which flicker) and a projection of clouds that slowly drift across the "sky." A longstanding rumor that one of the stars was a piece of a Coca-Cola
bottle was confirmed in June 2010 when two members of the theater's restoration staff conducted a search from within the attic above the auditorium ceiling.
The Egyptian Ballroom is designed after a temple
for Ramses II at Karnak
while the mezzanine Ladies Lounge features a replica of the throne chair of King Tut and makeup tables that feature tiny Sphinxes. The Islamic sections feature a number of ablution
fountains, which are currently kept dry.
Throughout the Fox there is extensive use of trompe l'oeil
; "wooden" beams are actually plaster, paint that appears gold leaf is not, areas are painted and lit to appear to receive outside lighting, ornate fireplace
s were never designed to have working chimney
s, and what appears to be a giant Bedouin
canopy
in the auditorium is plaster and steel rods designed to help funnel sound
to the farthest balcony.
The Atlanta Preservation Center sponsors regular tour
s of the Fox Theatre’s interior.
for a 5,000-member Shriners
organization, the $2.75 million project was completed only with funding and a 21-year lease by movie mogul William Fox
, who was building theaters around the country at the time. The theater opened on December 25, 1929, just two months after the stock market crash. After 125 weeks of talking pictures and stage entertainment, the Fox Theatre declared bankruptcy
. It floundered financially during the 1930s and both William Fox and the Shriners lost their economic interests in the building.
In 1939, the movie perhaps most associated with Atlanta and the South
, Gone with the Wind
, premiered at the (now-demolished) Loew's Grand Theatre
rather than the Fox. Although GWTW was produced by Selznick International
, it was distributed by Loew's Incorporated as part of a deal with rival studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. The parade down Peachtree Street for the movie’s premier coincidentally started just outside of the Fox because the movie’s cast was staying across the street at the Georgian Terrace Hotel
.
During the 1940s, the Fox acquired strong management and became one of the finest movie theatres in Atlanta. It was also at this time that the Egyptian Ballroom became Atlanta’s most popular public dance halls and hosted all the important big bands and country and western swing bands of the era. It was notable at that time, for being the only theatre in Atlanta allowing both white and black patrons. However, there was a separate black box office
, entrance, and seating; the segregation
wall in the middle of the second dress seating still remains, and the "colored" box office window stands unused at the back entrance.
During the 1960s, several elements collided to bring about the Fox’s decline - white flight
, television, and changes in how films were distributed. By the 1970s, the Fox could only show second-run movies to an ever-dwindling audience.
In 1974, Southern Bell, the regional arm of AT&T
, approached the owners of the theatre with an offer to buy and with the intent of tearing it down and building a new headquarters on the site. A group was formed to save the theatre and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
in May 1974. The ensuing public outcry and massive campaign, including such entertaniers as Liberace
and Lynyrd Skynyrd
, among other celebrities, resulted in the city refusing to issue a demolition
permit
, and ultimately, a complicated deal was brokered that prevented the Fox's demolition. The Southern Bell Building (now AT&T) was built on land adjacent to the theatre on the building's west side. The U.S. Department of the Interior subsequently named the Fox a national historic landmark
on May 26, 1976.
After the Fox was saved from the demolition
, a lengthy and expensive restoration
process began. Luckily much of the original décor had survived and new pieces were created with the help of old photograph
s. Today, the Fox appearance looks much like it did when it opened, with some additions that were in the original plans but scrapped in the 1920s because of financial constraints, and other changes that had to be made to bring the building up to current safety code
s.
The theatre, now run under the non-profit Atlanta Landmarks, Inc., currently hosts a multitude of cultural and artistic events, including the Atlanta Ballet, a summer film series, and performances for various national touring companies of Broadway shows. Because of its origins as a movie house, the Fox has a relatively shallow stage
by theatrical standards and is unable to accommodate some of the set piece
s required by modern large scale shows, such as The Lion King
and Miss Saigon
.
In June 2006, the theatre installed a new digital cinema
video projection system for $130,000, which debuted with a showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
on June 26, part of the Summer Film Festival. The sing-along
s that precede each feature are still shown by the Brenograph projector which was installed in 1929.
The Egyptian Ballroom and the Grand Salon are rented regularly for corporate and private functions, including banquets, fundraisers, weddings, trade shows and conventions. They are also both popular spots for proms for many area high schools.
Every year since Atlanta Landmarks took over management in 1975, the Fox has generated an operating surplus. An estimated 750,000 people visit the Fox every year.
nicknamed the "Mighty Mo". It was custom built for the Fox by M. P. Möller, Inc.
in 1929 in Hagerstown, Maryland
. With 3,622 pipes, it is the second-largest theatre organ in the country, behind the Wurlitzer
at Radio City Music Hall
in New York City and was the largest theatre instrument built by Möller.
As a true theatre organ
, as opposed to a church organ, Mighty Mo's pipes range in size from 32 feet (nearly 10 meters) tall to the size of a small ballpoint pen, and is designed to imitate the sounds of a full orchestra
. Besides the pipes, it also contains a marimba
, xylophone
, glockenspiel
, drum
s, sleigh bells, a gong
, and even a six-foot (1.8m) grand piano (originally from the Kilgen
organ in Chicago's Piccadilly Theatre); plus a large variety of silent movie sound effect
s (such as various car horns, thunder and rain effects, bird whistles, etc.). The organ is remarkable for a theatre organ because it also includes 12 ranks of pipes for a church organ, known as the "Ethereal" division. Thus the organ can be played as a church organ as well as a theatre organ. It is noteworthy that the Mighty Mo is among the shrinking list of instruments which remain installed in the theatres for which they were designed.
Larry Douglas Embury has been the theater's permanent Organist in Residence since 2002. In this capacity he presides over the Mighty Mo in performances during the Fox's summer film festival and the Atlanta Ballet
's annual production of The Nutcracker
. In September 2002, he hosted "Fox at the Fox," a concert commemorating the twenty-second anniversary of the death of the great concert organist, Virgil Fox
. Fox had played a famous series of "Fox at the Fox" concerts on the Mighty Mo at the Fox Theatre in the 1970s.
Patten's presence is credited with saving the Fox from a fast-moving fire in April 1996. The pre-dawn blaze, which broke out in the attic wiring, caused $2 million in damage. Damage likely would have been greater if Patten had not been on site to call the fire department, said Alan Thomas, president of Atlanta Landmarks, the nonprofit agency that owns the Fox.
Atlanta Landmarks has no definite plan on how the apartment will be used after Patten's death. "We could use it for dressing space, rehearsal halls," Thomas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's unlikely that we'd let anyone else live there."
On August 30, 2010 local news outlets reported a dispute between Patten and the non-profit Atlanta Landmarks which owns the theater. Mr. Patten reported that he was being evicted from his apartment by the group which he helped to found. Meanwhile the Atlanta Landmarks board in a statement to the public indicated their intent to draw a new lease which addressed Patten's health needs. They stated he remains welcome to live in the apartment.
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
, is a performing arts venue located at 660 Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
NE in Midtown
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...
Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, and is the centerpiece of the Fox Theatre Historic District
Fox Theatre Historic District
The Fox Theatre Historic District is located in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and consists of the following buildings:* the Fox Theatre...
.
The theater was originally planned as part of a large Shrine Temple as evidenced by its Moorish design
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
. The 5,000 seat auditorium was ultimately developed as a lavish movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
in the Fox Theatres chain and opened in 1929. It currently hosts a variety of cultural and artistic events including the Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the nation’s longest continuously performing ballet company and the State Ballet of Georgia.- History :...
, a summer film series, and performances by national touring companies of Broadway show
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
s. The venue also hosts occasional concerts by popular artists.
Architectural features
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of the project was Olivier Vinour of the firm Marye, Alger and Vinour.
The original architecture and décor of the Fox can be roughly divided into two architectural styles: Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
(building exterior, auditorium, Grand Salon, mezzanine Gentlemen’s Lounge and lower Ladies Lounge) and Egyptian architecture (Egyptian Ballroom, mezzanine Ladies Lounge and lower Gentlemen’s Lounge).
The 4,678-seat auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, which was designed for movies and live performances, replicates an Arabian courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
complete with a night sky of 96 embedded crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
"stars" (a third of which flicker) and a projection of clouds that slowly drift across the "sky." A longstanding rumor that one of the stars was a piece of a Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottle was confirmed in June 2010 when two members of the theater's restoration staff conducted a search from within the attic above the auditorium ceiling.
The Egyptian Ballroom is designed after a temple
Precinct of Amon-Re
The Precinct of Amun-Re, located near Luxor, Egypt, is one of the four main temple enclosures that make up the immense Karnak Temple Complex. The precinct is by far the largest of these and the only one that is open to the general public...
for Ramses II at Karnak
Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex—usually called Karnak—comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amun and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Ramses II . Sacred Lake is part of the site as well. It is located near Luxor, some...
while the mezzanine Ladies Lounge features a replica of the throne chair of King Tut and makeup tables that feature tiny Sphinxes. The Islamic sections feature a number of ablution
Wudu
Wuḍhu is the Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body using water often in preparation for formal prayers...
fountains, which are currently kept dry.
Throughout the Fox there is extensive use of trompe l'oeil
Trompe l'oeil
Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
; "wooden" beams are actually plaster, paint that appears gold leaf is not, areas are painted and lit to appear to receive outside lighting, ornate fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
s were never designed to have working chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
s, and what appears to be a giant Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
canopy
Canopy (building)
A canopy is an overhead roof or else a structure over which a fabric or metal covering is attached, able to provide shade or shelter. A canopy can also be a tent, generally without a floor....
in the auditorium is plaster and steel rods designed to help funnel sound
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
to the farthest balcony.
The Atlanta Preservation Center sponsors regular tour
Tour guide
A tour guide provides assistance, information and cultural, historical and contemporary heritage interpretation to people on organized tours, individual clients, educational establishments, at religious and historical sites, museums, and at venues of other significant interest...
s of the Fox Theatre’s interior.
History
Originally intended as the Yaarab Shrine Temple, the headquartersHeadquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
for a 5,000-member Shriners
Shriners
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...
organization, the $2.75 million project was completed only with funding and a 21-year lease by movie mogul William Fox
William Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
, who was building theaters around the country at the time. The theater opened on December 25, 1929, just two months after the stock market crash. After 125 weeks of talking pictures and stage entertainment, the Fox Theatre declared bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. It floundered financially during the 1930s and both William Fox and the Shriners lost their economic interests in the building.
In 1939, the movie perhaps most associated with Atlanta and the South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
, premiered at the (now-demolished) Loew's Grand Theatre
Loew's Grand Theatre
Loew's Grand Theater, originally DeGive's Grand Opera House, was a movie theater at the corner of Peachtree and Forsyth Streets in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
rather than the Fox. Although GWTW was produced by Selznick International
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
, it was distributed by Loew's Incorporated as part of a deal with rival studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. The parade down Peachtree Street for the movie’s premier coincidentally started just outside of the Fox because the movie’s cast was staying across the street at the Georgian Terrace Hotel
Georgian Terrace Hotel
The Georgian Terrace Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, was designed by architect William Lee Stoddart in a Beaux-Arts style that was intended to evoke the architecture of Paris. Construction commenced on July 21, 1910, and ended on September 8, 1911, and the hotel...
.
During the 1940s, the Fox acquired strong management and became one of the finest movie theatres in Atlanta. It was also at this time that the Egyptian Ballroom became Atlanta’s most popular public dance halls and hosted all the important big bands and country and western swing bands of the era. It was notable at that time, for being the only theatre in Atlanta allowing both white and black patrons. However, there was a separate black box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, entrance, and seating; the segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
wall in the middle of the second dress seating still remains, and the "colored" box office window stands unused at the back entrance.
During the 1960s, several elements collided to bring about the Fox’s decline - white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
, television, and changes in how films were distributed. By the 1970s, the Fox could only show second-run movies to an ever-dwindling audience.
In 1974, Southern Bell, the regional arm of AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, approached the owners of the theatre with an offer to buy and with the intent of tearing it down and building a new headquarters on the site. A group was formed to save the theatre and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in May 1974. The ensuing public outcry and massive campaign, including such entertaniers as Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
and Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
, among other celebrities, resulted in the city refusing to issue a demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
permit
Permit
Permit may refer to:*Permit *Various legal licenses:*License*Work permit*Learner's permit*Permit to travel*Construction permit*Home Return Permit*One-way Permit*Permit is the common name for the Trachinotus falcatus, a type of Pompano....
, and ultimately, a complicated deal was brokered that prevented the Fox's demolition. The Southern Bell Building (now AT&T) was built on land adjacent to the theatre on the building's west side. The U.S. Department of the Interior subsequently named the Fox a national historic landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
on May 26, 1976.
After the Fox was saved from the demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
, a lengthy and expensive restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
process began. Luckily much of the original décor had survived and new pieces were created with the help of old photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s. Today, the Fox appearance looks much like it did when it opened, with some additions that were in the original plans but scrapped in the 1920s because of financial constraints, and other changes that had to be made to bring the building up to current safety code
Building code
A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the...
s.
The theatre, now run under the non-profit Atlanta Landmarks, Inc., currently hosts a multitude of cultural and artistic events, including the Atlanta Ballet, a summer film series, and performances for various national touring companies of Broadway shows. Because of its origins as a movie house, the Fox has a relatively shallow stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
by theatrical standards and is unable to accommodate some of the set piece
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
s required by modern large scale shows, such as The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
and Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
.
In June 2006, the theatre installed a new digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
video projection system for $130,000, which debuted with a showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published and second chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's children's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of...
on June 26, part of the Summer Film Festival. The sing-along
Sing-along
Sing-along, community singing, group singing, is an event of singing together at gatherings or parties, less formally than choir singing. One can use a songbook. Common genres are folk songs, patriotic songs, hymns and drinking songs...
s that precede each feature are still shown by the Brenograph projector which was installed in 1929.
The Egyptian Ballroom and the Grand Salon are rented regularly for corporate and private functions, including banquets, fundraisers, weddings, trade shows and conventions. They are also both popular spots for proms for many area high schools.
Every year since Atlanta Landmarks took over management in 1975, the Fox has generated an operating surplus. An estimated 750,000 people visit the Fox every year.
The Mighty Mo
The Fox features a four manual (or keyboard) 42-rank pipe organPipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
nicknamed the "Mighty Mo". It was custom built for the Fox by M. P. Möller, Inc.
M. P. Moller
Mathias Peter Møller was a prolific Danish organ builder. He was a native of the Danish island of Bornholm. He founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania in 1875...
in 1929 in Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...
. With 3,622 pipes, it is the second-largest theatre organ in the country, behind the Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in New York City and was the largest theatre instrument built by Möller.
As a true theatre organ
Theatre organ
A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
, as opposed to a church organ, Mighty Mo's pipes range in size from 32 feet (nearly 10 meters) tall to the size of a small ballpoint pen, and is designed to imitate the sounds of a full orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. Besides the pipes, it also contains a marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, sleigh bells, a gong
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
, and even a six-foot (1.8m) grand piano (originally from the Kilgen
Kilgen
Kilgen was a prominent American builder of organs which was in business from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.-History:-The Kilgen family:...
organ in Chicago's Piccadilly Theatre); plus a large variety of silent movie sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
s (such as various car horns, thunder and rain effects, bird whistles, etc.). The organ is remarkable for a theatre organ because it also includes 12 ranks of pipes for a church organ, known as the "Ethereal" division. Thus the organ can be played as a church organ as well as a theatre organ. It is noteworthy that the Mighty Mo is among the shrinking list of instruments which remain installed in the theatres for which they were designed.
Larry Douglas Embury has been the theater's permanent Organist in Residence since 2002. In this capacity he presides over the Mighty Mo in performances during the Fox's summer film festival and the Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the nation’s longest continuously performing ballet company and the State Ballet of Georgia.- History :...
's annual production of The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
. In September 2002, he hosted "Fox at the Fox," a concert commemorating the twenty-second anniversary of the death of the great concert organist, Virgil Fox
Virgil Fox
Virgil Keel Fox was an American organist, known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach. These events appealed to audiences in the 1970s who were more familiar with rock 'n' roll music and were staged complete with light shows...
. Fox had played a famous series of "Fox at the Fox" concerts on the Mighty Mo at the Fox Theatre in the 1970s.
Private residence
The Fox also contains a 3640 square feet (338.2 m²) apartment that serves as the private residence of Joe Patten, who served as technical director from 1974 to 2004. Patten, who was born in 1927, was granted a lifetime rent-free lease to the apartment. Patten first became involved with the Fox when he volunteered to restore the theater's Moller pipe organ. He later was instrumental in the movement to save the Fox from demolition. The apartment occupies space previously used as an office by the Shriners, who had built the Fox as a meeting hall. The apartment's walls are 2 to 3 foot (0.9144 m) thick, and a passageway leads from the bedroom to a former spotlight platform at the top of the auditorium. A separate entrance provides direct access to the street outside the theater.Patten's presence is credited with saving the Fox from a fast-moving fire in April 1996. The pre-dawn blaze, which broke out in the attic wiring, caused $2 million in damage. Damage likely would have been greater if Patten had not been on site to call the fire department, said Alan Thomas, president of Atlanta Landmarks, the nonprofit agency that owns the Fox.
Atlanta Landmarks has no definite plan on how the apartment will be used after Patten's death. "We could use it for dressing space, rehearsal halls," Thomas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's unlikely that we'd let anyone else live there."
On August 30, 2010 local news outlets reported a dispute between Patten and the non-profit Atlanta Landmarks which owns the theater. Mr. Patten reported that he was being evicted from his apartment by the group which he helped to found. Meanwhile the Atlanta Landmarks board in a statement to the public indicated their intent to draw a new lease which addressed Patten's health needs. They stated he remains welcome to live in the apartment.
See also
- Fox Theatre Historic DistrictFox Theatre Historic DistrictThe Fox Theatre Historic District is located in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and consists of the following buildings:* the Fox Theatre...
- Fox TheatreFox TheatreFox Theatres was a large chain of movie theaters in the United States dating from the 1920s either built by Fox Film Corporation studio owner William Fox, or subsequently merged in 1929 by Fox with the West Coast Theatres chain, to form the Fox West Coast Theatres chain.-Architectural styles:Many...
for a list of other Fox Theatres, past and present, in U.S. cities
External links
- Fox Theatre website
- History of the Fox, The New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Fox Theatre history, National Park Service
- Photos of the Fox Theatre: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, Atlanta Time Machine