The ‘Fabulous’ Fox Theatre and Atlanta, 1929-1975 by Michael James Zarafonetis A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 14, 2010 Keywords: history, culture, film, architecture, Atlanta, Fox Theatre Copyright 2010 by Michael James Zarafonetis Approved by Lindy Biggs, Chair, Associate Professor of History David Carter, Associate Professor of History Larry Gerber, Professor Emeritus of History Carla Keyvanian, Assistant Professor of Architecture Abstract The Fox Theatre, currently one of Atlanta’s most prestigious performance venues and architectural icons, has stood at the corner of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue since its construction in 1929. Its fantastical aesthetic combines a monumental Arabesque exterior with various Middle Eastern interior decorative motifs. The opulence of the Fox was common to movie palaces around the country during their brief heyday in the 1920s. Relatively few of these palaces, however, have survived to become icons of their city like Atlanta’s “Fabulous” Fox. The Fox was originally conceived as a Shriners headquarters and community center, but spiraling construction costs forced the fraternal organization to lease the building’s auditorium to William Fox, which he would operate as a first-run movie theater. Economic troubles during the Great Depression bankrupted both William Fox and the Shriners, casting doubt over the future of the theater, but under new ownership and stable management in the mid-1930s it performed strongly. Both Atlanta and the Fox boomed during World War II, with the city assuming major military and industrial importance during wartime. Highlighting the importance of movies and theaters to the American war effort, the Fox served as Atlanta’s largest wartime community center. The war years served as the high watermark of the Fox’s success as a movie theater. During the postwar years, suburbanization sapped the vibrancy and vitality from central Atlanta, while at the same causing (along with organizational changes within the ii film industry) declining box office numbers at the Fox. Desegregation in the early 1960s precipitated further “white flight” from the city’s central core, and although the Fox was desegregated peacefully, middle class whites abandoned the theater by 1970. In its final years, the Fox and much of central Atlanta had fallen into serious neglect. A grassroots campaign to “Save the Fox” in 1975 saved the theater from the wrecking ball, the first such preservation effort in Atlanta. The successful campaign reflected both the importance of the theater to many Atlantans, and the perceived importance of restored theaters to a lively central city. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation, the beginnings of which date back to a graduate seminar during the fall of 2006, would not have been possible without the support of my friends and family. Undertaking such a large project for the first time is impossible without guidance, and I sincerely thank Dr. Lindy Biggs for her direction, encouragement, and candor. I also thank my fiancé Stephanie who has been a cheerleader, editor, and critic throughout this process. Without Stephanie, Zoe, and Leigh, this would have been a very lonely undertaking, and I sincerely doubt my ability to have finished this project without them. I eagerly look forward to a new stage of my life with Stephanie and our ladies. Finally, I thank my parents, James and Sharon Zarafonetis. They have given my brother and me all we could ever have asked, and I would not have had the opportunity to pursue my education without their love and support. I dedicate this dissertation to them, my family, and my friends. iv Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................iv Introduction .........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. Atlanta and the Rise of the Movie Palace Before 1929...................................14 Chapter 2. “The Finest Gift That Any City Has Been Blessed With”: The Grand Opening of the Fox Theatre in 1929 .................................................................................41 Chapter 3. “On the Lap of the Fateful Gods”: The First Fall and Rise of the Fox, 1930-1939..........................................................................................................................73 Chapter 4. Atlanta and the Fox Theatre Mobilize For War, 1940-1945 .........................104 Chapter 5. “Song of the South,” CinemaScope, and Suburbia: Atlanta and the Fox During the Postwar Years................................................................................................136 Chapter 6. “We Could Not Stop Sherman, But We Could Stop the Wrecking Balls”: The Second Fall and Rise of the Fox, 1960-1975 ..............................................176 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................214 Bibliography....................................................................................................................222 v Introduction Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, is one of Atlanta’s most iconic buildings. Built on the corner of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue (formerly Kimball Street) and opened on Christmas Day of 1929, the Fox Theatre served as Atlanta’s premier movie palace for decades and was a source of civic pride for many Atlantans. Its striking exterior alone makes the Fox the most unique structure in all of Atlanta, but its interior—like that of many movie palaces of its day—is equally impressive. The exterior, constructed in Moorish style with alternating ribbons of cream and buff brick, creates the illusion that the city-block-sized facility is a cluster of medieval buildings. The illusion is carried inside as well; each room inside the massive structure is decorated in exotic fashion. Egyptian, Turkish, Moorish, Spanish, and Arabian motifs combine to make the Fox Theatre a masterpiece of illusion. The auditorium, which appears at first glance to be a medieval Arabian courtyard under the open sky, originally seated nearly 5,000 audience members. While the aesthetics of the theater are entrancing, it is also a very functional building. Much more than a movie theater, the Fox has also hosted musical performances, civic events, dances, banquets, and other special events throughout its history. Originally built by the Atlanta Shriners, the Fox has survived to the present day to become one of the city’s most cherished landmarks. The Fox is an iconic building in a city without many others. Atlanta’s history as a major city is relatively short compared to others in the United States; as such, Atlanta’s 1 boosters have always promoted their city as modern, fast-paced, and forward-looking. Although it was a small railroad junction and a sleepy Southern town until the late nineteenth century, it grew into a self-proclaimed “international” city, a major center of investment, and a massive transportation hub during the twentieth century. With such a relatively short history from which to draw the city’s identity, elites have often emphasized Atlanta’s future rather than its past. Unfettered by geographic or man-made barriers to development, Atlanta was a city of continuing growth throughout the twentieth century. Atlanta’s Chamber of Commerce has proclaimed it to be “a city without limits.” Indeed, from the late 1950s through the end of the twentieth century, Atlanta was consistently ranked among the fastest-growing urban areas in the country: a city that, Charles Rutheiser argues, has a “loving embrace of full-throttle development.”1 Because of this, it is also a city without many tangible or authentic reminders of its history. Three of the city’s most historically-oriented attractions—the Stone Mountain Monument, the Atlanta Cyclorama, and Underground Atlanta—are at best reconstructions of an existing historical site (as in the case of Underground Atlanta) and at worst kitschy theme parks only loosely related to historical figures or events (like Stone Mountain). “Atlanta,” Rutheiser writes, “has always had a particularly intense forward orientation and a particular fondness for the bulldozer and the wrecking ball.”2 As such, the Fox Theatre remains as one of Atlanta’s longest standing and most purely historical landmarks. 1 Charles Rutheiser, Imagineering Atlanta: The Politics of Place in the City of Dreams (New York: Verso, 1996), 74. 2 Ibid., 16 2 This dissertation will explore the strong link between the history of the Fox Theatre and the history of twentieth-century Atlanta. Movie theaters like the Fox are constructive but underused avenues for researching recent social and urban history. The history of the movie palace is the history of the modern American city in three key ways. Firstly, the centrality of movies to American popular culture after 1915 made the movie theater one of the most democratic public spaces in the urban landscape. From the 1920s until after World War II, the movie theater provided an accurate cross-section of a city’s population. Secondly, the two decades following the war brought significant