Who Has Owned The Atlanta Fox
& What Was Mosque, Incorporated?

By Hal Doby
Hune 2005, Last revised February 2, 2013

I first started this site back in 1996 as my tribute for the Atlanta Fox Theatre. Its first incarnation was built on my knowledge that was derived from my time at the Fox starting in 1976 when I first volunteered my services there. For almost three decades, I thought the information I was given was an accurate history of the Fox. Boy was I wrong and sadly mistaken! Sadly, there are still several people that still continue to tell the same things over and over again. 

Over a three year period between 2003 and 2005, I revised this site based on all sorts of new information I had discovered. It was a real learning experience attempting to discover the true history of the Fox. While I feel I was put on the path to presenting a definitive historical time line on the Fox's history, there are still some grey areas that have to be worked out. Of those grey areas, the number one enigma has to be the corporation that was Mosque, Incorporated and what occured with the ownership of the Fox between 1932 and when it was sold to the Bell System in 1974. When I first learned of Mosque in the 70s, I was told it was a partnership that included The Shriners organization, ABC Theaters, The Georgia Theater Company, and Loew's Incorporated. Since then, I feel pretty confident in saying that neither the Shriners organization nor Loew's had anything to do with it. I've never found much information about the exact composition of Mosque, Inc. other than Mr. John Stembler was its president or CEO in 1974.

Why are there inconsistancies with the history of the Fox? I think one of the biggest reason is that no one ever expected the Fox Theatre to be a historical landmark of significance, so no one kept track of things. Another reason is that in the early days, the records were kept by the Yaraab Temple and most of those records were destroyed in a fire in the 1960s. After the Fox was no longer owned by the Shrners, it was owned by a number of smaller entities that frankly either didn't care about records or over the years, these companies went out of business and vanished, taking their records with them. What was left was a trail of myths and inaccuracies. When the building was percieved as being a landmark, people were told many different things and over time, they were simply taken as fact, regardless of whether or not there was any evidence to support those claims. 

After the Shriners lost control of the Fox, it would now seem clear that the building was controlled by three main entities: Theater Holding Company, the City of Atlanta, and Mosque, Inc. I feel there is enough information out there that if you use some common sense and look at what we know as documented fact, we can establish a very plausible and logical conclusions.
Just the facts ma'am. 

We know the Fox started life as the Yaarab Temple's Shrine Mosque, wholly owned by the group. Their grand plans for the most outrageous Shrine Mosque were so grand, they never could raise enough money to construct it! When they felt all of their fundraising avenues were exhausted, they decided to lease the auditorium to a motion picture studiio as a means of generating steady income from which they could seek a mortgage to fund bridge the money gap needed to build the complex. 

In January of 1928, The Yaraab Temple entered into a 21-year lease with Fox Films  to operate the auditorium as the Atlanta Fox Theatre. Over the 21-year period, the Shruners would recieve a total of three million dollars. By my figures and estimates, the lease was comprised of 252 monthly payments of just under twelve thousand dollars each ($11,905.00 to be exact). Even by today's standards, that's a lot of money, but back in 1928, that was gigantic! 

With lease in hand, the Shriners quitckly arranged a mortgage with Trust Company Bank of Atlanta to complete their funding. The land was cleared and construction  commenced in June of 1928. However, a funding shortfall was discovered  in the fall of 1928. The lease required the Shriners to deliver to Fox an auditorium ready for occupancy by the end of 1929. With no other way to fill in their shortfall, the only thing the Shriners could do was to cut back their construction plans on the Mosque portion of the building. The construction plans were revised to include only the basic minimums that the Shriners felt they could do with and construction continued on.  The Fox Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1929 and the Shriners held their first official functions shortly thereafter. 

William Fox was utterly financially hobbled by the stock market crash of 1929. He went from owning a film empire worth over four hundred million dollars to being around ninety million dollars in debt. In early 1930, William Fox was removed from the Board of Directors of Fox Films. In September of 1930, the operation of many, if not all Fox Theaters were handed over to Loew's, Inc.  While we do not know if there was a problem with Loew's or Fox paying the lease agreement, the Shriner's membership was ravaged by the Great Depression. Its membership numbers of over 5,000 plummeted because members simply could not afford to pay dues. I can only assume this was so great, it prevented the Shriners from being able to pay thier bills and this included the mortgage on their beloved Mosque.

In August of 1932, the Shriner's filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Their assets were to be sold at auction to pay their debts. As part of that, the Atlanta Mosque was foreclosed upon by Trust Company Bank of Atlanta. Under court order,  the Atlanta  Shrine Mosque was sold at public auction on December 6, 1932. It was purchased by a group called Theater Holding Company (THC) for a cash payment of $75,000. This group represented a bondholders that had purchased construction bonds from the Shriners as part of their fundraising efforts to build the Mosque. At the time of the auction, the amount of bonds that were still outstanding was $325,000.00. They purchased the building in hopes of being able to find a suitable buyer for it at a reasonable price in the hope of recovering at least a majority of their now-worthless bonds were worth at one time.

As the new owners of the Fox Complex, they were now liable for all the costs of running the complex, including utilities and the ever-looming tac payments. To help aid in that, THC leased the auditorium to exhibitors to run it as a movie theater and the mosque portion of the building to the Yaraab Temple Shurners. The first film exhibitor eventually went out of buisiness while the second exhibitors, Lucas & Jenkens were successful.

I think it is reasonable to think that once Theater Holding Company owned the Fox complex, they began looking for a suitable buyer for it. After two years, there were no takers as the woes of the Great Depression continued. Eventually, an idea came about that would have the City of Atlanta aquire the building and use it as a Civic Center. This idea was brought to the public's attention in 1934. While having no offical say in the matter, the Yaarab Temple was very enthusiastic for this because their original vision for the building was for the auditorium to be a civic gathering place for the citizens of Atlanta. 

While the Mayor was in favor of the purchase, this was a hotly contested matter. There were both many ardent supporters and detractors for the idea. Those that opposed it considered the Fox to be a huge white elephant and a bottomless money pit. It had consistently cost more money to operate than it took in. Yet because of the support of the Yaarab Temple members, many of whom were the movers and shakers of the city, the Atlanta City Council eventually voted 21 to 13 to purchase the Fox.

On March 21, 1935 attorneys Harold Hirsh and Marion Smith on behalf of an unnamed citizens group formed Mosque, Incorporated (from this point on, we'll just call the organization "Mosque"). The stated intentions of the corporation was "to convey to the city attorney all revenues, first payment, and federal, state, and city taxes from the Shrine Mosque". Those who supported the idea were able to raise enough money through donations and loans made by Mosque for a $110,000 down payment on the Fox Complex. Mosque then purchased the building from Theater Holding Company on April 19th, 1935 for $725,000.  Minus the down payment, this left $615,000 which was to be paid for by the issuance of bonds that were to mature and be payable over 15-21 years. On the same day of the sale of the proprerty to Mosque, Mosque and the City of Atlanta signed an agreement whereby the City accepted ownership the Fox. This should have been the point where Mosque, Inc.work was done and company dissolved, but unforeseen events were yet to unfold. 

As a side note, the final purchase price was $325,000 was double the original amount left owed to the Shrine Bondholders, not counting their $75,000 purchase price of the Fox Complex. Instead of just simply recovering the money owed to them, they were able to make a tremendous profit!

Even when the deal was conlcuded amd the City actually owned the Fox, its detractors were not about to rest on the laurels. Lawsuits were threatened to force the city to get rid of the building. The Mayor and the City Council now had serious doubts about the deal even though it had been concluded. In early January of 1936, the city financiers recommended the city turn the ownership of the Fox back to Mosque. In addition to the impending lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the purchase, the city financiers projected the theater would incur a $30,000 operating deficit for 1936 (not counting $9,000 worth of estimated taxes that an other owner would have to pay). All of this made a compelling arguement to reverse the ownership of the Fox complex. The last nail in the coffin was struck by a city auditor that realised if the Fox complex reverted back to Mosque prior to January 31st, 1936,  Mosque would then be liable for the 1935 and 1936 taxes; totalling $18,000. For a city that was financially struggling, that was a huge amount of potential income. Atlanta mayor, James L. Key, who originally suported the city owning the Fox, decided to accept the city financier's reccommendations. After presenting his opinion to the City Council, it voted in favour to relinquish the Fox's ownership on January 29th. 

Since Mosque was supposed to be temporary corporation, it obviously didn't want the Fox back and its officers took steps to prevent the city from presenting the official ownership papers back to them. Despite thier efforts, a creative city clerk took matters into his own hands and was able to do some sort of clerical trick that reverted the ownership of the Fox back to Mosque prior to the January 31st deadline. With the Fox back in the hands of Mosque, Inc., they were now reluctantly in the business of owning a theater as well as owing large sums of money to the city for property taxes, not to mention paying the members of the Theater Holding Company the remaining $615,000 for the property itself. 

From that point onward, the Fox was owned by Mosque until it was sold to the Southern Bell division of the Bell Telephone System in 1974 for a reported $4,500,000. Bell eventually traded the Fox to Atlanta Landmarks through a land-swap deal that had the swapped property valued at $1,800,000.  Atlanta Landmarks continues to own the Fox Theatre Complex to this day.

Runing the Fox Theatre
While it would seem that the Fox was owned by just a few groups, the auditorium was operated by a number of people. This is where the plot thickens.

Of course, William Fox's Fox Theaters initially operated the Atlanta Fox, but it was only for 8 months.

In September of 1930,  Loew's Inc. took over operations from Fox and ran the theater until it was foreclosed upon in the fall of 1932.

It reopened in 1933 with the auditorium leased Robert Wilby.

Wilby's management of the Fox failed after a year replaced in 1934 by Atlanta Enterprises, owned by Arthur M. Lucas and William K. Jenkins.

When the City of Atlanta agreed to own the Fox, Atlanta Enterprises was informed they would eventually need to vacate the Fox, but to my knowledge, the Fox never closed during the period that the City owned the building. Once Mosque was given back the Fox, they immediately got Lucas and Jenkins to sign a new lease that was in place until 1939.

In 1940, Lucas and Jenkins had formed the Georgia Theatre Company (GTC). It was their intentions to expand and operate multiple theaters throughout Georgia. GTC takes over the day to day management of the Fox. GTC bases their operations in the Fox complex.  

In 1951, the Supreme Courts' Paramount Decision ends the movie studios monopolies, Because GTC is paritally owned by a movie studio (most likely Paramount), it can no longer operate a theater it owns. this prevents GTC from continuing to operate the Fox Theatre.  In order to comply with the law, the Wilby-Kincey Service Corporation begins to operate the Fox Theatre while GTC retains its ownership and continues to operate its GTC theater management out of the non-theater section of the building.

Wilby-Kincey becomes part of the ABC Theater group (that uses the same logo as the ABC Broadcastinh Network) in the 1960s and operates the theater until it is shuttered on January 2, 1975 after the sale of the building to Southern Bell. 

Atlanta Landmarks assumes ownership of the Fox Complex in the summer of 1975, it reopens in August of 1975 with a benefit concert by Linda Ronstadt and continues to own and operate the Fox today.
Here are the facts that I know are truthful. 

1. The historical records show the owners of the Shrine Mosque / Fox Theatre to be

    a: The Yaarab Temple (The Shriners) 1922 - 1932

    b: Trust Company Bank of Atlanta (The mortgage company who held the property's title in default prior to bankruptcy liquidation) 1932

    c: Theater Holding Company 1932 - 1935

    d: Mosque, Inc. 1935

    e City of Atlanta 1935-1936

    f: Mosque, Inc. 1936 - 1974

    g: American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T aka Bell Telephone System), Southern Bell Division 1974-1975

    h: Atlanta Landmarks 1975 - Present

2. Lucas and Jenkins sign a new 5-year lease in 1936 to run the Fox as a movie house.

3. Lucas and Jenkins' company became the Georgia Theater Company in 1939.

4.In 1948, the United States Supreme Court rules that the "Vertical Integration" system was deemed illegal and film studios had to divest of thier theater operations.

5. In 1951, The Wilby-Kincey Service Corporation, who is a distributor for the ABC (Paramount) Theater Group, takes over the management and operation of the Fox. The company runs the theatre until the Fox finally closes as a movie theater on January 2, 1975.

6. Georgia Theater Company maintain offices at the Fox into the 1970s. 

7, The Yaarab Temple lost ownership of the Shrine Mosque/Fox Theatre in 1932 when they filed Bankruptcy and defaulted on thier mortgage. While the Shriners leased space in the building to 1948, the organization "Yaarab Temple" never held any further claim of ownership after 1932.

Here are some things I was told over the years that just has not fit in the grand scheme of things.

1. Lucas and Jenkins "purchased" the Fox in 1939.

2. Mosque Inc. was a partnership of the Yaarab Temple, Georgia Theater Company, ABC Theaters, and Loew's Incorporated.

3. The City of Atlanta seized the building for non-paid city taxes, then sold it inl 1939 to Lucas and Jenkins.

Let's sort through some of the fiction.

If the City of Atlanta had seized the Fox for non-paid taxes, why would there have been an issue for the city to buy it as it would have already owned it through siezure? There is simply too much documentation on the issue of the city buying the Fox, then relinquishing it. There is a total lack of credible documentation showing it was ever truly "seized" by the city. There is however incidental evidence there was some sort of mutual agreement with the owners of the Fox and the City that the City would be allowed to use the auditorium free of charge for any city function as long as there was notice of at least 45 days prior to the event. It would appear this agreement stayed in place right up to the building was sold to Southern Bell. 

I think an agreement was in place where the city was allowed to use the Fox at no charge as part of a tax settlement agreement between the City and Mosque, Inc. Why? After the Fox was given back to Mosque, it was in the reluctant position of being in business when it was meant to be a very short-lived corporation. Now it found itself owing a great debt to Theater Holding Company and nearly $20,000 in taxes to the City. 

It would have made sense that as part of a compromise deal (and remember Mosque was formed by lawyers) that some of the tax debt owed by Mosque was possibly forgiven in return for the City to hold event meetings at the Fox. I have no firm evidence of this, but it makes logical sense that this is how this agreement was put in place. 

Also, let's keep in mind that this whole debacle began with the Shriners who at its core had members that were the movers and shakers of the city, many them held public office. Many of them were also holders of the construction bonds that were at the core of THC existence. It was in their financial interest for THC/Mosque to sell the Fox to the City and now that attempt had fialed, it was still in their interest to keep the ownership of the Fox from returning to THC at any cost. That meant iownership had to stay with Mosoue, Inc. at any cost and in their capacitiy as City officials, they would do whatever they could to help that cause. 

Let's make some deductions based on what we know...

1. Since the city was to pay Theater Holding Company $615,000 in public bonds, but returned the Fox to Mosque,  Mosque was now left to pay Theater Holding Group the same amount of money over the same period of time. I think that it would be logical to assume that instead of bonds, Theater Holding Group members received shares of Mosque, Incorporated that they hoped would have the same return as what the city had offered. 

2. Instead of Lucas and Jenkins buying the Fox Theatre, I contend they bought outstanding shares of Mosque Inc.that were held by former Theater Holding Company members. This could have been done at full face value or offers of quick one-time payments of pennies on the dollar so unwilling shareholders could get some form of settlement for what were owed. Remember, times were still very financially tough, so a partial settlement could have been very attractive to those who needed cold hard cash. 

3. Like any other publicly traded company, some of the shareholders of Mosque retained their shares of the company as an investment, while other members sold their shares. This would explain why it multiple concerns owned a part of Mosque, Inc. . 

4. When it comes to the Yaraab Temple still having partial ownership of the Fox Theatre, this is totally false, however, the majority of sharholders of Theater Holding Company were members of the Shrine. It makes sense that when Mosque was given back the Fox Theatre, these THC members recieved shares of Mosque. It is totally plausible that some of these people retained their shares right up to when the building was sold to Southern Bell. Therefore, while the Yaraab Temple did not have any interest in the ownership of the Fox after their 1932, a good number of Shriners did.

5. While I do not know an exact figure, it seems likely that Lucas and Jenkins / GTC held a controlling, if not majority share of Mosque, Inc., and thus "ownership" control of the Fox.  Tthis is why they headquartered Georgia Theater Company's office at the Fox complex. 

6. Because of the Paramount Decree, Lucas and Jenkins/GTC could no longer operate the Fox Theatre. Wilbey-Kincey  Service Company, later part of ABC Theaters leased the auditorium and operated the Fox Theatre while GTC was still headquartered in the same building. It was contended that ABC Theaters had a partial interest in the Fox/Mosque. However, it that was so, their operation of the Fox Theatre would have been illiegal. I contend that people simply assumed a partial ownership stake in Mosque because of mere association. 

7. Between 1940 and the early to mid-1960s, the Fox Theatre was profitable. With the Fox making profits, it would have made sense for Mosque's partners to continue in the group. 

8. When the profits evaporated and the Fox generated tremendous losses, the shareholders wanted out. At the time, it seemed the only avenue available was to sell the Fox with the intention of it it being demolished and a new building erected in its place. To that end, The Fox was sold to Southern Bell.

9. When the public made it's outcry to save the building, Atlanta Mayor, Maynard Jackson interceded to allow a plan to save the Fox to be created. Eventually, Atlanta Landmarks was formed and through it, a plan was concieved and agreed to at a cost of 1.8 million dollars. .To finance the deal, the 5 major Atlanta banks came together to loan the money needed. Southern Bell, in a good will gesture, guaranteed the interest portion of the loan. Under great political and public pressure, Mosque, Inc. guaranteed the principal, namely the building. 

10. Because of the specifics of the loan agreement, Mosque, Inc. had to continue to exist while Atlanta Landmark's loan was being paid off. While I have never heard otherwise, I would imagine that shortly after the loan was paid off in 1978, the process of dissolving Mosque Incorporated would have taken place, although I have no evidence to show what actually occurred.

After making this presentation, I have presented it to a number of people, including John McCall, a past President of the Atlanta Chapter, American Theater Organ Society and noted Fox Theatre Historian, as well as Rick Flinn, the original Restoration Director of the Fox Theatre (1975-1992). Both took keen interest in what I prepared and felt to their knowledge, this was as accurate a history of ownership that they have seen.

As a side note, The Georgia Theater Company is still in existance today, operating movie theaters in Georgia. To my knowledge, they are the only company involved with the Fox's management still in existance today as there is a multi-plex theater operating under the Georgia Theater Company banner at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia. On the cinematour website, while writing about the Lenox Square Theaters (formerly a GTC operation), Stan Malone wrote: "In the late 1980s, Georgia Theatre Company sold most of its assets, including all of their Atlanta locations, to TCI Inc., which was the owner of several movie chains, including Untied Artists Theatres. TCI later spun off all of their theatres into another company which was eventually acquired by the Regal Cinemas chain." 

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