The Ballrooms, Terrace, and Landmark's Lounge
Since we are on a virtual tour, let's magically be transported back
outside to the Arcade. Just before the entrance to the Auditorium on
the left is the entrance to the Grand Staircase. This is the main
access point to the Fox's two main ballrooms. Between this entranceway
and the Auditorium entrance, there is a small box office. this served
as the place to purchase tickets to gain entrance into ballrooms.
Once inside, you see this is a very beautiful area made to be quite
opulant. The baseboards
in the stairway are solid marble. Terrazo tiles top the columns of the
stiarcase and upon them sit solid brass lamps. On the far wall from the
entranceway are two doors, one serves the
ballroom's ticket office while I understand the other serves as a coat
or utility closet. On the floor at the base of the stairway is the
inlayed seal of the Shriners, making a permanent link to its original
heritage. In the inlay are the initials A.A.O.N.M.S. (Ancient Arabic
Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine), today more commonly referred
to simply as "The Shriners". The founders of the organization loved
mysticism and spectacle. Since the group began as a social group for
Masons, a cute nod to that is as an anagram, these initials rearranged
spell out "A MASON"!
On the staircase wall, a plaque was inlaid in 1976
commemorating the Fox as a National Landmark by the US Park Service,
Department of the Interior. Not only does this distinction
recognize the
Fox complex as historically important, the special distinction
also gives Federal protections to the Fox. I would like to point out
that in addition to the Fox Complex, later on, the Ponce deLeon
Apartments, Georgian Terrace, and the Cox-Carlton Hotel (now Hotel
Indigo) all have been given this special designation. This is the only
location in the country where there are four buildings on the Register
of National Historic Landmarks that all sit together with in one single
block.
Directly in front of the entrance doors, there is now an elevator. That
originally was not there and this caused all sorts of problems. Back
when the complex was built, no care or regard was really given to
people who had mobility issues. In the later part of the
Twentieth-Century, the Federal Government imposed what is know as ADA
laws in order ot mandate handicapped access for those who needed it. As
a National Historic Landmark, the Fox Complex is exempt from those
rules as it would impose changes on the building that were not part of
it's original design. However, because the Fox is a working building,
Atlanta Landmarks has strived to do as much as it can in order to bring
the Fox up to as many ADA standards as possible. Therefore, it was
deemed quite important to have some form of elevator service added to
the ballroom areas. Restoration Director Rick Flinn was able to design
a plan that would add an elevator to the Grand Staircase area by using
existing space that was not use, nor needed. He further designed the
construction plans to seemlessly integrate with the staircase so it
would look like it was part of the original building. As you can see,
he did a wonderful job in accomplishing that.
As we go up the staircase, you will notice that high
above is skylight decorated with stained glass. This
skylight often goes un-noticed by many because so few think to look up
at it. When we ascend up to the first floor, there is a large
walkway. In front of us are doors that lead into the Egyptian Ballroom.
Please note the detail work on the doorknobs of the
main doors. They are decorated with the logo of the Shriners. This is
yet another detail that shows the Fox's lineage as
the intended Shriner's Mosque for the Yaarab Temple long before its was
used as a Theatre for the Fox Theatre chain. To the right of the
ballroom entrance, there is a hallway that now leads to
the elevator. Originally, this space served as the coat check for
the Ballroom and Salon. To the left is the entrance to the Grand
Salon.
If we continue to the top floor of the staircase, it leads to the
entrance to the balcony of the Ballroom. To the right, once again it
leads to the elevator. This section once contained a small area that at
one time served as a small dance studio. To the left of the staircase
are the restroom lounges for the ballrooms. The
lounges are downright
spartan compared to the lounges of the Auditorium. To my knowledge,
there was no photographic record of how these two lounges were
decorated when the theatre opened in 1929. When Atlanta Landmarks took
over the Fox, they were nothing more that simple rooms with a simple
coat of off-white paint on the walls with no ornamentation, and there
was no furniture in the rooms either. In the 1980s, Rick Flinn added
large Egyptian glyphs to the walls and placed some of the restored
furniture into the lounges to make them more decorative and functional.
In the late 1990s, the glyphs were removed and what seems to be
more luxurious furnishings were placed in the lounge areas.
Returning to the main floor of the ballroom area, let's enter the
Egyptian Ballroom. The Ballroom can accomodate up to 800 people.
In its original use as a banquet hall,
it can seat up to 520 in comfort. By combining both the Ballroom and
the Salon for one function, together they can accomodate up to 1,500
for an event. combined, they can seat up to 720 for a banquet
style event.
Originally, this room was referred to as the Great Banquet Hall. Almost
from the beginning, the Shriner's Oriental Band sub-leased the
room from the Yaarab Temple to stage Saturday night dances at which it
performed. The money raised was used to pay for the band's travelling
expenses around the country to appear and compete at other Shriner
events. In 1939, the Fox was under the management of the Georgia
Theatre Company. The decision was made to rename the hall The Egyptian
Ballroom and to feature live music acts and dancing that was so popular
when it was used for that purpose by the Shrine's musical units. As a
ballroom, the hall was very popular and many Atlantans have fond
memories of great evenings there. A large neon sign was installed over
the main entrance in the arcade that has since been removed and
relocated to the hallway just outside the ballroom as an art
installation. The snazzy name stuck and the hall has been referred to
by this moniker ever since.
The
Egyptian Ballroom is a very large hall, complete with its own balcony
and performance stage. This is one of the most ornate rooms in the
entire complex. The room is 90 feet by 76 feet large and has 6, 840
square feet of floor space. Its design is based on the ancient Egyptian
Temples at Karnack. Cartouches on the ceiling contain authentic
hieroglyphics, although there is some debate as to the correctness of
its Egyptian grammer. The bases of the columns and the dado around
the room are decorated with stencils of lotus buds and blossoms. The
ceiling is painted with stats typical of Egyptian tomb decorations.
This room was probably the most
bastardized room in the Fox Complex when the building was saved
from demolition. The Fox, like many of it's movie palace brethren, were
extremely expensive to maintain and many cost-cutting measures were
taken in order to keep costs to a bare minimum. Of all the rooms in the
Fox, the Eyptian Ballroom has the most decorated walls. These
decorations were put on the walls with elaborate stencils. According to
Fox legend, and we have no way to authenticate this, the original Fox
theatre maintenance person decided to take all of the Fox's stencils to
his home for storage. The legend continues to say that this person
became involved in an adulterous affair. When his wife learned of the
affair, she was so enraged that she took all of the man's belongings,
including the Fox's stencils, into a pile in the front yard, and burned
them!!!
True or not, the original stencils were lost somehow and since it would
have been very expensive to recreate them, when the
walls became worn and were in bad shape, the walls were painted
over with dark brown
paint from the floor to about 10 feet high. This is where
the first attempt was made to restore the lost artistry of the Fox.
Volunteers carefully stripped several layers of brown
paint off the wall to reveal the faded remnants of the original
stencils. Tracings
were made and from that new stencils were constructed and used
to return the room back to as it once was. Unfortunately, when the
paints were chosen to restore the room, oil-based
paint was used instead of latex paint. In a very short time, the paint
began to peal
from the walls and the walls had to be striped and repainted. But
fortunately the hard work of recreating the stencils had been
accomplished, so the renovation took much less time than the first
restoration attempt. In time every stencil needed to restore the Fox
was made and is now kept in a safe place at the Fox for when it is next
needed.
The Ballroom has its own performance stage that is 12 feet deep by 28
feet
wide.The backdrop for the stage is a large relief of what is supposed
to be a Pharaoh proclaiming judgement, perhaps mercay upon a
fallen warrior foe. Behind the fixed curtains
that frame the stage are a set of doors that once led down to the
Shrine's storage rooms, and musical unit's dressing rooms, complete
with their own shower area. In re-purposing the Spanish Room into the
auditorium's concession area,
a good portion these areas were demolished. Some of the original rooms
still remain, but are used for concessions storage.
In 2005, two members of the Atlanta Preservation Society's Fox Tour
Guide Group, Dr. Hugh Keenan and Kohen White, met with Dr. Betsey
Teasley-Trope, associate curator of Ancient Art and co-curator of their
current special exhibit Excavating Egypt, Michael C. Carlos Museum, at
Emory University. Dr. Teasley-Trope is a Professor of Egyptology and an
expert in Egyptian Art and Hieroglyphics that was asked to give her
expert opinion about the Egyptian themed art and hieroglyphics within
the Fox Complex.
It had been long-held that the Pharoah figure behind the Ballroom stage
was Ramases II, otherwise known as Ramases the Great. She told the two
that she was unable to find any thing that would identify the figure as
the Egyptian king Ramesses. In fact, she said, "I don't think
Ramesses was ever pictured in a skirt that short." In fact, the
posture and musculature of the figure are not Egyptian as it has been
recognized in antiquity.
Dr. Teasley-Trope continued to report that there are no
consecutive hieroglyphics in the room that form complete sentences or
statements. There are glyphs on the underside of the balcony that
supposedly read "Welcome All Who Bring Joy", but once again, the glyphs
have no meaning whatsoever, which perishes another long-held myth about
the Fox. In fact all of the hieroglyphics in the room appear to be
valid, but
their combination often has no meaning; i.e. their combinations do not
translate as sentences. Some are isolated prepositions or
adjectives;
others are single nouns. In real Egyptian hieroglyphics, only
proper
nouns (the names of persons or gods) should have cartouches; but this
principal is violated frequently in the room by having cartouches
around common nouns.
Dr. Teasley-Trope did identify the bird above the intaglio above
Ramesses as the vulture "Nrt", sacred to Isis as Mut or "Mother."
This hieroglyph means both "Vulture" and "Mother." The bird
is holding "Shn," the feather of protection and the symbol of eternity
in its talons, offering eternal protection to the Pharaoh. The
blocks of writing to the side of the figure of Ramesses contain the
date 1929 plus an extra 3. She also pointed out that another block
contains hieroglyph for the month of a season of the year. This
same block also contains the glyph "Djedu" or backbone of Osiris.
This is used to represent stability. The other glyphs to the far
right are just scrambled hieroglyphics.
Looking forward at the stage, to the left corner of the hall, is
the Fox's main kitchen area that primarily services both the
ballroom and salon. It is capable of serving meals for over a thousand
people at one time. Of note, in the 53' X 36' kitchen is a huge 1920s
era
refrigerator that was once cooled by the continual placement of ice
blocks in it's top compartments. In subsequent years, a modern
refrigeration system was
added to it to allow it to continue to service the Fox.
The
ballroom's ceiling is twenty-five feet high, while the Clerestory
rises thirty feet and is adorned with the Egyptian calendar with glyphs
depicting the Egyptian Zodiac. The lighting of the Clerestory center
ceiling section gives the illusion it has a skylight that allows light
in, as it was in the Temples of Karnac. Here, this effect is
created by electric lights as there is no windows to let the light in.
Originally,
the hall was outfitted with a beautiful stained wood floor, but because
of
acoustic reasons, that is now covered by a carpet that covers the
vast majority of the hall's hardwood floor. Ironically, in front of the
stage, a square temporary wooden floor section can be placed
on top of
the new carpet to allow for a dance floor. The carpet was designed by
the house staff to incorporate elements that accent the room. In the
center of the carpet, the main pattern is a wavy two-tone blue design
that is supposed to represent the flowing Nile River. In it are the
reflections of stars from the night sky. The main pattern elements with
exception to the water and stars were based on elements from
around the room.
The walls around the hall are decorated with columns and stylized
Egyptian Death Masks that were made popular thanks to the discovery of
King Tut's tomb and his very famous mask. Along the base of the walls
are the afore-mentioned decorative stencils. You will notice the use of
stylized papyrus reeds and lotus blosssoms. These are very famour for
identifying the two regions of Upper and Lower Egypt as well as its
Nile River Delta. All of the light fixtures are original to the room
and have been restored.
Its balcony is adorned with a metallic red disc with wings and two
snakes. this symobl is repeated on the proscenium arch above the stage
area and on the edge ballroom's new carpet and represents the Pharoah's
favor or protection from the Sun God Ra (or Re as it is
spelled either way). The wings of the sun are not the wings of
Osiris as some believe. The
Ballroom's balcony is 76 feet wide by 22 feet deep and can hold a
little over 100 people. In additon to accommodating people, it is also
used to hold spotlights for the
ballroom's stage. The ballroom can hold chairs and even tables. It has
a very commanding view down onto the ballroom floor and the stage area.
Underneath the balcony, the ceiling is decorated with
sculptured recesses and brass light fixtures. In the corners under the
balcony there are cartouches. These cartouches stand for the
three seasons of Egyptian culture: flood season, planting or spring
season, and harvest season. There were four months to each
season, composing a full year cycle. These months are
designated by the vertical slashes: example, in the first figure, the
representation is of month two of the flood season. And of course
since the seasons are common nouns, they would not have been inside
cartouches in real Egyptian hieroglyphics.
On the western side of the ballroom under the balcony is a small set of
riser steps that led up to a terrace. The terrace is directly
above the
arcade and goes from the ballroom to the "guard house"
between the spires
of the main entrance to the theatre. That room is a service area where
it was originally intened to store the lettering and supplies needed to
dress the theater's marquee. Originally, a person would stand above the
marquee and with direction from someone on ground level, they would use
long sticks to remove or place lettering on the marquee. Today, they
guard house is not really used for anything other than storage.
Originally, there was a colored tile floor on the terrace with a
decorative iron railing. It originally was connected to a second
terrace that was in front of the Salon.
Located off the Ballroom is the Grand Salon, originally referred to as
"The Lounge". The room is much smaller
than the Ballroom and as the name implies, it was originally intended
to be the lounge area for
relaxation for the Shriner's. Because it was meant to be a private
lounge for members to relax in and not a place where Shrine "rituals"
would be held, it was not as heavily decorated in a manner
similar to the Ballroom.
To my knowledge, it was kept as a private room for the Yaraab Temple
until the 1940s, when the room began to be used as offices
for the Georgia Theater Company. Cubicals were installed and you can
see places on the floor where those temporary walls were fastened. The
room continued to be used in this capacity until 1974 when the Fox was
sold to Southern Bell. Once Atlanta Landmarks reopened the Fox to the
public, the now-renamed Grand Salon began its current use as a rental
event venue. Since that time, it has been the scene of many types
of public and private functions,
including several weddings. It enjoys a very busy schedule and is
constantly booked.
It is a 67' X 50', 3,350sq.ft. room that, depending on
how the room is configured for an event, the Grand Salon can hold up to
300 people for a reception or 200 for a banquet or classroom setting.
The northern wall of the Grand Salon connects directly to the
Egyptian Ballroom. Because of that, it is very common for both spaces
to be rented for an event together. It also has its own seperate
entrance from the Grand Staircase
area so its use by itself. .
Originally, like the Ballroom, it too has a wood floor that now has
been overlaid with a in-house designed carpet that was installed
in the early 2000s for sound deadning purposes. At the edges of the
room, the floor is terrazzo with real inlaid
mother of pearl included with the material it is composed of. As in the
foyer and the main lobby, there is a fountain by the main entrance that
used to be stocked with goldfish., The fountain was intended to
replicate the washing fountain found in many mosques where followers of
Islam would cleanse their hands prior to entering the Mosque for
prayers. In this case, they would be entering into the Great Banquet
Hall, now known as the Egyptian Ballroom.
In the center of the ceiling is a large skylight
with stained glass.
Somewhere along the way, the stained glass skylight was also removed
from the room and relegated to laying outside on the Fox's
roof. Amazingly, when it was re-discovered in 1975, only one panel was
missing. In the 1990s a new skylight was installed over the
stained glass, replacing the original. Besides the skylight, the 12 foot high ceiling is
decorated with huge wooden beams that, as with the other beams in the
building, are made of plaster of Paris. In addition to the wood detail,
they are decorated with ornate stenciling. The original chandeliers were removed when the room
began its use as an office for the Georgia Theatre Company after 1939.
The original chandeliers were lost prior to 1975. Restoration Director Rick Flinn sourced
replacements, which are the ones in use today.
To the southern end of the room is a mirrored doorway. Orignally, this
was an area that was used as a the offices for the Shriner's Divan (or
governing body), Potentate, and Shrine Recorder. In the 1940s, it was
used as the executive offices for the Georgia Theatre Company.
Today, this is now the private residence of Joe Patten, one of the main
forces behind the saving of the Fox and former Technical Director for
Atlanta Landmarks, 1975-2004. Mr. Patten is the authority on the
workings of the Fox and he has made his home here for over thirty-four
years. Back in the early days of the Save the Fox campaign, for
insurance purposes it was required to have at least one individual in
the Fox complex at all times. Towards the end of the 1970s, Joe was
virtually spending all his waking hours at the Fox and he had decided
to sell his College Park home and relocate to a residence closer to the
Fox. While it is not know who came up with the idea, somebody suggested
that the Joe be allowed to convert the Shrine offices into his living
quarters. Because Joe had certainly done more for the Fox than any
other person, he was given a lifetime lease on the apartment. The
one requirement that Joe had to do was to personally finance the cost
of the space's renovation into an apartment, which cost around $60,000
in 1980.
To the right of Mr. Patten's apartment is a set of doors that lead to
the Mezzanine level of the Auditorium. This is accessway where many
have gone from an auditorium event to many receptions that have been
held in the Salon or Ballroom.
The Grand Salon is where the loss of the Fox's original
furnishings was readily apparent. In photos taken just prior to
the opening of the Fox, The Salon is shown fully outfitted with lavish
furniture and a large area rug on top of the hardwood floor. Today, this
actually benefits the Fox because as a blank canvas, it can readily be
adapted to service any form of function.
As with the ballroom, the Salon has it own terrace. Like the other
terrace, there was tile flooring and a decorative iron
railing but was much larger in size. As I previously mentioned, the two
terraces were interconnected by a walkway that has was removed prior to
the 1970s. There is only one set of photographs that shows these
details from 1939. Both terraces were closed to patrons for
some unknown reason before the 1960s and not re-opened until after
Atlanta Landmarks secured the building in 1975.
The Grand Salon's terrace was located over the retail storefront in
Bays 1 and across the rear of Bays 3,4,5 and 6. Bays 1 through
6 as well as the Salon's terrace area were totally consumed
by the 4-alarm fire that took place in April of 1996. After the fire,
over two million dollars was spent in reconstructing that section of
the Fox. While Bay 2 once again was home to a restaurant (and
continues to be to this day), Bays 1,3,4 and 5 were reconfigured to
house 2 floors of the enlarged Fox management offices as well
as an expanded box office. Bay 6 became home to the Fox's Box
Office. After reconstruction, new terrace area is now referred to as
the Grand Terrace and not only compliments the Salon, but can act as a
separate rental area with its own seperate entrance and exits to the
Arcade.
The Grand terrace measures 53 feet by 24 feet and has 1,272 square feet
of usable floor space. A new structure was built on the
opposite side of the new terrace across from the Grand Salon that
houses the elevator service and part of the new office space. The
structure is topped by a huge round skylight that allows
daylight into the center of the Fox's management offices. On the
terrace's western wall that faces the Georgian Terrace, built-in seats
and architectural details were added to integrate the new structure to
the original architectural design of the Fox. The Grand Terrace was
further walled in by another cement wall on its southern side, slighty
back from the edge of the building. These new walls add a certain bit
of privacy while still retaining an open-air feel. The walls also keep
the illusion of being in a middle-eastern setting by concealing the
rest of the Fox's roof and its new modern air conditioning systems
for the Fox's offices. Because of the new structure, connecting the two
terraces is no longer possible.
The last rental area in the Fox is its newest and most intimate. Prior
to the April 1996 fire, there was a room located off the auditorium
lobby by the southern exti doors. This space was totally consumed by
the fire and during reconstruction, it was fashioned into the Fox's
smallest and most intimate rental space. The room is called the
Landmarks Lounge and is a small room capable of holding about
30 people. The concept of the rental room is for people that wish
to have some form of gathering such as a birthday, business
meeting, or party before, during, or even after an event in
the auditorium. The room is appointed with comfortable furniture, a bar
service area, and a large flat-screen television that can be used to
see what is happening on stage during a performance. With its location
directly by the original main entrance for the auditorium, it is very
easy to rope off access to the lounge so people can enter the
Landmark's Lounge easily without having to navigate through traffic in
the Arcade. before the auditorium opens for an event.
This concludes the cyber-tour of
the public areas of the Atlanta Fox Theatre. But before the tour fully
ends, let's take a "backstage" look at what makes the Fox tick and how
the some of the magic is made.
Return to
the Tour main page.
