Inside The Fox
Preface
The Fox's exterior was envisioned to look like a walled city taken out
of the Middle East and placed into the heart of Dixie. Continuing the
theme being of a vast city, different Middle-Easterned architecture
styles are employed within to give the building the feel of being
composed of assorted buildings placed next to each other. The
architecture presents each individual interior space differently as
each room follows an individual style inspired by the architecture of
ancient North Africa, Egypt, Northern India, Persia, and Southern
Spain. While some styles are repeated, no room repeats what is
in another inside the Fox.
Furnishing the Fox
Ketcham and Rothschild, a furniture and theater supply company located
in Chicago Illinois, produced all the original furniture for the Fox as
well as the other Fox Theaters of that era. Ketcham and
Rothschild
went out of buiness in 1938. The carpets, draperies, rugs, linoelium,
and other upholstery were sourced from the Greater New York Export
House. Light fixtures were made by Sterling Bronze Company of New York.
Most of the interior hardware (door knobs, door pulls, hinges, etc.)
were crafted by the Shipliegh Hardware Company of St. Louis.
William Fox's wife, Eve Leo Fox, considered herself to
be a "Modern Woman" and she did not want to be a traditional housewife
that was content to sit at home and oversee the household affairs. She
wanted to have a career even though they
were fabulously wealthy. Eve took a personal interest in interior
decoration and considered herself to be a trained interior decorator. Eve did interior decorating jobs for friends and
associates. In addition, William Fox allowed Eve to take personal
supervision of
the interior decoration of some of his theaters.
It was highly publicized that Eve took personal direction in the
interior decoration of the Atlanta Fox however there is no evidence
that
is true. The myth stated that after traveling to the Middle East to
perform "research" specificially for the Atlanta Fox, Eve Fox went to
Chicago with sketches and fabric samples to consult with
representatives of Ketcham and Rothschild. After these meetings, the
company then custom built all of the Fox's furniture. Thanks
to
the extensive research the Fox's first Restoration Director, Rick
Flinn, we know that while all of the Fox's original
furnishings came from
Ketcham and Rothschild, it was all selected from thier standard theater
supply catalog. Once the items were selected from the catalog, it was
then custom made for the Atlanta Fox, perhaps using upholstery choices that
were appropriate for the Fox's interior.
Mrs. Fox may have traveled to the Middle East and she may have had some
input on which patterned upholstery choices that were used on items out
of the Ketcham and Rothschild's catalog, but beyond that
possibility, I highly doubt there was any other involvement by Mrs.
Fox. There
is no evidence that Mrs. Fox ever travelled to Atlanta. If she had, it
would be been of great importance in Atlanta societal circles and would
have been widely reported about in the local newspapers. In the early
1990s, Friends of the Fox performed an in-depth research project of
cataloging every mention of the Atlanta Fox and Shrine Mosque since
1900 in the Atlanta newspaper archives, there was no mention of Eve Fox
ever being in Atlanta.
Another fact
that goes far to further debunk this myth is that the entire
building was owned by the Shriners. I do not believe the Yaarab
Temple, a most decidely
"men's club", would have allowed the wife of their tenant to decorate
their portion of Mosque. With that said, I have found various
photographs of the other Super Fox Theaters (Detriot, St. Louis,
Brooklyn, Washington DC, and San Francisco, that had the same
furnishings and light fixtures as the Atlanta Fox.
Since the time that the Fox opened to the public, it has lost a lot of
its furnishings. I would imagine that during and after the Shriner's
lost ownership
of the building in 1932, is when the furnishings began to leave the
building.
For most of it's life prior to Atlanta Landmark's ownership, people had
very little regard to the preservation of the building. No one dreamed
the Fox complex would become historically important. Managers and
employees would give away or take for themselves pieces of furniture. It is a known fact that some managers gave away some
furniture as gifts. Some furniture that was in poor condition was
simply tossed into the trash.
As shocking as this is today, you have to remember that the Fox, like a
lot of the other grand movie palaces, were constantly considered to be
great white elephants of no real consequence. No one had an inkling
that any of the great movie palaces would go on to become historical
treasures. A lot of furnishings were given away, stolen, or discarded
with no
second thought given to what was being done. When the Fox was in peril
of being torn down after it closed on January 2nd 1975, one person
drove his pickup truck into the Arcade and backed it up to the main
entrance doors of the Fox to help himself to some of the Fox's
furniture. He was caught by Joe Patten who stopped him and made him put
back the furniture. After that, Joe got a group together that moved all
the
furniture to the basement in a secure location where it was kept under
lock
and key until the theater reopened.
Thanks to having photographs taken just days before the Fox opened its
doors, we can see how fully furnished the Fox was. The Fox archives
also had the
original inventory lists of what was purchased for the building. It was
said that
approximately more than a third of the Fox's original furniture was
missing when
Atlanta Landmarks took over the building. After the Fox was saved,
Atlanta Landmarks began a quiet program of attempting to locate as many
of the Fox's original appointments. Atlanta Landmarks has no legal
claim on any of the Fox's furniture that left the building prior to its
ownership, therefore anything that was located either had to be
purchased or donated back to the Fox. Some items that had been given to
its current owners usually had some special attachment that made it
hard to part with. In light of that, people were asked to remember the
Fox in their will so that once they died, the item could be returned to
the Fox. This was a very effective request that most people agreed to.
Overall, the program had good success in retrieving several items and
over the decades, many of the items have returned to the Fox.
Once the Fox was saved, one of the early restoration projects was to
restore and reupholster the furniture that was in the Fox. House staff
and members of Friends of the Fox helped in the stripping and cleaning
of the upholstered furniture. Then volunteers from the Atlanta Area
Technical School undertook the task of rebuilding and reupholstering
the items back to as close to their original appearance. As you can
see, the work that was done is remarkable. Since that time, a lot of
the furniture has gone through yet another round of restoration. During
the first restorations, the emphasis was put on making the furniture
useable with minor consideration of totally restoring it back to its
1929 condition. Now that the Fox is operating with more money to spend
on its maintanence and restoration, the
Preservation Staff at the Fox undertakes extensive research to replace
the materials previously used in repairs and restoration to something
that closely replicates its original upholstery. Just as Rick Flinn did
with the carpet, the staff uses photographs taken in 1929 and some
deduction that Sherlock Holmes would be proud of to figure out the
color palates. The design work is sent to a manufacturer of custom
textiles in the Metro Atlanta area where the patterns are woven into
new upholstery. So far, miles of cloth have been made for this on-going
restoration task.
Other furniture and appointments that were in other Atlanta movie
houses have been added to the Fox's collection when they were shuttered
and razed. It seems this was going
on well before Atlanta Landmarks came onto the scene. According the
John C. McCall Jr, a long time authority on theaters in Atlanta,
some of the furniture from the Atlanta Roxy, made its way to
the
Fox. How and why it was sent over to the Fox is unknown. The most
plausible explanation is that the Georgia Theater Company was operating
those theaters when they were shuttered. Prior to the theater being
razed as much equipment, fixtures, and equipment was sold or salvaged.
Since the
Fox
remained in operation, the decision was made to transfer furnishings to
the Fox before the shuttered theaters were demolished.
Touring the Fox
We are once again standing in the Arcade at the main entrance to the
auditorium. I prefer to be a bit "old school"
and perform my tour somewhat in the way we
did tours in the 1970s. We will enter into the main lobby area and tour
it, the main lounges, as well as the Spanish Room since it is now
considered part of of that portion of the building. We will then travel
upstairs and tour
the Mezzanine as well as the Dress Circle before entering the
Auditorium on the Balcony.
After that, we will return to the mezzanine so we can to tour
the Mosque
portion of
the building that consists of the Grand Staircase, Grand Salon,
Terraces, Egyptian Ballroom and finally the Potentate's Offices
that became Joe Patten's private residence. Finally, we'll take a
"magical carpet
ride" all over to peer into the inner-workings of the Fox to see how
some of its magic is done.
The Foyer
As we enter into the Fox's auditorium, we go through a large foyer
area. This space was a traditional desgin element of many building that
helps keep out unwanted noise, light, and weather from the interior
section of a building. This space is only about fifteen feet deep and
it has an equal number of doors on both sides of the foyer for an easy
flow of traffic through it. On the left-hand wall there is
a large
fountain. There are three orignal fountains located in various places
inside the Fox. Each fountain in the Fox is unique.
When the Fox was new, they were stocked with goldfish
and plants.
As with a lot of things at the Fox, tending to the fountains became
less of a priority and at some point, the fish were never replenished,
then the fountains were completely turned off to reduce the cost of the
building's
water bills. As the building aged, the plumbing fell into disrepair and
the fountains couldn't be used even if they wanted to. To further make
their use impractical, the fountains in the Fox do not use a recycling
water system. The water flows from the lion's head fountain and
eventually drains out of the fountian into the sewer system. To my
knowledge, the fountains have not been used for decades long before the
building was saved in 1975. During the Spanish Room project, a fourth
fountain was added by the ADA-compliant restrooms. I understand that is
a modern fountain with a recyclable water system.
A former Atlanta Landmarks board member passed many years ago and made
a large donation to the Fox, requesting that money (all that was
estimated to be needed for the project) be used to make the fountains
recyclable and usable. One of the policies I disagree with Atlanta
Landmarks on is that if you make a monetary donation, it is not
guarranteed it will be used for the purpose you express the donation is
for. I understand the donation was for over $50,000, which is a big
deal, and it was very important for the deceased that the fountains be
returned to service, but the Fox did not use the money to renovate the
fountains.
On the other side of the foyer is a large hot water radiator.
There are
several of these radiators used throughout the building for localized
heat. Like a lot of other buildings of the period, the Fox
uses hot water that is pumped throughout the building to radiant heaters
to warm areas throughout the Fox complex.The radiator is concealed by
an ornate metal grille. The grille not only conceals the radiator, but
serves as a heat shield. for obvious safety reasons.
The Lobby
Crossing over the second threshold of the foyer, you enter into the
world of make believe as you step into the main lobby. If you were
coming for a movie back in the day, you'd be greeted by a member of the
house staff, asking you for your ticket as you enter the lobby. He'd
take the ticket and drop
it into the brass ticket chopper. During the day, the wheel on
the side of the chopper would be turned and the tickets would be
shredded. Obviously that would make the ticket unusable. Today ticket
management is done via electronics that scan the ticket as you enter.
There are a tremendous amount of things in the Fox that are not what
they would appear to be. The entire interior of the Fox is entirely
covered in plaster of paris that has been made to look like stone,
brick, mortar, canvas, or wood. There is not one wall in the public
areas that is not covered in plaster. Many tricks were used to make the
plaster look different and have the texture of other materials. My
favorite story is that when they were doing the stonework, cereals like
Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies were ground up and put in the plaster to
give it a different textures. Rick Flinn, the Fox's original
Restoration Director states this is a myth, but whatever they did gives
the plasterwork a very realistic texture.
Even the wood beams are plaster. They were poured into molds on the
floor and once they were hardened, they would be put in place and
finally decorated. I was told that craftsmen from
St. Louis Illinois were brought to Atlanta just to create the beams.
Restoring the beams and other plasterwork have proved to be one of the
toughest parts of the restoration effort here at the Fox. The knowledge
and craftsmanship of the artisans who built the Fox had been lost over
the years. The Restoration Staff had to re-discover how things were
done in order to restore, then preserve the building. Making this even
tougher, Fox artisans had to not only work at replicating what the
original construction crew did, but they now have to take into account
the current age of what they are repairing and make their work look
like the rest of the materials surrounding it.
What looks to be metal panels or gold leaf is also plaster that was
created in a mold, then glued into place. Once affixed to the wall, a
ultra-thin metal "leaf" was adhered to the plaster then stained to make
it look like silver, gold, or brass. The result is so believable,
during the "Dark Days" of saving the Fox, many people asked why
couldn't the gold leaf be removed and sold in order to help save the
building.
Around the Fox, you will notice the lavish use of orante patterned
artwork that has an organic, plant-like look to it. This is taken from
the Islamic tradition of the areas that the Fox draws its inspiration
from. In Islam, it is forbidden to depict images of men, women, or
animals for fear of creating idols that people could worship. Therefore
artisans employed floral or geometric designs that are known as the
Arabesque style. These patterns are used extensively on the upper walls
of the Lobby.
On the right hand wall, where the entrance to the Spanish Room
concession stands is now, was the original location of the first
concession stand for the whole theater. Originally, there were no
concession stands in the building. During that period, there were
street
vendors that sold food and drink you were allowed to
bring into the theater. This was at a time when
the concept of selling food and drink as an added revenue stream had
not
been realized. At the time the original large movie theaters and the
grand Movie Palaces were built, the film industry was trying to
shun a reputation of being low-brow entertainment. Film
industry
moguls
were eager to make film as important as other
performing arts. Since people did not have snacks or refreshments
during the opera, ballet, or plays, the moguls felt there should be no
snacks in their theaters too. That is, until they realized they could
make a buck off of it!!!
The moguls and film exhibitors eventually realized how profitable it
was for the street vendors to sell snacks and drinks to their
patrons. When the decision was made to sell concessions in the
Fox, a small,
single concession stand was built for patrons to visit as they first
walked into the lobby. It is mind boggling to think that one small
stand right by the main doors could handle the needs of such a large
theater.
Further down that wall are a pair of ornate elevators. They are the
only elevators in the auditorium portion of the complex. They are
upholstered with hand decorated leather panels that bear an
Egyptian motif. The elevators were designed to be operated by a staff
member. During most of the Fox's pre-1975 life, they were not used so
the number of staff members could be kep to a minimum.
Today, one person is usually tasked to operate one of the elevators
during performances so the Fox complies with federal ADA regulations.
As amazing as it may sound, when the Fox opened, there were no
concession stands inside the Fox. In time, movie theaters tried to
generate more income and that was accomplished by offering concessions.
At the Fox, a basic concession stand was built on northern-most wall of
the lobby. In 1953, when the Fox was renovated, the old concession
stand was
removed and a much larger, round Art Deco styled concession
stand was
constructed in the center of the lobby. At the same time, other
renovations were done to modernize the aging theatre. The very worn
original carpet was replaced with a carpet that had a generic floral
print, which the house staff named the "Paramount Swirl" design.
Between 1953 and 1976 when the Fox was a movie house, having a much
bigger stand in the center of the lobby was not a problem as it never
had a full house of patrons. However,
when the Fox reopened and continually had sold out
performances, the
round concession stand became a huge problem that caused traffic congestion and
created a lot of distracting noise during performances. In
addition to the traffic
and noise, the concession stand was over 30 years old and its aged
plumbing developed serious leaks that was causing serious damage to the
ladies lounge located
directly below it. It was a no-brainer that the stand had to be removed
and concession service relocated.
The problem was solved when the Spanish Room, whose original purpose
was a rehearsal hall for the Shirners musical units. the room was
re-purposed into the main concession area for the auditorium. Once that
project was completed, the lobby concession stand was demolished, the
leaky plumbing removed, and carpeting placed over where it once stood.
At first this made a huge positive difference in the Lobby, but over
time and the desire to sell more and more concessions, the management
decided to place additional concession stands in back into the Lobby
area. The
largest addition was alarge consesion stand that sits in front of the auditorium, between
the left and right center aisles. There are other non-permanent stands
that are placed in the lobby that can be moved and placed as needed.
With the additon of these new stands, traffic congestion once
again returned and is a major issue.
During the conversion of the old Potentate's office into the apartment
living space for Joe Patten, Joe discovered a ragged square
of
the orginal carpet was found under a filing cabinet. That combined with
black and white photographs taken prior to the theatre's opening
allowed Rick Flinn to be able to achieve his goal of exacting
authenticity. While the scrap piece of carpeting positively identified
the colors used in the main carpet pattern, Rick had to deduce how
other colors were used in other parts of the carpet by deduction from
the color palates used in each room on the furniture and walls of those
areas. A company in Ireland was commissioned to make the new carpets
that was weaved by hand at a cost of approximately $125,000,which was
donated specifically for the carpet by a single individual. This
process used to weave the carpets was so labor intensive; it is no
longer done. The company informed the Fox that this was their last
project as they were going out of business. The carpet was installed in
1981, just before the world premiere of Burt Reynold's movie Sharky's
Machine. Due to the tight budget, very little extra carpet was
manufactured, but there was
one peice large enough to cover the area the old concession
stand stood once it
was torn out following the completion of the Spanish Room concession
area project in the late 1980s.
Being a volunteer at the Fox for several years before the carpet was
put in, I can say that of all the things that were done at the Fox
during the "early years", nothing could compare to the effect having
the new carpet installed had. The old "Paramount Swirl" carpet was old,
worn, tattered and very dirty. Having it all ripped out and replaced by
bright new carpet made the Fox look tremendously better. You
could tell the Fox had made the turn from once being threatened by a
wrecking ball to the Grand Dame of Peachtree Street.
On the left wall of the lobby is a row of doors that lead to another
foyer and thorugh it, the exterior doors on the Ponce deLeon side of
the building. As I mentioned before, this was the planned main entrance
to building before Mr. Fox became associated with the building. Because
this was envisioned as the main entrance and
construction was well underway prior to the change, this pathway is a
lot more ornate than that of the Peachtree foyer. The Fox Theatre
eventually became a "Smoke-Free" environment because
not only is smoking a personal health issue and a potential fire
hazard, but tobacco smoke also damages all the hard work that has been
put into
restoring the building by covering it with a film of tar and
nicotine. In order to accomodate those who just
have to smoke during their visit to the Fox, they are allowed to walk
out to a roped-off area just outside the Ponce deLeon Avenue doors in
order to smoke during a performance.
Originially, the wall between the lounge staircase and the Ponce doors
was the location of theater's office, storage room, and coat check.
When the theater opened, this office was the one and only office for
the entire theater until the new "corporate" offices were built in the
1980s. While the coat check is no longer offered to the general public,
it was used for the volunteer usher staff to store their belongings as
they work during performances. Over 150 volunteer ushers and staff are
the standard compliment for a show, so this was a valuable asset.
Finally there was a small room located towards the southern end of the
lobby that was used for storage and other staff related tasks.
The eastern wall of the lobby played a very important part in saving
the building when the Fox suffered a major fire in April of 1996. This
is a solid brick wall and it served as a vital firewall that prevented
the fire from spreading out of the southeastern corner of the building.
There was smoke damage in the auditorium as well as some water damage
in the Spanish Room, but the fire and the water that put it out, were
largely kept out because of this wall. After the fire, everything on
the other side of the wall had to be rebuilt. Through adversity comes
advantages and when that portion of the building was rebuilt, it was
heavily reconfigured with an eye on the long term needs of the Fox. The
Fox's operating offices now take up the vast majority of that section
of the building. The coat check room is now located where the old
office used to be while the new event office door is where the old coat
check room door was. The old storage room is now the "Landmarks
Lounge". The Lounge is is a small meeting room that can hold
up to 30 guests in an intimate setting before, during, and after a
performance. As with the other rooms and halls, this room is for rent
for special occassions such as birthday parties, or small corporate
functions that are held in conjunction with a performance at the Fox.
The Spanish Room is the final part of our main lobby tour. This is the
one area of the Fox that has been most altered since its construction.
The Spanish Room was originally used originally as a rehearsal area for
the Yaarab Temple's musical performance groups. In its original
configuration, it was a room that had three generously sized private
rehearsal rooms about 12 feet square. The room also connected
to two restrooms, and a small
kitchen. Behind the kitchen were stairs and an elevator that
led to another larger kitchen, utility rooms, dressing rooms,
and
showers for the
Shriners. There was also a back entrance to the stage located in
the Egyptian Ballroom.
The main room had approximately 5,000 square feet of
flooring, about the same size as the Grand Salon. Directly
below
the Spanish Room was
another 5,000 square foot area that contained the Shrine musical unit's
locker room, showers, dressing area and storage area for their
instruments and gear. A ggod portion of those areas were demolished
during the Spanish
Room's conversion to a concession area for the main
auditorium.
Today, what is left of those areas is used as the central recieving and
storage area for the Fox's concession and ballroom food service. There
is a large modern walk-in cooler and freezer. Beverages are pumped up
to the concession areas from this level.
Because this was not a true public area like the Egyptian Ballroom or
Grand Salon, the Spanish Room was not highly decorated. It did however
receive wooden beams in the ceiling, ornatmented chandeliers,
and capital detailing above the windows.
During in the
1940s to 1975, it
was used as offices for the Georgia Theater Company.
From what I personally saw during my time helping to restore the room,
the entranceway to the room from the Arcade was given a modernization
treatment that was typical of the era. Cheap, inexpensive wood paneling
was fitted to the walls. Industrial-grade low-pile carpeting was
literally glued to the floor tiles leading into the room. Finally, a
cheap wire frame drop ceiling with fluorescent light fixtures was
installed to conceal the original ceiling of the entranceway. The
original light fixtures of the room were removed and office partitions
were placed about the room to create cubicals for workers to operate
from. When Atlanta Landmarks took over the building, it was decided to
give the room a quick restoration effort so the room could be used as a
third small rental hall. When I started my volunteer restoration work
at the Fox, I found myself part of that effort.
Considering what was underneath the paneling and drop ceiling, it was
an absolutely terrible thing that was done to this room. I spent many
hours using a backhoe scrapping off the cement and foam backing from
the carpet off the floor.The room began to return to how it was
envisioned to originally be. When I first saw the room, it had been
painted stark white. It was decided to paint the room in an
orangish-color. Later, Rick Flinn repainted the room in a more inviting
tan-tone that better reflected the rest of the Fox interior and. looked
much more appropriate for its stucco-like surface Rick Flinn fitted the
room with chandeliers and sconces that complimented the original beam
work since the originals fitted in 1929 were long gone. The hardwood
floor was resurfaced and sealed. Friends of the Fox worked with Rick
later on to build window valences that went over the windows that now
overlooked the open air BellSouth parking lot. The hard work led to a
room worthy of being called a ballroom. By the end of the 1970s, the
room was pretty much back to it's pre-GTC era look.
By the mid-1980s, it was decided the Fox needed more room in the lobby
and it was needed more than a third ballroom. This is when the idea
came abot to renovate the Spanish Room into the main auditorium
concession area for the Lobby. Over 1.5 million dollars was donated to
fund the Spanish Room project. Work began in 1986 and was the most
ambitious project undertaken at the Fox. As it worked out the Lobby and
the Spanish Room area both shared a common segment of wall. It was on
the
south east corner of the Spanish Room and the north east corner of the
Lobby near the entrance of the Arcade. While they shared a common
wall, the Spanish Room was approximately 38 inches higher
than
the floor in the lobby. In order to overcome this, Rick Flinn decided
that the rehersal rooms as well as the connecting hallway behind them
would be totally removed and that portion of the floor dropped to match
the Lobby level. A staircase would be constructed as well as
an ADA-compliant ramp so patrons could have easy access up and into the
Spanish
Room.
On the other three walls of the main Spanish Room hall where the
restrooms, kitchen, and exterior windows were, recessed concession
stations were built into the walls so the original size of the room
could be maintained. Since the northern wall was an exterior wall, a
new exterior wall was built approximately 8 feet out from the original
wall for the concession service areas could be built between the two
walls. On the outside, the new exterior wall helped to clean
up
the
appearance of that side of the Fox by serving as a portion of the fire
escape stairs that replaced rather old iron stairs that were tacked
onto the building.
In order to make the renovated area look as if it was originally part
of the Fox, Rick took exacting care to select paint colors and
appointments to integrate the room into the rest of the building.
Something he had to take into consideration is that the room would have
totally different lighting from the rest of the Lobby. Rick had to pick
special paint shades so that under the new lighting conditions, the
room would look like a natural extension of the Lobby The design of the
room incorporated ornamental appointments from other areas of the Fox,
such as a new fountain and door trim detail into the new portion of the
room in order for it to integrate into the overall design of the Fox.
An example of this detail was the continuation of the faux wooden beams
that decorate the ceiling. The beams in the main area of the Spanish
Room are original to the room with new beams that were created for the
space where the rehearsal rooms and hallway once were. The new beams
are virtually indistinguishable from the old ones. In addition to the
new details, pretty much all of the original detailing of the Spanish
Room remained intact. To help dampen noise in the room, sound deadening
panels were installed on the ceiling between the wood beams.
The is one other item about the room I should mention. The original
main room and rehersal rooms were fitted with an oak wood floor. Not
too long before the renovation project took place, a lot of
money
was spent on striping and refinishing the floor. Because of the amount
of traffic that would be in the room, it was felt that a wooden floor
would act as a reflecting device that would amplify sound in the room.
It was decided early on in the project that a large portion of the room
would have to be carpeted. During the deconstruction phase of the
project, nothing was done to protect the floor and a good portion of it
was badly damaged. When the room was completed, portions of the wood
floor that were not damaged were used to reconstruct the wood floor
that travels along the edge of the room. A new carpet that was
installed was made by Couristan in England specifically for this room
and takes up the majority of the floor space.
Completing the project, part of the area used for two of the Peachtree
Street retail storefronts was used to build much-needed new
ADA-compliant restrooms. As with a lot of things
with the Fox, the building design was not very friendly to those who
have handicaps or mobility issues. The restrooms in the Fox were not
ADA-compliant and this was something that simply had to be
addressed. To remedy the situation, a significant portion of Retail
Bays
Seven and Eight were used to construct the new ADA-Compliant restrooms.
They do not have additional lounge areas as the other auditorium
restroom areas of
the Fox have. Today the remaining portion of those retail bays are
being used
as The Whisper Room, a additonal lounge area for Churchill Grounds, the
jazz
lounge that occupies Bay Nine.
It took over two years and over 1.5 million dollars to transform the
Spanish Room to its new purpose. The result was a spectacular
transformation of an odd room configuration into an area that greatly
compliments the splendor of the auditorium. Great care was made to make
the new work blend into the structure and it was so successful that you
cannot tell this room was not originally this way. In 1988, the project
was completed when a section of southwest corner wall was removed from
the room to open it up to the auditorium lobby. At its dedication, a
plaque was installed in the western wall of the Spanish Room dedicating
the room to Benjamin Massell. During the "Save the Fox" movement,
Massell personally donated over $400,000 to the cause while asking to
remain anonymous. Through his donations, it spurred others to make
large contributions that helped to make "Save the Fox" successful.
Massell died in 1985 and the room was dedicated to his memory.
Completeing our tour of the Lobby area, we take a visit to the Main
Lobby Men's and Ladies Lounges. Please note, I am not using the word
"lounges" as a nice word to replace restroom or toilets. These are
truly lounge areas. These are not just places to go do what nature
demands of us to do from time to time, but rather they are lounges
designed for patrons to go to so they can escape the goings-on in the
auditorium for more than just a few minutes. You have to go back to the
1920s when the Fox was designed to understand why this is.
In the day, theaters such as the Fox held only two showings per day.
There was an afternoon matinee as well as the evening performance. The
evening performance was usually much longer than the matinee. Prior to
the
feature film ever beginning, there were usually a number of live
performing acts that harken back to the days of vaudeville and would
usually take as much, if not more time than the feature film. A whole
performance could run three or four hours, depending on the acts and
the
feature film length. People usually wanted to take a break, go
for a "nature break", attend to their hair and make-up, smoke a cigar
or cigarette, talk to friends, even browse a newspaper before returning
to the auditorium as the performances or film were taking place. The
lounge areas in movie palaces offered a very refined area to
escape to with that perception of being "king or queen for a day" while
at the Fox. In the Atlanta Fox, there are four lounge areas,
two below the
main Lobby and two on the Mezzanine levels.
There is a staircase that leads down to the lower lounges as well as to
the
Fox's Hospital. As you may have noticed the main level lounges are
not accessible to anyone who have mobility issues. In the time that the
building was constructed, this was not a major concern. If someone who
was handicapped needed to use a lounge, they were taken up to the
Mezzanine level where the lounges were on that floor level.
The entrance to the main lounges simulate descending into a Moorish
fortress with its simulated atmospheric sky, stonewalls, and wooden
accents. At the top of the stairs are two large faux urns that harken
to the tales of the Ali Baba and the Arabian Nights. Walking down the
stairs to the left leads to the men's lounge and the women's lounges to
the right. There is a connecting hallway under the staircase that at
one time had a wall erected in the middle of it to prevent the improper
intermingling of the sexes. Eventually, that wall was removed and there
is no trace of it to be seen. From my
memories of the wall, whoever built it, did a very good job of
replicating the original stone appearance of the wall because it looked
as if it was original.
In 1922, British explorer Howard Carter made the discovery of the
century by finding Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb. Prior to that, while the
Western
World saw things Arabic and Egyptian as very exotic, the
discovery
of King Tut's Tomb caused an explosion of the craze of all things
Egyptian. With the Shriners already employing an Arabic theme, it was
only natural to have parts of the Fox decorated in a pure
Egyptian
motif. There are three predominantly Egyptian areas of the Fox: The
lower men's lounge, the Mezzanine level ladies lounge, and the Banquet
Hall, now called the Egyptian Ballroom.
The men's lounge was almost purely inspired by King Tut's tomb. When
Carter first looked into a small opening into the chamber, he was asked
what did he see, to which he replied "Wonderful things!" As the team
excavated the tomb, they discovered it to be sparsely decorated, but it
was stuffed wall to wall and floor to ceiling with all sorts of
things thought the boy king would need in the afterlife. As it
turned out,
the tomb was the exception, not the rule, leading to speculation that
the King was quickly buried in an available tomb and not in what would
have normally been used for a member of the royal family.
The overall theme is what a pharoh's burial tomb was perceived to look
like, based on the discovery of Tut's tomb. It is a simple room with
little decoration. Winged Scarabs appear over the doorways and the
furniture is heavily carved with lotus blossoms. There are two pedestal
lamps that are replicas of items discovered in Egyptian tombs. On
the western wall of the lounge is a relief of a Pharaoh or some
other person of royalty or importance riding his chariot. In
the
Mezzanine Ladies Lounge, there are
two similar reliefs. All three have been determined to not
represent any
particular person. They were simply art pieces that were found in a
supply catalog.
The floor is tiled with plain tile squares and the furnishings are
wooden with minimal
upholstery reflecting the artifacts removed from Tut's tomb. As in all
the lounge areas, there is a built-in telephone booth so one could make
a telephone call and have some form of privacy.
There is a Fox legend that when the lower men's lounge was completed,
a small alcove was marked with hieroglyphs that depicted the
occupations of
the various craftsman that worked on the building. While some of these
heiroglyphs are authentic glyphs from the Egypt, some of these glyps
are made-up as certain construction methods and machines had
yet
to be invented in antiquity. An impressive Egyptian-themed frosted lamp
with various glyphs has been placed in the alcove.
On the eastern wall there is the main hallway that is lined with
urinals on either side. It connects the room to a larger room where the
toilets and
sinks are located.
Directly across the hall from the Men's Lounge is the Fox's Hospital.
Today, we can chuckle over this area being called a Hospital, but when
the Fox was new, it was a cutting-edge medical center and capable of
giving pretty much the same treatments as an average emergency room of
the period sans X-ray and surgical suites. Over the years while it is
not documented, it is reported that at least one baby was born in the
hospital. Over time with the advent of Paramedics and a major hospital
located just two
blocks from the Fox, the hospital was no longer staffed with a nurse on
duty and the room became non-functional. Eventually, it
became used as a storage room as it is now used today.
The ladies' lounge to the right of the hospital has a heavy Turkish
theme that is supposed to represent what would be seen inside a Shiek's
Harem. In many ways, it is the most luxurious room inside the Fox
Complex. It is furnished with comfortable over-stuffed sofas and
chairs.
As it is with the
other lounge areas, the women's lounges are much more lavish and
luxuriously appointed than the men's. At the rear of the lounge is a
very ornate key-holed shaped door which originally was a broom closet.
In 1989, the closet was reworked into an emergency exit. I am told
that the exitway is not longer there, perhaps due to how the Fox was
reconstructed after the fire of 1996. The door's keyhole shape is the
only contoured door in the building. Adorning the lounge area, there
are faux backlit windows to continue the impression
of being
part of a
spectacular palace rather than a closed off room in a basement. The
floor is fitted with
a unique plush blue carpet.
As with the other three lounges, there is a built-in phone booth
located in one of the walls. There are two smaller ajoining rooms to
this lounge. the first room is a small simple room that now contains a
few chairs and a sofa. The ceilings have faux wood beams to add to the
atmosphere of the room. The next room in the lounge is about
half
the size of
the previous room and is appointed with several vanites for ladies to
touch up
their make-up and to do things such as write notes on. Back during the
early days of the Fox, the vanities were stocked with Fox
Theatre stationary and post cards. The vanities were fitted
with a
small pair of
Sphinxes that sat on either side of the table top. I was told that
these
figureheads became a favorite target for patrons to steal, even to this
day! For that reason, the metal Sphinxes have been replaced with
composite cast units that are removed and replaced depending on the
function being held at the Fox and the anticipated threat
level of
theft.
Don't presume the sphinxes are removed for just Rock concerts, as more
sphinxes have gone missing during classical performances!
The actual restrooms were available from either the vanity room or the
smaller room. It was
expected a patron would enter via the small room, then exit
into
the vanity room so they could check their appearance before
exiting the lounge.
As it so happens to be, during intermissions, there is a great demand
for the restrooms and because of "nature's design", it simply
takes longer for ladies to cue through the restrooms than men do. This
causes extremely long lines to use the ladies rooms. After
the
1996 fire, a much needed expansion took place. The lower ladies
restroom area shared a common wall with the
original usher's locker room that was destroyed by
the fire. To help the
ladies restroom, that area was reworked into an expansion of the
existing restroom area. This doubled the number of stalls.
Care
was taken to exactly replicate the look of the original restroom area.
You are hard pressed to tell where old ends and new
begins. One point of note is that the original restroom tiles on the
walls were made by hand. This method caused inconcsistant colorization
of the tiles and if you look hard, you can see the different colors in
the tiles. In the new section, the tiles were made by modern methods
and the color is consistent and uniform.
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