Thursday, April 07, 2016

The Fox Theater Phantom Died





Joe Patten, the Phantom of the Fox Theater, has died.   He moved in the Fox in 1979, using some office space as his apartment.  Joe repaired the Fox's Organ, "Mighty Mo", and brought it back to life.  It played as good as when Bob Van Camp played it in the 1950s.

And another time he smelled smoke and found a fire in the theater, and called the fire department plus started moving the irreplaceable Fox artifacts away from the fire.  

As an award the was given a makeshift apartment where he could live the rest of his life, which he took them up on.
I remember reading that Joe was a diabetic so maybe they didn't expect him to live very long.  Apparently he did.

The Atlanta Historical Society tried to renege on the promise and evict him.  I don't know how that came out.

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