Joe Patten is an Atlanta legend, although until recently, he was known more commonly by his nickname than his given name.  Joe Patten is the Phantom of the Fox, the man who calls Atlanta’s most famous concert venue, the Fabulous Fox Theatre, home. These days, 83-year old Joe is fighting his landlord in order to stay in his apartment in the 1920’s movie palace.

This is a story that many have heard before, where younger family members and friends make sure that their elderly relatives are safe in their most senior years. This story is notable because of Joe’s address - 660 Peachtree Road, inside the Moorish style theatre, designed to "out-Baghdad Baghdad."  Joe has called his 3,600 square foot apartment in the upper reaches of the theatre home since the late 70s, when he became the caretaker of the then recently-rescued landmark.

 In a metropolitan area that has seen hard times in this recession and in which many people have lost their homes, the fight to keep the Phantom in his lair has ignited a grassroots movement, with  8,000 Facebook fans (and counting),  protest rallies and numerous media stories, including Monday’s article in the New York Times. A boycott of Fox events is now encouraged by the organizers.

 “Joe is such a popular figure,” says Samantha Molineaux Graham, a family friend and organizer of Save the Phantom of the Fox, the group seeking more favorable terms for Patten's lease. “He’s extremely generous and gives tours of  his apartment and the Fox."

Joe Patten himself is 83 years old, with a smile that lights up the room and eyes that twinkle behind black framed glasses. Although in remarkably good health for his age, Joe is a diabetic and a recent problem with his blood sugar landed him in the hospital for 20 days.  Coming home to his apartment, he was given a letter with revised terms to the lifetime lease he signed in 1979. Patten refused to sign the new occupancy agreement because it would be month to month and does not allow guests without a prior written approval from the owner of the Fox Theatre, Atlanta Landmarks, no overnight guests, and no in-home healthcare, and he can be evicted  with 60 days notice, Graham says. Patten currently has an in-home nurse checking in daily.

“This is not a workable agreement,” says Graham. “I think they (Atlanta Landmarks) just thought they’d bully the old man until he gets out.” Graham calls the board’s concerns for Patten’s health “disingenuous.” “He’s in great health. He has lots of family and friends to help him and no one wants to see his apartment taken away from him.”

Patten has a gift for fixing things, and is a fan  of classic cars and movie house organs, which is what brought him to the Fox Theatre in the 1950s. The Mighty Mo, the Möller organ, second only to Radio City’s organ, needed repair, and Patten and friends convinced the owners of the Fox to let them restore it. Through the years, Patten stayed and explored the grand structure.

Patten is credited with saving the Fox Theatre on at least two occasions. First, in the 1970s, when the run-down movie theatre was purchased by neighboring corporation Southern Bell which planned to demolish the structure. Patten and friends organized Atlanta Landmarks and raised sufficient funds to purchase the theatre, eventually restoring it and see it come into its glory as Atlanta’s, and truly one of the country’s, premier concert venues. In 1979, Patten was offered a lifetime lease on an unused portion of the theatre in exchange for his serving as caretaker of the building.  He sold  his home and spent his own money to create the apartment, filling it with family antiques and articles acquired in his travels.

(The Fox, incidentally, is not the site of the 1939 premiere of "Gone with the Wind"- that was the Loew’s Grand, in the heart of downtown, which was destroyed by fire and then torn down to make way for the Georgia Pacific building in the 1980s. The Fox is located across the street from the Georgian Terrace Hotel where the movie's actors stayed for the premiere.)

 The photographs of Joe Patten are provided by Lisa Dodd Hobart  and more of Hobart's pictures from the protest may be found here.

 The photos of the Fox Theatre are from Wikipedia.