Digging in
Macon likes to boast it has more acreage on the National Register of Historic Places than any other city in Georgia. Most of those are beloved places in pretty decent shape, but we have a lot of history here that falls between the cracks.
One of those is the former Roxy Theatre.
Students in my Civic & Community Journalism class at Mercer University are looking into what we can find out about the Roxy’s history beyond what we already know: It was a predominantly African-American venue that became a church in the 1960s. A young Otis Redding performed there, and Georgia Music Hall of Famer Hamp Swain hosted his radio show there for a brief time.
We’re sharing what we learn as we go and you can see the earlier updates here and here.
So, that brings us to the past week of digging and what we learned.
No story about anything involving Macon’s past can get off the ground without talking to Muriel Jackson in the Genealogy & Archives room at the Washington Memorial Library. She is truly a treasure trove of information and resources. She knew everything from the names of DJs who once played at the Roxy to suggestions on old entertainment newspapers that might have carried ads for the Roxy. Jackson gave us a ton of new leads to pursue.
While at the library, Taylor Drake combed through the old City Directories for clues about when the theater was in operation. The Washington Memorial Archives has copies of the directories dating back to the late 1800s and these have information on who lived where and what they did for a living.
Using the directories, Taylor was able to narrow down that the Roxy likely operated from 1951 to about 1958.
The 1959 City Directory lists the property as vacant and by 1960, the owner had signed an agreement with The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith to rent out the Quonset-style hut.
Some of my other students looked through old newspaper clip files and reference books for any mention of the Roxy. Ireal James found some interesting mentions of the theatre in the book Otis: The Otis Redding Story:
(The book) shares that there were gangs heavily present in Macon, and as a result they would fight over turf often. Since there were “gangs” who lived near the Roxy Theatre, they would declare “the Roxy Theatre as off-limits” to any outsiders, who would attend to see Redding and other performers for the price of 35 cents. The (shows) moved to the Douglass Theatre because the new space was a mid ground for all parties to be brought together.
We also found a couple of repeats of the scant information we already have, as well as some of the pictures.
Other library finds of note: we learned that the Roxy was probably short-lived as a venue for music performances. Its run as a theater was a bit longer. The Roxy was part of the former Little Tybee neighborhood, which was mostly gutted with urban revitalization efforts in the 1960s and 70s.
We also left the library with lots of leads. This included reaching out to Alice Bailey, a DJ who didn’t spin at the Roxy but did see movies there. She told Muriel Jackson it was five cents cheaper than the Douglass.
Some more tidbits we learned outside the library were confirmation from Zelma Redding that Otis did play at the Roxy, but it was before the two met so she doesn’t know what impact it had on his early career. Avery Braxton heard back from the Otis Redding Foundation on this.
We’ve also heard from some of you with information and we appreciate every bit of it.
In essence, we found some new information but we also hit some roadblocks.
A major pitfall was learning we started our project too late to reach some key figures. Ray “Satellite Papa” Brown would have been a great resource but he died in September.
We’ve also not been able to reach anyone with the church. It looks like the property hasn’t been used since at least 2003 and there is a tax lien on the place dating back to 2012.
We’re also still trying to get in touch with Hamp “King Bee” Swain.
We’ll keep sharing what we find and — in some cases — what we don’t find.
Have ideas for who we should contact? Have some information yourself? We’d love to know more! Leave a comment and we will be sure to get back to you. You can also email us at RememberingTheRoxy@gmail.com or #RememberRoxy
