The First of Many

You can consider this the ground floor post. We brought you in — now it’s time to give you a lay of the land.

Our class is looking into the Roxy, an African-American entertainment hub that later became a church in the 1960s. We’re trying to find out more, because if you look into the Roxy’s old building today, all you see is the dark, dusty front room.

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Two broken windows are the only source of light in the place.

For those hoping to find out more about the history of the Roxy, there are a few photos of the old building, which you can see in our first post. There are some rare mentions of the old hub that are already on our radar.

And that’s… about it.

So we’re essentially starting our process with a blank slate. There are a lot of places we can start off looking, so here’s a breakdown of our angles from Week 1, up to October 1. Here’s hoping we can shed some light.

Music History

Jackson Dillard is trying to get in touch with Hamp Swain (“King Bee”), who was a DJ for WIBB in Macon. His “Teenage Party” show started at the Roxy and then moved to the Douglass Theatre.

Taylor Drake emailed Lisa Love, who was previously director of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, to see if she knew about the Roxy Theatre. She didn’t. But Love did recommend that we talk to Jamie Weatherford at Rock Candy Tours.

Avery Braxton contacted Leila Regan-Porter at the Otis Redding Foundation, because Hamp Swain said Redding played at the Roxy in his early days as a part of his radio talent show. Regan-Porter said that she would contact Zelma Redding, Otis’s wife, to find out more.

African-American History

Ireal James contacted Jeanne Cyriaque, who works on African American History preservation for the state of Georgia.

James said that Cyriaque “has not seen the Roxy and had heard very little about the place.” She gave us some information on what is involved with historic recognition of a building.

The Property’s Past

Jenna Eason and Jaclyn Ramkissoon took on the task of trying to get in touch with the owners of the Church of Lord Jesus Christ of Apostolic Faith. Here’s a snapshot of their process:

“…Called the phone number for the building, The Roxy, and found that it was disconnected…
Wrote another note and left it in the mailing slot for someone to be able to contact us if they check the building…
Knocked on the door to the house right across the street from The Roxy. He just told us to look in the phone book and then shut the door…
Visited the house next door, and they said they did not know who owned the building or still checked on it. They did say that they saw Georgia Power walk in and out of there a few times.”

I spoke with Ethiel Garlington, the executive director of the Historic Macon Foundation, to find out a little more about how we could track down the owners of the Roxy and what kind of opportunities there could be down the line.

Like a lot of people in Macon, Garlington didn’t know much about the property, but he also suggested we talk with Kim Campbell and Muriel Jackson at the Washington Memorial Library.

As far as future opportunities go, Garlington mentioned that Historic Macon has a walking tour of African-American history that could possibly incorporate the Roxy, and that the foundation might be able to help us further depending on what we find.

Debbie Blankenship went to explore the property and tax records. She found that the Kaplan family bought several pieces of land along Hazel Street in the 1920s. The property stayed in the family, and was eventually given to Phil Kaplan in the 1950s.

According to Blankenship, it looks like Kaplan signed an agreement in the early 1950s to buy the theater from the Southeastern Theatre Co. from Atlanta.

The next mention of the theater, she said, was in property records for July 13, 1956. There was a letter from the High Theatre Corporation out of Nashville and they noted they were in a five-year lease for the property. At some point before the lease was up, the theater must have ceased to be, because Kaplan signed a new agreement with the Church of Lord Jesus Christ of Apostolic Faith on Sept. 17, 1960. The agreement — which was signed by Bishop SC Johnson — said the church would essentially rent-to-own the property.

The church became the official owners on Sept. 18, 1969 and they have owned it ever since.

So where does that leave us?

We’re a week into our project and are hoping for information from Hamp Swain, Zelma Redding, Tonya Parker, the Douglass Theatre and the church.

In the meantime, we’re hoping to find out more through Kim Campbell, Jamie Weatherford, Muriel Jackson, Georgia Power, old Macon Telegraph articles and the Kaplan family.

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