14 November 1911: Ty Cobb at the Colonial Theatre

On this day in 1911, the Athens Banner published an overview of the previous night's performance of The College Widow at the Colonial Theatre downtown, starring baseball great Ty Cobb.

Many baseball players took work as actors in the off-season, some appearing in serious plays, others in vaudeville theater acts, and still others in goofy silent films. Cobb, however, believed acting would not fit him, turning down the original offer to do the play by saying, "I'd go out there and make a horse's ass of myself."

Eventually, playwright George Ade and vaudevillian Eddie Foy, both friends of Cobb, convinced him to take the part of Billy Bolton, an All-American halfback. He had a three-month contract worth $10,000.00. 

Large crowds turned out to see Cobb more than the play itself, which was a romantic comedy about an attractive young widow luring athletes to her school to play for the football team. The College Widow was made into a silent film in 1927, and later a talkie in 1930 with the title Eleven Men and a Girl and featuring actual members of 1929 All-American football team.

When The College Widow came to the south, Cobb was honored with dinners and presentations in every town. In Athens, "a Dutch dinner" was given at the Elks Club after his performance, and during the repeated encores after the second act of the play, Cobb was presented with a football sweater emblazoned with a Georgia "G" by the Georgia football team captain, "Kid" Woodruff; Cobb wore the sweater during the third act of the play. Cobb's mother and sister were in the audience at the Colonial, travelling from Royston to see him in the performance.

However, Cobb was right that he did not have the temperament for acting. He would drink between acts, and argued with Ade about how few of the comedy's jokes were his lines, causing rewrites as the play toured. After six weeks, Cobb quit the play in Cleveland, and returned to his home in Detroit. 

1911 was one of Ty Cobb's most successful years as a ball player: he hit .420, had 248 hits, scored 147 runs, had 144 runs batted in, stole 83 bases, and lead the league in doubles and triples. Of his brief foray into acting, Cobb later said, "I looked silly as an actor, but the money was right."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1911 - Nov. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Ty Cobb by Charles C. Alexander in the biography collection.
• My Life in Baseball: The True Record by Ty Cobb, with Al Stump in the biography collection.
• Cobb: The  Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played Baseball by Al Stump in the biography collection.
• Cooperstown Confidential by Ze'ev Chafets in the general collection.
• 100 Years of Major League Baseball by David Nemec in the general collection.
• Baseball: An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward in the general collection. 

This Day Flashback: What's New is Old

This summer, due to construction, the Athens-Clarke County Library's Summer Reading Performance Series will be having their programs at the Clarke Central High School auditorium.  

The weekly performances at Clarke Central reminded us of a story This Day in Athens featured in 2010 about a similar concert program for children hosted by the volunteer members of the Athens Library Association in February, 1915. At the time, Athens Library Association was a group of volunteers with donated books in a donated room in the Southern Mutual Building downtown. 

While they had Saturday morning storytimes for children in the corner of their library room, to host a larger, fuller concert program, the library volunteers used the auditorium at Athens High School on Wednesday afternoons. (Summer programs would be held outdoors, as the auditorium would be too warm.) The most popular books in the children's collection at the time were Beatrix Potter's tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Just So Stories, and The Little Princess.

The 2012 Athens-Clarke County Library programs programs will be held in the Clarke Central auditorium on Thursday mornings at 10:30am.  They will feature local storytellers, ventriloquists, puppeteers, music, stories, sing-alongs, poetry, and dancing.  The first program is this Wednesday, May 24th, hosted by the Children's Area staff.

To learn about each week's show, as well as other Summer Reading programs offered by the Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area, go to the Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program website or pick up a purple flyer at the library.

Learn More:

• This Day in Athens, 27 February 1915: "The Pleasure and Privilege of a Story Hour."
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library web page.
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library brochure. (pdf)
• Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area web page.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Story of the Athens Public Library by Susan Frances Barrow Tate in the Heritage collection.
• Books by Beatrix Potter in the children's fiction collection.
• The Little Princess by Frances Hodges Burnett in the children's fiction collection.
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling in the children's fiction and young adult collections.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in the children's fiction collection.

27 September 1881: A Chapel for Lucy Cobb Institute

On this day in 1881, the Southern Banner told of the path forward to building a chapel at the girls' school, Lucy Cobb Institute:

Nellie Stovall wrote her letter as part of a class exercise where all the students wrote letters to philanthropists in hopes of raising money to build the chapel. She chose New York banker and philanthropist George Ingraham Seney, who had given $130,000 to Emory University just a few years earlier. 

As luck would have it, her letter arrived at Seney's desk while Reverend T. S. Burke of Macon was visiting, and extolled the reputation of the Institute, thus encouraging Mr. Seney to reply to Miss Stovall with the proposition to donate $5,000 if the friends of the school could raise $4,000 "before the expiration of this year, 1881." 

The funds were raised, and Mr. Seney later donated another $5,000 to the chapel project. The design, "an octagonal building with an exquisite Victorian interior," was created by architect W. W. Thomas, who would later build the  Thomas-Carithurs House, aka "The Wedding Cake House," at the corner of Milledge Avenue and Baxter Street. The cornerstone for the chapel was laid on Mr. Seney's birthday, May 12th, in 1882. 

Seney-Stovall chapel was dedicated in 1885, by which time Mr. Seney had lost his fortune to the Panic of 1884 and was in the process of selling off his assets, including his beloved art collection, to pay his creditors. One of his largest philanthropic projects, a Methodist hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was temporarily put on hold until 1887 when more funds could be raised to complete it. Though the New York press was somewhat hostile to Mr. Seney's predicament, in Athens, he remained an honored patron of education. He expressed his thanks after an 1884 visit to Athens in a letter to Nellie Stovall, telling her,

I came into Georgia somewhat depressed & reserved, but every where have met such uniform kindness and delicate attention that the culmination at Athens quite overwhelm(ed) me. 

Suffice it to say that Athens places a glorious crown to the steady and magnificent ovation that has accompanied me since my entrance within your borders.

Georgia has vastly exceeded my anticipation in all that goes to make the elements of a happy home.

The Lucy Cobb Institute kept in contact with their patron, observing his birthday and sending Christmas packages each year of cakes, magnolias, holly, and smilax. In later years, he would also donate a pipe organ, eighteen paintings from his reconstituted art collection, and provide scholarships to worthy students. 


Miss Stovall kept in touch with Mr. Seney, and after writing to him to tell him of her engagement to Billups Phinizy, he responded that,

My recollections of Georgia and especially of Athens are of the most pleasant nature. Although my acquaintance is so limited, I have become very attached to the people of Athens to our lovely "Lucy Cobb." I don't know whether Georgia girls are brighter than average, or wither the instructors at Lucy Cobb are more competent, but certain it is a more sasisfactory exhibition of scholarship I have never witnessed than that at your Alma Mater.

The Seney family attended the wedding of Nellie Stovall and Billups Phinizy in April, 1886, as guests of the Lucy Cobb Institute. George Seney later rebuilt his fortune by investing in railroads, and died in 1893.

The Seney-Stovall chapel was somewhat abandoned after World War II, and was acquired by the University of Georgia in 1953. In 1961 it was saved from being razed, but a partial restoration was not completed until 1982. A group of alumnae and friends of Lucy Cobb raised the rest of the funds required, and a full restoration was completed in 1997. 

The chapel is now used by local theater and choral groups for performances, and as a venue for weddings as well.

Learn More:

•  Southern Banner, Nov. 6, 1877 - Mar. 14, 1882 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Higher Education for Women in Georgia: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, edited by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Remembering Athens by Susan Frances Barrow Tate in the general collection.
• Once Apunce a Time by Maude Talmage Wood in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• Athens, Georgia: A Treasury of Historic Architecture by Mari L. Berry and Lisa Vogel in the Heritage and general collections.
• Historic Houses of Athens by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Guide to Architectural Styles in Athens, Georgia by John C. Waters in the Heritage collection.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• REM video for Swan Swan H shot in the partially restored Seney-Stovall chapel in 1986.

12 June 1913: Benefit for the Model Training School at the Morton Theatre

On this day in 1913, the Athens Banner ran an unusual notice for a benefit at the Morton Theatre for the Model Training School on Danielsville Road:

The Model Training School was founded in 1903 by Judia C. Jackson, a native of Clarke county; she married another well-known local African-American educator, Samuel F. Harris, in 1912.  She donated her own land for the school, which was across the road from her home. Funds from the General Education Board of New York for the building and Clarke county paid for the building and school furnishings. 

The curriculum was grammar, algebra, Latin, black history, art, music, and drama. The students would occasionally perform in pageants or plays written by Ms. Jackson Harris, and hold the performances at the Morton Theatre or Colonial Theatre. Displays of student projects were sometimes given a window at Michael Brothers department store downtown to show examples of the work accomplished at the school. Many of her students went on to college and became educators and community leaders themselves.

The Model Training School also acted as a county community center. Ms. Jackson Harris helped organize Land Owner Clubs, where local African-American farmers would pool their money to buy land that they could then divide amongst themselves to cultivate. The school hosted agricultural fairs for the community, featuring prizes for canned goods, cakes, livestock, pickles, and other farm products. In the summer, Ms. Jackson "operated a summer cannery for the local farmers and their families." By 1915, the clubs owned 440 acres, a community saw mill, a cotton gin, and a thresher. 

Unfortunately, there was no review of the benefit concert in the Athens Banner the next day, nor is there any record of how much money was raised for the school. The school was later renamed the Judia Jackson Harris Model and Industrial School. Ms. Jackson Harris remained principal of the school until 1950, when she retired. In 1956, the Athens city schools merged with the Clarke county schools, and the Model Training School was finally closed.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage, general, and Young Adult collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, general, and Reference collections.
• A History of Education in Georgia by Dorothy Orr in the Heritage collection.
• Education: Reflecting Our Society by Gina Giuliano in the Reference collection.
• Teaching Equality: Black Schools in the Age of Jim Crow by Adam Fairclough in the general collection.
• Separate but Not Equal: The Dream and the Struggle by James Haskins in the children's collection.
• Faithful, Firm, and True: African-American Education in the South by Titus Brown in the Heritage collection.
• Black Vaudeville, the TOBA, and the Morton Theatre: Recovering the History 1910-1930 by Thomas L. Riis in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Morton Theatre, Athens, Georgia: Adaptive Rehabilitation of a 1910 Theatre by the Clarke County Office of Cultural Affairs in the Heritage collection.
•  Morton Theatre website.
• Judia Jackson Harris Elementary Charter School website.

25 March 1918: "Make a Date with Cleopatra"

On this day in 1918, the Colonial Theatre on Washington Street began a three-day run of the silent film "Super-Production" Cleopatra:

The star of the film, Theda Bara, was a box office draw similar to Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin at the time. She was the first "vamp," and her movies established Fox Studios. Many of her previous films had been subject to bans and censorship by state morality boards; the state of Georgia banned her movie Sin in 1915. Though far more revealing than her previous productions, Cleopatra was given a pass by most state boards due to its "historical" nature.

The Colonial Theatre sat between the First Baptist Church and the back of the Davis-Nicholson department store, across the street from the Georgian Hotel, where the Boar's Head Lounge and Paine Insurance Company are located today.

Originally built as the Opera House in 1886 with seating for 1,006 patrons, it had a large canvas fire curtain that ran the length of the stage with ads for local businesses painted in circles along the bottom.  In front of the stage was an orchestra pit, and usually at least a pianist to accompany performances.

In 1906, the theatre was remodeled to include additional seats and red velvet curtains to frame the fire curtain. There were two levels of ground seats, and two levels of balcony seating, and later, a Wurlitzer organ replaced the piano in the orchestra pit. They showed both movies and live plays by traveling national shows and local performances by glee clubs, and other organizations.

The Depression hit the entertainment industry with fewer shows coming to town, and fewer people able to afford ticket prices. In March, 1932, the balconies collapsed inside the theatre, and it was demolished later that year.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jan. 1918 - Nov. 1918 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Remembering Athens by Susan Barrow Tate in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1912-1914 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara by Eve Golden in the Biography collection.
• Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams, and Distortions by Lucy Hughes-Hallett in the Biography collection. 
• The Story of Cinema by David Shipman in the general collection.
• Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger in the general collection.
• Cleopatra: A Life by Stacey Schiff in the New Books, Large Print, and CD collections.
• Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough in the fiction and Large Print collections.
• The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare in the general collection.
• Cleopatra by Harold Bloom in the general collection.
• ThedaBara.net, A Theda Bara Tribute website, with photos from the film, Cleopatra.

11 March 1913: "Movie" of UGA Pushball Game Seen Around the World

On this day in 1913, the Athens Banner reported that a film of the second annual Freshman-Sophomore Pushball game would be included in Universal's Animated Weekly newsreel features:

The Lyric was a nickelodeon in the store front now occupied by Walker's Coffee and Pub. They showed short silent filmstrips all day, and featured occasional live evening entertainment, at a cost of five or ten cents per show. Among the more popular films at nickelodeons were filmed athletic events, especially boxing matches. 

According to reports in the Red and Black, the manager for the Lyric theatre had taken several films of various athletic events on campus that year, and that "the University students appreciate Mr. Posey's interest in taking these films and are showing their appreciation by a constant attendance at his interesting productions." 

The Banner's original announcement of the film's inclusion in the Animated Weekly stated, "A bit of advertising that Athens and the University of Georgia will get next month will be by way of the 'movies.'"  The clip film featuring the Georgia game was distributed internationally to over 100 theatres.

The pushball game was a contest between the freshman and sophomore classes to determine which class would get to have a spring banquet. In the past, both classes would schedule a banquet, but it became a contest to see which class had their banquet most disrupted by the other. After the hijinks of spring 1911, where class members were kidnapped from trains en route to secret banquet locations, local citizens insisted on obnoxious behavior on the part of the students. A pushball contest was offered to the classes by Dr. S. V. Sanford, "to confine their activites within reasonable limits." 

Pushball was becoming a nation-wide popular college activity in the early part of the twentieth century. The game was played on a football field, with teams of 11 players per side. To score, a team must "shove the ball under and between the cross bars [sic] of the goal post [sic]" to earn five points, and over the crossbar to earn eight points. If the ball only made it half-way over the goal, the team still earned two points. 

Dr. Sanford requested that the game be divided into four quarters, rather than two halves, so new teams were fielded for each quarter. Total enrollment at the university in 1913 was just 682, so this division meant most of each class would get a chance to prove themselves on the field.

The 1913 game went to the Sophomore class, and those who had participated in the contest paid only 30 cents toward their March banquet; those who skipped the game were charged a dollar fee. Later in the month, they were able to go to the Lyric to watch their victory on Universal's Animated Weekly newsreel #52, that also featured the inaugural parade for Woodrow Wilson and scenes from the Mexican civil war.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Red and Black Archive collection of the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive collection of the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1913 Athens Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1912-1913 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia Under Sixteen Administrations, 1785-1955 by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• The Personal Equation: A Biography of Steadman Vincent Sanford by Stephen Charles Gurr in the Heritage and biography collections.
• A Carnival of Sports, Spectacles, Stunts, Crazes, and Unusual Sports Events by Bill Severn in the general collection.
• How to Survive Your Freshman Year by Mark W. Bernstein in the general collection.

17 February 1922: Six Chances to See Pitroff the Miracle Man at the Palace

On this day in 1922, the Athens Daily Banner ran the following advertisement:

The previous week, the Colonial Theatre had featured a magician, but not one who did this particularly startling new illusion of sawing a woman in half. The performance was offered as a bonus feature to the real attraction, a comedy-romance silent movie titled Lessons in Love starring actress Constance Talmadge.


The Daily Banner included an article republished from a national weekly about "Pitroff, the Miracle Man," that began

Magic--the Black Art--never seemed any blacker than when Pitroff, master of bewildering mysteries declared that without sheding [sic] any blood he could cut a person in half and put him together again--alive, none the worse for the experience.  People gasped and mumbled their astonishment. Was he crazy? Surely the law would intervene.

The piece goes on to describe Pitroff's selection of a young woman from the audience, gaining her permission to saw her in half, promising to pay her nearest relative $10,000 if she were killed during the illusion. 

Pitroff likely did not have $10,000 to give anyone. He had started out as an escape artist vaudevillian, similar to Harry Houdini, but on a much smaller scale. As vaudeville gave way to moving pictures, there were fewer opportunities for his style of entertainment. The "sawing in half" illusion was not his invention. It was first done publicly in the United States in 1921 by magician Horace Goldin, who later patented his method for the trick.

Learn More:

•  Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1921 - Feb. 1922 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians by T. A. Waters in the Reference collection.
• Encyclopedia of Vaudeville by Anthony Slide in the Reference collection.
• Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger in the general collection.
• The Silent Clowns by Walter Kerr in the general collection.
• Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic by David Blaine in the general collection.
• Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear by Jim Steinmeyer in the general collection.
• Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions by James Randi in the general collection.
• The Amazing Book of Magic: A Step-by-Step, Illustrated Guide to a Host of Simple Yet Spectacular Tricks by Jon Tremaine in the general collection.
• Knack Magic Tricks: A Step-by-Step Guide to Illusions, Sleights of Hand, and Amazing Feats by Richard Kaufman in the general collection.
• The Complete Beginner's Guide to Magic by Walter Brown Gibson in the general collection.
• Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions by Stephen L. Macknick in the New Books collection.
• The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Brandon in the Biography collection.

22 December 1915: No Advance Admission!

On this day in 1915, the Elite Theatre showed this sensational film:

The Caveman was a silent picture, produced by Vitagraph, a company that started making and distributing movies in 1898. It's star, Robert Edeson, was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, 29 years after his death. In 1926, The Caveman was remade as a comedy starring Irish actor Matthew Moore.

The Elite Theatre was later renamed the Georgia Theatre.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Dec. 1915 - May, 1916 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Caveman page on the Independent Movie Database.
• A Postcard History of Athens by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger in the general collection.
• Hollywood: When Silents Were Golden by Evelyn F. Scott in the general collection.
• The Silent Clowns by Walter Kerr in the general collection.
• The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930 by Scott Eyeman in the general collection.
• The Film Experience: Elements of Motion Picture Art by Roy Huss in the general collection.

12 December 1899: $2.50 Buys Seven Nights of Enlightened Entertainment at Lucy Cobb

On this day in 1899, the first of seven lectures/performances were delivered at the Lucy Cobb Institute. The series had been advertised for weeks in the Athens Daily Banner:

The initial lecture was offered by Alfred Taylor of Tennessee, a former Congressman who had run against (and lost to) his own brother for the Governorship of Tennessee in 1886. He had left politics to go on the lecture circuit, often with his brother, who had also retired from public service. In 1920, Alfred Taylor would finally become the Governor of Tennessee.

Most of the other men on the lecture schedule were nationally known for their oration and performances. The Athens newspapers for the month of March, 1900, are missing, so the subject of University of Georgia Department of Chemistry head Dr. H. C. White's talk is unknown.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, July 1899 - Dec. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994 by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• The Tennessee Almanac and Book of Facts by James A. Crutchfield in the Heritage collection.
• Tennessee: A Short History by Robert Ewing Corlew in the general collection.
• History of Tennessee (no author) in the Heritage collection.
• American Fairy Tales from Rip Van Winkle to the Rootabaga Stories by Neil Phillip in the young adult and children's collections.
• The Oxford History of the Classical World by John Boardman in the Reference and general collections.
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand in the general collection.
• Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas in the biography collection.

12 September 1912: "Tuneful and Catchy" at the Morton

On this day in 1912, the following notice ran on page 8 of the Athens Banner:

MORTON'S THEATRE

The Brooks-Smith players will play "The Charming Widow," tonight. In fact an entire change of program will take place--new songs, the kind that are tuneful and catchy. Every member of the caste [sic] is a star and they have quite a lot of expensive costumes for every play. The troupe is considered about the best in repertoire that has ever played at Morton Theatre.

The Morton was hosting the Marion Brooks Stock Company, featuring comedian Speedy Smith. The initial ads promised "Good Singers and Dancers" at "Popular Prices," though no prices were published in the Athens Banner. To keep audiences returning, they changed their show for their third night.

The newspaper did offer a review of the first show, calling it "another big hit," and observing that

A large audience witnessed the play, which was amusing in the extreme. The singing and dancing received unusual applause. The after piece seemed the hit of the evening when Speedy Smith, the leading comedian was at his best.

This particular show was likely a "tab" (or "tabloid") show--an abridged version of a longer, more complete musical comedy stage show based on old variety shows. They had elaborate costumes and multiple scenery changes to keep the audience engaged. A typical tab company included between 12-15 members, including dancing girls, several actors and singers, one or two comedians, a piano player, and sometimes a novelty act. Shows lasted one or two hours, and were often performed twice per day.

The Banner did not publish a review of "The Charming Widow" or the new songs. Notices for the Morton did not regularly appear in the Banner, which tended to cover the newest shows at local whites-only theaters extensively. Much larger stories, with photographs and profiles of leading ladies, ran for the Oscar Hammerstein Comic Opera Company's production of "Naughty Marietta" which was coming to the Colonial Theatre the following week.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1912 - Dec. 1, 1912 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1912-13 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
  
• Black Vaudeville, the TOBA, and the Morton Theatre: Recovering the History 1910-1930 by Thomas L. Riis in the Heritage and general collections.
• Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890-1915 by Thomas L. Riis in the general collection.
• Black Musical Theatre by Allen Woll in the general collection
  
• The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville by Anthony Slide in the Reference collection.
• Vaudeville: The Birth of Show Business by Judy Alter in the children's collection.
• Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America's Black Female Superstars by Donald Bogle in the general collection.
• Famous Negro Music Makers by Langston Hughes in the general collection.
  
• Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment by Langston Hughes in the general collection.
• Vaudeville Nation exhibit on the New York Public Library website.
  

2 September 1940: Labor Day Movies in Athens

On this day in 1940, it was Labor Day in Athens, Georgia, and large ads appeared in the Athens Banner-Herald for movies to be watched in cool air conditioning on the last day of summer.

The Georgia Theatre, "Cooled By REFRIGERATION," offered as their "Labor Day Treat To You" the movie Sporting Blood, starring Robert Young and Maureen O'Hara. The promotional poster promised "Romance in the land of hoss-feuds!" and "Photo-finish excitement!"

The Palace Theatre, merely "AIR CONDITIONED," offered the movie My Love Came Back, starring Olivia De Havilland and Jeffrey Lynn, with Eddie Albert and Jane Wyman. The movie is called "The Freshest Thing in Years!" and included the tempting synopsis of "Malicious Gossip! Lovers Part! Things Happen!" It also promised to "Laugh Your Blues Away."

Air conditioning in public buildings, such as movie houses, was still a relatively new experience. Willis Carrier first patented his "Apparatus for Treating Air" in 1906, and created the larger machines capable of cooling large public buildings in 1922. The first air conditioning units in the south had been installed in movie theatres in Dallas and Houston, Texas by the Carrier company in 1924.

In 1940, most homes did not have air conditioning, and it was often as much of an attraction as the movie, shorts, and newsreels themselves. Both the Palace and Georgia theatre names in their ads are illustrated to appear to be covered in frost and snow.

The Georgia Theatre is currently being rebuilt, but the Palace Theatre on College Avenue was eventually razed. In its location now is the College Avenue parking deck(pdf).

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, Aug. 1940 - Dec. 1940 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1940 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens, Georgia: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• Patriotic Holidays of the United States by Helene Henderson in the Reference collection.
• Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World by Paul Buhle in the graphic novel collection.
• You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talk Film, History and Memory 1927-1949 by Andrew Sarris in the general collection.
• The Whole Film Sourcebook by Leonard Maltin in the general collection.
• Encyclopedia of Hollywood by Scott Siegel in the Reference collection.
• Refrigeration: Home and Commercial by Edwin P. Anderson in the general collection.
  
• National Geographic: The Book of Inventions by Ian Harrison in the general collection.
• The Timetables of Technology by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans in the general and Reference collections.
  

16 August 1907: Altioria Society Announces Year of Programs

On this day in 1907, one of two literary societies of the State Normal School, the Altioria Society, published their year of programs in the Athens Banner:

September 7.

Introductory talk on the English novel, by Miss Harrison.
Music by Altioria Orchestra and Chorus.
Altioria welcomes to new members.

September 21.
Subject: David Copperfield (Dickens).
Scenes from David Copperfield.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

October 5.
Subject: Tale of Two Cities (Dickens).
Story by Miss Parrish.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

October 19.
Subject: Pickwick Papers (Dickens).
The humor of Pickwick, by Mr. Earnest.
Dramatization of Pickwick Papers.
Music by Altioria Chorus and Orchestra.

November 2.
Subject: Dickens Evening.
Life and character of Charles Dickens.
Dickens's [sic] place in literature.
Dickens as an educational reformer, by Mr. Smith.
A Dickens procession.
Debate: Resolved, That Dickens is a cartcacturist [sic] rather than a great potrayer [sic] of character.
Music by Altioria Chorus.

November 16.
Subject: "The Talisman" [sic] (Scott).
Story.
Tableaux.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

December 7.
Subject: Ivanhoe (Scott).
Scenes from Ivanhoe.
Discussion of Richard Coeur de Lion.
Music by Altioria Chorus.

December 21.
Subject: Kenilworth (Scott).
Music by Altioria Orchesta.

January 4.
Subject: Lady of the Lake (Scott).
"Lady of the Lake" country, by Mr. Branson; illustrated by stereopticon views.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

January 18.
Subject: Scott Evening.
Character sketch of Sir Walter Scott.
A Scottish social.
Debate: Resolved, That Scott's day is past.

February 1.
Subject: Mill on the Floss (Eliot).
Scene from Mill on the Floss.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

February 15.
Subject: Romola (Eliot).
Story by Miss Parrish.
Music by ALtioria Orchestra.

March 7.
Subject: Silas Marner (Eliot).
Scenes from Silas Marner.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

March 21.
Subject: Eliot Evening.
Eliot's life and literary standing.
Debate: Resolved, That George Eliot's ethics interfere with her stories.

April 4.
Subject: The Newcomes (Thackeray).
Story, told in parts.
Tableaux.
Music by Altoria Orchestra.

April 18.
Subject: Vanity Fair (Thackeray).
Scenes from Vanity Fair.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

May 2.
Subject: Henry Esmond (Thackeray).
Scenes from Henry Esmond.
Music by Altioria Chorus.

May 16.
Subject: Thackeray Evening.
Discussion of Thackeray's life and works.
Debat:[sic] Resolved, That Thakeray was a cynic.
Music by Altioria Orchestra.

The Alitoria Literary Society was started in 1906. They chose an owl as their symbol and "Excelsior" as their motto. Their club colors were blue and black. Part of each meeting included time for informal socializing over refreshments.

Learn More:

• History of the State Normal School by E. S. Sell in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Banner, Mar. 1906 - Aug. 1907 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature by Pat Rogers in the general collection.
• A History of English Literature by Alastair Fowler in the general collection.
  
• David Copperfield (2006) in the DVD collection.
• Charles Dickens edited by Harold Bloom in the general collection.
• Charles Dickens by Michael Slater in the biography collection.
• Ivanhoe (1952) in the DVD collection.
• Sir Walter Scott by John Lauber in the general collection.
  
• The Laird of Abbotsford: A View of Sir Walter Scott by A. N. Wilson in the biography collection.
• The Mill on the Floss: A Natural History by Rosemary Ashton in the general collection.
• The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans: George Eliot, Her Letters and Fiction by Rosemarie Bodenheimer in the biography collection.
  
• George Eliot, Voice of a Century by Frederick Robert Karl in the biography collection.
• Vanity Fair (2005) in the DVD collection.
  
• William Makepeace Thackeray edited by Harold Bloom in the general collection.
• Thackeray: The Life of a Literary Man by D. J. Taylor in the biography collection.

19 June 2009: Georgia Theatre Destroyed By Fire

On this day in 2009, Athenians gathered downtown to watch as a fire gutted the Georgia Theatre. The exterior walls are almost all that survived of the recently renovated historic building, and only remain standing today due to an investment by the property's owner, Wilmot Greene, to protect what is left of the original building because "there's just so much history here."

Before the ashes had cooled on the corner of Clayton and Lumpkin Streets, the imperative demand for reconstruction of the Georgia Theatre began. Fundraisers were held throughout the year, both for the building and for the employees who had suddenly lost their jobs. The sentiment that Athens would not be the same without the Georgia Theatre goes back to the days when it was, as it is now, merely a set of blueprints.

One of the earliest mentions of the building came in January of 1889, when the Weekly Banner-Watchman included the new Young Men's Christian Association building "is soon to be erected, and will be one of the prettiest buildings in the city."

Later that year, the Weekly Banner-Watchman described the day the cornerstone was laid for the building, on May 6th, 1889. According to the paper, "fully twelve hundred persons" came to the 3 o'clock ceremony. The "orator of the occasion" was Henry C. Tuck, a local attorney, a member of the Y. M. C. A., and, in 1889, Clarke County's representative to the Georgia Legislature.

He began his address by stating

No building was ever erected in Athens in which the people felt a deeper or more abiding interest than this--certainly none was ever erected before, in which the spirit and purpose of the work has so attracted and seized upon the hearts of the whole people.

The ceremonies had begun with a procession of 60 Y. M. C. A. members to the Masonic Hall, from where they then walked with 70 Masons, members of Mt. Vernon Lodge and visiting members, to the new building. A prayer was read, a choir sang with organ accompaniment, and it is reported that "The singing was remarkably good."

After Mr. Tuck spoke to the crowd, the Masonic ceremonies for laying the cornerstone followed, including the many items to be deposited within the stone. Some of the reported items were:

A list of members of the Y. M. C. A. engraved on a tablet of lead

Constitution and by-laws of the different secret orders in the city

List of subscribers in the Y. M. C. A. building

Various bills of Confederate money

Copies of the Athens Daily and Weekly Chronicle

Copy of the Banner-Watchman containing a profile of Judge Y. L. G. Harris

The newspaper reported that the cost of the new building in 1889 was $10,000 (approximately $1.24 million in today's costs). The rebuilding of the Georgia Theatre is estimated to cost $4 million, and construction is expected to start by the end of this June now that a loan has been secured from Athens First Bank & Trust.

Fundraising is still needed to meet the costs of the loan and reconstruction. The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is collecting all donations for rebuilding in their Georgia Theatre Rehabilitation Fund, and Georgia Theatre t-shirts are available through the theatre's website.

Terrapin Ale is issuing a Terrapin Georgia Theatre Sessions series, with proceeds going to the rebuilding effort. In each release, one box will contain a golden ticket, entitling the owner to a lifetime of free shows at the new theatre. Local band Venice Is Sinking has just released Sand & Lines, an album recorded entirely in the Georgia Theatre in 2008, and will donate funds from sales to the Rehabilitation Fund.

Today, on the one year anniversary of the fire, the Georgia Theatre has opened an e-Bay store as a way to raise money, with such items as a master tape of Widespread Panic's first studio recording, salvaged posters from the fire, posters from benefit concerts, Band Together bracelets, and pens made from the charred 300-year-old pine beams of the Theatre roof. Other items will be added to the auction site over time.

Mr. Greene hopes to have the venue reopen by Spring, 2011.

Learn More:

• Athens Southern Watchman, Aug. 1888 - Dec. 1889 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Flagpole Magazine (June, July, November 2009; June 2010) in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, June 16 - June 30, 2009 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Red & Black Archives online.
• Flagpole Magazine Archives online.
• Fire Destroys Georgia Theatre page on the Athens Banner-Herald website.
• Inside the Historic Georgia Theatre photo gallery on the Athens Banner-Herald website.
• Measuring Worth website.
• History of Athens and Clarke County by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens, Georgia: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• A Guide to Architectural Styles in Athens, Georgia by John C. Waters in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Theatre website.