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At 8:05 PM on Monday, August 30, the Facebook page of Atlanta’s Fox Theatre offered the following information:
“Atlanta Landmarks, Inc. has offered Joe a new occupancy agreement to remain in his apartment. The full board has authorized the Executive Committee to negotiate a new occupancy agreement. The Fox’s generosity is consistent in this agreement & he will continue to be able to live at the Fox rent free and the Fox will continue to pay the majority of his utilities. Joe is allowed to live here as long as he is able.”    

Awww. How generous are they? They cancel a life-time lease so that the man in question can stay in his home as long as he is able. But more on that after I introduce the cast:   

The “Joe” in question is a genuine hero to many Atlantans and a bona fide Atlanta legend: “The Phantom of the Fox,” the man who saved the Fox Theater from destruction, not once, but twice. He is 83-year-old Joe Patten. In the ’70s, it looked like The Fox Theatre — a former great movie palace of the ’20s, then down on its luck – would be lost to Atlanta’s idea of progress. But Joe Patten was a central figure in its eventual renaissance. The Save the Fox campaign that lead to the theatre’s eventual rescue and stunning restoration. The second time he saved the Fox, it was from a fire: he knew the theatre so well, he was able to lead the fire brigade to its exact location. In return for these and other contributions to the Fox’s revival and restoration, he was given a life-time lease on an apartment he built within the Fox building.      

During this same time, group was, according to a GPB documentary celebrating the Fox’s 75th anniversary, an odd mix of lawyers, architects, preservationists, organ lovers and dreamers created Atlanta Landmarks, Inc.  In “The Fabulous Fox,” Joe Myers, former attorney for  Atlanta Landmarks, explains that “It (wasn’t) a corporation that’s made up of the movers and shakers in Atlanta. It (did) not have the major corporate support. We (did) not have the society support. What we (did) have though is a corporation with a lot of energy.”  Today, Atlanta Landmarks, Inc. is a non-profit founded to fundraise, nurture, protect and restore the Fox. The Fox Theatre is actually owned by Atlanta Landmarks. Currently the Atlanta Landmarks Executive Committee & Board has apparently decided that they want Joe out of the building, and I believe these people are the villains of the piece. One exception is Robert Foreman, Jr., a man of great integrity, who understands and values Joe’s contributions and devotion to the Theatre. (Some of Mr. Foreman’s behind-the-scenes work can be found in these letters, which include several interesting inside-Atlanta Landmarks documents.)   

I don’t want to waste a lot of your time here bringing you up to speed, especially since the story has been all over Atlanta’s newspapers and TV for weeks.  If you need to play catch-up, here’s the first article that got my horrified attention. And here’s the one that really made my blood boil. And then there was this is letter from Atlanta Landmarks, Inc. (Joe iand Mr. Foreman created the organization, and both are long-time board members). Its current chair and second vice-president hand-delivered this insult personally. Joe had just returned home from a brief hospital stay, and his doctors had cleared him to return to his apartment. Keep reading that document, and you’ll also see the response from Joe’s lawyer, Emmet Bondurant, and several other interesting and disturbing documents.    

Now, apparently the city’s outrage caught Atlanta Landmarks’ board and The Fox Theatre staff off guard. Their messaging has been misleading at best and disingenuous at worst. Mr. Bondurant kindly provided me with all the documents pertaining to Joe’s lease, what generous offer Atlanta Landmarks has made, and some of Mr. Bondurant’s responses.    

Access to these documents means I can pinpoint some of the Fox’s statements that are misleading both media and citizens. I’m only going to write about a couple at a time to give you time to digest the reality before I throw another one of their spins at you.   

Misleading Statement #1: Joe’s visitors under the new lease.
A post by the Fox Theatre on its Facebook page on August 31, 2010 titled “An update on Joe Patten”: “People are writing that the new lease does not allow Joe to have any guests into his home.  Or if he does, the guests have to be pre-approved by the Board of Atlanta Landmarks.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  The new lease does NOT contain this clause.  It’s Joe’s home and he can invite over whomever he wants, whenever he wants.”  What’s more, they further claim: “This was a blatant lie intended to smear the Fox.“The Truth: The new ”occupancy agreement” that Atlanta Landmarks wants Joe to sign lays down some pretty specific prohibitions when it comes to specific visitors, the people who are probably some of Joe’s oldest friends, current and former employees of the Fox. The contract says (paragraph 4, section a):
“Resident will not permit any employee or former employee of Theatre or their immediate family members, nor allow any other person to permit any employee or former employee of Theatre or their immediate family members, to enter or otherwise use the Apartment Space at any time or for any purpose without Theatre’s express prior written consent.”Hmm, that doesn’t sound like Joe can “invite over whomever he wants, whenever he wants.” To me it sounds like if Joe wanted to invite someone like his old friend Stephen Cucich, who worked for the Fox during its restoration, he would have to get permission from the “Theatre” (is that the Fox’s management or Atlanta Landmarks’ Board?). That is an absurd clause, clearly designed to make life difficult for him, and keep him isolated from old friends. And why? Who knows what the logic is besides making Joe miserable.   

Misleading Statement #2: An implication that nothing has changed for Joe; that he still has a life-time lease.
Formal statement to the media, also posted on The Fox’s Facebook page: “The Fox’s generosity is consistent in this agreement & he will continue to be able to live at the Fox rent free and the Fox will continue to pay the majority of his utilities. Joe is allowed to live here as long as he is able.”    Okay, I have to tell you that the use of the word “generous” made me laugh out loud. But actually, here’s where things get murky. Who decides “able”? Joe? Joe’s family? His doctors? Fox management? Or Edward “Woody” White, president of Atlanta Landmarks and the Angel of Mercy who wrote “…We must insist that, prior to returning to your apartment, your physician provide the Theatre with written confirmation that you can live independently in your apartment. We must also insist that, prior to providing this confirmation, your physician speak to me, reviewing his decision and his understanding of the physical limitations of your department.” (See The Letter from Atlanta Landmarks below.)   What right does Mr. White have to “insist” that Joe allow him access to Joe’s medical information, much less have a private conversation with his doctor?   

The Truth: Joe’s new “lease” or ”Occupancy Agreement” (see entire document below) is not a lease at all, but a ”tenancy at will” contract, which allows either party to terminate the contract within a defined time frame: Joe can terminate the agreement with 30 days written notice to the Fox, and the Fox can terminate with 60 days. Specifically and signficantly, the agreement the Fox is insisting upon allows the Fox to terminate the lease “by written notice at any time, for any reason or for no reason.”     

I’m no lawyer, but I’d say that being able to kick Joe out of his home at any time, for any reason or for no reason is a far cry from his former, secure life-time lease. If that’s the Fox’s idea of being ”generous,” we’re learning a lot of appalling stuff about this once-beloved institution and its management.   

Coming soon: Part Two of “Save the Fox’s Savior,” comparing the reality of the actual documents with statements by The Fox Theatre. Next: in-home healthcare and the stated reason for getting Joe out of his apartment.     

Documents:   

• Original Joe Patten Life-time Lease – December 1979 
• 2010-08-30 Resolutions of Atlanta Landmarks Board of Trustees - The Atlanta Landmarks board gives full power to the executive committee. I’m somehow reminded of Pontius Pilate washing his hands over and over…
•  - The Letter from Atlanta Landmarks, delivered shortly after Joe returned from the hospital The “We’re very concerned about your medical condition” letter from Atlanta Landmarks’ President Edward “Woody” White; Emmet Bondurant’s response; and several other disturbing missives from inside Atlanta Landmarks.
• Lease Termination Agreement - How the current Atlanta Landmarks board ended the life-time lease of the man who saved the Fox.
• Occupancy Agreement - The “generosity” of the Atlanta Landmarks board is evident in this document.
• A Message from the Family of Joe Patten - Joe’s nephew outlines how the course of events unfolded, from the specific point of view of Joe and his family. 

In further interest in transparency, here are the official statements from The Fox Theatre:   

• Media Statement from The Fox 8 30 10 - The first official announcement that uses the loaded phrase: “To be clear – Joe is welcome to live here as long as he is able.“
• The Fox Theatre’s Facebook Statement 8 31 10 - If all else fails, blame the lawyers! This statement is astonishing, accusing Mr. Bondurant, aka “his advisors,” of misleading Joe, as well as throwing out this improbable scenario: “This was a blatant lie intended to smear the Fox.” Also contains the myth that under the original lease, Joe was to provide security, and... Gosh, there are just so many missteps in this one, I’ll have to focus on this alone on it in a future post.

Other Cool Resources:
The Save Joe, The Phantom of the Fox Theatre Facebook page.
Also, all available documents – including the Fox Theatre’s statements — may be found on this page.    

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