As technical director of the Fox, Patten was overseeing the renovation of a grand old theater that was once as endangered as the Loew's had been. What he did in the smoke-blackened ruins was to perform something like a movie palace heart transplant. The Fox Theatre and the High Museum of Art would seem to be mismatched bookends on the shelf of Atlanta culture. The High, a gleaming white object of art in itself, exhibits paintings and sculpture in a rarefied atmosphere that makes people want to lower their voices. The Fox, a Moorish fantasy sired by Shriners, plays host to Broadway road shows, popular concerts and summertime movies with sing-alongs.
People applaud and cheer when they visit.
The institutions would not seem to have much in common, other than occupying two of the city's most distinctive and beloved buildings. Actually, they do have one thing in common. In 1895, Atlanta staged the Cotton States and International Exposition, an overgrown regional fair that served as a coming-out party for a city just beginning to feel its oats. The movies flopped. The art was a hit.