The Fox Theatre in Midtown Atlanta: History, Mighty Mo, and What to See

Atlanta's Fox Theatre: Almost Torn Down YouTube Video

A Landmark Atlanta Nearly Lost

The Fox Theatre sits at 660 Peachtree Street NE in Midtown Atlanta, and it is one of the city's best-loved landmarks. It also came close to being torn down. For anyone thinking about a move to Atlanta, The Fox is a good place to see some of the city's history up close.

How The Fox Began

The Fox began as a planned headquarters for Atlanta's Shriners, a fraternal organization. The design drew on the Alhambra in Spain and the Temple of Karnak in Egypt, and the finished building is full of domes, minarets, and painted details. The cost turned out to be more than the Shriners could manage, so they leased the building to movie mogul William Fox.

The Fox opened on Christmas Day in 1929, just two months after the stock market crash. The opening day program included a performance on the Möller organ, a stage show, and the Disney cartoon Steamboat Willie. William Fox was bankrupt by 1932, and the theater did not settle onto firmer footing until later in the decade.

Saving The Fox

By the early 1970s, moviegoers had been drifting toward newer suburban theaters, and The Fox had fallen into disrepair. In 1974, its owners were in talks to sell the property to Southern Bell, which planned to replace the building with an office tower and parking.

Atlantans responded with the Save The Fox campaign. Mayor Maynard Jackson stepped in to keep a demolition permit from being issued. Joe Patten (the Phantom of The Fox, who lived in an apartment inside the theater for decades) recruited a group of preservation-minded Atlantans to form the nonprofit Atlanta Landmarks. Promoter Alex Cooley brought Lynyrd Skynyrd to play The Fox during the campaign. The theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. According to The Fox, the campaign raised about $3 million, primarily through community donations. Southern Bell agreed to build its new office building on an adjoining site, and Atlanta Landmarks took over operations in 1975. Today, a nonprofit runs The Fox.

A Look Inside

Look closely at the box office on Peachtree Street, and you'll find a tiny door with a little staircase leading up to it. It is a piece of public art installed in November 2018 by Tiny Doors ATL, and an exact replica sits backstage in the green room.

Inside, the auditorium is designed to feel like an open courtyard at night, and it looks like you're sitting under a giant tent. The ceiling holds 96 crystal stars, about a third of which flicker, and there are even clouds. The auditorium seats more than 4,600 people.

The Egyptian Ballroom, one of the building's other grand rooms, is modeled after a temple of Ramses II at Karnak. Even the restrooms are intricate. Both the men's and ladies' lounge areas have fireplaces, sofas, and chairs, and the ladies' lounge also has makeup tables.

What Plays at The Fox

More than 250 performances take place at The Fox each year, including Broadway shows, concerts, dance, comedy, and movies. The Coca-Cola Film Series brings current and classic films to the screen.

Meet Mighty Mo

Mighty Mo is The Fox's Möller theater organ. It was built by the M.P. Möller company in Maryland and installed at The Fox in 1929, with more than 3,600 pipes and four keyboards. At the time, it was the largest theater-style pipe organ ever built, and today it is the second largest theater organ in the country, behind the one at Radio City Music Hall. The boxes beside the stage help carry its sound.

Theater organs like Mighty Mo were first installed to accompany silent films. A tour guide at The Fox shared that talking pictures arrived in 1927, two years before The Fox opened in 1929, so the building was prepared for sound from the start. Silent films were not shown there, which meant the organ was not needed to accompany them, even though silent films were still being made into the 1930s.

Mighty Mo became neglected soon after the theater opened and stopped working in 1954. A restoration led by Patten brought it back, and it was reintroduced on Thanksgiving in 1963. The same guide shared that Mighty Mo's first accompaniment of a silent film came in the 1960s, after its return. For years afterward, it was heard mainly at the summer film sing-alongs. After Larry-Douglas Embury became the resident organist in 2001, Mighty Mo began opening most shows. A year-long restoration, finished in 2020, earned an Excellence in Preservation Award from the Georgia Trust.

Today, Mighty Mo rises from the orchestra pit and plays before Broadway shows. Each time I've heard it, the last song before it lowers for the performance has been "Georgia on My Mind."

Mighty Mo also takes the lead on special nights. When The Fox presents a silent film, the organ provides the live accompaniment, which is the role theater organs were first built for. In October 2026, The Fox presented the 1920 silent film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with live accompaniment by organist Ken Double.

Visiting The Fox

The Fox offers guided tours of about an hour, including an Architecture and History Tour and a Haunted History Tour. Private tours are available for groups with a 10-ticket minimum, and a private Mighty Mo Organ Tour includes a performance by Organist-in-Residence Ken Double, according to The Fox. Please check foxtheatre.org for current tour and event details.

If you enjoy Midtown's arts scene, the Center for Puppetry Arts is another landmark worth a visit, and it is just down the road.

When you're in Atlanta, seeing a show at The Fox is a must.

Michelle Campbell | Campbell Group at Epique Realty | campbellgrouprealty.com