Macon Magazine

long ago about the theater, family and friends and the better days her neighborhood – once a thriving black economic center – has known. And there are other memories from just a few years back. Freeman said in recent years she's seen Macon-native and rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard pull up to the run-down theater in a limousine, gaze out his window for several minutes, then drive off. "I think his own memories of being young and up on that stage filled his mind," she said. "He was born Richard Penniman and sang up on that stage like James Brown, Otis Redding and others who followed him. e Roxy had talent shows all the time but movies were the main thing. ey showed cartoons, too, and since I was a little girl that's mostly what my momma and grandmamma let me see. I remember 'e Ten Commandments.' at was my favorite movie." Freeman said Roxy memories are dear to Macon's black community. "It did a lot of business, a lot of business," she said. "Sometimes, lines stretched around the block. People came from neighborhoods all over. ose were the days of the Jim Crow laws when blacks and whites couldn't mix. We went to the Roxy." A few years ago, Freeman told Little Richard's cousin, Stanley Stewart, about seeing the singer pull up. Stewart, who lives in Macon, took out his phone and called his famous cousin to hear her story. "is wasn't long before Little Richard died and you could tell he didn't feel well," Freeman said. "But he sounded tickled about where I lived and that I noticed him. Remembering the Roxy together seemed to make him happy. ere were good times there, but it's sad thinking how it's all so run down." ough the Roxy was owned by Phil Kaplan, a white businessman, Freeman said black-owned businesses thrived at the time in Greenwood Bottoms. at included the car wash where her mother worked along with Otis Redding. Her mother recalled the owner would tell Redding, who was always singing, to get his mind on his work and "forget that entertainment foolishness." But the Roxy, in reality or in memory, always stood as the community flagship. Freeman said neighborhood patrons and those coming from across town helped other businesses, including her grandparents' little store at the side of their house called Floyd's. She said people learned the price of candy, drinks and snacks were cheaper there than inside the Roxy. David Harrell's barber shop, Harrell's and Son's, is still just north of the Roxy at 1115 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. His father opened it, and the family eventually opened others across Macon. Harrell owns his shop's building and property just behind the Roxy, but bemoans the area's low economy and speaks of difficulties getting economic aid from the city and others. And being a barber, he's heard all the Roxy stories there are to tell. "I was born in East Macon," he said. "My dad came and opened the shop when I was about 10 in 1965. e Roxy was closed, but you always hear about it. It was the other black theater besides the Douglass. Car lots and mechanic shops and laundries and restaurants and stores used to be all around. e Roxy was the center." Harrell took over his shop in the 1990s and is semi-retired now. Despite receiving some help, he said he missed many programs because what was considered the qualifying downtown region ended at Plum Street just north of him. THERE WERE GOOD TIMES THERE, BUT IT'S SAD THINKING HOW IT'S ALL SO RUN DOWN." -BETTY FREEMAN " OPPOSTITE PAGE AND ABOVE: TYBEE COMMUNITY RESIDENT BETTY FREEMAN AND URBAN COMMUNITY PLANNER WESTON STROUD AT THE ROXY THEATRE. RIGHT: THE QUONSET-HUT STYLE ROXY HAD ITS HEYDAY IN THE 1940S AND '50S. FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 | maconmagazine.com 79

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