Ramblin Rhodes: Georgia Theatre brings laughter, tears

One person mourning Friday's fire at the Georgia Theatre in Athens is Louis C. "Hap" Harris Jr., of Augusta, who co-founded the entertainment hall.

"In 1977, I was the advertising manager for The Athens Observer , a paid weekly," recalled the insurance agent. "I give full credit to Sam Smartt for his idea to use the Georgia Theatre for concerts."

Mr. Smartt went to the Obser-ver to publish an advertisement for an outdoor concert. He and Mr. Harris, a longtime music lover, got to talking about the idea. It led to their joining with George Fontaine and Sheffy McArthur to create the facility.

Other investors included Hap's younger brother Bill Harris and former Augusta concert promoter Michael Leonard.

Mr. Harris plunged into the project, quitting his Observer job to work full time at making the Georgia Theatre a success.

"We expanded the stage greatly, created two dressing rooms, replaced the floor rugs, put in a $25,000 lighting and sound system, built a cooler large enough to hold 20 kegs of draft beer and had to run tubes for the kegs through 4-foot-thick concrete," he said. "The icing on the cake -- one of my fondest nightmares -- was we had to pay $600 to put back the old movie house seats into the place that had been removed. We had them all steam cleaned.

"Then two weeks before we were to open, a building inspector made us replace all the ceiling tiles. That resulted in about 80 years of accumulated dirt dropping onto our freshly steam-cleaned seats."

The hall opened in January 1978 with sold-out shows by Sea Level and David Allan Coe.

"I got to know (Sea Level founder) Chuck Leavell over the years," Mr. Harris said. "I talked with him at a celebrity hunt when I was on the national board of Quail Unlimited. He was playing keyboards for the Rolling Stones.

"He said, 'You look familiar to me,' and I told him that I had owned a place in Athens where his band had played. He said, "The Georgia Theatre! That's the greatest acoustical place I've ever played in my entire life."

Mr. Harris has great stories of the famous names that played there: John Hartford, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Sting when he was with the Police, Tom Waits, and especially a little-known Athens band called The B-52s.

Mr. Smartt called Mr. Harris to talk about the fire.

"I told Sam that I have stayed true to my promise to him. I had said, 'If I ever get out of this show business, I'll never stand on the serving side of a bar again.' I like being the one to say, 'I'll have another scotch and water, please.' "

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 38 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.</p>