AMAZING ACADEMIC FEATS ASTOUND ATLANTA
by Bob Foreman © 2013
Once upon a time, Thornwell P. Jacobs created for Atlanta original and shamelessly grandiose works rivaled only in the Land of Oz. Jacobs, who served as the president of Oglethorpe University in his spare time, authored twenty-five books, created the first time capsule and under his auspices, Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the “New Deal” in a speech at the FOX Theatre. On that occasion Jacobs presented FDR with an honorary doctorate, and shortly thereafter Roosevelt was elected to his first term.
The FOX was also the site when “Oglethorpe became the possessor of the first standard Radio College in the history of the world,” as modestly claimed in the school’s yearbook. In 1931 WJTL (1370 on the dial) began broadcasts emanating from a tower twice as tall as the FOX Theatre itself (pictured here) and offered college courses over the air. How tuition was collected is lost to history.
The concept for his time capsule The Crypt of Civilization represented the apex of Jacobean feats, when in 1936 he began to assemble a record for future earth inhabitants, if any, when the tomb was scheduled to be opened in year 8113. A ten by twenty foot swimming pool located in the basement of Phoebe Hearst Hall was converted into an air-tight, time-proof vault containing on microfilm 960,000 pages of reading material as well as thousands of artifacts as proof of our existence. Included were a tiny windmill to power a machine to teach English to potential aliens; voice recordings; motion pictures; a sealed ampule of Budweiser; and the all-important shooting script for Gone with the Wind.
Jacob’s greatest gift to Atlanta was the Oglethorpe campus, verdant, bucolic and uncluttered. The men who lent their financial support to his projects are immortalized by eponymous neo-gothic academic buildings, replicas of James Oglethorpe’s alma mater, Corpus Christi in Oxford: John Thomas Lupton (WJTL) a Chattanoogan of Coca-Cola money; Emma Markham Lowry; and Harry Hermance of F.W. Woolworth. The aforementioned Phoebe Hearst Hall was named for the mother of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, as well as Lake Phoebe (now Silver Lake) which Hearst donated as part of the 600-acre campus.
Thornwell Jacobs departed Oglethorpe in December, 1943 following an imbroglio involving the Medical School, his final campus building left unfinished. Faith Hall, so named because it was built on faith, was finally completed sixty years later. Jacobs spent his final years as a resident of the Cox-Carleton Hotel where he authored his twenty-sixth book and autobiography Step Down, Dr. Jacobs. Perhaps also autobiographical was his 1942 Drums of Doomsday a novel about a Presbyterian minister who attempts to bring religion to Hollywood.
WAGA THE DOG
by Bob Foreman © 2013
Waga the dog who was the mascot of WAGA-TV for many years was painted by Atlanta artist Jim Schell, according to his daughter Susan Tasse who contacted us after reading “The Children’s Hour” in our August issue.
Schell who passed away in January was self-taught and a founder of the Atlanta ad firm Kirkland White & Schell. At age 65 he took up portrait painting, and many fine examples of his work are posted at jimschellstudio.com.
Schell also drew the station logo for WSB-TV’s White Columns.
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