In 1964 or 65, a fellow named Curtis Smith had the idea to open a “coffee house” in Athens. With a $5,000 investment and a lot of help from Mary Ann Hearn, Curtis transformed an old garage at 184 West Clayton Street into The Last Resort. Curtis later took on a partner, Terry Milton. I would expect this is when the music came in. Curtis and Mary Ann were married at some point, and in 1968 Curtis sold his share for $1,000. And they moved to Atlanta. Although Terry Milton and I played together in a band, “the Embers”, from 1961 to about the summer of 1963, I was working in Macon recording The Allman Brothers from 1968 through 1971 and thus never went to The Last Resort until the early 70’s, by which time it was owned by Gene Scoggins.

I remember my first trip to The Resort. I was in the company of Scott Boyer from the Capricorn Records group “Cowboy” and Joyce Knight, a singer with whom I produced some never released recordings. We heard Gamble Rogers. His songs and outrageous stories would bring me back to The Resort countless times over the next decade and a half. Another of my Resort favorites was Elizabeth Corrigan. To hear Elizabeth perform “The Dutchman” was a powerful experience. Before I met them, Gamble and Elizabeth had been a social unit and performed together. I have always wished I could have heard that duet. I was living out in Cherokee Corner in Oglethorpe County at that time, and The Last Resort quickly became a frequent destination for trips into town.

The Last Resort was a listening room. It was small. I remember cold winter evenings when a heavy coat was needed indoors. A partition at the front door blocked the wind an minimized the disturbance when patrons entered during a performance. Bench seats could accommodate about 90 people. There was an aisle up the middle that led between the stage and bar to the restroom. I’m not sure but I think there was only one restroom. I recall Odeta once feeling quite put upon by the sparse facilities. She demanded a dressing room, and a curtain was hastily hung behind the stage. She wasn’t happy, but she did finally agree to perform. The stage was a square formed by two 4 by 8 foot sheets of plywood placed on cement blocks turned on end I think. The sound system was a couple of high impedance microphones to a Bogen amplifier driving two small speakers. Gene would stand in the back where he collected admission, controlled the light dimmers and maintained order. Talking was done outside or during intermission. When performers were on stage, one gave them the respect to listen to what they were doing. Gene would quickly refund the money and expel anyone who had a problem with this. The acts were nearly always acoustic solo with an occasional duo. Very few local acts played The Last Resort. Gene would attend the Newport Folk Festival and book his acts for the entire year. He would publish a little booklet each quarter with information about the acts that would be playing each week. If he had someone whom I had never heard of I would make a particular effort to get there. They were always good. They would play the Resort Monday thru Saturday usually sleeping on Gene’s sofa. I recall one winter when there were some Sunday night performances as well. On those evenings hot spiced cider was served as alcohol wasn’t legal on Sundays. In fact mixed drinks had not arrived in Athens clubs. Beer and wine were the drinks, and bars closed at midnight.

Business management was not Gene’s forte, and a group of Resort lovers calling themselves “Good Causes Incorporated” rescued The Last Resort around 1973 or 74. They included Lynn Miller, Chris Brooks and his brother who’s name escapes me at the moment, and a girl named Ginnie who later married Chris Brooks. They all held down other jobs while working at The Last Resort as a labor of love and eventually paid off all it’s debts. Gene and his friend moved to Florida.

Around 1975 Lynn Miller bought out her other partners in “Good Causes”. The building next door had become available, and Lynn had ambitions to expand The Resort. She got some financial support from her brother Max and a loan from C&S Bank branch manager Ann DuVall.Plans were made. I contracted to put in the sound system and did the acoustical design of the new room. A carpenter named Jack Wright did the construction. The Resort would have to close for about 3 months while the work was done. I believe it was closed from early December till sometime in February. The last act in the old Last Resort was the Randall Bramlett Band. It was Randall’s first engagement at The Resort. He opened the new Resort and it became his home base. They coincided with the Polydor albums of The Randall Bramlett Band. Randall Bramlett, Davis Causey, Arch Pearson and Chip Millert gave us great music. They would play The Resort about once a month and they would always have a new song or two, many of which wound up in the albums. The new room seated about 200 people. Lynn had found theatre seats somewhere and had them reupholstered. This was still a listening room. There was not a dance floor. I was pleased with the sound system. I had built all the circuit boards that I used in the mixing console, and designed a custom biamplified speaker system specifically for that room. We soon started doing live broadcast over WUOG on Wednesday nights I think it was. I think of these times as the glory days of the Last Resort.

— Jim Hawkins