Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded

Name: Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded
Released: 2026-10-29
Duration: 1 h 21 min

"Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded" celebrates the outrageous era of classic Rhythm & Blues radio with a profile of the trailblazer who helped start it all, James 'Alley Pat' Patrick. This laugh-out-loud documentary is full of infectious music, vintage graphics, and a trove of barrier-breaking and undeniably crazy ''airchecks.'' Pat joined the first black-owned radio station in the USA - Atlanta’s WERD-AM in 1952, and was a  fixture on the AM dial for 48 years. Alley Pat sang and screamed over classic 50s jazz and blues, with an on-air style quite similar to New Orleans' Ernie-K-Doe, as they both imprudently improvised through hilarious live commercials. But beneath Pat's jive was some deadly serious business; civil rights pioneers including Andrew Young recall Alley Pat's pivotal role in their shared struggle. These new "Negro format" radio stations attracted open-minded white listeners, getting hip to the most exciting music of the day, while their in-person access was often denied by segregation laws. A life so unique and colorful, it barely fits in one movie. As DJ and promoter, he befriended many of the music greats of the era. And in the 1960's, as Atlanta's first black bail bondsman, he aligned with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and rescued jailed civil rights marchers in the small Georgia towns on the front lines of the battle. The film explores Pat's close friendship with beloved civil rights activist Hosea Williams, and concludes with Pat's touching but hilarious eulogy at Williams' funeral on the altar of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. A certified crowd-pleaser, the film won the First Place Audience Award at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2010.PT1H21M2026-10-29

Tom Roche

Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded"Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded"

Showtimes

October 29, 7:00 pm