Garden Hills Cinema

The landlord for GHC and the shopping strip it’s in is Victor Realty Co., and I think the number is 404-321-5025. The “Victor” of Victor Realty is the son of the grocery store owner that used to be next to the theater when he was growing up, I think.

I agree, it is a shame to see this one go. Although it does not have the “going back in time” feel of the Plaza, having been extensively remodeled by Weis in the late 60’s, it was one of those fast fading links to the past that Atlanta seems to intent on getting rid of.

When I moved to Atlanta in 1967, it was known as the Fine Art and was playing “A Man For All Seasons.” Although not exactly what we would call an “Art” house today, like Midtown, or Tara, it did play a mixture of “art” type movies as well as mainstream product. (In the 60’s the art house trade was the almost exclusive domain of the Peachtree Art at 1132 Peachtree Palace Theatreth as mentioned by Don above, and starting in 1971, the Film Forum of George Ellis.) The first movie I was planning to see there was “In Cold Blood” until, that is, my mother noticed the R rating on it. (We detoured to see “The Happiest Millionaire” at the Fox instead.) The “Uncle Toms Cabin” booking featured in the then and now picture linked to above played in early 1969. It was followed by “The Killing Of Sister George” definitely not mainstream, and then “Goodbye Columbus” which took up the entire summer of 1969. Some of the other slightly out of the mainstream type bookings here were “Sterile Cuckoo” (4 months), “Anne of the Thousand Days” (3 months), “Boys In The Band” (4 months), and “Five Easy Pieces” (3 months). However, the champion for longest run during this time was the strictly mainstream “Odd Couple” which played for the final 7 months of 1968.

For Christmas of 1970, Weis booked “Ryan’s Daughter” and that one ran one week shy of 8 months during the first half of 1971. That was a good time for the Weis company as the Capri (now Buckhead Roxy) just up the street was enjoying a 7 month run of its own with “Love Story.” With “Ryan’s Daughter” I finally made it to a show at the Fine Art. With its small entrance (box-office opening to the outside in those days), tiny lobby, dark auditorium, Weis inspired decorating, I did not think much of it as a venue when compared with Lenox and Phipps, etc… Also, I did not see the movie until July and by that time the print was certainly the worse for wear and a pale example of the 70MM presentation I would see at Phipps a year or so later. Following Ryan, more narrow appeal movies enjoyed good runs here, usually lasting a month to 6 weeks. Among these were “Walkabout,” “The Go-Between,” and “Harold and Maude.”

In the spring of 1972 I paid my second visit to the Fine Art, this time to see “The Last Picture Show.” This movie, which also had a four month run, was not at all what I was expecting to see and at the time I did not think much of it. (Later I became a fan of it and even made a trip to Archer City, Texas which is where the film, and its sequel Texasville, was set and filmed.) These were still the days of blind bidding, advance rentals, and exclusive runs, and bookings exceeding 3 months were not unusual. The Fine Art followed the usual pattern of those days by running a full day “grind” schedule with the first show starting about 2 PM with midnight shows on Friday and Saturday nights. As the run lengthened and attendance declined the Friday night midnight show would drop off, then the Saturday night one and finally the matinees. Other than the downtown theatres, the Lenox and Capri were the only theatres during this time that ran all day year round.

In the summer of 1970, Weis had taken over the old Peachtree Art Theatre and reopened it as the Weis Cinema. Shortly after that they built the Broadview (later twinned with the Broadview II becoming the Silver Screen and the Broadview I becoming the Great Southeast Music Hall) and in May of 1972 purchased the Peachtree Battle Mini Cinema (which was later sold to George Lefont and became the Silver Screen.) The point of all of this is that with more theatres to book, the product got thinned out and the number of blockbuster hits at the Fine Art declined. After “Picture Show” left, there was a year of steady but unremarkable bookings until August of 1973 when one of the biggest Fine Art hits of all, “American Graffiti” opened. Looking at the booking patterns of today, it is hard to believe that this huge hit did not open until mid August. I have heard the story that not much was expected of this small film with its unknown director, George Lucas, which is why it was dumped onto the release schedule when summer was almost over. Regardless, by the time it opened in Atlanta, Universal knew they had a hit and not only did the Fine Art run the usual full schedule, but they ran midnight shows every night until school started back.

“American Graffiti” finished out the year, and for the next couple of years it was back to the steady but unspectacular slate of films. Within a couple of years the entire Weis company was in trouble as a result of overexpansion with their acquisition of the mini cinemas, and their habit of gambling big advances to get the sure fire hits, some of which were not so sure fire. A very sad event, the death of the son of Albert Weis in an auto accident, also hurt as Mr. Weis seemed to lose interest in the day to day operations of the company after that happened.

My third and last visit to the Fine Art was in December of 1974 for an advance screening of Godfather Part II. As mentioned in other posts here and on the Film Forum page, George Ellis moved his operation here in the mid to late 70’s. After he returned to Ansley Mall, the Georgia Theatre Company took control of the Garden Hills, as it was then known (again). This was an odd turn of events and GTC never did much with the place and only held the lease a short time. In those days they had a habit of taking over theatres they really had no interest in, such as the Parkaire and Georgia Twin, aka Georgia Cinerama, just to keep the competition out. This may have been the case here, but I do not really know. At any rate, as every one here knows, George Lefont soon took over and the rest is well known.

I like GEORGE he is a nice guy JACK just sad to see how the were let go for so many years ……some of the reasons may be they were leased theaters ..

george lefont is a very nice guy …period……….on thing has nothing to do with the other….

Mr. Malone is on the mark in his praise of George Lefont. The arts community of Atlanta owes a great debt to him for the financial risk he took in not only booking classic and foreign films but also for reviving two icons, the Plaza and the Garden Hills.
My reference to Atlanta as a sophisticated city was strictly tongue in cheek.

Hold on there long island. That is being a little harsh. Lefont has been in this business for 30 years and kept this little theatre going for over 20 years as well as such other venues as the Silver Screen (formerly Peachtree Battle), the Ansley Mall (formerly Film Forum), and Screening Room (formerly Broadview II, as well as the Plaza. You don’t stay in business that long by running theatres into the ground. While Lefont may run a more laid back operation than the slick multi and megaplexes of today, the actual venues themselves, while old, were kept up. I know that the Garden Hills had new seats installed several years ago, and I also know that some of these places were not in exactly mint condition to begin with.

What really killed this and the others listed above is success. Lefont made a good living off of the art film market for many years when no one else would be bothered with such a small slice of the box-office pie. Once the theatre competition in Atlanta got so crowded, everyone was looking for any way possible to make an extra buck. It did not take the big boys long to catch on to the Lefont act and move in. The Tara, Landmark Midtown, and even the Phipps and old GCC Perimeter Mall started going after this relatively cheap and low risk market. As a result there was not enough of the foreign / art film supply and audience to go around. Money can be made in this field, but not if you have to risk big upfront advances to secure limited appeal movies. Madstone spent a ton of money refurbishing the Sandy Springs but that did not keep them from having to shut the doors.

I think that Lefont, a local businessman with a love for movies and the theatre business, did mighty well standing up to all of these big corporations for as long as he has. I have no first hand knowledge of why the run of the Plaza or Garden Hills has ended, but I would bet that the competition from the deep pocketed big guns has just made this part of the movie business too marginal to support an old single screen location. The Lefont 8plex in Sandy Springs is well maintained and still going with its mainstream offerings with whatever art product is available thrown in.

It is difficult to believe that Atlanta, which prides itself on its sophistication, would abandon both the Garden Hills and the Plaza theatres for bland multiplexes.

This one hurts! Yes, definitely the best art house in Atlanta. In fact, I was looking forward to attending the Garden Hills again on my next trip to Atlanta. Growing up in Atlanta I attended it when it was the Fine Art throughout the 1960’s. FELLINI’S 8 ½, YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMMOROW, and A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS spring to mind immediately, but there were many more. This is really a shame.

The Plaza closed briefly in August, 2006 while it changed hands from George Lefont to Jonathan and Gayle Reg—the deal was 8/3/06. It re-openned by Labor Day weekend—it got new inside paint and the nasty mural was replaced with movie posters wallpapered on the right-hand wall instead. The idea is to continue with indie fare and maybe do other things like show/sell art on the walls. The competition in the area is stiff in terms of both wide-release and art films, so they will have a tough go, but they seem to be in it for the love of film rather than being film moguls. See AJC article dated 8/5/06 G3

I worked for Lefont for 14 years and still have strong ties to the Garden Hills Cinema. The plans, which have not been publically shared are to close the theater and empty it of the equipment and furnishings. Garden Hills has also suffered from stiff competition in recent years, and the Atlanta trend has always been to plow it down and move on. The current manager, Kevin Powers, has worked for Lefont since the early 80s and has been at Garden Hills since about 1987. This theater has been around since the early 1940s.

Augh! Are we on the cusp of the apocalypse? What is the fate of Plaza and the Garden Hills?

only lefont theater left is springs……..

This theater will be closing at the end of October, 2006. The owner has not renewed the current lease.

The Garden Hills Cinema (at one time known as the Fine Art) reminds me somewhat of the Beekman Theatre, 1254 Second Avenue, New York, New York 10021. Both theatres are of similar size and configuration. At different times in my life I knew both theatres well. Here’s the Cinema Treasures link to the Beekman Theatre:

/theaters/306/

It looks like the Beekman Theatre, New York City’s best art house cinema, is slated for demolition. Former patrons like me are making their feelings on the matter known on the Cinema Treasures listing for the Beekman. Yours truly has posted a rather lengthy comment there regarding the future of motion picture exhibition as we have known it.

The fate of the Beekman could serve as a word of warning to Atlanta movie goers. Beware of real estate developers (no, garlic and crucifixes will not repell them!). Jewels like the Beekman Theatre and the Garden Hills Cinema should to be preserved!