Built as a free standing building in the Northlake Festival Shopping Center. I never worked at this place, or even went inside, but I believe that it was built in 1983 and opened with “Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom.” At this time the Northlake Mall area was served by the GCC Northlake 2 Triple, and the Georgia Theatre Company Village Twin ( /theaters/13468/ ) although the latter may have been closed by this time. The other nearby theatres were the Greens Corner to the north, the North 85 Drive In to the west, and the North Dekalb and Suburban Plaza to the south.
Until the Northlake and its AMC partner Galleria 8 were built I don’t remember any Atlanta theatres with more than 6 screens, so this was what passed for a megaplex in those days. Northlake was an instant hit and for the rest of the 80’s it competed with the Galleria for the title of #1 grossing theatre in Atlanta. The Northlake 2, which had been a very successful location for GCC was all but wiped off the map by the AMC 8, and staggered on until its close in 1990. Oddly enough, the AMC 8 did not last much longer, closing in the mid to late 90’s. Not having any connection to it, I have no knowledge of what brought about its end, but it could be that an 8 screen location was not worth the trouble to a big outfit like AMC by the time that 18-24 screens were the norm. By this time AMC had converted their recently rebuilt North DeKalb 8 into 16 screens and Regal had announced plans to demolish the North 85 Drive In and build what would become the Hollywood 24, so maybe that was what did it. Still, it is odd that the very busy and well to do area of Northlake Mall does not have a movie theatre in its immediate vicinity.
One odd thing about this place: A friend of mine who worked there said that there was a core of high school aged employees who started working there when the place opened that remained throughout their college years, and in some cases continued on after college on a part time basis. Just reliving the good old days I suppose. That’s a nice memory in these days when 24 screen theatres churn through employees like they were confetti and the employees seldom get a chance to experience what working in an actual movie theater was like. Maybe some of those old timers will see this site and write us some first hand accounts.
While it may have been rather plain on the inside, from outside it was the most impressive looking of all Atlanta Drive Ins. The screen backed up to Piedmont Road and could be seen from a good ways down LaVista Road. It was decorated with neon script “Piedmont Drive In” signage. To get to the box office you drove down the entrance drive through the towering pine trees that dominated the lot. As was the custom in those days the box office had a large warmer so that boxes of popcorn could be sold along with the tickets. The exit was located in the rear of the lot and opened onto Lindberg Drive.
I only had the pleasure of attending a show at the Piedmont one time, this being in 1966 when I was in Atlanta visiting family. The feature was the pleasant but unremarkable “Born Free.” As usual, the co-feature was an older offering from the same film company, in this case Columbia. Although the purpose of the trip was to see ‘'Born Free" it was the co-feature that made the night memorable. It was the first, and only time in a theatre, that I saw ’‘Bye Bye Birdie’‘ although I have watched and enjoyed it many times since. If I watch it enough I may discover why Ann-Margaret calls the title character by the proper name of Birdie in the movie itself, while in the opening and closing songs she sings his name BurHEE. The fact that I attended this showing with my cousins, one of whom is named Anne, and the other Margaret, only made the show more memorable.
Sadly, by the time I moved to Atlanta in 1967, the Piedmont had recently closed. It was torn down and in its place was a K-Mart style discount store by the name of Arlands, or maybe just Arlans. The arrival of this chain was a major blow to the historical past of Atlanta. In addition to the destruction of the Piedmont, another fine drive in, the Stewart Avenue, was also destroyed to make way for another Arlands location. Even worse, they also destroyed the old Ponce de Leon Park baseball stadium where the Atlanta Crackers had played minor league baseball for years until the arrival of the major league Braves in 1966.
As it turned out, these fine Atlanta landmarks had the last laugh as the Arlands chain went out of business within a couple of years. The Ponce de Leon store was taken over by the government as office space and later torn down to make way for yet another strip shopping center. The old Piedmont Drive In location became the site of a major weekend flea market which drew bigger crowds than the drive in or discount store ever saw. That store was torn down and the MARTA Lindberg station built on its site. The front part of the property along Piedmont where the box office and screen were sited became a parking lot and later a huge Bell South office complex.
Across the street at Broadview Plaza, later renamed Lindberg Plaza, two indoor theatres were built in the early 70’s and are listed on this site as the Screening Room. They are also gone as that shopping center was torn down in about 2004 to make way for yet another and still larger shopping center. The way some things change never changes.
You have to be quick to beat Raymond to the comment section when it comes to Atlanta movie theatre history. Below is a comment I wrote on the Memorial Drive 4, but a lot of it applies to this location as well, and echos Raymonds comments about the decline of the area. The Stonemot Twin, which beat everyone else to this area by six years was the only one to enjoy any grat amount of success.
Opened by the Septum Cinemas chain in late 1982 or early 1983. This was the first attempt by competing companies to challenge the ABC (later Plitt) Stonemont Twin which had enjoyed an exclusive situation along this very heavily traveled section of Memorial Drive from I-285 to the Gwinnett County line. Later, Septum opened another 5 screen location a couple of miles down the road. Plitt countered with a 6 next door to the 5. Cineplex acquired the Plitt chain and opened another 6 just across the county line. Last, as usual, to the scene was General Cinema with an 8 at Hairston Road.
The reason for this concentration of screens was that while the town of Stone Mountain itself is very small, the surrounding area was a very fast growing and well off section of DeKalb County. None of these locations were actually in the city limits of Stone Mountain, but were in unincorporated DeKalb. By the mid 90’s this the boom days of this area were over and the Memorial Drive strip went into decline. Many of the strip shopping centers which lined the road were vacant and every one of the theatres mentioned here closed down at some point. There was a time when all of them were closed at the same time.
The Stonemont Twin, Hairston 8, and Cineplex 6 have been reopened by various independent operators, in some cases more than once. At this moment, the Cineplex is the only one operating. I do not know what happened to the two Septum’s, but the old Plitt 6 is an indoor amusement park and party room.
For a more detailed account of the glory days of this area, movie theatre wise, see the posting and comments on the Stonemont Twin page of this website.
The East Point Theatre was probably closed about 1970. The last manager, Mr. R.M. Swanson went directly to open the new South DeKalb Twin. The assistant manager, Mrs V.M. King became the assistant at the Greenbriar. The equipment was removed and found a new home at the Cinema 285 (Hammond Square Cinema on this site) when it opened in June 1971. At this time the theatre was under the management of Gerogia Theatre Company.
The strip of buildings was demolished in late 1989 at about the time the Tri Cities High School was being completed.
I have three distinct memories of the Ritz while growing up in Birmingham.
1962: How The West Was Won. My parents told me before the show that I was going to see a movie so big that it took 3 screens to show the entire picture. I guess that is how they had to describe it so a 10 year old would understand. I do not remember much about the movie itself because I was constantly looking at the right and left screens to see what was going on away from the “action.” In 1998 I made the trek to Dayton, Ohio to see HTWWW at the Neon Cinerama. It was not until then that I was able to appreciate the incredible focus and 7 track sound.
1965: Doctor Zhivago. The Ritz hosted many roadshow movies while the other ABC operated theatre, The Alabama, played the more standard fare. My mother took me to see this one because she thought it would appeal to my interest in History. (My father, having seen it with her earlier said “…once is enough.”) She was right, as usual, and from the first viewing Doctor Zhivago has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I do not know how many times I have seen it over the years, but my viewings have been in every type of venue from mono shoebox theatre to 70MM presentations at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. I have also had the pleasure of working at several theatres where it has played, managed one, (South DeKalb) and run it as the projectionist twice, both times at the Fox. I now have the new 2 disc DVD, and never tire of seeing it.
1965: Sound of Music. The Cobb operated Eastwood Mall Theatre was the main competition for the Ritz and Alabama although its 1960’s draped auditorium and living room style lobby were no match for these other two fine places in atmosphere. SOM played its reserved seat engagement at Eastwood, but the day after Zhivago left the Ritz, SOM was brought in as a filler until whatever Christmas show they had booked that year opened. Since I had already seen it at Eastwood, it was not the movie itself but the condition of the print that made this a notable experience. In those days, prints were not produced in anywhere near the numbers of today. More like 300 than 3000. By the time they got to an engagement such as this, there was no telling how many poorly maintained booths and film butchers they had encountered. The Ritz did not get the film in time, or did not bother, to inspect it. It was full of scratches, sound pops, and at least half a dozen breaks, one of which lasted for at least 15 minutes. This made the show end almost an hour late. The result was a massive traffic jam on Second Avenue on the Friday before Christmas as my mother and dozens of other parents there to pick up their children, had to wait in their cars for us to leave the theatre. (Remember, this was in the day when most of the department stores, and by extension Christmas shopping, were still downtown.)
I am sure that I visited the Ritz on other occasions but do not remember any in particular. I also remember going to the Alabama, Empire, Melba, Homewood, and even the Shades Mountain Drive In, but in those days I was more interested in the movie than the venue.
I think that the original post by Don might refer to the old Miracle or perhaps some theatre of that time that might have used the name Town and Country. This location was a 1970 era build. It was of the second generation of Eastern Federal Theatres built here, and like the Cobb Cinema and Ben Hill, was cheap to build and operate. The junction of the T&C shopping center had something of a small town square feel and the box office opened out onto it.
Inside it very much resembled the old Sandy Springs Mini Cinema. Small paneled lobby, shallow, wide shaped auditorium with a good sized screen, but NO concession stand. The far wall of the lobby had vending machines for drinks, candy and popcorn. During these years it was not unusual for theatres to have vending machines, but this was the first one I saw with machines only. On busy nights an employee would be stationed nearby to issue change and assist with mechanical problems. In the spring of 1972, the machines were removed and a very small concession stand built in their place.
The booth was manager operated and equipped with a Cinemeccanica V-18 projector and 12,000 foot reels which were mounted behind the projector. Since these reels had a capacity of about 2 hours and 20 minutes, anything longer had to have an intermission. Tora, Tora, Tora in May of 1972, Nicholas and Alexandra in September of 1972, and Sound of Music in its 1973 reissue were the ones that I remember being split. Sleuth, in the spring of 1973 was the longest movie I saw run on one reel.
In those pre VCR days, it was common for theatres to bring back old hits to fill in gaps in their booking schedules. Whenever one of my favorites would reappear in this manner I would try to go see it since you never could be sure when or if you would get the chance again. A July 1971 booking of the double feature Bullitt (or as it was listed on the marquee: Bullet) and Bonnie and Clyde first brought the T&C to my attention. Later that year I started working for EFC and saw many movies here. Being located in Cobb County, T&C (as well as the Miracle, Cobb Cinema, Cobb Center, and Belmont) could play the big first run movies day and date with the first run houses in Atlanta. Since I could now get in free, I made the trip to see Dirty Harry, Cowboys, Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc, Butterflies Are Free, Sleuth, and Jeremiah Johnson, among others. The screen here was a very nice size in relation to the size of the auditorium and I recall Cowboys and Jeremiah Johnson looking especially fine with their cinemascope aspect ratio.
In 1973 I fell from grace with Ira and the EFC crowd, so I do not know much about the history of this place following those years. This was a time of big business for this place and during my EFC days it was fortunate enough to be well managed by Cliff Bryson. I heard later that he moved to NC to manage theatres for EFC there. I understand that when tripled, the original auditorium was left intact, but I never saw it. I heard that during the construction for the twin addition, a storm blew down the concrete block wall and they had to start over. The only other thing I remember about this place took place in 1991. In the newspaper ad for T2, the theatre listings at the bottom had a big “Presented in 70MM” collar around the logo for the Marietta Star Cinema. I had never heard of this theatre, but when I looked up the address, I found it to be the old T&C, now run by George Lefont.
The T&C, like countless other places like it, was a product of the particular conditions of movie booking and exhibition that existed from 1965 until about 1980. Looking back from 30 years in the future I can see that they were just cheap, and it turns out, temporary stopgaps between the movie palaces of old and the megaplexes of today. But, to those of us who worked in them, they were a big deal then, and am glad that I had the chance to experience that era of the movie business.
For those of you interested in old pictures of Atlanta, this site has dozens, and links to dozens more, pictures of transit vehicles from the early 1900’s. As for its relevance to this page, this link,
shows a trolley at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Rumson Road. If that information is correct, then the shopping center in the background is the Garden Hills. Since the location of the theatre would be behind the trolley I can not be sure, but it looks right.
I first visited this theatre in 1999 while on a visit to Winterset to see the Madison County covered bridges and the John Wayne Museum and birthplace. It is located on the east side of the town square. At the time they were playing two separate shows, a family movie at 7PM and an adult (as in Adam Sandler type adult, not XXX) feature at 9PM. Winterset is only 35 miles from Des Moines so the turnover in features here is pretty quick in order to keep the local customers from traveling to Des Moines if what they want to see is not currently playing at the local theatre.
The manager / owner was working the box office, but he was nice enough to let me in to look the place over and talk about the difficulties in running a one screen small town theatre in close proximity to a large city. Print availability on national release date and preview availability were two issues he mentioned. These seem to be problems common to most theatres is this type of setting.
The theatre itself is old and occupies a narrow storefront on the square. Like most cold weather businesses it has a double lobby. Once you enter the street doors you come to the box office. From there you go through another set of doors into the main lobby, which in this case is taken up mostly by the snack bar. The interior of the auditorium is 1950’s art deco style with two off center aisles. The outside frontage had been covered with wood siding, but the owner said that removing it and restoring the exterior to its original state was his next priority. From the look of the two pictures posted on this site it seems that he has not gotten around to it yet.
In 2005 I noticed on another theatre website that this location was listed as closed. I called the Chamber of Commerce and the lady there said that it was open and had not closed at any time during the past 6 years.
Opened in the summer of 1985, six months after the Shannon. This was good timing for the operator since Georgia Theatre Company had emptied out the used projector warehouse when equipping the Shannon. The Southlake had all new booth equipment. 7 Century 35MM and one Century 35/70MM. The only time I am aware that the 70 was used was for “Black Cauldron.”
There was also a very odd piece of equipment known as the Christie Endless Loop Platter. This ridiculous gadget was proclaimed to all theatre owners as a way to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. It looked like a regular platter only with one platter instead of the usual 3 or 5. When being loaded with a new movie the leader would be threaded through the projector and spliced onto the tail of the movie. The film would be pulled from the center as normal but instead of winding onto a different platter would wind onto the back of the print. To keep the film from backing back off of the edge of the platter, a spring loaded arm would gently and rhythmically bump the print in towards the center of the platter as it turned. Even now I have a hard time describing it. It really had to be seen to be believed.
Fortunately the Southlake, or any other theatre I ever heard of, did not use this abortion to run their actual movies. In keeping with the Rube Goldberg nature of the whole operation, the projector was aimed toward a mirror which reflected the image onto the back of a screen which faced the lobby. It was used to show a constant stream of previews to the people, and unfortunate employees, who were in the lobby. In those days previews were not distributed at anywhere near the current number so there was seldom more than 30 minutes or so worth before the loop started over. Mercifully, I only worked this location occasionally so I never had the pleasure of changing the previews or remounting the loop.
The only other notable thing I remember about this place was the freedom with which the staff would use the house PA system. I recall hearing announcements in the auditoriums about car headlights being left on, convertible tops being left down in the rain, paging the manager to the phone, and even calling employees back to work when their break was up.
As with all other GTC properties and employees, the end came with the sellout to United Artists Theatres in the late 80’s. I did not notice when this place was closed, but it certainly gave it up by the time the AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 opened.
As Jack stated above, the ultimate in bland, unpleasant theatre design. But, at least in the 80’s there was no reason to put extra money and effort into creating a nice movie going experience. The GCC Northlake 2 and Southlake 2 triples were truly the poster children for the dozens of theatres built around Atlanta during this period which offered little more than a seat, a screen, and sound for the patrons. Three identical, long, thin, shoeboxes with 400 of the trademark GCC two position seats in each house. This notorious example of contempt for the customer was also the bane of many theatre employees who spent countless hours pushing the seats back to their upright positions while cleaning the auditorium.
The Southlake was the fourth GCC venue to be built in Atlanta following the Perimeter Mall in 1973, Northlake 2 in 1976, and Akers Mill in 1977. I believe it opened in 1978. The booth was equipped with Century 35MM projectors and Christie Autowind 3 platters. One house had the first generation pushbutton style Dolby sound rack. In an improvement over its Northlake predecessor, the screens had up and down masking for the flat picture so that both the scope and flat pictures filled the entire screen.
The main reason that these theatres were built so bland is that the public demanded little else. All they wanted was to see the hit movies, and in this area that meant going to the GCC Southlake for the most part. The only first run competition was a 3 screen effort by Plitt a couple of blocks over. I worked at this theatre several times between 1984 and 1988. During a two week stint covering a vacation for the regular projectionist in 1984 I saw the place filled to near capacity many times while showing Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and Bachelor Party. The next year Back to the Future was a big hit. As usual, this kind of success attracted the attention of the competition and before long Georgia Theatre opened an 8plex across the street, and Cineplex followed with a 6. Eventually AMC put all of these efforts out of business with their 24 screen Southlake Pavilion.
One constant during all of the time I was connected with this place was the complete lack of an adequate number (qualified or un) of job applicants. GCC considered themselves a class operation, and to be fair, they were in many respects. Help Wanted was just too crass a way to attract the best workers they felt, so at GCC it was always Employment Opportunities Available. When a sign in the lobby did not attract enough applicants, they would sometimes put the appeal on the marquee itself. However, there was not nearly enough room for all of that copy, so the word Employment was left off. It never ceased to amuse the staff how many people came in and asked about the movie “Opportunities Available.” Granted, that is not much of a story, but it was not much of a theatre.
Just like the Northlake 2 it was torn down in the early 90’s and a Sports Authority now sits on the site.
Another venue from my past. I attended the Riverside many times while I was a student at Georgia College in Milledgeville during 1972, 73, and 74. There were two indoor screens and one drive in screen in Milledgeville, all operated by Martin, but if you wanted first run product you usually had to drive the 30 miles to Macon. At the time, Riverside was operated by its builder, the Weis Theatre Company and was still a twin. I would guess that the seating capacity was about 500 per side. The front doors opened into the lobby and the auditoriums were to either side. Concession stand straight ahead in the middle, with the box office opening to the outside between the sets of entrance doors.
A notable feature of the auditoriums was the lack of a false ceiling. All of the lighting fixtures, ductwork, conduits, etc… were exposed, but painted black so that you really did not notice them unless you happened to look up. During intermission a slide projector in the booth showed slides at an angle so that it hit half screen and half panels located on the wall. At first I thought that the projector was misaligned, but since it was always that way I guess you can say it was “art.” In those pre advertising days the slides were pictures of movie stars and some stills from classic movies.
The Riverside was the newest theatre in Macon at that time and competed with the Georgia Theatre Company operated triple in the Westgate Shopping Center for first run product. I can remember seeing “What’s Up Doc”, “Nicholas and Alexandra”, “The Exorcist”, and “Sound of Music” among many others at this location. In the mid to late 70’s the Weis Theatre Company hit hard times and started disposing of their properties. Georgia Theatre Company bought up the ones in Macon which also included the downtown Bibb, the Weis Drive In in Warner Robbins which was the only air conditioned drive in I ever saw, and the half of the Macon Mini Cinema that Weis and GTC had jointly owned and operated for several years.
When I left Georgia Theatre in the early 80’s they were still running it as a twin. I was not aware that it had ever been quaded, or when it closed. One other note: Just out Riverside Drive a little ways was the Georgia Theatre operated Riverside Drive In. It was located in the nicest setting I have ever seen for a drive in and was a great place to see a movie.
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.
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.
At some point during the late 70’s the Old Dixie went through the XXX phase. This seemes to be something that every Jerry Lewis Cinema in the entire country went through at one time. Their small size and minimal staffing requirements made them ideal for this purpose. The one on Buford Hwy still operates in this manner to this day. During this phase the Old Dixie was raided by the Clayton County Police and the manager / projectionist was carted off to jail. Funny how these things work. They never seem to arrest the owners or bookers, just the poor saps trying to make a living. The solicitors undoubtedly realized that it was an easy conviction since few managers had the money to hire a lawyer and the owners would just pay their fines and mark it up to the cost of doing business. The result: Business as usual for the theatre owner, good publicity during an election year for the solicitor, and a criminal record for the poor manager and projectionist who were just doing their jobs and had no say in what was being played.
This link will take you to two pages of pictures from the 40’s and 50’s. They show the marquee, exterior, box office, projection booth as well as the manager and some staff. Well worth the visit.
My family moved to Atlanta in the summer of 1967. The first movie I attended after that was at the Rialto, June 10, a Monday I think. The feature was the John Wayne western “The War Wagon.” Like most of the first run movies that played there during that time, it was a Universal Pictures release. By this time the exodus to the suburbs (movie theatre wise) was underway and only the big downtown theatres like the Grand, Fox, Roxy, and Atlanta were left to keep the Rialto company. The bookings for the Rialto were mostly lower tier first run offerings which seldom lasted more than a month. Although starting in 1970, I passed the Rialto every day on the bus on the way to class at GSU, I never saw anything worth attending even though I was in the neighborhood. Even the Universal releases such as “Coogan’s Bluff,” “Hellfighters,” and “Winning” had short runs before heading out to the second run suburban houses. The Rialto did enjoy a brief stint as a top grossing location in 1970 with an eighteen week booking of the blockbuster “Airport” followed by a six week booking of the Clint Eastwood western “Two Mules For Sister Sara.” In late 1971 two more Universal releases, “Play Misty For Me” and “Sometimes A Great Notion” marked the end of that era of Rialto history. After that it was a collection of sex, action, and / or horror movies usually lasting a week. The one, last, effort at traditional booking came in June 1972 with the “Airport” knockoff, “Skyjacked.”
Since early 1971, the Coronet Theatre, located near the Fox on Peachtree, had been drawing huge crowds of the previously untapped “black” audience with movies such as “Cotton Comes To Harlem,” “Sweet Sweetback,” and “Shaft.” The Martin (now Carmike) chain which operated the Rialto made the decision to “go black” as the practice was referred to in the business, and “Shafts Big Score” opened to huge attendance followed by a Jim Brown action movie, “Slaughter.” The Rialto booked whichever of these movies it could get and filled in the gaps with action, kung fu, and horror features of less than mediocre quality. Like all good things, this did not last as the Grand, Atlanta (where I worked at the time) and even the Fox jumped on the “Blaxploitation” bandwagon, and there was simply not enough product, good or otherwise, to go around.
After my GSU days I did not have reason to go downtown and lost track of the goings on at the Rialto. In 1985 I made my first visit in 13 years, the purpose of which was to check out the booth prior to working there for the regular projectionist while he was on vacation. By this time the Rialto had truly fallen on hard times, playing very low quality double features of horror and action themed movies and charging a one dollar admission at all times. In other words they were giving the admission away in the hopes of making their profit at the concession stand. The boxoffice had a large sign posted which stated “NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK, NO DRUGS, NO WEAPONS, ALL PACKAGES (INCLUDING HANDBAGS) SEARCHED AT THE DOOR.” Sure enough, there was a uniformed private security guard standing next to the ticket taker checking bags. When I made my way to the booth I noticed (just as Raymond did in his above post) that even though the feature had started, the house lights were still at the intermission level. When I hurried to point this out to the projectionist (one of the true old timers still left from the glory days of downtown theatres), he just smiled and proceeded to explain to this new youngster (who was 33 at the time) that only the cleaning lights were turned off during the show. The house lights were left on all day so the security guards could better see and be seen. Sure enough, there was another uniformed guard stationed in the auditorium.
Despite this beginning, I found the Rialto a great place to work. It was probably the last theatre in Atlanta where the projectionist used reels and made manual changeovers from reel to reel. In between features we would run previews which were often of Hong Kong made kung fu films complete with Chinese graphics and voiceover. I enjoyed working there so much that I continued on for about a year giving the regular operator a day off plus working his vacations. This all came to an end when Martin installed a platter system in the booth and did away with the projectionist, adding that duty to the manager. The last movie I ran there that did any great amount of business was Prince’s “Purple Rain” which brought back to me the days of “Airport” when I would look out of the booth and see a packed house. The last movie for me, prior to being let go was “CHUD” which stood for Cannibalistic Underground Humanoid Dwellers, and the intermission short subject, “Pipeline Critters” which was about the animals who made their home in the vicinity of the Alaska Oil Pipeline. What a great way to go out. Quite a change from John Wayne and my first visit to the Rialto.
With Ansley Mall, the first two editions of the Mini Cinema chain, and the only one in free standing building. It had about 350 rocking chair seats, Century projectors, 6000' reels, and a good sized screen with a small stage in front. The lobby occupied a tiny part of the southeast corner of the building and was just large enough for a concession stand and cashier desk combo. One odd thing was the ticket machine which looked like an old grocery store cash register which did not issue tickets as such but a paper receipt, just like you would get at the grocery store.
After entering the auditorium you found yourself in a wide walkway between the back row and the projection booth. Past the booth was a door leading to the booth door and the very tiny restrooms. Another door led to the utility room and ice machine. There was no office. Since, as with all of the early Mini Cinemas, the projectionist was also the manager, the booth served this purpose.
Although twice the size of the Ansley Mall Mini, Peachtree Battle was still tiny compared to the other theatres of the day, especially the first run editions. It played a lot of independent and foreign films and usually changed every two to three weeks. Unlike today, there was no national release date for many films, especially low profile ones. Theatres like this could book these films in advance without a hard date and bring them in when business for their current feature died off. This pattern changed in October 1968 when the theatres first big hit, Barbarella, opened. Three months later, on New Years Day of 1969, the Zefferelli version of Romeo and Juliet opened for a four month run followed by Charlie for four more months.
After this period it was back to the old pattern with a few sub run engagements of mainstream movies mixed in. The first movie I remember seeing there was the Mel Brooks comedy 12 Chairs during Christmas of 1970. In 1971, the Mini Cinema Chain subbed out the “office” duties of the chain to the Storey Theatre Company, and the mini cinemas started appearing in the Storey ads. During this time the Peachtree Battle would often play the same attractions as the other Storey intermediate break houses like North DeKalb and Lakewood. (Sandy Springs, the only franchise of the Mini Cinema chain did not take part in this and operated as an independent theatre although Storey still handled the mechanics of film booking.) Mini Cinema still had a say as to which movies played, especially when up front money was required. Occasionally, Peachtree Battle would play an exclusive of the type of film it once made its living with, such as Trojan Women and Roman Polanski’s version of MacBeth.
In May of 1972, the theatre was sold to the Weis Company and became the Weis Peachtree Battle. The first feature under this arrangement was foreign film Oscar winner Garden of the Finzi Continis which was actually booked in by Mini Cinema prior to the sale. After this the more aggressive Weis booking habit resulted in more mainstream first run features with longer runs. That summer, The Candidate followed by Sounder played for the remainder of the year followed by a Christmas booking of The Great Waltz. That one was not a very good movie but sounded great with the theatres seldom used 4 track magnetic sound system.
In the spring of 1974, Weis remodeled the place and gave it a very contemporary “mod” look. A new wall was built behind the last row, and the old passageway between the seating area and the booth wall was incorporated into the lobby. This was a great improvement as it allowed access to the restrooms, ice machine, booth and utility room without having to pass through the auditorium. Since the projection beam could not shoot through the lobby, and enclosed tunnel was built from the booth, over the lobby, and into the top of the new back wall of the auditorium. The decorator Weis used on all of his theatres obviously hated straight lines, so all of the public areas were covered in curved sheetrock and corrugated metal sheeting. By this time Weis had done away with the manager / operator arrangement with the union, and there was now a separate manager, but since the office had been nothing more that a desk inside the booth, the manager had to make do with a corner of the newly enclosed boxoffice which was hardly big enough for two people at once.
All of this made crowd control much easier which was a good thing since 1974 saw heavily attended engagements of Sugarland Express and The Groove Tube, each of which ran for months. In 1975, The Other Side of the Mountain also had a 5 month run. By 1976, Weis was in big trouble due mainly to the poor bookings which they had put up big advance money for in those blind bidding days. As mentioned above, George Lefont purchased this site in 1976 and it became a big success as Atlanta’s first revival theatre showing double features which changed two and sometimes three times per week. My favorite of all of the movies that played during this time was Libeled Lady, on a twin bill with Philadelphia Story, a great combo. In addition to these older movies George also booked more recent releases such as Last Detail / Last Picture Show, and The Hospital / Network. In a humorous clash of cultures, he also played The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on weekends for many years.
In 1982, the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center expanded and took over the space of the theatre. It was torn down and a three story retail strip, the top two of which fronted Peachtree Road, was built in its place. The Silver Screen had done so well that the Rhodes had opened under new ownership showing the same type of programs and changing double features everyday. The VCR soon killed off this market so it is doubtful the Silver Screen would have survived much longer anyway. The only bit of it left now is in the #3 auditorium which George added to the Tara when he ran it. Unless they have been removed since, this theatre has the old rocking chair seats from the Peachtree Battle.
What a dump. Located within sight of South DeKalb, but as far away quality wise as you could get. It opened on December 17, 1970 and was the second Mini Cinema, after Doraville, to occupy space in a new Grant City Shopping Center. (South DeKalb Twin had opened the previous May. A third Grant City had opened in Sandy Springs in June and hosted the Cinema 285, AKA Hammond Square Cinema.) The Candler was the last Mini Cinema built and was the only twin.
It had incredibly small seats, about 250 in each house, which had seen their best days decades before. The screens were not much bigger, and the booth equipment was not much better. The booth itself was small to begin with and in those pre platter days, each screen had two carbon arc powered projectors with 6000 foot reels. At the start it even had two projectionists on duty, the reason being that both houses might require a changeover at the same time and there was no automation. This did not last long. Also, this was the only Mini Cinema to have a separate manager. In the others the projectionist had doubled as the manager with a flat daily management fee being added to the hourly booth pay. The manager had a desk (there was no office) underneath the half dozen or so steps leading from the concession stand to the booth.
The bookings here was almost entirely second and third runs and usually for one week only. Occasionally, when the South DeKalb was booked up, the Candler might get an intermediate break booking, but not often. The only example of this that I remember was The Graduate, in the summer of 1972. The only movie I remember seeing there was West Side Story, in February 1971, just a couple of months after the theatre opened. This was a memorable experience, not only because WSS is one of my favorite movies, but because it was the only time I ever saw it presented with an intermission.
If you are familiar with WSS, you know that there was a place for an intermission just after the war council and before the I Feel Pretty number. I read that prior to its initial release the decision was made to eliminate the intermission, but the spot for it is obvious if you are looking for it. The Candler put in the intermission, but instead of the proper place inserted it at the end of the next reel instead. This reel ends right in the middle of the rumble. So, just as Riff lost his blade and was pinned against the fence, the lights came up and an astro dater intermission strip appeared on the screen. 10 minutes later, the lights came down and the first image on the screen was Bernardo about to charge. Showmanship worthy of the venue!
In the summer of 1974, Weis Theatres took control of all of the Mini Cinemas. Around 1978, Weis left town. Peachtree Battle had already been sold to Lefont, Ansley Mall was George Ellis' Film Forum, Doraville became a Draft House, and Sandy Springs was gutted and became a restaurant. Candler went through a series of closures and reopenings under independent operators, sometimes as a $ house and sometimes as an adult softcore theatre. I did not notice when it closed for good. I was by the site recently and could not determine where in the shopping center it was located. I think the center may have been extended toward Candler Road making the exact location of the theatre difficult to pinpoint. Whatever spot it was has been completely reworked into a regular storefront.
What an outrage! Not only do you contradict me, but you have the nerve to be right. Further research reveals that at some unknown point during the late 70’s, George Ellis moved his operation from Ansley Mall to the 350 seat Fine Art / Garden Hills where the proceeds from the Rocky Horror Picture could better subsidize his art film operation. Later he moved back to Ansley Mall and the Rocky Horror Show moved down the street to Lefonts Silver Screen.
In 1982, Ellis exited the theatre business. Control of the Ansley Mall facility reverted to the mall owner. Lefont stepped in and operated the FF for about five years. In 1987 he sold his interests, except for the Screening Room apparently, to Hoyt. Hoyt in turn closed the FF the day they took over. Evidently they felt the costs of renovating the site were not worth the return on such a small venue. So, in total, the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema had a lifespan of about 20 years, a little longer and much more interesting than average for the class of suburban theatres built during the late 60’s to early 70’s.
To me, this place will always be the Capri. For about 8 years, it was one of the premiere first run theatres in Atlanta, not because of the facility perhaps, but because of the big bucks Weis was willing to put up in those blind bidding days to get the top pictures. Just like the Fox and later the Phipps Plaza, just playing at the Capri would cause even an average picture to do better business that it otherwise would have just because people assumed that if it played there then it must be worthy.
During those days the theatre seated about 850, of which about 200 were in the balcony. Possibly because of the up front money they had to guarantee, the Capri and its down the street sister, the Fine Art, had a reputation for very lengthy bookings. Among the longer engagements were Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (4 months), Funny Girl (8 months), Out Towners (3 months), Love Story (6 months), The Godfather (5 months), and Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake (about 4 months each). There was one period from Christmas of 1970 until August 1972 when the Capri played only 7 different titles.
Before it was outlawed, blind bidding was the movie theatre equivalent of Russian Roulette. Since Weis was the most aggressive practitioner of this risky business it was only a matter of time before the odds caught up, not only at the Capri but in all of his theatres. Aside from the hits listed above, some of the more expensive flops were, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, Lost Horizon, 7 Percent Solution, and the final nail in the coffin, Gable and Lombard.
When George Ellis was kicked out of his Ansley Mall Film Forum he briefly moved his operation here and the Capri took on the name Cinema Gallery although none of the signage changed. As I described this story in my Film Forum comment, George was soon back at Ansley Mall and the Capri went dark. The rest of the story is as described in the above post and comments. Other than that my main memories of the Capri involve the nice diner which was located across the street until it was town down to make way for the park that is there now, the fact that the box office had to be moved back into the entrance hallway because it kept getting robbed in its kiosk type outside location, and the fact that parking, other that the Sears store a block away was non existent.
Until Lenox started sticking theatres in its lobbies, this was the smallest place I ever saw a movie in. Of course, at 171 seats it would be a midsized moveover house in the megaplex of today. I do not know exactly when this place was built, but the Sandy Springs Mini Cinema was opened in December of 1968, so it was before that. With its small capacity, it did not play much mainstream first run product, but was what we would call an “art” house today. George Ellis took it over and renamed it the Film Forum in May 1971. His choice of product was so obscure that for weeks his newspaper ad was included in the section reserved for the 16 and 35MM softcore porno houses of the day.
My first visit was in October of 1971 for “Oh What A Lovely War.” (This film first played at the Peachtree Art at Peachtree and 14th, but by that time that neighborhood had become pretty rough. The Peachtree Art closed soon after and reopened in the summer of 1970 as the Weis Cinema with “Catch 22.”) Film Forum was not a good place to see a movie, but it usually played films that you would see offered no where else. There was a center aisle with two section seating. Although not very big, the screen was wall to wall which meant that it was located high enough to have the exit doors underneath. The theatre was located in a narrow storefront of a strip shopping center, despite its Ansley MALL name. The lobby was also very small and the whole place had a warehouse look to it. However, the audience to this theatre did not seem to mind and the place did great business for years.
In fact, the business was so good that it led to one of the more disgraceful episodes that I have ever witnessed in my days working in Atlanta area theatres, and that is really saying something. Apparently, the FF, despite being operated and managed by Ellis, still retained some type of connection to the Mini Cinema company. It could be that George was just a sub lessee. At any rate, the Mini Cinema chain was by this time in very poor shape and the absentee owners had placed the entire business in the hands of a hired gun who will remain nameless here. Since the FF was doing more business than all of the other Mini Cinemas combined and could supply some desperately needed cash, this guy, after a careful reading of the agreement, “reacquired” control of the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema, and did it in the dark of night.
The first George knew of this development was the next day when he showed up and found that his key no longer fit the locks. Mr. Mini Cinema soon found out that there was more to the success of the FF than just booking the right films. Since George knew most of his customers by sight if not by name, it did not take long for word of what had happened to get around. Needless to say, business dropped off to about 1% of normal, and before long George was back in control with a new ironclad lease agreement. This incident took place in about 1975, and was shortly before Weis acquired the Mini Cinema chain. Before much longer, and possibly because of the aquisition, the Ansley Mall location closed up. Ellis tried to keep his business going, and at different times operated the Capri (now Buckhead Roxy) and Fine Art (now Lefont Garden Hills) sometimes under the name of Cinema Gallery.
For a more upbeat and interesting story involving George Ellis and local theatres see: View link
In the late 60’s and early 70’s days of urban decay, a lot of places like this popped up all over Atlanta usually with the word “Art” added to the end. Houston Street Art, and Walton Street Art come to mind. I do not think that it was ever a real movie theatre. It was located in the block of Peachtree that runs from Baker to Ivy / Porter Place, and was part of a strip of storefronts that began with the Baptist Book Store and ended with the old St Francis Hotel. Or was it the Imperial? The entire block is gone now and John Portman’s 1 Atlantic Center sits on the site.
Thankfully I was never inside, but I did pass it everyday while riding the bus to and from Georgia State. It seemed to be one of those 16MM grind operations that advertised the first “showing” at 10AM and the last one starting at midnight. The sign over the door stated the admission as $5. Standard admission for regular movies in those days was about $2 tops. From its location, you could see the First Methodist Church almost across the street, a Catholic church behind it on Ivy, and the Episcopal church just north on Peachtree.
North Springs was the last of the big second run suburban theatres built by Eastern Federal. Like the earlier Cherokee, Toco Hills, Belvedere, and Miracle it had a very large auditorium, and a small everything else. It seated about 875 in three sections with two off center aisles and two more along the walls. The lobby was small compared to the size of the theatre but the box-office, managers office, projection booth, and janitors closet were the smallest I ever saw anywhere. There was no concession storeroom at all. Supplies were kept behind the screen with a chicken wire wall “securing” either end.
The theatre opened during Christmas of 1968 and I believe the first feature was Coogans Bluff. It usually changed movies every week showing whatever was on the “drive in break” that week. The first movie I saw there was Angel In My Pocket in March of 1969. I worked there from November 1971 until the spring of 1973. I was fortunate enough to work for an excellent manager, Mr. Neal Dolvin. Although the company was run so much on the cheap that it was not a good place to learn the manager trade, I did learn from Neal many lessons on hiring and managing a staff which I put to use later on.
In the office was a notebook with all of the theatres bookings listed, and only three or four times a year would a movie play for two weeks and never any longer. That changed on February 9, 1972 when Lady and the Tramp opened direct from its reissue first run at the Fox Theatre. It played for three weeks and did capacity business on weekend afternoons. On April 12, 1972 French Connection opened the day after it won its Academy Awards, and played to huge crowds for its six week run. Following that was a two week filler booking of MASH which was notable only for the incredibly poor condition of its print. This was a city wide booking, and every theatre in town was cursed with a print that had more yellow and green scratches that it did film emulsion.
The next day, June 6, 1972, Oh Calcutta opened for a three day run. This episode taught me a lot about how some theatre companies treat their employees as well as more than I ever wanted to know about the morality of public officials. The Fulton County Solicitor was up for re-election that year and despite the fact that Atlanta and Fulton County was littered with 35MM soft core houses and 16MM hardcore houses at the time, he realized an opportunity for free publicity when he saw it. On June 7, he “led raids” as the AJC so quaintly put it, on the three EFC theatres in Fulton County, the Ben Hill, Baronet, and North Springs. Off to jail went three managers, three projectionists, and the city manager. As the doorman, I did not have to make the trip, but stayed behind to answer the phone and explain to the hundreds of patrons who had purchased advance tickets for that nights showing why they were getting their money back.
EFC’s part in this shameful episode was to bail its employees out, and send them back to work that very night to run prints of MASH that just so happened to arrive almost before the paddy wagons had left the premises. This confirmed to me that EFC at least suspected what was going to happen and had a contingency plan in place. In the end, the EFC attorney pled everyone guilty, thus giving 7 good men criminal records, and paid their fines. I am willing to bet that they would have had a different strategy had the solicitor locked up the owners and bookers instead of employees who were just trying to make a living.
After this fiasco the theatre went back to its usual booking pattern only with a few more wide break first run movies mixed in. Among these were The Burglars, Cancel My Reservation, Rage, Shamus, Class of 44, Last American Hero, Last of Shelia, and the last two Planet of the Apes episodes. A look at these titles will tell you why they were wide breaks, i.e, get your money back quick before word of mouth kills the business.
EFC left town about 1978, but I was not around then, having fallen out of favor with the owners as all long term employees seemed to do in those days. Raymond can tell that part of the story as they were gone before I realized it. I did wander into the place shortly after that, and the independent owner was nice enough to invite me in and show me the booth. They had removed one projector and installed a tower. Later, a new owner twinned the auditorium and converted the place into a $ drafthouse. It stayed that way for many years. Around 2002 I was by there and a work crew was gutting the insides and turning it into a Hispanic themed nightclub. The owner let me in to look around and even offered me the old lamphouses which were still sitting in the booth. Had they been the old Simplex projectors I would have grabbed them. The carbon lamphouses from my time, where I had learned how to heat up a sandwich a la Alfredo in Cinema Paradiso, were long gone.
I have actually attended this theatre. April 4, 1971. A Sunday I believe. The feature was a double bill of A Fistfull of Dollars at 3PM and For a Few Dollars More at 5PM. Admission, $1. This was a very old location even then, and was located in “downtown” Roswell, GA. It had a little two line marquee sticking out over the sidewalk, and a very small lobby. The inside was unremarkable, and typical of the appearance of theatres built in the 1950’s. The projection light was among the dimmest I have ever seen, and flickered out on more than one occasion. I am sure there was a problem of some sort with the feed motor for the carbons because the picture would gradually get dimmer until it would suddenly brighten up, relatively speaking of course. I imagine that the operator was having to hand crank the carbons and sometimes didn’t get to it until they had burned too big of a gap.
I considered this place a real dump compared to the first run theatres of the day, or even the Sandy Springs Mini Cinema for that matter. I only went to it because I wanted to see the movies. Today of course I would love to see anything in such a venue. It all depends on your perspective.
At this time the Roswell Theatre was mostly known for showing soft core adult movies. “Tobacco Roody” was a movie I remember seeing advertised for what seemed like weeks on end. It also seemed to close occasionally, or at least stop advertising in the Atlanta paper. When I went it was in the process of trying the neighborhood family theatre route, possibly under different ownership. In those days, Roswell was much more of a small town than the close in suburb of Atlanta that it is today. That trip to the theatre on the town square on a lazy Sunday afternoon really gave it a small town feel, almost like I was going to the Royal in Archer City, Texas, home of The Last Picture Show.
I do not think that I have been to that part of Roswell since that day 35 years ago. The main 5 lane drag through town is a block to the east, I think, and I am sure the theatre is long gone although the building that housed it may still be in use. I doubt if I could find it now.
35 years after deciding that it would be an entertaining thing to do, I can finally check “seeing a movie at the Ziegfeld” off of life’s to do list. Specifically, the 1 PM showing of CE3K yesterday. I was not disappointed. The experience was just what I expected after reading all of the posts here. Namely, a friendly, professional staff which greeted each person individually, a clean facility, big screen, booming sound, lax effort from the projection booth, and a professional manager (Nicki, I believe she said her name was) who did not mind taking a few moments to talk with an out of owner.
While never one of my all time favorites, CE3K is a big, class, production. Yesterday took me back to a time you could go to a movie and even if the movie was not exceptional, enjoy a theatre with some class and individuality, a big screen, and a good presentation (well, can’t have everything). In short going to a movie was “an event.” Appearance wise, the auditorium looked just as it does in the fine two page layout devoted to it in the Cinema Treasures book. I see what people are talking about when the size of the screen is the subject. To their credit, most megaplexes built today do try to pack as large a screen as possible into their small auditoriums, but projection wise, you do not get the same look as you do when using a screen that is large in its own right, and not just in relation to its auditorium size. While in relation to the house the Ziegfeld screen may look small, especially on a flat movie, but I am sure it beats anything in a multiplex. I sat on row “O” and enjoyed the nearly forgotten experience of having to track the action back and forth across the screen. This is something I can not do in a megaplex because when I sit close enough to do that the focus is way off.
Another thing that I noticed was the small size of the lobby. Back in the old days of exclusive runs and roadshows and sellouts, I do not know what they did with the crowd waiting for the next show. I assume that they used the plaza between the theatre and the back of the building facing 6th Avenue, but it was cold and windy yesterday, and this is Spring. I would hate to be the manager who had to tell hundreds of patrons for Cabaret or Barry Lyndon, or Star Is Born, that they would have to wait outside in the New York winter. Layout wise, the lobby and auditorium are almost an exact copy of the old Rialto here in Atlanta, although the seating area is larger and the lobby smaller. I did enjoy seeing the seating chart with the Ziegfeld logo at the bottom posted on the wall leading to the auditorium. Specifically, the very distinctive and in my opinion, attractive trademark Walter Reade Organization logo script.
Although not technically part of this site, I would also like to say what a great place New York is to visit. From the four MTA bus drivers, to the Ziegfeld staff, the Times Square Visitor Center staff, the NYPD officers, and the floor staff of the AMC Empire, everyone I met was not only helpful, but polite and friendly while being so. Even the concierge at the condos now occupying part of the old Taft Hotel building was more than happy to spare me a few minutes to talk about the old hotel and Roxy Theatre. The Delta employees at LGA were good natured, even when dealing with some grumpy passengers when our flight back to Atlanta was cancelled. I have visited New York about a dozen times since my first visit in 1984, and have always thought that it did not deserve its “in your face” reputation especially when putting up with tourists. Since Rudy’s quality of life campaign took hold, I have never had even the slightest unpleasant experience in the Big Apple, and I always use the MTA to get around which means I have at least casual contact with many people.
In fact, the only unpleasant experience of the day was dealing with the usual panhandling on the train from the Atlanta airport back home. I guess the reason New York, or at least the Manhattan part of it, is so nice is that all of the undesirables have been shipped to Atlanta where they inhabit the transit system and downtown, and are a protected species.
As for Clearview, I wish you good business at the Ziegfeld, but should you hit another bump in the booking road I hope you will consider putting something like this festival on the schedule again.
Built as a free standing building in the Northlake Festival Shopping Center. I never worked at this place, or even went inside, but I believe that it was built in 1983 and opened with “Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom.” At this time the Northlake Mall area was served by the GCC Northlake 2 Triple, and the Georgia Theatre Company Village Twin ( /theaters/13468/ ) although the latter may have been closed by this time. The other nearby theatres were the Greens Corner to the north, the North 85 Drive In to the west, and the North Dekalb and Suburban Plaza to the south.
Until the Northlake and its AMC partner Galleria 8 were built I don’t remember any Atlanta theatres with more than 6 screens, so this was what passed for a megaplex in those days. Northlake was an instant hit and for the rest of the 80’s it competed with the Galleria for the title of #1 grossing theatre in Atlanta. The Northlake 2, which had been a very successful location for GCC was all but wiped off the map by the AMC 8, and staggered on until its close in 1990. Oddly enough, the AMC 8 did not last much longer, closing in the mid to late 90’s. Not having any connection to it, I have no knowledge of what brought about its end, but it could be that an 8 screen location was not worth the trouble to a big outfit like AMC by the time that 18-24 screens were the norm. By this time AMC had converted their recently rebuilt North DeKalb 8 into 16 screens and Regal had announced plans to demolish the North 85 Drive In and build what would become the Hollywood 24, so maybe that was what did it. Still, it is odd that the very busy and well to do area of Northlake Mall does not have a movie theatre in its immediate vicinity.
One odd thing about this place: A friend of mine who worked there said that there was a core of high school aged employees who started working there when the place opened that remained throughout their college years, and in some cases continued on after college on a part time basis. Just reliving the good old days I suppose. That’s a nice memory in these days when 24 screen theatres churn through employees like they were confetti and the employees seldom get a chance to experience what working in an actual movie theater was like. Maybe some of those old timers will see this site and write us some first hand accounts.
While it may have been rather plain on the inside, from outside it was the most impressive looking of all Atlanta Drive Ins. The screen backed up to Piedmont Road and could be seen from a good ways down LaVista Road. It was decorated with neon script “Piedmont Drive In” signage. To get to the box office you drove down the entrance drive through the towering pine trees that dominated the lot. As was the custom in those days the box office had a large warmer so that boxes of popcorn could be sold along with the tickets. The exit was located in the rear of the lot and opened onto Lindberg Drive.
I only had the pleasure of attending a show at the Piedmont one time, this being in 1966 when I was in Atlanta visiting family. The feature was the pleasant but unremarkable “Born Free.” As usual, the co-feature was an older offering from the same film company, in this case Columbia. Although the purpose of the trip was to see ‘'Born Free" it was the co-feature that made the night memorable. It was the first, and only time in a theatre, that I saw ’‘Bye Bye Birdie’‘ although I have watched and enjoyed it many times since. If I watch it enough I may discover why Ann-Margaret calls the title character by the proper name of Birdie in the movie itself, while in the opening and closing songs she sings his name BurHEE. The fact that I attended this showing with my cousins, one of whom is named Anne, and the other Margaret, only made the show more memorable.
Sadly, by the time I moved to Atlanta in 1967, the Piedmont had recently closed. It was torn down and in its place was a K-Mart style discount store by the name of Arlands, or maybe just Arlans. The arrival of this chain was a major blow to the historical past of Atlanta. In addition to the destruction of the Piedmont, another fine drive in, the Stewart Avenue, was also destroyed to make way for another Arlands location. Even worse, they also destroyed the old Ponce de Leon Park baseball stadium where the Atlanta Crackers had played minor league baseball for years until the arrival of the major league Braves in 1966.
As it turned out, these fine Atlanta landmarks had the last laugh as the Arlands chain went out of business within a couple of years. The Ponce de Leon store was taken over by the government as office space and later torn down to make way for yet another strip shopping center. The old Piedmont Drive In location became the site of a major weekend flea market which drew bigger crowds than the drive in or discount store ever saw. That store was torn down and the MARTA Lindberg station built on its site. The front part of the property along Piedmont where the box office and screen were sited became a parking lot and later a huge Bell South office complex.
Across the street at Broadview Plaza, later renamed Lindberg Plaza, two indoor theatres were built in the early 70’s and are listed on this site as the Screening Room. They are also gone as that shopping center was torn down in about 2004 to make way for yet another and still larger shopping center. The way some things change never changes.
You have to be quick to beat Raymond to the comment section when it comes to Atlanta movie theatre history. Below is a comment I wrote on the Memorial Drive 4, but a lot of it applies to this location as well, and echos Raymonds comments about the decline of the area. The Stonemot Twin, which beat everyone else to this area by six years was the only one to enjoy any grat amount of success.
Opened by the Septum Cinemas chain in late 1982 or early 1983. This was the first attempt by competing companies to challenge the ABC (later Plitt) Stonemont Twin which had enjoyed an exclusive situation along this very heavily traveled section of Memorial Drive from I-285 to the Gwinnett County line. Later, Septum opened another 5 screen location a couple of miles down the road. Plitt countered with a 6 next door to the 5. Cineplex acquired the Plitt chain and opened another 6 just across the county line. Last, as usual, to the scene was General Cinema with an 8 at Hairston Road.
The reason for this concentration of screens was that while the town of Stone Mountain itself is very small, the surrounding area was a very fast growing and well off section of DeKalb County. None of these locations were actually in the city limits of Stone Mountain, but were in unincorporated DeKalb. By the mid 90’s this the boom days of this area were over and the Memorial Drive strip went into decline. Many of the strip shopping centers which lined the road were vacant and every one of the theatres mentioned here closed down at some point. There was a time when all of them were closed at the same time.
The Stonemont Twin, Hairston 8, and Cineplex 6 have been reopened by various independent operators, in some cases more than once. At this moment, the Cineplex is the only one operating. I do not know what happened to the two Septum’s, but the old Plitt 6 is an indoor amusement park and party room.
For a more detailed account of the glory days of this area, movie theatre wise, see the posting and comments on the Stonemont Twin page of this website.
The East Point Theatre was probably closed about 1970. The last manager, Mr. R.M. Swanson went directly to open the new South DeKalb Twin. The assistant manager, Mrs V.M. King became the assistant at the Greenbriar. The equipment was removed and found a new home at the Cinema 285 (Hammond Square Cinema on this site) when it opened in June 1971. At this time the theatre was under the management of Gerogia Theatre Company.
The strip of buildings was demolished in late 1989 at about the time the Tri Cities High School was being completed.
I have three distinct memories of the Ritz while growing up in Birmingham.
1962: How The West Was Won. My parents told me before the show that I was going to see a movie so big that it took 3 screens to show the entire picture. I guess that is how they had to describe it so a 10 year old would understand. I do not remember much about the movie itself because I was constantly looking at the right and left screens to see what was going on away from the “action.” In 1998 I made the trek to Dayton, Ohio to see HTWWW at the Neon Cinerama. It was not until then that I was able to appreciate the incredible focus and 7 track sound.
1965: Doctor Zhivago. The Ritz hosted many roadshow movies while the other ABC operated theatre, The Alabama, played the more standard fare. My mother took me to see this one because she thought it would appeal to my interest in History. (My father, having seen it with her earlier said “…once is enough.”) She was right, as usual, and from the first viewing Doctor Zhivago has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I do not know how many times I have seen it over the years, but my viewings have been in every type of venue from mono shoebox theatre to 70MM presentations at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. I have also had the pleasure of working at several theatres where it has played, managed one, (South DeKalb) and run it as the projectionist twice, both times at the Fox. I now have the new 2 disc DVD, and never tire of seeing it.
1965: Sound of Music. The Cobb operated Eastwood Mall Theatre was the main competition for the Ritz and Alabama although its 1960’s draped auditorium and living room style lobby were no match for these other two fine places in atmosphere. SOM played its reserved seat engagement at Eastwood, but the day after Zhivago left the Ritz, SOM was brought in as a filler until whatever Christmas show they had booked that year opened. Since I had already seen it at Eastwood, it was not the movie itself but the condition of the print that made this a notable experience. In those days, prints were not produced in anywhere near the numbers of today. More like 300 than 3000. By the time they got to an engagement such as this, there was no telling how many poorly maintained booths and film butchers they had encountered. The Ritz did not get the film in time, or did not bother, to inspect it. It was full of scratches, sound pops, and at least half a dozen breaks, one of which lasted for at least 15 minutes. This made the show end almost an hour late. The result was a massive traffic jam on Second Avenue on the Friday before Christmas as my mother and dozens of other parents there to pick up their children, had to wait in their cars for us to leave the theatre. (Remember, this was in the day when most of the department stores, and by extension Christmas shopping, were still downtown.)
I am sure that I visited the Ritz on other occasions but do not remember any in particular. I also remember going to the Alabama, Empire, Melba, Homewood, and even the Shades Mountain Drive In, but in those days I was more interested in the movie than the venue.
I think that the original post by Don might refer to the old Miracle or perhaps some theatre of that time that might have used the name Town and Country. This location was a 1970 era build. It was of the second generation of Eastern Federal Theatres built here, and like the Cobb Cinema and Ben Hill, was cheap to build and operate. The junction of the T&C shopping center had something of a small town square feel and the box office opened out onto it.
Inside it very much resembled the old Sandy Springs Mini Cinema. Small paneled lobby, shallow, wide shaped auditorium with a good sized screen, but NO concession stand. The far wall of the lobby had vending machines for drinks, candy and popcorn. During these years it was not unusual for theatres to have vending machines, but this was the first one I saw with machines only. On busy nights an employee would be stationed nearby to issue change and assist with mechanical problems. In the spring of 1972, the machines were removed and a very small concession stand built in their place.
The booth was manager operated and equipped with a Cinemeccanica V-18 projector and 12,000 foot reels which were mounted behind the projector. Since these reels had a capacity of about 2 hours and 20 minutes, anything longer had to have an intermission. Tora, Tora, Tora in May of 1972, Nicholas and Alexandra in September of 1972, and Sound of Music in its 1973 reissue were the ones that I remember being split. Sleuth, in the spring of 1973 was the longest movie I saw run on one reel.
In those pre VCR days, it was common for theatres to bring back old hits to fill in gaps in their booking schedules. Whenever one of my favorites would reappear in this manner I would try to go see it since you never could be sure when or if you would get the chance again. A July 1971 booking of the double feature Bullitt (or as it was listed on the marquee: Bullet) and Bonnie and Clyde first brought the T&C to my attention. Later that year I started working for EFC and saw many movies here. Being located in Cobb County, T&C (as well as the Miracle, Cobb Cinema, Cobb Center, and Belmont) could play the big first run movies day and date with the first run houses in Atlanta. Since I could now get in free, I made the trip to see Dirty Harry, Cowboys, Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc, Butterflies Are Free, Sleuth, and Jeremiah Johnson, among others. The screen here was a very nice size in relation to the size of the auditorium and I recall Cowboys and Jeremiah Johnson looking especially fine with their cinemascope aspect ratio.
In 1973 I fell from grace with Ira and the EFC crowd, so I do not know much about the history of this place following those years. This was a time of big business for this place and during my EFC days it was fortunate enough to be well managed by Cliff Bryson. I heard later that he moved to NC to manage theatres for EFC there. I understand that when tripled, the original auditorium was left intact, but I never saw it. I heard that during the construction for the twin addition, a storm blew down the concrete block wall and they had to start over. The only other thing I remember about this place took place in 1991. In the newspaper ad for T2, the theatre listings at the bottom had a big “Presented in 70MM” collar around the logo for the Marietta Star Cinema. I had never heard of this theatre, but when I looked up the address, I found it to be the old T&C, now run by George Lefont.
The T&C, like countless other places like it, was a product of the particular conditions of movie booking and exhibition that existed from 1965 until about 1980. Looking back from 30 years in the future I can see that they were just cheap, and it turns out, temporary stopgaps between the movie palaces of old and the megaplexes of today. But, to those of us who worked in them, they were a big deal then, and am glad that I had the chance to experience that era of the movie business.
http://www.trolleybuses.net/atl/atl.htm
For those of you interested in old pictures of Atlanta, this site has dozens, and links to dozens more, pictures of transit vehicles from the early 1900’s. As for its relevance to this page, this link,
View link
shows a trolley at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Rumson Road. If that information is correct, then the shopping center in the background is the Garden Hills. Since the location of the theatre would be behind the trolley I can not be sure, but it looks right.
I first visited this theatre in 1999 while on a visit to Winterset to see the Madison County covered bridges and the John Wayne Museum and birthplace. It is located on the east side of the town square. At the time they were playing two separate shows, a family movie at 7PM and an adult (as in Adam Sandler type adult, not XXX) feature at 9PM. Winterset is only 35 miles from Des Moines so the turnover in features here is pretty quick in order to keep the local customers from traveling to Des Moines if what they want to see is not currently playing at the local theatre.
The manager / owner was working the box office, but he was nice enough to let me in to look the place over and talk about the difficulties in running a one screen small town theatre in close proximity to a large city. Print availability on national release date and preview availability were two issues he mentioned. These seem to be problems common to most theatres is this type of setting.
The theatre itself is old and occupies a narrow storefront on the square. Like most cold weather businesses it has a double lobby. Once you enter the street doors you come to the box office. From there you go through another set of doors into the main lobby, which in this case is taken up mostly by the snack bar. The interior of the auditorium is 1950’s art deco style with two off center aisles. The outside frontage had been covered with wood siding, but the owner said that removing it and restoring the exterior to its original state was his next priority. From the look of the two pictures posted on this site it seems that he has not gotten around to it yet.
In 2005 I noticed on another theatre website that this location was listed as closed. I called the Chamber of Commerce and the lady there said that it was open and had not closed at any time during the past 6 years.
Opened in the summer of 1985, six months after the Shannon. This was good timing for the operator since Georgia Theatre Company had emptied out the used projector warehouse when equipping the Shannon. The Southlake had all new booth equipment. 7 Century 35MM and one Century 35/70MM. The only time I am aware that the 70 was used was for “Black Cauldron.”
There was also a very odd piece of equipment known as the Christie Endless Loop Platter. This ridiculous gadget was proclaimed to all theatre owners as a way to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. It looked like a regular platter only with one platter instead of the usual 3 or 5. When being loaded with a new movie the leader would be threaded through the projector and spliced onto the tail of the movie. The film would be pulled from the center as normal but instead of winding onto a different platter would wind onto the back of the print. To keep the film from backing back off of the edge of the platter, a spring loaded arm would gently and rhythmically bump the print in towards the center of the platter as it turned. Even now I have a hard time describing it. It really had to be seen to be believed.
Fortunately the Southlake, or any other theatre I ever heard of, did not use this abortion to run their actual movies. In keeping with the Rube Goldberg nature of the whole operation, the projector was aimed toward a mirror which reflected the image onto the back of a screen which faced the lobby. It was used to show a constant stream of previews to the people, and unfortunate employees, who were in the lobby. In those days previews were not distributed at anywhere near the current number so there was seldom more than 30 minutes or so worth before the loop started over. Mercifully, I only worked this location occasionally so I never had the pleasure of changing the previews or remounting the loop.
The only other notable thing I remember about this place was the freedom with which the staff would use the house PA system. I recall hearing announcements in the auditoriums about car headlights being left on, convertible tops being left down in the rain, paging the manager to the phone, and even calling employees back to work when their break was up.
As with all other GTC properties and employees, the end came with the sellout to United Artists Theatres in the late 80’s. I did not notice when this place was closed, but it certainly gave it up by the time the AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 opened.
As Jack stated above, the ultimate in bland, unpleasant theatre design. But, at least in the 80’s there was no reason to put extra money and effort into creating a nice movie going experience. The GCC Northlake 2 and Southlake 2 triples were truly the poster children for the dozens of theatres built around Atlanta during this period which offered little more than a seat, a screen, and sound for the patrons. Three identical, long, thin, shoeboxes with 400 of the trademark GCC two position seats in each house. This notorious example of contempt for the customer was also the bane of many theatre employees who spent countless hours pushing the seats back to their upright positions while cleaning the auditorium.
The Southlake was the fourth GCC venue to be built in Atlanta following the Perimeter Mall in 1973, Northlake 2 in 1976, and Akers Mill in 1977. I believe it opened in 1978. The booth was equipped with Century 35MM projectors and Christie Autowind 3 platters. One house had the first generation pushbutton style Dolby sound rack. In an improvement over its Northlake predecessor, the screens had up and down masking for the flat picture so that both the scope and flat pictures filled the entire screen.
The main reason that these theatres were built so bland is that the public demanded little else. All they wanted was to see the hit movies, and in this area that meant going to the GCC Southlake for the most part. The only first run competition was a 3 screen effort by Plitt a couple of blocks over. I worked at this theatre several times between 1984 and 1988. During a two week stint covering a vacation for the regular projectionist in 1984 I saw the place filled to near capacity many times while showing Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and Bachelor Party. The next year Back to the Future was a big hit. As usual, this kind of success attracted the attention of the competition and before long Georgia Theatre opened an 8plex across the street, and Cineplex followed with a 6. Eventually AMC put all of these efforts out of business with their 24 screen Southlake Pavilion.
One constant during all of the time I was connected with this place was the complete lack of an adequate number (qualified or un) of job applicants. GCC considered themselves a class operation, and to be fair, they were in many respects. Help Wanted was just too crass a way to attract the best workers they felt, so at GCC it was always Employment Opportunities Available. When a sign in the lobby did not attract enough applicants, they would sometimes put the appeal on the marquee itself. However, there was not nearly enough room for all of that copy, so the word Employment was left off. It never ceased to amuse the staff how many people came in and asked about the movie “Opportunities Available.” Granted, that is not much of a story, but it was not much of a theatre.
Just like the Northlake 2 it was torn down in the early 90’s and a Sports Authority now sits on the site.
Another venue from my past. I attended the Riverside many times while I was a student at Georgia College in Milledgeville during 1972, 73, and 74. There were two indoor screens and one drive in screen in Milledgeville, all operated by Martin, but if you wanted first run product you usually had to drive the 30 miles to Macon. At the time, Riverside was operated by its builder, the Weis Theatre Company and was still a twin. I would guess that the seating capacity was about 500 per side. The front doors opened into the lobby and the auditoriums were to either side. Concession stand straight ahead in the middle, with the box office opening to the outside between the sets of entrance doors.
A notable feature of the auditoriums was the lack of a false ceiling. All of the lighting fixtures, ductwork, conduits, etc… were exposed, but painted black so that you really did not notice them unless you happened to look up. During intermission a slide projector in the booth showed slides at an angle so that it hit half screen and half panels located on the wall. At first I thought that the projector was misaligned, but since it was always that way I guess you can say it was “art.” In those pre advertising days the slides were pictures of movie stars and some stills from classic movies.
The Riverside was the newest theatre in Macon at that time and competed with the Georgia Theatre Company operated triple in the Westgate Shopping Center for first run product. I can remember seeing “What’s Up Doc”, “Nicholas and Alexandra”, “The Exorcist”, and “Sound of Music” among many others at this location. In the mid to late 70’s the Weis Theatre Company hit hard times and started disposing of their properties. Georgia Theatre Company bought up the ones in Macon which also included the downtown Bibb, the Weis Drive In in Warner Robbins which was the only air conditioned drive in I ever saw, and the half of the Macon Mini Cinema that Weis and GTC had jointly owned and operated for several years.
When I left Georgia Theatre in the early 80’s they were still running it as a twin. I was not aware that it had ever been quaded, or when it closed. One other note: Just out Riverside Drive a little ways was the Georgia Theatre operated Riverside Drive In. It was located in the nicest setting I have ever seen for a drive in and was a great place to see a movie.
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.
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.
At some point during the late 70’s the Old Dixie went through the XXX phase. This seemes to be something that every Jerry Lewis Cinema in the entire country went through at one time. Their small size and minimal staffing requirements made them ideal for this purpose. The one on Buford Hwy still operates in this manner to this day. During this phase the Old Dixie was raided by the Clayton County Police and the manager / projectionist was carted off to jail. Funny how these things work. They never seem to arrest the owners or bookers, just the poor saps trying to make a living. The solicitors undoubtedly realized that it was an easy conviction since few managers had the money to hire a lawyer and the owners would just pay their fines and mark it up to the cost of doing business. The result: Business as usual for the theatre owner, good publicity during an election year for the solicitor, and a criminal record for the poor manager and projectionist who were just doing their jobs and had no say in what was being played.
This link will take you to two pages of pictures from the 40’s and 50’s. They show the marquee, exterior, box office, projection booth as well as the manager and some staff. Well worth the visit.
View link
For the GSU history project:
My family moved to Atlanta in the summer of 1967. The first movie I attended after that was at the Rialto, June 10, a Monday I think. The feature was the John Wayne western “The War Wagon.” Like most of the first run movies that played there during that time, it was a Universal Pictures release. By this time the exodus to the suburbs (movie theatre wise) was underway and only the big downtown theatres like the Grand, Fox, Roxy, and Atlanta were left to keep the Rialto company. The bookings for the Rialto were mostly lower tier first run offerings which seldom lasted more than a month. Although starting in 1970, I passed the Rialto every day on the bus on the way to class at GSU, I never saw anything worth attending even though I was in the neighborhood. Even the Universal releases such as “Coogan’s Bluff,” “Hellfighters,” and “Winning” had short runs before heading out to the second run suburban houses. The Rialto did enjoy a brief stint as a top grossing location in 1970 with an eighteen week booking of the blockbuster “Airport” followed by a six week booking of the Clint Eastwood western “Two Mules For Sister Sara.” In late 1971 two more Universal releases, “Play Misty For Me” and “Sometimes A Great Notion” marked the end of that era of Rialto history. After that it was a collection of sex, action, and / or horror movies usually lasting a week. The one, last, effort at traditional booking came in June 1972 with the “Airport” knockoff, “Skyjacked.”
Since early 1971, the Coronet Theatre, located near the Fox on Peachtree, had been drawing huge crowds of the previously untapped “black” audience with movies such as “Cotton Comes To Harlem,” “Sweet Sweetback,” and “Shaft.” The Martin (now Carmike) chain which operated the Rialto made the decision to “go black” as the practice was referred to in the business, and “Shafts Big Score” opened to huge attendance followed by a Jim Brown action movie, “Slaughter.” The Rialto booked whichever of these movies it could get and filled in the gaps with action, kung fu, and horror features of less than mediocre quality. Like all good things, this did not last as the Grand, Atlanta (where I worked at the time) and even the Fox jumped on the “Blaxploitation” bandwagon, and there was simply not enough product, good or otherwise, to go around.
After my GSU days I did not have reason to go downtown and lost track of the goings on at the Rialto. In 1985 I made my first visit in 13 years, the purpose of which was to check out the booth prior to working there for the regular projectionist while he was on vacation. By this time the Rialto had truly fallen on hard times, playing very low quality double features of horror and action themed movies and charging a one dollar admission at all times. In other words they were giving the admission away in the hopes of making their profit at the concession stand. The boxoffice had a large sign posted which stated “NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK, NO DRUGS, NO WEAPONS, ALL PACKAGES (INCLUDING HANDBAGS) SEARCHED AT THE DOOR.” Sure enough, there was a uniformed private security guard standing next to the ticket taker checking bags. When I made my way to the booth I noticed (just as Raymond did in his above post) that even though the feature had started, the house lights were still at the intermission level. When I hurried to point this out to the projectionist (one of the true old timers still left from the glory days of downtown theatres), he just smiled and proceeded to explain to this new youngster (who was 33 at the time) that only the cleaning lights were turned off during the show. The house lights were left on all day so the security guards could better see and be seen. Sure enough, there was another uniformed guard stationed in the auditorium.
Despite this beginning, I found the Rialto a great place to work. It was probably the last theatre in Atlanta where the projectionist used reels and made manual changeovers from reel to reel. In between features we would run previews which were often of Hong Kong made kung fu films complete with Chinese graphics and voiceover. I enjoyed working there so much that I continued on for about a year giving the regular operator a day off plus working his vacations. This all came to an end when Martin installed a platter system in the booth and did away with the projectionist, adding that duty to the manager. The last movie I ran there that did any great amount of business was Prince’s “Purple Rain” which brought back to me the days of “Airport” when I would look out of the booth and see a packed house. The last movie for me, prior to being let go was “CHUD” which stood for Cannibalistic Underground Humanoid Dwellers, and the intermission short subject, “Pipeline Critters” which was about the animals who made their home in the vicinity of the Alaska Oil Pipeline. What a great way to go out. Quite a change from John Wayne and my first visit to the Rialto.
Opened: 4/10/68.
Premiere feature: Elvira Madigan
With Ansley Mall, the first two editions of the Mini Cinema chain, and the only one in free standing building. It had about 350 rocking chair seats, Century projectors, 6000' reels, and a good sized screen with a small stage in front. The lobby occupied a tiny part of the southeast corner of the building and was just large enough for a concession stand and cashier desk combo. One odd thing was the ticket machine which looked like an old grocery store cash register which did not issue tickets as such but a paper receipt, just like you would get at the grocery store.
After entering the auditorium you found yourself in a wide walkway between the back row and the projection booth. Past the booth was a door leading to the booth door and the very tiny restrooms. Another door led to the utility room and ice machine. There was no office. Since, as with all of the early Mini Cinemas, the projectionist was also the manager, the booth served this purpose.
Although twice the size of the Ansley Mall Mini, Peachtree Battle was still tiny compared to the other theatres of the day, especially the first run editions. It played a lot of independent and foreign films and usually changed every two to three weeks. Unlike today, there was no national release date for many films, especially low profile ones. Theatres like this could book these films in advance without a hard date and bring them in when business for their current feature died off. This pattern changed in October 1968 when the theatres first big hit, Barbarella, opened. Three months later, on New Years Day of 1969, the Zefferelli version of Romeo and Juliet opened for a four month run followed by Charlie for four more months.
After this period it was back to the old pattern with a few sub run engagements of mainstream movies mixed in. The first movie I remember seeing there was the Mel Brooks comedy 12 Chairs during Christmas of 1970. In 1971, the Mini Cinema Chain subbed out the “office” duties of the chain to the Storey Theatre Company, and the mini cinemas started appearing in the Storey ads. During this time the Peachtree Battle would often play the same attractions as the other Storey intermediate break houses like North DeKalb and Lakewood. (Sandy Springs, the only franchise of the Mini Cinema chain did not take part in this and operated as an independent theatre although Storey still handled the mechanics of film booking.) Mini Cinema still had a say as to which movies played, especially when up front money was required. Occasionally, Peachtree Battle would play an exclusive of the type of film it once made its living with, such as Trojan Women and Roman Polanski’s version of MacBeth.
In May of 1972, the theatre was sold to the Weis Company and became the Weis Peachtree Battle. The first feature under this arrangement was foreign film Oscar winner Garden of the Finzi Continis which was actually booked in by Mini Cinema prior to the sale. After this the more aggressive Weis booking habit resulted in more mainstream first run features with longer runs. That summer, The Candidate followed by Sounder played for the remainder of the year followed by a Christmas booking of The Great Waltz. That one was not a very good movie but sounded great with the theatres seldom used 4 track magnetic sound system.
In the spring of 1974, Weis remodeled the place and gave it a very contemporary “mod” look. A new wall was built behind the last row, and the old passageway between the seating area and the booth wall was incorporated into the lobby. This was a great improvement as it allowed access to the restrooms, ice machine, booth and utility room without having to pass through the auditorium. Since the projection beam could not shoot through the lobby, and enclosed tunnel was built from the booth, over the lobby, and into the top of the new back wall of the auditorium. The decorator Weis used on all of his theatres obviously hated straight lines, so all of the public areas were covered in curved sheetrock and corrugated metal sheeting. By this time Weis had done away with the manager / operator arrangement with the union, and there was now a separate manager, but since the office had been nothing more that a desk inside the booth, the manager had to make do with a corner of the newly enclosed boxoffice which was hardly big enough for two people at once.
All of this made crowd control much easier which was a good thing since 1974 saw heavily attended engagements of Sugarland Express and The Groove Tube, each of which ran for months. In 1975, The Other Side of the Mountain also had a 5 month run. By 1976, Weis was in big trouble due mainly to the poor bookings which they had put up big advance money for in those blind bidding days. As mentioned above, George Lefont purchased this site in 1976 and it became a big success as Atlanta’s first revival theatre showing double features which changed two and sometimes three times per week. My favorite of all of the movies that played during this time was Libeled Lady, on a twin bill with Philadelphia Story, a great combo. In addition to these older movies George also booked more recent releases such as Last Detail / Last Picture Show, and The Hospital / Network. In a humorous clash of cultures, he also played The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on weekends for many years.
In 1982, the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center expanded and took over the space of the theatre. It was torn down and a three story retail strip, the top two of which fronted Peachtree Road, was built in its place. The Silver Screen had done so well that the Rhodes had opened under new ownership showing the same type of programs and changing double features everyday. The VCR soon killed off this market so it is doubtful the Silver Screen would have survived much longer anyway. The only bit of it left now is in the #3 auditorium which George added to the Tara when he ran it. Unless they have been removed since, this theatre has the old rocking chair seats from the Peachtree Battle.
What a dump. Located within sight of South DeKalb, but as far away quality wise as you could get. It opened on December 17, 1970 and was the second Mini Cinema, after Doraville, to occupy space in a new Grant City Shopping Center. (South DeKalb Twin had opened the previous May. A third Grant City had opened in Sandy Springs in June and hosted the Cinema 285, AKA Hammond Square Cinema.) The Candler was the last Mini Cinema built and was the only twin.
It had incredibly small seats, about 250 in each house, which had seen their best days decades before. The screens were not much bigger, and the booth equipment was not much better. The booth itself was small to begin with and in those pre platter days, each screen had two carbon arc powered projectors with 6000 foot reels. At the start it even had two projectionists on duty, the reason being that both houses might require a changeover at the same time and there was no automation. This did not last long. Also, this was the only Mini Cinema to have a separate manager. In the others the projectionist had doubled as the manager with a flat daily management fee being added to the hourly booth pay. The manager had a desk (there was no office) underneath the half dozen or so steps leading from the concession stand to the booth.
The bookings here was almost entirely second and third runs and usually for one week only. Occasionally, when the South DeKalb was booked up, the Candler might get an intermediate break booking, but not often. The only example of this that I remember was The Graduate, in the summer of 1972. The only movie I remember seeing there was West Side Story, in February 1971, just a couple of months after the theatre opened. This was a memorable experience, not only because WSS is one of my favorite movies, but because it was the only time I ever saw it presented with an intermission.
If you are familiar with WSS, you know that there was a place for an intermission just after the war council and before the I Feel Pretty number. I read that prior to its initial release the decision was made to eliminate the intermission, but the spot for it is obvious if you are looking for it. The Candler put in the intermission, but instead of the proper place inserted it at the end of the next reel instead. This reel ends right in the middle of the rumble. So, just as Riff lost his blade and was pinned against the fence, the lights came up and an astro dater intermission strip appeared on the screen. 10 minutes later, the lights came down and the first image on the screen was Bernardo about to charge. Showmanship worthy of the venue!
In the summer of 1974, Weis Theatres took control of all of the Mini Cinemas. Around 1978, Weis left town. Peachtree Battle had already been sold to Lefont, Ansley Mall was George Ellis' Film Forum, Doraville became a Draft House, and Sandy Springs was gutted and became a restaurant. Candler went through a series of closures and reopenings under independent operators, sometimes as a $ house and sometimes as an adult softcore theatre. I did not notice when it closed for good. I was by the site recently and could not determine where in the shopping center it was located. I think the center may have been extended toward Candler Road making the exact location of the theatre difficult to pinpoint. Whatever spot it was has been completely reworked into a regular storefront.
What an outrage! Not only do you contradict me, but you have the nerve to be right. Further research reveals that at some unknown point during the late 70’s, George Ellis moved his operation from Ansley Mall to the 350 seat Fine Art / Garden Hills where the proceeds from the Rocky Horror Picture could better subsidize his art film operation. Later he moved back to Ansley Mall and the Rocky Horror Show moved down the street to Lefonts Silver Screen.
In 1982, Ellis exited the theatre business. Control of the Ansley Mall facility reverted to the mall owner. Lefont stepped in and operated the FF for about five years. In 1987 he sold his interests, except for the Screening Room apparently, to Hoyt. Hoyt in turn closed the FF the day they took over. Evidently they felt the costs of renovating the site were not worth the return on such a small venue. So, in total, the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema had a lifespan of about 20 years, a little longer and much more interesting than average for the class of suburban theatres built during the late 60’s to early 70’s.
To me, this place will always be the Capri. For about 8 years, it was one of the premiere first run theatres in Atlanta, not because of the facility perhaps, but because of the big bucks Weis was willing to put up in those blind bidding days to get the top pictures. Just like the Fox and later the Phipps Plaza, just playing at the Capri would cause even an average picture to do better business that it otherwise would have just because people assumed that if it played there then it must be worthy.
During those days the theatre seated about 850, of which about 200 were in the balcony. Possibly because of the up front money they had to guarantee, the Capri and its down the street sister, the Fine Art, had a reputation for very lengthy bookings. Among the longer engagements were Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (4 months), Funny Girl (8 months), Out Towners (3 months), Love Story (6 months), The Godfather (5 months), and Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake (about 4 months each). There was one period from Christmas of 1970 until August 1972 when the Capri played only 7 different titles.
Before it was outlawed, blind bidding was the movie theatre equivalent of Russian Roulette. Since Weis was the most aggressive practitioner of this risky business it was only a matter of time before the odds caught up, not only at the Capri but in all of his theatres. Aside from the hits listed above, some of the more expensive flops were, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, Lost Horizon, 7 Percent Solution, and the final nail in the coffin, Gable and Lombard.
When George Ellis was kicked out of his Ansley Mall Film Forum he briefly moved his operation here and the Capri took on the name Cinema Gallery although none of the signage changed. As I described this story in my Film Forum comment, George was soon back at Ansley Mall and the Capri went dark. The rest of the story is as described in the above post and comments. Other than that my main memories of the Capri involve the nice diner which was located across the street until it was town down to make way for the park that is there now, the fact that the box office had to be moved back into the entrance hallway because it kept getting robbed in its kiosk type outside location, and the fact that parking, other that the Sears store a block away was non existent.
Until Lenox started sticking theatres in its lobbies, this was the smallest place I ever saw a movie in. Of course, at 171 seats it would be a midsized moveover house in the megaplex of today. I do not know exactly when this place was built, but the Sandy Springs Mini Cinema was opened in December of 1968, so it was before that. With its small capacity, it did not play much mainstream first run product, but was what we would call an “art” house today. George Ellis took it over and renamed it the Film Forum in May 1971. His choice of product was so obscure that for weeks his newspaper ad was included in the section reserved for the 16 and 35MM softcore porno houses of the day.
My first visit was in October of 1971 for “Oh What A Lovely War.” (This film first played at the Peachtree Art at Peachtree and 14th, but by that time that neighborhood had become pretty rough. The Peachtree Art closed soon after and reopened in the summer of 1970 as the Weis Cinema with “Catch 22.”) Film Forum was not a good place to see a movie, but it usually played films that you would see offered no where else. There was a center aisle with two section seating. Although not very big, the screen was wall to wall which meant that it was located high enough to have the exit doors underneath. The theatre was located in a narrow storefront of a strip shopping center, despite its Ansley MALL name. The lobby was also very small and the whole place had a warehouse look to it. However, the audience to this theatre did not seem to mind and the place did great business for years.
In fact, the business was so good that it led to one of the more disgraceful episodes that I have ever witnessed in my days working in Atlanta area theatres, and that is really saying something. Apparently, the FF, despite being operated and managed by Ellis, still retained some type of connection to the Mini Cinema company. It could be that George was just a sub lessee. At any rate, the Mini Cinema chain was by this time in very poor shape and the absentee owners had placed the entire business in the hands of a hired gun who will remain nameless here. Since the FF was doing more business than all of the other Mini Cinemas combined and could supply some desperately needed cash, this guy, after a careful reading of the agreement, “reacquired” control of the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema, and did it in the dark of night.
The first George knew of this development was the next day when he showed up and found that his key no longer fit the locks. Mr. Mini Cinema soon found out that there was more to the success of the FF than just booking the right films. Since George knew most of his customers by sight if not by name, it did not take long for word of what had happened to get around. Needless to say, business dropped off to about 1% of normal, and before long George was back in control with a new ironclad lease agreement. This incident took place in about 1975, and was shortly before Weis acquired the Mini Cinema chain. Before much longer, and possibly because of the aquisition, the Ansley Mall location closed up. Ellis tried to keep his business going, and at different times operated the Capri (now Buckhead Roxy) and Fine Art (now Lefont Garden Hills) sometimes under the name of Cinema Gallery.
For a more upbeat and interesting story involving George Ellis and local theatres see:
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In the late 60’s and early 70’s days of urban decay, a lot of places like this popped up all over Atlanta usually with the word “Art” added to the end. Houston Street Art, and Walton Street Art come to mind. I do not think that it was ever a real movie theatre. It was located in the block of Peachtree that runs from Baker to Ivy / Porter Place, and was part of a strip of storefronts that began with the Baptist Book Store and ended with the old St Francis Hotel. Or was it the Imperial? The entire block is gone now and John Portman’s 1 Atlantic Center sits on the site.
Thankfully I was never inside, but I did pass it everyday while riding the bus to and from Georgia State. It seemed to be one of those 16MM grind operations that advertised the first “showing” at 10AM and the last one starting at midnight. The sign over the door stated the admission as $5. Standard admission for regular movies in those days was about $2 tops. From its location, you could see the First Methodist Church almost across the street, a Catholic church behind it on Ivy, and the Episcopal church just north on Peachtree.
North Springs was the last of the big second run suburban theatres built by Eastern Federal. Like the earlier Cherokee, Toco Hills, Belvedere, and Miracle it had a very large auditorium, and a small everything else. It seated about 875 in three sections with two off center aisles and two more along the walls. The lobby was small compared to the size of the theatre but the box-office, managers office, projection booth, and janitors closet were the smallest I ever saw anywhere. There was no concession storeroom at all. Supplies were kept behind the screen with a chicken wire wall “securing” either end.
The theatre opened during Christmas of 1968 and I believe the first feature was Coogans Bluff. It usually changed movies every week showing whatever was on the “drive in break” that week. The first movie I saw there was Angel In My Pocket in March of 1969. I worked there from November 1971 until the spring of 1973. I was fortunate enough to work for an excellent manager, Mr. Neal Dolvin. Although the company was run so much on the cheap that it was not a good place to learn the manager trade, I did learn from Neal many lessons on hiring and managing a staff which I put to use later on.
In the office was a notebook with all of the theatres bookings listed, and only three or four times a year would a movie play for two weeks and never any longer. That changed on February 9, 1972 when Lady and the Tramp opened direct from its reissue first run at the Fox Theatre. It played for three weeks and did capacity business on weekend afternoons. On April 12, 1972 French Connection opened the day after it won its Academy Awards, and played to huge crowds for its six week run. Following that was a two week filler booking of MASH which was notable only for the incredibly poor condition of its print. This was a city wide booking, and every theatre in town was cursed with a print that had more yellow and green scratches that it did film emulsion.
The next day, June 6, 1972, Oh Calcutta opened for a three day run. This episode taught me a lot about how some theatre companies treat their employees as well as more than I ever wanted to know about the morality of public officials. The Fulton County Solicitor was up for re-election that year and despite the fact that Atlanta and Fulton County was littered with 35MM soft core houses and 16MM hardcore houses at the time, he realized an opportunity for free publicity when he saw it. On June 7, he “led raids” as the AJC so quaintly put it, on the three EFC theatres in Fulton County, the Ben Hill, Baronet, and North Springs. Off to jail went three managers, three projectionists, and the city manager. As the doorman, I did not have to make the trip, but stayed behind to answer the phone and explain to the hundreds of patrons who had purchased advance tickets for that nights showing why they were getting their money back.
EFC’s part in this shameful episode was to bail its employees out, and send them back to work that very night to run prints of MASH that just so happened to arrive almost before the paddy wagons had left the premises. This confirmed to me that EFC at least suspected what was going to happen and had a contingency plan in place. In the end, the EFC attorney pled everyone guilty, thus giving 7 good men criminal records, and paid their fines. I am willing to bet that they would have had a different strategy had the solicitor locked up the owners and bookers instead of employees who were just trying to make a living.
After this fiasco the theatre went back to its usual booking pattern only with a few more wide break first run movies mixed in. Among these were The Burglars, Cancel My Reservation, Rage, Shamus, Class of 44, Last American Hero, Last of Shelia, and the last two Planet of the Apes episodes. A look at these titles will tell you why they were wide breaks, i.e, get your money back quick before word of mouth kills the business.
EFC left town about 1978, but I was not around then, having fallen out of favor with the owners as all long term employees seemed to do in those days. Raymond can tell that part of the story as they were gone before I realized it. I did wander into the place shortly after that, and the independent owner was nice enough to invite me in and show me the booth. They had removed one projector and installed a tower. Later, a new owner twinned the auditorium and converted the place into a $ drafthouse. It stayed that way for many years. Around 2002 I was by there and a work crew was gutting the insides and turning it into a Hispanic themed nightclub. The owner let me in to look around and even offered me the old lamphouses which were still sitting in the booth. Had they been the old Simplex projectors I would have grabbed them. The carbon lamphouses from my time, where I had learned how to heat up a sandwich a la Alfredo in Cinema Paradiso, were long gone.
I have actually attended this theatre. April 4, 1971. A Sunday I believe. The feature was a double bill of A Fistfull of Dollars at 3PM and For a Few Dollars More at 5PM. Admission, $1. This was a very old location even then, and was located in “downtown” Roswell, GA. It had a little two line marquee sticking out over the sidewalk, and a very small lobby. The inside was unremarkable, and typical of the appearance of theatres built in the 1950’s. The projection light was among the dimmest I have ever seen, and flickered out on more than one occasion. I am sure there was a problem of some sort with the feed motor for the carbons because the picture would gradually get dimmer until it would suddenly brighten up, relatively speaking of course. I imagine that the operator was having to hand crank the carbons and sometimes didn’t get to it until they had burned too big of a gap.
I considered this place a real dump compared to the first run theatres of the day, or even the Sandy Springs Mini Cinema for that matter. I only went to it because I wanted to see the movies. Today of course I would love to see anything in such a venue. It all depends on your perspective.
At this time the Roswell Theatre was mostly known for showing soft core adult movies. “Tobacco Roody” was a movie I remember seeing advertised for what seemed like weeks on end. It also seemed to close occasionally, or at least stop advertising in the Atlanta paper. When I went it was in the process of trying the neighborhood family theatre route, possibly under different ownership. In those days, Roswell was much more of a small town than the close in suburb of Atlanta that it is today. That trip to the theatre on the town square on a lazy Sunday afternoon really gave it a small town feel, almost like I was going to the Royal in Archer City, Texas, home of The Last Picture Show.
I do not think that I have been to that part of Roswell since that day 35 years ago. The main 5 lane drag through town is a block to the east, I think, and I am sure the theatre is long gone although the building that housed it may still be in use. I doubt if I could find it now.
35 years after deciding that it would be an entertaining thing to do, I can finally check “seeing a movie at the Ziegfeld” off of life’s to do list. Specifically, the 1 PM showing of CE3K yesterday. I was not disappointed. The experience was just what I expected after reading all of the posts here. Namely, a friendly, professional staff which greeted each person individually, a clean facility, big screen, booming sound, lax effort from the projection booth, and a professional manager (Nicki, I believe she said her name was) who did not mind taking a few moments to talk with an out of owner.
While never one of my all time favorites, CE3K is a big, class, production. Yesterday took me back to a time you could go to a movie and even if the movie was not exceptional, enjoy a theatre with some class and individuality, a big screen, and a good presentation (well, can’t have everything). In short going to a movie was “an event.” Appearance wise, the auditorium looked just as it does in the fine two page layout devoted to it in the Cinema Treasures book. I see what people are talking about when the size of the screen is the subject. To their credit, most megaplexes built today do try to pack as large a screen as possible into their small auditoriums, but projection wise, you do not get the same look as you do when using a screen that is large in its own right, and not just in relation to its auditorium size. While in relation to the house the Ziegfeld screen may look small, especially on a flat movie, but I am sure it beats anything in a multiplex. I sat on row “O” and enjoyed the nearly forgotten experience of having to track the action back and forth across the screen. This is something I can not do in a megaplex because when I sit close enough to do that the focus is way off.
Another thing that I noticed was the small size of the lobby. Back in the old days of exclusive runs and roadshows and sellouts, I do not know what they did with the crowd waiting for the next show. I assume that they used the plaza between the theatre and the back of the building facing 6th Avenue, but it was cold and windy yesterday, and this is Spring. I would hate to be the manager who had to tell hundreds of patrons for Cabaret or Barry Lyndon, or Star Is Born, that they would have to wait outside in the New York winter. Layout wise, the lobby and auditorium are almost an exact copy of the old Rialto here in Atlanta, although the seating area is larger and the lobby smaller. I did enjoy seeing the seating chart with the Ziegfeld logo at the bottom posted on the wall leading to the auditorium. Specifically, the very distinctive and in my opinion, attractive trademark Walter Reade Organization logo script.
Although not technically part of this site, I would also like to say what a great place New York is to visit. From the four MTA bus drivers, to the Ziegfeld staff, the Times Square Visitor Center staff, the NYPD officers, and the floor staff of the AMC Empire, everyone I met was not only helpful, but polite and friendly while being so. Even the concierge at the condos now occupying part of the old Taft Hotel building was more than happy to spare me a few minutes to talk about the old hotel and Roxy Theatre. The Delta employees at LGA were good natured, even when dealing with some grumpy passengers when our flight back to Atlanta was cancelled. I have visited New York about a dozen times since my first visit in 1984, and have always thought that it did not deserve its “in your face” reputation especially when putting up with tourists. Since Rudy’s quality of life campaign took hold, I have never had even the slightest unpleasant experience in the Big Apple, and I always use the MTA to get around which means I have at least casual contact with many people.
In fact, the only unpleasant experience of the day was dealing with the usual panhandling on the train from the Atlanta airport back home. I guess the reason New York, or at least the Manhattan part of it, is so nice is that all of the undesirables have been shipped to Atlanta where they inhabit the transit system and downtown, and are a protected species.
As for Clearview, I wish you good business at the Ziegfeld, but should you hit another bump in the booking road I hope you will consider putting something like this festival on the schedule again.