Miracle Theatre
2440 S. Cobb Drive SE,
Smyrna,
GA
30080
2440 S. Cobb Drive SE,
Smyrna,
GA
30080
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I was just in the area and stopped to take a look at the old Miracle site. Incredibly after well over 20 years you can still clearly see the aisles in the auditorium and a slight raised spot where the concession stand stood. The tile from the bathroom floors is still 99% in place and the fencing that surrounded the site is mostly gone. Had one of Smyrnas finest not been sitting there I would have poked around a bit more. I took some pics with my phone and if they look OK, I will post them. Sad to see it gone even after all these years.
This opened on June 29th, 1967. Grand opening ad in the photo section. The 2nd screen opened in 1978 and closed in 1988
MPotts- what year was that? Maybe I saw the “Song of the South” at the Miracle and not the Belmont. I was sure it was the Belmont, but I could be wrong.
My first year of teaching in Cobb County(elementary school in Smyrna) the whole school went to the Miracle and saw “Song of the South.”
thats funny. my little pony came out around June of 1986. yet theres a funny farm poster wrinkled. which didnt come out till summer of 88>????
This article about the Miracle Theatre in Boxoffice of October 30, 1967, attributes the design of the theater to an architect named Harrison Benning, and says that the building was erected by the Benning Construction Company of Atlanta.
An item in Boxoffice of June 29, 1964, about H.B. Meiselman’s new Toco Hills Theatre doesn’t mention Harrison Benning, but says “Benning Construction Co. of Atlanta is the architect and builder.”
A July 14, 1969, Boxoffice item about Eastern Federal Theatres (of which H.B. Meiselman was President— apparently he just changed the name of his operating company) said that the company’s new Ben Hill Twin Theatres had been designed by architect Frank Benning, brother of the head of the Benning Construction Company. This item added that the company “…has built all of the circuit’s theatres except the Cherokee and the Coronet.”
The Benning Construction Company is still in operation, now located in Smyrna, and their web site features a photo album displaying several theater projects they’ve built, most of them apparently quite recent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give any details about any of them, and as far as I can tell none of the old Meiselman projects are displayed.
I think it’s likely that the Bennings of the construction company are descendants of Augustus Harrison Benning, the late 19th century Atlanta entrepreneur who was the person chiefly responsible for erecting the building that is considered the city’s first skyscraper (though it was a mere eleven stories tall.)
I saw many films at the Miracle while growing up in the sixties and seventies. I’m not sure, but I think that the last film that I ever saw there was ‘Rumblefish’. Little did I realize that the theater would only last another few years afterward.
I now live close to the Toco Hills Theater, and I am glad that I got to see at least a handful of movies there before it closed. I had no idea that it was the twin of the Miracle, that’s very interesting. (At the time of the Toco Hills theater’s closing it was rumored that it was going to be torn down for a giant grocery store, but that never happened.)
Ultra-Modern? The Miracle was nice, but even for its time I would not have tagged it “Ultra Modern”; Mod, yes. Cobb Centre fit closer to the Ultra-mod criteria in my book and the Georgia Cinerama set the standard. Still the Miracle and its twin sibling, the Toco Hills, were theatres of distinction and are greatly missed.
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This blogsite has a picture of the Miracle on opening day as well as a shot of the site today. Nice story on the theatre as well.
The last movie that played at the Miracle was “My Little Pony,” which dates the closing to around 1986. I don’t know what was on the other screen, but the “My Little Pony” poser stayed up for years. I remember seeing MLP there, and the theatre closed a few days later.
There was a fire in 1990, but it wasn’t severe and the Miracle stood for at least a few more years. When it was torn down no one exactly knew why, because it’s not like the rest of the shopping center was in better shape and it still stands. Nothing has been built in its place, and you can still see the slope of the auditorium floor.
With the exception of the angle of the auditoriums, the Miracle was identical to the Toco Hills Theatre.
The Miracle was a gold mine for Eastern Federal at one time, prior to Akers Mill opening and the expansion of Cobb Center from 2 to 4 screens. At that point there were only 5 indoor screens in Smyrna, so everyone did pretty well, and the drive-in was no competition as they screened strictly drive-in fare. I worked as a relief manager there for a week before it went to being a dollar house, but after the twinning (in 79 as best I can recall) and spent the majority of my time handling money. On Friday/Saturday/Sunday it was packed every show.
When Cobb Center went to 6 screens, GCC’s Akers Mill and Plitt’s Promenade opened business was pulled to these newer screens and the Miracle (and Cobb Cinema) became dollar house. In the early 80’s EFC sold the chain to a guy who was working for them and they became “Chapelle Cinemas”, which didn’t last long. EFC had ground leases on most, if not all of their properties, and had made plenty of money off them, so getting someone else to pay some rent and the utilities was more than likely a great business decision for them!