Sandy Springs Theatre
6125 Roswell Road,
Atlanta,
GA
30328
6125 Roswell Road,
Atlanta,
GA
30328
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Modular Cinemas of America, Weis Theatres
Previous Names: Sandy Springs Minicinema, Weis Sandy Springs Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Built in an existing storefront by Modular Cinemas of America, and opened as the third Minicinema on December 18, 1968 with Tony Curtis in “The Boston Strangler”. It was always a single screen, second run theatre. It was closed in 1979.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey, Stan Malone
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Recent comments (view all 27 comments)
Cone,If you have anything on the Alps and Athens Drive-ins in Athens plez add them to the very small intro i did. Great to read your articles. TLSLOEWS.you a theatre dawg too.
I must confess, I loved the movie business. I’m happy to add what I can regarding the Alps Road MiniCinema.
Best wishes,
Cone
Stan from all my readings it seems your are very good at clearing up confusion. I very much enjoy reading all that you write. So the ad in the header is for the theatre down the road not the Sandy Springs Mini Cinema
Chris, thank you for the compliment. I do my best although my memory does play tricks on me from time to time. It is nice to know that there are people out there who value such efforts.
As for your question, the above ad is on the correct page. This is confusing to someone who did not live it, but the easiest way to keep it straight is to remember that the other theater never had “Sandy Springs” in its name and kept the same owner the entire time. It opened as “Cinema 285” and before too long was renamed “Hammond Square Cinema” when the shopping center it was in was renamed. (The reason for all if this is in my intro for that theater on its page.) It was run by Georgia Theater Company for its entire run.
This location started off as “Sandy Springs Mini Cinema” the third of what would be a chain of five mini cinemas in the Atlanta region plus some out of town locations. In 1971 it was renamed “Sandy Springs Theater” by its franchisee when they pulled it out of the Mini Cinema chain when the chain was sold. In 1973 another new owner purchased all of the Atlanta properties and reunited them under the Mini Cinema name calling them “A Division of Conners Capital Corp.” (Except for the Peachtree Battle and Ansley Mall locations which had already been sold off.) In the summer of 1974, all of these plus the under construction triple on Franklin Road in Marietta were sold to Weis Theaters which was a major player in the Atlanta first run/exclusive run market.
This might not be exactly accurate, but it is the way the story was told to those of us who worked there at the time. The ad above is from the spring of 1974 based on what was playing. By this time I had graduated from college and was managing a theatre for Georgia Theatre Company. I can date this by the Papillon sub-run ad and the Great Gatsby ad to the right. (The Lenox ad was for Where The Lillies Bloom.) This was just a month or two before the chain was sold to Weis. The reason such a low rent film was playing in this neighborhood location was simple. The current owner, not nearly as nice to work for as the original people, owed money to all of the major studios for unpaid film rent plus National Screen and every concession supply house in town. The only distributors he could get product from were minor independents that he did not yet owe money to.
As to why Weis even got involved I do not know. They were a Savannah outfit and controlled that market, but they had no sub-run locations here. Maybe they wanted some or maybe they foresaw the coming of the end of the exclusive first run days and wanted a wider presence for the wide break patterns to come. If so they were very smart as in 1977 they got three of the four Atlanta bookings for Star Wars. However, they soon blind bid their way into the poor house and sold off their properties and left town.
Sandy Springs was the only one of their locations that did not continue on as a theater for at least a few years.
Stan, I got a tru understanding now, thanks.
This opened on December 18th, 1968. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
Conner’s Capital Corporation was an internal transfer in an effort to divert some money from our real estate to fund the theaters when C&S reneged on our funding agreement.
We opened Hail Hero first run Atlanta at Sandy Springs and Ansley. Michael Douglas first staring role. We had so few patrons, we took an add in the Atlanta Newspapers offering to pay $1.00 to anyone who would watch the movie. We limited it to the first 500 patrons. Turns out even if paid no one wanted to watch Michael Douglas in his first film. Cone Maddox
Closed 1973. Nice comment, madcone.
I am sure Cone can elaborate, but it was not closed until about 1979. It was sold to Weis in Summer of 1974 and they ran it several years. I can recall one of the later features as being Ode To Billy Joe because I remember seeing the projectionist local running a picket line there and at Doraville.
Cone I remember the ad for that Hail Hero. The first movie I saw here was Impossible Years. I also recall a four week run of Airport after it left its downtown run at the Rialto. True Grit in August of 1969 is another one I remember.
Thanks!
Cone