Brookhaven Theatre
4002 Peachtree Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30319
4002 Peachtree Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30319
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The picture currently above is a 1940’s shot looking northbound on Peachtree Road from North Druid Hills Road. The slightly taller white building at the end of that row of storefronts is the Brookhaven Theater. That space is now occupied by the southbound lanes of the now 7 lane wide Peachtree Road, but the McDonalds sits roughly behind the spot where the theater stood.
I was only in this theater once, in fall of 1971, when I was working at the Cherokee Theater just down the road. It was a soft core house by then but the projectionist union still had a contract to operate the booth. I was still new to the business then but the projectionist here had also worked at the Cherokee so I got a chance to visit the Brookhaven booth. It was not a desirable job and I don’t recall that they even had a regular operator. The Business Agent filled the schedule with whoever was available a day or two at a time. Mostly newer members who did not have a regular job and knew better than to turn down work when the BA “asked.”
I had never touched a projector at the time so I do not recall much detail about the booth except that it was pretty much a dump by this time, as you might imagine. The feature that day was a soft core cowboys and Indians epic titled The Ramrodders. I could not see much of the auditorium from the booth and the lights were off anyway but judging by the clean but very run down lobby it was probably showing it’s age as well.
The union let the contract go shortly after my visit when the programming went more hardcore and I think it was closed for good by the spring or summer of 1972.
Closed 1972
This closed in 1962 and opened as an adult cinema on May 22nd, 1968. Another ad in the photo section.
A small grand opening ad at the date provided by “1234” in the photo section.
CARTER, Ruth Goss Ruth Goss Carter, one of Atlanta’s last Grande Dames, died on September 22, 2009. She was 94 years old. Mrs. Carter was born in 1915 in Charlotte, North Carolina, attended Hollins College in Virginia, and married John Hennen Carter of Atlanta, in 1936. She and her husband were co-owners of the Brookhaven, the Buckhead “Capri” and the Garden Hills “Fine Art” theaters. Mrs. Carter was a devoted bridge player and a life Master of the American Contract Bridge League. She was an avid history buff and worked as a docent at the Swan House adjacent to the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta. She will be missed by her friends and surviving family: her son, John Hennen Carter Jr. of Stockbridge, Georgia; her grandchildren, John Carter III and Kimberly Marx of Atlanta, Georgia, Erik Perschmann of Carver, Minnesota, James Gardner of Stockbridge, Georgia, and Amy Castillo of Jackson, Georgia; and her great-granddaughter, Therese (Princess) Carter. The memorial service will be held at Peachtree Road Methodist Church on October 17, 2009 at 2 o'clock pm.
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on October 11, 2009
The Brookhaven Theatre opened the week of October 24, 1937. THis was the first theatre I remember going too as a four years old in the late 50’s to see “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. I had an aunt that one time work in the box office. The theatre closed in the early 60’s when the Cherokee Theatre opened in Cherokee Plaza just south on Peachtree Street.
The Brookhaven reopen some time later as the “Brookhaven Art"
The theatre was torn down along with the rest of the business district on the west side of Peachtree in the mid 70’s to allow for removing the sharp curve in the road and widening. The rest of the business district on the other side was later torn down for the construction of the MArta Station.