Riverside Cinemas

tpldesign on July 18, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Stan, I started as a doorman/usher at the age of 16 in 1992, and I was trained as a projectionist maybe a year or so later. I eventually became an assistant manager, but I didn’t particularly care for those duties. The booth was where I belonged, and I performed projectionist duties throughout my years there. The man who probably set up that booth in the beginning, Andy Nobles, was a longtime projectionist in Macon. At one time he ran one of the local drive-ins. I understand he was responsible for a lot of the “rigged” solutions that made the RC4 booth so unique. He had retired shortly before I was hired, but I did see him visit from time-to-time. I really don’t think he was the tidy type though. I’ve got some stories to support that, but I will save those for another post or e-mail. :)

Probably one of the reasons the booth looks orderly in my pictures is because I can’t stand being unable to find something when I need it. So, I worked at keeping things in their place. I also hated seeing pieces of cut film on the floor or trash lying around. It’s just a personality thing. Most of the people we had working up there did a good job of helping keep it that way too. Thanks for the compliment!

Although I was too young to remember RC4 in the days before it had four screens, I had heard that the fourth auditorium was an addition rather than a split. The evidence seemed to point to that as well. Here is a photo along with my thoughts:

http://www.tpldesign.com/rc4/photos/rc4-01.jpg

In the above photo, the wall with the “Cinema” sign was the right wall of the #4 auditorium. Now look at the columns on the outside of the building that end approximately halfway up its length. If you were to look behind the curtains along the right side in #4, you would have seen the remaining columns, which extended to the front of the auditorium (end of the building). This indicates that at one time those columns had been visible on the outside. When #4 was added, an external wall was built around the columns, which were simply hidden behind curtains on the interior. This made for some fun after hours hide-and-seek games.

I suppose it is possible that some of #3 was chopped off to make room for #4, but the layout seemed to me more in line with it having been the original size all along. For one, the port window was centered in the back wall, and I didn’t notice any signs of a changed configuration in there. You can see this in the third link of my previous post.

I can say most certainly that the two auditoriums of the original twin were not identical. The one that was split was much deeper and would have been absolutely huge. Perhaps that is why they called #2 (the smaller one) “The Intimate Theatre.” Thanks for that bit of information. I had never heard of those two names for the auditoriums.

cccmoviehouses on February 12, 2014 at 8:27 pm

I remember the Riverside Cinemas as being twin theaters when they opened, went to see several movies here when they were new. When the theaters left downtown, Westgate, Riverside, and Macon Mall became the theaters in Macon.

rivest266 on April 20, 2022 at 5:42 pm

This opened as Weis Cinema I & II on Christmas Day, 1970. Weis Cinema opening 25 Dec 1970, Fri The Macon News (Macon, Georgia) Newspapers.com

JackCoursey on April 22, 2022 at 11:42 pm

This is one of my favourite circa 1970s cinemas. This model, which was also part the GCC line up during this period, were the last of the multiplex breed to feature large screens and an element of style in the overall design. Glad that the furniture store has keep most of the cinema interior and just about all of the exterior relatively intact. This is a museum piece!

tpldesign on April 3, 2024 at 8:57 pm

Regal Cinemas actually operated RC4 at the time of its closing in October 1997.