Altama Village I II III

I am glad someone posted this cinema. Prior to coming across the Altama listing I could not remember if the cinema was called Altama or Altamaha. Regardless, the Altama Tri-Plex was one of my favorite theaters in Brunswick, GA (My favorite was the Lanier Theater). My wife and I lived in Hinesville during my four year stint at Fort Stewart during the mid to late 1980’s. We regularly took weekend drives to Brunswick and at some point we stumbled onto the Colonial Mall at Glynn Place, which at that time was bounded on two sides by thick Georgia coastal forest, and subsequently discovered the Altama Cinema farther down the road.

The Altama Cinema was perfectly positioned for us. After a day, or a weekend, in Brunswick we would zigzag our way back toward Interstate 95 and the Altama Cinema was a natural stop if there was a film we wanted to see. We regularly went to the movies in part encouraged by the fact that our apartment was not wired for cable television until late 1986. I kept the Altama Theater’s phone number handy at home so as to call the number and jot down the film selection and schedule before we left for Brunswick or Jekyll Island. So many years have passed that I do not recall all the movies we saw at the Altama, but I do remember that we enjoyed BACK TO THE FUTURE at the Altama and then two weeks later were disappointed by TEEN WOLF. I also recall that we went to the Altama immediately following a 1987 tropical storm. The theaters’ back parking lot was flooded and the water seeped into the cinema by way of the rear exits and created a lake in front of the screen. The cinema remained open and screened ERNEST GOES TO CAMP, but the auditorium had ropes strung across the aisles and through several rows of seats to dissuade people from sitting too far forward or exiting through the partially submerged rear doors.

In August 2007 I drove through the area and turned off of I-95 onto the Golden Isles Parkway. It was amazing to see how much of the surrounding forest had disappeared and land had been developed. I noted that the Altama Cinema was long gone. Much as I noted about the Lanier Theater, the 1988 expansion of the Colonial Mall at Glynn Place including the addition of a multiplex no doubt doomed the older theaters.

“The Altama Village I II III opened in 1980”

This theater opened at least three years before 1980. Also, it was a twin before being tripled.

There was a Jerry Lewis Cinema in Brunswick, GA according to an Atlanta Constitution article dated Jan. 28, 1972. Whether it was this Altama Village triplex (?) The article was about three Georgia Lewis theatre operators filed a federal lawsuit in Atlanta district court against Lewis and Network Cinema Corp. One of the three plantiffs was Michael Solomon, Solomon Cinemas Inc., a Georgia corporation, and the article said Solomon Cinemas operated a Lewis theatre in Brunswick. More research is needed, but any further information would be appreciated. Perhaps the Lewis theatre in Brunswick, GA is not listed at all on C. Treasures.