Parkaire Twin

This opened on June 28th, 1974. Grand opening ad uploaded. Parkaire Mall twin opening · Fri, Jun 28, 1974 – 45 · The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) · Newspapers.com

I only remember one movie I saw at this theater in the 70’s and if you saw this movie you only wanted to see it one time and one time only——————-Deliverance.

Growing up in Indian Hills, this was the theater closest to me as a kid. I remember seeing “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”. This was also where I saw my first R-rated movie. It was the original “Friday the 13th”. I thought I was 13, but since it came out in May 1980, I must’ve been 12 instead. My friend and I were the ‘good kids’, so our moms had no problem letting us see our fill of gory/titillating horror movies of the early ‘80s. I specifically remember a triple feature of “Blood Beach”, “Humanoids from the Deep”, and a third movie I can’t remember…maybe “The Boogens” playing there one weekend. We were in heaven.

I posted the June 28th, 1974 grand opening ad in the photo section.

I went with my parents to see “Animal House” in 1978, when I was sixteen. They had a good time, I didn’t. I was cringing at some of the scenes knowing my mother was sitting next to me.

This place was built by the Loews company in the Spring of 1974. There was nothing very remarkable about the theatre itself as it was about equal to the Loews 12 Oaks in its appointments. Though nicer than most of the theatres built during that era, it was still an example of bland 1970’s theatre design. An identical set of 500 seat twins with a large, spacious lobby, nice rest rooms, concession stand against the back wall of the auditorium facing the front doors, Loews “Hollywood” mural overhead, and standard Century 35MM projectors. What makes the Parkaire notable is the fact that it was built at all and the odd way it changed hands so soon after opening.

The location, while it may be the site of rush hour gridlock today, was nothing but cow pastures in 1974. The Parkaire Mall itself was odd in that it had no anchor stores and was really just a strip shopping center built in a circle with an ice skating rink in the middle and a roof overhead. The theatre did not open into the mall but had its own outside entrance and exit doors. Movie distribution wise, it was built in no mans land, just across the river into Cobb County, but well to the east of South Cobb Drive and Highway 41, which was the center of development in Cobb during those days. While actually closer to Sandy Springs and the Lenox / Phipps Theatres, it was in the same zone as the Miracle, Cobb Cinema, Cobb Center and Belmont theatres located on or near South Cobb Drive. Although Cobb County theatres could play day and date with Atlanta during those exclusive run days, it was easier for most of the movie going audience of Cobb to attend movies in Atlanta than it was to make the cross county drive to Parkaire. And, if you wanted to make dinner part of the evening then forget it. Years later, a McDonalds opened across the street, but until then it was either bring your dinner to work with you or drive the 5 miles to Sandy Springs.

Loews opened the Parkaire Twin in the early summer of 1974 with “Chinatown” and another feature whose name escapes me. In keeping with the bizarre nature of this entire episode, the showtimes, in an area where cattle outnumbered people, were 8PM and 10:30PM. Even in the most cosmopolitan areas of Atlanta in those days, you never tried to start a movie after 9:30 if at all possible. This situation was talked about among theatre managers of the time with amusement and many comments about how the New Yorkers who ran Loews must have quit listening to their local people. About 4 weeks later I was called in to work on my off day. It seemed the regular relief manager, Mr. Bill Stevens, late of the recently closed Bolton Drive In, had been pulled out and sent to manage Georgia Theatre Company’s newest theatre, the Parkaire Twin.

The story I was told was that as part of an anti trust settlement many years earlier which resulted in the splitting of Loews Theatres and MGM Studios (something to do with one company controlling distribution and exhibition), Loews was also barred from doing business in certain area, or maybe certain distances from certain areas. I heard it both ways. At any rate, Parkaire was in the forbidden zone and Loews had to get out. Georgia Theatre Company, which made a practice of buying up properties they really had no interest in just to keep the competition out, now had a new and very swank (for them) theatre. Later, when I went to work for Loews, I was told that this was not the case at all. The Loews story was that Georgia Theatre wanted the site so badly that they made an offer Loews could not refuse. Knowing the Georgia Theatre Company of that time, I tend to believe the former version of events.

Regardless, GTC now had the Parkaire. Booking wise, GTC was not about to take any exclusive run booking away from the Cobb Center or Belmont, so Parkaire, for the rest of its life, ran only second run or wide break first run movies. It even went through a period as a $ house. Although the area continued to develop, business was never great here or anywhere else around. In 1986 General Cinema opened the Merchants Walk 8 about two miles up the road, and a year later Cineplex opened the Merchants Exchange 5. While they both had their moments of good times, they were both closed by 1999. The new Georgia Theatre Company now runs Merchants Walk as a 12, and the Exchange is an independent $ house except on Tuesdays when tickets are 50 cents. As for the Parkaire, the entire mall and theatre complex was leveled in the mid 80’s and a brand new strip shopping center built on the site.