Buckhead Theatre
3110 Roswell Road NW,
Atlanta,
GA
30305
3110 Roswell Road NW,
Atlanta,
GA
30305
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Showing 26 - 38 of 38 comments
My first job was at the Capri Cinema when John & Ruth Carter owned it. My father was the Atlanta Branch Manager, then Southern Divisional Manager for Columbia Pictures. Ruth Carter asked my father to let me work there. I would fill in some at the Fine Art Cinema down the street. This was probably around 1967. I remember “To Sir, With Love” and “The Taming Of The Shrew” at the Capri and “A Man For All Seasons” at the Fine Art. If I remember correctly, “Taming Of The Shrew” was reserved seating. There was an elderly woman named “Dovie” that worked some in the boxoffice.
I remember riding the bus from Hapeville to the Capri in Buckhead. My brother and I would go see movies here. The Capri was the best theater to see Sensurround movies. I remember seeing “Earthquake” and “Roller Coaster” here. Unfortunately “Roller coaster was the final movie at the old Capri.
I went once or twice when it was the Cinema and Drafthouse and they probably should not have bothered. People would interrupt you asking if you wanted anything.
Have not been since it became a concert venue. Hope it does not share the fate of many other old palaces.
Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2usfa4
A night photo.
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A CAPRI CINEMA THEATRE TICKET… CIRCA 1970.
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The Capri was the first of the Cinema and Drafthouses in Atlanta. (1980-81 as best I can recall) Before it became the Roxy it had a short stint serving food and drink while the movie was playing, the floor was tiered and the balcony was closed off at that time. I had a pass given to me by the guy who sold them all their signs when they converted from the Capri name and saw several $1 type movies there. As best I can recall the folks that ran it went on to the old Georgia Cinerama and the Doraville after the Capri closed. Hard to believe that Sears was there, I once read that it was the most valuable Sears property in the nation before they closed it and the tower popped up in its place.
To me, this place will always be the Capri. For about 8 years, it was one of the premiere first run theatres in Atlanta, not because of the facility perhaps, but because of the big bucks Weis was willing to put up in those blind bidding days to get the top pictures. Just like the Fox and later the Phipps Plaza, just playing at the Capri would cause even an average picture to do better business that it otherwise would have just because people assumed that if it played there then it must be worthy.
During those days the theatre seated about 850, of which about 200 were in the balcony. Possibly because of the up front money they had to guarantee, the Capri and its down the street sister, the Fine Art, had a reputation for very lengthy bookings. Among the longer engagements were Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (4 months), Funny Girl (8 months), Out Towners (3 months), Love Story (6 months), The Godfather (5 months), and Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake (about 4 months each). There was one period from Christmas of 1970 until August 1972 when the Capri played only 7 different titles.
Before it was outlawed, blind bidding was the movie theatre equivalent of Russian Roulette. Since Weis was the most aggressive practitioner of this risky business it was only a matter of time before the odds caught up, not only at the Capri but in all of his theatres. Aside from the hits listed above, some of the more expensive flops were, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, Lost Horizon, 7 Percent Solution, and the final nail in the coffin, Gable and Lombard.
When George Ellis was kicked out of his Ansley Mall Film Forum he briefly moved his operation here and the Capri took on the name Cinema Gallery although none of the signage changed. As I described this story in my Film Forum comment, George was soon back at Ansley Mall and the Capri went dark. The rest of the story is as described in the above post and comments. Other than that my main memories of the Capri involve the nice diner which was located across the street until it was town down to make way for the park that is there now, the fact that the box office had to be moved back into the entrance hallway because it kept getting robbed in its kiosk type outside location, and the fact that parking, other that the Sears store a block away was non existent.
My dad told me that the Buckhead Theatre booked Mae West pictures in the 1930’s because at that time Buckhead was outside the Atlanta City Limits. He said that in the ‘20’s and '30’s, a round trip from Atlanta’s southside to Buckhead could be an all day affair!
The Buckhead Theatre (later Capri, currently Roxy) was designed by Daniell and Beutell and opened on June 2, 1930. Daniell and Beutell used similar architectural ornament on their earlier Madison Theatre (at 496 Flat Shoals Avenue, in West Atlanta) which opened in 1927.
The theatre was one of the first purpose-built houses for sound pictures in Atlanta, although it was bestowed with functional organ chambers and grille screens which never heard the sound of a theatre organ. Originally seating 1,056 patrons with a stage 25 feet wide, the Buckhead represented an expenditure of $250,000 (according to the Atlanta Constitution). The house curtain was of burgundy velour with heavy gold applique and fringe.
Davis and Coart were early lease holders of the theatre, and in 1935, they sold this lease to the Alabama company of Terry McDaniel of Montgomery. The Buckhead was also used for civic functions, including early concerts of the Buckhead Symphony Orchestra.
According to the Atlanta Constitution…“When Mae West’s first film, "She Done Him Wrong” was suppressed in [downtown]Atlanta, the Buckhead Theatre presented it with extraordinary success, and its repeated presentation there was something of a national sensation among theatre operators.
A couple of 2005 photos of this theatre can be viewed at: View link
Here’s a link to a really nice pair of “then and now” photos at the Atlanta Time Machine website:
View link
The last time that I was in Atlanta, Buckhead didn’t look like Buckhead any more. As a matter of fact, you could say that of a lot of neighborhoods in the Atlanta area!
This was originally The Buckhead Theater, a neighborhood second run house. Here’s a link to a photo of the Buckhead Theater:
www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/spcollimages/av/lane/jpeg/LBGPF2-068a.jpg
It’s from the collection of photographs taken by the Lane Brothers, now housed in the Pullen Library of George State University.
About 1961, the Buckhead was converted to a first run policy (El CID being one of their first bookings). The name was changed to The Capri. Naturally, they renovated the theater (none too successfully). It always seemed like a neighborhood theater. The Capri (Buckhead); The Rhodes (closed up the last time I was in Atlanta); and the Fine Art (previously and currently The Garden Hills) were all second run houses pressed into service, so to speak, to book first run pictures in the 1960’s.
Listed in Film Daily Yearbook’s that I have, 1941-1950 editions, as the Buckhead Theatre. The seating capaities given in the 1940’s was for 1,000 and in 1950 it was for 942.