Decatur Theatre
527 N. McDonough Street,
Decatur,
GA
30030
527 N. McDonough Street,
Decatur,
GA
30030
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Showing 26 - 38 of 38 comments
Fundamentally, I agree with you. Human beings are social animals and basically crave communal activity. Nothing will entirely replace going out to the theater, whether it is to see movies or live performances.
In England, Sony literally paid for the conversion of a large number of British cinemas to their new digital projection system, providing the equipment and the installation gratis. So, the precedent has already been set for conversion.
Yes, different applications of digital technology are inevitable. Exactly which applications will come to dominate the marketplace remains to be seen. In the meantime, the real issue will be profitablity for movie exhibitors. If the current downward trend at the box office is not merely a seasonal fluctuation, but a real change in public taste then exhibitors are headed for trouble.
In view of current trends, I see two remedies:
The Federal Government needs to break up the media conglomerates. As it has been pointed out by media critics, an increasingly greater amount of information is controlled by progressively fewer people. Anti-Trust Laws were passed in order to deal with this kind of situation.
Conversely, the Federal Government needs to explore allowing the movie studios to own a larger stake in exhibition, although not up to pre-1948 levels.. The studios need the theatrical openings to launch their eventual DVD sales. Exhibitors want to survive. By allowing a merger of the studios' and exhibitors' mutual interests, movie exhibition may be able to survive in a changing economy.
You may remember the closing scene in the 1971 movie version of Larry McMurtry’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, directed by Peter Bogdonovich. The characters played by Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges attend the final show at the neighborhood theater in the Texas town where they grew up. It is literally the last picture show for this theater. As we know, that scene was being played out all across the country. Obviously, it was repeated all over the Atlanta area in those years.
The coming changes in digital technology could mean a change nearly as dramatic as the one that occured in the motion picture industry over fifty years ago. It will be fascinating to watch it unfold and see if history really does have a way of repeating itself.
This broadcast digital format you speak of appears to be right around the corner. The way I understand it is that the studios are going to provide existing exhibitors with the hook ups and projection devices for free and recoup their cost by eliminating celluloid and the processes that go along with it. Cinemas, which come on line after this gratis period, will be responsible for purchasing this equipment on their own. There are a lot of pros and cons to this new form of technology, but it appears inevitable. I doubt that it will ever replace the cinema theatre. Although both television and the proliferation of home video and DVD impacted the cinema theatre it did not eliminate it. The cinema theatre it is an environment that cannot be replicated in a residential structure.
Yes, “out of sight, out of mind” explains some of the collective amnesia in the Atlanta area concerning the past. Now that you mention it, I was only vaguely aware that College Park had actually once been the home of a college. My visits to Atlanta over the years have only reinforced the impression that the percentage of the population that is native to the area is shrinking. There simply aren’t as many people there who remember Atlanta in the early to mid-twentieth century as there used to be.
As I have pointed out in some of my previous posts, there were roughly a dozen neighborhood movie theaters that closed in the early to mid 1950’s. These were theaters that catered to the white population in a racially segregated era. Actually, I never knew theaters like the American, the Brookhaven, the Cameo, the Cascade, or the Fairview/Memorial at all. So, I don’t doubt that there was once a movie house in College Park.
My own fascination with the changing movie exhibition market is concerned with what is happening right now. As you are probably aware, at this writing the industry is having its worst box office slump in twenty years. Recently, actor Morgan Freeman stated in an on camera TV interview that he is investing in a system for high speed internet delivery of motion pictures to home theatre systems with computer convergence.
Yes, things are about to the change again. It seems to me that there are lessons to be learned by looking at the decline of America’s movie theaters from the late 1940’s into the 1950’s. It would make a great market study for someone who is working on a business degree.
CORRECTION: Regarding the closing date for the DeKalb Theatre (at 130 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue) mentioned in my earler post – the date that I cited was only an educated guess. Although I suspect that it closed circa 1953/54, I do not have a confirmed date. The DeKalb Theatre was on the north side of the Decatur courthouse square, opposite the location of the Decatur Theatre (just off the the south side of the square).
The College Park data came from an archive directory and the posting was to see if anyone had any additional information on the theatre. Although I don’t reside in Georgia, I do make a couple of visits to the state each year. I too had friends who resided in the tri city area during the 60s and 70s as well and the theatres were the East Point (aka Russell) and the Roosevelt Drive In. Since the College Park closed in the 50s, it was “out of sight, out of mind†and without cause for discussion at the time. To date I have learned that the closing of the college in College Park was a serious blow to the city and its economic base and might have contributed to the demise of the theatre. I will update the site as more information comes available.
Jack – The exterior of the building that once housed the Glen Theatre was intact in 2003. When I actually went into the pawn shop to take a look, it appeared that the shop’s selling floor occupied only about half of the front of the building. The back half appeared to be partioned off.
Unless you had known that it used to be a movie theater, you might not have guessed it upon entering that store. Having known the Glen Theatre well from having attended it in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, I had difficulty seeing any continuity at all.
There was NEVER anything distinctive about the Glen Theatre. It was strictly a neighborhood grind house that changed its program two or three times a week. It seemed to be a kind of bare bones operation. However, it certainly did business in the years that I attended it. On Saturdays they usually booked horror/science fiction movies; westerns; and/or war movies. Realize that by the mid to late 1960’s, the racial makeup of this area was changing. Mercifully, I never knew it as a porn house.
Curiously enough, I did not find a listing for the Glen Theatre in the photocopies of the 1954 Atlanta Telephone Directory and the Atlanta Journal from the same year that I have used for reference. Frankly, I can’t recall attending the theatre before about 1957/58, so I really don’t know when it opened.
One possible resource that I have never had the chance to explore would be the City of Atlanta Business License Records. Of course, since I don’t live in the Atlanta area now it’s not a convenient research tool for me. However, if you have the time and curiosity, I’ll bet you could track down where the records are stored. They are probably on microfilm or computer files. Given access, you could learn the years of operation for the Atlanta area movie houses. Who knows, the archives of the City of Atlanta might even contain more specific information.
Remember, that communities like Decatur, Marietta, East Point, Hapeville, and College Park were all seperately incorporated cities. As a matter of fact, Decatur and Marietta were both proud of the fact that their city charters predated that of the City of Atlanta. Each of these incorporated cities have completely seperate records.
Frankly, I was surprised to read your post about the College Park Theatre. Back in the early ‘60’s I knew some fellow baby boomers who were also movie buffs who lived in College Park. They never mentioned a hardtop neighborhood theater there. The local movie theater of choice seemed to have been the Roosevelt Drive-In on the Roosevelt Highway.
For roughly ten years, from about 1962 to 1971, I was well acquainted with College Park and I can’t recall anything that resembled a shuttered movie house. That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, though. Chances are you could learn something if you started to investigate at the College Park City Hall.
I agree, but I wanted to get confirmation. I came across a thread that seemed to imply that the Glen and Decatur were one of the same, but upon reviewing the photo of the Decatur, I figured that unless the Decatur went through some major renovations, it was not the Glen. Thanks for your help. How much of the Glen is still in tact and is/was there anything distinctive about it? All that I can recall is the giant neon lettering on the facade. I never patronized the Glen because by the time I discovered it, it had degenerated into a very sleazy porno shop.
No, absolutely not!
The Glen Theatre was at the juncture of Glenwood Road and Candler Road in the Glenwood business district in DeKalb County, aproximately 3 ½ miles south of Decatur. The Glen was a very unpretenious neighborhood grind house. The last time I was in Atlanta in 2003, the building had been converted to a pawn shop.
The Glenwood Drive-In was further south on Candler Road, as I recall. It opened in the the mid-1950’s. It seems to have been demolished years ago.
The Decatur Theatre should not be confused with the DeKalb Theatre located at 130 Ponce de Leon Avenue, just off the courthouse square in Decatur. The DeKalb closed in 1954. The building was gutted and the space was converted to a J.C. Penny store. The building in turn was demolished to make way for new construction.
Having grown up in DeKalb County, I attended both the Decatur and the Glen very often. They were completely seperate and distinct.
Was this ever know as the Glenn or Glennwood?
Here’s a link to a photo of the Decatur Theater:
View link
It’s from the Lane Brothers Photography Collection at Georgia State University’s Pullen Library. If you run a search on their site, you’ll find another photo of the Decatur, as well as other Atlanta area theaters.
Having grown up in Atlanta, I literally saw scores of movies at the Decatur. Hadn’t realized it had 800 seats. Somehow, that seems like a lot.
Here’s a link to a photo of the Decatur Theater:
View link
It’s from the Lane Brothers Photography Collection at Georgia State University’s Pullen Library. If you run a search on their site, you’ll find another photo of the Decatur, as well as other Atlanta area theaters.
Having grown up in Atlanta, I literally saw scores of movies at the Decatur. Hadn’t realized it had 800 seats. Somehow, that seems like a lot.
I will post a great photo as soon as the “add a photo” is fixed. posted by Dennis Whitefield
The Decatur Theatre was located at 527 N. McDonough Street and it seated 800 people.
The Decatur Theatre was located at 527 N. McDonough Street and it seated 800 people.