Plaza Theatre

The Plaza Theater is located in one of the city's most historic small neighborhood strip centers on Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue. The building has its original marquee. Its large downstairs auditorium is intact but the balcony level has been converted to show separate features. The Plaza shows excellent art and foreign films and is owned by the same folks that run the Garden Hills Cinema in Buckhead. The Plaza went through some rough times but the surrounding neighborhood has become trendy again in the past ten years and the theatre is very popular with intown
patrons.

Here is a link to a little info about the Plaza. A photo of the main portion of the marquee is on this site.

http://www.lefonttheaters.com/aboutus.html

R. McGee
Atlanta

The Plaza Theatre opened in 1939. Architect; George Harwell Bond designed this 1,000 seat Art Deco movie theatre. At one time it operated as a XXX Adult movie theatre before re-opening as a regular theatre again in 1983.

Here's a link to a photo of the Plaza Theater, dated 1951:

http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/spcollimages/av/lane/jpeg/LBGPNS11-008b.jpg

The last time I attended the Plaza Theater was twenty years ago. The first time was over 30 years before that occasion. When I was growing up in Atlanta, I saw a number of movies there. My father told me that the Plaza Shopping Center was the first of its kind in the Atlanta area.

The Plaza Theater was one of my favorite neighborhood theaters when I was growing up. It's really nice that not only has it survived, but it continues to operate. That's remarkable for a city that has changed as much as Atlanta has in the last fifty something years!

Here's a link to a nice "then and now" pair of photos at the Atlanta Time Machine website:

http://atlantatimemachine.com/commercialbldgs/ponce1.htm

Might glad that this theatre is still in operation!

Here is a recent photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maincourse/34407285/in/pool-cinemasignage/

What a cool looking theater............

theater is closed

If the Plaza Theatre has actually closed, could we have some more details? It was my impression that George Lefont leased the theater, but did not own the building. Obviously times change, and that seldom bodes well for vintage theaters. Does anyone know if the theater is slated for demolition?

Although I haven't lived in Atlanta for many years, I was born there and grew up there. In the '50's I saw many movies at the Plaza Theatre. The last time I attended the Plaza Theatre was in 1985.

theater just runs midnight rocky horror ............and thats it .......strange

That is strange. As an educated guess, I wonder if they are nearing the end of their lease. Hopefully, someone can fill us in on the facts.

FOR SALE ON BIZ $100,000.00

Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe I should be more surprised that the theater was in operation for so many years. One can only hope that the Plaza Theatre's new owner will want to operate it as a movie theater. However, I will not be too surprised if they have another agenda altogether. Looks like we'll have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Always wanted to attend the Plaza again, but whenever I was in town there was nothing playing there that I hadn't already seen. I'd hate to know that the Plaza ended its life as a movie house without having one more chance to attend it.

mi3 was the last movie it played before going to just midnight rocky horror.

Oh I forgot Atlantas oldest continuos run movie house since 1939...

I saw my first xxx movie there in 1972. After that the theater had live burlesque shows until it reopened as a 'legit' cinema in 1983.

The Plaza has finally sold, after months of searching, and will apparently re-open in a couple of weeks.

I looked at this theater i seE it lists AS SOLD , good luck .a nice theater that needs work in a great location.

no movies playing at this time must be the change of owners week.......

Removed from LEFONTS WEB SITE TODAY............

New Owners.

http://www.ajc.com/saturday/content/epaper/editions/saturday/living_444d116346fe521900b6.html

Well, you may have to sign up.

good luck to them a nice theater,good landlord ,great location.........

open under there new 2nd run and art

seating count is wrong should be 635

theater#1 425
#2-210

The Plaza Theatre is reopening tonight (9/9/06) at 11:00pm for a midnight showing of the Ed Wood Jr. classic (or debacle depending on your point of view) "Plan 9 From Outer Space.

any one been ?

website is www.plazaatlanta.com

how are they doing since the change?

Here is another photo of the Plaza Theater.

HOWis this theatre doing with new owners?

went to Rocky Horror Friday night about 80 people ....this was fun , fun, a must do if your in ATLANTA!

Here is a photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24391992@N00/527917864/

Here is another photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24391992@N00/529078037/

Here is yet another.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24391992@N00/535283368/

dennis you from ATLANTA?

I grew up in Decatur,GA. which is in the Atlanta area.

Just moved to atlanta........

FYI,
In addition to their regular movie line-up. A local group is now putting on a show called "The Silver Screen Spook Show" at the Plaza. It consists of an onstage live action pre-show hosted by "Dr. Morte" and his ghouls followed by a classic horror movie presentation. It is once a month on Saturdays they do a show at 1:00 pm for Kids and one at 10:00 PM for adults. In April they showed "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" in 3D! I went to the 10:00 pm showing and it was packed. They were sold out. I think they had to turn people away. They skipped the May show to put on an even bigger event at the Starlight drive-in. Its lots of fun and great to see these old movies on the big screen. At the end of June they are back at the Plaza. Here's the link to their myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=49542076

Plaza theater's myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/plazaatlanta

This theatre, exterior and interior, is featured on FoodTV Network's "Good Eats with Alton Brown", episode "Pop Culture" (Number EA1010) featuring popcorn. Interior view clearly shows new projection booth located under former balcony.

This is a recent close-up of the Plaza marquee.

"THUNDER ROAD" NOW PLAYING AT THE PLAZA.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24391992@N00/773196203/

See photos at roadsidepeek.com
http://www.roadsidepeek.com/roadusa/southeast/setheater/seneontheater/index.htm

Here is another recent photo of the Plaza Theater.

New owners of this theater are doing a great job/

I was the Manager/Projectionist here for nearly four years. It's definately my favorite theatre in Atlanta.

http://www.charleston.net/videos/2007/dec/08/211/

MENTION OF THE PLAZA

I saw a screening of the 1982 movie "THE THING" last nite and the theatre was PACKED! So glad!

This is a 2008 close-up view.

got to love this theater..............sorry i let it go

Let it go?

i was in contract to buy it,,,,

What happened?

Longisland, I'd like to hear what happened. My e-mail is earnsetmb@gmail.com BTW I have a lot of vintage ads for the Plaza that I'd be happy to scan and send to you.

Sorry, my e-mail is actually earnestmb@gmail.com

I Had wanted to buy this theater in 2005 and it did not work out >new owners have since bought the theater and are doing a nice job.

should read 2006

Here is a June 2008 photo.

This is an October 2008 photo.

Another photo is here.

Here is a 2009 photo.

1978 photo of the Plaza here.

Here is a 1983 photo.
http://americanclassicimages.com/DesktopModules/CATALooKStore/MakeThumbImage.aspx?ID=%2fPortals%2f0%2f1%2fG%2fGA049.jpg&PORTALID=0

This is a nice recent close-up shot.

1983 Night Photo

Newspaper ad from August 1964 and a write up of the feature opening that day:

http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2009/05/michaels-navy.html

Write up on the Plaza Theatre and its longtime motto: "House of Hits" along with a picture of the stand alone Plaza newspaper ad.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=1871

Sorry, wrong link above. Try this one:

http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2009/05/house-of-hits-then-and-now.html

Here is a marquee photo:
http://tinyurl.com/mufvwx

That is a beauty. I might be able to find more like that for you.

Hello all. I have recently become a projectionist at The Plaza and I'm working on many ideas to improve the look and attendance of the theater. I want to celebrate the history of this beautiful old theater. I'm looking for any older photos of the Plaza or any old ads from the newspapers. I want to blow up and frame them to display throughout the lobby. If you go to The Plaza's website and scroll down on the main page you will see a photo of the entire audience wearing 3-D glasses. I took that photo and am going to frame it for display as well. I would also love to hear from anyone that went to the theater pre 1980's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. You can e-mail me at wsmurphy70@hotmail.com

Thank you and take care, Shawn Murphy

The current ownership/management of the Plaza is doing a superb job. Love the Spook Show, the Bizarro Animation shows, and all the other independent features that they show. When Pere Ubu played there performing their musical accompaniment to Roger Corman's "X - The Man With The X-Ray Eyes", that was truly a surreal experience.

The theater was a porno house for a while in the seventies. Once I was looking through a book of photorealistic paintings, and I saw a painting of the Plaza's marquee from when it was showing X rated films. (ironically I saw this in a bookstore in the same shopping center as the Plaza theater, back in the 1980s).

Another 2009 photo of the Plaza Theatre courtesy lumierefl.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4134054466/sizes/l/in/pool-72675154@N00/

Aother 20090 photo of the Plaza fromn the same photographer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4133834418/sizes/l/in/pool-72675154@N00/

http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2010/01/big-weekend_19.html

Description of one persons experience while attending the 70th Anniversary series.