Belle Meade Theatre

Some articles about the Belle Meade here:
http://nashlinks.com/BelleMeadeTheatre.htm

Here is a photo of the former Belle Meade theater:
http://www.rogers-perry.com/retail/retail02.html

Here is a very recent photo of the theatre:http://www.flickr.com/photos/92318075@N00/17496497/in/photostream/. It is currently slated to become a grocery store.

The map link did not work! Was this theatre in Nashville proper, or was it in Belle Meade?

Belle Meade is incorperated into Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County. Try http://www.flickr.com/photos/92318075@N00/17496497/in/photostream/

Night time photo of The Belle Meade as a book store.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/Tennessee%20Theatres/BelleMeadeTheatreHardingRd.jpg

I worked at this theater after it had been converted to a Bookstar, part of the Barnes and Noble bookstore chain. It was an amazing space to work in--the building has all kinds of nooks and crannies that were once storage space, I guess. There's a lovely staircase that winds to the balcony level, and the ceiling of the lobby is covered in mirrors. During the 1940s, the theater hosted glamorous premieres, and several slabs of marble in the balcony were covered with the autographs of stars like Walt Disney, Cary Grant, Ronald Reagan, and others. When Barnes and Noble was replacing the old neon signs on the marquee, I got to take home a massive metal "T." I consider myself very lucky to have worked in the Belle Meade, although I was never able to actually see the theater in its glory years. It's now closed while a local developer decides what to do with it.

I think the only thing I saw at the Belle Meade was RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. This must have been Nashville's CINERAMA Theater, because the screen was very, very curved, distorting the picture badly. I couldn't believe such a classy theater showed pictures that way. And since the curved screen was totally contained within the stage, it wouldn't have been very good for Cinerama, either, because the audience wouln't have been surrounded by it as designed. 'Anybody else have thoughts about this?

OK, so the projected image is disappointing, but I bet the sound was good. The Belle Meade ran lots of 70mm six-track mag over the years.

A distorted image on giant, curved screens has long been the chief complaint for places like the Cinerama Dome in L.A. and other venues with a similar set-up. I'm not much of a fan of curved screens unless the film being shown was intended for a curved-screen presentation (and not that many were).

The Belle Meade was converted for Cinerama and the first Cinerama attraction opened on June 27, 1968. It was in 70MM. That was the reason for the curved screen.

I'll have to call you on that one, Chuck. CINERAMA was introduced in the early 50's, using three cameras and projectors.(Look at HOW THE WEST WAS WON,letterboxed dvd, for example. You can see where the three images meet). Soon, Cinerama did lose the three cameras. Todd AO and other 70mm processes followed.

To clarify, Nashville had two Cinerama venues: the Crescent (which showed 3-strip Cinerama) and the Belle Meade (which showed 70mm promoted as Cinerama).

Fascinating! And I would have considered the Crescent a "bath-tub" theater-long and narrow. Again, not very good for Cinerama.

Neither the Belle Meade nor the Crescent were constructed as a "Cinerama Cinema", but were modified to accommodate this format when it was in vogue. I believe both theatres had reverted back to flat screens prior to their final curtain call.

ray, I was referring to the first Cinerama presentation at the Belle Meade.

I worked at the Belle Meade Theatre shortly before it closed. I believe one of the last premieres was "Ernest Goes To Jail". Randall "Tex" Cobb attended as well as the late Jim Varney. The building didn't seem to be in very good condition and business appeared to be slow on a regular basis. A couple of the last films I recall being shown were "Hunt For Red October" and "Days Of Thunder". I think Harry Vickous was the last manager. I remember cranking up the audio on "Days Of Thunder" extremely loud. I think we might have blown an amp (or at least some fuses) that day but I won't admit it.

I worked at the Belle Meade Theatre shortly before it closed. I believe one of the last premieres was "Ernest Goes To Jail". Randall "Tex" Cobb and the late Jim Varney attended. The building didn't seem to be in very good condition and business appeared to be slow on a regular basis. Some of the last films I recall being shown were "Hunt For Red October" and "Days Of Thunder". I think Harry Vickous was the last manager. We cranked up the sound extremely loud on "Days Of Thunder" at some point and might have blown and amp (or at least some fuses).

The theater is currently being demolished, except for the marquee. The main building had a tractor-trailer-sized hole in the back when I drove by earlier this week. Only part of the lobby and the marquee will remain, although I suspect it will be unrecognizeable when all is said and done. IF they even bother to keep the marquee.

Here is a recent photo of the Belle Meade Theater.

The new development site has some newspaper scans from the 90s:

http://www.bellemeadetowncenter.com/History.asp

The Loews Crescent was the only Cinerama theatre in Nashville. Don't know if This is Cinerama played there or for that matter Cinerama Holiday (1955), Seven Wonders of the World (1955), Search for Paradise (1957) and South Seas Adventure (1958). But I do remember The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, How the West Was Won. Then came the single projector Panavision-type of Cinerama: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Khartoum (1966), Grand Prix (1966), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Ice Station Zebra (1968), Krakatoa, East of Java (1969).

The address listed is wrong. The Belle Meade (Or at least the BookStar that occupied the former Belle Meade) was located at
4301 Harding Pike,
Nashville, TN 37205
according to yellowpages.com

The opening film was "Charlie McCarthy Detective", the theatre reportedly costs $250,000.00 and was managed by Edwin J. Jordan.

A little bit of trivia: The 70mm projector from the Belle Meade was later transferred (along with its sound system) to the now-defunct Carmike 6 in Harding Mall when Belle Meade closed.

The Belle Meade was a stunning theatre, and I remember gazing for quite some time at the marble blocks of autographs - from people like Ronald Reagan to C3PO.

I saw 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in Cinerama at the Belle Meade in 1968. It was the only movie I ever saw in Cinerama, and was a real experience in a great theater. I'm sorry that it's gone.

I saw 2001 A Space Odyssey at the Belle Meade in 1968-69 as well bbrown1. I was a Senior in High School at that time with 2001 seeming a long way off then :-)! The Paramount and Tennessee were still around but the Belle Meade was still a nice place for a movie.

A photograph of a handsome art moderne stairway in the Belle Meade Theatre was published in the February 22, 1941, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The caption attributes the design of the house to the noted Nashville architectural firm Marr & Holman, also the architects of Nashville's Tennessee Theatre.

1982 photo of the Belle Meade Thatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=33724
1982 night photo of the Belle Meade Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=33730

Here are more 1982 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

Included at no extra charge is this 1984 photo.