Roxy Theatre
3110 Roswell Road NW,
Atlanta,
GA
30305
3110 Roswell Road NW,
Atlanta,
GA
30305
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Originally opened as the Buckhead Theatre, the first time I visited this theater was in the mid-1970’s. At that time it was part of the Weis theater chain and was called the Capri Theatre. About 15 years later, it reverted back to its original name and became Atlanta’s first Cinema & Drafthouse. The theater is strictly live performance now and host quite a few top name acts. There might be a dark cloud on the horizon for the Roxy in that it might be demolished once the lease expires with the current tenant.
The Roxy Theatre was closed in 2009.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 33 comments)
Well, if it is not my senior class president from Sandy Springs High School gracing us with his presence on this page.
David, I remember your Dad working for Columbia from the days when you would bring promotional handouts to school. One that I particularly remember was the fake dollar bills promoting that epic of comedy, “Who’s Minding The Mint?” That one was a tough sell I suppose, but not nearly as hard as what he was trying to do ten years or so later. By that time I was serving my second sentence as manager of the theatre at Lenox Square. I had business dealings with him in his days of working for AFD Pictures, which I think stood for Associated Film Distributers. There he had the thankless job of trying to sell two of the biggest stiffs of the 80"s, “Raise The Titanic” and “The Jazz Singer.”
Reading your post, I did not realize that the Capri and Fine Art (which is listed as Garden Hills on this site) were still Carter Theatres during your working days there. You might find this link of interest:
View link
Last year, I came across a stack of old newspapers from the 60’s. I have always been interested in the look of movie ads and the design of the theatre logos. My friend Mike shares that interest and he wrote an entry on his blog describing the catch phrase some theatres used in their ads and reproduced the logos from the papers. The Capri is one that he used.
During our high school and college years, theatres were a hobby as well as a job for me, and I enjoyed keeping track of the booking patterns at some of the first run theatres. I still have the log, and here are the bookings for the Capri starting with when my family moved to Atlanta:
8/2/67: To Sir With Love
10/18/67: Luv
11/15/67: Don’t Look Back
11/22/67: More Than A Miracle
11/25/67: The Comedians
2/14/68: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
6/5/68: A Dandy In Aspic
6/26/68: Petulia
7/24/68: The Swimmer
8/21/68: Belle de Jour
10/23/68: Funny Girl (reserved seats)
7/29/69: If
8/6/69: Libertine
9/24/69: Easy Rider
12/19/69: John and Mary
2/4/70: The Magic Christian
3/18/70: Zabriskie Point
4/8/70: The Wild Bunch
4/22/70: Fantasia
5/20/70: Lover and Son
5/27/70: The Sicilian Clan
7/1/70: The Out of Towners
9/30/70: Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon
10/21/70: Baby Maker
11/18/70: No Blade Of Grass
12/25/70: Love Story
6/23/71: Wild Rovers
7/23/71: Hellstrom Chronicle
10/8/71: See No Evil
11/25/71: Going Home
12/25/71: $ (Dollars)
3/22/72: The Godfather
8/11/72: The New Centurions
10/20/72: Heat
11/17/72: They Only Kill Their Masters
12/20/72: The Poseidon Adventure
4/12/73: Lost Horizon
6/29/73: Oklahoma Crude
7/27/73: O Lucky Man
9/14/73: Stone Killer
10/26/73: Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
I no longer have the last page of that log but I do remember that in 1974 the spring booking was The Great Gatsby, summer was For Pete’s Sake, and for Christmas they put in the super subs and ran Earthquake. After that, I decided to use that fine college education my parents provided me with to manage movie theatres. I no longer had the time for keeping lists, nor the interest since I had enough problems with my own theatre to care what anyone else was playing.
Still, the years from 1970 – 1990 were good times to be working in theatres. As I have said in other posts on this site, those years were the bridge between the downtown movie palace days of old, and the megaplexes of today. At least I was able to experience the final years of what working in movie theatres was like before they turned into the fast food dominated carnival atmosphere of today.
Stan Malone
SSHS ‘70
Sail On, Sail On
I saw The Poseidon Adventure, as well as Papillon, in the early ‘70s. In the late '70s Alex Coolly, the concert promoter had several concerts at the Capri. I saw several, most notably The Patti Smith Group in 1978. In the audience that night were several members of The Cars, a rock band that had played The Omni the night before(I was there as well). One night Coolly had a showing of the documentary film The Kids Are Alright, about The English band The Who. The film kept stopping, so Coolly said all drinks were free while they tried to get the film going again.
One of the aka names should be Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse instead of Cinema & Drafthouse. This is a 1986 photo.
Last week I rode by the theater and it looks as if they are doing some renovation. There is a sign in front that says the Buchead Theater coming soon. I doubt if this will be a cinema but hopefully it will be preserved.
Last weekend I drove by the theater and a new computerized marquee is now up and the new Buckhead Theater is open for live events.
Sounds good.
Yes Stan,I got in on the tail in too.1974-83.Saw the ending of the good old days and days coming I wanted no part in.Abc Theatres.Plitt.and GCC.
As a teenager at Bass High School in the 60s, my orbit was downtown, the Emory area and, of course,
Little Five Points. Buckhead was the Edge of the Known World to me, but I sometimes did venture into
Buckhead to browse Jim Sallee’s record shop, located to the right of the Capri, toward Roswell Road.
About 1966 I saw my first movie(s) at the Capri – a double feature, The Haunting and Lolita, sort of a
strange pairing. Lolita, (Kubrick) as I remember, had been out a few years, so I guess the Capri was
not a first run house at the time. Then in 1972, on a cold winter’s Saturday afternoon, I saw The
Godfather there. The house was packed for that very popular movie. Some time in the 80s, after the
Capri morphed into the Roxy, I saw rockabilly performer Robert Gordon play there. Admission was
worth it just to see his hair.
I’m in exile now in Arizona, so thanks, J.B., for the good news that the old place had reopened in yet
another incarnation.
I hope someone here can help me…..My husband and I met on a Sat in Jan 1974 and our first date was to the Roxy the next day. We saw Pappilon and after we left the theater, it was robbed. I don’t know the date we met, so if anyone knows the date that the Roxy was robbed in Jan 1974, please let me know.
Re: Robbery at the Roxy-you might want to check the archives at the main branch (downtown) of the Atlanta/Fulton County Library. Start with the Atlanta Journal/Constitution microfiche for 1974 and no doubt you will soon hit your mark.