Belmont Theatre
2464 Atlanta Road SE,
Smyrna,
GA
30080
2464 Atlanta Road SE,
Smyrna,
GA
30080
1 person
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A basic strip mall theatre, short on ambiance and technology, but a fairly decent venue just the same. Because its auditorium was so narrow, the Belmont remained a single screen right up until the day it closed.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
Does anyone remember when the Belmont theatre closed? I was born in the late 1970s and I clearly remember all the other Smyrna theatres, but I never even knew that Belmont Hills had a theatre until I read this. Also, does anyone know where, exactly, in the shopping center the Belmont was located? I drove through the center to see if I could spot it, but I couldn’t place anything that looked likely. I’d be happy to take and post pictures before the demolition begins.
Randomly, I also think I’m one of the few residents who isn’t thrilled that Belmont Hills is coming down. Ten years or so it was largely deserted, but now there is a vibrant Hispanic community that I hate to see displaced so that the FOURTH live/work/play community can be built on Atlanta Road. Well, at least we stopped Wal-Mart.
The Belmont was architecturally unremarkable with little to no ornamentation in either the lobby or auditorium. After the theatre closed, it became a women’s clothier’s retail store. The theatre shared the same space with WYNX radio, the theatre lobby and auditorium on the main level and the projection booth and the radio station on the second floor. If the radio station is still in the centre, what remains of the theatre should still be there as well.
The Belmont became The Fasion Bug after it closed. The floor was leveled and there were no remains of the theatre, the only thingthat gives it away is the fact that it is still has a higher roof than the rest of the center. I can’t recall for sure when it closed, but it would have been mid-80’s at the latest.
I don’t recall when the Belmont closed. I lived in Smyrna from 1971-89; know it closed a number of years before I left. I attended some movies there back in the early 70s.
I remember being dragged to “Saturday Night Fever” there when it was in re-release, so it had to be open through at least winter 1978.
Here’s a good shot of the theater (& surrounding mall) —circa 1972
View link
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And another shot of the marquee.
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I remember in 1966 “The Ghost and Mr Chicken” splashing across it in one big line of type. The same the next year in 1967 with “The Reluctant Astronaut”. Guess they got all the Don Knotts movies for the city. (I saw ‘em both there by the way.)
I drove past the Belmont Hills Shopping Center today (Sept. 9,‘09) and all of it is being demolished. I could see into the theater from Atlanta Road directly in front of the center and there is little left of it apart from the facade.
I remember that a re-release of JAWS played there in the spring of 1979, I saw it at least twice during its run there. It seems that the theater remained open for a while after that, perhaps even for another year or so.
Living in Hapeville, there was not so much variety. One of my friends and I went to see Bo Derek’s Tarzan the Ape Man at Belmont. This move came out I believe in 1982. I do not know how much longer after that before the theater closed.
Thanks J.B.
My Dad used to take my brother and me up from north Atlanta (Bolton) to the Belmont and drop us off and we would stay there and see the movie a couple of times while he and Mom shopped at the Belmont Hills Shopping Center. That was in the days where you could do such things safely and kids knew to stay where they were told to stay. I remember the restrooms upstairs. I remember seeing a 3D film there but I can’t remember which one it was. It would have been in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Surprisingly, Belmont Hills was the largest shopping center in the South until Lenox Square was built.