Perimeter Mall Theatre
4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30346
4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30346
3 people
favorited this theater
Opened in December 1973, this Perimeter Mall was one the first General Cinema theatres in the Atlanta area. Although the theatre’s exterior and glass-encased lobby were cool and sophisticated, the auditoriums were awful. The theatre initially had three auditoriums, distinguished by seating capacity and screen size.
During the 1970s', the largest of the three auditoriums was split down the centre to allow for a fourth. This action afforded the theatre with three narrow auditoriums with very small screens. It was unfortunate that a GC didn’t provide this upscale community with a quality product akin to what Loews and ABC were offering at that time.
Perimeter Mall has been without a cinema since the GC property was razed in 1998.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
Maybe some of yoy Atlanta theatre dogs will know if this is true.When I worked at GCC in Athens we heard Former President Carter came to a movie there and afterwards the secret service had to clear the restroom out for him and him alone.It could have happed at AKERS MILL, but ithink it was PERIMETER MALL. Just wondering.
You guys are ALL much more knowledgeable than I am, but I saw Star Wars four times in the theater. The first was in Hattiesburg, MS in, I believe, August of ‘77. The other three would have to have been somewhere in Atlanta, and Perimeter Mall was a frequent go-to spot for us. We went to Roswell for movies a lot, and Lenox and Phipps, and the North Springs Shopping Center theater, too — which later became a $1 theater. It is odd that I would not remember where I had seen Star Wars, as I can reel off movies I saw at any given theater, but it would be even odder that I might not have seen it at Perimeter MAll. Are you sure that it NEVER played there? I remember it being held over for dozens of weeks at a time in many theaters.
By the way, Stan, I saw a photo you posted of the old Lenox Square Theatre. Amazing. Also, I saw Empire at Phipps in that 70mm run — I was there the first week of June, right after school let out. I confess, though, that I’m not sure if I saw it in the 70mm room. Did Phipps have it in more than one room during that two week run? I saw Jedi there, too, the day it came out.
Ned: As I pointed out earlier, I have learned never to say never about anything when using my memory, but I am as sure as I can be without going back and checking all of the newspapers that Star Wars did not play here in its initial release. It opened at the Tara, Doraville, Franklin Road, and Arrowhead, and at least the first two on that list ran it until the Christmas season. I know it did not play here during the Christmas 1977-78 season, so at the earliest it would have been Spring 1978. I was not a regular employee there at that time but I would hate to think that I would not have remembered such a booking.
Star Wars did play here in the mid 90’s when they had that nationwide release of all three in their remastered and digitally updated form. For the record, I am not a Star Wars fan, but I thought that changing the content was a travesty even though the original director did the changes. In my opinion, the genuine version of Star Wars is the one that came out in 1977.
As for Phipps, it opened Empire on a four week 70MM exclusive in late May of 1980. The #2 house, the right hand one downstairs was the only 70MM equipped house and that is where it played for its run there. There was no 35MM run of Empire at Phipps during that booking.
I also saw Jedi there. The first half of it anyway. It was a hard week at my theatre and I fell asleep half way through about the time the Ewoks showed up. I never bothered to see the rest. As I said, I am not a big fan. Sorry R2.
Wow! I can’t believe I found this site. I sold the very first ticket at Perimeter Mall Cinema in December of 1973. I was working there nights and weekends while I did my student teaching not far away. We wore not-very-attractive navy blue skirts, white blouses with the GCC logo on them, and really horrible navy blue ties. Mr. Brainerd was the first manager, and a good guy. Mr Edmondson, the assistant manager, was hilarious. I literally learned how to operate the ticket machine about 15 minutes before the first show.
I think I saw “Billy Jack” about ten times while I worked there, and I’m still trying to figure out why.
On “special nights”, Mr. Brainerd and Mr. Edmondson would dress up in their fancy suits and try to maintain a little crowd control. We had no system of “lines” there, and customers pretty much surged up when we had a new movie opening.
I once rode my horse from the stable on Peachtree Dunwoody Road to the theatre to pick up my paycheck. I thought it was really cool, but Mr. Brainerd wasn’t too thrilled with me riding right up to the glass doors.
Memories. Glad to have found some other people who remember this place.
Good story chris32.GCC was okay to work at.
chris32, if you come back and read this, was the Mr. Brainerd the one (was his name “Web Brainerd”?) who later became a booker or “buyer” for General Cinema in the mid-to-late 80’s? Anyway, the only things that I remember about Perimeter, from my days working at Regency Mall and Regency Exchange, was that Perimeter always seemed to kick the Regency Mall’s butt in sales. The other thing I remember..and this is a bad memory…is that the manager there (won’t name him) was also the City Manager, and he got fired after it was found out that he would take his master-keys, go into other GCC theaters in the city, take new cups and buckets, and add them to Perimeter’s inventory, thereby covering up his shortages. Not sure how he was found out, but heard they canned him for it.
Wow….I never heard that story. A GCC scandal!
Yes, Mr. Brianerd’s first name was Webb. I don’t know what happened to him after I left, but I read somewhere on this site that he later worked at the corporate office in Texas, I think.
Mr. Edmondson, who was the assistant manager and about the same age as I was, was some piece of work. On the nights of “premieres” he would wear a really bad tuxedo to the theater. He told me he liked to dress up because he was on “one rung of the ladder of show business.”
He was about 6 ½ feet tall and the pants on his tux were always about 6 ½ inches too short.
I will now sing “Memories” from “The Way We Were”, one of the three movies that opened this theater in 1973. :)
Chris 32.I would like to know why you watched “BILLY JACK” 10 times.I lost count counting the Boom mikes and such. If you framed the movie above the border during the part of the rape scene in the Car you will see her nipples.Most places it was hidden behind the bottom masking. I had a Projectionist at National Hills Theatre show me.those union projectionists!
Russell,More theatre stories.I am running out!Check out Citidal Mall in Charleston,S.C. I wrote some stories from Barry days there.He said he was promised that theatre but was back stabbed.
Citadel Mall cinemas.Can’t spell.