Old National Theatre
4887 Old National Highway,
College Park,
GA
30337
4887 Old National Highway,
College Park,
GA
30337
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For what it lacked in design, the Old National made up for in film presentation. Opened around 1970 as the Storey’s Old National Triple, it was among the first multiplexes to be constructed in the metro Atlanta area. Each of the three very spacious auditoriums featured a large screen with state of the art projection and sound.
The National continued to expand its number of screens over the years by building on rather than splitting any of its auditoriums. The theatre was still intact, albeit shuttered as of early 2005.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
I grew up going to this Theather. I saw movies like Grizzy, Phantasm, Empire Strikes Back , Terminator and the list goes on. It was a tripple in the early 70s and added another auditorium in late 70s. In ‘83, The theather added 2 more screens. As time went on, the area started to get rough and in '97 , Service Merchidise (which was next door to Old National) closed along with other stores in the large complex. That was the nail in the coffin for Old National. Now the theather and the shopping complex is a wasteland/Ghost Town. The Theather is all boarded up and I find it a disgrace that it died out. Very sad.
In the 70’s this was definitely the place to see a movie on the South side of Atlanta. Auditorium 1 was very large and had a curved screen. The other two auditoriums were not as large but each had a curved screen and any movie was good there.
I liked the way instead of splitting an auditorium, the owners added new auditorium. Unfortunately the large auditorium 1 was eventually split.
I still enjoyed goint to this theater.
Here are a couple of photos of the Old National from the Stan Malone collection.
This location opened on 10/22/71. The attractions were “Anderson Tapes,” “Klute,” and “Hellstrom Chronicle.” I never saw a movie here, but I did know someone who worked during the expansion, and he said it was pure misery. As you can see from the picture, they added two auditoriums upstairs, over the lobby. The first thing they had to do was cut holes in the roof for the support columns and from then until the project was finished it was a constant battle to mop up the water that poured in every time it rained. I was under the impression that this ended up as a 7, and in addition to the two new upstairs theatres, they also split two of the existing theatres although there were only six marquees out front.
For its first six years the Old National ran intermediate break and occasional wide break first runs. After 1977 when almost all movies opened wide, it was mostly first run. The only real competition came from the Greenbriar, Westgate and Ben Hill which were in another zone several miles to the north.
I actually helped with the closing of this facility and then was responsible for it as a projection warehouse. It was very unique in design, but seemed to be anightmare from an operations standpoint. The projection stairs going to the third floor were VERY thin, to the point a film could not be moved there in clamps, but had to be broken down first. The element in the shoping center became extremely rough in 1997/1998 and there were several assaults and robberies in the parking lot, one right outside the front door where a customer was actually injured. The location was still profitting when it closed from what I was told, but it was too much of a liability and is now used as one of Regal’s warehouses.
Here a aerial view.
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