Film Forum
1544 Piedmont Avenue NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
1544 Piedmont Avenue NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
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The great Atlanta actor and film aficionado, George Ellis took over the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema after the demise of the Weis Theatre Circuit and renamed it the Film Forum.
Mr. Ellis presented a rather eccentric mix of films, including some that would have otherwise had no commercial release. The Film Forum’s Friday and Saturday midnight features made box office flops such as “Harold and Maude”, “The Ruling Class”, and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” into cult classics.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Thanks for the update. My memory is refreshed and your facts appear correct. They also support my sense that I worked my day for George Ellis later than 1976, around 1980.
I have another Ansley Mall MiniCinema memory. This would have occurred in 1970, shortly after I turned 18. I attended a first-run screening of “Trader Hornee,” an X-rated spoof of the MGM classic, complete with stock footage, as I recall. The movie was extremely lame and was filled with simulated sex. Nevertheless, it was X-rated and I definitely had the sense none of us in the audience should have been there.
When I exited the auditorium at the end of the movie, two of the righteous youth ministers from my church were working their dates on the last row.
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Dennis Whitefield has posted on his flickr page many fine pictures of theatres and ads from days gone by. This one is a fine publicity shot of George Ellis in the character of Bestoink Dooley. Thanks Dennis!
To the best of my knowledge, this theater lasted into the early 1990s. I do remember the Lily Tomlin, Bette Middler file Big Business playing there. This was a 1988 film. George Lafont enlarged the lobby to a coffee shop. It did seem like a very small theater when it was open.
Opened 4/10/68.
Same day and feature (Elvira Madigan) as the Peachtree Battle.
I saw the movie “Parting Glances” there which, according to IMDB was released in February, 1986. When Big Star Supermarket next door expanded, they took out the old Music City record store and part of the theater. Then, Morrison’s Cafeteria was rebuilt/redesigned and that took out the other side of the theater.
As far as I can recall this theater stayed open til 1990. I remember the AJC having an article saying that a high point in Atlanta (the Ansley Cinema) movie going and a low point (the Rialto) both closed around the same time in 1990.
As far as I can recall this theater stayed open til 1990. I remember the AJC having an article saying that a high point in Atlanta (the Ansley Cinema) movie going and a low point (the Rialto) both closed around the same time in 1990.
Cool name.
Here is a link to a newspaper article about the episode I described in my first comment involving George Ellis getting locked out. I was under the impression that Lewis Osteen, the guy who did this, was the GM of the chain. The article indicates that Osteen had purchased the mini cinema chain from it founders. I never cared for Osteen but thought Gentry and Maddox, the founders of the company, were good people to work for. I was suprised that this event ever took place.
The article clears this up since it seems that Osteen was not a hired gun working for the owners, but was the actual owner. During the Osteen years I would sometimes go to the film depot but come back empty handed because there was a COD tag on the print and Osteen had not paid the up front money or the rent from a previous booking.
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George Ellis (“Bestoink Dooley”) was also a stage figure in Atlanta and a TV figure. I think he appeared on TV as Bestoink. I saw him in a Jim Peck play called “Sterioptican,” which had in it one of my favorite lines ever: “Let’s make the humdrum optional.” My first memory of Ellis was when he opened what I believe was his first movie theater, a very small place in back of the downtown YMCA on Spring Street. From there he moved to Ansley Mall, et cetera. I went to his first movie theater on opening night. He offered us a refund (which we refused) because the theater had just that afternoon been treated with fire retardant and the smell of ammonia was almost overwhelming. But we toughed it out. The film was a black and white sub-titled movie about the Spanish Civil War. It was terrific. And he served coffee with whipped cream in the lobby.