Rama Theater

lostmemory on February 27, 2007 at 11:35 am

This is an 8/30/2001 article about the Rama Theater.

“Show’s Over for Warner Robins, Ga., Second-Run Movie Theater.

The Macon Telegraph
By Charlie Lanter

Aug. 30—WARNER ROBINS, Ga.—The screens have gone dark at the Rama Theatre, a local landmark for the past 40 years.

Owner Bobby Cribb said he has tried since February to keep the second-run movie house in business, but the box office just wasn’t busy enough. Sunday was the last day of business for the Rama.

Cribb said interest has waned in discount movie theaters such as the Rama, which show movies a few weeks after their initial release.

“Most of the people are either seeing it when it first comes out or waiting for it to come out on video or DVD,” he said.

It is “very probable” that he will sell the two-screen facility, Cribb said, but “it’s not going to be operated as a theater.”

Cribb said he took over operation of the theater in February from a lease tenant who had not taken care of the property. But the movie house, now with aging seats, a stained ceiling and sometimes sticky floor, was once the crown jewel of Warner Robins entertainment.

The Rama moved into the Miller Hills Shopping Center on Watson Boulevard in 1961, having left its original location on Front Street.

At the original location, the Rama, once called the Wellston Theater, was the city’s first movie house. The building on Front Street burned down in 1979 when Buzzell’s Heating and Air Conditioning and the Warner Robins Little Theater were sharing the space.

Dixie Harte, who opened Harte’s Shoe Shop in Miller Hills about the same time as the Rama, said the theater was the talk of the town when it moved to the new location.

“Everybody was so proud to have a nice theater out here,” she said. “I hate to see it go.”

Harte said she hopes any future owner will preserve the building, a cube-shaped structure with a neon marquee.

A message on the theater’s answering machine, which once offered show times for patrons, bids a final farewell to the city.

“Thank you for calling the Rama Theatre. Sadly we are now closed. I would like to thank everyone for coming by our theater and giving us business, but we just could not make it. Hope to see you around town. Thank you, bye-bye.”

There are two remaining multi-screen theaters in Warner Robins — Parkway Cinemas on Russell Parkway and Galleria Cinemas at Galleria Mall — showing first-run movies".

Chuck1231 on March 10, 2010 at 12:42 am

Opened in 1961 and at one time it was operated by Martin Theatres. I couldn’t find if they were the company that opened the theatre.