Cherokee Theatre
3861 Peachtree Road,
Atlanta,
GA
3861 Peachtree Road,
Atlanta,
GA
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The Cherokee Theatre opened in the early 1960’s in a strip shopping center called Cherokee Plaza located in DeKalb County about one block north of the Atlanta City limits. For the most part it was a second run house but would occasionally play a wide break first run movie in conjunction with other second run houses.
It was built by the H.B. Misielmann Company which later changed its name to Eastern Federal Corp. In its early days this huge theater was a fine place to see a movie with its big screen, spacious lobby, and easy access from its big parking lot.
By the early 70’s it was in a very run down and dirty state and was unable to draw large crowds due to the fact that most first run movie houses in Atlanta were located in this same area which made a second run house redundant for its neighborhood. In 1972 Eastern Federal completly remodeled the site and tried to make a go of it showing lower tier first run movies. This proved unsuccessful as the days of 900 seat single screen theaters were fading fast, and the location was closed in 1977.
It had a brief life as the second home of the Great Southeast Music Hall in 1978, but by 1979 it was closed for good. The Kroger Company took the site, which had been converted into an Eckerd’s drug store, combined it with store fronts on both sides, gutted the insides and reopened it as a grocery store.
Contributed by
Stan Malone
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Here is a photo of the Cherokee.
CHEROKEE THEATRE TICKET STUB.
View link
I would love to have that picture of the Cherokee, for my collection. Looks like Mr. Malone has it “spaceballed” unfortunately.
That theatre, and the mall itself has much history to it, especially of my youth.
I have just had it explained to me what spaceballed means. Jack put the picture on his Flickr page for me and posted the link. I have no objection to it being copied and I doubt if Jack does. It must be a Flickr thing.
If you will add a contact info to your personal page on this site or post an email address here, I will email you a copy of it.
I saw Hurry Sundown and Blowup (M. Antonioni) there, both around 1967.
Just north of what is today’s Phipps Plaza Mall, that little Cherokee Mall was
at the end of the known world for most Atlantans in 1967.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there a jeans store next to the theater? An early GAP? I remember going to the theater and then buying jeans next door. At least I think it was the Cherokee. It was in Brookhaven, right? I am pretty sure this is the theater when the security guard pulled me out of the ladies room because he thought I was a boy. (I was a short haired 9 year old girl), but I am not sure. We went to the movies all the time and sometimes the theaters run together.