Atlanta Theatre
583 Peachtree Street,
Atlanta,
GA
30309
583 Peachtree Street,
Atlanta,
GA
30309
1 person
favorited this theater
This venue, located at 583 Peachtree Street, started life in 1926 as a live 1,790 seat playhouse with stage and four floors of backstage dressing rooms. There were 672 seats on the main level, 190 in the first balcony, and 928 in the second balcony.
Sometime around the late-1950’s, the Martin Theatres chain took over and completly rebuilt the inside. They cut back just enough of the stage to install a 64x34' curved Cinerama ribbon screen. Outside they added a projection booth to each side to house the three projector Cinerama system, and speakers for the 7 track Cinerama sound system. The lobby was paneled and the entire place including the seating area was covered in gold carpet. The biggest change was a false celing that was hung between the first and second balconies which reduced the capacity to 862.
It was renamed the Martin Cinerama and to my knowledge was the only theatre in Atlanta to get the full three projector Cinerama treatment. After the demise of Cinerama two dedicated 70MM projectors were installed with carbon arc lamps and perscription ground lenses. This produced a bright, beautiful picture and the Martin became the #1 place for big roadshow movies. “Mary Poppins”, “The Sound of Music”, and “Camelot” were among the attractions. “The Sound of Music” played for 18 months.
In 1968, the Walter Reade Organization was looking for a venue to show their two-part six hour “War and Peace” epic, and took over the lease. After “War and Peace” flopped out of town Reade never seemed to know what to do with the place. “2001: A Space Odyssey” enjoyed a spectacular 70MM run there, but the next big hit was “Carnal Knowledge”, three years later.
I worked at the Atlanta from February 1972 until October of 1973. When I started, I was wearing a tux and escorting patrons to their reserved seats to see “Fiddler on the Roof”. That was really the last gasp of class for the Atlanta. Prior to opening “Fiddler”, they had removed that beautiful Cinerama ribbon screen from Martin’s time and installed a much smaller 45'x19' solid screen to meet the technical requirements of the ‘experts’ from United Artists pictures.
“Fiddler” was a big disappointment both business-wise and technically. Presentation wise, when that huge curtain opened up to reveal that tiny screen, it set the tone for the whole movie. At the box office, there was still an audience for that type of picture, but the days when they had been willing to drive downtown to see it were long gone.
Walter Reade was ready to give up by now, so they closed the place up while they tried to decide what to do. They decided to go back to where the trouble started in the first place and booked in “Man of LaMancha” starting in February 1973. Because everyone realized the existing screen was a big mistake, they took it out and put in a larger one, 23x46', though still not the size of the Cinerama one. “LaMancha” flopped, but since it flopped everywhere the theater did not get the blame. Reade decided to give quality one last chance and booked in “This Is Cinerama” in 70MM since the old three projector Cinerama system was long gone. Out came the “LaMancha” screen after only six weeks, and in went a huge 35' by 95' Cinerama screen. It was the largest anyone involved had ever seen. The curve was so deep that when you stood in the middle, even with the edges of the screen, it was 15' to the center. “This Is Cinerama” looked great but did almost no business.
My final experience with the Atlanta Theatre was a very sad one. In October 1973 I attended the funeral of Atlanta police officer C.E. Harris. I had gotten to know him very well when he worked off duty at the Atlanta during the past year. While working there one Friday night he ordered two men who had been bothering the concession girls to leave the theatre. Both men, who were AWOL from Ft. Bragg, jumped him, got his gun away from him, and killed him in the lower lobby, right in front of the concession stand. They also shot one of the ushers in the arm, and took a shot at the cashier on their way out.
It was a sad end to some good and very interesting times at the Atlanta Theatre. I never went back to work there and by the late-1970’s Weis was out of Atlanta and the Atlanta Theatre was closed. In 1982 a private owner cleaned it up and reopened it as the Columbia Theatre with a 70MM run of “Annie” as its opening. Families were not coming downtown anymore and the effort was over by the end of the year.
By it’s Columbia Theatre days, the building was owned by the North Avenue Presbyterian Church located next door. Half-hearted efforts to find another use and/or tennant failed, and in April 1995 the church demolished the building and constructed a state of the art parking lot on the site. The 70MM projectors, lenses, and other equipment was purchased by the Fox Theatre and are used during the summer film series whenever there is a 70MM movie booked.
Contributed by
StanMalone
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Recent comments (view all 53 comments)
Hi Guys. I was hired in Macon Ga. In early 1974 to Manage the Atlanta Theater and did so for nearly 1 yr, it was shortly after the shooting in the lobby, Weis theater Co. bought the theater and i had just gotten out of the Army so i moved up there, it was one heck of an experience, i was robbed 3 times and after about 11 months i left and went back into the U.S. Navy and just retired, glad i did, i now have a retirement i would not have had i stayed. Anyway i remember we had one world premiere while i was there, the name of the movie was ( CLAUDINE ) with Diane Carroll and James Earl Jones, they came the night we opened it, that movie ran for almost 6 months. It was a good experience for a young 21 yr old guy, lots of responcibility. I replaced a guy (can’t remember his name that had been in the theater Bus all his life and he Retired and went home to Bangebridge Ga. he was in his 60’s at the time, nice guy but was ready to retire. If any of you all remember me i was there just about all of 1974, Name ( TOM ). I really enjoyed working there, all the projection guys were Union and they made more money then any one and they loved to eat Varsity Dogs and Burgers and would buy lunch every day if i would make the run down there. Take care all and drop a line. Sincerely Tom.
One day i went early to open the Theater, (summer of 1974) and decided to check out all the stuff behind that big screen, you all wouldn’t believe it. All the Ropes and props from the 1920-30’s were all still hanging down behind that big screen, i looked around for 2 hrs, it was like going to a museum, lots of neat old stuff, i lost track of time that day and was nearly late opening up. July 4th day of 1974 we had a 2 block long line of people trying to get in to see Claudine, we were the first Theater in Atlanta to start charging $4.00 bucks to see a Movie, i hated to do that but the Co. ordered me to.
P.S. I remember that Mayor M. Jackson and Hammering Hank A. would bring there Wives down to the Theater quite a bit, Jackson was a real nice guy, hated to see him pass, i ran into him in the early 1990’s at the Varsity and he still remembered me, i couldn’t believe it. He came up behind me and put a big old arm around my neck, he was a huge Man. Me being in my early 20’s when i managed that Theatre i had a heavy foot going home at midnight and got a couple of speeding Tickets and he kinda helped me out with them,the Hammer would bring tickets to the ball park and i gave them out to the people working there and once in a while on a Mon-Tues night when it was slow i would carry a couple of people down to the old stadium for 2-3 innings and go right back to the Theatre.
I believe the name of the manager you replaced was Bob Harmon, or something close to that. In those days, Walter Reed Org. subbed out their concession operation and Bob was a concession manager in NYC. He moved over to theatre manager to return to Georgia. I am sure that he must have wondered what he had gotten himself into when he arrived at the magnificent looking but somewhat chaotic operation he was now responsible for. He was a nice guy to work for and certainly deserved better than what he got from some of the employees he inherited. I left for college in September of 1973, just a couple of weeks before the sale to Weis, something that no one saw coming. It was just a couple of weeks after that the shooting occurred.
Bob stayed on with Weis although I am sure by then he was counting the days to retirement. I remember a Saturday I stopped by to see him while I was home from school. This would have been in the spring of 1974. I was surprised to find him working the box office desk. Seems that Weis had a strange set up in Atlanta where the city manager, a very good man named Sidney Katz, was in charge of the Capri, Fine Art, both Broadviews, Weis Cinema and Peachtree Battle. The newer pick ups, the mini cinemas and the Atlanta, were under the supervision of the Macon city manager, Wayne Cobb. One Saturday, Wayne showed up and not liking the attitude of some of the employees, started giving orders as soon as he walked in the door. The first Mr. Harmon knew of the presence of the city manager was when all of his staff showed up in his office to tell him they were quitting.
Cobb, who at that time at least, did not understand the politics of running a business in Atlanta, sent out a call for all available Weis employees in the city, and also called up some from Macon. I guess that got them through the weekend, but the next time I was by there I was told by the projectionist, Jim Williams, that Bob was gone. I guess you were there by then. I did run into Wayne Cobb a year or so later. At that time I was working for ABC and we played Sunday morning football with some of the other theatre company employees. After we beat the Weis team one week, Wayne sent out a call for help from some of his Macon people. They were a worthy opponent, but they had spent the 90 mile drive up drinking the after game beer stash, and it was the roughest, wildest game I was ever involved in before degenerating into a brawl at the end.
Were you there for that one?
Hi there..No i didn’t play any ball while i was there. They kinda made me the City Manager but it really didn’t put any more work on me other then getting the previews picked up and out to the others. When i got there we ran the Concession stand so i guess the out sourceing did work out to good, when your returning 60-80% of your box office back to the Company in California you have to make as much as you can on the concessions or not make much. I didn’t have time for much of anything as i was working 12 hr days. The last time they tried to robbed us the deputy sheriff i hired and myself walked out the back and the back door had the one way school type door, when they closed you were out of luck getting back in that way, he and i got pinned down in the parking in a cross fire between 3 guys for nearly 10 mins, we had 3 guns and held our own but that was it for me, if i wanted to get shot at on the job i might as well be on active duty and i got the hell out of there and went back into the service. I belive your right, i think Bob Harmon was his name, he had kind of a pot belly, real nice guy..Wayne Cobb hired me in Macon, i had just gotten out of the Army and went for an interview for a theatre in Macon and he asked me if i would move up there, i didn’t know the place had been involved in so many robberies and the lobby killing, if i had known that i wouldn’t have moved up there to start with..I had a lic to carry and me and the Deputy started keeping a 45 Thompson, 2 pistols and 12 ga shot gun to walk out with at night. The night we got pinned down they called in the SWAT team and had the hilo’s flying around the building, the robbers were on top of the building and some how they got away. We saw a woman using a phone booth right down the street get gunned down one night as we were walking out, she was just talking and a car pulled up and opened fire on her, we stepped out in the street and fired on the car but they were hauling tale toward down town. Sounds like we just missed each other while working there..I just retired from the Navy about 9 months ago, really glad i went back on active duty, i had 36 yrs in when i retired and they made me get out but thats ok, i got to see the whole world after leaving the Atlanta theatre. Plus i am mainly in one peace. Take care. Tom
Stan..Do you remember a guy by the name of Bob or Robert Roberts? I ran into him in Rota Spain in 1976, he use to work at one of the Theatres down past the Fox on the opposite side of the street, he was probably 17-18 at the time.. The projection guys at the Atlanta really loved the Varsity, did you ever make any runs for them, that was just about all they ate. Those guys were making pretty good money to be in the 1970’s. I believe the down town guys were the only union ones around at the time.
Martin Cineramas were in Atlanta, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chattanooga, Nashville and Seattle.
I saw Dune and Aliens there. Amazing screen and sound sysyem.
Spent much of my youth with my grandfather in the projectionest booth. His name was Ruben Arnold. Used to love watching the movies from up there.
I remember your grandfather well. Along with Mr. Carmichael and Reuben Woods, he was on the crew when I started working there as an usher in 1972. After I became a projectionist I never worked with him in a theatre but did work with him often running AV shows at hotels and the Congress Center.
After all of that type of work ended I would still see Reuben at the occasional lunch where many of us would get together and trade stories about the good old days. In fact, I saw him at one of those about a month before he died, and was one of several former or retired projectionists at the graveside service.
I recall that he lived on Aruba Circle and was part of that first big real estate buy out that resulted in the construction of the king and queen buildings in Sandy Springs. While I was going through some old union files I found his transfer card from the Key West FL. local and gave it to him at one of our lunches.
Reuben was a good guy and fun to work with. Even when I was just an usher he would always welcome me in the booth when I wanted to show someone around. Those were some good days when the projection business was a craft and you had to pass a test and be licensed by the city to work in a booth. By the late 80’s it had degenerated to the point of sending which ever doorman or concession attendant was available to thread up the projectors. Sure, they would lose a show now and then and occasionally tear up a print, but it was better than paying a responisble person a living wage to do the job right.
the job right.