South Dekalb Cinemas 12

StanMalone on January 14, 2006 at 5:57 am

The South DeKalb will always be one of my favorite theatres, both in its appearance and my personal memories there.

It was opened, I believe, sometime in 1970. The South DeKalb mall was a 2 anchor setup with a Rich’s at one end and a J.C. Penny store at the other. The theatre entrance was located in the center of the mall and the auditoriums stuck out the back into the parking lot. The look of the place was unlike anything I had ever worked in, especially for the very conservative Georgia Theatre Company. Personally, I have always considered it the nicest looking and best laid out theatre I ever managed.

You could enter the theatre from two opposite doors, one from the rear of the mall, and the other from outside. Both doors led to sloping walkways which bottomed out in front of the box-office. When built, South DeKalb was a set of identical twins separated by the box office, concession stand, and a very spacious (by theatre standards) utility room. Attractive and good sized lobby entrances were located on either side of the box office.

The design of the box set the tone for the rest of the place, specifically no straight lines. Everything in the place including box office, lobby, rest rooms, offices, lounges, serving windows for the concession stand, screens, etc… were to some degree curved or outright round. Not only was the box office counter curved out into the entrance area, the glass front which started just above the counter and separated the cashier from the customers was curved as well. The curve eliminated any reflection from the glass and by the end of a rush there would be a series of smudges on the glass where people had rammed their foreheads into the unnoticed glass while trying to lean forward across the counter to talk to the cashier.

Entrance to theatre #1 was to the left and #2 to the right of the box office. The entrance lobby was divided by the concession stand. Large round openings made up for the straight line of the stand. In one of the few design flaws, the stand was pretty narrow which made it difficult for the employees to stand back to back or pass each other while serving both sides at once. From the concession stand you would go down some steps to the main lobby. This lobby was completely round and occupied by a row of round mushroom looking stools lining the wall. Rest rooms were located on either side of the lobby. From the lobby you entered a round “smoking lounge” before entering the bath room itself. Each of the four bathrooms had a storage room inside. Two were used for employee locker rooms and two for storerooms.

From the lobby you would go down more steps (remember, this was pre ADA) to a small standing area where the entrance to the utility room would be on one side and doors to the half round managers office and the projection booth stairwell on the other. From this area there were two doorways leading directly to the aisles inside the auditorium. True to GTC form, there were no doors to the auditorium. I do not know if this was the design or if GTC insisted on this, but it was a big mistake. Most GTC designs had a bending mazelike hallway entrance to their auditoriums, but not here. Not only did the light from the lobby shine on the back few rows, but there was nothing to keep the sound from the concession stand or the people waiting in the lobby from disturbing the rear part of the auditorium.As a result, the manager could not put any customers for the next show in the lobby, but had to line them up in the entrance hallway. If they wanted to come in to the restrooms or concession stand, you sent them to which ever side had the fewest people sitting in the back part of the auditorium.

A note on the lighting is in order here as well. The entrance hallway was lined with large black fixtures attached to the white walls. These fixtures consisted of a tube about six feet tall with a dual fixture in the center, one side pointing up the other down toward the floor. These produced a very nice looking V shaped light on the walls and a round spot on the floor and ceiling. They were, however a pain in the neck to change, especially the ones pointing up. Once you entered the lobby, the line where the ceilings met the walls were lined with exposed light sockets about one foot apart. Into these sockets were placed large clear decorative bulbs, round in shape of course. This produced an incredible sight as well as light level which caused the problem with the auditorium spillover. I never counted the number of these sockets, but they must have been in the hundreds. It was almost a daily chore to check for and replace burned out bulbs. After the energy crunch of the early 70’s we changed from the large 150 watt bulb to a clear but standard size 75 watt bulb, and left every other one unscrewed.

Although (thankfully) not round, the auditoriums were outstanding in design and appearance as well. Almost square, each held 540 rocking chair seats, dark red in color. The walls were draped completely black. The screen was curved at the prescribed 146 degrees and covered by a curtain that had a bright orange, yellow, and white pattern. Although there were no screen flood lights, the bright curtain looked lit up when surrounded by the black walls. The screens were almost wall to wall leaving just enough room for exit doors on either side. Since the curtain opened across the path to these doors and were stored beyond the path this caused a problem at the end of the show. Since the doors opened out into the parking lot, many people used these exits. When the automation closed the curtain at the end of the show, it would cut across the exit path blocking access to the doors. After the curtain was pulled out of its track by people grabbing it when it crossed in front of them we disabled the closing cue in the automation and had the projectionist close it by manual switch after everyone was out. Just another example of owners and designers not asking the opinions of the unworthy peons who do the actual work.

Each booth was automated and equipped with 35MM Century projectors and 6000 foot reels. The outstanding feature was the presence of an Optiverter which combined with the curved screen produced an outstanding picture. I have described this Academy Award winning process in detail on the Phipps Plaza Theatre site, although there I incorrectly called it Optivision. The correct name is Ultravision.

I first attended the South DeKalb in the spring of 1971. The feature was an incredible looking cinemascope presentation of “Patton.” Since I had not started working in theatres at this time I knew nothing of the technical setup, but even so noticed the quality of the picture. I saw several more movies here and started work as manager in 1974. This was still in the days of long, exclusive runs for movies in the downtown and northside first run houses such as the Fox, Roxy, Lenox, and Phipps. South DeKalb was located in the southeastern part of DeKalb County, and when we picked up a big hit on what was then called the intermediate break, it was like showing it first run. The biggest business from those days was done by “The Sting” and “Airport ‘75” both from the Georgia Cinerama, “Herbie Rides Again” and “Death Wish” from the Tara, “Blazing Saddles” from the North DeKalb, and “The Longest Yard” from Phipps. All of these produced multiple sellouts for what seemed like weeks on end. Wide break first run releases like “Trial of Billy Jack” and “Island At The Top Of The World” also attracted capacity crowds.

These were also the pre video days when theatres would bring back an old reliable as a filler when they needed something to show for a week or so until the next big booking. We had filler bookings of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Doctor Zhivago” during this period. These magnificent wide screen productions looked wonderful on our big curved screens, and came complete with intermission strips and music. I do not recall them doing much business, but they did take me back to my days as an usher at the Atlanta Theatre during its glory days and gave me the chance to at least pretend that I was running a first class roadshow house.

I left the South DeKalb in 1975 to run the Lenox Square Theatre because it was closer to my home. (One of my bigger career mistakes, but that is another story.) South DeKalb continued on in this pattern, but like so many other fine venues, its success led to its downfall. In the fall of 1977, each side was closed in turn for twinning. (The last movie I saw under the old setup was a beautiful cinemascope presentation of “A Bridge Too Far.”) Out came the curved screens, the pretty curtains, the optiverters, the nice square shape, and in came the platters, small screens, no curtains, and the oh so 70’s shoebox shape. They did, at least, use the orange curtains to drape one of the new dividing walls, alternating panels of it with black. Each house ended up with 328 seats, so the total seat count jumped from 1080 to 1312, which should give you some idea of how they crammed them in. The new seats, while the same color, were not rockers and were placed in the front rows. The two off center aisles in the old set up now became the center aisles in the new houses. Only two improvements came out of this. One was carpet for the entrance hallway, installed over the impossible to keep clean rubber matting. This had the advantage of absorbing the headache inducing din that came with the echo off of the rubber floor, especially during busy times. The other was entrance doors for the auditoriums although this was only added at the last minute at the insistence of the manager. Seems he was the only one concerned about the movie sound or screams or laughter from the crowds crossing from house to house.

The final appearance made the place look like, on paper at least, a copy of the Akers Mill. Four identical shoebox auditoriums one of which later had Dolby added. As was the case in most of these instances, the resulting business made the decision to twin look good. The attendance and concession receipts skyrocketed though the crowds for four different theatres trying to enter and exit through a lobby and entrances designed for two came close to crushing the staff at times. I worked here a number of times during these later years and can at least say that I never saw all four house full at once. At the time, I had suggested (not to imply that anyone in authority ever listened to me) that only one side be twinned but since showmanship and presentation was at the bottom of the list in those days, if indeed it ever made the list at all, that idea was a non starter.

Just like all GTC properties, the beginning of the end of this place came with the sale of GTC to United Artists Theatres. UA was not interested in anything as small as this and by the early 90’s the place was closed. UA may not have been interested but that did not mean that they wanted anyone else coming in and competing. When they left the stripped the place bare, including light fixtures and carpets. On a recent visit I could tell that the mall is using the sloping entrance hallways to store their utility equipment. I could not see into the lobby, but I am sure it as well as the auditoriums and projection booths are empty shells as well.

I have good memories of this place, and the 70’s were good times to work in the theatre business before it turned into the megaplex dominated fast food business it is today. To this day I still keep in touch with some of my former employees and co workers from the South DeKalb, and we often talk about those times, and especially Tom Pike Jr., the long time manager after I left who passed away an amazing 14 years ago now at the age of only 40. It is a shame he is not around to write this as his recollections and stories would dwarf anything I have to offer.