Regal Augusta Village Cinema 12
1323 Augusta West Parkway,
Augusta,
GA
30909
1323 Augusta West Parkway,
Augusta,
GA
30909
7 people
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Showing 26 - 47 of 47 comments
Here a aerial view
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Where did you post the “JAWS"banner.At the Imperial or one of the "JAWS” articles on CT?
It really wasn’t a bad theatre.I am just old school and hate things over 3 or 4 screens,but that is a “Me” problem.Thanks for the pictures.It is still sitting there like Regency,Except GCC left EVERYTHING in the 8-Plex.
Cool,
Sorry its taken so long to post the Columbia photos. It seems I’ve having to go through more boxes than I thought. Good news is while going through boxes I found a old cloth Jaws banner I’ve had for years. Will post asap.
Here’s 2 photos of the old cinema.
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Tracyp,Plez check out all our theatres in Augusta on CT,I have the Drive-in Theatres on Too.
Yes, National Hills had a full curtain that actully worked until it finally broke and no one fixed it.National Hills could show 70mm on that large screen. One thing I noticed about your theatre it was just TOO Dang easy to slip into without paying,The Ticket chopper,I guess was about in the only place you guys could place it.But the Theatre Manager in me always noticed that stuff,The two large cinemas were pretty decent,but those two small houses were a joke.I was there when they closed and shipped everything back to KNOXVILLE.I looked it by a back exit door they striped it.Was hoping to find some One sheets in the dumpster out back,but nothing but some trade magazines,Don’t even think they were BOXOFFICE which was a great theatre Magazine,REGAL must and still is a cheap outfit,How they run that 20 plex across the interstate is beyond me.They must have three managers.One thing when I worked as a Assistant at Regency and Columbia Square and National Hills I never cleaned floors.Boy, the business sure did change, But GCC and Plitt were much better Theatre chains to work for.MY cousin was a manager for REGAL and all I heard were Horror Stories,Cutting Staff,Showtimes,Concessions,etc.
I remember the night The Matrix opened, the manager that was over me at the time had the bright idea that he was going to keep selling tickets to a sold out show and then interlock. I begged him not to do that because to me the risk was too great. As you know being Regal we already had enough to do. You could say that Regal’s middle name was “cut labor†so you know who had to clean auditoriums. Well, needless to say he interlocked them. The rest was history. Not only did the sound not start, moments later there was the first of many brain wraps as they say. End of story. So now we had the same amount of people going out as came in. 300 emergency tickets later it was over!
When (Star Wars) Episode I came out I did my best to try to old school the first showing as I remembered as a child. We didn’t have a big curtain like National Hills so the best I could do was to flip from flat to scope and the screen opened a little (for effect) because if my memory is correct I believe that National Hills at one point and time was one big theater and had a full curtain. Then I hit the lights and waited a few seconds to let’em cheer. It wasn’t National Hills but it was the thought that counted!
Don’t get me wrong Regal was fun at times but it really was way too focused on cheap labor. After the thread and start of 12 films every 2 hours wasn’t enough to drain you, cleaning 12 auditorium floors was! Then I thought I got smart and moved to the Regal 20 when it opened. The last film I threaded for Regal was “Chicken Run†in 2000. It was enough for me, the excitement of the movies had given itself over to slide projectors and a manager in a three piece suit cleaning popcorn between shows.
I’m sure during the 70’s many of you were working at real theaters. I was that little kid stretching his neck trying to look up at the projection window! It was awesome!
Thanks Guys
I was so glad i got out in 1983.Already at Regency Mall I.II and III GCC was looking into the managers cutting off the movie after the last show and sending the Union projectionists home once they started the last feature.I don’t want even to think about running a booth and also worry about the floor.Columbia 1 and 2 was a great twin operated then by Union Projectionists.Once United Artists got in there they ruined a beautiful Twin.It is On CT along with all of Augusta’s theatres.Hope you can check them out a lot of theatre History.And Wild Stories You didn’t post!
Yea, I was one of those managers back then at the village 12 and you are correct. I can remember bringing up the subject of union projectionist once in a while and get slammed for even saying the word! Yea, I could thread the projector and enjoyed it but I always had a great fear that when, and it did, something went wrong we were out! I could tell you some stories! Running a projector is a art, it is ashamed that all you have now is press play kids starting movies. I long for Jaws at the Imperial in 1975. One of my best memories is working for a couple of weekends at columbia square theaters just before it closed. Just being in the booth was a thrill and I felt like I was on Holy ground! Miss it dearly friends…
Regal 12 Cinema, Augusta’s only remaining second-run movie theater, will roll its final reel in about two weeks, according to a local security official.
Richmond County Deputy Wendell Johnson, who schedules and works security for the cinema, said the complex is supposed to close near the end of May.
Dick Westerling, a Regal corporate spokesman, did not return phone calls Friday and Monday.
Employees at Regal 12 called talk of the cinema closing “rumors” and refused to comment on the record. The theater has screenings scheduled through Monday.
Regal 12, located in the Augusta West shopping center,
Regal should have kept the Union in the booth.But I heard the background checks they do on employees is almost as if you worked for the C.I.A. |this comes from a ex-manager who saw Regal sell out his theatre to something called EPIC CINEMAS}.
Sorry about that.
You couldn’t pay me enought to run a booth and a theatre are kids today are just stupid? They never heard of a union Projectionist that made a living for his family in a carbon dirt booth. How these theatre chains ever got away with it is beyond me. I would like to think if i was a big director or producer; the last person i would want running my film is some 18 year old trying to figure out how to jump the Box office girl, It that clear. REGAL is very anti- union. And of course we know REGAL is out of KNOXVILLE>
I agree Mike we always had union projection people I do not remember any major problems in all my years.Only at the LOEWS MADISON we blew a Zeon?? bulb and had no replacement they had to give a small amount of refunds and or passes out that day.Of course the Melrose and Crescent still burned the carbon rods we never had that problem.
Yeah, I wanted no part of the booth and glad i came around when i did.I was better on the floor than in a booth. This place Like ALL REGAL theatres Was manager operated. i don’t know how they get anyone to run that 20 plex in town. I hit the dumpster when they were closing up but found nothing worth keeping. Certainly,NO one-sheets. They gutted everything,
I know what you mean about the whole manager operator thing. Most of the time it works out ok…saves the company money. But when things go bad in the booth, it is usually VERY BAD. I remember one time at Mall Corners when they had a movie showing in 2 theatres. They only had one copy of the movie and it ran from one theatre to the other on these rollers on the walls. Just watching it run that way used to scare me…I always thought about what would happen if it somehow came off those rollers! One night the film got wrapped up in the platters and you talk about a mess! Times like that made me appreciate our projectionists. That they were usually right there in the booth to catch things before they got so bad and that they could keep their minds on booth stuff only. They didn’t have to worry about who was popping the popcorn or tearing the tickets while they slipped upstairs for a few minutes to start the movies.
Here it is Augusta Village 12 not Augusta Exchange,I was wrong.AGAIN.
It still sits empty with the one sheet frames right where they left them.REGAL gutted everything else.
When it was getting ready to open I actually went by an got an application for a management spot. The lady there gave me the tour and explained it was a manager/operator theatre. “you mean we have to worry about the booth and the floor?” She said Yep, that is the way REGAL operates.
I pity these managers today. Say what you will about UNION projectionists,they made my life alot easier back in the 70’s and early 80’s at GCC. Needless to say, I threw the application in the trash later.
I GUESS I AM FORM THE OLD SCHOOL ON MY LIST OF AUGUSTA THEATRE AND DRIVE INS THIS DID NOT MAKE MY LIST. BECAUSE THESE TYPES OF CINEMAS PUT SHOWMANSHIP OUT THE DOOR. CUT AND PASTE ADS PLAYING DAY AND DATE. I KNOW THAT IS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS AND WAS SO LUCKY TO HAVE GOTTEN IN THE TAIL END OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO THE MOVIES AND NOT BEING TREATED LIKE CATTLE. TAKE A FILM. SIT DOWN WITH A MANAGER LIKE JOHN MACKEY OR CRAIG ZACKER AND PUT TOGETHER A PROMOTION FOR THE MOVIE. WORK WITH A RADIO STATION LIKE WBBQ IN THE 70’S A LET A MOVIEGOER SIT ALONE IN THE IMPERIAL THEATRE AND WATCH WILLARD OR FROGS ALONE. WILL NOT HAPPEN.. i believe this theatre was built with 10 SCREENS WHEN IT OPENED.
it opened way before 94. I went on High school dates there in 92.