Capri Theatre
302 Eighth Street,
Augusta,
GA
30901
302 Eighth Street,
Augusta,
GA
30901
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Showing 51 - 68 of 68 comments
To be honest,I am not much of a musical movie fan.The only musical i enjoyed was OLIVER. I just remember the horrible reviews on the film. I have not forgotten the EXPRESSWAY pictures.Iam looking for them.
Have you seen LOST HORIZON? Time has been kind to this remake with music by Burt Bacharach. It’s fun, handsomely directed, expensively mounted and a little goofy in spots. View link
Okay,I knew it couldn’t be this smut house. Did you like the Remake on LOST HORIZON iknow a lot of folks thought it was a turkey.
I’m talking about the MOVIE theatre CAPRI in Buckhead
Clifford, Unless it was an X rated satire LOST HORIZON never played at this theatre,believe me!
LOST HORIZON played at the Capri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThNHOHjVhwQ
BTW, I was sorry to hear about Zacher…sad indeed. He rescued me in Athens and for that I have always been greatful.
Russell, saw your posts here. Hope all is well with you; BTW, my memory of those last days of GCC for you was that I was called by yours and my former Asst. Mgr (female) and I told her to contact L.A. He called me and after chewing my ass off for not calling myself, instructed me to get to Augusta asap. I should have given you the heads up and for that, I apologize since I considered you a friend back then; perception was what it was…however and I understood that you believed me to be an enemy and all along, I wanted to be the city manager…which was not true; FYI, your former asst. tried to make things as difficult as possible for me and did a nice job in that regard until he was called to manage in Atlanta. I didn’t last much longer than that in Augusta, leaving in Sept. 88 and have not returned; actually got out of the biz in Jan. 90… Anyway, saw your name here – hope all has gone well for you since that time… (21-22 years ago!) Best regards, Scott Nirenberg ()
GEEZ, I JUST NOTICE WE ARE DOING ALL THIS ON THE CAPRI LISTING. I THINK WE NEED TO MOVE IT OVER TO GCC.
RUSSELL, HOW ABOUT SOME GCC STORIES. IT IS YOU AND ME LEFT UNLESS YOU CAN GET BARRY INTO WRITING. WE HAVE SO MANY GREAT STORIES AND THE FOLKS THAT ARE ON THIS SITE EAT THOSE STORIES UP. ONLY THE G RATED. AND NOT THE PHONE CALL…I GOT BLAMED FOR!
Boy, Stan, are you lucky! I had this looooong diatribe typed out yesterday to post, and then when I submitted it, the site reminded me that I had to log-in first! Well, it was all erased at that point! LOL! Anyway, let’s see if I can condense it for you. I went to Atlanta back in 1980-something to be the asst manager at Northlake. When nobody else would take the vacant manager job, Dave “Psycho” Poland offered the job to me and I took it. I kept it for several months and was tired of Poland, Stu Hoffman, and the difficult time I had getting good help in Atlanta, compared with Augusta. One of the biggest problems I had, since you mentioned Stu Hoffman, was Stu calling every weekday and tieing (sp?) up one of my 2 phone lines for hours with talking to a particular 16-year old cashier. I’d be on the 2nd line doing busy calls. Poland would be trying to call me and kept getting busy signals and driving his already high blood pressure through the roof! He’d scream at me (literally!) and I wasn’t mature enough at the time to tell him about my City Manager. I learned from that mistake. I got screwed over. Another thing about Stu Hoffman…after I left, I found out that Stu had been entering into the other theaters in town, getting supplies (candy, cups, etc) from them, and taking them over to add to his inventories…making up for money lost or stolen! Anyway, after I left Northlake, I returned to Augusta and took a different job. When Larry Anderson took over as DM, he talked me into coming back and I ended up managing both theaters at Regency. After a few years, I was fired because they thought I was stealing from them! I guess I can see their point because I WAS falsyfing (sp?) receipts to pay for things we needed for the theater that we knew Anderson wouldn’t/couldn’t approve…lots of shelving that someone made for us, an old refridgerator and couch for our employee lounge, an extra desk for the Chief of Staff, etc.. I learned this stuff from Zacker. Anyway, I guess my constant denials and Zacker’s character references on my behalf, led them to “summon” me to Atlanta for a meeting with Anderson and Pittman. They offered me my job back, but I had to take a theater in Atlanta because the job in Augusta was already taken (Scott Nirenberg?). I turned them down because I felt like I was still being punished. Anyway, even though part of me still loves the theater business, I’m sure glad I turned them down. In retrospect, maybe word got out that what I had done was “taught” by Zacker (he never told me to do it, I just remembered seeing him do it and thought it was a smart way around that problem). If other managers had a hint that Zacker did something shady, maybe their opinions of him were affected, especially if he was coming down on them. Oh, well. Hey, did you ever know my assistand manager at Northlake, Mark Glaubitz (sp?)?? He was a great guy.
Russell,
Dave Poland was gone from Atlanta by the time I went to work for GCC, and his place was taken by Larry Pittman. I first met Larry Anderson when he replaced Webb Brainerd, who was the opening manager for the Perimeter Mall Triple. I think Webb went to Columbia SC, but he eventually ended up in Dallas in the booking department.
Larry stayed at Perimeter until 1978 when he went to open the new Akers Mill. I think that he was replaced by Stu Hoffman. If not, Stu came in shortly afterwards. I never met Larry or Stu at the time, but before our GCC days we were all managers for Loews. I think that they were both in Miami then.
Larry stayed at Akers until he was made DM. I think that at one time he was a DM in another area, but most of the time he was in Atlanta. In the early 80’s he left GCC to become the head of operations for Septum Cinemas, an Atlanta based regional. He must have left with a return option, because in less than a year he was back, not starting over as a manager, but in his old DM job. In the late 80’s he left GCC to work for Storey, another Atlanta based local chain. Within months, Storey was bought out by Regal and last I heard he was in NC.
Stu left GCC and went to work for NCN, the intermission slide show advertising company. I last saw him in 1988 when he came by a theatre I was running to check the slide set up. That job was a natural for him. When he and Larry were managers for Larry Pittman, they would travel all over the Pittman district selling screen ads for the Christmas season. Each manager was supposed to do that, but many did not have the knack or interest, so Larry and Stu would earn a lot of comissions and the results for Pittman’s district would be near the top.
That is too bad about Craig Zacker. I only met him at the Northlake. From my recollection of him I would say the he was a prime candidate for a heart attack. I think that Larry Anderson used him as a helper because Craig enjoyed the work and did not mind the extra duties. Some of the managers thought that Craig was just trying to get in good with the DM and that his own theatre could never measure up to the standard he held them to when doing his inspections.
Managing for GCC was no picnic, at least in Atlanta, and I think that most of the managers were just trying to get through the week without anything bad happening. Some of them hoped to move up in the company, like Anderson, but I do not recall any who did. Some of them did leave GCC for much better jobs.
Stan, where did you work that you would know, or cross paths, with Craig Zacker and Larry Anderson? If you worked in Atlanta, did you also work around Stu Hoffman and David Poland?
STAN, HAVE NOT HEARD LARRY ANDERSON’S NAME IN AWHILE. I WORKED WITH CRAIG ZACKER IN AUGUSTA AND LATER AT GEORGIA SQUARE. AROUND HIS ASSISTANTS HE WOULD HOLD COURT AND ABOUT THE ONLY PLACE HE HAD NO PULL WAS THE UNION PROJECTION BOOTH. I ENJOYED WORKING WITH CRAIG. WE WOULD CRAFT SOME GREAT MIDNIGHT SHOWS AND HE WAS EVER SO BIG ON DOING PROMOTIONS. HE SADLY, WAS ONE OF THE LAST REAL SHOWMEN I WORKED WITH A FEW AT ABC THEATRES , BUT YOU AND I BOTH GOT IN ON THE END GOING TO THE MOVIES WAS A SPECIAL EVENT. I NOTICE POLICE CARS HAVE TO BE STATIONED AT OUR NEARBY 14 PLEX. I NEVER IN 7 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS HAD TO CALL THE COPS FOR HELP.AND I SPENT SOME NIGHTS AT THE DOWNTOWN IMPERIAL THEATRE IN AUGUSTA. CRAIG DIED OF A MASSIVE HEART ATTACK IN THE EARLY 90’S. I WAS A PALLBEARER ALONG WITH RUSSELL SMEAK AND BARRY MORRISON. ALL GCC ASST.MANAGERS.
Maybe I should be more open minded, but folks, the Capri Cinema in Augusta was a porn house! Nothing more! I debated if I should include it in my brief history. It opened in the middle 1970s, and was constantly in the news with the vice squad.
When I was working at the Imperial I went in one day. The lobby wasn’t much of a lobby. They did show 35mm, and the 30 seconds or so that I saw while I stood at the back was certainly hard core. It was put in an existing building, and it never seated more than 100 people.
Once when it was fighting the vice squad again, Augusta College had “Last Tango In Paris” set to run as one of the films in its film series. But what was going on downtown scared the college into cancelling the Marlon Brando movie!
Clifford Scott Carson…you couldn’t be more wrong. I know you and your father never went to the Capri in Augusta. If you saw “Poseidon Adventure” first run you saw it at National Hills. If you saw “Wild Rovers” (which is a very good western) you saw it at Southgate Cinema. “Love Story” opened Southgate Cinema in 1970. “Lost Horizon” played at Daniel Village. You really have your Augusta theatres mixed up!
The Capri finally did close after about a 10 year run and became a nightclub for rockers. On March 22, 1977 the typical Capri Cinema movie was “Schoolgirls Report 75” “There Is More Than An Apple For A Teacher” and a double bill called “Country Girl”.
Nope, the Capri never played “Lost Horizon”.
Yeah, you’re right. They changed the name of the CAPRI theatre to the ROXY. I lived in Atlanta from 1966 to 1978 and that theatre was always the CAPRI theatre.
It’s sad there aren’t more write ups about this theatre. It was really quite wonderful in it’s day. A night marque and lobby. The theatre was large with a balcony. Many first time movies played there. Roadshow engagements even. I remember seeing THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE there and coming out afterwards in a complete ICE STORM. It added to the sense of adventure that the movie had. A very memorable experience.
My father was head coach of GEORGIA TECH at the time and he and I would go to movies there. He took me to see THE WILD ROVERS and LOVE STORY at that theater.
Another biggie was the musical remake of LOST HORIZON. That played there for quite a while.
View link
Ha! When I was in high school (mid 1990s), this was the hip place to go to concerts. (I wasn’t allowed to go.) I never knew it used to be an adult theater.