Tara Theatre
2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 128 comments
CLIFFORD, I asked Beverly about going to the other movie .X rated! her mom would have killed me. even though we saw SAILOR WHO FELL WITH GRACE FROM THE SEA at the Imperial a pretty hard core R rated film. I am not much on musicals, but CAmelot! My Favorite Musical is OLIVER which i saw in 70mm at NATIONAL HILLS THEATRE.
I wouldn’t have thought any different of you if you had taken her to see THE STORY OF O. As much as I wanted to like CAMELOT, which I saw with my friends at the North Dekalb Theatre, I found it incredibly slow moving and to my young mind, I couldn’t understand it, so we walked out of that one. One of the few movies I ever walked out of as a kid. The other one being FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON. Couldn’t sit through that one either. I DID HOWEVER see THE VELVET VAMPIRE when I was 10 years old and a few years later, the low budget gay film BOTH WAYS. Both were TERRIBLY embarrassing for me. Couldn’t believe all that nudity.
I took my girlfriend to see CAMELOT.Wanted to make that clear.
Yeah, We had the WEIS CINEMA CENTRE AND WEIS DRIVE IN here in Augusta. On one side of the Twin they would run THE STORY OF O and in the other theatre they had CAMELOT. I remember because my girlfriend made me take her to see it. I worked for ABC THeatres and PLitt Theatres in Augusta. Even though sometimes they Get GODFATHER 2 first run most of the time it would off set with an X rated flick on the other side. Both are on CT.
Funny you should mention both those theaters. Believe it or not, but the WEIS CINEMA in Atlanta was, in it’s day, considered a kind of dirty movie theatre that catered to adult theme pictures. Even a great film like CABARET started out at the WEIS before it caught on with the main stream. Moreover films like THE VELVET VAMPIRE and gay independent films like BOTH WAYS played there as well. Any film with a gay theme played exclusively at the WEIS. It was a rather attractive corner like theatre with a small marquee. The CAPRI CINEMA was a big theatre with a balcony that ran big films like EARTHQUAKE, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, LOVE STORY, THE WILD ROVERS and LOST HORIZON.
http://www.cliffcarson.com
I thought this was a WEIS CiNEMA,but was thinking of the CAPRI CINEMA in Atlanta.
I agree with him. Movies now are barely in the theatre for a few weeks. OLIVER! ran at the LOEWS TARA for almost A YEAR! Even films that were less received like Ross Hunter’s LOST HORIZON would run in a theatre for up to 6 months. It’s an era that is gone that I’m glad I was around to see.
Also Clifford single screen and “Downtown” Theatres have been long gone.There are not many “Downtown” movie houses anywhere,anymore,unless you are in New York. I never knew of a Multi-plex in a “Downtown” anywhere.Or an “Uptown” either.
Clifford If you do not know about Marcus Loew. Look him up, he said that we do not sell tickets to movies we sell tickets to Theatres.He is my hero!
It makes me so sad. The days of the single screen theaters are over and what a heartbreaking thing it is. I suppose we have VHS and DVD to blame for that. Single theatre marquees, like Drive In Movie theaters once lit up the landscape and made the world a friendlier place. When I was a kid I loved going downtown just to see the big movie marquees on the streets. The fonts of the film were blazoned on the marquee and the film really seemed like an event. There are NO theaters like that now. No big marquees downtown to light up the streets.
http://www.cliffcarson.com
Would love to see some photos of when this was a LOEWS house as it was built.Any body got some?
Oh by the way its good to see that this house is still up and running,even if it is shoe box houses as I call them.
Thanks Clifford it is too bad they chopped up these Movie Houses but it was the only way they could make money.I worked for Loews in Nashville,Tennessee way back in the seventies. We only had single screens then, and after the multi-plexs opened we could not keep up no matter what movie we were showing.Big Theatres are a thing of the past I am afraid.
You should have seen it when it was ONE BIG theatre, rather than chopped up. When the musical OLIVER! ran there, it was a real event.
I went to see Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” at the Tara in either October or November of 2002. I think that was the only time I ever went to the Tara, but I loved it. What a cool old theater.
I saw “Star Wars” there in 1977 when I was eight. We were running a bit late and it was a suprise. I remember the preview for “Saturday Night Fever” playing as we arrived. I can’t believe SW really wasn’t in Dolby Stereo there? Anyway, saw Dune in 70MM there Christmas ‘84. Last visit when I lived there was in 1999 and saw Hurlyburly. Hopefully it is still maintaining it’s art-house image, I checked moviefone and they ARE playing the Cohen Bros. “A Serious Man” on 2 screens!
another memory . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWXjFHqc7gc
eeeww, it’s an ad for the LOEWS TARA TWIN. Just kidding, thank you for providing this ad, but WHY OH WHY did they twin this WONDERFUL theatre. If you could have only been in it when it was NEW and ONE GREAT BIG THEATRE with 6 TRACK STEREO SOUND.
OLIVER! was spectacular there and so was HELLO DOLLY and SCROOGE.
BEAUTIFUL EVENTS and once in a life time.
The three greatest movie going experiences I had at the LOEW’S TARA were:
OLIVER!
HELLO DOLLY!
SCROOGE,
All roadshow films. They were events.
I used to go this complex in the 90s for movies not shown elsewhere. I don’t care about the tradition. The image quality was mediocre even in the main auditorium which was one very very long shoebox.The sound was just OK. Two of the screens are tinier than my TV screen. I was glad when HD came around so I could just wait until a foreign movie just showed up on cable. I loved it when Madstone took over the Sandy Springs General Cinemas because the GC Sandy Springs 8 was a much superior location to watch movies.
OLIVER! played here in 1969 and it was an EVENT! The marque sported the font for OLIVER! in big red musical letters and it was a reserved seat roadshow attraction. Programs were sold in the lobby during intermission. It was called LOEWS TARA then. The entire building was white with white blinking lights trailing down ALL the columns, not just the top. There were plenty of beautiful and unusal displays for the movie. The film was in 70mm with 6 track STEREO. My mom took my sister and me to see and I feel in love with the movie and the theatre. That was a magical night I will never forget and one of the greatest nights of my life.
When they made the modifications to the first auditorium it seemed like it only took a day or two. The screen in cinema one was moved forward a couple of yards and about ten or twelve rows were moved into this back stage cinema. I would love to see a photo of the original Tara auditorium when it was a single screen operation.
I managed the Tara for a few years in the early 90’s. Hoyts owned the circit then. I loved the theatre. During this time we showed a mixture of Art movies as well as main stream movies. In addition, we had a few foreign and ‘off beat’ features.
Theatre # 4 had it’s own projection booth. One would walk down a down a long hallway which was an addition to get to the auditorum and booth. This screen was small and seating limited. I think only 125 to 150 seats.
Theatre #1 was to the left of the concession was refered to number 1 an had a very bad ‘keystone’ problem. Also, this theatre and number two (the theatre to the right of concessions) were refered to as ‘shot gun’ theatres. They are long and narrow. Theatre #4 was an addition and made for a great movie viewing experience.
George Lefont had a plate glass window in his office and I assume he watched movies from his own office. The offices next door and connected to the theatre were vacant when I was there.
During my time managing the Tara, Hoyts re-did the lobby. These changes are what you see today.
I had managed the Toco Hill, which is a short distance down LaVista Road, therefore, I knew a lot of the customers which made my experience all the more enjoyable.
I found the home office personnel very professional but the home team that oversaw the Atlanta Hoyts operations a bit unprofessional. ( I am trying to be nice here)
Famous people would visit the theatre some were: The Governor, Ted Turner, Jane Fonda various music and film stars.
Lots of stories……to much to tell in too little space
LOEWS THEATRE TICKET STUBS.
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How was the auditorium originally configured for the Tara? It had a relatively short span as a single screen operation and by the time I got around to patronizing the theatre it had been split down the centre. Was it a modified Cinerama or a large rectangular screen akin to what was originally installed at the Twelve Oaks?