Regency Mall Cinema I-II-III
1700 Gordon Highway,
Augusta,
GA
30904
1700 Gordon Highway,
Augusta,
GA
30904
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 167 of 167 comments
Mike I also met my wife to be in 1979 at the Loews Crescent,she came to work there at the concession manager.She worked for Ogden food services who ran our stands.We had some employees that worked for Ogden and Loews so some got two checks a week.Or in those days Loews hourly employees got paid in cash although we would take out taxes and S.S.We would pay them out of Friday night receipts.I got a check every two weeks as I was on a salary.
1982 AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is one of our top grossers on a midnight show.
March 28 1986 REGENCY is going to show ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW for a midnight show, Of cousre,Craig Zacker is now in Athens, Ga. So maybe this outfit managing the theatre will do a better job than the ZACKER ARMY ..RUSSELL,,BARRY..& MIKE.
ALSO playing on the weekend midnight shows are EUROPEAN VACATION{a very weak show for a midnight crowd, then i am not there to pick the flicks.] AND third feature is NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
When I worked at NATIONAL HILLS and COLUMBIA 1 and 2 I can’t remember JAMES BROWN ever going to the movies at those locations.Sure, he hit the IMPERIAL alot.One night THE GODFATHER OF SOUL is standing in line at REGENCY to buy tickets. I spot him and walk over and say “Mr.Brown,you don’t have to wait in line."
It tickled him to death that someone noticed him in line. Everytime i let him into a movie he always gave me an autograph,so much so I started to give them .alway.The last one he gave said "It is so great to see one of America’s own regonize me.GOD BLESS JOHN BELUSHI.” I still have that one.
He had good handwriting compared to most stars.
Well,once again i always seem to be working when something has to be taken care of. A lady walks out and informs me there is a man in CINEMA ONE with a gun on his side.
I walk over before the show starts and asks about the gun.He’s a cop and he understood the worry.
Once again,it’s WILL ROGERS FUND DRIVE. This is something that has just happened in theatres.I HAD NEVER heard of this FUND DRIVE. AND I REALLY DON’T LIKE hitting the public for more money after hitting our concession stand and box office.
I don’t have a problem with sitting the jars on the concession and let people put in if they want.But passing out collection jars roll by roll is okay for church,but not here. I guess it is a order from Boston. [home office]
I go on my last date with Bev. to see ON GOLDEN POND. It’s playing in CINEMA 2. Hard to believe I was an Doorman at NATIONAL HILLS WHEN I took her to see AMERICAN GRAFFITI IN 1975 . Now,after a bad marriage for her;I am still working in a theatre.1981.
FROM THE I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP DEPARTMENT
Friday night Midnight show Paul Adams is running MONTY PHYON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. going fine until about reel four when WOW, The whole movie is upside down.Mr.Adams built the film and somehow got the tails wrong. UPSIDE DOWN MOVIE- soundtrack grabbled. Funny thing i think i only refuned one ticket and he said he was from ATLANTA ,so the refund ticket would be good up there. I just figured the crowd was drunk/ stoned and did not care or thought it was neat, The next Saturday the head Projectionist Chuck Dray got an ear full from Mr,Zacker. since it was no big deal with the moviegoers i guess Zack just wanted to give it to Chuck.
Can’t make this up .
By that time most of these folks were updating resumes. Over screening was one of the main reasons i saw coming.However, every chain was doing it Regal Cinemas like cancer was growing everywhere soon over taking AMC and GCC, Both leaders for so long in the 70’s and 80’s. From what i heard about Regal I wouldn’t want to work there.
Another I should have kept the date department.
SHUTDOWN OF THEATRE MAY BE PERMANENT
Staff Reports
The three screen General Cinema theatre at Regency Mall will close Friday for three weeks and perhaps permanently, a manager said.
“ It’s closing .It is not going to be opened Friday.” said Brad Crowe,Assistant Manager at Regency Mall,and Regency Exchange 8 theatres both owned by GCC.
MR, Crowe said company policy prohibited him from discussing other details. But an unidentified employee told theAUGUSTA CHRONICLE THE CLOSURE would be for about three weeks and was likely permanent.
Ellen Aub,Corporate spokeswoman for GCC did not return messages Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither Kirk Sessions or Geoff Lynn Director for operations in the eastern district , returned phone calls to the paper.
Okay we are plenty of years removed from this . I WAS THERE had worked hundreds of late shows at the Imperial, National Hills And Colunbia 1 and 2 theatres. I had never seen anything like this. Did the management let it get out of hand as mentioned in the article. WHEN i look back,YES. However, the show itself lent to a rowdy good time, The COMISSIONER said there was YELLING in the cinema? NO kidding folks there was yelling and throwing bread and rice.IT was the ROCKY HORROR show. And wow, people smoking POT BEFORE a midnight show the smell would stick to my clothes even as far back as The Imperial Midnight shows. I did not smoke anything period. The stink made my theatre jacket presentable since i was always too lazy to have it dry cleaned.
I think it is safe to say that Columbia Square did not play it, By that time Georgia theatres ran it and they were big NOT big on late shows. I was later told by Craig that Commissioners Barnes wife was coming out of a regular feature probably ON GOLDEN POND AND HEARD SOME ONE CUSS! As if there was no bad language in ON GOLDEN POND if that was the flick she saw. That started the ball rolling. Every weekend night we had two cops on duty,I NEVER once saw them go into the theatre. They stood by the concession and drank free sodas. From GCC. I Take exception to Craig’s saying “ Augusta is not ready for a show like this!” I think the management all three of us got caught up in the hype.To blame it on a city is unfair. BUT I LOVE YOU CRAIG! and miss you.
MOVIE CANCELED AFTER COMPLAINTS
AUGUSTA CHRONCILE WRITTEN BY BILLY HOBBS.
A controversial audience participation movie will no longer be shown at the Regency Triple because of complaints about activity which led to the arrests of 12 juveniles in the last two weeks.
Deputies with the Richmond County Sheriff’s DEPT, had warned theatre officials that if the situation continued, they would recommened to the county commission that their business license be revoked.
Craig Zacker, Manager of the Triple said tuesday night he has decided to stop showing ROCKY HORROR because ‘’ IF THIS PICTURE IS SO EXTREME THAT WE NEED COPS sittng inside monitoring it. then i just do not feel it is worth our showing it here'‘.
The movie has been playing the last five weeks there. ’‘ Apparently , Augusta just is not ready for a show like this yet.’‘Zacker said, Richmond County Commissioner Travis Barnes, who is a local minister, said he and other commissioners had received numerous complaints about there being a lack of audience control by management. “ I WAS TOLD THERE WAS YELLING while the movie was playing” Barnes said, After reaching the conclusion that the problem might be a place where"violence could occur"
Sheriff J.b.Dykes said he followed the advice of the commissioners and sent the vice squad to the theatre to check on the problem. “Several persons were obsevered smoking pot .drinking beer and using profanity in the parking lot.While other were causing disturbances in the cinema.
LT.Donnie Chavous of the sheriff’s dept. said in the last two weeks 12 juveniles have been arrested. Minors drinking acoholic beverages. TWO of the juveniles were arrested inside the theatre for creating pubic disturbances. ONE incident happened when one youth took a fire extinquisher down and stated spraying moviegoers.” Incidents are going to happen from time to time and there is very little you can do to prevent it" Zacker said. Zacker said the movie will played at Columbia Square in Columbia County, Barnes said wednesday night he was pleased to know some action had been taken. Had problems persisted “They could have lost their business license for breach of the peace”
ON BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS WE HAD ALL THE CONCESSIONSTAND AND BOX OFFICE GIRLS DRESS LIKE YOU KNOW… LOVE GCC PROMOTIONS.I KNOW RUSSELL REMEMBERS,IF HE WILL ONLY TYPE SOME REGENCY 1 2 3 STORIES. COULD NOT DO THAT TODAY!
Regency Mall Cinemas 1-2-3 opened July 27, 1978 with the following features, “Foul Play” “Jungle Book” and “The Driver”. It was the first General Cinema Theatre to open in Augusta, joining ABC Theatres, Georgia Theatres, and Weis Cinemas. The theatre was located in the center of the mall with entrance and exit doors close by. The box office sat outside the theatre in a white open square box.
Upon entering the cinemas you were greeted with 3 one sheet display cases, then up several steps and the moviegoer is at a rather large concession stand. Cinema 1 was to the left, 2 was in the center, and 3 was on the right. Cinema 2 being in the middle, often picked up lobby light when the doors were opened to the theatre. Restrooms, projection booth, offices, popcorn, and stock room were on the top floor.
On opening day the projectionists were Chuck Dray (transferred from the Imperial) and Paul Adams (transferred from Columbia Square). Dray told me he realized with the mall’s opening, that both the downtown area as well as its theatres would dry up, and he wasn’t very wrong. By the early 1980s all the downtown theatres were history except for the Capri Cinema (an X-rated theatre).
“Animal House” played at the Regency soon after opening. Later it would also play “Star Trek” which according to GCC officials, had some of the best box office figures for that 1979 hit. I also enjoyed seeing “2001: A Space Odyssey” which played on a late show but those small screens could not compare with the screen at National Hills Theatre.
I worked there from 1981 to 1983, and Craig Zacker was an exciting manager to work for. He had constant promotions. Russell Smeak and Barry Morrison made up the management team. I filled in as Chief-of-Staff until Barry moved on. I then joined Russell for a couple of years.
We played many midnight shows. The biggest being “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. It got so crazy, a county commissioner’s wife coming out of a regular feature saw all the crazies lining up to see it, and actually wanted her husband to have our business license pulled.
I did meet my future wife there. She was one of the box office girls. It was a pleasure to work there. The mall was still a pretty safe place to work at but bad times were quickly on the way for Regency Mall 1-2-3.
I did have one strange experience. I was standing down by the box office, and some lady comes out and wants to see a manager. She told me some guy was feeling ladies' long hair as it draped down the back of the seats in Cinema 2. So I walked down the aisle, and sure enough some nerdy teenager about 15 or 16 was feeling the ladies' long hair! I asked him to leave telling him he’s lucky some boyfriend or husband didn’t clobber him!
Regency Mall 1-2-3 closed in the early 1990s.
My mom and dad met and worked here and named their first born after the manager Craig Zacker! His name is Sean Christopher Craig Rogers. My dad always joked his kids were by products of general cinema =)
Photo of exterior
Another exterior photo
Marquee Sign
from Deadmalls.com
I loved this theater! Especially after the neighborhood turned dark, and they ended up shutting some of the screens down due to gang violence. I remember seeing ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, as well as ‘Back to the Future 2’, and ‘Batman’ in Regency III. I think I and II were closed shortly after a screening of Malcolm X resulted in a midnight robbery of the office manager’s safe, and the bludeoning of said office manager.
Truly though this theater’s star shown brightly. One my fondest memories in life is being granted access to see RoboCop by a nerdy ticket monger who couldn’t care less if I was only 9. Yes, those were the days…
ah well, like the grindhouses of New York and Los Angelos, the Regency I-II-III, has been swept asunder.