Although not the point of this comment, I will note that as I write this at 6:28 PM on 7/17/2008, exactly 30 years ago, almost to the minute, I was walking into the Fox Theatre to see the first movie presented there since the place closed up on January 2, 1975. The feature: Ben-Hur, in glorious 70MM. I have described that event in more detail than anyone would care to read in my earlier post so I will get to the point. This comment will hopefully clear up a few of the technical questions raised by Mr. Wade in the above post.
As for the media used to present Ben-Hur, I can assure everyone that there was nothing digital about it, even, unfortunately, the sound. It was a 35MM print struck on May 9, 1993. This meant that while the sound was Dolby Stereo, it was analog since Dolby Digital did not come along until mid decade. Considering its 15 year age it was in pretty good shape, but I think that its condition could kindly be described as “Best Available”. As with any print that old there were numerous and noticeable dirt type scratches at the beginning and end of each reel, and repeated build ups and tear downs for platter screenings had resulted in missing frames. Fortunately, the Overture, Intermission tag, and second half walk in music were included although splices at the beginning of the Intermission tag and end of walk in music indicated that at least once someone had run this print straight through without an intermission. A real crime against showmanship in my opinion.
The size of the screen at the Fox is as large as it has ever been, and as large as it can be. Although there is some more room on the sides for a wider screen, there is no more room at the top. Since all of the vertical space is being used, expanding the width would cause the top and bottom to be cropped off. This is a problem I described in my original post where I pointed out that the Fox is a hybrid, designed as an auditorium, not a movie theatre or stage show venue. The image projected for Ben-Hur and other cinemascope pictures is as wide as it can be given the height limitations of the stage. If you are sitting the balcony, it may seem that the screen can go higher, but this is not the case. For anyone sitting under the balcony, especially near the back, the line of the bottom of the balcony meets the top of the screen, so anything projected on a taller screen would not be visible to these patrons.
When it comes to the screen size used for different movies, that is determined purely by the aspect ratio of the film in question. This is not a technical site, but simply put, there are three main screen shapes used in films. Describing the ratio of width to height, they are 1.33 to 1 (roughly the shape of a pre HD television), 1.85 to 1, called “flat” in the industry, and 2.35 (or wider) to 1, called scope, cinemascope, or widescreen. Some years ago someone who had attended a screening of “Gone With The Wind” at the Fox had written to the Q and A section of the AJC to ask why the Fox had taken out its huge screen and replaced it with a small square screen. The explanation for all of this is that the Fox is very careful to present the movies it shows in their correct aspect ratio. (When we ran “The Searchers” the 1.66 to 1 lens and screen width were used, a very rare event.) This means that when a classic such as “GWTW”, “Casablanca”, or “Wizard of Oz” plays, the side masking is brought in to make the screen the correct 1.33 to 1 size. It may look small in comparison to the massive Fox stage width, but the full height of the stage area is used. To try to widen the picture would result in the cropping that I described above. (For a perfect example of this, read the story of what happened to GWTW when they blew the image up to 1.85 to 1 for its 1967 70MM reissue.)
All of these notes apply to digital projection as well as film. The type of projection makes no difference in the size of the screen. Aspect ratio is the determining factor. A scope picture presented in digital projection will be the same size as one presented via film. The same goes for 1.85 and 1.33. I should point out that when I say digital I am talking about the new Digital Cinema Systems that are now being installed in theatres across the nation. I am most assuredly not talking about using some digital capable projector to show a DVD on the screen.
Speaking of this past Sunday, anyone who attended Ben-Hur was able to see all three aspect ratios in use. The preshow documentary Mr. Wade referred to was a Public TV production and was projected at 1.33 to 1 using the digital video projector. The rest of the program was all film. When the 35MM film projector was started for the previews, the masking was pulled back to the 1.85 to 1 mark. When the previews ended, there was a pause for the lens to be changed to 1.33 to 1 and the masking was brought back in so the cartoon could be presented in its proper 1.33 ratio. (Oddly enough, the film company logo on the front of the cartoon was modern and in 1.85 ratio so there were black bars at the top and bottom just like on a letterboxed DVD until the cartoon itself started and took up the full screen. When the cartoon ended, the 1.85 lens and masking were returned to present the Fox policy and feature presentation strips. At this point the curtain was closed and the curtain lights came on for the Overture. During the Overture, the masking was pulled back to its full open mark and the 2.35 to 1 scope lens was put in place. When the overture ended, the lights dimmed and the screen opened to its full width for the MGM logo.
With regard to some other points by Mr. Wade, I think that the newsreel in question is used because it features the World Premiere of “Gone With The Wind” as its final story. I am happy to see that he took note of the fact that the curtain and lights were properly used during the Overture. Very few theatres even have curtains anymore, and the applause from the audience when the lights dimmed and the curtain opened to reveal the MGM lion seemed to indicate that they appreciated an example of the long lost art of properly presenting a big, class, roadshow production. At least to the degree possible.
As for the debate between film as opposed to theatre grade Digital Cinema, let me say this. I have been working with film most of my life. Even though I now see my future job prospects being rapidly eliminated by the advent of Digital Cinema, I will have to admit that the picture quality of a movie properly presented (usually meaning being bright enough) using the Digital Cinema process is better than that of film. On Sunday afternoon, before the night showing of “Ben-Hur”, the Fox presented a Digital Cinema presentation of the Disney movie “Enchanted” using the digital projector. Both movies are 2.35 to 1 scopes so the picture size was the same, but the clarity of “Enchanted” to say nothing of the lack of scratches, specks, flecks, and splices, was greater than the 35MM film presentation of “Ben-Hur”. It is too bad that a 70MM print of Ben-Hur was not available for the Fox as it has been at least twice in the past. The last two times the Fox has presented “Ben-Hur” it has been with 35MM, so perhaps 70MM is no longer available. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of this great film so hopefully MGM, or whoever controls the rights now will order some 70MM DTS prints for an anniversary run the way “2001” is touring the country this year.
My apologies Jack. I do not know why I was so arrogant as to think that my memory was better than yours.
As for you R2, this makes three times you have had to correct me. I think that from now on I will just send you my comments for vetting prior to posting. Either that or just end each comment with “…I think.”
At the time TRON was released I was working at the Greens Corner Cinema where we had a Dolby 35MM print. The game room next door did more business with their TRON video game that we did with the movie, especially after the first week. I remember that it opened at the same time as the Secret Of NIMH. That one was the creation of the animators who had left Disney and formed their own company, but to the public it looked like a Disney. All day, parents would come up to the box office with their children in tow and ask for tickets to “the Disney movie”. Of course they meant NIMH as opposed TRON which based on the poster did not look like any Disney movie they saw when they were children. At that theatre at least, NIMH was a much bigger draw.
Atlanta did not get a 70MM release. The Phipps Plaza Twin #2 and the Tara #2 were among the very few 70MM theatres in Atlanta that retained 70MM ability after the twinning. Other 70MM locations, like the Rhoades were out of the first run business by then or closed down. TRON opened at several locations around Atlanta, but the central booking was at the Lenox Square Theatre. At one time, Lenox had a 70MM set up second only to the original Phipps, but in 1978 the 660 seat auditorium was divided into two 320 seaters. Although the Century 70MM projectors were still used, the screens were pathetically small and no 70MM was ever attempted on them.
In 1984, the Lenox was completely reorganized and the wall came down and a 500 seat auditorium was created. 70MM was restored, and Top Gun, Die Hard and Aliens were among the 70MM offerings there.
As Michael mentioned in his article, TRON did play in 70MM later that year in some of the neglected markets. In Atlanta this occurred at the Phipps Plaza in October. Two week run, very little business. It was preceded by a 70MM run of Deliverance. Again, not much business but they both looked impressive in 70.
I saw CE3K opening week at the Phipps Plaza Penthouse in Atlanta. 35MM only since the Penthouse did not have 70MM equipment. This was the first film to use the new Dolby system here, and my first impression was that it was too loud. Too many people confuse volume with effect and do not think that they are getting their stereo effect unless they leave the theatre with their ears ringing. In the late summer of 1978, the Fox Theatre in Atlanta added CE to the end of their summer movie schedule. The Fox did not have Dolby then, but I went to see it because they had a 70MM print that would use the 6 track mag sound system that was there. There was a huge crowd, but two of the reels were in terrible shape and there were half a dozen film breaks in that section.
As for the movie, I enjoyed it and thought that it was a good, well made movie, but a little long is some sections. It has never been on any all time favorite list of mine. My favorite scene is when Richard Dreyfus wrecks his car on the way to Devils Tower. As the camera follows him as he climbs up the embankment to look around, you get your first glimpse of the Tower at the edge of the screen. This subtle effect is completely wasted on the millions of people who have seen the movie P&S on TV as the Tower is cropped off. In 1981, or whenever it came out, I was working in a theatre that ran the SE version. I thought the changes made the first version look like a masterpiece, but it did great business for a couple of weeks.
As for my theatre employee experiences with CE3K, I have two. In 1996 I was working the projection booth at the Fox, and one of the Summer Film Series bookings was an all day Spielberg festival of Jaws, Raiders, and at 8 PM, CE3K. Some people were there all day, and by 8 there were enough people to fill about three fourths of the 4500 Fox seats. Those of you who worked in theatres in the early days of Dolby might recall that the early Dolby features were released in two different versions, some with Dolby soundtracks, and the rest with mono soundtracks. As our bad luck would have it, the Jaws and Raiders prints had been struck recently, but not only was the CE print an original from 1977, it was mono as well. It was in good condition, but sounded terrible.
My other memory dates back only to March, 2006. In the early 70’s I worked at the Atlanta Theatre, which at the time was operated by Walter Reade Org. All I ever heard about from the managers and other company people who came to town from New York was what a great theatre the Ziegfeld was. I always wanted to see a movie there to see just how the theatre measured up to its reputation. When the Ziegfeld put on its Cinema Classics series I made a day trip to NY and caught an afternoon showing of CE. The theatre was nice, but I would have been much more impressed in 1971 when I was new to the business. The presentation was just fair. No 70MM, but 35MM Dolby. The movie was the third edition, which I believe is also the directors cut.
As do most people, I thought the SE version was a joke, and liked the original version best, although both the first or third versions are fine.
Booth was equipped with Norelco 35/70MM projectors. These had the variable speed motors which allowed the 70MM version of “Oklahoma” to be run in its required 30 frames per second speed rather than the normal 24 frames per second. I do not know if it was ever run here, probably not, but the operator was known to run the moives at the 30 frame speed if he wanted to go home early.
During its final years it was operated by Georgia Theatre Company and was managed by Mr. Earnest Crowe, a former manager of the Martin Cinerama downtown. This was a pick up for GTC and did not have a house for the manager on site as was their usual custom.
You could get a nice overhead view of the Thunderbird when taking off to the east or landing to the west, although this proximity to the Atlanta airport probably did not do much for the moviegoing experience.
Although it has a Kentucky Avenue address, this theatre is part of a major retail development located on US 31 in the middle of Vestavia Hills which is a small suburban city just south of the Birmingham city limits. In the mid 60’s this vacant piece of land was cleared and a sort of hybrid shopping center / mall was built with a Sears and Parisians as anchors. In the mid 90’s the center was demolished and this large, glitzy, town square type development built in its place.
As for the theatre, nothing special about it. Typical Rave looking venue with lots of lights and an amusement park atmosphere. Not my kind of place to see a movie, but I am obviously in the minority as most of these Rave, Regal, AMC theatres built in the last 10 years are very popular. Actually, 10 screens seems kind of cozy these days. A few miles down 31 Rave has a 15 screen theatre next to the Galleria Mall in Hoover.
This is a long post on the final years of the Fox as a regular movie theatre, and the summer film festivals and was prompted by Jack being kind enough to place the above photo link on his Flickr site. If your Fox interest is the in early years, “Save The Fox”, or plays and concerts then you will probably find it dull.
I doubt if any one person, even Joe Patten, knows every bit of Fox history, but there are dozens if not hundreds of us who know the details of very small slices of the lifetime of this great venue. Yes, I do think that it is a great place, and a treasure as well, but in all honesty I never thought that the Fox was a very good place to actually see a movie. The trouble is that the Fox is a hybrid. Not really built as a theatre, either film or legit, it serves adequately for both, but not as well as it could if it had been built with either one in mind. The keystone deflection caused by the angle of the projectors is noticeable, and the sound bouncing off of the plaster walls pretty hollow. I have always thought that it is the look, feel, and atmosphere of the place that makes it great. Even though movie purists (of which I am not one) do not approve, the organ concert before the movie is enjoyable as well. The sing-a-long, less so to me at least, but lets face it, these days most people come to movie nights at the Fox for the experience. The movie is often secondary.
As for the small bit of Fox history that I am somewhat familiar with, it starts in 1967 when my family moved to Atlanta. The feature at that time was “The Dirty Dozen”. This list of bookings with the length of the run in weeks in ( ) will give you an idea of what the Fox was up against business wise as it entered the final years of its life as a movie theatre:
El Dorado (3)
Two For The Road (3)
Emily (2)
Who’s Minding The Mint (2)
Waterhole #3 (2)
Rosie (2)
Point Blank (4)
Valley of the Dolls (8) – Christmas feature
Good, Bad, Ugly (2)
Happiest Millionaire (3)
Will Penny (1)
Doctor Zhivago (1)
Blackbeards Ghost (3)
“Doctor Zhivago”, one of my all time favorite films which over the years must have played in almost every movie theatre in Atlanta, was among the first movies I saw here. Little could I have imagined that 28 years later I would be running it from the projection booth for a sold out house. I also remember seeing “Blackbeards Ghost” here on a Saturday night, made memorable only because it was the first time that I saw and heard the organ used, this time just as a filler between shows. I also remember my mother telling me about how she attended movies here during the 30’s and 40’s when the place was full and she had to stand behind the wall located behind the last row of seats. Quite a change from that sparsely attended night. Next came:
Sweet November (3)
Stranger In Town (2)
Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (2)
Family Band (2)
Sweet Ride (4)
Green Berets (4)
For “Green Berets” it was the World Premiere since the movie was filmed at Forts Benning and Rucker. John Wayne was on hand and since the date was July 4th, he was the Grand Marshall of the WSB Independence Day Parade that year.
Where Were You When The Lights Went Out? (2)
Never A Dull Moment (2)
With Six You Get Eggroll (3)
Prudence and the Pill (4)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (2)
I Love You Alice B.Toklas (3)
Lady In Cement (3)
Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit (3) Christmas 1968
Impossible Years (3)
Angel In My Pocket (2)
Stalking Moon (3)
Wrecking Crew (2)
African Safari (2)
Swiss Family Robinson (2)
GWTW (2)
Mayerling (1)
Doctor Zhivago (1)
Hard Contact (2)
The Longest Day (2)
True Grit (5)
“The Longest Day” which was a booking for the 25th Anniversary of D-Day was a special event for me in that it was the first time that I was allowed to attend a movie here alone. I rode the bus downtown, watched the afternoon show, and then had the treat of watching it again since my father met me after work and watched it with me. I also saw “True Grit” here. My mother and I met my father downtown and since we arrived early, we sat on the steps to the balcony, which was closed on that Friday night. This was the first time that I noticed a problem with the Fox as a movie theatre. The lobby crowd, when there was one could hear the movie almost as well as those inside, and the noise from the lobby would carry into the auditorium.
Rascal (3)
The Chairman (1)
Once Upon A Time In The West (3)
Italian Job (2)
Bullitt / Bonnie and Clyde (2)
Rain People (2)
Butch Cassidy (7) m/o from Loews Grand (I think)
Undefeated (4)
The Rievers (4)
101 Dalmatians (5)
The Only Game In Town (1)
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (3)
In Search of the Castaways (3)
Kremlin Letter (1)
Ballard of Cable Hogue (1)
Lawyer (1)
Ben-Hur (1)
Butch Cassidy (2)
How The West Was Won (3)
Charlie Brown (4)
Boatniks (3)
Kelly’s Heroes (5)
Jungle Book / Love Bug (2)
Hotel (1)
Giant (2)
Son of Flubber (1)
Monte Walsh (4)
Dirty Dingus McGee (3)
Aristocats (4) Christmas 1970
Wuthering Heights (4)
Wild Country (4)
My Fair Lady (1)
Barefoot Executive (3)
Vanishing Point (3)
Harper (1)
Racing Scene (1)
Escape From The Planet of the Apes (3)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (2)
LeMans (4)
Million Dollar Duck (2)
Tom Sawyer (1) (not the musical)
Pinocchio (2)
Sand Pebbles (1)
Young Love Is A Melody (1)
Joy In The Morning (1)
Believe In Me (2)
The Late Liz (2)
Jesse James (2)
Macbeth *
“Macbeth” ran for one night only, November 4, 1971, and someone did an excellent job promoting it. It was probably a rental, and was an old version with Maurice Evans and Dame Judith Anderson. For weeks before, the schools had been deluged with promotional materials and group discount ticket sales. I was an attendee, and the place was packed, although with so many teenagers present there was not much movie watching going on as it turned into one big party. As you might expect, the Varsity was packed before the show and the Krispy Kreame likewise afterwards.
Stars In My Crown (1)
Something Big (4)
Vanishing Point (1)
Lady And The Tramp (3) Christmas 1971
Peter Rabbit And Beatrix Potter (1)
Song of the South (5)
The Cowboys (8)
Even a brief glance at this long list makes it obvious what the booking pattern was. Lots of Walt Disney, John Wayne, and adult appeal movies that could still be viewed by the whole family. Very few “R"s. Also, very short runs. Georgia Theatre Company owned the Fox, but it was operated under a management contract by ABC Southeastern Entertainment, which also operated the downtown Roxy, the Phipps Plaza, and the Alabama and Ritz in downtown Birmingham. Although the Phipps had some long runs, the policy for these huge downtown theatres was family or acceptable adult movies turned over every two or three weeks. Given their large capacities, anyone who would be willing to go downtown for the movie could be accommodated at any time and after a couple of weeks, the feature would move to the intermediate houses in the suburbs where the rest of its audience awaited it. The longest run for any of these movies was "The Cowboys”. I do not know which one did the most business overall, but the one day record had to have been held by “Song of the South”. This was its last re-release before being banned, and although I had never heard of it, plenty of people had. On its opening weekend Atlanta was hit with a constant, heavy rain. This is a boon to theatre owners but a curse on the employees who actually ran the theatres as everybody always looks for something to do to get away from the house and such close proximity to the rest of the family. On the opening Saturday, every one of the 4600 Fox seats was full for the afternoon shows, and the two night shows did well also.
This pattern continued until the summer of 1973 when things started to change. The features that summer will tell the story. After a very successful run of “Worlds Greatest Athlete”, the features were:
Coffy (5)
Song of the South / Arisocats (2)
Friends of Eddie Coyle (2)
Slaughter’s Big Ripoff (3)
Cahill: U.S. Marshall (2)
That Same Summer (1)
“That Same Summer” was nothing but a filler booking of the previous years Broadview Plaza hit “Red Sky At Morning” re-released under a different title. As you can see there was a changing of the guard here as the next three bookings were:
Detroit 9000 (4)
Super Fly / 5 Fingers of Death (1)
7 Blows of the Dragon (3)
At this time I was working as a doorman across the street at the Atlanta Theatre, and many of the employees of the Fox, Atlanta, Baronet, and Coronet, at least knew each other, and would sometimes meet for a midnight breakfast at the Huddle House next to the Atlanta. Afterwards, we would go to the makeshift firing range someone had set up in the old coal bunkers of the Fox basement and blast away. Many nights I would go home with my ears ringing and covered with a fine layer of coal dust shaken loose after all of those years by the concussions.
Another event during this summer of 1973 was the first and perhaps only time the Fox hosted the Atlanta Film Festival. This was a short lived effort during the 70’s that is notable here only because there was quite a bit of attention paid to it since it had been announced that “The Last Tango In Paris” would open the festival. Not a big deal you would think except for one small detail. This is hard to believe now, but although the film had been in release around the country for weeks if not months, it had yet to play in Atlanta. This was because the Fulton County Solicitor General, Hinson McAuliffe, had made a name for himself, and attracted a lot of free publicity, by raiding theatres playing adult movies. He usually left the hardcore 16MM stuff alone but never hesitated to go after higher profile targets such as the Andy Warhol movie “Lonesome Cowboys”, “Oh Calcutta'‘, and later "Story of O’‘ and "Flesh Gordon”, and quite a number of managers and projectionists who were not exactly threats to the public were carted off to jail. McAuliffe had already vowed, in advance, to raid any theatre which dared expose the good people of Fulton County to such filth. A lot of us were waiting to see if the Fox Theatre, of all places, would get busted for daring to run Tango. As it worked out, the Fox declined to get involved and it was announced that Tango would open the festival at a different location. However, McAuliffe was hot on the trail, and the movie never played, or if it did, not to the public.
As for the picture in the link, it was taken on January 10, 1975. As everyone knows, the place had just closed. Mike Spirtos, one of the nicest managers I have ever had the pleasure of working with had invited everyone to hang around after the last show on the 2nd and enjoy their last visit. Mike moved up Peachtree to manage the Phipps Plaza, and the Fox sat empty. By this time I was managing the South DeKalb Theatre for Georgia Theatre Company which meant that every Monday morning would find me at the Fox to attend the managers meeting at the Georgia Theatre Company offices located in what is now the Grand Salon. Although rather cold sounding, that quote posted above from E.E. Whitaker, the GTC GM, was accurate. The Fox was no where close to breaking even. I was told that during the final years it was only the office rent that GTC paid to itself that kept the place open. For those of you who think E.E. was being too much the hard core businessman on this subject, you can take comfort in knowing that his office, where our meetings were held, is now Joe Patten’s living room.
I took this picture not as a reminder of the days when the Fox was closed, but because I expected the place to be torn down soon. There are a lot of people, some on this page that know the “Save The Fox” story a lot better than I do, so I will not get into that. I will just say that I was told that GTC just wanted a clean sale transaction and did not want to get involved with any non profit group who might start to buy the place but would then have trouble coming up with the money. That could have tied the sale up for years. The contract with Southern Bell specified that the property be delivered as a clean piece of dirt, or words to that effect. Southern Bell certainly did not want to take the PR hit for tearing the Fox down, something GTC was willing to absorb in order to close a quick sale. Again, all of this is just what I was told. I have no first hand knowledge. I do not believe that GTC wanted the Fox destroyed out of fear of competition, something that I have heard people say. If that had been the case, they would have been running it themselves all of those years.
Although not afraid of Fox competition, apparently GTC did not want anyone to get any ideas along those lines. Once more, the story I was told was that the booth equipment was removed as required by the contract. If this was true then someone left a giant loophole since nothing was said about running movies with other equipment. Maybe no one thought that it was economically feasible and left it at that. Regardless, as everyone knows, the Loews Grand just happened to catch fire about the time Georgia Pacific expressed interest in building their new tower on the site. Since only the entrance and not the auditorium was damaged, the booth equipment and screen made the journey from 157 to 660 Peachtree. Years later, the Fox also bought the projection equipment from the Atlanta Theatre when it closed for good.
When the Fox returned to the movie business I was there for the first one, Ben-Hur in 70MM, Monday, July 17,1978. 7:30 showtime, $2.50 ticket. My mother was with me to enjoy the floating focus and the beautiful stained screen. We ran into Tommy Young, the manager of the Stonemont there. He had worked at the Fox for several years as an usher and crew chief for ABC, and later at the Phipps as Assistant Manager. Tommy spent an hour standing in line at the popcorn cart waiting for some of that popcorn “popped using an old recipe found in the files in the Fox basement.” At this time the condition of the theatre was still pretty shabby and the old concession stand was still in its place in the center of the lobby. Some other memories from that year: 70MM presentations of Patton, That’s Entertainment, Close Encounters, and Around The World in 80 Days, in 35MM instead of the advertised 70MM and my only viewing ever of this film. The summer series was so successful that a fall series was run that year which allowed me to view 70MM showings of The Alamo, and Lawrence of Arabia.
The next year saw a great improvement in the quality of the presentation and a new screen to show 70MM viewings of My Fair Lady, Camelot, Paint Your Wagon, Oliver, and Sound of Music, topped off by a 35MM show of North By Northwest, my first ever viewing of this great film. 1980 had 70MM showings of 2001, Hello Dolly, and Doctor Zhivago, plus a 35MM West Side Story, which was quite a change from my previous viewing of it 9 years earlier at the Candler Road Mini Cinema complete with intermission inserted at the reel change right in the middle of the rumble.
I do not recall any 1981 Fox movies, but 1982 started off with Ben-Hur again. My date was unimpressed with the 70MM despite my efforts to explain it. She said that the picture was too good since it showed up the models of the ships and men used in the sea battle so well that you could tell that they were not real. Next was a repeat of That’s Entertainment also 70MM as were Raiders of the Lost Ark, My Fair Lady (again), Camelot (again), and Oliver (again). After that the number of old movies and 70MM started to decline although GWTW could always be counted on to bring in a full house. More recent movies started to appear and finally the ‘'family’‘ aspect was dropped. Can’t have a family film festival with movies like Saturday Night Fever, Sin City, and 300 on the schedule.
It was during this period that many rumors made the rounds that the Fox would get back into the regular movie business on a part time basis. This was probably just wishful thinking, but people who claimed to be ‘'in the know’‘ were saying that the Empire or Jedi chapters of Star Wars, or the second and third Raiders might open for a two week exclusive at the Fox in 70MM before going wide. Since the film series proved that people would come downtown to see a movie at the Fox, it was not too much of a stretch to imagine what the Fox or Peachtree Street would look like if something like this came to pass. It never did of course, probably because it is almost impossible to find two consecutive weeks where the Fox is not booked with something, and more likely the film companies do not care to alienate the big megaplex operators by draining off the Atlanta audience for a film before they even got it. Still it is easy to believe that this type of booking would be a success. For the past few years, the summer film series has ended with two or three of the hit movies from earlier in that very summer, usually the ones that opened in May. Despite having worked their way down the hall to the smallest theatre in the local megaplex, or even moved on to the dollar houses, these films still draw capacity crowds as evidenced by some of the comments above.
One movie in particular that sticks in my mind is Evita. Since it had been a Christmas release, and may even have been out on video by then, it was expected to be just another solid performer in the series. At about 7:55 PM, after the organ recital, the sing-along, the cartoon, even after the “Sunrise / Sunset”, and just as the previews were about to end, the phone rang with instructions to raise the house lights and stop the show between the last preview and the “Feature Presentation”, an almost unheard of event. The reason: The line to buy tickets was still extended around the corner and down Ponce de Leon. About five minutes later came word to roll the film since the “Sold Out” sign had been put up.
My fondest memories of movies at the Fox are centered around the summer of 1996. Since the Fox only ran a dozen or so movies a year, the projectionist was hired only on an as needed basis, although they were lucky enough to get a highly qualified man who is still running the booth to this day, 30 years later. Of course he had a regular job as well which was no problem until the Fox decided to put on an Olympic film festival. Since this would be more than one person working all out could handle, and since I was available, I ended up practically living at the Fox for a good part of that summer. My main memory of that summer involved the week before and the week following the Olympics. Pre Olympic week called for 22 different movies in 7 days, usually one at 2PM and another at 8. On some days we ran all day events such at the Spielberg festival with Jaws, Raiders, and Close Encounters. On the final Saturday we ran Toy Story at 10AM, followed by a James Bond double feature and topped off with a 70MM showing of 2001 at night. That was also the week that the print of King Kong arrived the day before its showing, but it was the Jessica Lange version instead of the advertised Fay Wray version. The proper version was located and made it to the theatre three hours before showtime.
After the Olympics were over, the schedule called for 24 movies in 8 days. Since some of these movies, like Sound of Music, Zhivago, Ben-Hur, and GWTW were equal to two movies, my main memories of both of those weeks center around standing for hours at the make up table inspecting and building up print after print. There was hardly room in the booth for all of the film and cans. We also played Lawrence in 70MM. I never saw much of the shows since whenever a movie was playing I was breaking down the last one and loading the next one. The Fox had installed a platter by this time which was too bad since it would have been much easier to run everything reel to reel to say nothing of the pleasure of doing it the old way. Unfortunately, the one thing that we did do the old way was show the slides for the sing-along using the last bit of 1929 equipment in the booth, a Brenograph, double carbon arc lamphouse, alternating slide projector. Running this thing where you had to manually drop and remove the heavy glass slides into the carriage and crank the handle to alternate the slides, all the while listening to the organ so you would know when to change, was by far the most stressful part of the show. If you ever dropped one or got out of sync, you were finished, as was the sing-along.
It was a great summer. I think I put in about 120 hours per week for those two weeks and enjoyed 99% of them. The Fox was much more fun to work in when you ran grind instead of once a week since you did not have to set up and then secure the projector area each night. I remember working several shows in 1997, and a couple in 1998. The last movie I remember running there was L.A. Confidential. At the time it was hard and sometimes hectic work, but looking back on it ,it was for the most part very enjoyable, as was running the booth for the Opera all of those years.
With the opera gone, and the digital projector in place, I can safely place my Fox days in the past history file, but I will always have fond memories of working there to say nothing of the ten cent coffee machine.
The Walt Disney movie “Herbie Rides Again” opens with a series of implosions of old buildings during the titles. One of those is the Henry Grady / Roxy.
The Roxy auditorium shared a wall with the old Capitol which, as mentioned above was later taken over by the Davison’s department store. Since that was the extent of the demolition, about a third of the auditorium was not part of the implosion, but was removed by machine over the course of the next couple of months. inside this shell, some drapes, seats, and part of the balcony were visible, especially to those of us who rode the bus by the site.
I remember seeing “Viva Max”, “The Parent Trap” (reissue), and a Richard Brooks double feature of “The Professionals” and “In Cold Blood” here. In addition to “Willard”, I seem to recall that the first run engagement of “Bullitt” was here, and in the spring of 1970, the first run of “Z”. During its final weeks it played such epics as “The Thing With Two Heads”, with Rosey Grier and Ray Milland (as in Academy Award Winner: Ray Milland), “Big Bird Cage”, and “Caged Heat”. On opening day of “Caged Heat” they had some models in very skimpy prison outfits handing out flyers on the sidewalk in front of the box-office. Showmanship at its best, right up til the end.
For some reason, I have never noticed this page before, and only happened upon it while writing a comment for the 10th Street trying to sort out the identities of the four different theatres that were located along this four block section of Peachtree. I have little to add to the Peachtree Art part of this theatre’s history as I never attended a movie here during that time. One show that I did want to see was “Oh What A Lovely War”, but in those days I was not about to come down to this part of town, especially at night.
Starting in 1967, the section of Peachtree Street between 8th and 14th became the center of what would become known as the hippie, peacenik, Woodstock, (fill in your own favorite adjective here) scene. This lasted for about three or four years, and at night the area was gridlocked as thousands of people converged on the area surrounded by Peachtree, Piedmont, 8th and 14th to either participate or sightsee. By 1970, the fad was starting to fade away and the strip turned into a crime and drug infested dump, for lack of a better word. I observed this first hand as during those days I was riding the old Atlanta Transit Company busses through here twice a day while going to Georgia State.
It was during this time that the Peachtree Art closed, leaving the 10th Street Art and the Metro Art, both soft core porno houses as the only theatres in the area. The closest mainstream theatre was the Fox, about eight blocks south. In 1970, efforts were started to revitalize the area around Peachtree and 14th with the construction of the Colony Square office block. As part of this effort, Weis theatres reopened the Peachtree Art on July 30th under the name Weis Cinema with the Southeastern Premiere of “Catch 22”. In an effort to make suburbanites more comfortable coming to this area, free parking was offered in the Colony Square decks for the night time shows.
“Catch 22” must have done well because it played 19 weeks, leaving on Christmas Eve to make way for “Little Fauss and Big Halsey”, starring that well known comedy team of Robert Redford and Michael J. Pollard. With its 10 week run, “Halsey” was the last hit to play here for quite a while. These were the days of exclusive runs which required considerable up front money paid, in advance, to the film companies. Since blind bidding was legal in those days, it was even more of a gamble to put up a big guarantee for anything other than a sure fire hit, and there were not enough of those to go around. Weis also had the Fine Art, Broadview Plaza, and its flagship, the Capri (Garden Hills, Screening Room, and Buckhead Roxy on this site) to book, and since those locations were located further to the north in seemingly safer Buckhead with a better parking situation, it was less of a gamble to book the more expensive efforts there.
Following “Halsey” was a series of low profile first runs, reruns, fillers and reissues. Here is a list with the number of weeks in the run in ( ):
Little Murders (5)
Mephisto Waltz (3)
Percy (1)
Making It (1)
Left Handed Gun (2)
Joy In The Morning (2)
Grissom Gang (3)
Fortune In Mens Eyes (3)
Velvet Vampire (2)
Panic In Needle Park (4)
Beast of the Yellow Night (1)
Death In Venice (2)
The Touch (4)
Bless the Beasts and Children (6)
Cisco Pike (3) (Christmas attraction)
Goodbye Columbus (3)
“Goodbye Columbus” a filler after “Cisco Pike” bombed, was the first movie I saw here. As described above by Mike, I found the place to be dark, cavernous, and a little creepy since I was the only one in attendance for the weekday 5 PM show. The sound was pretty hollow and the auditorium did not seem big enough to hold the 800 seats I see listed for it here. Maybe there was a balcony that I did not notice. The lobby had been somewhat done over in the Weis style which has been described on other pages of this site as “mod”, “hip”, and groovy". Since everyone is entitled to their own opinion I will just say that I found it downright ugly, distracting, and unfortunate in that it ruined the old time appeal of older sites such as the Fine Art and Capri. The most obnoxious example here was the round frame built around the marquee overhanging the sidewalk which was covered with copper colored metal sheeting with a conflicting rectangular box cut in it to expose the sign itself. This type of stuff was fine for the newer Peachtree Battle (Silver Screen on this site) and the Broadview, but it certainly clashed with the traditional architecture of older sites like this one.
Following “Columbus”, were one week bookings of “Casino Royale” (the Woody Allen version) and “Ryan’s Daughter”. Next, on 2/16/72 came “Cabaret”, probably the most successful of the Weis efforts here. It probably played here by default since on the very same day the Broadview opened an 8 month reserved seat run of “Nicholas and Alexandra”, and the Fine Art opened its own four month run of “The Last Picture Show”, while the Capri had to be kept available for its upcoming run of “The Godfather”, opening in mid March. These three movies opening in the same week followed by “The Godfather” three weeks later certainly marked the high point of the Weis days in Atlanta during the 70’s.
“Cabaret” ran for five months but it probably did not perform up to expectations as Weis went to extremes to draw crowds. During this time the Weis Cinema consistently had the largest space in the Weis newspaper ad block. Nearing summer, the ad included a letter to Atlanta that was printed as part of the “Cabaret” ad. In it Albert Weis stated that he thought “Cabaret” was the outstanding picture of the year and encouraged Atlantans to come see it as he was confident that it would win more Oscars than any other film. He also stated that its was “no goody goody Julie Andrews type musical” which enraged a Julie Andrews fan from Brunswick to the point that he wrote a letter to the Weis company complaining about this disparagement and suggesting that Albert go see the striptease scene in “Star”. (To bad that “SOB” had not been made at that time.) Weis wrote the man a letter of apology and from that day on, there was a blank space in the middle of the ad where the offending sentence had been blacked out. The letter also offered a money back guarantee, later increased to “double your money back” if the patron did not think that “Cabaret” was indeed the movie of the year. I do not know how many, if any refunds were given, double or otherwise, but Albert was proved correct when “Cabaret” did indeed win more Oscars than any other film, although it was long gone from here by the time the Academy Awards rolled around the next spring.
After “Cabaret” it was back to the grind with:
Easy Rider (1)
Salzburg Connection (6)
Little Mother (2)
Play It Again Sam (1)
Twilight People (1)
Hello Dolly (1)
Bad Company (1)
Devil’s Widow (2)
Come Back Charleston Blue (2) (m/o from Coronet)
Hammersmith Is Out (4)
Black Girl (6) (Christmas attraction)
Heartbreak Kid (11)
Caesar and Rosalie (2)
Woodstock (3)
As you can see, the only one of these to have any success at all was “Heartbreak Kid”. The attraction for summer 1973 was “Day of the Jackal”, another big budget / big guarantee movie. I saw the movie here with a pretty good crowd, but I do not know how it did overall. Albert Weis tried to repeat his “Cabaret” act by using the newspaper ad to remind Atlanta how he had been right about “picking a winner”, and reviving his Academy Award prediction, this time with “Jackal” as the winner presumptive. Although I considered it a good movie, and still do, I thought that this was a bit of a reach. Later, I came across a Macon paper and noticed the same letter in the Weis ad, this time slightly adjusted to promote the current feature of the Riverside Twin, “Paper Moon” as the next big winner. I do not know what his prediction for Savannah was but it was probably whatever he had the most money up for.
During this time, the industry phrase “Go Black” was the motto for most of the downtown theatres as the white audience had mostly fled to the burbs. The Coronet was the first and most successful with these bookings followed by Loew’s Grand, The Atlanta, Martin’s Rialto, and occasionally even the Fox. The Weis Cinema was in something of a no mans land, customer wise, being too close to downtown to attract the white audience, especially at night, and too far north to be considered downtown. As indicated above, the Christmas 1972 feature was “Black Girl” starring Leslie Uggams which was not a bad movie but a dud at the box office. For Christmas of 1973, Weis Cinema presented Billy Dee Williams, and in a small role, Richard Pryor, in “Hit”. This one did better, but again, not a success. In 1975 the Christmas feature was “Uptown Saturday Night” but by then had Weis put most of its effort in this area into The Atlanta after they took over the lease from Walter Reade in the fall of 1973.
For Christmas of 1974, the Weis Cinema was booked with the X rated “Story of O”, not much of a Christmas movie for sure, but one that was sure to do big business if they could get away with it. By this time I was managing theatres and was not paying much attention to anything but my own problems, but I remember that this movie was either raided or threatened with a raid, and as a result the Christmas booking fell through. The Weis ended up playing the same feature as the Capri, “The Man Who Would Be King”. Another odd story was the booking of “The Savage Is Loose”. This movie is notable only for the way its star and owner, George C. Scott marketed it. Instead of renting it for a cut of the box as was the norm, he offered to sell the prints to theatre companies who would then keep all of the box office receipts. Weis bought several prints and two of them played at the Capri and Weis Cinema. Later those prints made the rounds of most of the Weis theatres in town whenever there was a gap in the schedule, and for years seemed to be the permanent co-feature at many of the Weis drive-ins.
Given the right movie, any theatre will do big business regardless of where it is located. This was proven true here in May 1975. The feature of the moment was “The Great Waldo Pepper” not exactly a hit, but more importantly a Universal release. This meant that when Universal ran their sneak preview of “Jaws”, a common practice in those days, they placed it at the Weis so that it would play with their own current release. The name of the movie was not advertised, but the jaws artwork was included in the ad so everyone knew what the feature was. As a result, for one night at least, the Weis Cinema had the hottest ticket in town. By 1975, the Weis chain was in big trouble from poor bookings and overexpansion. In 1972 they had bought out the Peachtree Battle Mini Cinema, in 1973 the Atlanta, followed by the rest of the mini cinema chain in 1974. The last big effort to return to the glory days was during Christmas 1976 when they put up big money for “7% Solution” at the Capri, and “King Kong” at almost every other theatre. The next year they tried again with “Ode To Billy Joe”, and you don’t need me to tell you how that worked out.
Since I was busy with my own theatre I do not recall when this location closed, but by 1978 or 79, Weis was gone from Atlanta, only six years or so removed from their years of being home to most of the big, high profile movies that came out. There may have been some efforts to reopen this location but I am not aware of any. In the late 80’s or perhaps early 90’s the entire block was demolished and the Peachtree Art went to the landfill to join so many other once proud Atlanta theatres.
This location operated under many different names and formats during the 60’s and early 70’s. Prior to its Gay Paree days it was known as the Walton Street Art and was operated, I recall, by George Ellis. George left the location in 1971 to take over the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema which he renamed the Film Forum.
With its slightly more suburban, shopping center location, the Film Forum became the best known and most successful of all art and indie film venues of its time.
The Walton, located downtown, became the Gay Paree. It must have been successful to some extent because for years it had the largest ad in the XXX section of the Atlanta paper.
Those of you who were alive in those days may recall the nature of the XXX movie theatre business in those pre video years. In Atlanta, there were several hard and soft-core locations located in the central downtown area which I walked through every day on my way to class at Georgia State. The soft-core locations, such as the 10th Street Art, Metro Art, and Buckhead Art, seemed to run 35MM and the booths were Union operated. The hardcore locations, such as the Ashby Street Art, were 16MM and non Union. This was before my days working in theatres, but I have been told that one of these, the Houston Street Art, was a twin where one side was soft-core 35MM and the other was hardcore 16MM. Also notice how all of these locations used the word “Art” in their name, a matter of no small discomfort to the Peachtree Art Theatre located at 13th Street, which was Atlanta’s one true “Art” theatre at that time. It was during this time that the Peachtree Art closed down and was reopened by the Weis chain as the Weis Cinema, showing standard first run product.
I did not intend for this to become a history of the XXX theatres of Atlanta, but only mention it to set the stage for the most well known incident involving the Gay Paree Theatre which occurred in the summer of 1973 when it made a short lived departure from its “gay” theme. The most notorious example of the XXX type of product was “Deep Throat”. By this time I had been working in theatres for a couple of years and had heard stories of private, borrowed, or bootleg versions of this film being shown privately in mainstream theatres around town after hours. However, it had never had a public engagement in Atlanta because it was almost sure to be raided. The Fulton County Solicitor of the day, Hinson McAuliffe, rarely bothered the low profile hardcore locations downtown, but never missed a chance for the free publicity to be garnered by a raid on a suburban location playing a movie like “Oh Calcutta”. (If you are interested, I have described an example of this in my post on the North Springs Theatre: /theaters/11778/)) Hard to believe now, but the United Artists release of “Last Tango In Paris” did not open in Atlanta for months after its national release date due to McAuliffe’s vow, in advance, to raid any theatre that dared play it.
This was the situation in Atlanta in July 1973 when the morning paper had a large ad for the “ALL NEW” Gay Paree announcing that it was proud to present “Deep Throat” with showings from 9:30 AM until 1:30 AM. It looked like the late hours would not be necessary since the theatre was raided at noon and the owner / manager, the projectionist, and the cashier were hauled off to jail. The owners were obviously ready for this as the owners wife brought out another print and was back onscreen by mid afternoon. For the next couple of days, the Gay Paree did the volume of business that the mainstream theatres in town only saw in their dreams, with lines around the block. The theatre was raided again and without a third print on hand, it was back to the regular fare for the Gay Paree.
At a court hearing later in the week, a large crowd of mostly county courthouse employees showed up for the hearing since it had been rumored that the movie would be screened for the judge. The sheriff tried to close the courtroom to the public, but since that was apparently illegal, the public was admitted and the judge cancelled the plans to show the film, if such plans ever existed. I never heard what happened to the case and since the main point, being the publicity, had been achieved, the whole issue disappeared from view. Until this theatre was posted, I was not aware that it was still in operation in 1977. The next time I am downtown I will look to see if the building is still there, but I doubt it.
Barbara: Thank you for that very interesting post. I do not recognize your fathers name, but he must have been the other half of the…“two lawyers who owned the theatre”. I do remember Cone Maddox very well as he was a frequent visitor to the theatre, especially when we had family films when he would bring his children. I also remember a man named Jeff (or Geoff) Tyre who I believe was English.
Perhaps you could clear up something for me. I was under the impression that your father and Cone owned the franchise to the Sandy Springs location and not the Mini Cinema chain as a whole, and that this is why went independent during the days that Storey was contracted to book and manage the chain. Do you know the story behind this?
Also, was the Peachtree Battle the first theatre in the chain? I always thought so but know someone who insists that it was the Ansley Mall which was first. I know that the Sandy Springs opened third, followed by Doraville and Candler Road. Was your father still involved when the last two were built?
I would love to hear anything you know regarding these or other aspects of the Mini Cinema operation. Oddly enough, I did not do much actual theatre work at the Sandy Springs since it required such a small staff. Usually just fill in for sick or vacationing employees or extra help during busy times. For most of those early years I worked at the North Springs, Cherokee, and Atlanta. However, I did do a lot of behind the scenes work there such as film and concession supply deliveries, marquee changes, trips to National Screen, and even spent the night there twice helping to pump out the auditorium when the Laundromat next door would cause a flood.
If you are interested, I believe all of the other Mini Cinemas have pages on this site:
As for the movie going experience, Peachtree Battle, Sandy Springs, Doraville, and Macon were good places to see a movie. Ansley and Candler somewhat less so. Still they were better than most of the auditoriums that you will find in the megaplex of today. If your dad is still alive tell him “Thank You” for me as I have very fond memories of the theatres and the people that I met while working in them.
Biggest projection booth I ever worked in. Wide and at least 300 feet long for screens 2 through 7 with smaller stubs at each end for houses 1 and 8. All Cinemacannica V8’s, 35MM with screens 3 through 6 equipped with push button Dolby. After it became obvious that this location was built well past the prime years for this area, the Dolby units in 3 and 6 were removed and installed in the Sandy Springs / Parkside 8.
As with most GCC builds of the 80’s, this place was not built until the area was saturated with competition. I think that it opened in 1988 and closed in 1999. Just as with the Parkside, it was reopened as a dollar house by the EFW outfit but closed again after about 18 months. There has been at least one other effort but it failed as well.
Since GCC walked out on the lease during bankruptcy, the had to leave the site intact. This made it easy for a small company to come in a rent a turnkey operation without having to go to the expense of equipping a theatre. As far as I know this is still the situation although I would hate to be the one who had to clean it up to say nothing of what the booth might be like.
This is a better quality building than the recently demolished Stonemont, and the shopping center is newer and in much better shape. So, perhaps the Hairston might dodge the wrecking ball for the foreseeable future, but I doubt that it will ever be more than a marginal location for an independent operator trying to take advantage of the low overhead to squeeze out a few bucks.
I spoke to someone who works this area and he confirms that the theatre and the east wing of the shopping center has been torn down. It seems that these stores and especially the theatre had become a haven for the homeless who were constantly breaking in, which probably accounts for the appearance of the place that I noted in my last post. Not only was the theatre completely trashed on the inside, but it also had an overwhelming mold problem. I wonder if this is a problem common to old closed up locations as someone made a similar observation on the Town and Country page of this site. At any rate, the place was a public nuisance and had to go.
In total this theatre lasted 30 years, about 25 of those in use, about average for the more successful examples of theatres built during its era. This gives it about the same longevity as the Perimeter Mall, but a good bit longer than either of the Northlakes, the North DeKalb, South DeKalb, Akers Mill, Suburban Plaza, Village, and any of its later neighbors along Memorial Drive. It even lasted a little longer, counting its Bollywood days, than the great Phipps Plaza Theatre.
As I said in my post on the Town and Country, this was just an example, among the nicest in fact, of the stopgap between the movie palaces of old and the megaplex of today. For someone new to this business looking back on this era, it does not seem like a big deal. However, it was to those of us who grew up and worked during this time, and I am grateful that I got to experience this example of the movie theatre business before it turned into the fast food / amusement park atmosphere of today.
As for the time capsule, I do not know what happened to it but I hope whoever got it is an honest person. Among the many news items and theatre memorabilia items inside were hundreds of polaroids of the children who attended the opening showing of “Peter Pan” that I described in the original post that started this page. The idea was that years later, when the capsule was opened they would be sent the picture to remind them of what they were doing on June 27, 1976. And just how, you ask, were all of these children, many with different last names, going to be located? Easy. Their mothers supplied the children’s Social Security numbers which were written on the back of the picture. I wonder how many of these now grown ups have had their identities stolen because of this well intentioned effort made in a more innocent time.
Built as a free standing building in the Northlake Festival Shopping Center. I never worked at this place, or even went inside, but I believe that it was built in 1983 and opened with “Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom.” At this time the Northlake Mall area was served by the GCC Northlake 2 Triple, and the Georgia Theatre Company Village Twin ( /theaters/13468/ ) although the latter may have been closed by this time. The other nearby theatres were the Greens Corner to the north, the North 85 Drive In to the west, and the North Dekalb and Suburban Plaza to the south.
Until the Northlake and its AMC partner Galleria 8 were built I don’t remember any Atlanta theatres with more than 6 screens, so this was what passed for a megaplex in those days. Northlake was an instant hit and for the rest of the 80’s it competed with the Galleria for the title of #1 grossing theatre in Atlanta. The Northlake 2, which had been a very successful location for GCC was all but wiped off the map by the AMC 8, and staggered on until its close in 1990. Oddly enough, the AMC 8 did not last much longer, closing in the mid to late 90’s. Not having any connection to it, I have no knowledge of what brought about its end, but it could be that an 8 screen location was not worth the trouble to a big outfit like AMC by the time that 18-24 screens were the norm. By this time AMC had converted their recently rebuilt North DeKalb 8 into 16 screens and Regal had announced plans to demolish the North 85 Drive In and build what would become the Hollywood 24, so maybe that was what did it. Still, it is odd that the very busy and well to do area of Northlake Mall does not have a movie theatre in its immediate vicinity.
One odd thing about this place: A friend of mine who worked there said that there was a core of high school aged employees who started working there when the place opened that remained throughout their college years, and in some cases continued on after college on a part time basis. Just reliving the good old days I suppose. That’s a nice memory in these days when 24 screen theatres churn through employees like they were confetti and the employees seldom get a chance to experience what working in an actual movie theater was like. Maybe some of those old timers will see this site and write us some first hand accounts.
While it may have been rather plain on the inside, from outside it was the most impressive looking of all Atlanta Drive Ins. The screen backed up to Piedmont Road and could be seen from a good ways down LaVista Road. It was decorated with neon script “Piedmont Drive In” signage. To get to the box office you drove down the entrance drive through the towering pine trees that dominated the lot. As was the custom in those days the box office had a large warmer so that boxes of popcorn could be sold along with the tickets. The exit was located in the rear of the lot and opened onto Lindberg Drive.
I only had the pleasure of attending a show at the Piedmont one time, this being in 1966 when I was in Atlanta visiting family. The feature was the pleasant but unremarkable “Born Free.” As usual, the co-feature was an older offering from the same film company, in this case Columbia. Although the purpose of the trip was to see ‘'Born Free" it was the co-feature that made the night memorable. It was the first, and only time in a theatre, that I saw ’‘Bye Bye Birdie’‘ although I have watched and enjoyed it many times since. If I watch it enough I may discover why Ann-Margaret calls the title character by the proper name of Birdie in the movie itself, while in the opening and closing songs she sings his name BurHEE. The fact that I attended this showing with my cousins, one of whom is named Anne, and the other Margaret, only made the show more memorable.
Sadly, by the time I moved to Atlanta in 1967, the Piedmont had recently closed. It was torn down and in its place was a K-Mart style discount store by the name of Arlands, or maybe just Arlans. The arrival of this chain was a major blow to the historical past of Atlanta. In addition to the destruction of the Piedmont, another fine drive in, the Stewart Avenue, was also destroyed to make way for another Arlands location. Even worse, they also destroyed the old Ponce de Leon Park baseball stadium where the Atlanta Crackers had played minor league baseball for years until the arrival of the major league Braves in 1966.
As it turned out, these fine Atlanta landmarks had the last laugh as the Arlands chain went out of business within a couple of years. The Ponce de Leon store was taken over by the government as office space and later torn down to make way for yet another strip shopping center. The old Piedmont Drive In location became the site of a major weekend flea market which drew bigger crowds than the drive in or discount store ever saw. That store was torn down and the MARTA Lindberg station built on its site. The front part of the property along Piedmont where the box office and screen were sited became a parking lot and later a huge Bell South office complex.
Across the street at Broadview Plaza, later renamed Lindberg Plaza, two indoor theatres were built in the early 70’s and are listed on this site as the Screening Room. They are also gone as that shopping center was torn down in about 2004 to make way for yet another and still larger shopping center. The way some things change never changes.
The East Point Theatre was probably closed about 1970. The last manager, Mr. R.M. Swanson went directly to open the new South DeKalb Twin. The assistant manager, Mrs V.M. King became the assistant at the Greenbriar. The equipment was removed and found a new home at the Cinema 285 (Hammond Square Cinema on this site) when it opened in June 1971. At this time the theatre was under the management of Gerogia Theatre Company.
The strip of buildings was demolished in late 1989 at about the time the Tri Cities High School was being completed.
I have three distinct memories of the Ritz while growing up in Birmingham.
1962: How The West Was Won. My parents told me before the show that I was going to see a movie so big that it took 3 screens to show the entire picture. I guess that is how they had to describe it so a 10 year old would understand. I do not remember much about the movie itself because I was constantly looking at the right and left screens to see what was going on away from the “action.” In 1998 I made the trek to Dayton, Ohio to see HTWWW at the Neon Cinerama. It was not until then that I was able to appreciate the incredible focus and 7 track sound.
1965: Doctor Zhivago. The Ritz hosted many roadshow movies while the other ABC operated theatre, The Alabama, played the more standard fare. My mother took me to see this one because she thought it would appeal to my interest in History. (My father, having seen it with her earlier said “…once is enough.”) She was right, as usual, and from the first viewing Doctor Zhivago has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I do not know how many times I have seen it over the years, but my viewings have been in every type of venue from mono shoebox theatre to 70MM presentations at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. I have also had the pleasure of working at several theatres where it has played, managed one, (South DeKalb) and run it as the projectionist twice, both times at the Fox. I now have the new 2 disc DVD, and never tire of seeing it.
1965: Sound of Music. The Cobb operated Eastwood Mall Theatre was the main competition for the Ritz and Alabama although its 1960’s draped auditorium and living room style lobby were no match for these other two fine places in atmosphere. SOM played its reserved seat engagement at Eastwood, but the day after Zhivago left the Ritz, SOM was brought in as a filler until whatever Christmas show they had booked that year opened. Since I had already seen it at Eastwood, it was not the movie itself but the condition of the print that made this a notable experience. In those days, prints were not produced in anywhere near the numbers of today. More like 300 than 3000. By the time they got to an engagement such as this, there was no telling how many poorly maintained booths and film butchers they had encountered. The Ritz did not get the film in time, or did not bother, to inspect it. It was full of scratches, sound pops, and at least half a dozen breaks, one of which lasted for at least 15 minutes. This made the show end almost an hour late. The result was a massive traffic jam on Second Avenue on the Friday before Christmas as my mother and dozens of other parents there to pick up their children, had to wait in their cars for us to leave the theatre. (Remember, this was in the day when most of the department stores, and by extension Christmas shopping, were still downtown.)
I am sure that I visited the Ritz on other occasions but do not remember any in particular. I also remember going to the Alabama, Empire, Melba, Homewood, and even the Shades Mountain Drive In, but in those days I was more interested in the movie than the venue.
I think that the original post by Don might refer to the old Miracle or perhaps some theatre of that time that might have used the name Town and Country. This location was a 1970 era build. It was of the second generation of Eastern Federal Theatres built here, and like the Cobb Cinema and Ben Hill, was cheap to build and operate. The junction of the T&C shopping center had something of a small town square feel and the box office opened out onto it.
Inside it very much resembled the old Sandy Springs Mini Cinema. Small paneled lobby, shallow, wide shaped auditorium with a good sized screen, but NO concession stand. The far wall of the lobby had vending machines for drinks, candy and popcorn. During these years it was not unusual for theatres to have vending machines, but this was the first one I saw with machines only. On busy nights an employee would be stationed nearby to issue change and assist with mechanical problems. In the spring of 1972, the machines were removed and a very small concession stand built in their place.
The booth was manager operated and equipped with a Cinemeccanica V-18 projector and 12,000 foot reels which were mounted behind the projector. Since these reels had a capacity of about 2 hours and 20 minutes, anything longer had to have an intermission. Tora, Tora, Tora in May of 1972, Nicholas and Alexandra in September of 1972, and Sound of Music in its 1973 reissue were the ones that I remember being split. Sleuth, in the spring of 1973 was the longest movie I saw run on one reel.
In those pre VCR days, it was common for theatres to bring back old hits to fill in gaps in their booking schedules. Whenever one of my favorites would reappear in this manner I would try to go see it since you never could be sure when or if you would get the chance again. A July 1971 booking of the double feature Bullitt (or as it was listed on the marquee: Bullet) and Bonnie and Clyde first brought the T&C to my attention. Later that year I started working for EFC and saw many movies here. Being located in Cobb County, T&C (as well as the Miracle, Cobb Cinema, Cobb Center, and Belmont) could play the big first run movies day and date with the first run houses in Atlanta. Since I could now get in free, I made the trip to see Dirty Harry, Cowboys, Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc, Butterflies Are Free, Sleuth, and Jeremiah Johnson, among others. The screen here was a very nice size in relation to the size of the auditorium and I recall Cowboys and Jeremiah Johnson looking especially fine with their cinemascope aspect ratio.
In 1973 I fell from grace with Ira and the EFC crowd, so I do not know much about the history of this place following those years. This was a time of big business for this place and during my EFC days it was fortunate enough to be well managed by Cliff Bryson. I heard later that he moved to NC to manage theatres for EFC there. I understand that when tripled, the original auditorium was left intact, but I never saw it. I heard that during the construction for the twin addition, a storm blew down the concrete block wall and they had to start over. The only other thing I remember about this place took place in 1991. In the newspaper ad for T2, the theatre listings at the bottom had a big “Presented in 70MM” collar around the logo for the Marietta Star Cinema. I had never heard of this theatre, but when I looked up the address, I found it to be the old T&C, now run by George Lefont.
The T&C, like countless other places like it, was a product of the particular conditions of movie booking and exhibition that existed from 1965 until about 1980. Looking back from 30 years in the future I can see that they were just cheap, and it turns out, temporary stopgaps between the movie palaces of old and the megaplexes of today. But, to those of us who worked in them, they were a big deal then, and am glad that I had the chance to experience that era of the movie business.
For those of you interested in old pictures of Atlanta, this site has dozens, and links to dozens more, pictures of transit vehicles from the early 1900’s. As for its relevance to this page, this link,
shows a trolley at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Rumson Road. If that information is correct, then the shopping center in the background is the Garden Hills. Since the location of the theatre would be behind the trolley I can not be sure, but it looks right.
I first visited this theatre in 1999 while on a visit to Winterset to see the Madison County covered bridges and the John Wayne Museum and birthplace. It is located on the east side of the town square. At the time they were playing two separate shows, a family movie at 7PM and an adult (as in Adam Sandler type adult, not XXX) feature at 9PM. Winterset is only 35 miles from Des Moines so the turnover in features here is pretty quick in order to keep the local customers from traveling to Des Moines if what they want to see is not currently playing at the local theatre.
The manager / owner was working the box office, but he was nice enough to let me in to look the place over and talk about the difficulties in running a one screen small town theatre in close proximity to a large city. Print availability on national release date and preview availability were two issues he mentioned. These seem to be problems common to most theatres is this type of setting.
The theatre itself is old and occupies a narrow storefront on the square. Like most cold weather businesses it has a double lobby. Once you enter the street doors you come to the box office. From there you go through another set of doors into the main lobby, which in this case is taken up mostly by the snack bar. The interior of the auditorium is 1950’s art deco style with two off center aisles. The outside frontage had been covered with wood siding, but the owner said that removing it and restoring the exterior to its original state was his next priority. From the look of the two pictures posted on this site it seems that he has not gotten around to it yet.
In 2005 I noticed on another theatre website that this location was listed as closed. I called the Chamber of Commerce and the lady there said that it was open and had not closed at any time during the past 6 years.
Opened in the summer of 1985, six months after the Shannon. This was good timing for the operator since Georgia Theatre Company had emptied out the used projector warehouse when equipping the Shannon. The Southlake had all new booth equipment. 7 Century 35MM and one Century 35/70MM. The only time I am aware that the 70 was used was for “Black Cauldron.”
There was also a very odd piece of equipment known as the Christie Endless Loop Platter. This ridiculous gadget was proclaimed to all theatre owners as a way to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. It looked like a regular platter only with one platter instead of the usual 3 or 5. When being loaded with a new movie the leader would be threaded through the projector and spliced onto the tail of the movie. The film would be pulled from the center as normal but instead of winding onto a different platter would wind onto the back of the print. To keep the film from backing back off of the edge of the platter, a spring loaded arm would gently and rhythmically bump the print in towards the center of the platter as it turned. Even now I have a hard time describing it. It really had to be seen to be believed.
Fortunately the Southlake, or any other theatre I ever heard of, did not use this abortion to run their actual movies. In keeping with the Rube Goldberg nature of the whole operation, the projector was aimed toward a mirror which reflected the image onto the back of a screen which faced the lobby. It was used to show a constant stream of previews to the people, and unfortunate employees, who were in the lobby. In those days previews were not distributed at anywhere near the current number so there was seldom more than 30 minutes or so worth before the loop started over. Mercifully, I only worked this location occasionally so I never had the pleasure of changing the previews or remounting the loop.
The only other notable thing I remember about this place was the freedom with which the staff would use the house PA system. I recall hearing announcements in the auditoriums about car headlights being left on, convertible tops being left down in the rain, paging the manager to the phone, and even calling employees back to work when their break was up.
As with all other GTC properties and employees, the end came with the sellout to United Artists Theatres in the late 80’s. I did not notice when this place was closed, but it certainly gave it up by the time the AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 opened.
As Jack stated above, the ultimate in bland, unpleasant theatre design. But, at least in the 80’s there was no reason to put extra money and effort into creating a nice movie going experience. The GCC Northlake 2 and Southlake 2 triples were truly the poster children for the dozens of theatres built around Atlanta during this period which offered little more than a seat, a screen, and sound for the patrons. Three identical, long, thin, shoeboxes with 400 of the trademark GCC two position seats in each house. This notorious example of contempt for the customer was also the bane of many theatre employees who spent countless hours pushing the seats back to their upright positions while cleaning the auditorium.
The Southlake was the fourth GCC venue to be built in Atlanta following the Perimeter Mall in 1973, Northlake 2 in 1976, and Akers Mill in 1977. I believe it opened in 1978. The booth was equipped with Century 35MM projectors and Christie Autowind 3 platters. One house had the first generation pushbutton style Dolby sound rack. In an improvement over its Northlake predecessor, the screens had up and down masking for the flat picture so that both the scope and flat pictures filled the entire screen.
The main reason that these theatres were built so bland is that the public demanded little else. All they wanted was to see the hit movies, and in this area that meant going to the GCC Southlake for the most part. The only first run competition was a 3 screen effort by Plitt a couple of blocks over. I worked at this theatre several times between 1984 and 1988. During a two week stint covering a vacation for the regular projectionist in 1984 I saw the place filled to near capacity many times while showing Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and Bachelor Party. The next year Back to the Future was a big hit. As usual, this kind of success attracted the attention of the competition and before long Georgia Theatre opened an 8plex across the street, and Cineplex followed with a 6. Eventually AMC put all of these efforts out of business with their 24 screen Southlake Pavilion.
One constant during all of the time I was connected with this place was the complete lack of an adequate number (qualified or un) of job applicants. GCC considered themselves a class operation, and to be fair, they were in many respects. Help Wanted was just too crass a way to attract the best workers they felt, so at GCC it was always Employment Opportunities Available. When a sign in the lobby did not attract enough applicants, they would sometimes put the appeal on the marquee itself. However, there was not nearly enough room for all of that copy, so the word Employment was left off. It never ceased to amuse the staff how many people came in and asked about the movie “Opportunities Available.” Granted, that is not much of a story, but it was not much of a theatre.
Just like the Northlake 2 it was torn down in the early 90’s and a Sports Authority now sits on the site.
Another venue from my past. I attended the Riverside many times while I was a student at Georgia College in Milledgeville during 1972, 73, and 74. There were two indoor screens and one drive in screen in Milledgeville, all operated by Martin, but if you wanted first run product you usually had to drive the 30 miles to Macon. At the time, Riverside was operated by its builder, the Weis Theatre Company and was still a twin. I would guess that the seating capacity was about 500 per side. The front doors opened into the lobby and the auditoriums were to either side. Concession stand straight ahead in the middle, with the box office opening to the outside between the sets of entrance doors.
A notable feature of the auditoriums was the lack of a false ceiling. All of the lighting fixtures, ductwork, conduits, etc… were exposed, but painted black so that you really did not notice them unless you happened to look up. During intermission a slide projector in the booth showed slides at an angle so that it hit half screen and half panels located on the wall. At first I thought that the projector was misaligned, but since it was always that way I guess you can say it was “art.” In those pre advertising days the slides were pictures of movie stars and some stills from classic movies.
The Riverside was the newest theatre in Macon at that time and competed with the Georgia Theatre Company operated triple in the Westgate Shopping Center for first run product. I can remember seeing “What’s Up Doc”, “Nicholas and Alexandra”, “The Exorcist”, and “Sound of Music” among many others at this location. In the mid to late 70’s the Weis Theatre Company hit hard times and started disposing of their properties. Georgia Theatre Company bought up the ones in Macon which also included the downtown Bibb, the Weis Drive In in Warner Robbins which was the only air conditioned drive in I ever saw, and the half of the Macon Mini Cinema that Weis and GTC had jointly owned and operated for several years.
When I left Georgia Theatre in the early 80’s they were still running it as a twin. I was not aware that it had ever been quaded, or when it closed. One other note: Just out Riverside Drive a little ways was the Georgia Theatre operated Riverside Drive In. It was located in the nicest setting I have ever seen for a drive in and was a great place to see a movie.
I agree, it is a shame to see this one go. Although it does not have the “going back in time” feel of the Plaza, having been extensively remodeled by Weis in the late 60’s, it was one of those fast fading links to the past that Atlanta seems to intent on getting rid of.
When I moved to Atlanta in 1967, it was known as the Fine Art and was playing “A Man For All Seasons.” Although not exactly what we would call an “Art” house today, like Midtown, or Tara, it did play a mixture of “art” type movies as well as mainstream product. (In the 60’s the art house trade was the almost exclusive domain of the Peachtree Art at 1132 Peachtree Palace Theatreth as mentioned by Don above, and starting in 1971, the Film Forum of George Ellis.) The first movie I was planning to see there was “In Cold Blood” until, that is, my mother noticed the R rating on it. (We detoured to see “The Happiest Millionaire” at the Fox instead.) The “Uncle Toms Cabin” booking featured in the then and now picture linked to above played in early 1969. It was followed by “The Killing Of Sister George” definitely not mainstream, and then “Goodbye Columbus” which took up the entire summer of 1969. Some of the other slightly out of the mainstream type bookings here were “Sterile Cuckoo” (4 months), “Anne of the Thousand Days” (3 months), “Boys In The Band” (4 months), and “Five Easy Pieces” (3 months). However, the champion for longest run during this time was the strictly mainstream “Odd Couple” which played for the final 7 months of 1968.
For Christmas of 1970, Weis booked “Ryan’s Daughter” and that one ran one week shy of 8 months during the first half of 1971. That was a good time for the Weis company as the Capri (now Buckhead Roxy) just up the street was enjoying a 7 month run of its own with “Love Story.” With “Ryan’s Daughter” I finally made it to a show at the Fine Art. With its small entrance (box-office opening to the outside in those days), tiny lobby, dark auditorium, Weis inspired decorating, I did not think much of it as a venue when compared with Lenox and Phipps, etc… Also, I did not see the movie until July and by that time the print was certainly the worse for wear and a pale example of the 70MM presentation I would see at Phipps a year or so later. Following Ryan, more narrow appeal movies enjoyed good runs here, usually lasting a month to 6 weeks. Among these were “Walkabout,” “The Go-Between,” and “Harold and Maude.”
In the spring of 1972 I paid my second visit to the Fine Art, this time to see “The Last Picture Show.” This movie, which also had a four month run, was not at all what I was expecting to see and at the time I did not think much of it. (Later I became a fan of it and even made a trip to Archer City, Texas which is where the film, and its sequel Texasville, was set and filmed.) These were still the days of blind bidding, advance rentals, and exclusive runs, and bookings exceeding 3 months were not unusual. The Fine Art followed the usual pattern of those days by running a full day “grind” schedule with the first show starting about 2 PM with midnight shows on Friday and Saturday nights. As the run lengthened and attendance declined the Friday night midnight show would drop off, then the Saturday night one and finally the matinees. Other than the downtown theatres, the Lenox and Capri were the only theatres during this time that ran all day year round.
In the summer of 1970, Weis had taken over the old Peachtree Art Theatre and reopened it as the Weis Cinema. Shortly after that they built the Broadview (later twinned with the Broadview II becoming the Silver Screen and the Broadview I becoming the Great Southeast Music Hall) and in May of 1972 purchased the Peachtree Battle Mini Cinema (which was later sold to George Lefont and became the Silver Screen.) The point of all of this is that with more theatres to book, the product got thinned out and the number of blockbuster hits at the Fine Art declined. After “Picture Show” left, there was a year of steady but unremarkable bookings until August of 1973 when one of the biggest Fine Art hits of all, “American Graffiti” opened. Looking at the booking patterns of today, it is hard to believe that this huge hit did not open until mid August. I have heard the story that not much was expected of this small film with its unknown director, George Lucas, which is why it was dumped onto the release schedule when summer was almost over. Regardless, by the time it opened in Atlanta, Universal knew they had a hit and not only did the Fine Art run the usual full schedule, but they ran midnight shows every night until school started back.
“American Graffiti” finished out the year, and for the next couple of years it was back to the steady but unspectacular slate of films. Within a couple of years the entire Weis company was in trouble as a result of overexpansion with their acquisition of the mini cinemas, and their habit of gambling big advances to get the sure fire hits, some of which were not so sure fire. A very sad event, the death of the son of Albert Weis in an auto accident, also hurt as Mr. Weis seemed to lose interest in the day to day operations of the company after that happened.
My third and last visit to the Fine Art was in December of 1974 for an advance screening of Godfather Part II. As mentioned in other posts here and on the Film Forum page, George Ellis moved his operation here in the mid to late 70’s. After he returned to Ansley Mall, the Georgia Theatre Company took control of the Garden Hills, as it was then known (again). This was an odd turn of events and GTC never did much with the place and only held the lease a short time. In those days they had a habit of taking over theatres they really had no interest in, such as the Parkaire and Georgia Twin, aka Georgia Cinerama, just to keep the competition out. This may have been the case here, but I do not really know. At any rate, as every one here knows, George Lefont soon took over and the rest is well known.
Although not the point of this comment, I will note that as I write this at 6:28 PM on 7/17/2008, exactly 30 years ago, almost to the minute, I was walking into the Fox Theatre to see the first movie presented there since the place closed up on January 2, 1975. The feature: Ben-Hur, in glorious 70MM. I have described that event in more detail than anyone would care to read in my earlier post so I will get to the point. This comment will hopefully clear up a few of the technical questions raised by Mr. Wade in the above post.
As for the media used to present Ben-Hur, I can assure everyone that there was nothing digital about it, even, unfortunately, the sound. It was a 35MM print struck on May 9, 1993. This meant that while the sound was Dolby Stereo, it was analog since Dolby Digital did not come along until mid decade. Considering its 15 year age it was in pretty good shape, but I think that its condition could kindly be described as “Best Available”. As with any print that old there were numerous and noticeable dirt type scratches at the beginning and end of each reel, and repeated build ups and tear downs for platter screenings had resulted in missing frames. Fortunately, the Overture, Intermission tag, and second half walk in music were included although splices at the beginning of the Intermission tag and end of walk in music indicated that at least once someone had run this print straight through without an intermission. A real crime against showmanship in my opinion.
The size of the screen at the Fox is as large as it has ever been, and as large as it can be. Although there is some more room on the sides for a wider screen, there is no more room at the top. Since all of the vertical space is being used, expanding the width would cause the top and bottom to be cropped off. This is a problem I described in my original post where I pointed out that the Fox is a hybrid, designed as an auditorium, not a movie theatre or stage show venue. The image projected for Ben-Hur and other cinemascope pictures is as wide as it can be given the height limitations of the stage. If you are sitting the balcony, it may seem that the screen can go higher, but this is not the case. For anyone sitting under the balcony, especially near the back, the line of the bottom of the balcony meets the top of the screen, so anything projected on a taller screen would not be visible to these patrons.
When it comes to the screen size used for different movies, that is determined purely by the aspect ratio of the film in question. This is not a technical site, but simply put, there are three main screen shapes used in films. Describing the ratio of width to height, they are 1.33 to 1 (roughly the shape of a pre HD television), 1.85 to 1, called “flat” in the industry, and 2.35 (or wider) to 1, called scope, cinemascope, or widescreen. Some years ago someone who had attended a screening of “Gone With The Wind” at the Fox had written to the Q and A section of the AJC to ask why the Fox had taken out its huge screen and replaced it with a small square screen. The explanation for all of this is that the Fox is very careful to present the movies it shows in their correct aspect ratio. (When we ran “The Searchers” the 1.66 to 1 lens and screen width were used, a very rare event.) This means that when a classic such as “GWTW”, “Casablanca”, or “Wizard of Oz” plays, the side masking is brought in to make the screen the correct 1.33 to 1 size. It may look small in comparison to the massive Fox stage width, but the full height of the stage area is used. To try to widen the picture would result in the cropping that I described above. (For a perfect example of this, read the story of what happened to GWTW when they blew the image up to 1.85 to 1 for its 1967 70MM reissue.)
All of these notes apply to digital projection as well as film. The type of projection makes no difference in the size of the screen. Aspect ratio is the determining factor. A scope picture presented in digital projection will be the same size as one presented via film. The same goes for 1.85 and 1.33. I should point out that when I say digital I am talking about the new Digital Cinema Systems that are now being installed in theatres across the nation. I am most assuredly not talking about using some digital capable projector to show a DVD on the screen.
Speaking of this past Sunday, anyone who attended Ben-Hur was able to see all three aspect ratios in use. The preshow documentary Mr. Wade referred to was a Public TV production and was projected at 1.33 to 1 using the digital video projector. The rest of the program was all film. When the 35MM film projector was started for the previews, the masking was pulled back to the 1.85 to 1 mark. When the previews ended, there was a pause for the lens to be changed to 1.33 to 1 and the masking was brought back in so the cartoon could be presented in its proper 1.33 ratio. (Oddly enough, the film company logo on the front of the cartoon was modern and in 1.85 ratio so there were black bars at the top and bottom just like on a letterboxed DVD until the cartoon itself started and took up the full screen. When the cartoon ended, the 1.85 lens and masking were returned to present the Fox policy and feature presentation strips. At this point the curtain was closed and the curtain lights came on for the Overture. During the Overture, the masking was pulled back to its full open mark and the 2.35 to 1 scope lens was put in place. When the overture ended, the lights dimmed and the screen opened to its full width for the MGM logo.
With regard to some other points by Mr. Wade, I think that the newsreel in question is used because it features the World Premiere of “Gone With The Wind” as its final story. I am happy to see that he took note of the fact that the curtain and lights were properly used during the Overture. Very few theatres even have curtains anymore, and the applause from the audience when the lights dimmed and the curtain opened to reveal the MGM lion seemed to indicate that they appreciated an example of the long lost art of properly presenting a big, class, roadshow production. At least to the degree possible.
As for the debate between film as opposed to theatre grade Digital Cinema, let me say this. I have been working with film most of my life. Even though I now see my future job prospects being rapidly eliminated by the advent of Digital Cinema, I will have to admit that the picture quality of a movie properly presented (usually meaning being bright enough) using the Digital Cinema process is better than that of film. On Sunday afternoon, before the night showing of “Ben-Hur”, the Fox presented a Digital Cinema presentation of the Disney movie “Enchanted” using the digital projector. Both movies are 2.35 to 1 scopes so the picture size was the same, but the clarity of “Enchanted” to say nothing of the lack of scratches, specks, flecks, and splices, was greater than the 35MM film presentation of “Ben-Hur”. It is too bad that a 70MM print of Ben-Hur was not available for the Fox as it has been at least twice in the past. The last two times the Fox has presented “Ben-Hur” it has been with 35MM, so perhaps 70MM is no longer available. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of this great film so hopefully MGM, or whoever controls the rights now will order some 70MM DTS prints for an anniversary run the way “2001” is touring the country this year.
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This blogsite has a picture of the Miracle on opening day as well as a shot of the site today. Nice story on the theatre as well.
My apologies Jack. I do not know why I was so arrogant as to think that my memory was better than yours.
As for you R2, this makes three times you have had to correct me. I think that from now on I will just send you my comments for vetting prior to posting. Either that or just end each comment with “…I think.”
At the time TRON was released I was working at the Greens Corner Cinema where we had a Dolby 35MM print. The game room next door did more business with their TRON video game that we did with the movie, especially after the first week. I remember that it opened at the same time as the Secret Of NIMH. That one was the creation of the animators who had left Disney and formed their own company, but to the public it looked like a Disney. All day, parents would come up to the box office with their children in tow and ask for tickets to “the Disney movie”. Of course they meant NIMH as opposed TRON which based on the poster did not look like any Disney movie they saw when they were children. At that theatre at least, NIMH was a much bigger draw.
Atlanta did not get a 70MM release. The Phipps Plaza Twin #2 and the Tara #2 were among the very few 70MM theatres in Atlanta that retained 70MM ability after the twinning. Other 70MM locations, like the Rhoades were out of the first run business by then or closed down. TRON opened at several locations around Atlanta, but the central booking was at the Lenox Square Theatre. At one time, Lenox had a 70MM set up second only to the original Phipps, but in 1978 the 660 seat auditorium was divided into two 320 seaters. Although the Century 70MM projectors were still used, the screens were pathetically small and no 70MM was ever attempted on them.
In 1984, the Lenox was completely reorganized and the wall came down and a 500 seat auditorium was created. 70MM was restored, and Top Gun, Die Hard and Aliens were among the 70MM offerings there.
As Michael mentioned in his article, TRON did play in 70MM later that year in some of the neglected markets. In Atlanta this occurred at the Phipps Plaza in October. Two week run, very little business. It was preceded by a 70MM run of Deliverance. Again, not much business but they both looked impressive in 70.
I saw CE3K opening week at the Phipps Plaza Penthouse in Atlanta. 35MM only since the Penthouse did not have 70MM equipment. This was the first film to use the new Dolby system here, and my first impression was that it was too loud. Too many people confuse volume with effect and do not think that they are getting their stereo effect unless they leave the theatre with their ears ringing. In the late summer of 1978, the Fox Theatre in Atlanta added CE to the end of their summer movie schedule. The Fox did not have Dolby then, but I went to see it because they had a 70MM print that would use the 6 track mag sound system that was there. There was a huge crowd, but two of the reels were in terrible shape and there were half a dozen film breaks in that section.
As for the movie, I enjoyed it and thought that it was a good, well made movie, but a little long is some sections. It has never been on any all time favorite list of mine. My favorite scene is when Richard Dreyfus wrecks his car on the way to Devils Tower. As the camera follows him as he climbs up the embankment to look around, you get your first glimpse of the Tower at the edge of the screen. This subtle effect is completely wasted on the millions of people who have seen the movie P&S on TV as the Tower is cropped off. In 1981, or whenever it came out, I was working in a theatre that ran the SE version. I thought the changes made the first version look like a masterpiece, but it did great business for a couple of weeks.
As for my theatre employee experiences with CE3K, I have two. In 1996 I was working the projection booth at the Fox, and one of the Summer Film Series bookings was an all day Spielberg festival of Jaws, Raiders, and at 8 PM, CE3K. Some people were there all day, and by 8 there were enough people to fill about three fourths of the 4500 Fox seats. Those of you who worked in theatres in the early days of Dolby might recall that the early Dolby features were released in two different versions, some with Dolby soundtracks, and the rest with mono soundtracks. As our bad luck would have it, the Jaws and Raiders prints had been struck recently, but not only was the CE print an original from 1977, it was mono as well. It was in good condition, but sounded terrible.
My other memory dates back only to March, 2006. In the early 70’s I worked at the Atlanta Theatre, which at the time was operated by Walter Reade Org. All I ever heard about from the managers and other company people who came to town from New York was what a great theatre the Ziegfeld was. I always wanted to see a movie there to see just how the theatre measured up to its reputation. When the Ziegfeld put on its Cinema Classics series I made a day trip to NY and caught an afternoon showing of CE. The theatre was nice, but I would have been much more impressed in 1971 when I was new to the business. The presentation was just fair. No 70MM, but 35MM Dolby. The movie was the third edition, which I believe is also the directors cut.
As do most people, I thought the SE version was a joke, and liked the original version best, although both the first or third versions are fine.
Booth was equipped with Norelco 35/70MM projectors. These had the variable speed motors which allowed the 70MM version of “Oklahoma” to be run in its required 30 frames per second speed rather than the normal 24 frames per second. I do not know if it was ever run here, probably not, but the operator was known to run the moives at the 30 frame speed if he wanted to go home early.
During its final years it was operated by Georgia Theatre Company and was managed by Mr. Earnest Crowe, a former manager of the Martin Cinerama downtown. This was a pick up for GTC and did not have a house for the manager on site as was their usual custom.
You could get a nice overhead view of the Thunderbird when taking off to the east or landing to the west, although this proximity to the Atlanta airport probably did not do much for the moviegoing experience.
Although it has a Kentucky Avenue address, this theatre is part of a major retail development located on US 31 in the middle of Vestavia Hills which is a small suburban city just south of the Birmingham city limits. In the mid 60’s this vacant piece of land was cleared and a sort of hybrid shopping center / mall was built with a Sears and Parisians as anchors. In the mid 90’s the center was demolished and this large, glitzy, town square type development built in its place.
As for the theatre, nothing special about it. Typical Rave looking venue with lots of lights and an amusement park atmosphere. Not my kind of place to see a movie, but I am obviously in the minority as most of these Rave, Regal, AMC theatres built in the last 10 years are very popular. Actually, 10 screens seems kind of cozy these days. A few miles down 31 Rave has a 15 screen theatre next to the Galleria Mall in Hoover.
This is a long post on the final years of the Fox as a regular movie theatre, and the summer film festivals and was prompted by Jack being kind enough to place the above photo link on his Flickr site. If your Fox interest is the in early years, “Save The Fox”, or plays and concerts then you will probably find it dull.
I doubt if any one person, even Joe Patten, knows every bit of Fox history, but there are dozens if not hundreds of us who know the details of very small slices of the lifetime of this great venue. Yes, I do think that it is a great place, and a treasure as well, but in all honesty I never thought that the Fox was a very good place to actually see a movie. The trouble is that the Fox is a hybrid. Not really built as a theatre, either film or legit, it serves adequately for both, but not as well as it could if it had been built with either one in mind. The keystone deflection caused by the angle of the projectors is noticeable, and the sound bouncing off of the plaster walls pretty hollow. I have always thought that it is the look, feel, and atmosphere of the place that makes it great. Even though movie purists (of which I am not one) do not approve, the organ concert before the movie is enjoyable as well. The sing-a-long, less so to me at least, but lets face it, these days most people come to movie nights at the Fox for the experience. The movie is often secondary.
As for the small bit of Fox history that I am somewhat familiar with, it starts in 1967 when my family moved to Atlanta. The feature at that time was “The Dirty Dozen”. This list of bookings with the length of the run in weeks in ( ) will give you an idea of what the Fox was up against business wise as it entered the final years of its life as a movie theatre:
El Dorado (3)
Two For The Road (3)
Emily (2)
Who’s Minding The Mint (2)
Waterhole #3 (2)
Rosie (2)
Point Blank (4)
Valley of the Dolls (8) – Christmas feature
Good, Bad, Ugly (2)
Happiest Millionaire (3)
Will Penny (1)
Doctor Zhivago (1)
Blackbeards Ghost (3)
“Doctor Zhivago”, one of my all time favorite films which over the years must have played in almost every movie theatre in Atlanta, was among the first movies I saw here. Little could I have imagined that 28 years later I would be running it from the projection booth for a sold out house. I also remember seeing “Blackbeards Ghost” here on a Saturday night, made memorable only because it was the first time that I saw and heard the organ used, this time just as a filler between shows. I also remember my mother telling me about how she attended movies here during the 30’s and 40’s when the place was full and she had to stand behind the wall located behind the last row of seats. Quite a change from that sparsely attended night. Next came:
Sweet November (3)
Stranger In Town (2)
Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (2)
Family Band (2)
Sweet Ride (4)
Green Berets (4)
For “Green Berets” it was the World Premiere since the movie was filmed at Forts Benning and Rucker. John Wayne was on hand and since the date was July 4th, he was the Grand Marshall of the WSB Independence Day Parade that year.
Where Were You When The Lights Went Out? (2)
Never A Dull Moment (2)
With Six You Get Eggroll (3)
Prudence and the Pill (4)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (2)
I Love You Alice B.Toklas (3)
Lady In Cement (3)
Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit (3) Christmas 1968
Impossible Years (3)
Angel In My Pocket (2)
Stalking Moon (3)
Wrecking Crew (2)
African Safari (2)
Swiss Family Robinson (2)
GWTW (2)
Mayerling (1)
Doctor Zhivago (1)
Hard Contact (2)
The Longest Day (2)
True Grit (5)
“The Longest Day” which was a booking for the 25th Anniversary of D-Day was a special event for me in that it was the first time that I was allowed to attend a movie here alone. I rode the bus downtown, watched the afternoon show, and then had the treat of watching it again since my father met me after work and watched it with me. I also saw “True Grit” here. My mother and I met my father downtown and since we arrived early, we sat on the steps to the balcony, which was closed on that Friday night. This was the first time that I noticed a problem with the Fox as a movie theatre. The lobby crowd, when there was one could hear the movie almost as well as those inside, and the noise from the lobby would carry into the auditorium.
Rascal (3)
The Chairman (1)
Once Upon A Time In The West (3)
Italian Job (2)
Bullitt / Bonnie and Clyde (2)
Rain People (2)
Butch Cassidy (7) m/o from Loews Grand (I think)
Undefeated (4)
The Rievers (4)
101 Dalmatians (5)
The Only Game In Town (1)
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (3)
In Search of the Castaways (3)
Kremlin Letter (1)
Ballard of Cable Hogue (1)
Lawyer (1)
Ben-Hur (1)
Butch Cassidy (2)
How The West Was Won (3)
Charlie Brown (4)
Boatniks (3)
Kelly’s Heroes (5)
Jungle Book / Love Bug (2)
Hotel (1)
Giant (2)
Son of Flubber (1)
Monte Walsh (4)
Dirty Dingus McGee (3)
Aristocats (4) Christmas 1970
Wuthering Heights (4)
Wild Country (4)
My Fair Lady (1)
Barefoot Executive (3)
Vanishing Point (3)
Harper (1)
Racing Scene (1)
Escape From The Planet of the Apes (3)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (2)
LeMans (4)
Million Dollar Duck (2)
Tom Sawyer (1) (not the musical)
Pinocchio (2)
Sand Pebbles (1)
Young Love Is A Melody (1)
Joy In The Morning (1)
Believe In Me (2)
The Late Liz (2)
Jesse James (2)
Macbeth *
“Macbeth” ran for one night only, November 4, 1971, and someone did an excellent job promoting it. It was probably a rental, and was an old version with Maurice Evans and Dame Judith Anderson. For weeks before, the schools had been deluged with promotional materials and group discount ticket sales. I was an attendee, and the place was packed, although with so many teenagers present there was not much movie watching going on as it turned into one big party. As you might expect, the Varsity was packed before the show and the Krispy Kreame likewise afterwards.
Stars In My Crown (1)
Something Big (4)
Vanishing Point (1)
Lady And The Tramp (3) Christmas 1971
Peter Rabbit And Beatrix Potter (1)
Song of the South (5)
The Cowboys (8)
Even a brief glance at this long list makes it obvious what the booking pattern was. Lots of Walt Disney, John Wayne, and adult appeal movies that could still be viewed by the whole family. Very few “R"s. Also, very short runs. Georgia Theatre Company owned the Fox, but it was operated under a management contract by ABC Southeastern Entertainment, which also operated the downtown Roxy, the Phipps Plaza, and the Alabama and Ritz in downtown Birmingham. Although the Phipps had some long runs, the policy for these huge downtown theatres was family or acceptable adult movies turned over every two or three weeks. Given their large capacities, anyone who would be willing to go downtown for the movie could be accommodated at any time and after a couple of weeks, the feature would move to the intermediate houses in the suburbs where the rest of its audience awaited it. The longest run for any of these movies was "The Cowboys”. I do not know which one did the most business overall, but the one day record had to have been held by “Song of the South”. This was its last re-release before being banned, and although I had never heard of it, plenty of people had. On its opening weekend Atlanta was hit with a constant, heavy rain. This is a boon to theatre owners but a curse on the employees who actually ran the theatres as everybody always looks for something to do to get away from the house and such close proximity to the rest of the family. On the opening Saturday, every one of the 4600 Fox seats was full for the afternoon shows, and the two night shows did well also.
This pattern continued until the summer of 1973 when things started to change. The features that summer will tell the story. After a very successful run of “Worlds Greatest Athlete”, the features were:
Coffy (5)
Song of the South / Arisocats (2)
Friends of Eddie Coyle (2)
Slaughter’s Big Ripoff (3)
Cahill: U.S. Marshall (2)
That Same Summer (1)
“That Same Summer” was nothing but a filler booking of the previous years Broadview Plaza hit “Red Sky At Morning” re-released under a different title. As you can see there was a changing of the guard here as the next three bookings were:
Detroit 9000 (4)
Super Fly / 5 Fingers of Death (1)
7 Blows of the Dragon (3)
At this time I was working as a doorman across the street at the Atlanta Theatre, and many of the employees of the Fox, Atlanta, Baronet, and Coronet, at least knew each other, and would sometimes meet for a midnight breakfast at the Huddle House next to the Atlanta. Afterwards, we would go to the makeshift firing range someone had set up in the old coal bunkers of the Fox basement and blast away. Many nights I would go home with my ears ringing and covered with a fine layer of coal dust shaken loose after all of those years by the concussions.
Another event during this summer of 1973 was the first and perhaps only time the Fox hosted the Atlanta Film Festival. This was a short lived effort during the 70’s that is notable here only because there was quite a bit of attention paid to it since it had been announced that “The Last Tango In Paris” would open the festival. Not a big deal you would think except for one small detail. This is hard to believe now, but although the film had been in release around the country for weeks if not months, it had yet to play in Atlanta. This was because the Fulton County Solicitor General, Hinson McAuliffe, had made a name for himself, and attracted a lot of free publicity, by raiding theatres playing adult movies. He usually left the hardcore 16MM stuff alone but never hesitated to go after higher profile targets such as the Andy Warhol movie “Lonesome Cowboys”, “Oh Calcutta'‘, and later "Story of O’‘ and "Flesh Gordon”, and quite a number of managers and projectionists who were not exactly threats to the public were carted off to jail. McAuliffe had already vowed, in advance, to raid any theatre which dared expose the good people of Fulton County to such filth. A lot of us were waiting to see if the Fox Theatre, of all places, would get busted for daring to run Tango. As it worked out, the Fox declined to get involved and it was announced that Tango would open the festival at a different location. However, McAuliffe was hot on the trail, and the movie never played, or if it did, not to the public.
As for the picture in the link, it was taken on January 10, 1975. As everyone knows, the place had just closed. Mike Spirtos, one of the nicest managers I have ever had the pleasure of working with had invited everyone to hang around after the last show on the 2nd and enjoy their last visit. Mike moved up Peachtree to manage the Phipps Plaza, and the Fox sat empty. By this time I was managing the South DeKalb Theatre for Georgia Theatre Company which meant that every Monday morning would find me at the Fox to attend the managers meeting at the Georgia Theatre Company offices located in what is now the Grand Salon. Although rather cold sounding, that quote posted above from E.E. Whitaker, the GTC GM, was accurate. The Fox was no where close to breaking even. I was told that during the final years it was only the office rent that GTC paid to itself that kept the place open. For those of you who think E.E. was being too much the hard core businessman on this subject, you can take comfort in knowing that his office, where our meetings were held, is now Joe Patten’s living room.
I took this picture not as a reminder of the days when the Fox was closed, but because I expected the place to be torn down soon. There are a lot of people, some on this page that know the “Save The Fox” story a lot better than I do, so I will not get into that. I will just say that I was told that GTC just wanted a clean sale transaction and did not want to get involved with any non profit group who might start to buy the place but would then have trouble coming up with the money. That could have tied the sale up for years. The contract with Southern Bell specified that the property be delivered as a clean piece of dirt, or words to that effect. Southern Bell certainly did not want to take the PR hit for tearing the Fox down, something GTC was willing to absorb in order to close a quick sale. Again, all of this is just what I was told. I have no first hand knowledge. I do not believe that GTC wanted the Fox destroyed out of fear of competition, something that I have heard people say. If that had been the case, they would have been running it themselves all of those years.
Although not afraid of Fox competition, apparently GTC did not want anyone to get any ideas along those lines. Once more, the story I was told was that the booth equipment was removed as required by the contract. If this was true then someone left a giant loophole since nothing was said about running movies with other equipment. Maybe no one thought that it was economically feasible and left it at that. Regardless, as everyone knows, the Loews Grand just happened to catch fire about the time Georgia Pacific expressed interest in building their new tower on the site. Since only the entrance and not the auditorium was damaged, the booth equipment and screen made the journey from 157 to 660 Peachtree. Years later, the Fox also bought the projection equipment from the Atlanta Theatre when it closed for good.
When the Fox returned to the movie business I was there for the first one, Ben-Hur in 70MM, Monday, July 17,1978. 7:30 showtime, $2.50 ticket. My mother was with me to enjoy the floating focus and the beautiful stained screen. We ran into Tommy Young, the manager of the Stonemont there. He had worked at the Fox for several years as an usher and crew chief for ABC, and later at the Phipps as Assistant Manager. Tommy spent an hour standing in line at the popcorn cart waiting for some of that popcorn “popped using an old recipe found in the files in the Fox basement.” At this time the condition of the theatre was still pretty shabby and the old concession stand was still in its place in the center of the lobby. Some other memories from that year: 70MM presentations of Patton, That’s Entertainment, Close Encounters, and Around The World in 80 Days, in 35MM instead of the advertised 70MM and my only viewing ever of this film. The summer series was so successful that a fall series was run that year which allowed me to view 70MM showings of The Alamo, and Lawrence of Arabia.
The next year saw a great improvement in the quality of the presentation and a new screen to show 70MM viewings of My Fair Lady, Camelot, Paint Your Wagon, Oliver, and Sound of Music, topped off by a 35MM show of North By Northwest, my first ever viewing of this great film. 1980 had 70MM showings of 2001, Hello Dolly, and Doctor Zhivago, plus a 35MM West Side Story, which was quite a change from my previous viewing of it 9 years earlier at the Candler Road Mini Cinema complete with intermission inserted at the reel change right in the middle of the rumble.
I do not recall any 1981 Fox movies, but 1982 started off with Ben-Hur again. My date was unimpressed with the 70MM despite my efforts to explain it. She said that the picture was too good since it showed up the models of the ships and men used in the sea battle so well that you could tell that they were not real. Next was a repeat of That’s Entertainment also 70MM as were Raiders of the Lost Ark, My Fair Lady (again), Camelot (again), and Oliver (again). After that the number of old movies and 70MM started to decline although GWTW could always be counted on to bring in a full house. More recent movies started to appear and finally the ‘'family’‘ aspect was dropped. Can’t have a family film festival with movies like Saturday Night Fever, Sin City, and 300 on the schedule.
It was during this period that many rumors made the rounds that the Fox would get back into the regular movie business on a part time basis. This was probably just wishful thinking, but people who claimed to be ‘'in the know’‘ were saying that the Empire or Jedi chapters of Star Wars, or the second and third Raiders might open for a two week exclusive at the Fox in 70MM before going wide. Since the film series proved that people would come downtown to see a movie at the Fox, it was not too much of a stretch to imagine what the Fox or Peachtree Street would look like if something like this came to pass. It never did of course, probably because it is almost impossible to find two consecutive weeks where the Fox is not booked with something, and more likely the film companies do not care to alienate the big megaplex operators by draining off the Atlanta audience for a film before they even got it. Still it is easy to believe that this type of booking would be a success. For the past few years, the summer film series has ended with two or three of the hit movies from earlier in that very summer, usually the ones that opened in May. Despite having worked their way down the hall to the smallest theatre in the local megaplex, or even moved on to the dollar houses, these films still draw capacity crowds as evidenced by some of the comments above.
One movie in particular that sticks in my mind is Evita. Since it had been a Christmas release, and may even have been out on video by then, it was expected to be just another solid performer in the series. At about 7:55 PM, after the organ recital, the sing-along, the cartoon, even after the “Sunrise / Sunset”, and just as the previews were about to end, the phone rang with instructions to raise the house lights and stop the show between the last preview and the “Feature Presentation”, an almost unheard of event. The reason: The line to buy tickets was still extended around the corner and down Ponce de Leon. About five minutes later came word to roll the film since the “Sold Out” sign had been put up.
My fondest memories of movies at the Fox are centered around the summer of 1996. Since the Fox only ran a dozen or so movies a year, the projectionist was hired only on an as needed basis, although they were lucky enough to get a highly qualified man who is still running the booth to this day, 30 years later. Of course he had a regular job as well which was no problem until the Fox decided to put on an Olympic film festival. Since this would be more than one person working all out could handle, and since I was available, I ended up practically living at the Fox for a good part of that summer. My main memory of that summer involved the week before and the week following the Olympics. Pre Olympic week called for 22 different movies in 7 days, usually one at 2PM and another at 8. On some days we ran all day events such at the Spielberg festival with Jaws, Raiders, and Close Encounters. On the final Saturday we ran Toy Story at 10AM, followed by a James Bond double feature and topped off with a 70MM showing of 2001 at night. That was also the week that the print of King Kong arrived the day before its showing, but it was the Jessica Lange version instead of the advertised Fay Wray version. The proper version was located and made it to the theatre three hours before showtime.
After the Olympics were over, the schedule called for 24 movies in 8 days. Since some of these movies, like Sound of Music, Zhivago, Ben-Hur, and GWTW were equal to two movies, my main memories of both of those weeks center around standing for hours at the make up table inspecting and building up print after print. There was hardly room in the booth for all of the film and cans. We also played Lawrence in 70MM. I never saw much of the shows since whenever a movie was playing I was breaking down the last one and loading the next one. The Fox had installed a platter by this time which was too bad since it would have been much easier to run everything reel to reel to say nothing of the pleasure of doing it the old way. Unfortunately, the one thing that we did do the old way was show the slides for the sing-along using the last bit of 1929 equipment in the booth, a Brenograph, double carbon arc lamphouse, alternating slide projector. Running this thing where you had to manually drop and remove the heavy glass slides into the carriage and crank the handle to alternate the slides, all the while listening to the organ so you would know when to change, was by far the most stressful part of the show. If you ever dropped one or got out of sync, you were finished, as was the sing-along.
It was a great summer. I think I put in about 120 hours per week for those two weeks and enjoyed 99% of them. The Fox was much more fun to work in when you ran grind instead of once a week since you did not have to set up and then secure the projector area each night. I remember working several shows in 1997, and a couple in 1998. The last movie I remember running there was L.A. Confidential. At the time it was hard and sometimes hectic work, but looking back on it ,it was for the most part very enjoyable, as was running the booth for the Opera all of those years.
With the opera gone, and the digital projector in place, I can safely place my Fox days in the past history file, but I will always have fond memories of working there to say nothing of the ten cent coffee machine.
The Walt Disney movie “Herbie Rides Again” opens with a series of implosions of old buildings during the titles. One of those is the Henry Grady / Roxy.
The Roxy auditorium shared a wall with the old Capitol which, as mentioned above was later taken over by the Davison’s department store. Since that was the extent of the demolition, about a third of the auditorium was not part of the implosion, but was removed by machine over the course of the next couple of months. inside this shell, some drapes, seats, and part of the balcony were visible, especially to those of us who rode the bus by the site.
I remember seeing “Viva Max”, “The Parent Trap” (reissue), and a Richard Brooks double feature of “The Professionals” and “In Cold Blood” here. In addition to “Willard”, I seem to recall that the first run engagement of “Bullitt” was here, and in the spring of 1970, the first run of “Z”. During its final weeks it played such epics as “The Thing With Two Heads”, with Rosey Grier and Ray Milland (as in Academy Award Winner: Ray Milland), “Big Bird Cage”, and “Caged Heat”. On opening day of “Caged Heat” they had some models in very skimpy prison outfits handing out flyers on the sidewalk in front of the box-office. Showmanship at its best, right up til the end.
For some reason, I have never noticed this page before, and only happened upon it while writing a comment for the 10th Street trying to sort out the identities of the four different theatres that were located along this four block section of Peachtree. I have little to add to the Peachtree Art part of this theatre’s history as I never attended a movie here during that time. One show that I did want to see was “Oh What A Lovely War”, but in those days I was not about to come down to this part of town, especially at night.
Starting in 1967, the section of Peachtree Street between 8th and 14th became the center of what would become known as the hippie, peacenik, Woodstock, (fill in your own favorite adjective here) scene. This lasted for about three or four years, and at night the area was gridlocked as thousands of people converged on the area surrounded by Peachtree, Piedmont, 8th and 14th to either participate or sightsee. By 1970, the fad was starting to fade away and the strip turned into a crime and drug infested dump, for lack of a better word. I observed this first hand as during those days I was riding the old Atlanta Transit Company busses through here twice a day while going to Georgia State.
It was during this time that the Peachtree Art closed, leaving the 10th Street Art and the Metro Art, both soft core porno houses as the only theatres in the area. The closest mainstream theatre was the Fox, about eight blocks south. In 1970, efforts were started to revitalize the area around Peachtree and 14th with the construction of the Colony Square office block. As part of this effort, Weis theatres reopened the Peachtree Art on July 30th under the name Weis Cinema with the Southeastern Premiere of “Catch 22”. In an effort to make suburbanites more comfortable coming to this area, free parking was offered in the Colony Square decks for the night time shows.
“Catch 22” must have done well because it played 19 weeks, leaving on Christmas Eve to make way for “Little Fauss and Big Halsey”, starring that well known comedy team of Robert Redford and Michael J. Pollard. With its 10 week run, “Halsey” was the last hit to play here for quite a while. These were the days of exclusive runs which required considerable up front money paid, in advance, to the film companies. Since blind bidding was legal in those days, it was even more of a gamble to put up a big guarantee for anything other than a sure fire hit, and there were not enough of those to go around. Weis also had the Fine Art, Broadview Plaza, and its flagship, the Capri (Garden Hills, Screening Room, and Buckhead Roxy on this site) to book, and since those locations were located further to the north in seemingly safer Buckhead with a better parking situation, it was less of a gamble to book the more expensive efforts there.
Following “Halsey” was a series of low profile first runs, reruns, fillers and reissues. Here is a list with the number of weeks in the run in ( ):
Little Murders (5)
Mephisto Waltz (3)
Percy (1)
Making It (1)
Left Handed Gun (2)
Joy In The Morning (2)
Grissom Gang (3)
Fortune In Mens Eyes (3)
Velvet Vampire (2)
Panic In Needle Park (4)
Beast of the Yellow Night (1)
Death In Venice (2)
The Touch (4)
Bless the Beasts and Children (6)
Cisco Pike (3) (Christmas attraction)
Goodbye Columbus (3)
“Goodbye Columbus” a filler after “Cisco Pike” bombed, was the first movie I saw here. As described above by Mike, I found the place to be dark, cavernous, and a little creepy since I was the only one in attendance for the weekday 5 PM show. The sound was pretty hollow and the auditorium did not seem big enough to hold the 800 seats I see listed for it here. Maybe there was a balcony that I did not notice. The lobby had been somewhat done over in the Weis style which has been described on other pages of this site as “mod”, “hip”, and groovy". Since everyone is entitled to their own opinion I will just say that I found it downright ugly, distracting, and unfortunate in that it ruined the old time appeal of older sites such as the Fine Art and Capri. The most obnoxious example here was the round frame built around the marquee overhanging the sidewalk which was covered with copper colored metal sheeting with a conflicting rectangular box cut in it to expose the sign itself. This type of stuff was fine for the newer Peachtree Battle (Silver Screen on this site) and the Broadview, but it certainly clashed with the traditional architecture of older sites like this one.
Following “Columbus”, were one week bookings of “Casino Royale” (the Woody Allen version) and “Ryan’s Daughter”. Next, on 2/16/72 came “Cabaret”, probably the most successful of the Weis efforts here. It probably played here by default since on the very same day the Broadview opened an 8 month reserved seat run of “Nicholas and Alexandra”, and the Fine Art opened its own four month run of “The Last Picture Show”, while the Capri had to be kept available for its upcoming run of “The Godfather”, opening in mid March. These three movies opening in the same week followed by “The Godfather” three weeks later certainly marked the high point of the Weis days in Atlanta during the 70’s.
“Cabaret” ran for five months but it probably did not perform up to expectations as Weis went to extremes to draw crowds. During this time the Weis Cinema consistently had the largest space in the Weis newspaper ad block. Nearing summer, the ad included a letter to Atlanta that was printed as part of the “Cabaret” ad. In it Albert Weis stated that he thought “Cabaret” was the outstanding picture of the year and encouraged Atlantans to come see it as he was confident that it would win more Oscars than any other film. He also stated that its was “no goody goody Julie Andrews type musical” which enraged a Julie Andrews fan from Brunswick to the point that he wrote a letter to the Weis company complaining about this disparagement and suggesting that Albert go see the striptease scene in “Star”. (To bad that “SOB” had not been made at that time.) Weis wrote the man a letter of apology and from that day on, there was a blank space in the middle of the ad where the offending sentence had been blacked out. The letter also offered a money back guarantee, later increased to “double your money back” if the patron did not think that “Cabaret” was indeed the movie of the year. I do not know how many, if any refunds were given, double or otherwise, but Albert was proved correct when “Cabaret” did indeed win more Oscars than any other film, although it was long gone from here by the time the Academy Awards rolled around the next spring.
After “Cabaret” it was back to the grind with:
Easy Rider (1)
Salzburg Connection (6)
Little Mother (2)
Play It Again Sam (1)
Twilight People (1)
Hello Dolly (1)
Bad Company (1)
Devil’s Widow (2)
Come Back Charleston Blue (2) (m/o from Coronet)
Hammersmith Is Out (4)
Black Girl (6) (Christmas attraction)
Heartbreak Kid (11)
Caesar and Rosalie (2)
Woodstock (3)
As you can see, the only one of these to have any success at all was “Heartbreak Kid”. The attraction for summer 1973 was “Day of the Jackal”, another big budget / big guarantee movie. I saw the movie here with a pretty good crowd, but I do not know how it did overall. Albert Weis tried to repeat his “Cabaret” act by using the newspaper ad to remind Atlanta how he had been right about “picking a winner”, and reviving his Academy Award prediction, this time with “Jackal” as the winner presumptive. Although I considered it a good movie, and still do, I thought that this was a bit of a reach. Later, I came across a Macon paper and noticed the same letter in the Weis ad, this time slightly adjusted to promote the current feature of the Riverside Twin, “Paper Moon” as the next big winner. I do not know what his prediction for Savannah was but it was probably whatever he had the most money up for.
During this time, the industry phrase “Go Black” was the motto for most of the downtown theatres as the white audience had mostly fled to the burbs. The Coronet was the first and most successful with these bookings followed by Loew’s Grand, The Atlanta, Martin’s Rialto, and occasionally even the Fox. The Weis Cinema was in something of a no mans land, customer wise, being too close to downtown to attract the white audience, especially at night, and too far north to be considered downtown. As indicated above, the Christmas 1972 feature was “Black Girl” starring Leslie Uggams which was not a bad movie but a dud at the box office. For Christmas of 1973, Weis Cinema presented Billy Dee Williams, and in a small role, Richard Pryor, in “Hit”. This one did better, but again, not a success. In 1975 the Christmas feature was “Uptown Saturday Night” but by then had Weis put most of its effort in this area into The Atlanta after they took over the lease from Walter Reade in the fall of 1973.
For Christmas of 1974, the Weis Cinema was booked with the X rated “Story of O”, not much of a Christmas movie for sure, but one that was sure to do big business if they could get away with it. By this time I was managing theatres and was not paying much attention to anything but my own problems, but I remember that this movie was either raided or threatened with a raid, and as a result the Christmas booking fell through. The Weis ended up playing the same feature as the Capri, “The Man Who Would Be King”. Another odd story was the booking of “The Savage Is Loose”. This movie is notable only for the way its star and owner, George C. Scott marketed it. Instead of renting it for a cut of the box as was the norm, he offered to sell the prints to theatre companies who would then keep all of the box office receipts. Weis bought several prints and two of them played at the Capri and Weis Cinema. Later those prints made the rounds of most of the Weis theatres in town whenever there was a gap in the schedule, and for years seemed to be the permanent co-feature at many of the Weis drive-ins.
Given the right movie, any theatre will do big business regardless of where it is located. This was proven true here in May 1975. The feature of the moment was “The Great Waldo Pepper” not exactly a hit, but more importantly a Universal release. This meant that when Universal ran their sneak preview of “Jaws”, a common practice in those days, they placed it at the Weis so that it would play with their own current release. The name of the movie was not advertised, but the jaws artwork was included in the ad so everyone knew what the feature was. As a result, for one night at least, the Weis Cinema had the hottest ticket in town. By 1975, the Weis chain was in big trouble from poor bookings and overexpansion. In 1972 they had bought out the Peachtree Battle Mini Cinema, in 1973 the Atlanta, followed by the rest of the mini cinema chain in 1974. The last big effort to return to the glory days was during Christmas 1976 when they put up big money for “7% Solution” at the Capri, and “King Kong” at almost every other theatre. The next year they tried again with “Ode To Billy Joe”, and you don’t need me to tell you how that worked out.
Since I was busy with my own theatre I do not recall when this location closed, but by 1978 or 79, Weis was gone from Atlanta, only six years or so removed from their years of being home to most of the big, high profile movies that came out. There may have been some efforts to reopen this location but I am not aware of any. In the late 80’s or perhaps early 90’s the entire block was demolished and the Peachtree Art went to the landfill to join so many other once proud Atlanta theatres.
This location operated under many different names and formats during the 60’s and early 70’s. Prior to its Gay Paree days it was known as the Walton Street Art and was operated, I recall, by George Ellis. George left the location in 1971 to take over the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema which he renamed the Film Forum.
/theaters/16291/
With its slightly more suburban, shopping center location, the Film Forum became the best known and most successful of all art and indie film venues of its time.
The Walton, located downtown, became the Gay Paree. It must have been successful to some extent because for years it had the largest ad in the XXX section of the Atlanta paper.
Those of you who were alive in those days may recall the nature of the XXX movie theatre business in those pre video years. In Atlanta, there were several hard and soft-core locations located in the central downtown area which I walked through every day on my way to class at Georgia State. The soft-core locations, such as the 10th Street Art, Metro Art, and Buckhead Art, seemed to run 35MM and the booths were Union operated. The hardcore locations, such as the Ashby Street Art, were 16MM and non Union. This was before my days working in theatres, but I have been told that one of these, the Houston Street Art, was a twin where one side was soft-core 35MM and the other was hardcore 16MM. Also notice how all of these locations used the word “Art” in their name, a matter of no small discomfort to the Peachtree Art Theatre located at 13th Street, which was Atlanta’s one true “Art” theatre at that time. It was during this time that the Peachtree Art closed down and was reopened by the Weis chain as the Weis Cinema, showing standard first run product.
I did not intend for this to become a history of the XXX theatres of Atlanta, but only mention it to set the stage for the most well known incident involving the Gay Paree Theatre which occurred in the summer of 1973 when it made a short lived departure from its “gay” theme. The most notorious example of the XXX type of product was “Deep Throat”. By this time I had been working in theatres for a couple of years and had heard stories of private, borrowed, or bootleg versions of this film being shown privately in mainstream theatres around town after hours. However, it had never had a public engagement in Atlanta because it was almost sure to be raided. The Fulton County Solicitor of the day, Hinson McAuliffe, rarely bothered the low profile hardcore locations downtown, but never missed a chance for the free publicity to be garnered by a raid on a suburban location playing a movie like “Oh Calcutta”. (If you are interested, I have described an example of this in my post on the North Springs Theatre: /theaters/11778/)) Hard to believe now, but the United Artists release of “Last Tango In Paris” did not open in Atlanta for months after its national release date due to McAuliffe’s vow, in advance, to raid any theatre that dared play it.
This was the situation in Atlanta in July 1973 when the morning paper had a large ad for the “ALL NEW” Gay Paree announcing that it was proud to present “Deep Throat” with showings from 9:30 AM until 1:30 AM. It looked like the late hours would not be necessary since the theatre was raided at noon and the owner / manager, the projectionist, and the cashier were hauled off to jail. The owners were obviously ready for this as the owners wife brought out another print and was back onscreen by mid afternoon. For the next couple of days, the Gay Paree did the volume of business that the mainstream theatres in town only saw in their dreams, with lines around the block. The theatre was raided again and without a third print on hand, it was back to the regular fare for the Gay Paree.
At a court hearing later in the week, a large crowd of mostly county courthouse employees showed up for the hearing since it had been rumored that the movie would be screened for the judge. The sheriff tried to close the courtroom to the public, but since that was apparently illegal, the public was admitted and the judge cancelled the plans to show the film, if such plans ever existed. I never heard what happened to the case and since the main point, being the publicity, had been achieved, the whole issue disappeared from view. Until this theatre was posted, I was not aware that it was still in operation in 1977. The next time I am downtown I will look to see if the building is still there, but I doubt it.
Barbara: Thank you for that very interesting post. I do not recognize your fathers name, but he must have been the other half of the…“two lawyers who owned the theatre”. I do remember Cone Maddox very well as he was a frequent visitor to the theatre, especially when we had family films when he would bring his children. I also remember a man named Jeff (or Geoff) Tyre who I believe was English.
Perhaps you could clear up something for me. I was under the impression that your father and Cone owned the franchise to the Sandy Springs location and not the Mini Cinema chain as a whole, and that this is why went independent during the days that Storey was contracted to book and manage the chain. Do you know the story behind this?
Also, was the Peachtree Battle the first theatre in the chain? I always thought so but know someone who insists that it was the Ansley Mall which was first. I know that the Sandy Springs opened third, followed by Doraville and Candler Road. Was your father still involved when the last two were built?
I would love to hear anything you know regarding these or other aspects of the Mini Cinema operation. Oddly enough, I did not do much actual theatre work at the Sandy Springs since it required such a small staff. Usually just fill in for sick or vacationing employees or extra help during busy times. For most of those early years I worked at the North Springs, Cherokee, and Atlanta. However, I did do a lot of behind the scenes work there such as film and concession supply deliveries, marquee changes, trips to National Screen, and even spent the night there twice helping to pump out the auditorium when the Laundromat next door would cause a flood.
If you are interested, I believe all of the other Mini Cinemas have pages on this site:
Doraville: /theaters/11795/
Ansley Mall: /theaters/16291/
Peachtree Battle: /theaters/12131/
Candler Road: /theaters/16454/
Chattanooga: /theaters/17006/
Macon: /theaters/17559/
As for the movie going experience, Peachtree Battle, Sandy Springs, Doraville, and Macon were good places to see a movie. Ansley and Candler somewhat less so. Still they were better than most of the auditoriums that you will find in the megaplex of today. If your dad is still alive tell him “Thank You” for me as I have very fond memories of the theatres and the people that I met while working in them.
Biggest projection booth I ever worked in. Wide and at least 300 feet long for screens 2 through 7 with smaller stubs at each end for houses 1 and 8. All Cinemacannica V8’s, 35MM with screens 3 through 6 equipped with push button Dolby. After it became obvious that this location was built well past the prime years for this area, the Dolby units in 3 and 6 were removed and installed in the Sandy Springs / Parkside 8.
As with most GCC builds of the 80’s, this place was not built until the area was saturated with competition. I think that it opened in 1988 and closed in 1999. Just as with the Parkside, it was reopened as a dollar house by the EFW outfit but closed again after about 18 months. There has been at least one other effort but it failed as well.
Since GCC walked out on the lease during bankruptcy, the had to leave the site intact. This made it easy for a small company to come in a rent a turnkey operation without having to go to the expense of equipping a theatre. As far as I know this is still the situation although I would hate to be the one who had to clean it up to say nothing of what the booth might be like.
This is a better quality building than the recently demolished Stonemont, and the shopping center is newer and in much better shape. So, perhaps the Hairston might dodge the wrecking ball for the foreseeable future, but I doubt that it will ever be more than a marginal location for an independent operator trying to take advantage of the low overhead to squeeze out a few bucks.
I spoke to someone who works this area and he confirms that the theatre and the east wing of the shopping center has been torn down. It seems that these stores and especially the theatre had become a haven for the homeless who were constantly breaking in, which probably accounts for the appearance of the place that I noted in my last post. Not only was the theatre completely trashed on the inside, but it also had an overwhelming mold problem. I wonder if this is a problem common to old closed up locations as someone made a similar observation on the Town and Country page of this site. At any rate, the place was a public nuisance and had to go.
In total this theatre lasted 30 years, about 25 of those in use, about average for the more successful examples of theatres built during its era. This gives it about the same longevity as the Perimeter Mall, but a good bit longer than either of the Northlakes, the North DeKalb, South DeKalb, Akers Mill, Suburban Plaza, Village, and any of its later neighbors along Memorial Drive. It even lasted a little longer, counting its Bollywood days, than the great Phipps Plaza Theatre.
As I said in my post on the Town and Country, this was just an example, among the nicest in fact, of the stopgap between the movie palaces of old and the megaplex of today. For someone new to this business looking back on this era, it does not seem like a big deal. However, it was to those of us who grew up and worked during this time, and I am grateful that I got to experience this example of the movie theatre business before it turned into the fast food / amusement park atmosphere of today.
As for the time capsule, I do not know what happened to it but I hope whoever got it is an honest person. Among the many news items and theatre memorabilia items inside were hundreds of polaroids of the children who attended the opening showing of “Peter Pan” that I described in the original post that started this page. The idea was that years later, when the capsule was opened they would be sent the picture to remind them of what they were doing on June 27, 1976. And just how, you ask, were all of these children, many with different last names, going to be located? Easy. Their mothers supplied the children’s Social Security numbers which were written on the back of the picture. I wonder how many of these now grown ups have had their identities stolen because of this well intentioned effort made in a more innocent time.
Built as a free standing building in the Northlake Festival Shopping Center. I never worked at this place, or even went inside, but I believe that it was built in 1983 and opened with “Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom.” At this time the Northlake Mall area was served by the GCC Northlake 2 Triple, and the Georgia Theatre Company Village Twin ( /theaters/13468/ ) although the latter may have been closed by this time. The other nearby theatres were the Greens Corner to the north, the North 85 Drive In to the west, and the North Dekalb and Suburban Plaza to the south.
Until the Northlake and its AMC partner Galleria 8 were built I don’t remember any Atlanta theatres with more than 6 screens, so this was what passed for a megaplex in those days. Northlake was an instant hit and for the rest of the 80’s it competed with the Galleria for the title of #1 grossing theatre in Atlanta. The Northlake 2, which had been a very successful location for GCC was all but wiped off the map by the AMC 8, and staggered on until its close in 1990. Oddly enough, the AMC 8 did not last much longer, closing in the mid to late 90’s. Not having any connection to it, I have no knowledge of what brought about its end, but it could be that an 8 screen location was not worth the trouble to a big outfit like AMC by the time that 18-24 screens were the norm. By this time AMC had converted their recently rebuilt North DeKalb 8 into 16 screens and Regal had announced plans to demolish the North 85 Drive In and build what would become the Hollywood 24, so maybe that was what did it. Still, it is odd that the very busy and well to do area of Northlake Mall does not have a movie theatre in its immediate vicinity.
One odd thing about this place: A friend of mine who worked there said that there was a core of high school aged employees who started working there when the place opened that remained throughout their college years, and in some cases continued on after college on a part time basis. Just reliving the good old days I suppose. That’s a nice memory in these days when 24 screen theatres churn through employees like they were confetti and the employees seldom get a chance to experience what working in an actual movie theater was like. Maybe some of those old timers will see this site and write us some first hand accounts.
While it may have been rather plain on the inside, from outside it was the most impressive looking of all Atlanta Drive Ins. The screen backed up to Piedmont Road and could be seen from a good ways down LaVista Road. It was decorated with neon script “Piedmont Drive In” signage. To get to the box office you drove down the entrance drive through the towering pine trees that dominated the lot. As was the custom in those days the box office had a large warmer so that boxes of popcorn could be sold along with the tickets. The exit was located in the rear of the lot and opened onto Lindberg Drive.
I only had the pleasure of attending a show at the Piedmont one time, this being in 1966 when I was in Atlanta visiting family. The feature was the pleasant but unremarkable “Born Free.” As usual, the co-feature was an older offering from the same film company, in this case Columbia. Although the purpose of the trip was to see ‘'Born Free" it was the co-feature that made the night memorable. It was the first, and only time in a theatre, that I saw ’‘Bye Bye Birdie’‘ although I have watched and enjoyed it many times since. If I watch it enough I may discover why Ann-Margaret calls the title character by the proper name of Birdie in the movie itself, while in the opening and closing songs she sings his name BurHEE. The fact that I attended this showing with my cousins, one of whom is named Anne, and the other Margaret, only made the show more memorable.
Sadly, by the time I moved to Atlanta in 1967, the Piedmont had recently closed. It was torn down and in its place was a K-Mart style discount store by the name of Arlands, or maybe just Arlans. The arrival of this chain was a major blow to the historical past of Atlanta. In addition to the destruction of the Piedmont, another fine drive in, the Stewart Avenue, was also destroyed to make way for another Arlands location. Even worse, they also destroyed the old Ponce de Leon Park baseball stadium where the Atlanta Crackers had played minor league baseball for years until the arrival of the major league Braves in 1966.
As it turned out, these fine Atlanta landmarks had the last laugh as the Arlands chain went out of business within a couple of years. The Ponce de Leon store was taken over by the government as office space and later torn down to make way for yet another strip shopping center. The old Piedmont Drive In location became the site of a major weekend flea market which drew bigger crowds than the drive in or discount store ever saw. That store was torn down and the MARTA Lindberg station built on its site. The front part of the property along Piedmont where the box office and screen were sited became a parking lot and later a huge Bell South office complex.
Across the street at Broadview Plaza, later renamed Lindberg Plaza, two indoor theatres were built in the early 70’s and are listed on this site as the Screening Room. They are also gone as that shopping center was torn down in about 2004 to make way for yet another and still larger shopping center. The way some things change never changes.
The East Point Theatre was probably closed about 1970. The last manager, Mr. R.M. Swanson went directly to open the new South DeKalb Twin. The assistant manager, Mrs V.M. King became the assistant at the Greenbriar. The equipment was removed and found a new home at the Cinema 285 (Hammond Square Cinema on this site) when it opened in June 1971. At this time the theatre was under the management of Gerogia Theatre Company.
The strip of buildings was demolished in late 1989 at about the time the Tri Cities High School was being completed.
I have three distinct memories of the Ritz while growing up in Birmingham.
1962: How The West Was Won. My parents told me before the show that I was going to see a movie so big that it took 3 screens to show the entire picture. I guess that is how they had to describe it so a 10 year old would understand. I do not remember much about the movie itself because I was constantly looking at the right and left screens to see what was going on away from the “action.” In 1998 I made the trek to Dayton, Ohio to see HTWWW at the Neon Cinerama. It was not until then that I was able to appreciate the incredible focus and 7 track sound.
1965: Doctor Zhivago. The Ritz hosted many roadshow movies while the other ABC operated theatre, The Alabama, played the more standard fare. My mother took me to see this one because she thought it would appeal to my interest in History. (My father, having seen it with her earlier said “…once is enough.”) She was right, as usual, and from the first viewing Doctor Zhivago has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I do not know how many times I have seen it over the years, but my viewings have been in every type of venue from mono shoebox theatre to 70MM presentations at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. I have also had the pleasure of working at several theatres where it has played, managed one, (South DeKalb) and run it as the projectionist twice, both times at the Fox. I now have the new 2 disc DVD, and never tire of seeing it.
1965: Sound of Music. The Cobb operated Eastwood Mall Theatre was the main competition for the Ritz and Alabama although its 1960’s draped auditorium and living room style lobby were no match for these other two fine places in atmosphere. SOM played its reserved seat engagement at Eastwood, but the day after Zhivago left the Ritz, SOM was brought in as a filler until whatever Christmas show they had booked that year opened. Since I had already seen it at Eastwood, it was not the movie itself but the condition of the print that made this a notable experience. In those days, prints were not produced in anywhere near the numbers of today. More like 300 than 3000. By the time they got to an engagement such as this, there was no telling how many poorly maintained booths and film butchers they had encountered. The Ritz did not get the film in time, or did not bother, to inspect it. It was full of scratches, sound pops, and at least half a dozen breaks, one of which lasted for at least 15 minutes. This made the show end almost an hour late. The result was a massive traffic jam on Second Avenue on the Friday before Christmas as my mother and dozens of other parents there to pick up their children, had to wait in their cars for us to leave the theatre. (Remember, this was in the day when most of the department stores, and by extension Christmas shopping, were still downtown.)
I am sure that I visited the Ritz on other occasions but do not remember any in particular. I also remember going to the Alabama, Empire, Melba, Homewood, and even the Shades Mountain Drive In, but in those days I was more interested in the movie than the venue.
I think that the original post by Don might refer to the old Miracle or perhaps some theatre of that time that might have used the name Town and Country. This location was a 1970 era build. It was of the second generation of Eastern Federal Theatres built here, and like the Cobb Cinema and Ben Hill, was cheap to build and operate. The junction of the T&C shopping center had something of a small town square feel and the box office opened out onto it.
Inside it very much resembled the old Sandy Springs Mini Cinema. Small paneled lobby, shallow, wide shaped auditorium with a good sized screen, but NO concession stand. The far wall of the lobby had vending machines for drinks, candy and popcorn. During these years it was not unusual for theatres to have vending machines, but this was the first one I saw with machines only. On busy nights an employee would be stationed nearby to issue change and assist with mechanical problems. In the spring of 1972, the machines were removed and a very small concession stand built in their place.
The booth was manager operated and equipped with a Cinemeccanica V-18 projector and 12,000 foot reels which were mounted behind the projector. Since these reels had a capacity of about 2 hours and 20 minutes, anything longer had to have an intermission. Tora, Tora, Tora in May of 1972, Nicholas and Alexandra in September of 1972, and Sound of Music in its 1973 reissue were the ones that I remember being split. Sleuth, in the spring of 1973 was the longest movie I saw run on one reel.
In those pre VCR days, it was common for theatres to bring back old hits to fill in gaps in their booking schedules. Whenever one of my favorites would reappear in this manner I would try to go see it since you never could be sure when or if you would get the chance again. A July 1971 booking of the double feature Bullitt (or as it was listed on the marquee: Bullet) and Bonnie and Clyde first brought the T&C to my attention. Later that year I started working for EFC and saw many movies here. Being located in Cobb County, T&C (as well as the Miracle, Cobb Cinema, Cobb Center, and Belmont) could play the big first run movies day and date with the first run houses in Atlanta. Since I could now get in free, I made the trip to see Dirty Harry, Cowboys, Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc, Butterflies Are Free, Sleuth, and Jeremiah Johnson, among others. The screen here was a very nice size in relation to the size of the auditorium and I recall Cowboys and Jeremiah Johnson looking especially fine with their cinemascope aspect ratio.
In 1973 I fell from grace with Ira and the EFC crowd, so I do not know much about the history of this place following those years. This was a time of big business for this place and during my EFC days it was fortunate enough to be well managed by Cliff Bryson. I heard later that he moved to NC to manage theatres for EFC there. I understand that when tripled, the original auditorium was left intact, but I never saw it. I heard that during the construction for the twin addition, a storm blew down the concrete block wall and they had to start over. The only other thing I remember about this place took place in 1991. In the newspaper ad for T2, the theatre listings at the bottom had a big “Presented in 70MM” collar around the logo for the Marietta Star Cinema. I had never heard of this theatre, but when I looked up the address, I found it to be the old T&C, now run by George Lefont.
The T&C, like countless other places like it, was a product of the particular conditions of movie booking and exhibition that existed from 1965 until about 1980. Looking back from 30 years in the future I can see that they were just cheap, and it turns out, temporary stopgaps between the movie palaces of old and the megaplexes of today. But, to those of us who worked in them, they were a big deal then, and am glad that I had the chance to experience that era of the movie business.
http://www.trolleybuses.net/atl/atl.htm
For those of you interested in old pictures of Atlanta, this site has dozens, and links to dozens more, pictures of transit vehicles from the early 1900’s. As for its relevance to this page, this link,
View link
shows a trolley at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Rumson Road. If that information is correct, then the shopping center in the background is the Garden Hills. Since the location of the theatre would be behind the trolley I can not be sure, but it looks right.
I first visited this theatre in 1999 while on a visit to Winterset to see the Madison County covered bridges and the John Wayne Museum and birthplace. It is located on the east side of the town square. At the time they were playing two separate shows, a family movie at 7PM and an adult (as in Adam Sandler type adult, not XXX) feature at 9PM. Winterset is only 35 miles from Des Moines so the turnover in features here is pretty quick in order to keep the local customers from traveling to Des Moines if what they want to see is not currently playing at the local theatre.
The manager / owner was working the box office, but he was nice enough to let me in to look the place over and talk about the difficulties in running a one screen small town theatre in close proximity to a large city. Print availability on national release date and preview availability were two issues he mentioned. These seem to be problems common to most theatres is this type of setting.
The theatre itself is old and occupies a narrow storefront on the square. Like most cold weather businesses it has a double lobby. Once you enter the street doors you come to the box office. From there you go through another set of doors into the main lobby, which in this case is taken up mostly by the snack bar. The interior of the auditorium is 1950’s art deco style with two off center aisles. The outside frontage had been covered with wood siding, but the owner said that removing it and restoring the exterior to its original state was his next priority. From the look of the two pictures posted on this site it seems that he has not gotten around to it yet.
In 2005 I noticed on another theatre website that this location was listed as closed. I called the Chamber of Commerce and the lady there said that it was open and had not closed at any time during the past 6 years.
Opened in the summer of 1985, six months after the Shannon. This was good timing for the operator since Georgia Theatre Company had emptied out the used projector warehouse when equipping the Shannon. The Southlake had all new booth equipment. 7 Century 35MM and one Century 35/70MM. The only time I am aware that the 70 was used was for “Black Cauldron.”
There was also a very odd piece of equipment known as the Christie Endless Loop Platter. This ridiculous gadget was proclaimed to all theatre owners as a way to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. It looked like a regular platter only with one platter instead of the usual 3 or 5. When being loaded with a new movie the leader would be threaded through the projector and spliced onto the tail of the movie. The film would be pulled from the center as normal but instead of winding onto a different platter would wind onto the back of the print. To keep the film from backing back off of the edge of the platter, a spring loaded arm would gently and rhythmically bump the print in towards the center of the platter as it turned. Even now I have a hard time describing it. It really had to be seen to be believed.
Fortunately the Southlake, or any other theatre I ever heard of, did not use this abortion to run their actual movies. In keeping with the Rube Goldberg nature of the whole operation, the projector was aimed toward a mirror which reflected the image onto the back of a screen which faced the lobby. It was used to show a constant stream of previews to the people, and unfortunate employees, who were in the lobby. In those days previews were not distributed at anywhere near the current number so there was seldom more than 30 minutes or so worth before the loop started over. Mercifully, I only worked this location occasionally so I never had the pleasure of changing the previews or remounting the loop.
The only other notable thing I remember about this place was the freedom with which the staff would use the house PA system. I recall hearing announcements in the auditoriums about car headlights being left on, convertible tops being left down in the rain, paging the manager to the phone, and even calling employees back to work when their break was up.
As with all other GTC properties and employees, the end came with the sellout to United Artists Theatres in the late 80’s. I did not notice when this place was closed, but it certainly gave it up by the time the AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 opened.
As Jack stated above, the ultimate in bland, unpleasant theatre design. But, at least in the 80’s there was no reason to put extra money and effort into creating a nice movie going experience. The GCC Northlake 2 and Southlake 2 triples were truly the poster children for the dozens of theatres built around Atlanta during this period which offered little more than a seat, a screen, and sound for the patrons. Three identical, long, thin, shoeboxes with 400 of the trademark GCC two position seats in each house. This notorious example of contempt for the customer was also the bane of many theatre employees who spent countless hours pushing the seats back to their upright positions while cleaning the auditorium.
The Southlake was the fourth GCC venue to be built in Atlanta following the Perimeter Mall in 1973, Northlake 2 in 1976, and Akers Mill in 1977. I believe it opened in 1978. The booth was equipped with Century 35MM projectors and Christie Autowind 3 platters. One house had the first generation pushbutton style Dolby sound rack. In an improvement over its Northlake predecessor, the screens had up and down masking for the flat picture so that both the scope and flat pictures filled the entire screen.
The main reason that these theatres were built so bland is that the public demanded little else. All they wanted was to see the hit movies, and in this area that meant going to the GCC Southlake for the most part. The only first run competition was a 3 screen effort by Plitt a couple of blocks over. I worked at this theatre several times between 1984 and 1988. During a two week stint covering a vacation for the regular projectionist in 1984 I saw the place filled to near capacity many times while showing Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and Bachelor Party. The next year Back to the Future was a big hit. As usual, this kind of success attracted the attention of the competition and before long Georgia Theatre opened an 8plex across the street, and Cineplex followed with a 6. Eventually AMC put all of these efforts out of business with their 24 screen Southlake Pavilion.
One constant during all of the time I was connected with this place was the complete lack of an adequate number (qualified or un) of job applicants. GCC considered themselves a class operation, and to be fair, they were in many respects. Help Wanted was just too crass a way to attract the best workers they felt, so at GCC it was always Employment Opportunities Available. When a sign in the lobby did not attract enough applicants, they would sometimes put the appeal on the marquee itself. However, there was not nearly enough room for all of that copy, so the word Employment was left off. It never ceased to amuse the staff how many people came in and asked about the movie “Opportunities Available.” Granted, that is not much of a story, but it was not much of a theatre.
Just like the Northlake 2 it was torn down in the early 90’s and a Sports Authority now sits on the site.
Another venue from my past. I attended the Riverside many times while I was a student at Georgia College in Milledgeville during 1972, 73, and 74. There were two indoor screens and one drive in screen in Milledgeville, all operated by Martin, but if you wanted first run product you usually had to drive the 30 miles to Macon. At the time, Riverside was operated by its builder, the Weis Theatre Company and was still a twin. I would guess that the seating capacity was about 500 per side. The front doors opened into the lobby and the auditoriums were to either side. Concession stand straight ahead in the middle, with the box office opening to the outside between the sets of entrance doors.
A notable feature of the auditoriums was the lack of a false ceiling. All of the lighting fixtures, ductwork, conduits, etc… were exposed, but painted black so that you really did not notice them unless you happened to look up. During intermission a slide projector in the booth showed slides at an angle so that it hit half screen and half panels located on the wall. At first I thought that the projector was misaligned, but since it was always that way I guess you can say it was “art.” In those pre advertising days the slides were pictures of movie stars and some stills from classic movies.
The Riverside was the newest theatre in Macon at that time and competed with the Georgia Theatre Company operated triple in the Westgate Shopping Center for first run product. I can remember seeing “What’s Up Doc”, “Nicholas and Alexandra”, “The Exorcist”, and “Sound of Music” among many others at this location. In the mid to late 70’s the Weis Theatre Company hit hard times and started disposing of their properties. Georgia Theatre Company bought up the ones in Macon which also included the downtown Bibb, the Weis Drive In in Warner Robbins which was the only air conditioned drive in I ever saw, and the half of the Macon Mini Cinema that Weis and GTC had jointly owned and operated for several years.
When I left Georgia Theatre in the early 80’s they were still running it as a twin. I was not aware that it had ever been quaded, or when it closed. One other note: Just out Riverside Drive a little ways was the Georgia Theatre operated Riverside Drive In. It was located in the nicest setting I have ever seen for a drive in and was a great place to see a movie.
I agree, it is a shame to see this one go. Although it does not have the “going back in time” feel of the Plaza, having been extensively remodeled by Weis in the late 60’s, it was one of those fast fading links to the past that Atlanta seems to intent on getting rid of.
When I moved to Atlanta in 1967, it was known as the Fine Art and was playing “A Man For All Seasons.” Although not exactly what we would call an “Art” house today, like Midtown, or Tara, it did play a mixture of “art” type movies as well as mainstream product. (In the 60’s the art house trade was the almost exclusive domain of the Peachtree Art at 1132 Peachtree Palace Theatreth as mentioned by Don above, and starting in 1971, the Film Forum of George Ellis.) The first movie I was planning to see there was “In Cold Blood” until, that is, my mother noticed the R rating on it. (We detoured to see “The Happiest Millionaire” at the Fox instead.) The “Uncle Toms Cabin” booking featured in the then and now picture linked to above played in early 1969. It was followed by “The Killing Of Sister George” definitely not mainstream, and then “Goodbye Columbus” which took up the entire summer of 1969. Some of the other slightly out of the mainstream type bookings here were “Sterile Cuckoo” (4 months), “Anne of the Thousand Days” (3 months), “Boys In The Band” (4 months), and “Five Easy Pieces” (3 months). However, the champion for longest run during this time was the strictly mainstream “Odd Couple” which played for the final 7 months of 1968.
For Christmas of 1970, Weis booked “Ryan’s Daughter” and that one ran one week shy of 8 months during the first half of 1971. That was a good time for the Weis company as the Capri (now Buckhead Roxy) just up the street was enjoying a 7 month run of its own with “Love Story.” With “Ryan’s Daughter” I finally made it to a show at the Fine Art. With its small entrance (box-office opening to the outside in those days), tiny lobby, dark auditorium, Weis inspired decorating, I did not think much of it as a venue when compared with Lenox and Phipps, etc… Also, I did not see the movie until July and by that time the print was certainly the worse for wear and a pale example of the 70MM presentation I would see at Phipps a year or so later. Following Ryan, more narrow appeal movies enjoyed good runs here, usually lasting a month to 6 weeks. Among these were “Walkabout,” “The Go-Between,” and “Harold and Maude.”
In the spring of 1972 I paid my second visit to the Fine Art, this time to see “The Last Picture Show.” This movie, which also had a four month run, was not at all what I was expecting to see and at the time I did not think much of it. (Later I became a fan of it and even made a trip to Archer City, Texas which is where the film, and its sequel Texasville, was set and filmed.) These were still the days of blind bidding, advance rentals, and exclusive runs, and bookings exceeding 3 months were not unusual. The Fine Art followed the usual pattern of those days by running a full day “grind” schedule with the first show starting about 2 PM with midnight shows on Friday and Saturday nights. As the run lengthened and attendance declined the Friday night midnight show would drop off, then the Saturday night one and finally the matinees. Other than the downtown theatres, the Lenox and Capri were the only theatres during this time that ran all day year round.
In the summer of 1970, Weis had taken over the old Peachtree Art Theatre and reopened it as the Weis Cinema. Shortly after that they built the Broadview (later twinned with the Broadview II becoming the Silver Screen and the Broadview I becoming the Great Southeast Music Hall) and in May of 1972 purchased the Peachtree Battle Mini Cinema (which was later sold to George Lefont and became the Silver Screen.) The point of all of this is that with more theatres to book, the product got thinned out and the number of blockbuster hits at the Fine Art declined. After “Picture Show” left, there was a year of steady but unremarkable bookings until August of 1973 when one of the biggest Fine Art hits of all, “American Graffiti” opened. Looking at the booking patterns of today, it is hard to believe that this huge hit did not open until mid August. I have heard the story that not much was expected of this small film with its unknown director, George Lucas, which is why it was dumped onto the release schedule when summer was almost over. Regardless, by the time it opened in Atlanta, Universal knew they had a hit and not only did the Fine Art run the usual full schedule, but they ran midnight shows every night until school started back.
“American Graffiti” finished out the year, and for the next couple of years it was back to the steady but unspectacular slate of films. Within a couple of years the entire Weis company was in trouble as a result of overexpansion with their acquisition of the mini cinemas, and their habit of gambling big advances to get the sure fire hits, some of which were not so sure fire. A very sad event, the death of the son of Albert Weis in an auto accident, also hurt as Mr. Weis seemed to lose interest in the day to day operations of the company after that happened.
My third and last visit to the Fine Art was in December of 1974 for an advance screening of Godfather Part II. As mentioned in other posts here and on the Film Forum page, George Ellis moved his operation here in the mid to late 70’s. After he returned to Ansley Mall, the Georgia Theatre Company took control of the Garden Hills, as it was then known (again). This was an odd turn of events and GTC never did much with the place and only held the lease a short time. In those days they had a habit of taking over theatres they really had no interest in, such as the Parkaire and Georgia Twin, aka Georgia Cinerama, just to keep the competition out. This may have been the case here, but I do not really know. At any rate, as every one here knows, George Lefont soon took over and the rest is well known.