New Glen Art Theatre

rivest266

Where did you find the info about opening date?

My father and two partners bought the Glen from Mr. Green in probably 1964. My father’s theater booking agency represented the Glen so when Mr. Green said he was going to close it, they made their move. We operated it for about 18 months, then the burden of it got to be too much. I generally operated the concession stand on Saturdays, Sundays and some evenings. Fellow named Gene was the projectionist. Very neighborhood house, mostly teens coming in during the week to neck, weekends for the socializing and the action pictures. After they sold it to a Cuban, he flipped it to the prono house. There was a Krystal across the street, a drug store down the corner to the right, lots of parking out front. Faced west, so the setting sun flooded the lobby. Lot of fond memories. My dad kept careful note of the time of the last ticket sold so we could shut the place down when the program came back to that point. I was 16, 17 at the time.

Thanks Don,So glad pictures remain.

See new Photo of Glen in 1953 that I just posted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgw55swd

Henry, do you remember the name of the theater that Mr Greene owned in Palmetto. I remember that it was in a Quanset Hut type building and had a balcony for Blacks.

The Glen opened September 1952. The owner/operator was William Greene who also was owner/operator of Palmetto Theater in Palmetto, GA.
The Glen was the only theater in the Atlanta,GA area that had push back seats installed. If someone needed to get by, you only had to push the seat back and they could pass without you getting out of your seat. There were also 2 cry rooms for crying babies. The total seating was 480 with a small balcony that seated 54. The projection booth had 2 Simplex XL projectors with Peerless carbon rod lamp houses and Simplex sound heads.
I started to work at the Glen on opening night in September,1952 (I was 16 years old) as usher/doorman. Later on I also worked the Concession stand and as Projectionist. I worked there untill January 1957.
When the Glen opened in 1952 the admission was Adult-35 cents, Children-15 cents. Popcorn was 10 cents a bag.
The weekly schedule was:
Monday thru Friday open at 3:00pm
Sunday & Saturday open at 1:30pm
Sunday & Monday———– Feature, Cartoon & News Reel
Tuesday & Wednesday——Feature, Cartoon & News Reel
Thursday & Friday———Feature, Cartoon & News Reel
Saturday———————-Double Feature, Cartoon & Serial
In late 1953 Mr Greene made the decision to change the Monday thru
Friday opening time to 6:15pm due to declining afternoon attendance.
The Projectionist was a union member and the union told Mr. Greene
that he would have to pay the Projectionist starting at 3:00pm. Mr.
Greene refused and the union operator walked out.
Mr. Greene bought in a Projectionist (a WWII disable veteran from
the Palmetto,GA Theater) who was not union. The union set up a picket line and kept up this line for over a year and then quit. A strange thing was that the men who walked the picket line were not union projectionist but were hired to walk the picket line. Those of us that worked at the Glen durning this time had a good relationship with these men.
The Projectionist from the Palmetto Theater taught Me, Eugene Leftwich and Bill Anglin how to be Projectionist. Bill and I did this untill 1957 and Eugene untill late 1961.
I do not know when the Glen started showing X rated movies. When I got out of the Marine Corps in 1960, I did some relief Projectionist work showing regular movies for about 6 months.
See photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgw55swd Photos made September,1956 durning Kiwanis Club free kids day. William Greene is standing at lower back door and I am stanting at projection booth door in balcony

Ron W

Here is a photo of The Glen Theatre building now.
View link

Great color picture of The Glen Theatre, thanks for posting it Chuck1231

Nice picture. Although I grew up in Hapeville and still live there, my family had a friend who lived up Glenwood Road from the Glen. By the time I remember seeing the Glen, it had already become a porno house. Also in the 1970s the Glen was notorious for showing the double bill, “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones.” I even remember hearing people who had classes with me at Georgia State that they went there to see the movies.

As nearly as I can tell, the Glen Theatre might have opened circa 1954/55. In going through the files of the Atlanta Journal at the Atlanta Public Library, I could not find any mention of the theater prior to about 1954. Located at the juncture of Glenwood Road and Candler Road in the Glenwood business district, it’s neon sign was a familiar sight to anyone who lived in the area in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. This theater was a just over a mile from the house where I grew up in East Lake, on the border of Decatur, so I knew it well.

The Glen appeared to have been independently owned and operated, as opposed to being part of one the major theater chains of that era, like Georgia or Storey Theatres. The theater itself was a nondescript, somewhat seedy, neighborhood grind house with about 600 seats and no pretentions whatsoever. It was essentially a bare bones operation, but it certainly did business in its prime years. What was fun about the Glen was the fact that they changed the program two or three times a week. On Saturdays, they typically booked a double or triple feature program of horror, science fiction, westerns, and action pictures. They even showed serials! If there was a Tarzan movie or Hammer horror picture you had managed to miss, or wanted to see again, you could expect it to play the Glen on a Saturday.

By the early 1960’s, fellow movie buffs that I knew from different parts of town would join me to catch screenings of vintage movies like the original KING KONG and the original THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (prints were excellent!). The Glen seemed to offer a veritable feast of cultural junk food to satisfy the cravings of baby boomers. What was really nice was that the audiences actually paid attention to the movies!

Whatever the Glen Theatre lacked in class it made up for in fun. If you ever have a chance to see a charming British comedy titled THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (1957), don’t miss it! In it a couple played by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna inherit a London grind house staffed by eccentric characters played by Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, and Bernard Miles. The people who made that picture must have really loved cinema, in all its declasse splendor. That movie might almost have been about the Glen Theatre!

Hopefully, you knew a movie house like the Glen Theatre when you were growing up!