Candler Road Minicinema

I worked there after working for one year at the South Dekalb Twin Cinema accross the street. It was 1971, I was in high school at Columbia High, 17 years old and given the title of Assistant Manager. I think I was making $1.15 or $1.20 hour. I remember Woodstock playing and the entire theater smelling like pot. I left because I got a job at JCPenneys across the street for a tiny amount more per hour and a discount on clothes.

I think that when Candler was first sold it was part of a block of mini cinemas and perhaps GTC did not want to take on the whole lot. Or, maybe they were interested but Weis outbid them. A couple of months earlier GTC had been involved in the strangest change of ownership I ever saw when they purchased the Parkaire Twin from Loews. (You can read that one on the Parkaire page if interested.)GTC was a pretty conservative outfit and maybe Parkaire took up all of the money they were prepared to risk.

Also, 1974 was shaping up to be a bad year at the Lenox Square since it was tied to the United Artists Pictures contract. I think that the top grossing film there all year was Sleeper which was really a Christmas 1973 release. Point is, although 1974 was a very good at several of the theaters I worked in, the owners were obsessed with Lenox. If things were bad there they might have been less inclined to expand.

In the fall of 1977 SD was twinned on each side and Christmas of 1977 and spring and summer of ‘78 were huge. When Weis left town a year of so later it is probable that they did not consider Candler worth worrying about to the point that they did not even track it. I recall that in late '80 or so SD was booked with Coal Miners Daughter. The manager called the booker to tell him that Candler, a dollar house at the time, was at that moment running that movie. The response from the booker was: “O, thanks. I forgot about that (blank)hole.”

As to its location, you are correct. I saw it every night when I was managing SD since I had to use the NBG right next to it for the night deposit drop. (The family that owned GTC also owned a lot of NGB stock.) However, the shopping center extends out towards Candler Road more than I remembered it so I could not find the exact spot when I last was by there.

Great info Stan, makes sense. I remember SD would get Jaws 2, Grease, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, and Jungle Book that summer. Saw those movies there or the Glenwood Drive In. Boy, talk about timing. I would say summer 1978 was the first official blockbuster summer as we would come to know it. (Star Wars, of course, kicking things off the summer before with Jaws as a primer in ‘75.)

Like you, and as more of a youngster moviegoer, I was saddened with the butchering of SD into a quad. That being said, they sure got to play a lot of successful product, and nobody seemed to care as I can remember packed houses, lines outside past the Barrel of Fun. (Although I do remember long line down the mall for Freaky Friday on a Saturday when it was a twin!) I think they were the only quad around except Akers Mill at the time.

As for the Lenox Square, my Dad talks about what a great theatre it was when a single. I saw Scrooged there when I think it was a 6. Can you imagine a theatre being tied to a particular studio today? Jeez. I am sure Woody Allen and the James Bond movies played to good crowds there though. I liked Sleeper, and I need to see Love and Death. Anyway, sorry for straying off topic Stan. Thanks so much for your valuable feedback and knowledge. I love this era!!! It was a unique transitional time. Movie palaces were being torn down and we were not quite at the multi/megaplex level yet that was to come in the mid-80’s.

This became an adult cinema called the Showcase Cinemas in 1976 and listings stopped in the newspaper in 1977. More to come…

Opened on 11/12/1970 with “Doctor Zhivago”.