Lenox Square Theatre

When I started working at this place I made mention to the City Manager of what a terrible presentation was offered by Lenox II. The theater was very long and narrow with a tiny screen with poor focus in front and poor sound in the back. Having been manager there in 1968 when it was added, he told me that the space had previously been an indoor golf driving range and they did the best they could with the available space.

I never heard another word about the history of that place other than it was closed by the time the CM showed up as manager. In the decades since I never even heard mention of it even in the historical displays put up by the mall to cover up vacant storefronts. I was beginning to think that perhaps the space was just intended for a driving range which never came about.

Now I have come across an article from 60 years ago describing the concept and operation of the range and reporting on its grand opening. Given the technology of the time it was a pretty futuristic endeavor but since it was more a curiosity it is easy to see why it did not last. There is no doubt that this is what originally occupied the footprint of Lenox II as a sentence described it as being located adjacent to the theater. This spot remained a theater for 35 years until summer 2003 when the entire theater closed at the end of its 40 year run. The site was gutted and transformed into a for profit commercial business college which lasted about 15 years.

I haven’t been by Lenox since Covid so I don’t know what if anything is in that space now. A copy of the article on the golf range is in the photo section.

2nd screen opened on June 11th, 1969. Ad in photo section.

We went to Lenox a lot when I was a kid, being the movie junkie that I am. Much later, after the theaters had been augmented, we would go sometimes before we went down to the Silver Screen to watch Rocky Horror. In the 80’s, the theater got to be a joke because the sound was horrid. The last film I saw there was “Revenge of the Pink Panther”, which itself was insipid. Still, I have so many good memories of Lenox Square.

The Burt Lancaster film, “The Train” (1964) was the only film I saw here. It was a single-screen theatre then. Though in black and white, “The Train” was an exciting film on the nearly wall-to-wall screen. The memory is 49 years old, but I am pretty sure that we entered from inside the mall, which was open-air back then.

I’ve been gone from Atlanta since ‘97. A friend recently told me about CT. I was really shocked to find
the Lenox Square Theaters closed. That’s like hearing that Lenox Square itself had folded.
Yes, I saw all the Bond movies from the 70s there. I spent many a rainy Atlanta afternoon at the
Lenox Square movies.
And yes, the later expanded layout was a lousy place to see a movie. One frequently sat in the
theater and heard the soundtrack of the movie next door blasting through the wall. And the audiences got so rude and obnoxious (usually groups of teens) I finally stopped going to evening or weekend
showings, sticking to the less well attended matinees.
I thought I remembered the original entrance was located street level, not inside the mall. It was -
thanks for that photo Stan (and all your great posts.)
No, in its latter days, Lenox Square Theaters was not a great spot, but I always thought the place
would be there. Too bad it’s not.

Oct 15 1988 these movies are playing: “DIE HARD”,“SWEET HEARTS Dance”.ALIEN NATION", “MEMORIES OF ME” “ACCUSED"and "TOUGHER THAN LEATHER”.

Great ad on 007,Dennis.

Is this the same theater that was in the mall, next to the food court? I only went a few times in the early ‘90s, and by then any previous charm was long gone. It was an awful location, made worse when the then-state-of-the-art AMC Phipps Plaza opened up across the street.

All the bad posts about the Lenox Square Theater are true. I remember going a few times before they split the big auditorium. It definitely was not art deco but more of the typical 60s theaters.

After they began splitting auditoriums, it was like looking down a long hallway at a TV screen. The screen did not look much bigger than what some people have in their homes now.

Another bad memory of this theater was seeing Armageddon (Excuse the spelling). That night they had the lights on in back of the auditorium and someone was moving stuff around creating enough noise to drown out the movie.

What once was a nice place degenerated into the worst place to see a movie.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. STARTS FRIDAY at these two theatres.
View link

Here are two photos of the marquee:
http://tinyurl.com/gtn4j
http://tinyurl.com/j3lb5

Here is a photo of the entrance back when the Lenox was a single screen cinema.