Southside Twin Cinemas

Thanks, Mike and Ray.

In 1981 we had a Music Store- Bandstand Music Co. in a building ,located at 3757 Old Savannah Rd (Mike Padgett Hwy) Augusta, Ga.
For Fun I began to show 16mm westerns, Lash LaRue, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Sunset Carson etc (I had collected over the years)—on Thursday nights inside the buliding in the section behind the on the area that housed the music store.
I even ran newspaper ads. We charged $1.00 to come for the movies at a side door. We began to have around 50-75 people each week. My Wife, Bonnie started popping popcorn there with a home popper.I then bought a bigger one from a friend , Jim Shirrah, in Metter , Ga . he had closed his drive-In Theatre just before then.
Then one night I got to thinking about maybe moving the Music store to the rear making it smaller, business had fell off because of the economy anyway. That would leave an area of 80ft X 50ft for the Theatre. I called all the ditributors in Atlanta to ask about film availability for another Sub Run Theatre. They all gave the Ok.
I then called Jim Shirah and made a deal on his 35mm Simplex and RCA Sound heads.A friend Jack Hazel helped me go to Metter and disassemble and move all the equipment.And haul it in a trailer to Augusta.
Then I had to figure out all the mesurements etc. we built in 100% of the Theatre, My wife Bonnie made curtains from the flame resistant fabric, and hung them. Our son Wesley helped at night some too after his day job. We even inclined the floor. After 2 + years we finally opened with “Chariots of Fire” June 1982. I was a lot of work but fun too.
I forgot to mention I bought seats from a closed Fort Gordon Theatre. We hauled, cleaned , painted and arranged them and had 242 seats in the theatre. Bought a used 5 ton Central AC Unit.
We did great for about 2 yrs then with cable coming to the area and Video rentals etc business got slow. As a desperate attempt to survive I figured out how to Twin the Theatre.
We used 2 35mm’s and I could'nt afford 2 zenon Lamphouses so I figured out to modify the rectifier units on each lamphouse to be
able to burn up to 14 reels on 1 carbon setup instead of about 3 reels.Still had a great looking picture..
Then we rearranged, Wes and I, the forward outer walls and built a
center sound proof wall down the center.
Finally after 12 days (and nights) we reopened. 2 screens, 2 Titles, but less crownd on each side. If we did good on 1 side the other was not as good and took away from the other.
Finally going from 7 nights a week we went to weekends. From there it was not enough to stay open, Plus the movies in 1984-85 were not much crowd drawing…
Finally we closed around June 1985. But that theatre was the most fun businesses I ever was involved in.
Thanks to people like Mike Rogers, Bill Barkley, Paul Renew, Ed Copeland, Jack Hazel,Jim Shirah and many more, they all taught me something. I say , you can always learn something from everyone.
I hope this story has not been long and boring. Thanks for reading it.
Ray Hutto