CT member Tim Larsen who posts under the name tlpdesign has created a fine website record of the Riverside Quad. The link to it is on the Riverside page. There are 30 pictures embedded in the site. The last 6 or so are from the booth of the Macon Mall Theater. When I mentioned that the booth seemed a lot larger in those pictures than I remembered he said that was because it was not the same booth.
The Georgia Theater built Quad from 1977 was included in the 1987 sale to UA. UA soon bankrupted and was absorbed by Regal. Regal then demolished the quad and built an 8 on the site. Don’t know when that happened or when it closed.
Dallas: I have a question regarding your comment of 6/17/19. I am no researcher so I am not claiming to know, but I find it hard to believe that there was ever a 70MM print of The Ugly Dachshund. Even if there was, Loews was a Union operation and I can not imagine them paying the bill for two projectionists which would have been required for any 70MM run. Could it be that the promotional material for this location promoted its 70MM projection without actually saying that the movie itself was presented in 70MM? I have seen ads for 35MM presentations stating something like….“See It On Our Giant 70MM Screen.” Maybe it was something like that.
The pictures of the booth after twinning appear to show Century 35MM projectors. From the distance and angle they could certainly be 35/70’s, but there are no 70MM mag sound heads on top. In Atlanta when they twinned the Tara which was a 70MM house, only one side retained 70MM capability but they left the sound heads on both projectors. I was also curious about that 10 Channel sound system. Maybe they promoted it as “4 and 6 channel stereo”? Or, maybe they meant 6 channel movie sound and 4 channel intermission music from their 8 track tape player? Just kidding of course.
Anyway, I would be interested in any comment you have on this.
So, that system really did exist! If I had not known the two guys who told me about it I would have assumed that it was the stuff of urban legend. Thank you for that very detailed and entertaining description. Amazing that someone wise enough to design something like the Sword would be so unwise as to think it would work dependably. You mentioned new prints. I would imagine that with used prints, and every JL I have first hand knowledge of was a second run house, every stripped or broken hole would have snagged on that partially open gate. It must have been quite a sight to see one projector running normally and one running in reverse.
As for the Sabre, I have actually seen one of those up close. In 1999 some friends and I drove to Dayton Ohio to see How The West Was Won in Cinerama at the New Neon theater there. That night we went to a local drive in, and the manager was nice enough to give us a tour. The projector was mounted on the floor as usual and the feed and take up reels were to the right. I do remember the Eprad brand name on the equipment. I guess any brand projector would work on this system since I recall this one being a Simplex. It was a one projector booth and they had the double feature on separate reels.
That Eprad was an odd company. In my theater managing days I worked for a company that was always willing to let people demonstrate their new equipment, not at some slow neighborhood location, but at their flagship first run theater. I recall losing a show once when the Christie demo projector broke down after less than a week. Later they let Eprad install some type of two channel synthetic stereo system which was supposed to give you surround sound without the expense of buying a Dolby brand system. I recall talk of some sort of sound splitting principle that would give you stereo effect even on a mono print but that may have been on some other gadget. It was 1980, a long time ago for my memory.
I guess I have wandered off of the original subject of this odd example of a Jerry Lewis operation, but hopefully someone with JL booth experiences will see it and add their comments on this subject to other pages. Dallas, I recently added a comment / question to the page you started on the JL in Winder Ga. Any additional info you have on that would be welcome.
markp and dallas, I have a JL projection booth equipment question for you. When I visited my first JL, the Buford Highway Twin, the booth was equipped in the standard way most new builds of that era were, twin 6000 foot reel projectors. The operator told me that originally the theater was equipped with a dual projector Eprad system called Saber, or possibly Sword, I can’t really remember. He said that the projectors only had to be threaded once. When the changeover or end of show shut down occurred instead of the film running on through, the projector would stop and run in reverse until the entire reel was back to the 8 on the leader.
This sounds incredible to me and in 40 years of working in theaters, 30 in the booth, I have never seen anything like it. I have heard mention of it over the years as well as a system where the film arrived already mounted on 6000 foot reels, something like WB tried in the late 90’s, only the JL reels were encased in a cartridge like container that fit on top of the projector. The idea was that this would make the theater even more automated while ensuring that the owner could not play any movies not approved by the company since regular reels would not work.
Can either of you shed any light on these seemingly unlikely methods of running film? If they did exist in any form they must not have worked well. Over the years I have never ceased to be amazed at the lengths ownership would go to in order to eliminate that pesky projectionist. I mean I even worked one theater equipped with a Christie Endless Loop Platter.
Wow! Now that is some story. Thanks Dallas. Like many others I have heard of managers being killed in robberies. I even remember a case where the owner / manager was killed by employees, but that was a case of an inside job robbery going bad when the manager resisted and was killed after he shot one of the robbing crew. (It is doubtful he ever knew that his masked killers were his own employees.)
I know most of the people on this site have very fond recollections of their days working in theaters, and in the lucky cases those jobs were as enjoyable at the time as they are in our memory. However, I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone thinking the job was so great that it was worth killing the owner just to keep the place open. I do recall a few instances of people wishing they could kill the owner but those thoughts seem to fade as they sobered up.
There were several JL’s in the Atlanta area but they were all new builds as were the shopping centers they were located in. On CT I have seen entries of these theaters being built in existing shopping centers where they converted existing retail space. (There were several examples of this type theater in Atlanta but they were not JL’s.) This is the only example I have seen of a JL being opened in an existing theater. dallasmovie….. seems very knowledgeable about theaters. I have enjoyed reading his many posts on the history of theaters in the Dallas area in general and GCC in particular, so I am not questioning the information. It just seems that in a location such as this it would be impossible to use the JL business model of completely automated equipment, minimal staffing, and G and PG only movies.
By 1972 it was becoming obvious that this concept was not going to be a big success so maybe the JL people were just happy to collect another franchise fee. The 1973 dates where the theater changed names and then closed for good matches the period where most JL’s either closed, were taken over by other companies, or started down the porno road. Thanks for posting this info guys. After over 15 years of reading CT it is rare that I see such new and interesting info such as this.
A picture of the site as it appears today is in the photo section. The current three story building there extends into what was the driveway running alongside the theater. The spot where the sidewalk that runs under the overhang starts was the location of the boxoffice which was in the front corner of the stand alone, single story building. The topography of the site and the way the building was cut into the embankment led to one of the more humorous episodes I witnessed during my forty or so years of working in this business.
In July 1974, halfway through its Weis days, PB was playing Sugarland Express. This early Spielberg effort had opened in April, exclusive run here as was the practice in those days. Weis was the most aggressive of the local companies in bidding big advances which meant three and four month runs of even average pictures like this one were not uncommon. So, during the prime summer season PB was playing this worn out movie to a weekday matinee crowd of about 10 patrons with no hint of the excitement to come.
The building was only one story, and if you walked around it you actually had to duck to walk under the soffit of the side opposite the parking lot. In the six years since its construction, a section of the soffit had come loose and started to sag. A group of neighborhood boys with time on their hands, found this spot and after a little exploring realized that the attic over the auditorium made a great place in which to spend their summer vacation. They placed planks over some of the ceiling beams, brought in some sleeping bags, candles, and snacks, and turned the attic into a playhouse. If they got bored they could just lift a ceiling tile and watch the movie.
The drawback to this scheme was the same as in your own attic. The drop ceiling would not hold any more weight than your Sheetrock one at home, and if you stepped off the beam you would find yourself on the floor, one story down. That is exactly what happened here on that sleepy July afternoon. Imagine the surprise of those few patrons present when a hunk of ceiling tile fell onto the small stage in front of the screen followed by a lit candle, a bag of snacks, and a young boy. Everyone sat there stunned for a moment before the boy got to his feet, limped across the stage, and out the exit door to the parking lot. This was followed by a lot of muffled shouting and rustling noises from above the ceiling as the rest of the gang made their way out the soffit exit and were gone.
Unfortunately I was not there when the customers came out to tell the employees what had happened but it was quite the scene I was told. I mean, how often does the concession attendant have to deal with a complaint of children falling through the ceiling? It was all pretty funny in retrospect although it would have been much more serious if the boy had fallen into the seating area, especially an occupied seat. When I arrived for my shift, the fire department was still there checking the attic for fire and clearing out all of the clubhouse debris.
The culprits were never found, we cleaned the mess off the stage, and were back on the screen that night. I have always wondered if any of those boys returned to the theater as young men during the Lefont years, possibly as members of the Rocky Horror Show cast, and told their companions about the day they fell through the roof.
Well, you can certainly add the tag “demolished” to the header as there is nothing left but a concrete slab. I have posted a couple of pictures to the photo section. One of them shows the site of the lobby.
This theater was built by Martin in 1964 in the living room style of the mid 60’s when there was a lot less neon and more character involved. The original name was Georgia Cinerama. In the foreground of the lobby picture you can see the map of Georgia that was inlaid into the tile floor between the doorman’s position and the concession stand. I remember this from my movie going days but had forgotten about it. By the time I worked here it had been twinned and the lobby, in addition to having another set of rest rooms installed, had been carpeted.
Lots of good movie going memories here for me during the single screen days, starting with Patton in the summer of 1970. Some of the others I can recall were Tora, Tora, Tora, Andromeda Strain, Mary Queen of Scots, Frenzy, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Sting, Airport 75, Front Page, and probably others. Although I looked inside many times, I don’t recall ever actually watching a movie here after it was twinned. Terrible presentation with tiny screens, keystoned projection, seats still in their original curved rows so they didn’t really face the new screens…..I could go on and on, even more than I already have.
David and Mike, thank you. That is the one. I didn’t know that you could type in an aka name and get the current name. I know that is not always the case. Maybe it is because it is still open under the newer name. I was working for Loews in Atlanta in the spring of 1975 when they twinned the theater I was managing. The previous project for the man in charge was the Astor Plaza. During the three weeks he spent in Atlanta he told me a good bit about the construction of the Astor Plaza.
Previous to this I had worked for Walter Reade at The Atlanta until they sold out to a local company and left town. I heard plenty about The Ziegfeld whenever anyone came down from New Jersey. In 1984 I finally made my first trip to NY and looked up these theaters I had heard so much about. Since I didn’t have time for two movies and since the Ziegfeld was playing Razors Edge, I opted for the Astor Plaza. I finally made it to The Ziegfeld in 2007 during that brief period when they brought back some of the classics.
Thanks again for the prompt replies. I forgot to subscribe to this page when I posted that question so I am just now getting them.
I am trying to ID the theater where I saw Beverly Hills Cop during the Christmas season of 1984. The theater name was Astor but it was not this Astor. It might have been named Astor Plaza and was located just off of Times Square. Since it is not listed here I assume it is listed under a different name. Can anyone here help me out? I believe it was operated by Loews.
The picture currently above is a 1940’s shot looking northbound on Peachtree Road from North Druid Hills Road. The slightly taller white building at the end of that row of storefronts is the Brookhaven Theater. That space is now occupied by the southbound lanes of the now 7 lane wide Peachtree Road, but the McDonalds sits roughly behind the spot where the theater stood.
I was only in this theater once, in fall of 1971, when I was working at the Cherokee Theater just down the road. It was a soft core house by then but the projectionist union still had a contract to operate the booth. I was still new to the business then but the projectionist here had also worked at the Cherokee so I got a chance to visit the Brookhaven booth. It was not a desirable job and I don’t recall that they even had a regular operator. The Business Agent filled the schedule with whoever was available a day or two at a time. Mostly newer members who did not have a regular job and knew better than to turn down work when the BA “asked.”
I had never touched a projector at the time so I do not recall much detail about the booth except that it was pretty much a dump by this time, as you might imagine. The feature that day was a soft core cowboys and Indians epic titled The Ramrodders. I could not see much of the auditorium from the booth and the lights were off anyway but judging by the clean but very run down lobby it was probably showing it’s age as well.
The union let the contract go shortly after my visit when the programming went more hardcore and I think it was closed for good by the spring or summer of 1972.
Yes Mark, even with the easier shipping, sharper picture, crisper sound, and greater flexibility, I am sure the overriding factor that convinced the theater companies to spend 75 to 100k per screen was to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. I mean the invention of digital projection was even better than the Christie endless loop platter. And I am being only slightly sarcastic here.
While those of us who managed to hold on to the end lost our jobs, I am sure the boys at Discover Mills did alright. After all, they need Coke pumpers everywhere.
During 2006, this place had a pathetic excuse for a projectionist(s). Three times I received prints from them that did not go back through the film exchange but instead were picked up by courier after midnight on Thursday and delivered directly to the theater where I was working on Friday afternoon. The first two times the prints arrived with the reels filled to the edge and cut, never at the proper places. One time the leaders and tails were just crammed into the can and a second time they did not even bother to include them.
The third time the print was Dreamgirls and that one was unbuildable. Apparently they had lost or broken one of the shipping reels and overloaded 2 of the reels they had, slid the excess off of the reels so the would fit in the can and them crammed the rest onto the can and forced the lid shut. The exchange did not have another print, only 5 good reels of a print that had been returned with the rest if the reels damaged. We took those and I managed to piece one print together although the running time was 8 minutes short.
We called them and asked that they check their garbage and try to retrieve the missing footage. The liars denied that they had shipped a print out in that condition and even denied that they had shipped a Dreamgirls print out at all. This despite the fact that the cans still had the Discover Mills shipping labels on them, the courier receipt showed it being picked up there shortly after midnight that day, and the AMC Coming Attractions, Feature Presentation strips, and the on screen ads with Discover Mills on them were still attached to the front or reel one along with the previews.
I had to fill out a damaged film report to account for the second print and to make sure we did not get the blame. I am sure nothing happened since the big three of AMC, Regal, and Carmike never got charged for tearing up a print no matter how many times it happened, which was often. I have lots of stories about getting bad prints, more involving AMC than any other company.
First, a question: Jessie, has the entire strip been leveled and hauled off in that dump truck (thanks Doug Monroe for that amusing as well as depressingly accurate saying) or has the building just been gutted and reconfigured. Just curious as either way it counts as demolished.
Second, I notice the name of the Bailey Circuit listed as a former operator. I think this is an error. Bailey was a long time operator of what was then known as “Colored Theaters.” While some of its former locations might have still been around and possibly still operating, by 1963 the company was probably gone. They were certainly out of the new theater building business.
Third, this place is obviously a Meiselman build. I do not know the order they were built, but the Cherokee was first followed by Toco Hills, Belvedere, and this one. Inside they were all alike and Atlantic and Cherokee were identical from the outside. Looking at the picture that is currently at the top of the page I could not tell which was which. Check the pictures on the Cherokee page and you will see what I mean.
EFC operated Cherokee and Atlantic for their entire runs closing this one about 1968 and Cherokee in 1976. However Toco and Brlvedere soldiered on for many years under a number of different operators.
Picture of the site of the Decatur Theater as it appears today added to the photo section. I do not know when this location closed, but it was demolished in January 1976. I recall seeing the demo in progress from a courtroom in what was then the new DeKalb County Courthouse.
JFB: I think that the Gordon closed about the time my family moved to Atlanta and I had never heard of it until I saw it on CT. As far as XXX goes, I was careless in lumping that in with the kind of X that was a staple of programming for the Septum chain in their early years. While the Septum run X fare was not the porn that the Buford Highway ran for decades after it was vacated by Septum it was not exactly Midnight Cowboy or even Last Tango type either.
During the early days of Septum they used union operators who were also paid a daily management fee as well. I knew both of the guys who worked at Buford Highway and would often stop by to visit. This was during the time they would play a second run feature in one side and an X in the other. One night I walked into the side playing SOS (which stood, I found out, for Screw On The Screen) and was amazed at the content. It was far worse than anything in Oh Calcutta which had gotten the manager and projectionist locked up at the North Springs just a few years earlier. I asked my friend if he was not worried about going to jail and he said that he was and was just waiting for another booth job to open up so he could get out.
I think the raid at this theater prompted the union to drop the contract just as they did at several of the downtown theaters like the 10th Street Art and Metro Art in the early 70’s. I know that by the time Star Wars opened at Buford Highway at Christmas 1977 it was a non union booth. However Septum continued to run X on one side and standard fare on the other as late as 1979 when they had Superman first run. It was an odd company that dropped its former Jerry Lewis locations once they started building their own in the early 80’s.
I think that JFB was correct in the very first comment on this page. GTC closed down several of their marginal drive ins during the fall and winter of 1982-83. At least two others were the Lithia and the Bankhead. South Expressway and NE Expressway stayed open until the 1987 sellout to United Artists Theaters which quickly closed all but the Starlight which reverted to its co-owner, DeAnza.
The southwest corner of town was getting to be a rough place for a business that operated into the early hours of the morning. In 1981 an employee at Bankhead was stabbed by an unruly customer. The fact that the property of at least two of these three locations stayed vacant for decades shows that they did not close in order to make a profit by selling the location but indicates that they were just not worth the trouble and liability any longer.
Another consideration was that the long time managers at these theaters, Alpha Fowler at the Lithia, Sylvia Partee at the Bankhead, and Roy Overton here had been in their positions for decades and there was not exactly a line of qualified would be theater managers waiting to start a career in these places. In the early 80’s the Saturday entertainment section of the AJC did a feature on Roy and his over 30 years managing here. In it he told some Drive in stories and claimed that he had never watched a single movie that he ran. I did not know Roy well, but I was not at all surprised by that claim.
Given the timeline of the life of this theater it is possible that Roy Overton was the only manager it ever had.
Thank you both very much. It did not occur to me to look in the Open Theaters listings. Never considered that a possibility. At the time I was managing a theater in Atlanta and Heavens Gate was to be our big Christmas attraction. We finally did run the short version in the Spring. I found the Bach book much more entertaining than the movie, either version. Thanks again for those prompt replies.
Al and Ed: You two seem to be the go to members for questions regarding NYC theaters so I have a question for you. In his book “Final Cut” Steven Bach describes the World Premiere of Heavens Gate and mentions that it was held at Cinema 1. Or maybe Cinema 2. I can not find a listing for this theater on CT which means that it is probably listed under a different name.
William Shearer, well, that is a name from the past. Eastern Federal had a big presence in Atlanta by 1971 and he was in charge of their subsidiary, American Theater Supply. All booth and concession supplies, except the prepopped popcorn was ordered from there. At least for the Atlanta area theaters, I don’t know about out of town locations. Mr. Shearer also did the company’s booth repair and maintenance as well as supply all booth equipment, from carbons, to splicers, to reel to reel tapes of intermission music.
When I started working for EFC in 1971, ATS operated out of the basement of the downtown Coronet Theater, an area that also contained the theater bathrooms and the office of the City Manager, a fellow by the name of George Shepp. The Coronet was EFC’s flagship and a very busy theater. In the Spring of 1972 the company rented space in a strip of storefronts on Spring Street near Third. Several managers and doormen from different theaters were ordered to report to the Coronet basement and we spent the day moving all of the stock and equipment to the new location.
EFC was out of Atlanta by 1979 but I do not know about ATS. It was centrally located among the remaining EFC locations in the SE, so maybe it stayed. It’s old home on Spring Street remained in use as a very popular nightclub until a couple of years ago but has now been demolished as Georgia Tech continues to expand down Spring Street all the way to The Varsity.
Just like so many of the theaters it served, the time for ATS is over and it’s home is now in the landfill.
Yesterday I made my second visit to this drive in. Ownership has changed and the condition of the facility has declined some, but it is much the same as it was when I first visited here 24 years ago. Most of the theaters that I was working in during 1994 are closed and in the landfill. I did not get to see a movie since they are weekend only this time of year and will be closing for the season in a couple of weeks.
Jay, the person in charge, was busy with other duties around the property that did not concern movies as they offer rental cabins to tourists who come to this pretty fishing and skiing area on the west side of the Grand Tetons. We did not have much time to talk, but he was very friendly and let me into the Snack Bar for a close up look at the operation. He said they run a full time schedule during the summer so hopefully this place will continue to entertain the residents and visitors to Teton County Idaho for years to come.
There are many pictures already in the photo section here but I added a couple of better shots of the interesting Snack Bar decoration plus a couple showing areas not in the previous pictures.
Well, I stand corrected. That La Mancha figure seems appropriately dismal, but I am really surprised at how low the SOM results were. Guess I was influenced by the local business. I do recall reading the weekly grosses in Variety at the time and the results for LaMancha were well behind the “year ago” results for Fiddler even though Fiddler had started in November ‘71 and LaMancha not until December '72.
Al, La Mancha played at the old Martin Cinerama, by then operated by Walter Reade as The Atlanta, and was a huge bust. When it moved to a suburban house it failed there as well. SOM, on the other hand, was a massive hit during its 70mm reissue run at Martin’s suburban Georgia Cinerama. While still doing sell out business it was pulled by Fox so that they could get the neighborhood release in before summer ended.
Of course I am speaking only for the Atlanta market and I assume you are talking nationally, but I still find it hard to believe that La Mancha beat the SOM reissue.
Article in today’s paper reports that the mall owners have decided that the days of enclosed malls are over and that they are going to tear this place, Atlanta’s first enclosed mall, down. In its place will be built yet another “Town” concept development. It will have eating, retail, offices, apartments, and a Costco. It also said that the AMC Theater will remain but did not specify if the current theater would be incorporated into the center or if it would be rebuilt in another part of the development.
If this comes about it means that the original mall (and Storey Theater) lasted 21 years, and the Market Place rebuild with its Cineplex-Odeon 4 / AMC 8 / AMC 16 about 34 more.
Not a Martin, but I always thought Loew’s Tara, built 3 years later looked a lot like this one with vertical running lights added. The Georgia was built in the center of a parking lot so it was easy to see the entire theater which had a finished look all the way around. Tara backed up to a service alley and was not finished in the back. From the front they looked similar although inside they were very different.
Another Martin design, the downtown Rialto, has an almost identical twin, or did until a couple of years ago. The Ziegfeld in NYC, built by Walter Reade in 1968, is almost an exact duplicate of the Rialto.
CT member Tim Larsen who posts under the name tlpdesign has created a fine website record of the Riverside Quad. The link to it is on the Riverside page. There are 30 pictures embedded in the site. The last 6 or so are from the booth of the Macon Mall Theater. When I mentioned that the booth seemed a lot larger in those pictures than I remembered he said that was because it was not the same booth.
The Georgia Theater built Quad from 1977 was included in the 1987 sale to UA. UA soon bankrupted and was absorbed by Regal. Regal then demolished the quad and built an 8 on the site. Don’t know when that happened or when it closed.
Dallas: I have a question regarding your comment of 6/17/19. I am no researcher so I am not claiming to know, but I find it hard to believe that there was ever a 70MM print of The Ugly Dachshund. Even if there was, Loews was a Union operation and I can not imagine them paying the bill for two projectionists which would have been required for any 70MM run. Could it be that the promotional material for this location promoted its 70MM projection without actually saying that the movie itself was presented in 70MM? I have seen ads for 35MM presentations stating something like….“See It On Our Giant 70MM Screen.” Maybe it was something like that.
The pictures of the booth after twinning appear to show Century 35MM projectors. From the distance and angle they could certainly be 35/70’s, but there are no 70MM mag sound heads on top. In Atlanta when they twinned the Tara which was a 70MM house, only one side retained 70MM capability but they left the sound heads on both projectors. I was also curious about that 10 Channel sound system. Maybe they promoted it as “4 and 6 channel stereo”? Or, maybe they meant 6 channel movie sound and 4 channel intermission music from their 8 track tape player? Just kidding of course.
Anyway, I would be interested in any comment you have on this.
So, that system really did exist! If I had not known the two guys who told me about it I would have assumed that it was the stuff of urban legend. Thank you for that very detailed and entertaining description. Amazing that someone wise enough to design something like the Sword would be so unwise as to think it would work dependably. You mentioned new prints. I would imagine that with used prints, and every JL I have first hand knowledge of was a second run house, every stripped or broken hole would have snagged on that partially open gate. It must have been quite a sight to see one projector running normally and one running in reverse.
As for the Sabre, I have actually seen one of those up close. In 1999 some friends and I drove to Dayton Ohio to see How The West Was Won in Cinerama at the New Neon theater there. That night we went to a local drive in, and the manager was nice enough to give us a tour. The projector was mounted on the floor as usual and the feed and take up reels were to the right. I do remember the Eprad brand name on the equipment. I guess any brand projector would work on this system since I recall this one being a Simplex. It was a one projector booth and they had the double feature on separate reels.
That Eprad was an odd company. In my theater managing days I worked for a company that was always willing to let people demonstrate their new equipment, not at some slow neighborhood location, but at their flagship first run theater. I recall losing a show once when the Christie demo projector broke down after less than a week. Later they let Eprad install some type of two channel synthetic stereo system which was supposed to give you surround sound without the expense of buying a Dolby brand system. I recall talk of some sort of sound splitting principle that would give you stereo effect even on a mono print but that may have been on some other gadget. It was 1980, a long time ago for my memory.
I guess I have wandered off of the original subject of this odd example of a Jerry Lewis operation, but hopefully someone with JL booth experiences will see it and add their comments on this subject to other pages. Dallas, I recently added a comment / question to the page you started on the JL in Winder Ga. Any additional info you have on that would be welcome.
markp and dallas, I have a JL projection booth equipment question for you. When I visited my first JL, the Buford Highway Twin, the booth was equipped in the standard way most new builds of that era were, twin 6000 foot reel projectors. The operator told me that originally the theater was equipped with a dual projector Eprad system called Saber, or possibly Sword, I can’t really remember. He said that the projectors only had to be threaded once. When the changeover or end of show shut down occurred instead of the film running on through, the projector would stop and run in reverse until the entire reel was back to the 8 on the leader.
This sounds incredible to me and in 40 years of working in theaters, 30 in the booth, I have never seen anything like it. I have heard mention of it over the years as well as a system where the film arrived already mounted on 6000 foot reels, something like WB tried in the late 90’s, only the JL reels were encased in a cartridge like container that fit on top of the projector. The idea was that this would make the theater even more automated while ensuring that the owner could not play any movies not approved by the company since regular reels would not work.
Can either of you shed any light on these seemingly unlikely methods of running film? If they did exist in any form they must not have worked well. Over the years I have never ceased to be amazed at the lengths ownership would go to in order to eliminate that pesky projectionist. I mean I even worked one theater equipped with a Christie Endless Loop Platter.
Wow! Now that is some story. Thanks Dallas. Like many others I have heard of managers being killed in robberies. I even remember a case where the owner / manager was killed by employees, but that was a case of an inside job robbery going bad when the manager resisted and was killed after he shot one of the robbing crew. (It is doubtful he ever knew that his masked killers were his own employees.)
I know most of the people on this site have very fond recollections of their days working in theaters, and in the lucky cases those jobs were as enjoyable at the time as they are in our memory. However, I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone thinking the job was so great that it was worth killing the owner just to keep the place open. I do recall a few instances of people wishing they could kill the owner but those thoughts seem to fade as they sobered up.
There were several JL’s in the Atlanta area but they were all new builds as were the shopping centers they were located in. On CT I have seen entries of these theaters being built in existing shopping centers where they converted existing retail space. (There were several examples of this type theater in Atlanta but they were not JL’s.) This is the only example I have seen of a JL being opened in an existing theater. dallasmovie….. seems very knowledgeable about theaters. I have enjoyed reading his many posts on the history of theaters in the Dallas area in general and GCC in particular, so I am not questioning the information. It just seems that in a location such as this it would be impossible to use the JL business model of completely automated equipment, minimal staffing, and G and PG only movies.
By 1972 it was becoming obvious that this concept was not going to be a big success so maybe the JL people were just happy to collect another franchise fee. The 1973 dates where the theater changed names and then closed for good matches the period where most JL’s either closed, were taken over by other companies, or started down the porno road. Thanks for posting this info guys. After over 15 years of reading CT it is rare that I see such new and interesting info such as this.
A picture of the site as it appears today is in the photo section. The current three story building there extends into what was the driveway running alongside the theater. The spot where the sidewalk that runs under the overhang starts was the location of the boxoffice which was in the front corner of the stand alone, single story building. The topography of the site and the way the building was cut into the embankment led to one of the more humorous episodes I witnessed during my forty or so years of working in this business.
In July 1974, halfway through its Weis days, PB was playing Sugarland Express. This early Spielberg effort had opened in April, exclusive run here as was the practice in those days. Weis was the most aggressive of the local companies in bidding big advances which meant three and four month runs of even average pictures like this one were not uncommon. So, during the prime summer season PB was playing this worn out movie to a weekday matinee crowd of about 10 patrons with no hint of the excitement to come.
The building was only one story, and if you walked around it you actually had to duck to walk under the soffit of the side opposite the parking lot. In the six years since its construction, a section of the soffit had come loose and started to sag. A group of neighborhood boys with time on their hands, found this spot and after a little exploring realized that the attic over the auditorium made a great place in which to spend their summer vacation. They placed planks over some of the ceiling beams, brought in some sleeping bags, candles, and snacks, and turned the attic into a playhouse. If they got bored they could just lift a ceiling tile and watch the movie.
The drawback to this scheme was the same as in your own attic. The drop ceiling would not hold any more weight than your Sheetrock one at home, and if you stepped off the beam you would find yourself on the floor, one story down. That is exactly what happened here on that sleepy July afternoon. Imagine the surprise of those few patrons present when a hunk of ceiling tile fell onto the small stage in front of the screen followed by a lit candle, a bag of snacks, and a young boy. Everyone sat there stunned for a moment before the boy got to his feet, limped across the stage, and out the exit door to the parking lot. This was followed by a lot of muffled shouting and rustling noises from above the ceiling as the rest of the gang made their way out the soffit exit and were gone.
Unfortunately I was not there when the customers came out to tell the employees what had happened but it was quite the scene I was told. I mean, how often does the concession attendant have to deal with a complaint of children falling through the ceiling? It was all pretty funny in retrospect although it would have been much more serious if the boy had fallen into the seating area, especially an occupied seat. When I arrived for my shift, the fire department was still there checking the attic for fire and clearing out all of the clubhouse debris.
The culprits were never found, we cleaned the mess off the stage, and were back on the screen that night. I have always wondered if any of those boys returned to the theater as young men during the Lefont years, possibly as members of the Rocky Horror Show cast, and told their companions about the day they fell through the roof.
Well, you can certainly add the tag “demolished” to the header as there is nothing left but a concrete slab. I have posted a couple of pictures to the photo section. One of them shows the site of the lobby.
This theater was built by Martin in 1964 in the living room style of the mid 60’s when there was a lot less neon and more character involved. The original name was Georgia Cinerama. In the foreground of the lobby picture you can see the map of Georgia that was inlaid into the tile floor between the doorman’s position and the concession stand. I remember this from my movie going days but had forgotten about it. By the time I worked here it had been twinned and the lobby, in addition to having another set of rest rooms installed, had been carpeted.
Lots of good movie going memories here for me during the single screen days, starting with Patton in the summer of 1970. Some of the others I can recall were Tora, Tora, Tora, Andromeda Strain, Mary Queen of Scots, Frenzy, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Sting, Airport 75, Front Page, and probably others. Although I looked inside many times, I don’t recall ever actually watching a movie here after it was twinned. Terrible presentation with tiny screens, keystoned projection, seats still in their original curved rows so they didn’t really face the new screens…..I could go on and on, even more than I already have.
David and Mike, thank you. That is the one. I didn’t know that you could type in an aka name and get the current name. I know that is not always the case. Maybe it is because it is still open under the newer name. I was working for Loews in Atlanta in the spring of 1975 when they twinned the theater I was managing. The previous project for the man in charge was the Astor Plaza. During the three weeks he spent in Atlanta he told me a good bit about the construction of the Astor Plaza.
Previous to this I had worked for Walter Reade at The Atlanta until they sold out to a local company and left town. I heard plenty about The Ziegfeld whenever anyone came down from New Jersey. In 1984 I finally made my first trip to NY and looked up these theaters I had heard so much about. Since I didn’t have time for two movies and since the Ziegfeld was playing Razors Edge, I opted for the Astor Plaza. I finally made it to The Ziegfeld in 2007 during that brief period when they brought back some of the classics.
Thanks again for the prompt replies. I forgot to subscribe to this page when I posted that question so I am just now getting them.
I am trying to ID the theater where I saw Beverly Hills Cop during the Christmas season of 1984. The theater name was Astor but it was not this Astor. It might have been named Astor Plaza and was located just off of Times Square. Since it is not listed here I assume it is listed under a different name. Can anyone here help me out? I believe it was operated by Loews.
The picture currently above is a 1940’s shot looking northbound on Peachtree Road from North Druid Hills Road. The slightly taller white building at the end of that row of storefronts is the Brookhaven Theater. That space is now occupied by the southbound lanes of the now 7 lane wide Peachtree Road, but the McDonalds sits roughly behind the spot where the theater stood.
I was only in this theater once, in fall of 1971, when I was working at the Cherokee Theater just down the road. It was a soft core house by then but the projectionist union still had a contract to operate the booth. I was still new to the business then but the projectionist here had also worked at the Cherokee so I got a chance to visit the Brookhaven booth. It was not a desirable job and I don’t recall that they even had a regular operator. The Business Agent filled the schedule with whoever was available a day or two at a time. Mostly newer members who did not have a regular job and knew better than to turn down work when the BA “asked.”
I had never touched a projector at the time so I do not recall much detail about the booth except that it was pretty much a dump by this time, as you might imagine. The feature that day was a soft core cowboys and Indians epic titled The Ramrodders. I could not see much of the auditorium from the booth and the lights were off anyway but judging by the clean but very run down lobby it was probably showing it’s age as well.
The union let the contract go shortly after my visit when the programming went more hardcore and I think it was closed for good by the spring or summer of 1972.
Yes Mark, even with the easier shipping, sharper picture, crisper sound, and greater flexibility, I am sure the overriding factor that convinced the theater companies to spend 75 to 100k per screen was to finally get rid of that pesky projectionist. I mean the invention of digital projection was even better than the Christie endless loop platter. And I am being only slightly sarcastic here.
While those of us who managed to hold on to the end lost our jobs, I am sure the boys at Discover Mills did alright. After all, they need Coke pumpers everywhere.
During 2006, this place had a pathetic excuse for a projectionist(s). Three times I received prints from them that did not go back through the film exchange but instead were picked up by courier after midnight on Thursday and delivered directly to the theater where I was working on Friday afternoon. The first two times the prints arrived with the reels filled to the edge and cut, never at the proper places. One time the leaders and tails were just crammed into the can and a second time they did not even bother to include them.
The third time the print was Dreamgirls and that one was unbuildable. Apparently they had lost or broken one of the shipping reels and overloaded 2 of the reels they had, slid the excess off of the reels so the would fit in the can and them crammed the rest onto the can and forced the lid shut. The exchange did not have another print, only 5 good reels of a print that had been returned with the rest if the reels damaged. We took those and I managed to piece one print together although the running time was 8 minutes short.
We called them and asked that they check their garbage and try to retrieve the missing footage. The liars denied that they had shipped a print out in that condition and even denied that they had shipped a Dreamgirls print out at all. This despite the fact that the cans still had the Discover Mills shipping labels on them, the courier receipt showed it being picked up there shortly after midnight that day, and the AMC Coming Attractions, Feature Presentation strips, and the on screen ads with Discover Mills on them were still attached to the front or reel one along with the previews.
I had to fill out a damaged film report to account for the second print and to make sure we did not get the blame. I am sure nothing happened since the big three of AMC, Regal, and Carmike never got charged for tearing up a print no matter how many times it happened, which was often. I have lots of stories about getting bad prints, more involving AMC than any other company.
First, a question: Jessie, has the entire strip been leveled and hauled off in that dump truck (thanks Doug Monroe for that amusing as well as depressingly accurate saying) or has the building just been gutted and reconfigured. Just curious as either way it counts as demolished.
Second, I notice the name of the Bailey Circuit listed as a former operator. I think this is an error. Bailey was a long time operator of what was then known as “Colored Theaters.” While some of its former locations might have still been around and possibly still operating, by 1963 the company was probably gone. They were certainly out of the new theater building business.
Third, this place is obviously a Meiselman build. I do not know the order they were built, but the Cherokee was first followed by Toco Hills, Belvedere, and this one. Inside they were all alike and Atlantic and Cherokee were identical from the outside. Looking at the picture that is currently at the top of the page I could not tell which was which. Check the pictures on the Cherokee page and you will see what I mean.
EFC operated Cherokee and Atlantic for their entire runs closing this one about 1968 and Cherokee in 1976. However Toco and Brlvedere soldiered on for many years under a number of different operators.
Picture of the site of the Decatur Theater as it appears today added to the photo section. I do not know when this location closed, but it was demolished in January 1976. I recall seeing the demo in progress from a courtroom in what was then the new DeKalb County Courthouse.
JFB: I think that the Gordon closed about the time my family moved to Atlanta and I had never heard of it until I saw it on CT. As far as XXX goes, I was careless in lumping that in with the kind of X that was a staple of programming for the Septum chain in their early years. While the Septum run X fare was not the porn that the Buford Highway ran for decades after it was vacated by Septum it was not exactly Midnight Cowboy or even Last Tango type either.
During the early days of Septum they used union operators who were also paid a daily management fee as well. I knew both of the guys who worked at Buford Highway and would often stop by to visit. This was during the time they would play a second run feature in one side and an X in the other. One night I walked into the side playing SOS (which stood, I found out, for Screw On The Screen) and was amazed at the content. It was far worse than anything in Oh Calcutta which had gotten the manager and projectionist locked up at the North Springs just a few years earlier. I asked my friend if he was not worried about going to jail and he said that he was and was just waiting for another booth job to open up so he could get out.
I think the raid at this theater prompted the union to drop the contract just as they did at several of the downtown theaters like the 10th Street Art and Metro Art in the early 70’s. I know that by the time Star Wars opened at Buford Highway at Christmas 1977 it was a non union booth. However Septum continued to run X on one side and standard fare on the other as late as 1979 when they had Superman first run. It was an odd company that dropped its former Jerry Lewis locations once they started building their own in the early 80’s.
I think that JFB was correct in the very first comment on this page. GTC closed down several of their marginal drive ins during the fall and winter of 1982-83. At least two others were the Lithia and the Bankhead. South Expressway and NE Expressway stayed open until the 1987 sellout to United Artists Theaters which quickly closed all but the Starlight which reverted to its co-owner, DeAnza.
The southwest corner of town was getting to be a rough place for a business that operated into the early hours of the morning. In 1981 an employee at Bankhead was stabbed by an unruly customer. The fact that the property of at least two of these three locations stayed vacant for decades shows that they did not close in order to make a profit by selling the location but indicates that they were just not worth the trouble and liability any longer.
Another consideration was that the long time managers at these theaters, Alpha Fowler at the Lithia, Sylvia Partee at the Bankhead, and Roy Overton here had been in their positions for decades and there was not exactly a line of qualified would be theater managers waiting to start a career in these places. In the early 80’s the Saturday entertainment section of the AJC did a feature on Roy and his over 30 years managing here. In it he told some Drive in stories and claimed that he had never watched a single movie that he ran. I did not know Roy well, but I was not at all surprised by that claim.
Given the timeline of the life of this theater it is possible that Roy Overton was the only manager it ever had.
Thank you both very much. It did not occur to me to look in the Open Theaters listings. Never considered that a possibility. At the time I was managing a theater in Atlanta and Heavens Gate was to be our big Christmas attraction. We finally did run the short version in the Spring. I found the Bach book much more entertaining than the movie, either version. Thanks again for those prompt replies.
Al and Ed: You two seem to be the go to members for questions regarding NYC theaters so I have a question for you. In his book “Final Cut” Steven Bach describes the World Premiere of Heavens Gate and mentions that it was held at Cinema 1. Or maybe Cinema 2. I can not find a listing for this theater on CT which means that it is probably listed under a different name.
Can either of you help me out with this question?
William Shearer, well, that is a name from the past. Eastern Federal had a big presence in Atlanta by 1971 and he was in charge of their subsidiary, American Theater Supply. All booth and concession supplies, except the prepopped popcorn was ordered from there. At least for the Atlanta area theaters, I don’t know about out of town locations. Mr. Shearer also did the company’s booth repair and maintenance as well as supply all booth equipment, from carbons, to splicers, to reel to reel tapes of intermission music.
When I started working for EFC in 1971, ATS operated out of the basement of the downtown Coronet Theater, an area that also contained the theater bathrooms and the office of the City Manager, a fellow by the name of George Shepp. The Coronet was EFC’s flagship and a very busy theater. In the Spring of 1972 the company rented space in a strip of storefronts on Spring Street near Third. Several managers and doormen from different theaters were ordered to report to the Coronet basement and we spent the day moving all of the stock and equipment to the new location.
EFC was out of Atlanta by 1979 but I do not know about ATS. It was centrally located among the remaining EFC locations in the SE, so maybe it stayed. It’s old home on Spring Street remained in use as a very popular nightclub until a couple of years ago but has now been demolished as Georgia Tech continues to expand down Spring Street all the way to The Varsity.
Just like so many of the theaters it served, the time for ATS is over and it’s home is now in the landfill.
Yesterday I made my second visit to this drive in. Ownership has changed and the condition of the facility has declined some, but it is much the same as it was when I first visited here 24 years ago. Most of the theaters that I was working in during 1994 are closed and in the landfill. I did not get to see a movie since they are weekend only this time of year and will be closing for the season in a couple of weeks.
Jay, the person in charge, was busy with other duties around the property that did not concern movies as they offer rental cabins to tourists who come to this pretty fishing and skiing area on the west side of the Grand Tetons. We did not have much time to talk, but he was very friendly and let me into the Snack Bar for a close up look at the operation. He said they run a full time schedule during the summer so hopefully this place will continue to entertain the residents and visitors to Teton County Idaho for years to come.
There are many pictures already in the photo section here but I added a couple of better shots of the interesting Snack Bar decoration plus a couple showing areas not in the previous pictures.
Well, I stand corrected. That La Mancha figure seems appropriately dismal, but I am really surprised at how low the SOM results were. Guess I was influenced by the local business. I do recall reading the weekly grosses in Variety at the time and the results for LaMancha were well behind the “year ago” results for Fiddler even though Fiddler had started in November ‘71 and LaMancha not until December '72.
Al, La Mancha played at the old Martin Cinerama, by then operated by Walter Reade as The Atlanta, and was a huge bust. When it moved to a suburban house it failed there as well. SOM, on the other hand, was a massive hit during its 70mm reissue run at Martin’s suburban Georgia Cinerama. While still doing sell out business it was pulled by Fox so that they could get the neighborhood release in before summer ended.
Of course I am speaking only for the Atlanta market and I assume you are talking nationally, but I still find it hard to believe that La Mancha beat the SOM reissue.
Article in today’s paper reports that the mall owners have decided that the days of enclosed malls are over and that they are going to tear this place, Atlanta’s first enclosed mall, down. In its place will be built yet another “Town” concept development. It will have eating, retail, offices, apartments, and a Costco. It also said that the AMC Theater will remain but did not specify if the current theater would be incorporated into the center or if it would be rebuilt in another part of the development.
If this comes about it means that the original mall (and Storey Theater) lasted 21 years, and the Market Place rebuild with its Cineplex-Odeon 4 / AMC 8 / AMC 16 about 34 more.
Not a Martin, but I always thought Loew’s Tara, built 3 years later looked a lot like this one with vertical running lights added. The Georgia was built in the center of a parking lot so it was easy to see the entire theater which had a finished look all the way around. Tara backed up to a service alley and was not finished in the back. From the front they looked similar although inside they were very different.
Another Martin design, the downtown Rialto, has an almost identical twin, or did until a couple of years ago. The Ziegfeld in NYC, built by Walter Reade in 1968, is almost an exact duplicate of the Rialto.