Georgia Theatre

Extensively used in the Foo Fighters video “ A Matter of Time ” which was coincidentally produced in & around the time of major restorations to this beautiful building. I would like to think they had something to do with saving & restoring this Theater. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKWue-pYLzM

In the 90s, this was the closest Athens came to a cinema and drafthouse. I saw a Looney Tunes festival, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” and “I Shot Andy Warhol” here. That mainly happened on Mondays-Wednesdays, and mostly during the summer.

Among the concerts I saw here were Mojo Nixon and They Might Be Giants.

memories of watching KING KONG on Christmas night about 1953 and later seeing Z, which i liked so much that i watched last 2 hours even though one contact lense popped out.I later took my religious aunt to see JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. I asked her how she liked it and she replied “unusual intrepretation”

In Augusta’s METRO SPIRIT there is a nice story on the progress of the GEORGIA,With Color pictures.Volume22 August 4 2011.Weekly. themetrospirit.com

Yes,Sharples.this was on the AP,the Augusta Chroncile picked up the story and I saw it with a picture the Marquee in color.Thanks for getting this on.

Nice looking theatre.

Here are a few shots of the interior from last year: View link

Here is a link to that: http://bit.ly/uqkDi

The building was built in 1889, and opened in 1894 as the south’s first YMCA. It also contained 2 large retail spaces. It served that purpose until about 1915. Over the years the retail spaces functioned as a bank, offices, meat market, grocer, plumbing store, music store, department store, ice house, and morgue. In 1910, the Elite Theatre opened on the full ground floor, and the Majestic Hotel occupied the second and third. In 1926 the building was purchased by Masonic Temple Associated of Athens. In 1936 Publix subsidiary Lucas and Jenkins purchased the building and converted it into the Georgia Theatre, opening in September with a colored balcony. In the 1960s it also served as home to the Athens First United Methodist Church. In 1969 the Classic Theatre was built behind it. In October 1975 it showed its last film, “Brotherhood of Death”. It reopened as a dedicated music hall January 11, 1978 with the band Sea Level. It closed in 1980, then reopened March 11, 1981, closing again shortly thereafter. It next reopened April 9, 1982 as the Carafe & Draft, first under the Georgia Theatre Company and later under UA. In 1989 UA closed it and it reopened October 2, 1989 with seminal Athens band Pylon. The operations, incidentally, were headed by the people who ran the Uptown Lounge, itself housed in the former Paris Adult Theatre. In 2004 it was sold to Wilmot Greene and Randy Smith, who spnt the next 5 years on a renovation project that was just wrapping up when the fire hit.

According to older articles about its history, the Georgia Theatre’s foundation dates to 1890, and was completed in 1894. It served as a YMCA until 1915, complete with an iron swimming pool in the basement. It then served uses from a morgue to a department store before being converted into a theatre in 1935. It began operating as a music venue starting in 1978. The B-52s personally sold all tickets for their first show there in order to get permission to play, due to the owner’s hesitance. A few years later, it began showing film again as the Carafe and Draft, and after 1984 it became exclusively a music venue, with performers such as Jane’s Addiction, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wynton Marsalis, The Ramones, Phish, and Dave Matthews Band, some while they were still unknowns.

Search for “346 Club” and “One Love”, those are its previous two nightclub incarnations. Rivest’s site has a few other Athens theatres I was unaware of that are also unlisted here.

A fire of undetermined origins hit the Georgia Theatre early this morning. It appears to be gutted. A very sad day for a historic music venue.