Buckhead - Atlanta, Georgia - Theaters (film/stage)

Garden Hills Cinema
2835 Peachtree Road, art/independent films, (404) 266-2202 (taped information), (404) 266-2850 (office). One of the last single-screen theaters in Atlanta, Garden Hills Cinema, which was built in 1939 and opened in 1940, is full of nostalgia for the glory days of films.

Rated Atlanta's Best Movie Theater by readers of Atlanta Magazine in 2000.

Lenox Square
3393 Peachtree Road, multiple screens, first-run films, (404) 233-0338 (taped information), (404) 261-4370 (office)

Phipps Plaza
3500 Peachtree Road, multiple screens, first-run films, (404) 816-4262

Theaters/stage

Actors Theatre of Atlanta, Post Theatre on the Lovett School campus, 4075 Paces Ferry Rd., 404-479-8491

Chastain Park Ampitheater
4469 Stella Drive, nationally known performers
(404) 733-5000 (single tickets)
(404) 733-4800 (subscriptions)
(404) 733-4900 (information)
Rated Best Place for a Romantic Picnic 1999 by Atlanta Magazine.

Laugh Factory, comedian Jamie Foxx and others plan to develop an Atlanta version of the Los Angeles club at the old MacArthur's Crab and Chop House on Peachtree Road. The club will feature dinner, drinks and nightly stand-up comedy.

Roxy Theater
3100 Roswell Road, performing arts/special events, once-a-month Boxing in Buckhead, (404) 233-1062.
Built in 1927, this Spanish Baroque building opened as the Buckhead Theater in 1930, showing first-run movies. In the 1950s it became the Capri Theater. In the 1980s that changed to the Buckhead Cinema, then the Buckhead Cinema and Drafthouse, and finally the Roxy.

Showbox, part upscale bar, part Las Vegas show, part modern dance theater, in the former Cobalt/Otto's location at 265 East Paces Ferry Road, 404-844-7269

A vanishing image

Like drive-in theaters across the nation, Buckhead's Piedmont Drive-in Theatre is just a memory. It was built at the cost of leveling a wooded hill along Piedmont Road. Opening in 1947 and located on the site of the present Lindbergh MARTA station, its 70-foot screen and obvious advantages for teenage romance made it a popular destination in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s, it in turn was replaced by a huge discount store, then a flea market, and finally the present rail station.

The Silver Screen

Buckhead's beloved Silver Screen cinema made a lasting impact on thousands of film lovers in the 1970s and 1980s. The Silver Screen, in the Peachtree Battle shopping center on Peachtree Road, was the brainchild of George Lefont. It was Atlanta's first retrospective cinema devoted to Hollywood's golden era. Sadly, the theater was razed in 1983 when the shopping center expanded stores along Peachtree.

A sanctuary for acting

Founded in an old TV film studio at Pharr Road at Bolling Way in 1956, the Academy Theatre for decades was one of Atlanta's favorites, offering a wide range of traditional and experimental plays. Led by beloved actor/director Frank Wittow, it was Georgia's first professional theater, according to Atlanta historian Susan Barnard writing in Atlanta Buckhead. From 1961 to 1977, it performed in the old Buckhead Baptist Church building at 3213 Roswell Road, later moving to other Atlanta venues and finally closing in 1990.

Theaters/film

A vanishing image

The Silver Screen

A sanctuary for acting