Tara Theatre facts for kids
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Loew's Tara
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| Address | 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE Atlanta, Georgia |
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| Operator | Plaza Theatre (Atlanta) |
| Type | Art house Independent film |
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| Opened | 1968 |
| Reopened | 2023 |
The Tara Theatre is a special movie theater located in Atlanta, Georgia. It's known as an art house cinema. This means it mainly shows independent films. These are movies made by smaller companies, not the huge Hollywood studios. The Tara Theatre is one of the only places in Atlanta that focuses only on these unique movies.
Contents
History of the Tara Theatre
Opening Day and Early Years
The Tara Theatre first opened its doors in June 1968. It was built by a company called Loew's Theatres. The building had a modern design, which was very popular at that time.
The theater was first named Loew's Tara. This name was chosen to remember the fictional Tara plantation. This plantation was the home of the O'Hara family in the famous book Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
When it first opened, the Tara Theatre had one very large screen. It was 60 feet wide! About 1,000 people could sit and watch movies there. The very first movie shown was Gone with the Wind. It was shown with a special, high-quality picture and sound.
Changes and Updates Over Time
Later, that one big screen was divided. It became two smaller theaters inside the building. In the 1970s, one of those two theaters was divided again. This made three screens. A fourth separate theater was also added to the building. So, the Tara Theatre grew from one screen to four!
In the 1980s, a local group called Lefont theater group took over the Tara. Then, at the end of that decade, United Artists Theaters bought the Tara. They even used part of the building as an office for their company.
Later, in 2002, United Artists joined with another company to form Regal Entertainment Group. The Tara Theatre was still run under the United Artists name for a while. After this, the Tara got a makeover. The inside was updated with cool, old-fashioned designs. There were also large pictures of classic Hollywood movie stars. These included famous actors like Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin.
Closing and Reopening the Tara
Sadly, Regal closed the Tara Theatre in November 2022. Many people in Atlanta were sad to see it close.
But good news came in May 2023! The Tara Theatre was reopened by a local owner. This same owner also runs the historic Plaza Theatre nearby. This means the Tara Theatre is now back to showing independent films for everyone to enjoy!
