Columbia Theatre, 1987

This 1987 photo comes from Flickr user Dennis Whitefield, whose excellent photo collection includes a lot of other great images of Atlanta and the surrounding area. Thanks, Dennis! By the way, Dennis keeps tabs on all things Decatur-related at his Next Stop Decatur blog, which also features some outstanding vintage images of Decatur and Atlanta, including some then-and-now juxtapositions.

According to the always educational Cinema Treasures website, the Columbia was also known, at various times, as the Atlanta, the Erlanger, the Tower, and Martin Cinerama. Located a block or so south of North Avenue at 583 Peachtree Street, the building was torn down in 1995 to make way for a parking lot. Scroll down to see a few additional photos of the theatre when it was doing business as the Erlanger and the Tower. Google map.

This undated photo, probably from the late1940s, shows the large crowd that turned out to see a scandal-tinged sex-hygiene film called Dust To Dust, which added shocking footage (for the time, anyway) of a live birth to the 1934 movie High School Girl. Howard Russell Cox was one of the roadshow style exhibitors who personally traveled with the film from city to city and raked in the cash. GSU FILE: LBGPF8-029a

Above: The Erlanger in 1944 GSU FILE: LBGPF2-074a

Above: Tower Theatre, 1947 GSU FILE: LBT27-018a

Above: The Tower Theatre, 1954 GSU FILE: N04-135_a