The Buckhead Theatre / The Social Center Reimagined

The Buckhead Theatre, also, The Social Center Reimagined. . The Buckhead Theatre
Built to show sound pictures, the Buckhead Theatre quickly became the community's “amusement home.” The theater opened in 1930 with Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) – just the second two-color Technicolor, all-talking, feature-length movie ever produced. On Saturdays, Buckhead's children returned week after week to see cliffhanger serials and triple features., The local firm Daniell and Beutell designed the theater in the Spanish Revival style, echoing the exotic architecture often seen in larger movie palaces of the period. Its façade also featured a neon electric sign in the shape of a buck's head – an homage to the legend that gave Buckhead its name., The Social Center Reimagined , This area was Buckhead's social and cultural center from the community's founding into the 1950s. It experienced a lively heyday in the decades leading up to mid-century. In the 1920s, a Wender and Roberts Drugstore began drawing Buckhead's teenagers and literary crowd around its soda fountain. In the 1930s, an open-air band shell hosted concerts. And in the 1940s, Margaret Bryan began teaching a generation of Buckhead's children to dance on the second floor of the McDuffie building. Others preferred the pool hall downstairs., After Buckhead's historic core ceased to be the community's central gathering place, Atlanta's most famous “anonymous donor”, Robert W. Woodruff, contributed one million dollars for the creation of a park here. Commercial buildings were demolished and a new greenspace was dedicated in 1975. Charlie Loudermilk Park was rededicated in 2015 after a major renovation., [Captions] , . (Top) The Buckhead Theatre undergoing a renovation in 1943. It reopened with the musical Hit Parade starring John Carroll. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library , . (Bottom) Program from the 1934 dedication of the Buckhead Stadium, an open-air symphonic shell that was located on the west side of Peachtree Road at Buckhead Avenue. Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center