The Tara Theatre was an

art house An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

movie theater located in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. The theater specialized in the showing of

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

s, the only theater in Atlanta to do so exclusively.

History

The Tara Theatre was opened in June 1968 by Loew's Theatres. It embodied the modernist architecture popular at the time. Originally called Loew's Tara, the theater's name memorialized the fictional Tara plantation, home of the O'Hara family in

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

's novel ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Win ...

''. Tara opened with a 70mm, stereophonic presentation of the film

on its 60-foot screen. This single screen with seating for 1,200 was later twinned. In the 1970s, one of the twin theaters was twinned itself, and a separate fourth theater was added onto the building. The theater became part of the local Lefont theater group in the 1980s. At the end of that decade,

United Artists Theaters Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens ...

bought the Tara and used part of the building as a regional corporate office until United Artists, along with Edwards Theatres, was merged into the new parent company

Regal Entertainment Group Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

in 2002, but is still operated under the United Artists label. Shortly afterward, the Tara was remodeled to feature silver,

streamline moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

-inspired details in the interior and above the portico, faux

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

advertisements, and large hanging portraits of classical Hollywood movie stars, such as Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart,

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

, and Charlie Chaplin. The Tara was closed by Regal in November 2022.

References

{{Coord, 33.818788, N, 84.351354, W, region:US-GA_type:landmark, display=title Theatres in Atlanta Cinemas and movie theaters in Georgia (U.S. state) Landmarks in Atlanta Modernist architecture in Georgia (U.S. state) 1968 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Loew's Theatres buildings and structures Theatres completed in 1968