Colony Theater
5438 Six Forks Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
5438 Six Forks Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
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The Six Forks Cinema opened in mid-1969 as part of Jerry Lewis Theatres. This theater located at the intersection of Millbrook and Six Forks Roads was a 600 seat single screen theater before it changed it’s to the Terrace Theater in the early-1970’s and later on the Terrace Twin. By the way,the Six Forks Cinema was about a block down for the Cardinal Theater at North Hills Mall that opened on July of 1967.
When my grandfather, Harry Kellam, opened this theater it was a Jerry Lewis Cinema. The Jerry Lewis Cinema company went under, and because of this it was very difficult for my grandfather to receive the popular first-run movies at the time. He tried to make it a family-oriented theater using the films he had access to, but it wasn’t enough. He later sold the theater.
This theater was known briefly in the early 1970s as the Six Forks Cinema (not to be confused with the Six Forks Station 6, which opened in 1986). This first Six Forks Cinema was a single-screen theater, basically the Jerry Lewis Cinema without the Jerry Lewis name. This incarnation also failed, and it subsequently became the Terrace Twin.
I managed this theater for Carmike from August 1993 until it closed in January 1994. Spent a huge amount of time and energy trying to clean it up – it was absolutely nasty when I took it over – only to have Carmike drop the ball on the lease.
My grandfather was the one who opened the original “left side” theater when the shopping center was built. Being the guy that he is, he couldn’t bring himself to charge what was needed for sodas and snacks in order to keep the theater afloat. So he sold it. I might still have the newspaper clipping from the Raleigh Times when the theater opened. I’ll see if I can find it.
Back to doing what it does best: Movies! Reopened by local resident Bill Peebles who runs Ambassador Entertainment. Runs independent, foreign and art films.
They have a website:
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I was the projectionist from summer of 91 till they closed it in early Jan 94. We tried to keep it open but when the discount multiplex opened they closed us down. We were dispersed to different cinemas but Terrace was the best. It was the ugliest theater EVER. Post pictures if you got them!!!
Stan Schneider and Leonard Merl of the Schneider-Merl chain were the operators of this theater in the early eighties, along with the Valley in Raleigh.
I’ll scan some pics and upload them when I get my computer back – I’m in the middle of moving…
This used to be the Terrace Twin until Carmike surveyed it off, and it makes no sense that the current owners (a reputable Raleigh company, Ambassador Entertainment, that runs art and foreign films in several ‘used’ area theatres that it’s bought over the years and fixed up) would rename it. The ‘Terrace Dynasty’ was the last theatre ever built in Raleigh that would acquire a following for the theatre/building itself. The Colony was originally the name of the art-deco Rialto, at Five Points.
Back in the 1960’s, for a small pile of money, you could own your own neighborhood, franchised, Jerry Lewis Theatre, and that’s exactly what the left side (pink side, what we used to call the ‘gay side’), was when Colony Shopping Center was first built. It failed. A local theatre owner named Bill Rawls picked it up, took over a good-sized restaurant next door, converted it into a large, unique 360-seat, odd-shaped, auditorium with brown/orange/white carpeted walls (gold side. what we called the ‘straight side’)or ‘butch side’) and re-named it the Terrace. (Mr. Rawls was a former manager for ABC Southeastern Theatres, and this was at a time when they were building Cardinal Theatres and Terrace Theatres all over the Carolinas and Virginia — nice ones, too — so, it just seemed to be the first name that popped into his head.) He eventually sold it to Martin Theatres.
Martin kept it as a first-run theatre, and it performed surprisingly well when given half a chance (usually, back then, all the really good movies would end up at the Valley Twin — also owned by Martin — or the Cardinal at North Hills — owned by ABC-Southeastern and then Plitt). Years went by, Martin Theatres became Carmike Cinemas, and when the Valley Twin in Crabtree Valley Mall closed and was replaced by the Carmike 7 (now Carmike 15) on Atlantic Springs Road, that put more first-run screens in that part of Raleigh than the Terrace could handle for competition. (Cineplex-Odeon hadn’t helped with the Six Forks Station cinemas even closer by — now owned by the same people who own the ‘Colony’ — but the intrepid Terrace was not to be intimidated or put down that easy …)
The Terrace then roared back as a second-run, 99-cent theatre. I was the manager there in 1990 and 1991. After I was transferred to another theatre, the Terrace stayed open another year, then the lease ran out, and Carmike put it up for sale WITHOUT TELLING ME DAMMEMTOHELL!!!!! (I’d just inherited a few bucks, and could have… could have …) By the time I found out, the current owners had already made their deal.
At least, they fixed it up (Carmike wouldn’t allow me the budget when I was there), and didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have done except rename it …
Take good care of it, guys. I like to pay it a visit when I’m down that way…