Terrace Theatre
Tunnel Road,
Asheville,
NC
28805
Tunnel Road,
Asheville,
NC
28805
2 people
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This was a twin Theatre located on Tunnel Road in Asheville, NC behind Tunnel Road Shopping Center. I was an Assistant Manager for about six months in 1971 before being transferd to a theatre in Myrtle Beach, SC.
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Dickie
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
This doesn’t answer my question.
John Mackey started there in the theatre business then transferred to National Hills theatre.Then to the Gaston Mall Theatre.He would end his trek in Charlotte at the Tryon Mall 1 and 2 theatres, All ABC THEATRES.
The demolished theater behind the Asheville Mall was originally called the Ultra-Vision Mall Twin Theatre – the one with the oval theaters. It was demolished in the late 80s, to make room for mall expansion.
After reading many more Boxoffice items it has dawned on me that North Carolina Theatres was a subsidiary of Wilby-Kincey. As Wilby-Kincey was the regional affiliate of Paramount Theatres, and Paramount eventually came under the control of ABC, in a way this was always an ABC house. The company just didn’t use the ABC Theatres name until some time after the Terrace opened.
As I noted in my April 25 comment last year, the Terrace was the theater at which Wil-Kin tested its Ultra-Vision system before rolling it out to other theaters under its control. I’ve been unable to find anything in Boxoffice about a twin with the name Ultra-Vision in Asheville, but such a theater would most likely have been designed by William B. McGehee of Six Associates, the same architect and firm credited with designing the Terrace, as well as the Ultra-Vision theaters in several other cities. McGehee’s early Ultra-Vision theater designs apparently all featured oval auditoriums.
One of the founding partners of Six Associates, by the way, was Erle G. Stillwell, who was the principal designer of theaters for the Wilby-Kincey circuit during the 1930s. He continued in that role for many years after joining the Six Associates.
It was called The Mall Twin by the time I went there, in the late 70s, through the late 80s. It actually lasted less than twenty years, due to mall expansion. It was a GREAT theater – absolutely beautiful in design. I never went to the Terrace Theater, which was apparently very close by? The Dreamland Drive-Inn was just below what became the mall.
I had forgotten about the Merrimon Twin! i guess the last film that I saw there was “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980.
Vogel – I also grew up in Miami, and the Sunny Isles Twin was a spectacular theater. Amazing architecture – even a step above the Ultra-Vision Theaters. The tile work, and color themes….WOW!
jan 6 1980, in so many cities “1941' was dying,but going strong at the TERRACE.with four shows daily!
The Mall Twin did not close down until the early 1990’s. I know this because I did not start dating my (now) wife until November of 1990. We went there together to see a movie. It may have been a “dollar” theater by that time ($1 admission to see movies that were relatively new, but had been previously released and past their box office prime). We both distinctly remember this because there was a group of about 30 teenagers and younger kids that keep changing seats, going in and out of the theater and making all kinds of noise. The manager stopped the movie and had all of them escorted out of the theater by mall security and the Asheville Police. Department.
Never ever had to stop a movie to deal with a rowdy teenager,Of course in my days we actually hired ushers.
Well…like I said, this had turned into a $1 theater by that time. I’m sure ushers weren’t in the budget.