Terrace Theatres at Friendly Center

Regarding the “Empire” retrospective article and corrected web address from the previous two comments…

Wouldn’t it make more sense to cite the exact page? Citing only the site’s homepage requires readers to needlessly hunt for the article. The specific page is: http://www.in70mm.com/news/2003/empire/index.htm

The Terrace Theatre opened in 1965 as a single screen theatre that was owned and operated by Wilby-Kincey Theatres with super widescreen format that was capable of showing either 35MM or 70MM films. The auditorium was incredibly huge with a seating capacity of 800.
It remained a single screen theatre until the early-1970’s when a second auditorium was built that added over 600 seats when it was still under Wilby-Kincey Theatres.

By the late 1970’s a third screen was added,taking the second auditorium by split it down the middle,keeping the original 800 seat auditorium intact. Also the original auditorium was install with a six-track Dobly Stereo system in 1980 for the showing of “The Empire Strikes Back”,which was shown in 70MM when it was operated under the Plitt Southern Theatres banner.

By the mid-1980’s,the original auditorium was split down the middle as well making a fourth screen…by either the mid-1980’s or early 1990’s,two more screens were added with Janus Theatres acquired the Terrace Theatres from Plitt Southern Theatres until its closing in the late 1990’s. The theatre has since been demolished in early 2000 or 2001 to make way for expansion of Greensboro’s Friendly Center. Another theatre replaced it with a huge 16-screen megaplex that was located on the opposite end of Friendly Center.

86-88 Cineplex bought the Plitt chain and operated the Terrace. I was the last manager before it was sold to the Janus. It was a shoebox quad – the two big screens had been split down the middle. Some will remember Alvis Morehead – the greatest projectionist who ever lived. I never had to worry about the booth.

I agree Mike, we had it made,and we did not know it then!And what a great Name the Friendly Centre!

I’ve been unable to find the Terrace Theatre in Greensboro mentioned in Boxoffice, but from the description of the house by raysson in his comment above, it appears that it was one of several Wilby-Kincey projects that, like the 1966 Terrace Theatre in Asheville, was designed for the chain by the architectural firm Six Associates, founded in the early 1940s by Erle G. Stillwell and five other North Carolina architects. By the time the Terrace theaters were built, the firm was headed by William B. McGehee.