Terrace Theatres at Friendly Center
Friendly Avenue & Greeen Valley Road,
Friendly Center Shopping Center,
Greensboro,
NC
27408
Friendly Avenue & Greeen Valley Road,
Friendly Center Shopping Center,
Greensboro,
NC
27408
1 person
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Located in the Friendly Shopping Center, the Terrace Theatre opened in 1965 as a single screen theater showing first run features and classic revivals as well as a LOT of Disney films played here. It added on a second auditorium in the early-1970’s and later on in the early to mid-1980’s, split the original auditorium into a third auditorium and later on added another section of the cinema by adding on three more screens before its closing in the late-1990’s.
Contributed by
raymond
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
HISTORY:
1965-1974 Wilby Kincey Theatres
1974-1976 ABC Southeastern Theatres
1976-1988 Plitt Southern Theatres
1988-2001 Janus Theatres
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.
Yeah,Steve those Union Guys really made it easy to run the floor.
I agree Mike, we had it made,and we did not know it then!And what a great Name the Friendly Centre!
I only got to go to the Terrace once, for the 70MM road show of “Gone With the Wind” about 1968. It did seem huge.
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.
All that would change during the early 1970’s,when the Terrace added on a second auditorium,making it a twin cinema.
A Lot OF 70MM ENGAGEMENTS PLAYED HERE AT THE TERRACE:
January 12,1967-THE SOUND OF MUSIC played here for it’s exclusive Greensboro showing. Presented in 70MM and 6 Track Stereophonic Sound for it’s roadshow engagement. The only reserved seat engagement in Greensboro.
ALSO OTHER 70MM ENGAGEMENTS:
“GONE WITH THE WIND”
“RAINTREE COUNTY”-Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift
“2001”
“THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK”
“INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM”
Friendly Center opened to the public in 1957 as one of the largest shopping centers in Greensboro,and the Triad’s second strip mall after Winston-Salem’s Thruway Plaza. Friendly Center was not a mall,but had three major department stores…BELK, THALHIMERS(aka HECHT’S and now MACY’S),and SEARS.
Friendly Center remains me of Durham’s Northgate Shopping Center back in the early 1960’s.