Terrace Theatres at Friendly Center

COMING SOON TO THE TERRACE THEATRE: February 2,1967

Steve McQueen in THE SAND PEBBLES-In ULTRAVISION!!!

The DOBLY STEREO system was installed in it’s largest auditorium in 1977 for the showing of Steven Spielburg’s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND that came out around Christmas as the premiere attraction….

The larger auditorium had more seating capacity as well as having a full 180 degree Ultravision screen capable of showing bigger presentation in 70MM.

Other movies that got the DOBLY STEREO treatment at the Terrace at Friendly Center…. “SUPERMAN:THE MOVIE”

“POLTERGEIST”

“DISNEY’S THE BLACK HOLE”

“STAR TREK II:THE WRATH OF KHAN”

“BACK TO THE FUTURE”

December 25th, 1966 grand opening ad uploaded here.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

There is a retrospective article on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that was shown in 70MM(which was an exclusive Triad showing)and it was one of four theatres in North Carolina that had this exclusive enagement showing.
See the website at www.70mm.com
Two Plitt Theatres in the Triad area had this:
The Terrace Theatres-Greensboro
The Thruway Theatres-Winston-Salem
The other Plitt Theatres were:
The Cardinal Theatres-Raleigh
The Park Terrace-Charlotte

The TERRACE THEATRE was mostly family oriented films. They showed a lot of Disney films. One of them I had the privilege of seeing at the TERRACE was the 1976 Disney film “Freaky Friday”.