Terrace Theatres at Friendly Center
3120 Northline Avenue,
Greensboro,
NC
27408
3120 Northline Avenue,
Greensboro,
NC
27408
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Closed during the weekend of April 7th, 2000.
I’m not sure what raysond5366 is going on about in his March 10th comment, but here is the link to the chronology of 70mm presentations at the Terrace in Greensboro.
A chronology of Greensboro’s 70mm presentation history has been published here. The Terrace Theatre at Friendly Center is mentioned numerous times.
Loved national theatre every Saturday double feature horror flicks.
When the Terrace opened, it spelled the doom of the downtown National theatre in 1966. Wilby-Kincey was not allowed to have a monopoly and so the National had to go.
raysson you are definitely correct about the Empire Strikes Back. I saw it there as well during release in 70mm (although I didn’t realize at the time). The lines were incredible, and they had decorated the theater with “Hoth” murals painted along the windows.
THE BLUE MAX was a general release at the TERRACE. It was not a reserved seat engagement. However,the only reserved seat engagement for this movie was in Charlotte.
Yes Chuck…. “GONE WITH THE WIND” during its run at the TERRACE was re-release in 1967-1968 as reserved seat engagements that presented it in 70MM and 6 Channel Stereophonic Sound
During the mid-1960’s and part of the early 1970’s,the TERRACE THEATRE at Friendly Center was Greensboro’s showplace for a lot of the reserved seat engagements that got the first-run Triad exclusive showings with its full 180-degree Ultravision screening and spectacular 70MM projection and 6 Channel Stereophonic Sound. The reserved seat engagements that played first-run at Greensboro’s TERRACE THEATRE were “The Sound of Music”, “Gone With The Wind”,“The Sand Pebbles”, “Oliver!” and “The Lion In Winter”,and “Ice Station Zebra”,along with “Paint Your Wagon”.
The exclusive engagement showing of “2001:A Space Odyssey” and “Star!” played here as well as “Far From The Madding Crowd”,“Alfred The Great”,and “Ryan’s Daughter” were 70MM general release engagements. Not to mention the first-run showing of “The Song of Norway” too.
The TERRACE 1 & 2 THEATRES opened on March 1,1974 with the Greensboro showing of “THE EXORCIST”.
Closed in 2000 and was demolished in December 2001 to make room for the expansion of the Friendly Center on Northline Avenue where the former section of the Friendly Center-Forum VI was also demolished.
THEATRE HISTORY:
1966-1971 Wilby-Kincey/Paramount Theatres
1971-1978 ABC Southeastern Theatres
1978-1986 Plitt Southern Theatres
1986-1988 Cineplex Odeon Corporation
1988-2000 Janus Theatres
By 2000,the Terrace was reduced to showing second-run films and became a discount dollar house when the Greensboro Grande Cinemas opened. It closed in 2000 not 2001. Was demolished in 2002 to make room for the expansion of the Friendly Center. This will be revised.
Chuck1231: The TERRACE THEATRE upon it original opening on December 25,1966 had a 180-degree ULTRAVISION screen which was a single screener with a seating capacity of 750. By March 1,1974, a second auditorium was built adjanct to the original auditorium with a seating capacity of 600,bringing the seating capacity to 1,350 when it was the TERRACE THEATRES 1 & 2.
By 1981,the second auditorium was split into two sections adding 300 seats each when it was the TERRACE THEATRES 1-2-3 under Plitt Southern.
By 1986,the original auditorium of 750 seats was split down the middle adding 375 seats each when it went from a three screen cinema to a four screener. bringing the total seating capacity to 2,025. Two more auditorium was added with 280 seats each bringing the total number of seats to 2,585 under Janus Theatres until its closing in 2001.
You’re absolutely right Chuck about the calculations. The original auditorium with 750 seats wasn’t chopped up until 1986. I saw THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in 70mm there with its huge auditorium and widescreen vision!!
COMING SOON TO THE TERRACE THEATRE: February 2,1967
Steve McQueen in THE SAND PEBBLES-In ULTRAVISION!!!
The Grand Opening Feature for the TERRACE THEATRE on December 25,1966 was “Follow Me Boys” Starring Fred MacMurray….
NEXT ATTRACTION: George Peppard in “THE BLUE MAX” on January 12,1967…..
The Reserved Seat Engagement-First Greensboro Showing in 70mm! Julie Andrews in “THE SOUND OF MUSIC” on February 2,1967…..
COMING SOON TO THE TERRACE THEATRE:
Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift “RAINTREE COUNTY”
“THE TAMING OF THE SHREW”
The Reserved Seat Engagement-First Greensboro Showing in 70mm!
The First Time in 70mm “GONE WITH THE WIND”
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”
Address: TERRACE THEATRES AT FRIENDLY CENTER 3120 Northline Avenue Friendly Center Shopping Center Greensboro, NC 27408
December 25th, 1966 grand opening ad uploaded here.
Friendly Center remains me of Durham’s Northgate Shopping Center back in the early 1960’s.
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.
All that would change during the early 1970’s,when the Terrace added on a second auditorium,making it a twin cinema.
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 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 agree Mike, we had it made,and we did not know it then!And what a great Name the Friendly Centre!