The Terrace Drive-In, only open for less than two months in the fall of 1956, showed a total of 20 different films. The first showing was Hangman's Knot (Huggins, 1952), a western/action film accompanied by The Big Heat (Lang, 1953), a noir/crime film. Every showing was a double-feature, as is this example.
The films would change two times a week, once on Wednesday and again on Sunday. Out of the 20 total films, six were westerns and another six were comedies, which were the two most common genres at this theatre. Different genres were not uncommon though, as there were thrillers, romances, adventure, noir films, war dramas, musicals and crime films shown as well. These films ranged from 1946 (the oldest film being the western/comedy, Singing in the Corn directed by Del Lord) and went as recently as 1955, a year before the drive-in opened its gates. Some films included stars such as Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, and Lucille Ball, but most were films not shown as A-list movies.
In addition to the main showings of the night, there were a few additional selections, including travelogues, cartoons, and selected shorts after the second film of the double feature. The specific names of these short subjects were not provided in the newspaper clippings from the Historic Oregon Newspaper, however this was a very common add-on for drive-ins and general theatres at the time. The Terrace Drive-In started showing films at 7PM from Monday to Saturday, and 6:30PM on Sundays. And don’t forget, every Friday was a $1 a car deal!
Unfortunately, the drive-in was forced to close after heavy rainfall flooded the grounds, and the last two films set to be shown never had the chance. The Last Frontier (Mann, 1955) and Pushover (Quine, 1954) had hoped to be pushed to different dates after the theatre’s restoration, but the damage was too severe for the theatre to be reopened during that season.
