Bijou Theatre
803 S. Gay Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37902
803 S. Gay Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37902
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 40 of 40 comments
Here is a further link with a fairly comprehensive list of pre-1950 theatres in Knoxville. His comments listed as the Auditorium and Bijous are particularly interesting.
http://www.knology.net/~ronallen/Theaters.htm
Additional link here, some nice research by Ron Allen.
View link
Mr. C.B. Atkins sold the Bijou to a Mr. Sherman in 1926 with the stipulation that the property would not be used for theatrical presentations for a period of five years. Mr. Atkins had an interest in Tennessee Enterprise which included all of the Publix’s theatres in Knoxville. They had plans to build a large movie palace at this time, and wanted to make sure to limit competition. Of course that movie palace was the Tennessee that opened in 1928.
Mr. Sherman leased the theatre to a local car sales company who removed the seats on the main floor and parked cars on both the stage and orchestra floor. The lobby was turned into a fruit stand. In 1932 after the restriction period, the theatre was leased to The Peruchi Players for their theatrical productions. During the mid 30’s Wilbey-Kincey who had taken control of all of the Publix theatres in Knoxville, took a lease on the Bijou and operated it as a second run theatre to the Tennessee.
Here are photos of the Bijou 1, 2, 3
Correction to the above: the Gem and the Dixie also still stand. Knoxville has four buildings remaining from the earliest days of cinema, though of course, only one is still a theatre.
The 1915 Knoxville City Directory lists 10 theaters operating and showing moving pictures. They are listed below with the year they opened. Only two from that list still stand: the Gay/Strand is now an office building, and the Bijou – a 1st rate showplace.
Staub’s / a.k.a. Lyric 1872 (Gay St)
Lyceum / a.k.a. Majestic 1908 (Gay St)
Crystal 1908 (Gay St)
Bijou 1909 (Gay St)
Grand 1911 (Gay St)
Gay / a.k.a. Strand 1911 (Gay St)
Rex 1912 (Gay St)
Gem 1913 (Vine Ave)
Queen 1914 (Gay St)
Dixie 1915 (Central Ave)
two movie theaters had opened and closed by 1915. Those were:
Bonita 1911 to 1912 (Gay St)
Lyric 1911 to 1913 (Vine Ave)
Knoxville’s vast Market House (on Market Square) had been used to show motion pictures on at least one occassion
and Knoxville’s two grandest theaters opened later
Riviera 1920 to 1988 (Gay St)
Tennessee 1928 to present (Gay St)
Gay Street, Knoxille’s own great white way (and no kidding, it was once called “The Gay Way”) would have been a joy to see in those days. But nostalgia aside, we are quite fortunate that two theaters survive in such good condition.
Dixie 1915
A great artical with pictures can be found here View link
The Bijou opened under the management of Jake Wells and was (at least briefly) known as Wells' Bijou. Refer to the link listed just above from the East Tennessee Paranormal Society. Wells also operated the Bijou Theatre in Memphis Tennessee.
The East Tennessee Paranormal society has a page about the Bijou, with a few small historic photographs.
Nice to read that the City of Knoxville now has 2 respectable restored theatres and both are on Gay Street!
Will;
Seems like the Gay Street location was an appropriate name! A 1977 Gay guide that I have, highlights this as a ‘cruisy area’.
Back on subject though, it’s good to see that the Bijou Theatre survived and is thriving.
Not only did the Lamar House host 5 presidents, but rumor has it a number of queens lodged there too!
Since the second balcony is not used for seating due to structural concerns and lack of appropriate fire exits, the current seating capacity is 750. The Lamar House which is the old hotel portion dates back to 1816 and is the third oldest building still standing in Knoxville. It has been host to five U.S. presidents from Andrew Jackson to Rutherford B. Hayes.
A couple of endearing stories about the Bijou.
When Paramount Publix opened the magnificent Tennessee Theatre (q.v.) two blocks from the Bijou in 1928, they required that the Bijou close as a theatrical venue for “X” period of time. During those years, the Bijou stage saw many odd uses, the oddest possibly was a new car display about 1930. Movies returned to the Bijou about 1935.
The other story is about the convoluted ownership the theatre went through during the 1960’s and 70’s. The theatre building and the land was owned by a businessman and the theatre was operated by a succession of movie presentation companies. As downtown declined, so did the quality of the operation at the Bijou. From 1st run to 2nd run until finally the Bijou went porno. The old front-end building – an 1840 hotel – became a notorius brothel. In this sorry state the Bijou operated for years.
The businessman who actually owned the facility, along with large tracts of downtown realestate finally died and of course left everything to his wife. When SHE died, she left much of the realestate holdings to the giant, ultra-respectable, downtown Methodist church.
The church found itself owning a notorius brothel and porno theatre with a couple of years to go on the iron-clad leases!
It is a minor miracle that they didn’t tear the place down then and there, but the Bijou survived and after a THOROUGH cleaning returned to respectability in the early 1980’s.
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 gives a seating capacity of 1,246.
The Bijou Theatre was operated by the Keith Ciruit when it was on vaudeville. The Dirctory of Historic American Theatres gives an opening date as March 8th 1909 and the Architect: Oakley of Montgomery, Alabama.