One of my favorite things to see on entering downtown Knoxville is the big sign on the Tennessee Theatre. There are probably more direct ways to get to the parking garage near where my brother lives, but I always come right down Gay Street so I can see it - large letters stretched vertically down the length of the structure T-E-N-N-E-S-S-E-E. I've arrived.
I got to see the interior of this grand old theatre on one of my first visits to Tennessee, when a friend took me to a Tommy Emmanuel concert. She had told me that it was a beautiful place, carefully restored to it's original grandeur. But still, I'm pretty sure I did the jaw drop thing when I walked into that lobby. It's spectacular. And a little unexpected to find right there in Knoxville. Although I'm learning not to be surprised by what I find around here.
The theatre was originally constructed in 1928 as a movie palace. It thrived for years. It hosted world premieres with stars in attendance. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra played there. According to the timeline on the theatre's website, things got a little rough in the 70's. The theatre closed and re-opened, closed and re-opened again. The interior was renovated for the Knoxville Word's Fair. Then things started to get better. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The local ballet, opera, and symphony orchestra started to perform there. Regal Cinemas (headquartered in Knoxville) donated new projectors and sound system. The Mighty Wurlitzer organ was restored. And finally in 2003 the theatre closed it's doors for renovations, re-opening in January of 2005 as the beautiful, first-rate performance venue it is today.
This last Monday I drove to town to see a Christmas concert at the Tennessee. About an hour before the concert, I saw that there were folks lined up around the block waiting for the doors to open. Apparently, this concert has become quite an annual tradition. The announcer later told us that it's one of their best attended events. We hung back a bit and let the early-arrivers get settled in. Then we found ourselves some good seats in the balcony. We passed on the boxed lunches available in the lobby, opting to go out to one of the restaurants on Market Square after the show. The Tennessee always smells of fresh-popped popcorn, though, and I was wishing I'd stopped to get a box on the way in.
The Christmas concert is part of the
Mighty Musical Mondays series. Free concerts are held at noon on the first Monday of each month. The concerts are "Mighty" because they feature music played on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ. There's always another musical group there too, but the organ is kind of the star. This is one of those big monsters of a pipe organ. It rises up from below the stage and fills the place with floor-rumbling sound. Hearing Christmas music on this thing is a real treat.
The organists (there are two, they each played half the concert) pretty much play non-stop, one piece after another, but at one point there was a pause and the mention of having your cars keys ready. Everyone seemed to know what this meant, so I'm guessing it's a regular part of the show. It turns out that a hall full of people jangling their car keys makes a respectable sleigh bells effect for the chorus of
Jingle Bells. Fun.
The non-organ part of the afternoon's entertainment was provided by the Central High School Choir and they were really very good. They performed a mix of traditional and modern pieces, some choreographed. They even pulled off a high-kicking Rockettes-style number for the finale.
Oh, and there was Barney Fife. I'm not sure why, but there was a fellow dressed up like Barney from the old Andy Griffith Show helping MC the event. Greg tells me that Barney is a regular part of the
Mighty Musical Monday shows. He did do a good impersonation and he got laughs.
As we made our way down the grand staircase after the concert, looking at the full lobby below where the exiting audience offered thanks and congratulations to the young performers who awaited them in the lobby, it was easy to imagine that this scene wasn't all that different from the way things were when the theatre opened some 80 years ago. Neat.
All-in-all it was a very nice way to spend a December afternoon.
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| The organ pipes are behind those curtains |
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| Concert Hall Ceiling |
