Tennessee Theatre
604 S. Gay Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37902
604 S. Gay Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37902
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 119 comments
Ha! The ghostly, white, mystery organ played by a spectral Jesse Crawford? Could it be cradled in a clandestinly created climate controlled crypt? Or does it reside only in the memories of organ interludes past? Where or when should we find the cadaverous claviers again? The sepulcural stops? The phantom pipes? The reaper’s ranks? Quote the Raven: “How the hell should I know?”
Lost: I’m sure many theatres have white organs…the key is locating them as it must be a rare sight. LOL! I know many churches have white organs as I have seen many of them.
Will, I always thought the cobwebs were more of an ash color than simply gray. Please explain? ;–)
The Tennessee’s console was always red with gold trim.
Here’s a photo of another moorish Wurlitzer console, this one quite similar to the Tennessee’s, though this one appears to be monochrome gold, rather than the If the link doesn’t work, search for Bob Castle on YouTube.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIvhJ_JBZFo
The Wurlitzer at the Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, (3 manuals) has always been thought of by me as being the smaller sister to the Wurlizter at the Alabama Theatre, Birmingham, Ala.(4 manuals), known to those fans as ‘Big Bertha’. www.theatreorgans.com/alabama/bham/
At the risk of releasing another avalanche of posts, please see the virtual tour of the auditorium here and the June 2008 photo LM posted at 10:47 this morning.
View link
The console is red. RED. R E D! It has gold trim. The keys are white and black and the stop tabs in black, ivory, red and mottled yellow. The toe studs are nickle plated and the black swell shoes outlined in chrome. The music rack lamp is gold-toned. The natural pedal keys are clear-finished maple with ebony sharps. The undersides of all the pedal keys are lightly coated with dust and cobwebs which at first glance appear to be white, but upon closer examination are actually light gray. Dr. Snyder’s hair is a charming shade of white and he usually wears a black dinner jacket or occassionally black tails, there being, thank the gods, no sequins in his wardrobe.
Patsy, I have another possible explanation, and I wouldn’t bring this up except for the fact that I’ve done it myself. After my first visit to the Landmark in Syracuse (it was still the “Loew’s State”) I very distinctly remembered the dome in the lobby being gold leafed. I mean I was 100% positive that the main dome in the lobby ceiling was absolutely gold leafed. When I went back for a 2nd visit, imagine my surprise to fine that the dome was painted in various colors and in oriental patterns! Maybe your memory is playing tricks on you?
I just sent Dr. Snyder an email with a copy to you so we shall see what the good Doctor tells us. And yes, it does look “gold, red and white”, but the organ I recall seeing was just white with gold trim.
I just asked my husband who helped Dr. Snyder push the organ into its storage area with doors which is under the stage via hydraulics and without putting any shared thought into his head I asked him what color he remembers it being and he said….white with gold trim.
The organ looks the same, to me, in both photos. If I saw it in December 2007 and the photo shows the organ to be non-white in June 2008 then it wasn’t white, I guess afterall.
I think an email to Dr. Snyder would probably resolve this organ dilemma.
Hi Patsy,
Are you sure about the organ being white? I saw the organ in October of 2008 and it looked as it does in the photos, crimson with gold details. Very flashy and appropriate for the theatre it was in. Maybe they were doing a repaint and you saw it with the primer? I’m just trying to figure how it could go from crimson in October to white in December, and back to crimson again.
Perhaps…just not sure. I do know that it was white when I saw it in person in December of 2007.
I don’t think so after looking at the photos you recently posted.
Lost: Great site, but I think I recall that the organ was white when I saw it.
Yes, thank you TheatreOrgan.
It is the original Wurlitzer organ installation ‘Patsy’ and ‘Lost Memory’.
Lost: I would agree!
If you locate a site that talks about the Tennessee Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer, let me know as I couldn’t find any detailed information about this organ on the official theatre website nor through the many posts. In the meantime, I have emailed Will Dunklin who might have some answers and organ history to share with us.
I believe it is though not 100% sure. If I hadn’t had friends in Knoxville, I probably wouldn’t have made the trip in ‘07. Knoxville is a pretty southern town with a quaint downtown area and sprawling new suburbs and traffic to the West along Kingston Pike which runs parallel to I-40.
Lost: As you know I have toured this theatre and Dr. Snyder played the theatre organ during my visit to Knoxville in Dec. ‘07.
Poodles, Click on my name below and send me an email. Will
My late husband and I were members of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra between the years 1969-1971. I’d like to obtain a photo of the orchestra from that time period to add to my memory book. My husband and I met while students at Maryville College. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. I’m also trying to locate concert programs as well.
Thanks
Poodles
After comparing marquee photos they sure made a nice improvement from what was seen in the 80’s!
A 1986 view of the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville here and here and a larger view here and here.