Bijou Theatre

Here are some interior photos of the Bijou after the renovation.

Foyer:
http://www.breweringramfuller.com/historic/bijou/bijou_foyer1.gif

Two photos of the auditorium:
http://www.breweringramfuller.com/historic/bijou/bijou_audit11.gif

http://www.breweringramfuller.com/historic/bijou/bijou_audit21.gif

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.

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.

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.

Not only did the Lamar House host 5 presidents, but rumor has it a number of queens lodged there too!

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.

Nice to read that the City of Knoxville now has 2 respectable restored theatres and both are on Gay Street!

The East Tennessee Paranormal society has a page about the Bijou, with a few small historic photographs.

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.

A great artical with pictures can be found here http://www.metropulse.com/articles/2006/16_19/cover_story.shtml

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

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.

Here are photos of the Bijou 1, 2, 3

Added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1975

Lamar House Hotel (added 1975 - Building - #75001763)
Also known as Bijou Theater
803 Gay St., SW., Knoxville
Historic Significance: Person, Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Unknown
Architectural Style: Federal, Georgian
Historic Person: Jackson,Andrew,et al.
Significant Year: 1835, 1905, 1816
Area of Significance: Architecture, Entertainment/Recreation, Politics/Government, Commerce
Period of Significance: 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Domestic, Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Hotel, Single Dwelling, Theater
Current Function: Vacant/Not In Use

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.

Additional link here, some nice research by Ron Allen.

http://www.knology.net/~ronallen/AFRICAN%20AMERICAN%20THEATERS.htm

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

An August 2006 photograph of the Bijou Theatre:
http://flickr.com/photos/23056599@N00/212235432/

This website has some photos, history and some ectoplasm. :)

Lost Memory's link above apparently supersedes the link I put up on February 19, 2006. Although the old link still works, LM's new link contains all the same information, plus more, and larger versions of the old link's photos to boot.

Also, the new link presents what is purported to be photographic evidence of a ghost at a urinal. How cool is that?!

I hope he flushed when he was finished.

Here is an undated photo of the Bijou:
http://tinyurl.com/29brfj

This is the website for the Bijou Theater.

Here is the Bijou in July of 2008.

The Bijou just got its new vertical sign and marquee. Looking good!

Well, I'll be interested in hearing thoughts/reviews from others interested in the Bijou. The new vertical sign is an approximation of one of the Bijou's previous signs. The new marquee is, (sigh) also, very much an "approximation" of one of the old theater's previous signs. It is nice to have real theatrical signage on the front of the building. Really it is. And signs are expensive. Good looking signs are VERY expensive. It's a step in the right direction. Keep in mind that Knoxville is extremely fortunate to have retained two grand theatres. Both the Bijou and the Tennessee are looking better than they have in decades.

This theatre was mentioned in today's New York Times, Arts Section in relation to the Big Ears Festival. This theater it says, has 700 seats and is managed and operated by Mr. Capps's company, AC Entertainment as well as the nearby Tennessee Theatre. The author says the Bijou is one of the best sounding rooms he's experienced in the country. Apparently, he hasn't been elsewhere.

The NY Times is right about the seating. According to the Bijou website:

What makes the Bijou special?

In addition to being housed in Knoxville’s fourth oldest building, the Bijou Theatre has an atmosphere that’s perfect for live music and the performing arts. Many performers and music fans consider the Bijou the best-sounding room in Knoxville, and with a capacity of just over 700, every seat in the house is a great one.

Here are comments about the Bijou I recently wrote for the (now defunct) Knoxville Voice:

While the restored Tennessee Theatre, our grand movie palace, has hosted the bigger events, the honor of being the house of choice for music lovers goes to the Bijou. The theater opened its doors in 1909 and, over the years, served as a vaudeville hall, an opera house and movie theater. Its classical interior design was typical of the period, copying the elegant "legitimate" theaters on and near Broadway that were venues for vaudeville as well as dramatic plays and musical productions.

Attending a performance in this 700-seat gem is a visual and aural treat. Sightlines are near-perfect - wherever you sit, you never feel too far off to the side or distant from the stage. At the Tennessee Shines show, I sat in the last row of the balcony, just in front of the gallery seats, and was astonished when, at the prompting of ON THE AIR and APPLAUSE signs, the curtain lifted upward to reveal the stage. It seemed like I was very close to the performers. Because of its size and configuration (it's practically a cube), the acoustic quality of the place is superb. String quartet or string band, Sweeney Todd or a rock group, everything sounds right, not too loud or soft. By design, the room itself is a fine musical instrument.

What I like most about the Bijou, though, is its mustiness, its not having been over-restored, just modestly renovated (by local architects Brewer Ingram Fuller between 1998 and 2005) to be functional, clean and comfortable. A new roof, fresh paint, clean carpet and upholstery can do wonders. A building whose age and quality is seen and felt, the skill and craftsmanship of its builders and thoughtful good taste and expertise of its unknown architects are embedded in every surface and space.

I found reference to an additional owner for the Bijou (a tabloid musical comedy house), as well as the Gay (a motion picture house) and the Grand (a vaudeville house), on www.FultonHistory.com whose name I did not see mentioned on CinemaTreasures. A paragraph in The New York Clipper (oldest American theatrical newspaper) said that Fritz Staub and Jake Wells had sold their Bijou Theatre to Frank Rogers and associates of Knoxville around 1913-1914. Local Knoxville newspapers probably carry more details about this transaction as well as what other theatres this businessman may have owned or controlled. Anyone know more about this Knoxville businessman?

I stumbled across this man, as well as several other references to “Frank Rogers (mgr)”, in NY Clipper while helping someone to find an actor named “Frank Rogers” who was born 1880 as Francis Rudolphus in San Francisco (to Anglo-Irish parents). Most of the other Frank Rogers references I found in NY Clipper were to a “Negro ventriloquist” in vaudeville.

1983 photo of the Bijou Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=4&catpagesize=25&ProductID=33610
Another 1983 photo of the Bijou Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=33611

As Will mentioned above, the Bijou recently received a new marquee and vertical sign. Both are poor designs. The marquee looks like three commercial retail signs bolted together at the corners. A view of that beautiful entry arch (in the image above) has been obliterated. It's doubtful any architect was involved, and astonishing that this design made it through what is usually a very demanding downtown historic preservation process. As an architect, I'm sure a fine design could have been produced within the budget, but, alas, it seems like no one tried ..

http://www.knoxville.com/news/2009/jan/29/bijou-celebrates-100-years/