Broadway Theater
3411 N. Broadway Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37917
3411 N. Broadway Street,
Knoxville,
TN
37917
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 8 comments
This opened on December 17th, 1938. Grand opening ad posted.
As a child, I attended many Saturday afternoon double features at the Broadway Theater for less than twenty-five cents. The theater became a bowling alley for a short period of time including live pin setters. The theater was located approximately a mile+ north of Fulton High School. Great memories from this picture!
Updated post following up from December 9, 2013
drewc – The sign you found is a modern casting made in some quantities for unknown purposes. I bought one on eBay too, thinking it was a unique if regrettable relic of the Jim Crow era. I then discovered that there were dozens of them floating around. Knoxville’s theatres were indeed segregated into the 1950’s, but someone has created these “No Colored, Broadway Theatre, Knoxville Tennessee” signs specifically to sell as outrageous curiosities.
The Broadway Theatre was a small neighborhood theatre that opened in 1939. Ownership changed when former Publix manager and local theatre owner, William Drumbar, purchased the theatre in 1947. The theatre closed in 1957 and was used briefly as the home of newly formed Arlington Church of Christ.
On Streetview, the Broadway Theatre was in the space between the alley and the building on the left. Broadway was renumbered sometime in the past, so the current address is 3411 North Broadway.
According to this sign (sorry for the context) I found on Ebay, the Broadway Theatre had existed in 1925.
At the link below is a small photo of the Broadway Theater from about 1947:
View link
The Broadway Theatre is listed as being open from about 1940 to 1955. That location is just about a block from Fulton High School, and a few blocks from St. Mary’s Hospital.