page_title: Bijou Theatre (Knoxville, Tennessee)
section_title: Bijou Theatre
hierarchical_section_title: Bijou Theatre (Knoxville, Tennessee) / History / Bijou Theatre
caption_attribution_description: English: Stage and orchestra-level seats at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
context_page_description: The Bijou Theatre is a theater located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1909 as an addition to the Lamar House Hotel, the theater has at various times served as performance venue for traditional theatre, vaudeville, a second-run moviehouse, a commencement stage for the city's African-American high school, and a pornographic movie theater. The Lamar House Hotel, in which the theater was constructed, was originally built in 1817, and modified in the 1850s. The building and theater were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
  The Lamar House Hotel was built by Irish immigrant Thomas Humes and his descendants, and quickly developed into a gathering place for Knoxville's wealthy. In 1819, Andrew Jackson became the first of five presidents to lodge at the hotel, and in the early 1850s, local businessmen purchased and expanded the building into a lavish 75-room complex. During the Civil War, the Union Army used the hotel as a hospital for its war wounded, among them General William P. Sanders, who died at the hotel in 1863.
context_section_description: The Auditorium Company, headed by businessman C. B. Atkin and theater manager Jake Wells, purchased the hotel in 1908 with the intention of adding a theater.  The hotel's ell wings were torn down, and the brick theater wing was built in their place, with entrances added to the hotel's lobby.  The theater, built at a cost of $50,000, originally had a capacity of 1,500, and featured electric lighting.  The theater's backstage was equipped with a two-story scene dock and an Otis elevator to move sets.
  On March 8, 1909, the theater's opening night production of George Cohan's Little Johnny Jones was viewed by a sold-out audience.  Traditional theater played a major role in the Bijou's early success, with performances that included Mr. Green's Reception, which starred the Marx Brothers.  Between 1914 and 1921, B. F. Keith's company managed the Bijou, and vaudeville became the theater's primary attraction.  While African-Americans were only allowed in the theater's gallery (now the upper balcony) on main performance nights, Knoxville Colored High School used the theater for commencement ceremonies in the 1910s, and Knoxville College performed plays at the theater.
  Performers at the Bijou during the 1920s included John Philip Sousa and his band, Anna Pavlova and the Ballet Russe, and magician Harry Blackstone.  In 1935, Kincy Theaters purchased the Bijou for use as a second-run moviehouse (the Tennessee Theatre, which opened in 1928, was Knoxville's first-run moviehouse).  Live performances continued, however, among them Dorothy Gish in Life with Father in 1941, Lunt and Fontanne in Robert Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night in 1941, and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green in 1943.  The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra used the Bijou for its performances between 1936 and 1941.
caption: Orchestra floor, looking toward the stage
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