The ad ran in the classified section of The Knoxville Journal in late July of 1948. A new building, on Central Street downtown, was for sale. It was nearly 8,000 square feet of solid brick, with steam heat and forced air circulation “for summertime.”
The building was ready for immediate occupancy, easily convertible to a host of possible uses: lodge hall, super market or furniture store, light manufacturing or wholesale distribution. Though offered for sale (not lease), the ad specifically stated that it would not be sold to continue the purpose for which it was built: showing motion pictures.
Interior of the Grand Theatre on Central, 1947, from the Joe Parrot Collection-Knox County Library.
The business in question was the short-lived Grand Theatre (not to be confused with another by the same name that once stood on Gay Street in the Vaudeville era). The “exclusive” selling agent for the property was listed as R. M. Perrin, with offices in the old Empire Building at W. Church Ave. and Market Street. Neither the theatre nor the Empire still stand today.
The location of the Grand put me on a bit of goose chase. I was intrigued by photos I found in the Joe Parrot Collection (see other story here) of the C. M. McClung Digital Archives of the Knox County Library. The four pictures were taken in 1947, but listed the Grand as being on State Street. I combed through a handful of ads for showings at the theatre from the mid-late 1940s, but none of them contained an address.
Then I ran across a couple of stories that the late great Robert Booker (historian, author, veteran, civil rights activist, legislator) had penned for the The Knoxville News Sentinel discussing old neighborhood movie houses and mentioning the Grand being on Central. Another KNS feature with gospel singer Ruth Hardin included her memories of the Grand, and she mentioned it being on Central. Hardin was the first Black person to perform at the freshly minted Knoxville Civic Auditorium back in 1961 and the first to perform in Knoxville to a fully desegregated audience.
The Grand may have suffered from being too close to the more established Gem Theatre, the historic Black movie house that sat at the corner of Vine and Central and remained in operation for 50 years. The Gem closed in the 1960s and was eventually swept away with urban renewal.
Or perhaps the returns at the box office weren’t enough to sufficiently pay back the cost of its creation. The theatre had its grand opening on March 5, 1945. A Black-owned business, it advertised itself, in the nomenclature of the time, as “the Finest Colored Theatre in the Entire South,” promoting its air conditioning, spring-cushion seating, modern restrooms and all the latest cinema conveniences. Its opening weekend featured The Meanest Man in the World starring Jack Benny and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. That same weekend, the Tennessee Theatre was showing Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland while the Bijou had a stage production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
A marquee from 1947 promoted a show featuring performers from the all-Black Beardsley Junior High School, Austin High School and Knoxville College. This was life under Jim Crow. Sadly, the Grand’s tenure as a theatre was short lived, but it left its mark on those who remembered it. And, thankfully, Parrot had the thought to make a record of it, even if he didn’t quite get the location right.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: Joe Parrot Collection, C. M. McClung Historical Collection-Knox County Library; The Knoxville Journal and Knoxville News Sentinel digital archives.