TN Theatre Book

One of the most exuberant movie palaces of the South, the Tennessee Theatre is a Jazz Age spectacle, a glimmer of a briefly extravagant era, bold architectural celebration of an astonishing and suddenly popular new form of art. The motion picture changed the way Americans experienced their world; within its broad region, the Tennessee became the superlative venue for that experience.

Despite its reputation as the finest, the most expensive, the theater with chandeliers and original art and antiques in its lobby, the Tennessee was also the largest, the busiest, the most popular-Exclusiveness is one of the most effective illusions.

After almost a century, the Tennessee is still obligatory on any trip to Knoxville, one of those sights you have to witness at least once. Designed with dozens of shapes countless colors to awe, it is distinct in appearance from every other theater in the world.  It's complex and fascinating artifact.  But the Tennessee is also a practical edifice, a modern venue for classical music, opera, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and dozens of other genres that benefit from the old theater's excellent acoustics, praised in the national media for the quality of sound.