Bijou theater knoxville tn1/4/2024 In later years, Tallulah Bankhead, John Barrymore, Sydney Greenstreet, and Montgomery Clift performed here, and Tony winner John Cullum effectively began his career here. Though it eventually began to show movies more, live drama would be a mainstay for most of the 20th century. In 1909, at the height of the vaudeville era, developers built the Bijou Theatre, which drew some of the stars of the day, from Will Rogers to the Marx Brothers to John Phillip Sousa. General Joseph Johnston is known to have worked here in mid-1863, and in a rather poignant story, an old family slave, a woman who helped raise him, tracked him down there just to see him. The hotel’s balcony served as the platform from which many visiting politicians and statesmen addressed Knoxvillians. In 1871, former Confederate General James Clanton was carried into the same building after being mortally wounded in a gunfight with a former Union officer. General Ambrose Burnside, concerned about how the news would affect morale, kept Sanders’ body in the hotel until it could be secretly buried late at night. ![]() General William Sanders, wounded on Kingston Pike, died in the building. Confederate General Joseph Johnston stayed here while planning his western campaign later the same year, it was a functional Union hospital. Later, Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden whose brother worked as a bartender in the Lamar House Saloon (located approximately where the Bistro is today), was said to be especially fond of the masquerade balls.īoth armies found it useful during the Civil War. ![]() In 1817, the Lamar House hosted a gala reception for Andrew Jackson. Known for its ballroom and saloon, it was one of antebellum Knoxville’s favorite public places and the site of concerts, feasts, and holiday parties. Soon after his death the Lamar House was converted to a hotel and continued operations under various names through the 1970s. Thomas Humes, a wealthy merchant, is credited with constructing the building in 1816. The Lamar House Hotel / Bijou Theatre had its beginnings as a private residence near the center of Knoxville’s business district.
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