"The Tennessee Theatre is one of the best places to play in the country...I can't tell you what a privilege it is to play in a place like this." –Lyle Lovett

"The Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville...[is among] some of the best theaters in the country." –Elvis Costello

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, a 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 experiences. 

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, and the most popular. Exclusiveness is one of the Tennessee's most effective illusions.

After almost a century, the Tennessee is still obligatory on any trip to Knoxville, one of these sights you have to witness at least at once. Designed with dozens of shapes and countless colors to awe, it is distinct in appearance from every other theater in the world. It's a 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 acoutics, praised in the national media for the quality of its sound.

Jack Neely is the executive director of the Knoxville History Project. He is the author of Historic Knoxville: The Curious Visitor's Guide and Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth.