YOUR MAMA SAID STAY AWAY FROM THAT NASTY OLD ROXY. A BRIEF HISTORY OF KNOXVILLE'S LAST COMBINATION MOVIE THEATER - VAUDEVILLE HOUSE,

THE ROXY THEATRE

Ronald R. Allen

The Roxy Theatre hasn't been completely ignored since it closed a half century ago, but little seems to have been written about the combination movie house and vaudeville theater. The theater is mentioned in Cormack McCarthy's 'Sutree', although which among those recollections are from the author's memory, and what represented information heard from others (or the author's imagination) is uncertain, as McCarthy was only fourteen years old when the Roxy ceased stage show presentations in 1947. Local newspaper writers occasionally mention the Roxy in local newspaper columns, but apparently no writer or other researcher has explored the history of the theater. The McClung Room at Knoxville's public library has literally thousands of file folders with information about old Knoxville, housed in a long row of filing cabinets, but there seems to be virtually nothing among those folders about this theatre.

Many parents -- particularly mothers -- considered the RoxyTheater a seedy and off-limits theatre for their youngsters, being a place where off-color jokes and scantily-clad women performed on stage, and cautioned their boys and girls not to enter the "wicked" establishment. Naturally, young boys often considered such admonitions a challenge, and many made it a point sooner or later to find some way to sneak downtown and go to the Roxy Theater. (The author managed to do so on a couple of occasions.)

In seeking information, I've contacted a number of people who were around when the Roxy stage shows were being performed. Unfortunately, those contacts have generally resulted in minimal information about the theater. One man said he had probably been to the Roxy dozens of times as a youngster, but today can't remember much of anything about it. I was surprised to find that the sentiments of some women still echoes what their mothers and others had told them many years ago. Several women mentioned understandably that they wouldn't go near the place when they were growing up in Knoxville, but one even went so far as to state that her older brothers had told her that rats frequently ran through the aisles of the Roxy, and she certainly would not think ANYBODY would be interested in reading anything about that "filthy place". I decided just to ignore her remarks, and proceed with my search for information about the theater. For example, I also thought it was best not to attempt to enlighten her by mentioning that there is ample evidence in original Knoxville newspaper accounts to verify that back in the days when the Roxy Theater was in business, rats frequently were roaming many downtown locations, including the old Market House on Market Square, not to mention the fact I have a copy of an old newspaper report reporting the time -- on the same day -- when both a city official and a Knoxville policeman were bitten by rats at the old City Hall. On the other hand, I will credit that female with inadvertently having given me an idea for the title for this compilation. But on one account, that lady may have been right, that nobody is interested in reading about the old Roxy. Nonetheless, I've compiled this brief history of the old Union Avenue theater, thinking perhaps there are a few people out there who would like to know about the last of Knoxville's old movie and vaudeville houses. I still have lots of unanswered questions about the Roxy, but I've managed to record here a bit of information about the place, primarily through old newspaper advertising.

I have uncovered a few rumors concerning the Roxy. One correspondent says that the mother of one of her classmates at Rule High School had been a dancer at the Roxy, but does not reveal the name. Another reports that a well-known Knoxville female who later married a local politician once was a dancer in the Roxy's chorus line. Another acquaintance relates some local detectives were in the habit of regularly showing up at the Roxy at the conclusion of the live performances, picking up a couple of the girls from the chorus line, disappearing with them for a while, then returning the girls to the theater in time for their next stage show. I have no reason to doubt those and other stories I've been told, but they are unverified, and mentioned here only in passing and not guaranteed for their accuracy. Perhaps some day a more diligent researcher might uncover and verify those and other stories about the Roxy Theatre.

Other than the names, little information concerning the stage performers at the Roxy has been uncovered. The majority of those performers are now likely deceased, and few of the people I've contacted who were living in Knoxville back then have been able to furnish much information those who appeared on the Roxy stage. Even in the unlikely chance that a girl as young as eighteen years old girl was performing in the Roxy chorus line in the final year stage shows were still being shown at the theatre, 1947, she would today be eighty years old. While the Internet is sometimes helpful when seeking information, it is essentially useless with regard to the Roxy theater itself, and concerning those performers. Attempting to locate anything about those stage personalities, the only thing I have managed to locate through that source is the fact that Webfoot Watts was a headline act at the Club Peachtree in Atlanta in the 1960's. Watts passed away a number of years ago.

The Roxy management sometimes perhaps arranged living quarters for their headline comedians. One early comedian, Cotton Watts, was on the bill from 1934 through 1936, but not continuously. The names of a few other performers are occasionally listed in city directories, includling Arthur Watts, then performing under the name "Webfoot Watts", who together his wife Virginia, a dancer in the chorus line at the Roxy, is shown one year residing at a hotel near the theater. But since most of the names of the "top bananas" who performed at the Roxy are not found in city directories between 1933 and 1947, it seems likely that it was just through happenstance that occasionally, when information for the city directory was being gathered, the names of some of those performers made it into the directories, since they were then living at nearby hotels or apartment houses at the time, while they were performing on the Roxy stage. However, it does seem probable that the theater management made arrangements for temporary living quarters for those stage personalities when they were on the bill at the Roxy, at such places as the Stratford Hotel, a block from the Roxy on Wall Avenue, and also at a nearby rooming house.

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1932

The Roxy was a downtown movie theater and vaudeville house, located on Union Avenue in Knoxville. An earlier theater with the same name was in operation in Knoxville several months earlier, a fact that seemingly has not been recorded elsewhere in local historical writings, until the author uncovered the information in recent years.

Knoxville's first Roxy Theater opened in August, 1932, at 112 Vine Avenue, on the north side, between Central and Gay streets. It was a movie theater for African Americans. The theater apparently was in operation for only a few months. When that theater existed, the Knoxville News Sentinel seemingly ignored it's presence, seldom if ever mentioning the theater, and not listing movies that were being shown in its weekly listings. Fortunately, the Journal did furnish those weekly listings to the public, and a few of the theater's small advertisements appeared in that newspaper, thus preserving the relatively scant available historical evidence as to the brief existence of that movie theater for black patrons. On Sunday, August 21, 1932, the Journal mentions "The Roxy, new Vine Avenue theatre for Negroes, will open this week ..." A small advertisement appears in the same issue, advertising the movie "The Man Who Played God", the first movie shown at the new Roxy, on Monday, August 22, 1932. The Journal continued to include the Roxy movies in their weekly "Show Bill", while the Sentinel did not include those listings. An advertisement for "Hell Divers", featuring Wallace Berry, appeared in the Journal on October 23, 1932. Whether the theater remained open after that week is not known, but no Roxy ads or weekly listings appear in the Journal by November, 1932. No evidence has been located to verify that the Roxy Theater on Vine Avenue was is existence after 1932.

Knoxville's second Roxy Theater, the subject of this compilation, was located at 415 Union Avenue, on the north side, between Market Street and Walnut Street. The theater opened on December 26, 1932. A large advertisement appeared in the Journal on Christmas day, Sunday, December 25, 1932, announcing the formal opening. The first movie shown at the Roxy was "Horsefeathers", featuring the Marx Brothers. Admission was twenty cents for adults and ten cents for children.

1933

Movies at the Roxy in January, 1933 included "Merrily We Go to Hell", with Frederic Marsh, and "One Way Passage", with William Powell. Comedian Stamie Shaver was the feature in the vaudeville acts on the stage at the Roxy in January and February, 1933, when a chorus line of female dancers were on the program.

On March 5, 1933, the Sunday Journal reported that a newly formed local theater group, called the 'Little Theater', would present a play called "The Torchbearers" on the stage at the Roxy Theater, on the following Thursday and Friday evenings. That same issue of the Journal reveals that movies were also being shown that week at the Roxy. Aside from that amateur production in the spring of 1933, other early newspaper advertisements mention only that movies were being shown at the theater on Union Avenue that year. The theater possibly closed for a period of time in 1933, since no advertisements for movies or stage presentations have been found in local newspapers in September of that year.

1934

In 1934, only movies were being shown at the Roxy for most of the year. Their newspaper advertisements in February, July and August that year make no mention of stage shows. But there were exceptions. On April 14, a group called "Miller's Spanish Show - Music, Dancing, Girls, and Singing" performed on the Roxy stage. Later, on October 16, 1934, the Roxy advertised a movie called The Lost Patrol, together with a stage show featuring "Cotton Watts and his Girl Revue". The newspaper advertisement reveals that adult tickets were fifteen cents and children were admitted for a dime at that time. Obviously, that practice changed in later times, since by 1941 a banner hung outside the theater clearly indicating "Adults Only". (But while that was the announced practice, it was hardly unusual for youngsters to be admitted to the Roxy in those days.) By December, 1934, stage shows were a regular fare, with Cotton Watts and troop performing regularly, including a Christmas day blackface comedy routine.

The offerings of both live entertainment and movies at local theaters was hardly new in Knoxville. In the early twentieth century, when downtown silent movie houses began to replace vaudeville and live entertainment theaters, several theaters continued to present stage shows in conjunction with the silent movies. Among the early Knoxville theaters that offered both movies and live shows were the Arcade, the Bijou, the Cable, the Columbia, the Majestic and the Marvel. When the Roxy opened in 1933, it was in competition with several other downtown movie houses where stage presentations were also still being presented in addition to the movies. At the Strand, such stage shows as Roy Acuff and his Crazy Tennesseans, the Arizona Ranch Girls, Banjo Eddie, and country music shows featuring Archie Campbell as Grandpappy and Lowell Blanchard were on the stage. At the Riviera, an example of a stage presentation in 1934 was a show called Johnny Hodges Follies. The Tennessee featured such shows as Roy Teal and his Original Floridians, plus their regular weekly popular Saturday morning Popeye Club for youngsters. Down at the Bijou, live stage presentations were also regularly being shown. Some, including the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, the Egyptian Follies, the Chicago Follies, Studio Scandals, and Jimmie Hodges Follies, all shown in conjunction with current movies. At other times, separate live performances were shown at the Bijou, such as John Barton in "Tobacco Road", Talullah Bankhead in "I am Different", Eugenie Leontovich in "Tovarich", and Edward Everett Horton in "Springtime for Henry". Of course, Staub's Theater continued in business across the street from the Bijou, where no movies, but such activities as local school plays, public activities, live stage presentations, and wrestling matches were the fare.

Live stage shows at the Roxy in 1934 included "Miller's Spanish Show - Music, Dancing Girls, Singing." By the fall of 1934, Cotton Watts was a regular performer in the vaudeville stage shows at the Roxy.

1935

Vaudeville shows, sandwiched between the movies, continued at the Roxy in 1935. Feature comedians that year included Att Candler and Bob Snyder. Cotton Watts continued to perform periodically at the theater.

1936

Cotton Watts continued as one of the featured "top bananas" on the Roxy stage shows 1936. Others who periodically appeared included Bob Davis, Paul Randolph, Jack Monroe, "Shorty" Candler (apparently the same person as "Att Candler), Jack Moore, and Fred Frampton. That year, one advertisement mentions the "Night Club Girl Revue, with Billie Lewis, Red Fletcher, Jane Lee, and those Nifty Night Club Girls."

1937

Benjamin Murphy continued as the manager at the Roxy Theatre in 1937. Among the stage performers that year were Billie Lewis, Jack Moore, Jane, Lee, Bob Greer, Toby Eastman, Harry Rollins, "Elsie May", and Virg Downard. The movie fare was varied, including the usual cowboy flicks featuring such actors as Johnny Mack Brown, and a Mae West movie.

1938

Frank R. Roach was manager of the Roxy in 1938. The city directory also lists him as manager of the Dixie Operating Company. Again, Cotton Watts. Comedians at that year's stage shows included Monkey Kirkland, Toby Eastman, Bob Greer, Billy Armond, and the Lee Sisters.

1939

Vaudeville stage performers this year included Eddie Dyer, Gertrude Mack, and Bob Greer. Dancing chorus lines were featured, the advertisements including such terms as the "Park Avenue Chorus", a "Bevy of Beautiful Girls", and a "Big Girlie Review". In 1939, on Thursdays the Roxy offered a free dinner dish "to every lady patron purchasing an adult ticket.". It also was a popular practice at some of Knoxville's neighborhood movie theaters. Apparently it worked at the Roxy, since they continued the practice of giving free dishes away on 'Dish Day' until at least as late as 1945. The same promotion was held at a number of Knoxville's neighborhood theaters during those times.

1940

By 1940, the other downtown combination movie and vaudeville houses had dropped their live entertainment, particularly the vaudeville type shows. While periodic stage presentations continued to be shown at the Tennessee and the Bijou, the Roxy was now the only local theater offering live vaudeville stage shows on a daily schedule. Earlier comedians including Bob Greer and Att Candler continued to perform at the Roxy, and a new name first appeared, Webfoot Watts. Watts would continue as a popular stage attraction at the theatre for some while, and he is the comedian seen by this writer on occasional trips to the Roxy during the World War Two era. The stage shows were occasionally more diversified now, with such personalities as "Whitie and his Radio Gang", a late night wrestling match between Dynamite Lay and Jack DeValult, and even a mind reader, billed as "Alexandra, the Man who Sees All, Knows All, Tells All." The "Dish Day" promotion continued, and Saturdays featured at Lone Ranger weekly serial, popular with youngsters.

1941

The usual practice at the Roxy was to show second runs of popular movies with more universal appeal on weekdays, then Class B cowboy movies later in the week, including Saturdays. The live vaudeville stage presentations originally were shown daily, and double feature movies were often presented. Obviously, that reduced the number of times the entertainers were required to perform, since between two full length movies, previews of coming movies, newsreels, and an occasional cartoon thrown in, stage shows were shown no more often than every two to two and a half hours or so. Since those movies in the later part of the week were attractions that appealed to young boys, it would appear by then that the theater management cared little about their supposed practice of admitting adults only. Any such restrictions in those days had to do with the sentiment in the "Bible Belt" South, that young boys theoretically were not supposed to see the scantily clad women in the chorus line, nor hear the off-color and raunchy comments and gags that were an integral part of the old vaudeville stage routines. Nonetheless, the author found himself seated in the Roxy a couple of times as a youngster, and recalls seeing a decent sized sprinkling of young boys, also apparently about his age, scattered throughout the audience. By then, the "adults only" sign that hung over the entrance to the Roxy didn't actually mean you had to be an adult to go through the entrance door.

F. J. Nickens is listed in the city directory in the 1941 city directory, residing at the Jackson Apartments, at the corner of Union and Walnut. In 1941, the Roxy vaudeville shows at the Roxy included the following :

"Round Up Revue - Girls, Gags, Music, Girls, Fun, Girls"

"The Can Can Scandals"

"Billy Leroy's Girl Show". May 2.

"Lumpy Lawson and his Bevy of Beauties". December 7.

"Webfoot Watts and his Big Girl Show" ( May 23 ; June 10 ; November 7.)

"Webfoot Watts All Week"

"Lumpy Lawson and his Big Girl Show" December 17.

1942

Mrs. A. H. Nickens was the Roxy manager in 1942. She lived at the Marion Apartments, at 514 west Church, between Walnut and Locust. The Roxy staged held late night vaudeville shows on most Saturday nights in 1942, beginning at 10:45 PM. Some of the stage shows in 1942 were as follows : "Bob Greer's Big Girl Show" ; "Att Candler's Girl Show" ; "Two Ton Tessie. South's Fattest Singer" ; and "Att Candler on our Stage" October. "Skinny" Green also performed at the Roxy in 1942. ("Two Ton Tessie" managed to last for a while as an attraction .. the rotund female first appeared in September, 1942, and was still appearing on the Roxy stage three weeks later.)

1943

Att Candler and stage reviews with such names as "Dixie Darling Revue" and "Krazy Caper Revue" were the live vaudeville attraction at the Roxy in 1943, beginning in January and lasting into September. Webfoot Watts showed up again that month, performing for most of the remainder of the year, with new names Matt Fergson and Booger Lewis also appearing in October.

1944

H. Nickens continued as manager at the Roxy in 1944. Popular Webfoot Watts continued to perform on the Roxy stage for most of the year in 1944. That year, some in the "Dancing Rockettes" chorus line is identified as Kristine, Billie Berleley, Morris, and 'Pam.' Some of the new comedians included Mark Fergoson and Jimmy Doss, and Pollard. In December, an act was advertised as "Jack Murrel and Happy Bennett ... With Girls from the Rock Bound coast of Maine to the Sunny Beaches of California." (I can't help but wonder if those "beauties" actually came only from as far away east as Burlington, and from the west maybe from Lonsdale)

1945

Webfoot Watts, a popular comedian at the Roxy beginning in 1940, apparently made his last appearance at the Roxy in 1944. In 1945, the headline comedian for the entire year was named Skinny Green. Periodically he was joined by others, including Everett Lawson, Jo Jo Jordon, and Jack Mahler. Some advertisements identify members of the chorus line, but once again only by their first names, including Ethel, Cleo, Jane, Annette, and Peggy.

1946

A few examples of the stage shows at the Roxy in 1946 were : Possum Candler and Big Girl Revue ; Possum Candler and Skinny Green ; Ernie Candler and Gene Vaughan. As early as 1940, Att Candler had been a top banana at the Roxy. By 1946, names of comedians including "Ernie" Candler and "Possum" Candler were performing on the Roxy stage. I assume, although have not verified, that all of those names were the same person.

1947

1947 was the first year movie theaters were open on Sundays in Tennessee. For the first time, a change obviously was in the wind at the Roxy. A newspaper ad in February, 1947, promoted the Roxy as a "Family Theater -- A Friendly Theater." Even so, the stage shows continued at the Roxy that year , with long-time comedian Ernie Candler still performing earlier during the year, then new names including Al DeQlercq and Buzz Bartlett taking the stage, until later in the year. By November, no advertisements for stage shows at the Roxy, appear in local newspapers, and apparently those shows were discontinued.

Looking through Knoxville newspapers from 1948 and subsequent years reveal no further listings for stage shows at the Roxy Theater. The theatre continued to operate as a movie theatre until closing its doors in April, 1959. The building itself was later demolished.

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(The above reproduces a chapter that appears in my book, Knoxville Miscellany, printed in 2008. The article in that book contains illustrations that are not included here.)