Just like we do today, Knoxvillians have long come downtown looking for some entertainment. For many years, Staub’s Opera House (later known as Staub’s Theatre and the Lyric) served as the city’s most dependable live-performance venue. But in the early years of the 20th century, some came to seek and try out a relatively new spectacle: moving pictures.
Several small cinemas came and went quickly in those early days, but one of the most enduring proved to be the Queen Theatre. It opened in 1914 just two doors away from the durable East Tennessee Savings Bank on the corner of Gay Street and Union Avenue.
When it opened in the heat of the summer on July 6 that year, the Queen’s owners proclaimed it to be “one of the most modern and fanciest movie theaters in town.” They also boasted “one cubic foot of fresh air, conditioned for every one of its 800 seated customers every two minutes.” On a hot, stuffy summer day that welcome comfort was likely worth the price of admission…