Behind Closed Doors: Tennessee Theater

Knoxville Museum of Art
New Knoxville Brewing Company
The Orangery
Waste Water Treatment Plant

Going into the Tennessee Theater is an experience decidedly unlike catching a flick at today's multiplex cinemas. The auditorium is dark and hushed, almost like a temple devoted to film, with 1,500 plush red seats just waiting to be filled with old-movie buffs. And if you were to peek into the projection room, you'd see equipment that's also decidedly unlike modern, automated projectors. The Tennessee's projectionist, Bill Burns, is 79 and has been working at the theater since 1930. He is ten years older than the theater itself, which turns 69 on October 1. He is an expert on the two projectors, which have been in use since 1953. The two-projector system is an antique one; the projectionist must change the reels from one projector to the other according to cues in the film.

If he does it correctly, and Burns certainly does, the audience will never notice. And, as happened last week during the James Bond festival, if one projector breaks down, the show can still go on under the guidance of a genuine human operator.