Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Here to Fore?

The Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp. is poised to reel in a big one. Sources say Gloria Ray & Co. is in the final stages of negotiating to bring the 2005 Professional Golf Association Senior Championship to Holston Hills Country Club. This would bring the likes of Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Fuzzy Zoeller and Tom Watson to Knoxville, as well as a host of sportswriters and TV commentators. It will involve about three weeks of activity and be televised to some 60 countries.

Amusical Chairs

Embattled University of Tennessee President John Shumaker (does anybody else suspect that "embattled" has become a permanent prefix to this title?) was in the middle of a media blitz to defend his spending habits last week when Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham came to town. So Shumaker might have been too distracted to notice the rearranged seating when he arrived at Circle Park on the UT campus where a tent was set up for an al fresco luncheon in Abraham's honor. Shumaker had held a press conference the previous afternoon, and had made an early-morning talk radio appearance on the Hallerin Hill Show on the same day as the luncheon. Numerous onlookers noticed, however, and one says it was "pretty embarrassing" when Mayor Victor Ashe checked the seating and was evidently displeased to find Shumaker seated with Abraham and Sen. Lamar Alexander.

"The mayor showed up, perused the situation, noticed that Shumaker was sitting next to Lamar, and told (deputy to the mayor) Craig Griffith to move Shumaker over next to Joan (Ashe). Craig actually did it. If Shumaker noticed, he didn't say anything about it."

Ashe got better marks for etiquette, however, when he introduced his county counterpart as "County Mayor Mike Ragsdale." Prior to this occasion, Ashe had been refusing to recognize Ragsdale's new, General Assembly-dictated title, pointedly referring to Ragsdale as "County Executive Mike Ragsdale," instead.

Talk Jock Homes In

Speaking of talk radio, fledgling host Frank Cagle is receiving high marks for his 10 a.m. show. Cagle, whose show started out as an ass-kicking, Dixie Chick-bashing warm-up act to Rush Limbaugh, has moved steadily toward an issue-driven two hours that has featured the likes of local historian Bruce Wheeler and the very busy Danni Varlan, who said Tuesday that she had sent a tape of a previous "Frank Talk" to a low-cost airline she is trying to woo into coming to Knoxville to illustrate the interest getting a low-cost airline to come to town.

Bijou Directorless

Jim Crabtree, of the popular Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, began bringing shows to the Bijou three years ago. Early last year, the Bijou hired him as executive director. This week he resigned.

In its 95th year, the Bijou is the Knoxville area's oldest theater and, by some accounts, our most accoustically perfect one. The quality and style of the Bijou's dramatic performances have varied greatly over the years, but for the last 18 months, the theater has adhered to Crabtree's tried-and-true formula of well-polished performances of popular, mostly light comedies and musicals. Crabtree's plays like Annie, Fiddler On the Roof, Smoke On the Mountain, aimed at family audiences, have been apparent successes. His plays have lately been drawing about

90,000 people per year, yielding a 100 percent increase in the Bijou's earned revenues.

However, some, including Crabtree himself, felt his 100-mile commute from Crossville was stretching him a little too thin. Crabtree euphemizes the transition as "Phase III," and is quick to add that, as he concentrates on his first love in Crossville, he will remain a consultant to the Bijou, and may continue to tour CCP's plays there.

Some have noted that live music, especially the sellout shows which were a Bijou staple in the '80s and '90s, got the way-back seat during Crabtree's tenure, a gap alleged to be partly due to a dispute with Knoxville's live-music kingpins, AC Entertainment.

Taking Crabtree's place will be his associate producer, Lar-Juanette Williams. Originally from Memphis, Williams has worked in Hollywood before coming the CCP in 2001, and hence to the Bijou.

She says her first priority is "getting the Bijou on its feet financially," and making it "one of the best entertainment venues in the state." She foresees the return of a Bijou concert series—"I'm itching to get my hands on that, since the Bijou is so acoustically superb" she says, mentioning future collaborations with AC. With the Bijou's only competition in the historic-theater field, the Tennessee, closed for a lengthy renovation, it would seem to be a propitious time to jump at some of the larger theater's attractions, especially music. However, Williams adds that for now, her priority will be continuing to develop the Bijou's family-drama series. The Bijou's performance calendar ends abruptly on August 17, but Williams says announcements about the upcoming season are imminent.