Gone but not forgotten: Knoxville area restaurants and retailers we miss.

#2,601
#2,601

Mad, thanks for finding these and sharing.

Gotta love the text-to-voice "narration"! I played both of these back at 1.5x speed to make up for the slow pacing. The faster music in the first one was a hoot at that playback speed! That was a lot of theater comings-and-goings. My goodness.

I would have liked the creator of these to have included, in the later one, Regal moving its headquarters from Halls to the former Baptist Hospital tower. Although that wasn't a movie theatre location event, it certainly was an industry event for Knoxville.

Clinton Highway had probably the most drive-ins per mile of any thoroughfare in Knoxville.

What about drive-ins showing adult movies! There were several. Only in the 60's! I remember going by a couple of these and seeing cars parked along the road for free peeks..
 
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#2,602
#2,602

Mad, thanks for finding these and sharing.

Gotta love the text-to-voice "narration"! I played both of these back at 1.5x speed to make up for the slow pacing. The faster music in the first one was a hoot at that playback speed! That was a lot of theater comings-and-goings. My goodness.

I would have liked the creator of these to have included Regal moving its offices from Halls to the Baptist Hospital site tower. Although that wasn't a movie theatre location event, it certainly was an industry event for Knoxville.

Clinton Highway had probably the most drive-ins per mile of any thoroughfare in Knoxville.

What about drive-ins showing adult movies! There were several. Only in the 60's! I remember going by a couple of these and seeing cars parked along the road for free peeks..
 
#2,603
#2,603
In going back through things this morning, I found this lengthy topic in the still-going Knoxviews.com forum site. Definitely an early forerunner to this thread on Volnation.com.

The last posting was in 2017, but it's still a LOT of good reminiscing. Check it out when you have a few minutes to kill. It's good!

Knoxville Retailers, Gone but not Forgotten | KnoxViews

Here's the lead posting (from 2008):

"Since its the shopping season, I was thinking of Knoxville retailers that have gone to that great discount bin in the sky. Some I can remember
  • Sterchi's Furniture -- google says there's Sterchi's in Kentucky, but are they gone from Knoxville?
  • Speaking of furniture, Mad Jack Fielding's Furniture Warehouse Outlet -- how could anyone who had a TV in Knoxville in the late Seventies or early Eighties forget Mad Jack? (You might want to forget him, but that's different.)
  • Hills -- low end department store, noted for their no credit cards policy
  • Watson's -- mid range clothing
  • Giant Food -- there's still Giants in the mid-Atlantic and PA, but I think both are different chains. (And don't get me started about the decline of Giant here in Maryland since the founder died and his heirs sold off the chain to a Dutch conglomerate....)
  • White Stores/Whiteway -- noted for being a grocery store that wouldn't sell beer, which got them business from religious conservatives. Become Red Food, then Food City.
  • Miller's -- somewhat high end department store, now Dillards (?)
  • The Knox -- another high-end department store, long-gone
  • Yankee Peddler -- okay, a geek favorite, but a little store in Farragut that sold Dungeons and Dragons paraphernalia and the like. "
 
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#2,604
#2,604
With that mention of Mad Jack Fielding, here's a YT video of a WBIR newspiece about one of Mad Jack's many commercial stunts:



This is about as Knoxville as it gets! I remember some years growing up watching wrestling on Saturday nights and those Mad Jack commercial breaks!

The video information says Furniture Warehouse Outlet was located in the old Baxter Mill. Where was that? Edit: one of the commenters on the video says it was located where Holston Gases' site is on Baxter Ave., across from the old Palm Beach factory and outlet store, which is still there. Apparently Baxter Mill was the site of a Zayre's warehouse.
 
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#2,605
#2,605
Ted said:
With that mention of Mad Jack Fielding, here's a YT video of a WBIR newspiece about one of Mad Jack's many commercial stunts:



This is about as Knoxville as it gets!

The video information says Furniture Warehouse Outlet was located in the old Baxter Mill. Where was that? Edit: one of the commenters on the video says it was located where Holston Gases' site is on Baxter Ave., across from the old Palm Beach factory and outlet store, which is still there. Apparently Baxter Mill was the site of a Zayre's warehouse.
Click to expand...

Don’t give any ideas to @Vjcvette , she is in the furniture business.
 
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#2,606
#2,606
I read an article recently that of the approx 700 indoor malls still operating, only around 150 are predicted to still be around in 2027. Do you think West Town Mall will be one of the survivors?

In the early 70’s when I was in high school in Oak Ridge, that was the place to be if you were skipping afternoon classes. Far enough away so less chance to run into adults who knew your parents.
 
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#2,607
#2,607
I don't know if this is the appropriate thread,but this got me to wondering if Connors was still around in Knoxville. I went there several years ago when I was down in Knoxville and absolutely loved it.
 
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#2,610
#2,610
OldandStillaVol said:
I read an article recently that of the approx 700 indoor malls still operating, only around 150 are predicted to still be around in 2027. Do you think West Town Mall will be one of the survivors?

In the early 70’s when I was in high school in Oak Ridge, that was the place to be if you were skipping afternoon classes. Far enough away so less chance to run into adults who knew your parents.
Click to expand...
It will be as long as the idiots managing Turkey Creek permit the construction of 500 unit apartment complex and shut the entrance and exit down to one lane so nobody wants to visit
 
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#2,611
#2,611
Pennheel said:
I don't know if this is the appropriate thread,but this got me to wondering if Connors was still around in Knoxville. I went there several years ago when I was down in Knoxville and absolutely loved it.
Click to expand...

Connors Steak & Seafood | Knoxville, TN

It really is a fine restaurant!

The next time you visit here, try not to be shocked by how much things have changed around town with our big influx of new residents. Mayor Kincannon has presided over quite a lot of recent development - way too much.
 
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#2,617
#2,617
OldandStillaVol said:
I read an article recently that of the approx 700 indoor malls still operating, only around 150 are predicted to still be around in 2027. Do you think West Town Mall will be one of the survivors?

In the early 70’s when I was in high school in Oak Ridge, that was the place to be if you were skipping afternoon classes. Far enough away so less chance to run into adults who knew your parents.
Click to expand...
I hope that West Town Mall survives because I have been going there since the mid 70's and I sure would hate to see another nostalgic building from my young years leave.....
 
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#2,621
#2,621
Ted said:
With that mention of Mad Jack Fielding, here's a YT video of a WBIR newspiece about one of Mad Jack's many commercial stunts:



This is about as Knoxville as it gets! I remember some years growing up watching wrestling on Saturday nights and those Mad Jack commercial breaks!

The video information says Furniture Warehouse Outlet was located in the old Baxter Mill. Where was that? Edit: one of the commenters on the video says it was located where Holston Gases' site is on Baxter Ave., across from the old Palm Beach factory and outlet store, which is still there. Apparently Baxter Mill was the site of a Zayre's warehouse.
Click to expand...

I remember those commercials well
 
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#2,624
#2,624
We hadn't talked about this yet, but I find myself oddly missing Pilot gas stations around town. They were fixtures and familiar sights on the main thoroughfares around Knoxville for decades.

For you out-of-towners, the Haslems sold their convenience stores / gas stations to new owners a couple years ago. Now those stations bear names like Casey's and Good Stop. The truck stops that sell diesel are still Pilot / Flying Js.
 
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#2,625
#2,625
Vjcvette said:
No I sure didn't, but that was pretty funny, Cas Walker said "You guys are not going to make me look like a monkey" or something like that 😂
Click to expand...

When Cas got mad, all kinds of enraged invective flew out of his mouth. He definitely wasn't stopping to think about it!

Of course, from what we could hear of them at the beginning, "Poker" was pretty bad. I have no idea how they managed to get on the show. It sure wasn't Cas' idea!
 
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