Remember When, Lost Smoky Mountain Attractions – Hunter Hills Theater
Remember When, Lost Smoky Mountain Attractions – Hunter Hills Theater. Gatlinburg is widely known as a national vacation destination offering something for every taste. Surrounded by the America’s most visited national park, Great Smoky Mountains. This was the home of Hunter Hills theater for decades.
We hope you enjoyed reading Lost Attractions of the Smokies: Porpoise Island – a fascinating blend of Polynesian culture in the mountains of east Tennessee. For this article, we’ll be introducing you to Hunter Hills Theater – an amphitheater just down the road from Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg. If you have been coming to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area for many years between 1956 – 1977, you may be familiar with the former location of the theater. Highway 321/East Parkway was called highway 73 “back in the day” and about 3.5-4 miles out the highway is Gatlinburg-Pittman High School, Anna Porter Public Library, The Gatlinburg Community Center, Boys & Girls Club and Rocky Top Sports World. The theater was located to the right of all of these facilities and predated the high school by more than decade.
The idea for a theater was first envisioned by Mr. R.L. Maples and his wife Wilma, owners of the Gatlinburg Inn still in existence on the parkway in Gatlinburg. The location was decided on in summer of 1955 and work began by clearing trees and cutting a road in. Work was suspended during the fall and winter of 1955 and picked back up in February 1956. Construction went at a fast pace and by June 1956 rehearsals were being held. Mr. Maples wanted the theater to be a cultural attraction for locals as well as visitors to the area – a very forward thinking man!
The theater was named for Dr. Kermit Hunter who was the writer of what would become the theater’s first show as well as the very popular, nationally known and critically acclaimed Unto These Hills outdoor drama about the Cherokee Indians performed even today in Cherokee, NC. Dr. Hunter decided to make this play – the theater’s first – about Tennessee’s history from 1780-1800 when it was till the State of Franklin (prior to statehood). But as he went along, his focus changed and began to center on the life of Governor John Sevier specifically (Tennessee’s first governor, Indian fighter and proponent for statehood as well as lender of his name to our county and county seat Sevierville – pronounced “severe”) whose Cherokee nickname was “Nolichucky Jack.” He shortened the name to Chucky Jack and it became the first play to debut in the new amphitheater the summer of 1956.
Here are some interesting stats about the theater:
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1956 payroll included 125 people – 85 of which were cast members
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There were 45,000 theater attendees just in 1956
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There were 2501 seats in the theater
Technically the theater was pretty advanced.
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There was a revolving stage that allowed for 9 scenes to be prepped and set for fast and quiet changes
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There were individual mirrors for 100 people in the dressing rooms.
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Seven banks of floodlights were installed requiring 11 miles of wiring
All told the investment in the theater was about $150,000 equaling about $1.4 million today.
Some students would stay with local families for the summer and later the theater even rented the Gatlinburg-Pittman High School as a dormitory. Later on during some renovations, the theater expanded the dressing rooms to include dorm rooms for students for the summer shows.
The play would run 6 days a week except Sundays from June 22-September 1. Tickets ranged from $1.00-3.00 per person and all seats were reserved. Auditions were held and several heads of drama and speech departments from local colleges and universities served as judges.
