On Friday, Dec. 1, East Tennessee State University welcomed the community to watch White Christmas in the newly renovated Bud Frank Theatre.

“We knew we wanted to do some kind of holiday film towards the end of the semester, we also wanted something that would also be appealing for lots of people,” said Dr. Chelsea Wessels, associate professor in ETSU’s Department of Literature and Language.

The 1954 Christmas musical film, directed by Michael Curtiz follows two World War II army buddies, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, who become successful entertainers post-war. They soon meet two beautiful and talented sisters, Betty and Judy, and decide to team up for a Christmas-themed musical. The film celebrates the spirit of camaraderie, love and the magic of the holiday, creating a festive, joyful finale.

Photo of “White Christmas” musical film cover. (Contributed/IMDb)

“The other reason we wanted to show White Christmas is because it’s actually a war movie with a military element, and ETSU is a military-friendly campus, so we thought that would be a nice tie-in,” Wessels stated.

With the chaos of finals and finishing up schoolwork, the department wanted to make sure that this night could be relaxing and not unnecessarily stressful. With the screening being on Friday, Dec. 1, it allowed students to have a fun night for free before the rush of finals.

“It was great. It was a good, festive ending to our first season with the cinema,” Wessels shared.

The theatre has been around, but with the opening of the Martin Center, there was space to add more cinema features.

“Eventually we hope to be more operational but for now we are just doing five screenings a semester to let people know we are here,” Wessels mentioned.

While all the showings are not released for spring 2024 semester, check out the Bud Frank Theater next semester for some shows.

Author