August 2011
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08/26/11Pre-Order "Ask Vance — Book Two" Today!Pardon me for beaming like a proud papa, but advance copies of Ask Vance — Book Two have arrived from the printer, and boy-oh-boy they're really great. Just look at the cover. Doesn't it make you want to read every single page inside? They'll go on sale in a few weeks, but don't wait until they're all gone. Pre-order yours today.Do you know everything there is to know about our city's "Monster of Ceremonies"? Or the eccentric "monkey man" who terrorized motorists in Midtown? How about the federal government's completely insane plan to protect all of us from the dreaded "H-Bomb"? Or the Memphis lawyer who opened a restaurant and then adorned it with a 14-foot-tall spotlighted version of his own head? Do you remember the go-go dancers at a local... Posted at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments: 4 |
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08/25/11Lost Memphis: Ray Gammon's RestaurantI don't mind giving away a secret here: Sometimes yearbooks can be good sources for photographs of long-gone landmarks.Case in point: Ray Gammon's Restaurant, a popular Memphis eatery for some 25 years. I had known about this establishment for a long time, but had never located a halfway-decent photograph of it until I was leafing through a 1960s yearbook from Southwestern at Memphis (better known today, of course, as Rhodes College) and discovered the photo you see here.No, I have no idea who all those people are. Get down from the roof, you crazy college kids!As you can probably tell, it was a rather nondescript — even rustic-looking — two-story brick and wooden place with a big neon sign across the front. Before Gammon moved in, the old building at 3774 Summer had housed... Posted at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments: 6 |
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08/22/11The 1960s Riverview Urban Renewal ProjectThe Pyramid. Beale Street Landing. The Cobblestones. All in the news lately as major projects to revamp and revitalize our waterfront.But, as grand as these are, they pale in comparison to a massive urban renewal project proposed in the late 1950s that would have completely transformed most of downtown between the Mississippi River bridges and Tom Lee Park. It was called the Riverview Development Project.And it never left the drawing board.Then as now, various city leaders decided that one problem (out of many) with Memphis was that our "front door" basically needed a fresh coat of paint. The riverfront area was dormant, for various reasons, so the Memphis Housing Authority was called in — or maybe they barged in without being asked — and submitted a massive... Posted at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments: 3 |
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08/16/11Lost Memphis: The National GarageSince the Lauderdales rarely left our estate without the protection of our chauffeur-driven limousines, I paid little attention to public parking garages used by the common folk. But then I turned up this brightly colored old matchbook showing a grand-looking building called the National Garage, and was actually quite jealous of the people who got to use it. It really looks like quite a fine building.The National Garage, as its name implies, was part of a national chain. This particular building opened downtown in 1927 at the northeast corner of Front and Court, replacing a row of older and smaller buildings that housed various cotton firms and Koehler Brothers Construction Company. It was eight stories tall, steam-heated according to the matchbook (it says that on the other side), and... Posted at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments: 3 |
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08/12/11New Facebook Group Presents Terrific Old Images (and Memories) of MemphisNow, I don't often recommend that you visit other websites to learn about "the good olde days" in Memphis, because quite frankly I think you can learn all you need to know right here with "Ask Vance." Lord knows, I try.But local realtor Kathy Hurley has started a brand-new Facebook group called "You're Probably From Memphis If ..." and it offers just page after page of photos that I haven't seen before, such as the wonderful image shown here of popular children's TV show host and toy store entrepreneur "Happy Hal" Miller and his puppet companion, Lil' Bow.There are lots of other great shots: old signs and menus from the Tropical Freeze, some nice views of the Big Shoe on Lamar, photos of the long-gone Park Theatre and Loew's Palace Theatre, a... Posted at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments: 4 |
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08/11/11Lost Memphis: The Marjorie Duckett School of DanceI thought I'd chat a bit here about the Marjorie Duckett School of Dance. Do you remember it? I certainly do, because I was a pupil there, you see. In fact, in all modesty I believe I was her most outstanding student. I say this based on the whispered conversations Marjorie had one day with Mother and Father, when they came to pick me up after my Wednesday-afternoon lesson. "I simply can't teach him ANYTHING," she said. "In fact, when little Vance struggles to dance, it just gives me the SHIVERS."Gosh. High praise indeed! Oh, how my little heart swelled with pride. After three lessons, my parents said there was no reason to ever go back. What else was there to learn? It's a gift.Anyway, Marjorie (shown here in 1943 with an unidentified sailor) was born in Memphis in... Posted at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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08/09/11Never-Before-Seen Old Photos of Memphis Found at Local Estate SaleMy pal Blake Billings says his wife was digging around at a local estate sale and turned up some rolls of unexposed film. She bought them, had the film processed, and discovered that it contained some very interesting scenes of Memphis taken in the 1940s. Mainly downtown scenes, such as this fine image of the Shelby County Courthouse, but there are some other areas that he hasn't yet identified.Blake posted the images on a photo-sharing website called rangefinderforum.com, and I encourage you to visit it.Here's what Blake says about his find: "My wife discovered a bunch of old nitrate 35mm at an estate sale a while back. We were shocked to find that the family had no interest in them, so we took them with us. I'm only now scanning some in. I thought I'd put a few up here to let... Posted at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments: 3 |
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08/05/11Update (and Dead End, I'm Afraid) on "Ship," the British Life-Saving DogLast week, I told you the curious story (or what little I knew of it) about a rather fascinating object I had encountered at a local estate sale — a little stuffed dog named "Ship" that was apparently the mascot of Great Britain's Royal National Lifeboat Institute. The estate-sale folks described Ship as a "British Hero-Dog" because he was still wearing a little vest bedecked with various lifesaving medals.Well, my pal Alasdair Halleron, who is more than a little familiar with that country, and also a great history detective in his own right, decided to take matters into his own hands. He contacted the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, which is still an active organization, and asked them about this dog. I'll let him tell you about it:"Since we are... |
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08/03/11Memphis Flying Service, LaVelle Walsh, and the Sad Fate of Her Son, BobIn our February 2010 issue, I told the story of LaVelle Walsh, who ran the Memphis Flying Service, a little airport once located on Winchester Road. Walsh was the only female operator of an airport in the country.Well, my pal Joe Mercer has sent me some interesting information about her son, Bobby Walsh, and I thought I'd share it with you here:"I would like to comment on your article about Lavelle Walsh. That airstrip was across the street from Doyle Pearson's farm. I graduated from Whitehaven High School in 1953, with her son Bobby. He was a baseball pitcher who made All-County before going on to pitch for the Vols and then drafted by the Phillies, where he threw away his right arm, and then joined the U.S. Air Force. He learned to fly and when he got out, he joined Continental... |
