photo courtesy KEY magazine
Anyone wanting to know more about the social and cultural history of Memphis should, of course, read my "Ask Vance" columns, books, calendars, and blog posts. I mean, that's a given.
But another good source, though a bit hard to come by, are the advertisements that ran in old issues of KEY magazine, a handy guide to the tourist attractions of our city.
Here's a good example: a 1972 ad for the old T.G.I. Friday's, perhaps the best-known of various Overton Square landmarks. This illustration shows the bulding before the sidewalk patio was added, and then enclosed. It also notes the late-night hours (open until 3 am!). But I'm not sure I understand that bit about "It's a view of Manhattan from the inside." First of all, the walls and ceilings of the place were cluttered with lots of English stuff — old shop signs and street signs, as I recall, with stained glass and musical instruments and posters thrown in. What's "Manhattan" about that? And if they mean your view of Madison if you were sitting inside, well that street — then and now — never really looked like Manhattan. But maybe that's just me.
Loeb Properties is doing magical things with Overton Square, after so many years of dormancy and everybody (including me) pretty much facing the fact that the distinctive old buildings would be demolished. I'm glad that's not the case, and I'll probably be hanging around the "new" Square much as I did in the "old" days in the 1970s.
Just not until 3 a.m.
Image courtesy KEY magazine
