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11/18/12Rare Photo: Gladys Presley's Original Gravesite at Forest Hill Cemetery — Mother of Elvis PresleyDigging through a box of dusty 35mm slides purchased at a Memphis estate sale, I found the usual stuff — family photos, shots of Christmas trees, lots of living rooms and kitchens, and lots and lots and LOTS of pictures of flowers in somebody's garden. And then I found this — a rare photo of Gladys Presley's original gravesite in Forest Hill Cemetery, taken in 1958, judging from the date scribbled on the slide mount. Most people vaguely familiar with the life of the King of Rock-and-Roll know that his beloved mother died while Elvis was stationed in Germany Texas after being drafted into the Army. But after that, they're not so sure about things. Here's what happened. Gladys, in poor health for years, died of heart failure on August 14, 1958.... Posted at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments: 8 |
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11/11/12Found: Two of the Maysie Dimond Murals from Ellis Auditorium. Well, Not the Murals Themselves ...Last week, I told you — yes, I'm talking to YOU — about the remarkable murals that Memphis artist Maysie Dimond had painted across 150 feet of the walls of Ellis Auditorium. When that building was demolished to make way for the gleaming new Cannon Center, the murals came tumbling down too. Well, my pal Wayne Dowdy, the manager of the History Department for the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library, turned up two nice photos showing two of the original panels, so here you go. I suppose I could take a lot of time explaining just who everybody is in these panels, and what some of the other images and symbols represent, but gosh-a-mighty that seems like an awful lot of trouble, not to mention a lot of typing, so I'd rather you just do that for yourself. It... |
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11/09/12Found! An Actual Menu for Davis' White Spot RestaurantRegular readers of this blog — you know who you are, because I send you Christmas cards every year — know that I have embarked on a personal crusade to find a verified, authentic, CLEAR photograph of the long-lost Davis' White Spot restaurant. By all accounts, this was an extremely popular establishment, located on Poplar Avenue near present-day Estate, which was well beyond the city limits when it first opened (more about that later), but I've never found a decent image of it. But my pal Gene Gill, a talented historian who runs the very informative and entertaining website "Historic Memphis," recently turned up an actual menu from this establishment, with the date October 1945 scribbled on the front in pencil, and he's given me permission to... |
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11/07/12Lost Memphis: Maysie Dimond's Murals at Ellis AuditoriumA few years ago, I wrote a wonderful, amazing, thrilling article that I called "Pieces of the Past" — about all sorts of architectural artifacts that had been saved when landmarks were demolished, but managed to find new homes in new buildings. Surely you remember it? It was all the rage at the Pulitzers that year. In that story, I mentioned some of the medallions and even chairs that had been rescued from Ellis Auditorium. But I didn't discuss the remarkable murals that had painted by Memphis artist Maysie Dimond, so you get to read about those — and her — right here. I might as well tell you that over the years, this woman's name has been spelled Maysie, Mayze, Mayzie and Diamond, Diament, and Dimond, but I'm going with the spelling... Posted at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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10/30/12Lost Memphis (Well, Not Yet Anyway): The Chisca Hotel (Or Is It Hotel Chisca?)Last week, one of the copy editors for our sister publication, the Memphis Flyer, nudged me from my slumbers and asked if the proper name was the Chisca Hotel or the Hotel Chisca. After pondering this important question for about 15 seconds — long enough for me to take another swig from my bottle of Jim Beam — I replied, "What difference does it make to me?" and went back to sleep. The nerve. Whatever you call it, this old downtown hotel has been in the news lately because just when it seemed it was heading for the wrecking ball — or the wrecking ball was heading for it — a group of investors has stepped in, and they are pondering ways to restore the place. So I dug through my archives to see if I had any photos showing the Chisca in its... |
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10/29/12Music of Berl Olswanger Now Available OnlineI've written before about Berl Olswanger — musician, composer, music store owner, and all-around great fellow. In fact, I had so much to say about his remarkable career that I devoted an entire column to him back in 2009. His daughter, Anna Olswanger, a literary agent in New York City, tells me that many of her father's musical compositions have now been archived online. "When my dad died in 1981, he left behind a legacy of 50 years as a composer and orchestra leader, and after Naxos asked if it could include the Olswanger recordings as part of the Naxos Music Library, I agreed and had my dad's music digitalized," she says. "I'm happy that researchers and others interested in jazz recordings will now discover a hidden piece of Memphis... |
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10/22/12Lost Mississippi: Mineral Wells and the Great Squirrel War — Wait, What?In the olden days — and I'm talking, oh, 1950s here — to get to Maywood you drove out Lamar until it became Highway 78 (nowadays Old Highway 78), and you eventually reached your destination, with its blinding-white Florida sand beaches and its ice-cold water. But along the way, you passed through the little community of Mineral Wells, Mississippi, probably without even realizing it. That's how small it was. I can vaguely remember a cluster of three or four tourist court cabins alongside the highway in the general vicinity of Mineral Wells, and sometime in the 1970s, I took the photo you see here. Rooms for five bucks? That's quite a bargain, by any standards. I never knew the name of the old motel, but if you look closely you can see holes in the metal... Posted at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments: 6 |
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10/18/12Lost Collierville: Does Anybody Remember This Building That Stood at Poplar and Shea?I've been looking through a box of color prints that I converted years ago from 35mm slides, when I came across this. Please accept my apologies for the poor quality of the image. The original slide, taken with my trusty and beloved 35mm Canon FTb (which I still have, by the way) was quite clear; I don't know what happened during the conversion process. But it's certainly not the Ansel Adams-quality images you have come to expect from Vance. Even so, you get a general idea of what the building looked like. It was a sturdy two-story brick structure, with a covered entrance in front and rows of windows across the first and second floors (but not too many windows, as you might expect from a school). It stood abandoned for years and years at the northwest corner of... Posted at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments: 3 |
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10/14/12Lost Memphis: The Bellevue Drive-InIn the November issue of Memphis magazine, I tell the dramatic story of the original Summer Drive-In — not the Summer Twin that most of you remember. Just as a tease for that — a prelude to the glories you can expect — is this wonderful old image of the long-gone Bellevue Drive-In. I took this myself, sometime in the early 1970s, with my trusty 35mm Canon FTb, and if you notice the graininess and blurriness of the photo, I want you to know that I did that on purpose, for sheer artistic effect. Lovely, isn't it? The Bellevue opened in the early 1950s. I could look up the exact year, but really — must we mire down in such trivial details? I'm trying to tell a story here. As I was saying, the Bellevue opened in the early 1950s at 2350 South... Posted at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments: 4 |
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10/12/12The William R. Moore Monument in Forest Hill CemeteryIn our October issue, I tell the story of William R. Moore — businessman, philanthropist, and a whole lot of other things. I alluded to the fact that he had one of the most imposing monuments in Forest Hill Cemetery, but space (or the lack of it) prevented me from including a photograph of his grave in the magazine copy. Until now. Gaze upon it with awe. Not bad, is it? A lifesize bronze statue of Moore stands high atop a soaring granite shaft, clad in a handsome coat and holding a scroll of some sort — perhaps his will containing his desires for the school to be erected after his death? Next to him is an equally stunning sculpture of his beloved wife, Charlotte Blood Moore, though it's hard to avoid noticing that her monument is only half as tall as his. Oh... |
Ask Vance is the blog of Vance Lauderdale, the award-winning columnist of Memphis magazine and MBQ: Inside Memphis Business. Vance is the author of two books: Ask Vance: The Best Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine's History and Trivia Expert (2003), as well as Ask Vance: More Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine's History Expert (2011). He is also the recipient of quite a few nice awards, the creator of several eye-catching wall calendars, and the only person we know with a vintage shock-treatment machine in his den. 
