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Most people do not stop to realize how many of their fond memories involve advertising signs. Although these neon spectaculars, billboards, and even signs painted directly onto brick walls were created expressly to persuade customers to buy products or patronize businesses, many such signs remained in place for so long that they became beloved landmarks in their own right. For Images of America: Vintage Birmingham Signs, Tim Hollis has scoured the...
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For centuries, explorers and pioneers told of a place in Georgia where there was a gigantic mountain of solid granite resembling "a great gray egg lying half-buried on a vast plain." In time, Stone Mountain, 15 miles east of Atlanta, became a local landmark. In 1915, it was decided that the mountain's sheer north face would be a good spot to carve a lasting memorial to the lost cause of the Confederacy. This proved to be easier said than done. Before...
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Birmingham, Alabama, has enjoyed a long and distinguished broadcasting history. The city's first radio station aired in 1922, and television arrived in 1949. Both media produced personalities who became household names in the city. Audiences came to know Joe Rumore, Tommy Charles, Country Boy Eddy, Cousin Cliff Holman, Rosemary, Pat Gray, Tom York, and many others as if they were members of their own families. Even the commercials became as memorable...
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From the 1890s to the 1970s, the thriving area of Birmingham between Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets along First, Second, and Third Avenues was the bustling heart of this quickly growing city. Before the age of the shopping mall, the downtown was the center of retail and entertainment in Birmingham. Along these streets, entrepreneurial immigrants built department stores--including Pizitz and Loveman, Joseph, and Loeb--while the marquees of the...
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When Six Flags Over Georgia opened in June 1967, it became the first theme park in the Southeast. Although the park is best known today for its high-speed roller coasters, this book recaptures its earlier years when it was devoted to the various periods of Georgia's history. Six Flags Over Georgia revisits such classic rides and attractions as the Log Jamboree, Tales of the Okefenokee, Jean Ribaut'sAdventure, the Krofft Puppet Theater, the Happy Motoring...
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Beginning in the early 1950s, the 130 miles of Florida coastline stretching from Panama City to Pensacola were branded as the Miracle Strip. Between those cities, oddities sprang up: goofy miniature golf courses, neon-bedecked motels, reptile farms and attractions that sought to re-create environments ranging from the South Pacific to the ghost towns of the Old West. In total, it was a marketing effort that worked brilliantly. Tourists flocked to...
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Around two hundred million years ago, geological forces produced an expansive grove of rocky caverns and outcroppings atop Lookout Mountain. It was not until the twentieth century, however, that this awe-inspiring citadel evolved into a nationally recognized tourist attraction when Garnet Carter and his wife, Frieda, developed the natural marvel into the Rock City Gardens we know today, an enchanted tribute to fairytales and a breathtaking homage...
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For nearly ninety years, Pizitz offered Birmingham residents and Alabamans across the state a one-of-a-kind shopping experience. From the Enchanted Forest that sprung up every Christmas to in-store fashion shows, visiting Pizitz wasn't just a trip to the store, it was an event. Yet Pizitz was more than just a department store - it was a Birmingham institution. When Louis Pizitz opened up his first dry goods store in downtown Birmingham in 1899, he...
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The bright lights of Birmingham's theater and retail district have shone over the Magic City for nearly one hundred years during the good times and the bad. During the early 1900s, small businesses, largely founded by immigrants who arrived in Birmingham with almost nothing, exploded into immensely popular shopping and entertainment destinations. The stories of entrepreneurs and immigrants like Louis Pizitz and his business rival, Adolph Loveman,...
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In an era when local department stores still thrived, Birmingham shoppers had different stores from which to choose. But when customers sought more than bargain prices, when they demanded unparalleled quality and outright luxury, they chose Loveman's. The first store opened in Birmingham in 1887, and the chain eventually grew to include locations in Huntsville and Montgomery, embracing those from throughout the state who valued an upscale shopping...
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Tourism in the Southeast is often associated with Florida--a state that essentially defined the industry in America. Yet Alabama has a fascinating history of tourism all its own. It all began with an enterprising politician. In 1916, John Hollis Bankhead went to great lengths to ensure that one of America's first transcontinental highways went directly through Alabama. Though it was a less efficient route for highway travelers, it marked the birth...
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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is among the most visited national parks in the country, and countless attractions around its borders have tried for decades to siphon some of those valuable tourist dollars. From ersatz western towns and concrete dinosaurs to misplaced Florida-type attractions and celebrity theaters, you will find them all preserved in this book. Author Tim Hollis showcases those businesses that no longer exist, from Hill-Billy...
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For decades, the Christmas season in Birmingham was not complete without the sights and sounds of the retail district. During the season, the Magic City made magic with elaborate light displays and the Living Christmas Tree in Woodrow Wilson Park. Many remember the battling Santas of Loveman's and Pizitz, each vying for the hearts of the community. The elaborate Enchanted Forest dazzled shoppers on the sixth floor at Pizitz. In the 1940s, more than...
14) Rock City
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Since May 21, 1932, tourists have been making the trip to the top of Lookout Mountain to stroll through what pioneers as far back as the 1820's called "the rock city." This collection of huge boulders in a wild array of shapes and sizes was developed as an attraction by Garnet Carter, the inventor of modern miniature golf, and his wife, Frieda, a devotee of European fairy tales. Rock City Gardens quickly became one of the most famous tourist attractions...
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Alabama has had an enviable success rate when it comes to tourist attractions, with some that date back to the 1930s still drawing crowds today. But many others have come and gone, sometimes leaving little evidence of their existence. Join Alabama native Tim Hollis as he revisits iconic attractions such as Canyon Land Park and Sequoyah Caverns, the floral clock at Birmingham's Botanical Gardens and the traffic safety torch held aloft by Vulcan, the...
16) The Land Of Oz
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In 1966, North Carolina tourism moguls Grover, Harry, and Spencer Robbins began exploring ways to utilize their new ski facilities atop Beech Mountain during the summer. They brought in their associate Jack Pentes to come up with an idea. As a long-time fan of The Wizard of Oz, Pentes planned and developed the Land of Oz theme park, opening in June 1970. The park did not resemble the famous 1939 MGM movie or the Oz as depicted in L. Frank Baum's book....
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