Archive for the ‘Mysteries’ Category
December 11th, 2009
|
Author: In our December issue, I posted a question about a mysterious organization called the Yuletide Revelers, who — by all accounts — put on one heckuva party each year around the holidays, but the nature and origins of the group itself were something of a mystery.
Well, my good pal John Gratz, who knows as much about local history as anyone (and that includes certain members of the Lauderdale family), sent me this epistle:
Vance,
I am sure by now you probably have been sent information about the Yuletide Revelers, but just in case you haven’t, here is the story:
Members of the Yuletide Revelers were comprised from all those people who were members of the court participating in the Memphis Cotton Carnival each year: Ladies of the Realm and their escorts, as well as the actual court of the King and Queen and their guards, etc.
Once you were a member of the Cotton Carnival in this category, you were automatically invited each year to the annual party given by this organization. There were no dues, and each person could attend the Yuletide Revelers party. Once a member, you attended the ball each year with an invitation for life.
Each year the barge would load up the current participants down river just past the the old bridge, and then proceed to come upstream to the landing dock at the foot of Madison to a rather great deal of revelry, where the King and Queen would be welcomed to the city by the mayor of Memphis and given the key to the city.
The year I was an escort for a Lady of the Realm (from Riplay, TN) I was a student at Southwestern College. The barge floor had been painted with an aluminum paint, and it was not dry when we came aboard. The sticky, silver-colored paint stuck to my dress shoes, and during the course of the short trip upriver, paint became spread over most of the court’s footwear and produced some difficulty in getting off the barge. Nevertheless the entire week was one big party for the court that went to all the clubs in town( Memphis Country Club, University Club, etc., etc.). By the end of the week each of us was exhausted and thoroughly consumed by the singing of “Dixie” at each stop along the way.
John Gratz
Cotton Carnival Court 1949
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Posted in 
Tags: 
I recently found, and purchased, a packet of 8×10 color photos at a local estate sale. The original owner/photographer must have been an architect, because most of them showed residential interiors. And then there was this one.
Does anyone recognize the place?
My first thought was that — finally! — I had turned up an interior shot of the Luau, but I’ve already had a few people (those lucky souls invited to the Lauderdale Mansion on the weekends for our badminton tournaments) who said this was NOT the Luau.
I’m not entirely sure it was even taken in Memphis, though everything else at this particular sale was Memphis-related. Was there another Polynesian/Tropical-themed restaurant in this area?
Inquiring minds want to know. And so do I.
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
I found myself in Ripley, Tennessee, a while back, with no memory of how I got there. But I finally peeled off the duct tape, wrestled free of the shackles around my wrists and ankles, and hitchhiked back to Memphis.
Whew. That must have been some party!
But while I was in that lovely town, I wandered past this football stadium. It wasn’t a very large place, so I imagine it must have been for a local high school. What I most recall, though — in fact, it was the only thing I can remember about Ripley — was the curious sign on the place.
It’s called Tiny Knee Stadium.
Does anybody know why?
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
I know that when I suffer from leprosy, lunacy, gout, the shivers, the shuffles, and the loss of my immortal soul — among other almost daily afflictions — I really won’t feel comfortable being rushed to the hospital unless I am in the protection of an ARMORED ambulance. After all, you just don’t know what kind of hooligans and assassins may be lying in wait, just waiting to cause you harm when you are at your most helpless.
That, I think, seems to be the logic behind a series of ads that J.T. Hinton & Sons began to run in the mid-1920s. The interesting advertisement shown here, in fact, was published in the 1927 edition of The Lantern, the yearbook of The Hutchison School, which seems a rather strange place to put it. Not exactly the demographic for ambulances, is it?
Now first of all, J.T. Hinton & Sons was mainly a FUNERAL HOME, and I’ve complained before about what I consider a conflict of interest. Would it really be in their best interest, I have fretted, for the ambulance drivers to deliver you to the hospital safely — and therefore lose a perfectly good, perfectly DEAD funeral home customer?
But I digress. Hinton, competing with many other ambulance and funeral companies in Memphis, hit upon a rather unique marketing plan. As the ad says, they already operate “The World’s Finest and Safest Ambulances.” Not just in Memphis, mind you, but IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
And now, they provide you with “the first and ONLY Armored Ambulance in the World.”
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Look, I’d be the first to admit I don’t know much about marketing. If I did, the various Lauderdale industries would still be thriving, and I wouldn’t be forced to stay up past my bedtime on a Sunday night, scribbling this column or blog or whatchamacallit to eke out a pitiful existence.
But — I don’t care if you did get stuck with the awkward phone number 666 (back in the days when phone numbers here were apparently just three digits).
It’s just not a good idea, if you ask me, to name your taxi company after the Mark of the Beast.
Or any company, for that matter.
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Jeanna Hartzog has written me from Silver Creek, Mississippi, inquiring about a local TV show that she and her sister appeared on in the early 1960s. I immediately thought she was talking about “Dance Party” hosted by Wink Martindale, or the later “Talent Party” hosted by George Klein, but apparently not. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Here’s the letter:
I hope someone there can help me by providing some information.
My parents moved to Memphis in 1957 and I was born there in 1959. Around 1962, I only know at three years old, my sister and I appeared on a local children’s show. We were the featured quests, coming out of the audience to do the new dance, The Twist.
I began to think about this when my sister died several years ago. My parents can no longer remember the station or the name of the show. They mistakenly thought Wink Martindale was the host, but a very nice email from him said that was not so.
Do you have any knowledge of this show, the station, or the host? I know there are certainly people in the Memphis community who would have this knowledge, but I don’t know how to find them. I have made phone calls and wrote a columnist with no success.
Thank you for your time.
Jeanna McManus Hartzog
medbsw@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 124
Silver Creek, Mississippi 39663
601-660-5720
[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.