Vintage Birmingham Signs
By Tim Hollis
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About this ebook
Tim Hollis
Tim Hollis has published twenty-four books on pop culture history. For more than thirty years he has maintained a museum of cartoon-related merchandise in Dora, Alabama. He is the author of Dixie before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun; Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast; Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Children's TV Programs; Ain't That a Knee-Slapper: Rural Comedy in the Twentieth Century; Toons in Toyland: The Story of Cartoon Character Merchandise; and, with Greg Ehrbar, Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, all published by University Press of Mississippi.
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Vintage Birmingham Signs - Tim Hollis
collection.)
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever stopped to think about how many of your nostalgic memories involve signs? Probably not, unless you live in the past as I do. (That is not in a figurative sense, either; my house is a museum of pop culture history, so I really do live in the past.) Regardless, the following pages will prove that signs, as well as the larger commercial landscape, have played a bigger part in Birmingham residents’ past than one might expect.
For the purposes of this book, the term signs
includes not only the classic neon signs that are usually associated with the name, but also billboards, signs painted on brick walls, and even more modern plastic signage (which has been around for so long that even its early examples look nostalgic by now). Because Birmingham’s neon sign companies did a far more complete job of archiving photographs of their work than did the others, the neon variety will far outnumber the rest—but in many cases, as you will see, a single photograph will involve more than one type. You should plan on having your magnifying glass handy in order to fully experience all the background detail in some of these priceless shots.
Unfortunately, there are still some well-remembered Birmingham signs that do not appear here simply because no one seems to have preserved any photographs of them. One of the most often mentioned is the spectacular one atop the old Merita bakery on Twentieth Street with its giant loaf of bread with neon slices falling off onto a plate. Exhaustive research has failed to turn up a single view of that landmark. Also missing in action are some of the giant fiberglass figures that served as signage for their respective companies: the Consolidated Dairies cows and the giant Lynn Strickland tire man (although at least he does still exist, but not in the same location). Perhaps some of these will turn up later, and when they do, you can certainly expect them to appear on www.BirminghamRewound.com.
Since signs are purely visual, that is enough wordy introduction. Let’s get right into the photographs themselves and see whether you agree that these signs, originally meant only to sell a product or service, evoke fond memories for you. Even though most of them are now consigned to the junkyard, in photographs such as the ones that follow their lights can glow forever.
There is hardly anyone in Birmingham who is not familiar with the famous vertical sign of the Alabama Theatre. However, this photograph from 1928, the year after the showplace opened, is one of the few that shows the original screw-in lightbulbs that outlined the letters. Later the bulbs would be replaced with red and green neon, which continues to light the Third Avenue North sidewalk today. (BPL collection.)
One
THE LIGHTS ARE MUCH BRIGHTER THERE
In the late 1920s, Second Avenue North was the hub of theater and shopping activity. In this incredible shot, notice the Erlanger Theatre (formerly the Jefferson) and the J. E. Cain furniture store on the left and the newly opened Ritz Theatre and huge Pizitz store on the right. (BPL collection.)
This September 1954 view of Second Avenue North was taken from a couple of blocks west of the photograph we just saw. By that time, other types of stores and restaurants had moved into the neighborhood, but the Ritz and Pizitz would hold down their respective lots until the 1980s. (Dixie Neon collection.)
The Loveman, Joseph, and Loeb department store was no shy violet when it came to announcing its presence on Third Avenue North. If you do not remember this gigantic mural, it is