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    Vintage Birmingham Signs
    Vintage Birmingham Signs
    Vintage Birmingham Signs
    Ebook199 pages38 minutes

    Vintage Birmingham Signs

    By Tim Hollis

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    About this ebook

    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 archives of Birmingham's former sign companies, as well as other private collections, to compile some of the best remembered or most obscure signs that dotted the urban and suburban landscape. Here readers will again see the Buffalo Rock bottle pouring its ginger ale into a glass, the Golden Flake clown smiling down at passersby, the Barber's milk clock at the Five Points South intersection, and many more. Through these vintage photographs, readers can once again visit such once-thriving destinations as Eastwood Mall, Burger in a Hurry, and the Kiddieland amusement park.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439635544
    Vintage Birmingham Signs
    Author

    Tim Hollis

    Tim Hollis has written thirty-seven books on pop culture history, a number of them concerning southeastern tourism. He also operates his own museum of vintage toys, souvenirs and other pop culture artifacts near Birmingham, Alabama.

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      Book preview

      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

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