MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
Offcials closed a downtown business of Robert "Prince Mongo" Hodges for the second time in less than three months Thursday. The Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement posted a ''Do Not Occupy'' sign on the 56 S. Front St. building Thursday morning. Hodges previously operated Saint Mongo's Planet nightclub at that address. The business was closed in August for nonpayment of state taxes. Officials checked Hodges' tax records after he was accused numerous times of serving alcohol to minors. He said Thursday that he had reopened Oct. 27 as Mongo's Atonement Center, which he described as a place for people of all ages to seek atonement through aerobic-type movement. Hodges said he does not sell food or alcohol, but gives away soft drinks to people who come to the center. Some make donations to enter, while others do not pay, he said. 50 years ago — 1970
All the troubled youth who think they're so misunderstood and not understood and not listened to should see "The Diary of a Mad Housewife" and see someone who's really got some troubles. The picture deals with the woes of a strictly misunderstood facet of American life — the American wife married to a pompous, ambitious, mindless, fatuous husband. He can't understand why she drags around, doesn't pay too much attention to her hair, smokes too much, is getting too thin. What the hell, all she does is slop around the house all day — a big apartment that he, as the provider has provided for her. Carrie Snodgress, a comparative newcomer to the screen who is certain to be heard from a lot, is the housewife. She combines the blank stare of a Carol Channing with the listlessness of a Shirley Maclaine plus her own wistful charm. She is, in a word, terrific.
75 years ago — 1945
A roaring storm of hail and rain reduced "numerous" houses and barns to kindling and ruined an estimated $200,000 worth of crops in a threemile strip curving from a point west of Millington to areas just north of Munford and Brighton, Tenn., residents of the section reported yesterday. The cloudburst started at 1 p.m. and subsided to a drumming rainfall at 1:30. No deaths or major injuries had been reported late last night, although at least one house toppled over on one family in a storm cellar. In Brownsville, Tenn., a precipitation of 4.65 inches brought that territory "one of the worst flash floods in many years."
100 years ago — 1920
MARION, Ohio – Convinced by early returns of his election to the presidency, Warren G. Harding issued a statement tonight saying that instead of being exultant over the result, he was "more given to prayer to God to make me capable of playing my part." Receiving the election returns here, Mr. Harding declined during the early evening to make any comment, and issued his statement only after the figures had piled up majorities for him, which his advisers declared made his election certain.