MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
A new form of outdoor advertising is hanging on buildings in the Beale Street Historic District, but it’s unclear whether the signs should have received a permit from city and county codes officials. The new signs are called interchangeable wall panels because they are not permanent or stand-alone fixtures. One panel has been leased and another has been used for tests. Plans call for a dozen wall panels. The wall panels will have a hidden frame, giving the appearance of pictures hanging on a wall. Plans call for the signs to range in size from 8-by-8-feet to 10.5-by-28-feet.
It’s all included in a new outdoor sign plan created by Tanner-peck Outdoor Advertising and John Elkington, chief executive officer of Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc., the company that manages the historic district.
50 years ago — 1970
After a year as a raft at sea, the nation’s billion-dollar low-calorie sugar substitute market has spotted land. The sales of many items, especially soft drinks and diet liquids, are equaling or bettering rates before the disastrous 1969 federal Food and Drug Administration ban of cyclamates, a survey in the Mid-south has shown.
The sales of low-calorie soft drinks, for instance, rallied during the summer and now are generally normal or ahead of 1969’s pace. Between 35,000 and 40,000 cases of Tab and Fresca were destroyed by the Memphis bottling plant, all unsold because of the cyclamate ban.
75 years ago — 1945
An important change in the staff of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce was announced yesterday by Edmund Orgill, president. Charles S. Peete, manager of the Industrial Division, has resigned, effective today, to enter private business. He will be succeeded by Col. Porter Grace, who recently was discharged from the Army. Mr. Peete joined the local Chamber in August, 1943, as secretary of the Industrial Research Committee.
A historic front page from Dec. 1, 1950.
100 years ago — 1920
The Students’ Educational Publishing Company, recently organized with a capital stock of $75,000, will commence operations in Memphis in January. The company will be engaged in distributing and publishing books on educational and Christian matters for distribution to students. No definite plan of operation has been formulated.