Author: Vance Lauderdale

Curious Carving

Dear Vance: I know you like odd tombstones, and I’ve discovered a strange one in the Edmondson Cemetery on State Line Road in Southaven (below, right). Who is this fellow who claims he has “no flag or country since 1865”? — G.V., Memphis.

Dear G.V.: This is indeed an odd marker, with the inscription wrapped completely around it. My own imposing monument, though currently in the works and being revised and updated semi-monthly – will hardly be as wordy.

The fellow’s name is Robert Bruce Bowe, and the inscription on the front reads: “Born in Petersburg, Va., Feb. 29, 1836. Raised in Hanover Co. Moved to Miss. Feb. 1, 1860. Died Oct. 11, 1907.”

Now comes the interesting part, on a second panel: “I have no Flag or Country since 1865, an Alien in the land that my forefathers defended in war since 1624. Providence taking side with the strong and oppressive against the weak and just has caused me to live in doubt the past forty years and fear I will die so.”Ê

The next panel reads, “Company A, 7th Tenn. Cavalry CSA, July 1861 – April 1865. We rode from Vicksburg to Nashville, from Atlanta to Corinth, to Fort Pillow and to Belmont, Mo. Many a day and night nothing to eat, our bed the cold sod. The Stars and Bars and dear Mal were the idols of my heart.” The last panel is inscribed, “My aim through life was to do unto others as would have them do unto me, though sometimes had to fight old Nick with fire.”

It’s apparent that Bowe was a Confederate cavalry rider, who took part in many battles and who ultimately “lived in doubt” when Providence let those damn yankees win the Civil War. Beyond that, though, I couldn’t have told you more about Bowe and his family until I discovered a handy book called Mississippi Back Roads by retired professor Elmo Howell, part of a series that includes Mississippi Home-Places and Mississippi Scenes.Ê

“Robert Bruce Bowe’s tombstone has long been an object of wonder,” writes Howell. “An expression of religious doubt, as some have imagined; or only grief at loss of the war?” Howell discovered that Bowe came from an old Virginia family and met his future wife, Malvina (the “dear Mal” of the inscription), while visiting relatives in Mississippi. Although not much is known of his life after the war, Howell reports that Bowe retired to a farm near Plum Point, Mississippi, where he died in 1907. His wife had died two years before, and the old soldier’s will decreed that his property be divided among his nine heirs, with his longtime servant getting “a fifty-dollar horse.”

Diamond Days

Dear Vance: My dad played baseball years ago in Memphis and Mississippi, and I’m sending you a tattered photo of him with the Orgill Brothers company team. He’s at the bottom left in the picture, and was a pitcher for the team. What kind of company was it? — P.J., Dothan, Alabama.

Dear P.J.: Before my parents enrolled me in the finest private schools in Belgium, my athletic endeavors (in this country at least) were mainly confined to shrieking like a banshee as my thuggish classmates pelted me with Dodge-balls on the dusty playgrounds of Memphis. And those were the girls. So, reluctant to dredge up those horrible memories again, I asked one of my capable assistants to investigate the old baseball leagues that your father played for.Ê

Here’s what she found out. According to Johnny Rudd at the Memphis Division of Park Services (formerly the Park Commission), the All-Memphis Baseball League was organized here in the 1940s, composed of “mostly former college and ex-pro players, and guys who just wanted to play ball.” The teams were sponsored by local firms, including Orgill Brothers, a hardware company founded in 1847 that is still in business today – in fact, it’s the oldest family-owned firm in town. In the early days, Orgill sold hardware, cutlery, and guns – everything a pioneer town would need. By the 1900s, the company branched out with Tettenborn refrigerators, Jewel gas ranges, Radiant home heating stoves, Yale locks, and all sorts of other stuff. Today, Orgill, Inc., is a hardware wholesaler.

The All-Memphis Baseball League played its last inning in 1997. Now, Rudd says that adult amateur baseball is organized into several leagues around here, which are affiliated with the American Amateur Baseball Congress, the National Amateur Baseball Federation, and the United States Baseball Congress. Some of the teams playing today are the Memphis Royals, Memphis Blues, and DeSoto Giants, who play in leagues named after veteran baseball players – Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Connie Mack, and others. If you want to learn more, visit the Royals Web site(www.eteamz.com/memphisroyals) or call Rudd himself at 454-5200. It’s way too complicated to go into here, and I’m still smarting from all those terrifying days of Dodgeball.

Submarine Sighting

Dear Vance: While at Mr. Pride Car Wash on Poplar, I looked to the east. Painted on the back of the facade of a building on Mendenhall is “1967.” I know that building once housed a store called the Yellow Submarine, where one could buy a waterbed, albums, incense, and other things that I was too young to know about. Correct? — R.B., Memphis.

Dear R.B.: Yes and no. The little brick store you’ve noticed did indeed house an interesting “alternative” establishment called the Yellow Submarine, which had a magnificent mural across the facade painted by a talented artist named LeRoy Best, if I remember correctly. But that establishment didn’t open on Mendenhall until late 1970 or early 1971, several years after the date you spied on the bricks.Ê

In 1967, the little building actually housed a lawn mower repair shop, owned and operated by a fellow named Joseph Bianchi, who had started his business there in the early 1960s. When Bianchi moved out in 1968, a Coleman-Taylor transmission repair joint moved in, and remained there until the Yellow Submarine took over.Ê

It’s funny that quite a few people remember the Yellow Submarine, but it stayed there only about five years. After that came Vic’s Auto Repair – the building seemed destined to be a repair shop for something or other – though today it’s used for storage. I stuck my little face up to the mail slot in the front door and tried to peer in. I swear I caught a whiff of patchouli and thought I could make out an old Blue Cheer poster, dimly fluorescent under the flickering glow of a black light – nah, must have been my imagination.Ê

[“Ask Vance” appears every month in Memphis magazine. Got a question for Vance? Send it to ÒAsk VanceÓ at Memphis magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101, or e-mail him at askvance@memphismagazine.com]

There is no justice in the world. It’s bad enough that I have penned this column for decades — it certainly seems that way — in exchange for a mere pittance month after month. Readers, I do not exaggerate. My W-2 form actually lists “A Mere Pittance” under “wages, tips, and other compensation.” Who knew it was an actual payroll term?

What’s more, during the production of this 25th anniversary issue, I have waited ever-so-patiently for the editors to come downstairs to my basement cubicle and seek my counsel about which of my many, many fine columns they planned to reprint this month. Just yesterday, though, I discovered they had no plans to reprint a single one of them! (“As soon as you start writing a decent column,” snipped my publisher, “then we’ll consider reprinting them.”)

And to rub even more salt in the wound, instead of my usual enchanting discourses on the cares and concerns of our readers — what happened to this, what’s the meaning of that? — I have been commanded to devote this month’s entire column to various questions and queries that have been raised now and then about the history of this publication.

So let’s get this over with so I can go back to sulking:

What was the original name of Memphis magazine?

Volume 1, Number 1 first appeared on the newsstands carrying the title City of Memphis magazine. There had recently been a Memphis magazine, produced by the local Chamber of Commerce, which had met an untimely end in 1973. Not wanting to be tarred with the same brush, the Founding Fathers chose the City of Memphisname instead.

In fact, we scrounged around in our “files” (actually, piles of battered shoeboxes) and found the original mock-up of our very first cover (see below). For reasons no one can remember, we ultimately used a considerably older Ed Crump on the April 1976 cover.

The brand-new City of Memphis offered much interesting fare, such as “A Conversation with Boss Crump,” “An Insider’s Guide to Memphis,” and an editorial by attorney Lucius Burch, identified as “a champion of worthwhile causes.” Now which one would you pick up, standing in line at Seessel’s with your arms filled with six-packs and Little Debbie snack cakes? In fact, 25 years later, that first issue is still full of good stories. It’s definitely on my to-read list, any day now, just as soon as I get through my stack of Seventeens.

The stigma of the earlier failed Memphis finally passed by the way, and this publication dropped that City of in April 1978 (above right). It’s a good name, we think. We’ll probably stick with it for another 25 years or so.

City of MemphisWho has been featured on the cover more than anyone else?

Oh, that’s an easy one. The King of Rock-and-Roll is King of Memphis, with Elvis Presley appearing on the covers of 10 issues since 1976. If you count a related story about former wife Priscilla, then the residents of Graceland were honored on 11 covers — and those are cover stories, you understand. We’re not even counting the half-dozen other times we’ve run a picture of Elvis on the cover, or just mentioned him, in a shameless attempt to boost sales.

Runner-up, with three covers so far, is a tie: our favorite East High alum, Cybill Shepherd, and the mysterious Dr. Lancelot Bueno, with three each.

What was the largest, fattest, thickest issue ever produced?

The very first magazines were rather lean, that’s for sure. In fact, our premiere issue was just 44 pages. But we had reached our stride by the mid-1980s, producing whopping tomes that strained the backs of even the hardiest mail carriers. The thickest issue so far is August 1988, with 272 pages. Though records are scanty from that period, I’m told that particular “City Guide” generated $43.75 in advertising revenues — after deducting staff expenses like pencils, paper, biscuits, and cheap liquor.

Is it true the first art director now works for Rolling Stone?

Technically, no. Jack Atkinson was listed on the masthead as “design director” for the first issue only. After that, the credit for the magazine design went to “Jack Apple Graphics,” though most of the actual work, so I’m told, was being performed by an Apple employee, a young fellow from Mississippi by the name of Fred Woodward. Fred officially became art director in September 1976, a position he held until May 1980, when our very talented Murry Keith took over. After stints at D magazine in Dallas and Texas Monthly in Austin, Fred joined the staff of Rolling Stone, where he’s art director. Under his direction, Rolling Stone has won more design awards than any magazine in the United States. We like to think it’s all because of us.

Tell the truth. What’s the worst story you’ve ever run?

I’ll have you know that in 25 years we have never published anything that didn’t stand the test of time, set new standards, push the envelope, and all sorts of other clichés.

Well, that’s not quite true. Some of the pieces we published surely had merit when we assigned them, but a few of them today do seem a trifle stale. My own recommendations for least-compelling stories would have to include:

¥ “West Memphis: More Than a Truck Stop?”

¥ “Sludge: The $400 Million Gamble” (May 1979)

¥ “A Paraguayan Holiday” (April 1981)

¥ “Minerva Johnican’s Amazing Comeback” (March 1984)

¥ “What’s New in Running Gear” (July/August 1985)

¥ “Dream Cars” (October 1991)

No, I’m not making these up. Furthermore, as proof of our continuing ability to explore the critically important issues of the day — during October, anyway — I submit the following series as Exhibits A, B, C, and D:

¥ “Rating the Imported Beers” (October 1978)

¥ “Rating the Imported Beers II” (October 1980)

¥ “The Great American Beer Taste-off” (October 1981)

¥ “Rating the Imported Beers” (October 1984).

Finally, what did the “MM” in MM Corporation stand for?

Uh, it stood for Memphis Magazine. These days, though, the company is called Contemporary Media, Inc.

Inc. stands for “incorporated,” in case you were stumped by that, too.

[“Ask Vance” appears every month in Memphis magazine. Got a question for Vance? Send it to “Ask Vance” at Memphis magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101, or e-mail him at askvance@memphismagazine.com]