Skip down the Yellow Brick Road with author and historian Tim Hollis as you uncover the history of this beloved mountaintop attraction. In 1966, North Carolina tourism moguls Grover, Harry, and Spencer Robbins began exploring ways to utilize their new ski facilities atop Beech Mountain during the summer. They brought in their associate Jack Pentes to come up with an idea. As a long-time fan of The Wizard of Oz, Pentes planned and developed the Land of Oz theme park, opening in June 1970. T...

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 compa...

From the 1890s to the 1970s, the thriving area of Birmingham between Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets along First, Second, and Third Avenues was the bustling heart of this quickly growing city. Before the age of the shopping mall, the downtown was the center of retail and entertainment in Birmingham. Along these streets, entrepreneurial immigrants built department stores�including Pizitz and Loveman, Joseph, and Loeb�while the marquees of the Alabama, Ritz, and Lyric theaters, among oth...

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is among the most visited national parks in the country, and countless attractions around its borders have tried for decades to siphon some of those valuable tourist dollars. From ersatz western towns and concrete dinosaurs to misplaced Florida-type attractions and celebrity theaters, you will find them all preserved in this book. Author Tim Hollis showcases those businesses that no longer exist, from Hill-Billy Village in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg...

Tourism in the Southeast is often associated with Florida--a state that essentially defined the industry in America. Yet Alabama has a fascinating history of tourism all its own. It all began with an enterprising politician. In 1916, John Hollis Bankhead went to great lengths to ensure that one of America's first transcontinental highways went directly through Alabama. Though it was a less efficient route for highway travelers, it marked the birth of Alabama's fledgling tourism industry, w...

Birmingham, Alabama, has enjoyed a long and distinguished broadcasting history. The city�s first radio station aired in 1922, and television arrived in 1949. Both media produced personalities who became household names in the city. Audiences came to know Joe Rumore, Tommy Charles, Country Boy Eddy, Cousin Cliff Holman, Rosemary, Pat Gray, Tom York, and many others as if they were members of their own families. Even the commercials became as memorable as the news, entertainment, talk, and c...

Beginning in the early 1950s, the 130 miles of Florida coastline stretching from Panama City to Pensacola were branded as the Miracle Strip. Between those cities, oddities sprang up: goofy miniature golf courses, neon-bedecked motels, reptile farms and attractions that sought to re-create environments ranging from the South Pacific to the ghost towns of the Old West. In total, it was a marketing effort that worked brilliantly. Tourists flocked to the Strip, and now they can return. Author ...

A nostalgic look at Christmas in the mid-twentieth century.

There was a time when rural comedians drew most of their humor from tales of farmers' daughters, hogs, hens, and hill country high jinks. Lum and Abner and Ma and Pa Kettle might not have toured happily under the "Redneck" marquee, but they were its precursors.In Ain't That a Knee-Slapper: Rural Comedy in the Twentieth Century, author Tim Hollis traces the evolution of this classic American form of humor in the mass media, beginning with the golden age of radio, when such ...

For nearly ninety years, Pizitz offered Birmingham residents and Alabamans across the state a one-of-a-kind shopping experience. From the Enchanted Forest that sprung up every Christmas to in-store fashion shows, visiting Pizitz wasn't just a trip to the store, it was an event. Yet Pizitz was more than just a department store--it was a Birmingham institution. When Louis Pizitz opened up his first dry goods store in downtown Birmingham in 1899, he began a career as a successful businessman ...

Around two hundred million years ago, geological forces produced an expansive grove of rocky caverns and outcroppings atop Lookout Mountain. It was not until the twentieth century, however, that this awe-inspiring citadel evolved into a nationally recognized tourist attraction when Garnet Carter and his wife, Frieda, developed the natural marvel into the Rock City Gardens we know today, an enchanted tribute to fairytales and a breathtaking homage to nature. Join Rock City expert Tim Hollis...

Journey along with the king of nostalgia, Tim Hollis, for a tour of lost attractions of northern, central and southern Alabama.Alabama has had an enviable success rate when it comes to tourist attractions, with some that date back to the 1930s still drawing crowds today. But many others have come and gone, sometimes leaving little evidence of their existence. Join Alabama native Tim Hollis as he revisits iconic attractions such as Canyon Land Park and Sequoyah Cave...