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Biting the Hand…
You may have noticed the new ad campaign for Advance Auto Parts featuring University of Memphis head basketball coach Tic Price. The ads on TV, radio, and billboards play off the fact that both the coach and the retailer are new to Memphis. There’s only one problem: The competition Advance is gunning for, Memphis-based AutoZone, is a financial supporter of University of Memphis athletics. In fact, AutoZone commercials support live Tiger basketball telecasts and The Tic Price Show, both on WLMT-TV Channel 30. School officials admit that Price entered into the advertising campaign before gaining clearance from the school. To avoid future embarrassments, one source says, the school now has a system of “checks and balances” in place. Flannery Who? “It’s an area that I hope we can continue to represent in the curriculum, but it’s not one that’s essential to the curriculum.” – Professor Bob Entzminger, chair of the English Department at Rhodes College, commenting to the school’s student newspaper on the future of Southern Literature courses at the college. Rhodes – we might point out – is in the South. Priscilla, On The Other Hand They know who that is over at the Harvard of East Parkway. Mrs. Presley, in fact, is scheduled to receive an honorary degree at Rhodes College’s Sesquicentennial Commencement next week. Joining her will be Nobel laureate Dr. Peter Doherty, the Army’s first female three-star general Claudia Kennedy, and former Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church pastor Reverend Alvin O. Jackson. With a touch of show-biz flair, the press announcement trumpets the bestowal of honorary degrees on “A Presley, a Nobelist, a General, and a Minister.” Which, we understand, is also the line-up for the Village People 2000. Popularity Contests While we’re at it, it’s worth noting that Elvis has been taking a beating in the polls lately. In People magazine’s “People Poll ’98,” the King came in a mere fourth in the Favorite Male Singer category, behind Garth Brooks, Elton John, and George Strait. At least he led all dead male singers. But over at the Time 100 poll, Elvis is also trailing in a poll meant to determine the entertainer of the century. In the lead? French singer and actor Charles Aznavour, who – if you’re like us – you’ve never heard of. Final results of that poll will appear in the magazine’s June 1st issue. |
Escort Service Is Old News
We remember Richard P. Curtis, the man arrested for running a Germantown prostitution house last weekend. He’s put himself in the news before. Four years ago, Curtis advertised a nude maid service in the back pages of this very publication.
Ads for Fredrick’s Fantasy Maid & Escort Service ran in the Flyer for several months in 1993 and 1994. One ad featured a headless drawing of a woman’s hour-glass figure in a garter belt. It said the business featured “West Tennessee’s Sexiest Maids & Butlers.” Names of potential “maids” – Brittany, Tiger, Lacey, Taya, and others – appeared in clouds floating around the figure, and the words “for any reason” were printed twice across the torso.
When then-advertising director Jerry Swift decided to pull the ad, Curtis threatened to sue the Flyer.
“We decided our policy was that we wouldn’t take any kind of out-call [sex-oriented] service, where you call up and somebody comes to your house,” Swift says. “We didn’t want that kind of business advertising.”
Curtis, who is being held in the Germantown jail, still has a business-tax license for a Fredrick’s, which expires in July. The license says the place of business is 99 N. Main, The Towers, a downtown apartment building. The answering machine gives the hours of operation as being between 5 or 6 p.m. and 2, 4, and 6 a.m., depending on the day of the week. It also reminds callers to leave their hotel room number.
On Tuesday, a manager at The Towers said she had no official comment
when asked if she was aware of this business. 
– Jacqueline Marino
Nationsbank Lends A Hand
On Friday, May 8th, about 200 NationsBank employees from 13 states will descend upon a low-income neighborhood in Greenlaw, where they’re going to refurbish the Porter-Leath Children’s Center and an adjacent historic house. They will also work on a Habitat for Humanity home and build a playground.
While president J. Bryan Miller says the day-long event does show NationsBank’s commitment to the community, it’s mostly a special day for employees, who get to work side-by-side with top company officials, including CEO Hugh McColl.
“It’s really an event for our associates,” Miller says. “We’re not trying to say, ‘Hey, look at what NationsBank is doing in Memphis.’”
In addition to providing a day’s worth of 200-person manpower, the company will invest about $150,000 in Greenlaw this Friday.
At a time when lending studies have shown many banks in general have been abandoning the Memphis inner city, NationsBank’s effort indicates, at least symbolically, that the institution plans to have a more visible presence in low-income areas.
NationsBank, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina,
has expanded its influence in Memphis considerably since acquiring
Boatmen’s Bank last year. – Jacqueline Marino
Music Fest A Hit
Officials with Memphis in May estimate 95,000 people filed through
the gates erected around Tom Lee Park last weekend for the three-day
Beale Street Music Festival. Though final numbers won’t be available
for several weeks, when an official audit is completed, MIM, which
produces the annual event, estimates 25,000 came to the festival
Friday, while Saturday and Sunday’s lineups each drew around 36,000.
PHOTO BY ROY CAJERO
This year’s total attendance was considerably less than the record of 117,000 set last year. The drop-off has been attributed to the perceived lack of big-name artists. But for those who actually made it down to Tom Lee Park, the festival lineup proved to be one of the most consistently strong the festival has ever presented. Several performers, including Evangelist Shirley Caesar, Ziggy Marley, the Pawtuckets, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, converted previously indifferent listeners into fans with their strong and lively sets. In particular, Bonnie Raitt’s main-stage performance Friday night, which included guest appearances by Keb’ Mo’, Hi Records great Charlie Hodges, and the homegrown horn section of Jim Spake and Joe Mulherin, was a terrific, if slicker, complement to her blistering blues performances at the Handy Awards the night before.
This year’s attendance also couldn’t be blamed on Mother Nature. Except for a brief shower Saturday night, the festival found itself blessed with three days of cool, sunny weather.
And though spotty sound plagued several stages, most of the festival’s man-made glitches were behind-the-scenes problems, like the much-publicized last-minute scrambles to get a beer permit and to secure visas for the visiting Portuguese musicians.
In general, festivalgoers seemed happy with the logistical and
aesthetic changes MIM enacted this year, including the enhanced
park layout, which greatly improved crowd flow; the addition of
two giant IMAG video screens to the AutoZone main stage; and the
elimination of coupons for food and beverage purchases. – Mark Jordan
School Won’t Get Baseball Stadium
The University of Memphis approached the Memphis Park Commission last fall with a proposal to use Tim McCarver Stadium after the Redbirds move to their new downtown stadium, according to sources in the school’s athletic department. The proposal was turned down.
Park Commission chairman John Malmo says the 30-year-old stadium’s future is in question.
“In any long-term plans for the fairgrounds it would almost certainly come down,” Malmo says. “It is an expensive facility to maintain, as you can see by how much the Redbirds had to spend just to make it habitable. We just don’t have the money to maintain it.”
University officials say the stadium would allow the school to host conference and NCAA tournaments and would boost recruiting for its sagging baseball program.
“McCarver was never intended to be anything but a recreational park,” Malmo argues. “When Russwood Park burned [in 1960] it was forced into service and gradually grew into a Double-A ballpark of questionable quality.”
Redbirds general manager Allie Prescott says his organization has offered to maintain the facility even after the team moves downtown. They would use the stadium for two youth baseball initiatives, RBI and Stripes. The Redbirds would also make the stadium available for other sports organizations.
The Park Commission wants a master plan for the entire fairgrounds
area. “One thing I’m certain about,” Malmo says. “The city is
not making the best use of the entire fairgrounds property.” – Dennis Freeland
