He was a freedman and a barber at the Atlanta Hotel who, by all accounts was well-liked and respected. He just picked the wrong day to step outside.
Author Archives: Lance Russell
Lance Russell is an Atlanta-based filmmaker and media communicator who, for over three decades, has been entrusted by clients to tell their stories. A seasoned producer with an innate ability to cut to the heart of the matter, Lance’s instincts are tailor-made for today’s “media bite” culture. Brief, poignant and always entertaining, Lance’s current passion is bringing Atlanta’s colorful and inspiring past to life with his “rest of the story” style video series, Stories of Atlanta. “History’s best communicators,” says Lance, “have always been storytellers. It’s in our DNA. ‘Once upon a time’ is how we got to where we are now.”
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Attracting the wrong kind of attention
In September of 1895 at Atlanta’s Cotton States and International Exposition, Charles Jenkins demonstrated to the world what he called a Phantoscope, an early version of a movie projector. From that moment on, the world would never be the same.
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Star gazing at the Fox Theatre
To be honest, it seemed like an urban myth when we first heard about it but, after a little bit of research, the myth proved to be fact. A whimsical tale on its own, the reality that it is true makes it one of the Stories of Atlanta worth a second look. Here’s what we […]
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Not exactly a favorite son
I can think of at least two residents of Metro Atlanta that have tossed their hat into the Presidential candidate’s ring. Maybe there are more, but, has there ever been a Presidential candidate who was actually a resident of the City of Atlanta? Our friend Greg Hodges asked that question and the answer he discovered […]
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Some first-of-the-year inspiration
It’s time for the annual first week of January ritual. You know, the one where we tell ourselves, “This year is going to be the year.” This year we get back into the gym – we start eating better – spending more time with our family – working smarter and, in general, making the self-improvements we think we need to make.
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Tested and proved in the South
The early days of automobile manufacturing were much like the Wild West. By some accounts, there have been over 1800 car manufacturers and it took a while before the “Big 3” to became the dominant American automobile companies. Most early car companies are nothing but distant memories on the American landscape but one is, to […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
From Atlanta he sold to the world
As sure as there is breakfast, lunch and dinner, there is snacking. Satisfying those between-meal cravings is a need we all have. While some people are able to eat healthy snacks, many of us cannot resist the lure of less healthy foods. Snacking certainly is not a new innovation. It goes back, in some […]
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A look back at the summer of love
It was the sixties and hundreds of thousands of people gathered together for 3 days of music. You can probably guess the rest.
Posted inStories of Atlanta
He was a credit to his profession
Ask anyone in Atlanta what comes to mind when you mention our city’s boxing tradition and chances are you’ll get the name Evander Holyfield. That is assuming the person you are asking doesn’t confuse boxing with wrestling, in which case, you’ll probably get Dusty Rhodes, Rick Flare or Gordon Solie. But it is Evander “The […]
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Scary times and nervous people
We are often told that to accurately judge history, it must be viewed through an empathetic lens. It is difficult, they say, to assess actions without applying the standards of the day to those actions. Our story this week is ostensibly about an event pertaining to public safety. There is historical precedence for the actions that were taken, but one wonders…do the times of the day ever justify the suspension of our constitutional liberties? A not so easy question to answer in this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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The dragon that reaches out and grabs you
Roger Babson is the founder of the Gravity Research Foundation, an organization with the stated purpose of studying, understanding and, ultimately, harnessing the force of gravity. It was the childhood drowning of his older sister in a river near Gloucester, Massachusetts that sparked Babson’s life-long interest in finding a way to control the effects of […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It had everything to do with necessity
Necessity is the “Mother of Invention.” Not much to argue with there. If it weren’t for necessity there would never have been a MacGyver. The crew of Apollo 13 could probably tell you a thing or two about the motivation provided by necessity. And we’re pretty sure that if it weren’t for necessity, Ron Popeil […]
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It’s a stretch…but it does reach
It is a safe bet to say that there were no Atlantans who fought at the Battle of the Alamo. Safe because the battle was over and done with a year before the terminus stake was ever driven into the ground. And yet…there is a connection between Atlanta and the Alamo. Not surprisingly, the connection […]
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He missed the bus but eventually got to Atlanta
Coinciding with the particularly busy October schedule of the vast staff that creates the Stories of Atlanta, we, once again, will acquiesce to an imagined groundswell of viewer demand for an encore look at one of our favorite tales. I was following a thread on a message board recently in which the participants were discussing […]
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A familiar face comes to town
Watching this week’s story one can’t help but pause to consider the burdens that life places on some people. It is a story that flew under the radar two months ago and, we feel, it deserves a second look because most of us can relate to the relationships we don’t get to pick. We start […]
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The layers of history
It probably goes without saying that pretty much everything was something before it became what it is today. An examination of any city’s past is an exercise in peeling back the layers of, as the Beatles might have put it, the long and winding road. Because of our city’s particular penchant for casting out the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
An out-of-towner raises the roof
The term “carpetbagger” is defined as one who is an unscrupulous opportunist. But just as it is true that all that glitters is not gold, it is also true that not all who came to Atlanta following the Civil War were solely unscrupulous, opportunistic carpetbaggers. Take the case of Hannibal Ingalls Kimball. H.I. Kimball was […]
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Survival in a fast-paced world
Atlanta’s business history is filled with the records of companies that did not stand the test of time. Evidence of that fact is all around but, to put a positive spin on things, where would all of the hip offices, trendy loft condos and tech startups turn for space if Atlanta’s large warehouses and manufacturing […]
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It’s the story of an ineffective Good Samaritan
If tomorrow you take a stroll down Peachtree street, the chances are better than pretty good that, at several points during your walk, you will be photographed. There are cameras everywhere, not just downtown but, well, everywhere.
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She found what she wanted
They say it was Benjamin Franklin who uttered the oft repeated phrase that nothing is certain except death and taxes. He supposedly said that in reference to the life span of the recently written United States Constitution, which he felt had the appearance but not the certainty of permanency.
But surely there are other examples in life that are certain.
