Before Walt Disney built his mammoth theme park, there were the Fairyland Caverns of Rock City Gardens, the glass-bottomed boats of Silver Springs, and Stuckey's Restaurants around each bend. From the Smoky Mountains to the Ozarks, from the Florida coast to the Mississippi gulf, the Southern roadside was a string of attractions--some based on history, some on pure imagination. Dixie Before Disney chronicles the wonderful and wacky history of these tourist spots.

Tourism rose in Dixie just after the Civil War, when Northern millionaires discovered the joys of spending the winter...

Whatever happened to Bozo the Clown, to Aunt Norma, to Solomon C. Whiskers, those television celebrities who hammed it up between cartoons and contests during local kids' shows?

In Hi There, Boys and Girls America's Local Children's TV Programs, Tim Hollis tracks down the story of every known local children's TV show from markets across the United States.

There have been many books about children's television on the networks, and such shows as Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, and Sesame Street are legends in broadcasting.

However, the local branch of...

Since World War II, tourists have flocked to Florida's northwest Gulf Coast and sun and fun spots at Panama City Beach, Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola Beach. Every year those visitors number in the millions.

For those who long to recall how the vacationland appeared thirty, forty, or even fifty years ago, Tim Hollis has written Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast.

In a style that informs and entertains, Hollis describes the rise of early developments, such as Long Beach Resort, and major tourist attractions, such as the Gulfarium and the Miracle...

Since World War II, tourists have flocked to Florida's northwest Gulf Coast and sun and fun spots at Panama City Beach, Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola Beach. Every year those visitors number in the millions.

For those who long to recall how the vacationland appeared thirty, forty, or even fifty years ago, Tim Hollis has written Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast.

In a style that informs and entertains, Hollis describes the rise of early developments, such as Long Beach Resort, and major tourist attractions, such as the Gulfarium and the Miracle...

Around the world there are grandparents, parents, and children who can still sing ditties by Tigger or Baloo the Bear or the Seven Dwarves. This staying power and global reach is in large part a testimony to the pizzazz of performers, songwriters, and other creative artists who worked with Walt Disney Records.

Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records chronicles for the first time the fifty-year history of the Disney recording companies launched by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in the mid-1950s, when Disneyland Park, Davy Crockett, and the Mickey Mouse Club were taking the...

Around the world there are grandparents, parents, and children who can still sing ditties by Tigger or Baloo the Bear or the Seven Dwarves. This staying power and global reach is in large part a testimony to the pizzazz of performers, songwriters, and other creative artists who worked with Walt Disney Records.

Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records chronicles for the first time the fifty-year history of the Disney recording companies launched by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in the mid-1950s, when Disneyland Park, Davy Crockett, and the Mickey Mouse Club were taking the...

From Blowing Rock, North Carolina, where the Tweetsie Railroad boards to Lookout Mountain, on the Tennessee and Georgia border, -the Land of the Smokies- attracts thousands of tourists each year. Some come to visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; many others delight in the sometimes quirky but always alluring attractions along the highways.

In The Land of the Smokies, Tim Hollis wields his wit, his passion for detail, and almost 200 classic illustrations to produce an incomparable history of fun in the mountains. Hollis shows how the national park was created out of...

From Blowing Rock, North Carolina, where the Tweetsie Railroad boards to Lookout Mountain, on the Tennessee and Georgia border, -the Land of the Smokies- attracts thousands of tourists each year. Some come to visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; many others delight in the sometimes quirky but always alluring attractions along the highways.

In The Land of the Smokies, Tim Hollis wields his wit, his passion for detail, and almost 200 classic illustrations to produce an incomparable history of fun in the mountains. Hollis shows how the national park was created out of...

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 comedians as Bob Burns, Judy Canova, and Lum and Abner kept listeners laughing. The book then moves into the...