In 1983 George Mitchell published an amazing book of documentary photographs of the people and places of Ponce de Leon Avenue. His book is unfortunately now out-of-print, but used copies can be located online. In this video, George talks about working on this book project and compares Ponce of the early 80s to today.
This video blog will typically feature material I’ve shot, but occasionally I’ll showcase an archival footage gem. The following short excerpt is from a local television program that aired in the early 80s called “A Day in the Life of the Colonel,” in which Col. Bruce Hampton takes the viewer on a highly unusual tour of Atlanta. I found this footage while working on a (never completed) documentary on Bruce. In this excerpt, Bruce delivers a poignant monologue about the old Ponce de Leon ballpark. He is standing in an overgrown field where the park used to be and where the Whole Foods shopping center is now located.
March 18, 2009 at 5:48 pm |
Hampton’s pronunciation of “ponce duhleeuhn” is classic. Who knew he was the font of Crackers lore? And the first player he mentioned, Bob Montag, was married to Mary Montag, who was my buddy and Braves tickets connection at WAGA.
Nice blog, Steve. I’ve linked to you from LAF.
March 21, 2009 at 5:51 pm |
Steve,
I met you Friday outside Georgia State University’s College of Education as you were taping another interview. You were speaking to a gentleman about the Kimball House, which used to be there on the corner of Kimball Way and Decatur Street.
I’m excited about your project and your initiative – there’s always a story to be told, and you’ve picked a whole bunch of good ones. I look forward to seeing them unfold. All the best.
March 31, 2009 at 10:00 pm |
I know it may not be your style (or the thing you are going for with this blog), but the pieces make me long to see some archival pictures of these places. But yes, it is cool in its own way to NOT see them. Yeah…that’s probably better. What button do you press to delete these commen—