In the 1960s, the Hannah-Adams dwelling electronics and appliance shop on Brainerd Road was a go-to location for these in will need of a garments washer or a colour Television.
Positioned for years at the intersection of Brainerd Road and Belvoir Avenue, the shop was in a higher-targeted traffic region that produced it excellent for the sort of “outside sale” featured in this 1969 photo. The photograph is component of a collection of EPB photos incorporated on the web-site ChattanoogaHistory.com.
According to old newspaper reports, the shop was established in 1953 by Hugh H. Hannah Jr., a Cleveland, Tennessee, native and Planet War II veteran who attended the Baylor College right here and the University of Notre Dame.
According to Hannah’s 2010 obituary, he returned to Chattanooga immediately after the war and sold private airplanes for a time. He later became common manager of Wholesale Tire and Provide. Then, in the early 1950s, he opened the Hannah-Adams shop right here and yet another place in Knoxville. The retailers sold TVs, appliances, furnishings and recreation autos. Hannah retired immediately after far more than 30 years in the enterprise.
In a 1956 classified advertisement in the Chattanooga News-No cost Press, the Hannah-Adams shop presented a wringer washing machine for $60 and a 21-inch Motorola tv for $159.
Also that year, the shop purchased newspaper advertisements touting the then-new transportable TVs, which the ad known as “the smartest, smallest Television ever constructed.” The advertisements encouraged consumers to purchase on credit and touted terms as “25 cents a day with no down payment.”
By the late 1960s, the store’s marketing was focused on colour televisions, as the technologies took America by storm. One particular 1969 newspaper ad contained a drawing of an excited youngster along with the words: “Mommy, right here comes Hannah-Adams with our new colour Television. Oh, Boy! Now we can watch ‘Lassie.'”
In 1969, an RCA console colour Television sold for $497 at the Hannah-Adams shop, which would translate to about $four,000 in 2023 dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This week, Walmart has 50-inch Vizio TVs on sale for $268. Reversing inflation, $268 in 2023 compares to $32 in 1969.
By the time the shop closed for very good in 1986, it was in a warehouse on Highway 153 close to the Shallowford Road exit. A March 1986 newspaper ad contained these words: “We have served Chattanooga for 33 years — now we are closing forever.”
‘Romper Room’ update
Final week in this space, we featured a photo of the “Romper Space” tv show from 1969 on WDEF News 12 Now. The “teacher” in the photo was identified by quite a few sources as Clara Register, then a young mother and former elementary college teacher.
On the day the short article published, we received an e-mail from Register, who moved away from Chattanooga for a stretch of years but has moved back to the Scenic City.
Photo contributed from ChattanoogaHistory.com. This 1969 photo of the Romper Space system on WDEF-Television 12 recalls a time when the children’s show was at peak reputation. It was featured on 79 tv stations in the United States that year. The “teacher” of the class on this system was Clara Register, a University of Tennessee graduate and former elementary college teacher in the Atlanta region. The show aired Monday by means of Friday at eight:30 a.m. on WDEF and featured neighborhood kids.
Her e-mail study, in component:
“I taught college for 54 years immediately after ‘Romper Space.’ 3 years immediately after retirement, my husband and I moved back to Chattanooga. I am enjoying Chattanooga really considerably. I am involved as a volunteer at the McKamey Animal Center and the Chattanooga Ballet.
“I went additional with my education and received a master’s degree from Clemson University in literacy and became a National Board Certified Teacher. More than the extended span of my teaching profession, I have taught every thing from kindergarten to college. I taught for the Division of Defense in Germany and Spain. When in Spain, I met my present husband, when he was on active duty in the Navy.
“The Magic Mirror (a segment of the ‘Romper Room’ show) was genuine, and I definitely could see all the kids,” she added.
ChattanoogaHistory.com
Launched by history enthusiast Sam Hall in 2014, ChattanoogaHistory.com is maintained to present historical photos in the highest resolution out there. If you have photo negatives, glass plate negatives or original nondigital prints taken in the Chattanooga region, make contact with Sam Hall for information and facts on how they could qualify to be digitized and preserved at no charge.
Stick to the “Try to remember When, Chattanooga?” public group on Facebook, and study earlier installments of this series at ChattanoogaHistory.com.
“Try to remember When, Chattanooga?” publishes on Saturdays. Make contact with Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.
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