From Apple Street to Hollywood and Vine

Death noted: Kathryn Grayson, who brought operatic talent to the golden age of  Hollywood musicals, at age 88 in Los Angeles.

From the Winston-Salem Journal (Feb. 19):

“Grayson was born Zelma Kathryn Hedrick on Feb. 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem. Her family lived on Apple Street. They moved to St. Louis when she was a child, but she… returned several times after she became a Hollywood star.

“In 1949, Grayson sang at Forsythorama, a pageant at Bowman Gray Stadium attended by more than 10,000 people in honor of Forsyth County’s centennial.

“She made reference to her Winston-Salem childhood after she married [crooner Johnnie] Johnston, telling a reporter, ‘You know what I’d like to do? Go back to 1000 Apple Street and have 12 children.’ “

Mad Men made mountains ‘Great’

“Community leaders in Knoxville and Asheville got on the bandwagon — some out of a love of the mountains, some on the belief that tourism would bolster the local economy, some on the hope that a national park would result in better roads for the region.

“A New York publicity firm, brought in by the Knoxville Automobile Club, suggested the group call itself the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association. Soon the mountains themselves were referred to as the Great Smokies.”

— From “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (2009) by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns