5 Fun Facts about Chattanooga, TN (and Some Vintage Viral Marketing)

1 – Chattanooga, TN was home to blues singer Bessie Smith and actor Samuel L. Jackson.

The first time I performed in Chattanooga, it was at the Bessie Smith Music Hall. I got paid $300. It was the first time I got paid in advance for any show. They even provided a hotel room. (First time for that too.) I got into my room – a master suite – and looked around and thought, “I’ve MADE IT!” (Favorite Bessie Smith song: “I Want Every Bit of It.”)

2 – The Walnut Street Bridge, which spans a half-mile across the Tennessee River, is the world’s longest pedestrian bridge. It was built in 1890, and is a must-do if you ever visit Chattanooga.

3 – Christine Kane (that’d be me) is performing in Chattanooga on Thursday night at 8pm! (You knew this blog had to be going somewhere, no?) Let your friends know, or come on down yourself — May 29th. Rhythm & Brews. 8pm. (Samuel L. Jackson is Tweeting everyone that he’s SO gonna be there.)

4 – Christine Kane (yea, still me) will be appearing on WUTC at 3pm on Thursday, May 29th. She’ll be interviewed by old-school uber-DJ-extraordinaire, Richard Winham. You can tune in from your computer.

5 – The Chattanooga Bakery is home of The MoonPie.

And finally – some vintage Viral Marketing:

Just outside of Chattanooga is Rock City, a tourist attraction that opened on May 21, 1932. Soon after it opened, Garnet Carter (the owner) hired a young sign painter named Clark Byers, to travel the nation’s highways and offer to paint farmers’ barns in exchange for letting him paint three simple words on the barn roof: “See Rock City.” The distinctive black-and-white signs appeared as far north as Michigan and as far west as Texas.

And now, 74 years later – after Clark Byers probably died of paint toxicity or sun poisoning – I sit in my chair, typing on my laptop, blogging to the rooftops: “See Christine Kane.”

These are the good old days.