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Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I was hoping for much later. A couple of weeks ago, I misidentified the Space Age Drive-In Theatre as the Jet Age. Several observant readers noticed and courteously pointed out my error. The embarrassing aspect is that I knew better, and actually had a small, blurry picture of the sign. The good side is that I now have a couple of much better photos of the sign, and that article created the most reader engagement thus far.

The Space Age photo shown here was provided by Mike O’Neal, and it was dated on the border as March 1970. The advertised film, Easy Rider, was released in July 1969 so I don’t know if it was running later at the Space Age, or if the picture was just developed a little later. In any case, we can definitively date the photo. This view also shows us the box office with its Googie-influenced winged roof, and the proximity of the box office and screen to Highway 41A, called the New Shelbyville Highway in period ads. The box office looks to only be four or five car lengths off the road, which likely led to some traffic issues as patrons entered the drive-in.

Mike O’Neal is a collector of Tullahoma postcards and photos, and he graciously allowed me to scan some of them. I’ll show some from time-to-time.

Among Mike’s collection were two postcard views of the northwest corner of Lincoln and Atlantic, ones that I had not seen before. One had a postmark of 1909 and the other of 1953, and both were taken from almost the same spot. Note in the 1909 photo that the streets appear to still be dirt. The store signs are unreadable on that one, but the 1950s one is much clearer. There’s the familiar Taylor’s Pharmacy, and two doors west down Lincoln is the Nunn-Bush Shoes sign that identifies Clayton’s Shoe Store, still in that location now. On Atlantic Street, what once was Sterling Stores is now home to The Seafood Place. Also, note in the foreground that there’s angled parking on E. Lincoln. The car at the curb is a police car and its license plate in dated 1952. To the left out of the picture was City Hall.

All photos in this article courtesy of Mike O’Neal. Do you have some old Tullahoma photos and accompanying stories to share? You can contact me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.