For decades, the Christmas season in Birmingham was not complete without the sights and sounds of the retail district. During the season, the Magic City made magic with elaborate light displays and the Living Christmas Tree in Woodrow Wilson Park. Many remember the battling Santas of Loveman's and Pizitz, each vying for the hearts of the community. The elaborate Enchanted Forest dazzled shoppers on the sixth floor at Pizitz. In the 1940s, more than 200,000 people lined the streets each year to make merry for the Christmas Carnival parade. Author and local historian Tim Hollis celebrates the happy history of Birmingham's holiday season, reviving the traditions and festivities, the food and shopping of days gone by.

From the 1890s to the 1970s, the thriving area of Birmingham between Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets along First, Second, and Third Avenues was the bustling heart of this quickly growing city. Before the age of the shopping mall, the downtown was the center of retail and entertainment in Birmingham. Along these streets, entrepreneurial immigrants built department storesincluding Pizitz and Loveman, Joseph, and Loebwhile the marquees of the Alabama, Ritz, and Lyric theaters, among others, shined over the busy downtown sidewalks.

There are now over 25 books published as part of the Aspects Series, each one taking readers on a voyage of nostalgic discovery through their town, city or area. Here Birmingham, once 'The Workshop of the Empire' is revealed in twelve studies of the city and its people. Here we find 'Birmingham Municipal Bank', the only successful council operated bank and 'Lesser Known Characters' about the city. We see the work of the 'Birmingham Mission' and 'Birmingham Children's Emigration Homes'. During the troubled 1930's, Birmingham held a 'Great Pageant' and as war clouds gathered over Europe, the city's young men fought in 'The Spanish Civil War'. All this and so much more is available in this, the first Aspects of Birmingham.

Are you a loyal Blues supporter? Never missed a match and think you know all there is to know about your favourite team? If so, have a go at tackling the 1,000 brain teasing questions in this quiz book, each one cleverly thought out to test your memory of the people and places that have shaped the history of Birmingham City Football Club. With sections on all aspects of the game including players, managers, scores, transfer fees, opponents, competitions, wins, draws and losses, you just won't be able to put this book down. Whether you want to impress your family with some little known facts or challenge your mates, The Official Birmingham City Quiz Book is a must have for football fans of all ages and is certain to provide hours of fun. This fitting tribute to the Blues is both educational and entertaining. So dip inside the cover and check up on all those important details about the team you didn't realise you had forgotten.

A quartet of novels from the New York Times–bestselling author of “Our Crowd” and master chronicler of Manhattan’s rich, famous, and deceitful. These four gripping novels prove that “when it comes to the folkways of the rich, the powerful, and the privileged, Stephen Birmingham knows what he’s talking about” (Los Angeles Times). Carriage Trade: One of New York’s most elegant and exclusive retail establishments, Tarkington’s has been the preferred shopping experience of Manhattan’s elite for decades. But the unexpected death of founder Silas Tarkington raises serious doubts about the future of the enterprise. At the reading of his will, disturbing questions arise about the tycoon’s past, and suggestions of a dark, secret life threaten to tear the family apart. The truth could destroy much more than the family business—especially as it becomes more and more likely that Silas’s death was no accident. “[A] page turner . . . [that] offers a little bit of the best of everything” (The New York Times). The Wrong Kind of Money: The Liebling family is among the wealthiest in New York, but in the eyes of “old money” gentile aristocrats like the patrician Van Degans, they will always be lower-class Jewish nouveau riche. Jules Liebling got his start selling liquor during Prohibition while in cahoots with dangerous mobsters, and his widow, Hannah, now runs the family business with a tyrannical hand. But when her daughter-in-law meets Georgette Van Degan for lunch at Le Cirque, gossip circulates about a thaw between the families and, quite possibly, a partnership. As rumors fly in this “fast and wonderful” novel that has “something for everyone,” family skeletons on both sides are exposed, leading to jealousy, betrayal, and even violence (Cincinnati Enquirer). The Auerbach Will: The daughter of poor immigrant Russian-Jewish parents on the Lower East Side, Essie Litsky married Jack Auerbach, and together, they rose from poverty and amassed a fortune that dwarfed their wildest dreams. But money could never buy the affection of family or compensate for the true love Essie let slip away. And now, as she nears the end of her life, she must contend with blackmail and heartless legal assaults coming at her from all sides—the result of the ugly, persistent greed of her own children and grandchildren. But Essie is not dead yet, and those who underestimate the remarkable old woman are in for a shocking and powerful surprise. This New York Times bestseller is full of “delicious secrets” drawn from the “gossipy, Uptown/Downtown milieu Birmingham knows so well” (Kirkus Reviews). Shades of Fortune: Mireille “Mimi” Myerson took her grandfather’s struggling cosmetics company and turned it into an empire. But suddenly, as she prepares to launch a new perfume line, she is faced with hidden threats at every turn. Her efforts to further expand the company could be sabotaged from within by her own treacherous family. With the discovery of her husband’s affair and the return of real estate magnate Michael Horowitz, her first and most enduring love, Mimi must determine whom she can trust—especially in light of the shocking revelations that are about to emerge regarding the birth of the Miray Corporation.

It was called the Magic City – a bright, shiny new boomtown following the misery of the Civil War. Birmingham was teething on steel as a brash Wild West town with gambling, shootouts and famous madams. When the steel died down, banking and medical industries settled it into a sophisticated city with a famed culinary scene, a broad entertainment district, and striking natural beauty. The colorful past remains in a juke joint, quirky museums and a mining trail turning into a greenway. The city changed the country with its notorious struggle, preserved in churches, parks and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The city is experiencing a new boom in the restoration of its historic downtown, craft beer scene, up and coming new chefs, and an explosion of music venues. The Magic is back. 100 Things to Do in Birmingham Before You Die is your guide to discovering that magic!

In the summer of 1914, our finest young men flocked to the colors in Northern towns and cities to answer Lord Kitcheners Call to Arms in a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm and patriotism. The Call appealed to their sense of adventure and offered an escape from the humdrum life of office, factory and mill.The new recruits volunteered with brothers, cousins, friends and work mates. The newly formed units became the focus of local civic pride and soon became known as the Pals. The City of Birmingham formed three such battalions with over 3,000 local volunteers. This book tells their story.Birmingham Pals is a story that covers the full range of human experience in war—the highest courage and bravery, the misery and tedium of trench life, the exhilaration, terror and slaughter involved in going over the top. Above all, it is a story of interest to people of all backgrounds and ages, as a tale of comradeship, which, for many survivors, was to last a life time.

Between 1950 and 1979, Birmingham, Alabama, experienced some of the most dramatic growth and change in its history. Booming suburbs, desegregation, the fall of steel and the rise of medical and educational research, a new emphasis on the fine arts, and other changes imparted to Birmingham a radical new look over that thirty-year period. Historic Photos of Birmingham in the 50s, 60s, and 70s highlights the changes that took place through pictures of busy shoppers, amusing advertising ploys, eager audiences, cultural achievements, towering buildings, influential citizens, new institutions, famous actors, and violent protests and demonstrations. Nearly 200 photographs, vividly reproduced in black-and-white with captions and introductions, give a clear idea of what the Birmingham landscape and environment was like during these years. This look back is the perfect reminiscence for those who remember the era and an ideal resource for those new to the city who may not.

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How the experience of war impacted on the town, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Birmingham were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. A record of the growing disillusion of the people, their tragedies and hardships and a determination to see it through. Birmingham’s part in the Great War is well documented from the production of Rifles and Lewis Guns at the B.S.A. to the mind boggling 25 million rifle cartridges produced weekly at Kynochs. Airplanes, tanks, armored cars, military trucks, shell fuses, shell cases, Mills bombs and hundreds of other intricate parts needed to make military hardware. “The country, the empire and the world owe to the skill, the ingenuity, the industry and the resource of Birmingham a deep debt of gratitude,” to quote Prime Minister Lloyd George and former Minister of Munitions. But that is only part of the story. Around 150,000 Birmingham men enlisted and sadly approximately 14,000 did not return. No story of Birmingham’s war effort can be told without mentioning the wives, moms, sisters and girlfriends who toiled away night and day working in munitions. Four years of local war time newspapers have been trawled through unearthing personal experiences of Brummagem folk in the Great War.