In the 1960s, the Hannah-Adams electronics and home appliance store on Brainerd Road was a favorite destination for those in need of a washing machine or a color television.
Located for years at the intersection of Brainerd Road and Belvoir Avenue, the store was in a high-traffic area that made it ideal for the type of “outdoor selling” shown in this photo from 1969. Photo is part of a collection of EPB images included on the ChattanoogaHistory.com website.
According to old newspaper reports, the store was founded in 1953 by Hugh H. Hannah Jr., a Cleveland, Tennessee, native and World War II veteran who attended Baylor School here and the University of Notre Dame.
According to Hannah’s 2010 obituary, he returned to Chattanooga after the war and sold private planes for a time. He later became general manager of tires and wholesale supply. Then, in the early 1950s, he opened the Hannah-Adams store here and another location in Knoxville. The stores sold televisions, appliances, furniture and recreational vehicles. Hannah retired after more than 30 years in the business.
In a 1956 classified ad in the Chattanooga News-Free Press, the Hannah-Adams store offered a wringer washer for $60 and a 21-inch Motorola television set for $159.
Also that year, the store bought newspaper ads advertising the then-new portable televisions, which the ad called “the smartest and smallest television ever built.” Ads encouraged customers to buy on credit and advertised terms like “25 cents a day no down payment.”
By the late 1960s, the store’s advertising focused on color televisions as the technology took America by storm. A 1969 newspaper ad featured a drawing of an excited child along with the words: “Mommy, here comes Hannah-Adams with our new color TV. Oh, boy! Now we can watch ‘Lassie’.”
In 1969, an RCA color television sold for $497 at the Hannah-Adams store, which would translate to about $4,000 in $2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This week, Walmart has 50-inch Vizio TVs on sale for $268. Adjusted for inflation, $268 in 2023 compares to $32 in 1969.
By the time the store closed for good in 1986, it was in a warehouse on Highway 153 near the Shallowford Road exit. A March 1986 newspaper ad featured these words: “We’ve served Chattanooga for 33 years — now we’re closing for good.”
Romper Room Update
Last week in this space, we featured a photo of the Romper Room TV show from 1969 on WDEF News 12 Now. The “teacher” in the photo was identified by several sources as Clara Register, then a young mother and former elementary school teacher.
On the day the article was published, we received an email from the Register, who left Chattanooga for many years but has returned to the scenic town.
Photo contributed by ChattanoogaHistory.com. This 1969 photo of the Romper Room program on WDEF-TV 12 recalls a time when the children’s show was at the height of its popularity. It was shown on 79 television stations in the United States that year. The classroom “teacher” in this program was Clara Register, a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a former elementary school teacher in the Atlanta area. The show aired Monday through Friday at 8:30 on WDEF and featured local children.Her email read in part:
“I taught school for 54 years after ‘Romper Room.’ Three years after retirement, my husband and I moved back to Chattanooga. I’m really enjoying Chattanooga. I have been involved as a volunteer with the McKamey Animal Center and the Chattanooga Ballet.
“I furthered my education and received a master’s degree from Clemson University in literacy and became a National Board Certified teacher. Over the course of my long teaching career, I have taught everything from kindergarten through college. I taught for the Department of Defense in Germany and Spain. While in Spain I met my current husband while he was on active duty in the Navy.
“The Magic Mirror (a segment of the Romper Room show) was real, and of course I could see all the kids,” she added.
ChattanoogaHistory.com
Started by history enthusiast Sam Hall in 2014, ChattanoogaHistory.com is dedicated to presenting historic images in the highest resolution available. If you have photographic negatives, glass plate negatives, or original non-digital prints taken in the Chattanooga area, contact Sam Hall for information on how they may qualify to be digitized and preserved free of charge.
Follow “Remember When, Chattanooga?” public Facebook group and read previous installments of this series at ChattanoogaHistory.com.
“Remember when, Chattanooga?” published on Saturdays. Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.
