My Quest
For The Elusive Life
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
When I first raised Lee's Traveller from the grave and started doing this site, I was told about the existence of a Life that I never knew about. You see, I was gone from Huntsville when this Life was created, and even though I made several trips back over the next few years, no one told me of it back then. It was almost 35 years later when I first heard about it.
It seems that in 1965, some of our fellow classmates got their 15 minutes of national fame when they had their photos published in a national magazine. We all grew up reading Life, but how many ever thought that someone we knew would actually have their pictures in it? All I was told was that our cheerleaders had their pictures in an issue of Life. I wrote several people asking if they knew about it. Many did but no one came forward with a copy or could even tell me which issue.
For the last year, I have loaded the search engines of the internet looking for Lee cheerleaders and Life magazine, and not one of the searches ever produced a hit. I searched e-Bay with the same criteria. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I did an e-Bay search for Life magazine and cheerleaders and got a hit. I looked at the item, and all that was listed about the issue for sale was that it had an article about a paratrooper who ran a cheerleader summer camp. I wrote to the seller and asked her if she would look inside and see if it listed the cheerleaders as being from Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama. She wrote back saying that it did not list the high school that the cheerleaders attended. I wrote her back and asked her if they had on uniforms with "L" on them. She wrote back that she could not see any letters. She just mentioned that all it said was that the camp was held in northern Alabama at Florence State Teachers College. I said to myself "What are the odds that this would not be the elusive issue of Life that I had sought?"
So, I put in my bid and won the auction. When it finally arrived I opened the pages and the first cheerleader picture I came to had a familiar face - Beckye Frick. I had obtained Life.
I have scanned the photos I have been looking for and then found someone who wanted and needed the magazine more than I did, so I passed my Life on to her.
Can you name the cheerleaders below? Bonus question - what are they looking at?
Annette McCraney, Class of '64
The smell is still in my brain. I can't remember how
many times I bought it, but Evening in Paris was a
favorite gift for my Mom when I didn't have a lot of
money to spend. I actually enjoyed the aroma. Hope Mom did.
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Lynn Bozeman VanPelt, Class of '66
I think that is a bottle of the scent "Evening in Paris".
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Barbara Seely Cooper, Class of '64
I believe the item is a bottle of Evening in Paris eau de cologne. We sold many bottles of it while I worked
for Cecil Taylor in his pharmacies. It did not work well on me, so I sneaked dabs of my mother's Chanel #5 whenever possible. As I recall, other very popular scents around that time were Emeraude and Woodsong, also sold at the Pharmacy.
The website continues to be great fun.
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Glen Swaim
This weeks Lee-Bay Mystery Item is "Evening in Paris" perfume. My sister once bought my Mom about a half gallon bottle of this foul smelling stuff. Paid about 10 cent a per quart for it. Anyway, I caught my Mom pouring a little at a time down the toilet each morning. Got a lot of blackmail out of that one.
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Joy Rubins Morris, Class of '64
I am not sure but is the bottle "Evening In Paris".? I remember that fragrance came in a small blue bottle. You could buy it almost anywhere and it was inexpensive. I don't remember the fragrance being exceptionally bad, but if you didn't have much money and wanted to buy your mother/grandmother a present, then this was a gift option for you. I think it was a hold over from the war years when it was difficult to get some of the better items and so the less expensive fragrances would do.
Thanks for the memories
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Evening In Paris,
The Real Story
submitted by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
I found the following information on this website and thought I would share it with all who might be interested. Click on the link below for the whole story.
First introduced in the U.S. in 1929, EIP found popularity from the very beginning. There hasn't been much done on these popular collectibles in the way of reference material, but there are some booklets simply called Evening in Paris by Sue Mattioli and Bev Nelson that give some information on Bourjois, address pricing and show catalog/magazine reprints.
Mattioli and Nelson attribute EIP's phenomenal success largely to marketing techniques that made the fragrance available to all women. The cologne sold in 25 cent bottles in dime stores and in crystal bottles with glass stoppers in fine department stores.
They also note that some of the most popular items with collectors are the graphic boxed gift sets fromt he '30s and '40s. These turn up as originally inexpensive one or two piece sets all the way to large elaborate sets of eight or more items in beautiful satin lined boxes.
Also prized by enthusiasts are novelty items such as bottles on cardboard Christmas ornaments and other interesting holders like an Eiffel Tower replica, a high heeled shoe and even a champagne bucket.
From a collecting standpoint, there seem to be far more bottles in styles produced during the 1950s on the market today than those from earlier eras. Although these are
popular and have risen in value over the past few years, they don't sell for quite as much as the earliest examples.
Often included in the gift sets, many of the accessory items with the EIP fragrance, like talc bottles and powder boxes, also appear on the must find lists of numerous collectors.
Most of the EIP items seen these days have been used. Being quite functional in their day and often carried in purses, many bottles have worn labels and caps. As with most other collectibles, condition remains important in retaining value. The bottles are still pretty, even if the label is missing, but keep in mind that top dollar should be saved for
a mint condition purchase.
Some of the most expensive individual EIP items these days are the compacts. Part of this comes from the crossover collecting when compact collects purchase EIP items for their own collections. There are only so many to go around since they weren't as widely produced as the cologne bottles. And like the bottles, they were often carried in handbags so condition can be less than perfect more often than not.
Lucky for collectors, however, the wonderful gift sets and their contents seem to show up on the market in mint condition fairly often. I'm not sure why this is, but I've often speculated that it's for the same reason that my husband saves his new shirts and socks for a while before wearing them. If he uses them the he won't have anything nice and
new in reserve.
And this is actually quite understandable, after all, a box lined with satin filled with the deep blue bottles and nicely decorated accessories is striking if not downright mezmerizing. It's really no wonder that the lucky ladies who received these gifts wanted to enjoy them for as long as possible.
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The In
The "In" is In
Again
Lee's Traveller Website
Helps Make Connection
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
Okay, I'm not going to take all the credit for this one, but I know our site played a part to help find some of our classmates. A short while ago I was contacted by Eddie Burton, Class of '66, who was looking for some e-mail addresses for some of our classmates who played in garage bands when we were all at Lee in the Sixties. He explained why, but asked that I not publicize it yet, but that he would let me know when it was okay to mention it. I have received the okay.
Eddie has been contacted by Jeff Jarema of Here ‘Tis Magazine and worked with a website that specializes in garage bands. The results of that effort is a piece entitled - "At last it can be told, the true story of garage mystery band the "In", as recounted by lead guitarist/fuzztone fiend Eddie Burton."
I have to brag on the Lee's Traveller connection a bit. A quote from the article states " 'Just Give Me Time' by the curiously-punctuated 'In' on Hickory Records is one serious ’66 garage band classic. Yet until now, historical scoop on this hip outfit has been next to nil. Having recorded for Nashville-based Hickory Records, it could be assumed that they hailed from the South but beyond that, nothing!...we expanded our search on the internet for further clues. This resulted in a 'hit' on the Lee High School (Huntsville) Alumni website where someone named Eddie Burton posted his memories of Sonny (Limbaugh) and how his high school garage band had been produced by Limbaugh. And you guessed it...he mentioned that his band was the 'In'. "
Eddie worked with the writer to create a great piece of historical documentation on the band and you can read the entire article at
Make sure you follow the links at the bottom of each page and read all three long pages of this story. Don't fail to do this because it is documented with photos of posters from concerts and of the band. You'll also recognize the name and photo of our very own staff photographer, Fred Sanders.
I have saved the best for last. Not only has the In's sound been rediscovered, it is also being re-released. You can now buy a CD which can be ordered today, for an April 27th release, which includes their hit song "Just Give Me Time" at
I wish we had a CD with more songs from "our" bands!
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