On This Date, Something Happened: The Commercial Appeal

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On This Date, Something Happened: The Commercial Appeal

Memphis Commercial Appeal The Commercial Appeal is kind of an odd name for a newspaper. But, according to the historical marker outside of the CA's curvy Union Ave. office, the local rag's name used to be much stranger (and way more awesome). Commercial Appeal historical marker, Memphis, Tenn. Ahem. ""This newspaper began in 1839 as THE WESTERN WORLD & MEMPHIS BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION. in 1840, Col. Henry Van Pelt bought and renamed it THE MEMPHIS APPEAL. During the Civil War it published on the run from Union troops. Because of this loyal effort to keep printing, it was nicknamed "Old Reliable". When the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic reduced the entire staff to only two, THE APPEAL never missed an issue. An 1890 merger brought THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL to the masthead on July 1, 1894. It became a part of the Scripps Howard newspapers in 1936." Can we please go back to calling it THE WESTERN WORLD & MEMPHIS BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION? It's so much more hardcore. (Sidenote - I started typing that in normal proper noun capital-and-lowercase, but a name like that sort of demands the all-caps treatment.)

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Kristin
I want The Appeal-Avalanche!!!
June 7, 2011 9:53am
Rachel
So few people know this and it's pretty much awesome! Thanks for making note :)
June 7, 2011 11:06am
William
Do people still call it "Old Reliable"? Hmmm...
June 7, 2011 8:56pm
Gigi
Did the Commercial Appeal take over the Press-Scimitar back in 1982 or 83? Both were owned by Scripps-Howard? What happened to the Scimitar's archives?
June 8, 2011 2:02pm
Bill Boggess
WHY is Dr Solon Borland's (1811VA-1864TX) name omitted, ~ ~ ~ he was the organizer of The Western World and Memhis Banner of the Constitution, January 1839, then sold it to Henry Van Pelt in fall of 1840, after James Knox Polk had been elected 11th governor. Solon went to Little Rock in 1843 and edited the Arkansas Banner and Polk became 11th president. Borland is said to be the ablest editor in the Unitd States by different books of the history for those days. He served in Mexican war, captured, escaped, served as Aide-de-Camp at Mexico city, them stayed as a doctor to help the 1,400+ wounded. Upon return to Arkansas was appointed, then elected U S Senator, then served as minister to Central America under President Pierce, raised a regiment in the Civil War and died in Harris county Texas, 1 January 1864. WHY is his name NOt mentioned???
September 13, 2011 8:08am

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