Pizitz: Your Store

Tim Hollis

Nov 2010 · Arcadia Publishing

About this ebook

For nearly ninety years, Pizitz offered Birmingham residents and Alabamans across the state a one-of-a-kind shopping experience. From the Enchanted Forest that sprung up every Christmas to in-store fashion shows, visiting Pizitz wasn't just a trip to the store, it was an event. Yet Pizitz was more than just a department store--it was a Birmingham institution. When Louis Pizitz opened up his first dry goods store in downtown Birmingham in 1899, he began a career as a successful businessman and a generous philanthropist, establishing a tradition of giving freely to local causes that has come to define the Pizitz family. Join Birmingham historian Tim Hollis as he recounts the fascinating history behind one of Alabama's most recognizable names and treasured retailers.

About the author

Tim Hollis has been a pop culture historian literally all his life. He likes to tell how, when he was nine years old, he was writing letters to companies and trying to preserve the memories of things from when he was three years old. This unhealthy obsession with living in the past has resulted in seventeen books, ranging in subjects from southern tourism nostalgia to Birmingham history to children's television and children's records, among other topics. He also owns a museum of toys, advertising, holiday memorabilia and other baby boomer relics that he opens by appointment. Having lived in Birmingham his entire life, he supplies the nostalgic materials for the popular www.BirminghamRewound.com website and somehow finds time to contribute the monthly "Timepiece"? column for Birmingham magazine.