Q: The Atlanta Journal published a Blue Streak edition weekday afternoons. This newspaper had a quarter-inch wide vertical blue line along the left-hand margin of the front page. I’d like to know the history behind the Blue Streak edition, and how long it lasted.
—Scott MacLean, Forest Park
A: The days of the afternoon paper are long gone. The Blue Streak was indeed identified by that stripe and was The Atlanta Journal's final paper of the day, back in the days when the city's two newspapers were separate. The Atlanta Constitution was delivered before your first cup of coffee and the Journal hit driveways in the early p.m. Unlike that day's earlier editions of the Journal, the Blue Streak was sold strictly in newspaper boxes and provided readers with the closing stock market figures, the latest news from Europe and anything else that might have happened later that afternoon. "That rude streak signaled this edition is fresh and new; put a quarter in this box and buy this," former news employee Tom Bennett told me in an email. The Blue Streak came to an end in 1995, when the Journal began publishing two editions instead of three. The last one of the day had an earlier press time than the Blue Streak and its name changed to "Final." The Constitution and Journal merged in 2001 to become what is now known as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or more commonly, the AJC.
Q: Somebody once told me “Hee Haw” actor Junior Samples was from Georgia. Where was he born?
A: Samples was a 300-pound natural storyteller and comedian who was born in Cumming in 1926. He fit right in with the cast of "Hee Haw," a skit comedy and country music show from 1969-92. Samples was a carpenter before he gained fame through the telling of a fish story that repeatedly was played on the radio before being made into a record. He was himself on the show and many people – myself included – can recall that BR-549 was the number to call his mythical used-car dealership called "Samples Sales." He died of a heart attack in Cumming in 1983.
If you’re new in town or have questions about this special place we call home, ask us! E-mail Andy Johnston at q&a@ajc.com or call 404-222-2002.
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