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City history magazine publishes 100th issue

Old Brooksville isn't a glossy, but don't even think about calling it a pamphlet in the publisher's presence.

By DAN DEWITT
Published September 2, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - The customary splash of color on the cover of Old Brooksville in Photos & Stories usually says something about the town's history - the brown football on a 1999 issue titled "Pigskin Hi-Jinks," for example, or the bright tangerine on the April 2003 edition.

"Brooksville was known as the home of the tangerine," said publisher Bob Martinez. "You can find an orange anywhere, but a tangerine is unique."

The 100th issue, which came out Friday, is devoted to that landmark and to the history of the magazine itself.

It makes sense, then, that the object Martinez chose to color - in Hi-Liter yellow - is his publication's first cover, from the spring of 1997.

This is still one of Martinez's favorites, he said earlier this week as he looked over the 20 covers featured in this month's magazine.

The photo was taken in 1907 to advertise a Brooksville department store called Butterwick's. The surroundings are rough enough to resemble the Old West: dirt streets, a horse-drawn wagon, wood-framed buildings.

Martinez likes the contrast of two women on the sidewalk impeccably dressed in the " 'Gibson Girl' look that was popular at the time," the caption states.

Martinez likes this cover for another reason: The issue started a publishing streak longer and more distinguished than he ever expected.

"I was going to do this quarterly, to test the waters," he said. But he began publishing Old Brooksville every other month the following year and monthly in 1999.

"We should have gone monthly from the beginning. ... We started doing this thing one issue at a time and we ended up with 100."

Among the other covers collected in this edition is a picture taken in 1960 of a woman named Ruby Grubbs standing next to what appears to be an enormous watermelon - shaded green, naturally.

The melon was big, Martinez wrote in the accompanying text, but not quite as big as it looked: "Ms. Grubbs stood only about 4 foot 9."

The cypress log on the cover of the March 2004 issue, on the other hand, was as large as it looks, far bigger in diameter than the man standing next to it was tall. Cut near the now-abandoned logging town of Centralia, in northwestern Hernando, the tree produced 5,476 board feet of lumber, a world record at the time.

A great deal of deliberation went into choosing Old Brooksville's top 100 residents of the 20th century, which is why the list wasn't published until February of 2001.

The cover of this issue shows a collage of a wide range of local icons, including football great Jerome Brown and Margaret "Weenie" Rogers, founder of Rogers' Christmas House Village.

"All baby boomers were inspired by the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and this cover took that idea locally," the caption says.

This approach is typical of Martinez, who has long been interested in popular culture. His conversation is full of references to figures such as George Jones and W.C. Fields. He can explain off the top of his head that the term "Gibson Girl" originated with newspaper illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, who was famous for his portraits of tall, independent, spirited women.

"They were the new women of the new 20th century," said Martinez, who in 2004 also produced a book of historical photographs called Images of America: Brooksville.

His interest is one reason that producing historical publications, especially Old Brooksville, is a natural for him and that it has become the main business of the advertising agency he owns and operates.

"Bob has created a great living record of the city of Brooksville," said his friend David Whitehead, who has nominated Martinez for the city's annual Great Brooksvillian award.

"In the future, if anyone wants to be able to find out about our little town, they'll be able to use it as a resource."

That is especially true if they want to learn about the atmosphere of the times, Martinez said.

In a story about the now-closed drive-in theater south of downtown, for example, "I wrote about the food, the speakers, the bug man that came by spraying insecticide," Martinez said.

This approach has made his magazine a "unique product."

And though it is not large or glossy, it is a magazine, he insists - not a booklet and definitely not a pamphlet.

"People call it a pamphlet and I fly into a rage like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or (352)754-6116.

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 06:57:25]