(Source of picture: Florida State Archives)

"Billie Burke Special":  Some present-day buses flaunt entertainment ads, and yesterday's streetcars proved no different.  Movie star Billie Burke is best known for playing "Glinda the Good Witch" in "The Wizard of Oz."  One of her other films is ballyhooed all over this Jacksonville streetcar.  It was a silent flick named "Gloria's Romance," produced in 1916.  Burke played Gloria, an adventurous young girl who gets lost in the Florida Everglades, finding excitement, terror, and love.  "Gloria's Romance" played at Jacksonville's Arcade Theater, a downtown theater whose roof finally collapsed in 2002. 

The downtown location for this photo was Forsyth Street, in front of the long-gone Imperial Theater.  The spot was one block east of the Florida Theater or outside the Florida Collection at the current Main Library.  For more about the appearance of streetcars, see below.

THE TIE-DYED TWENTIES? -- Some streetcars proved incredibly eye-catching.  During the 1920s, the Jacksonville Transit Company hosted a popular "Color-A-Streetcar" contest.  Newspapers ads provided outlines of a trolley car, allowing readers to color the vehicle in any way they wished.  The winning pictures would have real streetcars painted in the exact manner.  The public let its imagination run wild!  In the end, several vehicles were actually decorated in psychedelic patterns, with flashy, whimsical designs.

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