photograph by michael finger
Art Jones, owner of Fantastic Fans, in 2010.
Editor’s Note: For our 2018 City Guide, we put together a quirky section we called “Nooks and Crannies” — small businesses, repair shops, restaurants, and neighborhood establishments that had stood the test of time. One of those was Fantastic Fans on Union, which recently closed. The building has been demolished — Memphis photographer Jamie Harmon has posted a video of that — and don’t bother trying to visit their website; it takes you to a national company called Ventilation Solutions. Here’s a visit down memory lane, when we spoke with longtime owner Art Jones.
“Those clowns put us on the map,” says Art Jones, the Fan Doctor and owner of Fantastic Fans, “though some people thought we sold clowns instead of fans.”
That map once included seven stores in Memphis with a life-size mechanical clown outside beckoning customers. Jones also mounted twirling fan blades on his trucks and gave balloons to every kid who came into his stores. In business for 39 years, he has only the place on Union now, but it’s packed. More than 100 ceiling fans are displayed throughout the 10,000-square-foot showroom, supposedly “the largest fan store in the United States.”
The selection is, well, fantastic, with models in all colors, styles, and sizes. And as the Fan Doctor, Jones can fine-tune fan blades for “pitch, degree, angle, and dihedral” and knows “the seven things that cause a fan to wobble.” Pay a visit during the dog days of summer; the Doctor is in.
UPDATE
As of Monday afternoon, pretty much all that remained of the Fantastic Fans store was the distinctive sign.
photograph by dido, with assistance from Anna Traverse
