Opening To Key On The South

Antebellum mansions and glass skyscrapers, Delta blues and R.E.M., slavery and civil rights.

As Olympics organizers create a vision of the South to present to the world in the 1996 opening ceremony, they are faced with a region laden with conflicting images.

Though details of the Atlanta Olympics’ opening ceremony are a tightly held secret, the main theme will be a celebration of international brotherhood.

Part of the ceremony will showcase the South, and organizers want to convey a positive image that does not give short shrift to any of the threads that tug at the region’s psyche.

Billy Payne, the president of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, said the producers have interviewed residents around the South and now are sifting through the disparate versions of how the region views itself.

“How do you mix some of the wonderful imagery that we see from the pages of ‘Gone With The Wind’ - the physical beauty, the courtesy, the gentlemanly stuff - and some of the bad memories that it appears to others with what appears to be the contradiction of the civil rights movement?” Payne said.

“To pick only a ‘Gone With the Wind’ theme or only a civil rights theme, by definition you’re abandoning significant parts of our history … all of that is who we are,” he said.

And there are many other things to say about the South, he said.

“Look at music,” Payne said. “The world doesn’t know that most of the music they hear and choose to play has its roots in the American South.

“It’s hard to find too many disciplines that you can’t trace - at least music that we like - to the American South. That’s great history right there.”

No Payne, no gain

As the No. 1 cheerleader for the Atlanta Olympics, Payne has never been known much for public expressions of regret.

He does admit to wishing he’d done a better job of telling the public what a good job he and the folks at ACOG have done.

Though Los Angeles is often praised for using its 1984 Olympic profits to benefit the community after the Games, Payne argues that ACOG’s $500 million construction program - including a new stadium - has already accomplished that for Atlanta.

That has been obscured by the focus on whether ACOG will turn a profit and various side issues, Payne said.

“The community has already been the enormous beneficiary financially of the Games, yet persistently people want to know about how we’re going to pick up trash. It just blows my mind,” he said. “I’ve just done a real poor job of explaining that.” , You’ll love the way we buy

Even at 35,000 feet above the ground, you can’t escape the pitch for Olympic souvenirs.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, a sponsor of the ‘96 Games, has placed 500,000 copies of an Olympic merchandise catalog on its domestic aircraft. Airborne Olympic fans can choose from 45 items, including apparel, gifts and accessories.

Not sure if you really want that Izzy sweatshirt? To help you make the decision, Delta is offering bonus frequent flyer miles with purchases of $100 or more.