Roughly three decades ago, it would have taken only a quick drive through the heart of Atlanta to see how much Ted Turner had made the city his own.
On the right, there was Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves, a chronic laggard until Mr. Turner transformed it into “America’s Team” by way of very hands-on ownership and games beamed across the country via his Turner Broadcasting System. On the left, poking out of the downtown skyline, was the CNN Center, the hub of a global news organization that invented the 24-hour news cycle and was a towering landmark of his ambitions.
These days, the Turner name and legacy are not as plainly evident in the city. The stadium once known as Turner Field is now named after a local credit union, and CNN has moved into smaller accommodations elsewhere.
And yet, after news spread of Mr. Turner’s death on Wednesday at 87, many in Atlanta said that his influence in redefining the city had not faded. Atlanta was now a capital of entertainment and media, pulsing with a relentless and audacious hustle that could be traced right back to Ted Turner.
“That’s what he did,” said Sheffield Hale, chief executive of the Atlanta History Center. “Without him, it never would have happened. And now, if something big happens in Atlanta, people aren’t surprised because it has happened before.”
The city has become a destination for rappers and singers and reality television stars. It is where Tyler Perry made an empire of his own, turning 330 acres of an old Army base into film studios. The peach logo denoting a Georgia-based production has been affixed to the credits of a wide array of movies and TV shows.
Yet when Mr. Turner was beginning his ascent, the idea of Atlanta as a nucleus for culture and commerce was more pipe dream than reality. The city was a regional capital for the South, and Mr. Turner was running a regional advertising business that he took over after his father’s death.
He would go on to contribute to a transformational era for Atlanta, as it welcomed professional sports teams and turned its airport into the world’s busiest.
It was also a city with a long history of believing in itself, and Atlanta found a kindred spirit in Mr. Turner.
“Atlanta is a city of boosterism,” said Maurice J. Hobson, a historian at Georgia State University. “It’s a city of hubris, too.” It had a pluckiness that was necessary to rebuild and rebrand itself after the Civil War.
At its peak, the CNN Center was home to hundreds of journalists pumping out programming watched by millions of people around the world. But when CNN was a fledging upstart, Mr. Turner not only had to convince skeptics of the viability of a 24-hours news network, but also that Atlanta was a reasonable location for the headquarters.
“The network news divisions were all based in New York, and they couldn’t see how an operation like this could be run from a place like Atlanta,” Mr. Turner wrote in his 2008 autobiography “Call Me Ted!” “When I’d hear that, I’d think, Why not Atlanta?”
He could be a flawed representative for Atlanta, alienating people with his offensive comments and belligerent behavior. Especially early on, Mr. Turner had to win over other business leaders wary of his unpredictable ways, and some of his contemporaries regarded his pursuit of notoriety as shameless.
“He was bigger than life, and we didn’t have many people like that in Atlanta,” said Bob Hope, a longtime publicist and adviser to Mr. Turner. “It was a staid, old city.”
Mr. Hope remembers how badly Mr. Turner aspired to be featured in People magazine. He even reluctantly agreed to pose for photos he feared would be embarrassing since doing so meant achieving that goal.
Some contend that Mr. Turner used his force of will to better the city. He shot down proposals to move the Atlanta Hawks, the professional basketball team he owned, to the suburbs, and he fought to keep its arena downtown.
Over time, he receded from the spotlight. He sold his media holdings, as well as the Braves and the Hawks, to Time Warner in the mid-1990s, and the company’s center of gravity shifted away from Atlanta. CNN left the CNN Center in 2023, and much of its flagship programming is now produced in New York and Washington.
There is still Ted Turner Drive, an 11-block stretch downtown. But Mr. Hope noted how easy it was to be forgotten by history. “There are streets named after others who you don’t have a clue who they are,” he said.
Mr. Turner’s death has prompted a flood of tributes, a reminder of how much he saw himself in Atlanta, and how much Atlanta saw itself in him.
“He had no shame when it came to promoting himself and the city,” Mr. Hale said. “You’ve got to love that. Atlantans thought he was theirs, no matter what happened.”
Rick Rojas is the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the South.
The post Ted Turner’s Mark on Atlanta Lived On, Even After He Left the Spotlight appeared first on New York Times.
