Contributed by Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports & Tourism

Lucky Levinson of Brittons of Columbia and Ric Luber, president & CEO of Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports & Tourism

Wearing bow ties is more than customary among gentlemen in Famously Hot Columbia.

On any given day, bow ties, ranging from the ultra conservative to modern and contemporary, can be seen adorning local Southern men. Bow ties in Columbia are such a staple that the Columbia Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) decided to produce a video to show how it's done. The video was created and posted to www.hotw2tieabowtie.com a year ago and, so far, popularity has sky- rocketed it to 300,000 hits. It is now deemed the most favorite, commented, and rated instructional bow tie video on www.youtube.com.

The star of the video and co- owner of Brittons in Columbia, Lucky Levinson states, "I get calls from all over with people saying how they just learned how to tie a bow tie by watching the video. I recently received a call from a gentleman in Great Britain who said he had been trying to tie a bow tie for two years and he couldn't. He said he watched the video and saw the trick about pulling it to the side, and he just had to call because he finally learned how to tie a bowtie. It's truly amazing to have all kinds of people from all over contact me or come into the store to talk about how they've watched the video."