OK, I'm posting my own follow-up. I've been doing a lot of research and I found out that I probably don't want an Autumn Blaze (Acer Fremanii)since it has a Silver Maple parent which gives it fast growth, but this may make it more likely to suffer from limb breakage like its parent. This is going to be a specimen tree in a prominent place in my yard and I want to choose carefully. Right now I'm thinking I want a Red Sunset but would love to hear anyone else's opinions. Another option someone on the maple forum suggested is Nyssa Sylvatica, Black Gum. This also sounds like a good prospect and I'm looking strongly at that one too.

Nancy, we chose our October Glory because we were told it tends to hold its leaves longer in the fall than most maples, into November in much of our area in spite of its name. Our young one's color has been a sort of smoldery red the two falls we've had it so far. Our black gums are also beautiful trees, which conversely turn red and drop their leaves earlier than most. Ours have turned and been dropping already.

Good move... Autmun blaze hybrids are not so great.
I would go with the oct glory over the red sunset because I'm not fond of the nursery that introduced it. I've had quaility issues with their stuff.
I also asked Julie (treegrowersdiary.com) she has both red sunset and oct glory and she likes the oct glory better.
The fall color is probably more intense on red sunset but oct glory is a better cultivar.

Oct glory: faster growing, more dense canopy, leaves drop later, rounded/upright oval habit, medium mature size.

I have black gum growing naturally but have never seen a nursery grown specimen. I agree with rosie that black gum turns sooner, not all at once and drops its leaves as it goes in autumn (again, not all at once). Another spectacular fall color tree is Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum). It also has really unusual summer blooms, one of its common names is "lily of the valley tree" because of the way the blooms look.

This would be an extreme example of it's foliage, I've not seen one quite so electric:

{{gwi:423776}}