Movies with Alabama Connections (4): Lifeboat

I saw this Hitchcock film again recently, and thought I would include it in this series of blog posts. The presence of two Alabama natives who became well-known actresses for several decades seemed connection enough. I enjoyed the film as much this time as I have previous viewings.

Despite her fame as both an actress and a personality over many decades, Huntsville native Tallulah Bankhead made few movies. She had a spectacular career on stage both in New York City and London. She expanded her reach on radio and late in her career on television. Although she made films as early as 1918 and as late as 1966, her best known one is the 1944 Lifeboat.   

That film has several notable features. The entire setting is the titular lifeboat in the North Atlantic during World War II. The boat's passengers are mostly survivors of a merchant marine ship with civilians aboard that sank in a naval battle. They are soon joined by a seaman from the German U-boat that also sank. The film is a fascinating juxtaposition of efforts at survival and passionate moral debate.

Tallulah plays a well known journalist and manages to look spectacular throughout most of her time at sea. In addition to Bankhead, the cast includes John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix and Hume Cronyn--four actors who had significant careers in Hollywood and beyond. Novelist John Steinbeck wrote the film's story. Hitchcock makes his usual cameo in a very funny way that I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the movie. 

Birmingham native Mary Anderson plays the other female in the boat. She grew up in the city and attended Howard College before embarking on her acting career. Born in 1918, she died in April 2014 age 96. In addition to Lifeboat, she appeared in Gone with the Wind and numerous other films and television roles. Her brother James was also an actor; he appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

I plan to do a more extensive post on Mary Anderson in the series on Alabama film actresses before 1960.   

Tallulah Bankhead [1902-1968] in 1941

Source: Wikipedia

Anderson with actor Charles Russell in Behind Green Lights (1946)

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1)

In my first blog post of this year, "What's Coming to the Blog in 2022" I mentioned a desire to cover individuals and others--such as musical groups--who have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and some significant connection to Alabama. I also hope to cover the Oscars, Emmys and Tonys in a similar fashion. No, I probably won't do the Golden Globes; I have to stop somewhere. 

I'll let Wikipedia set the stage:

"The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600^[1] five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of musicians, actors, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others. The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust."

So this post is the first of two on the Walk of Fame. Most entries are actors and actresses; many are Alabama natives. Others are included because they have some other significant connection to the state. I was unable to locate photos of the actual stars of most honorees, but have included other illustrations. Let's begin....

UPDATE: On February 27, 2023, Birmingham native Courteney Cox received a star on Hollywood in the "Television" category. You can read all about it here. 

Alabama [recording]

Up first is the musical group Alabama, "the most commercially successful country act in the 1980s". The entry at the Walk of Fame web site gives a pretty detailed history of the band from Fort Payne. The ceremony was held on October 6, 1998. 

Mary Anderson [film]

Mary Anderson was born in Birmingham on April 3, 1918, and died April 6, 2014. Her acting career in films and television stretched from 1939 until the 1960s. She had a small uncredited role in the classic 1939 film The Women, then made a speaking role appearance as Maybelle Merriwether in Gone with the Wind that same year. Many significant film roles followed, including 1944's Lifeboat, an Alfred Hitchcock movie in which fellow state native Tallulah Bankhead also appeared. She brought her star power to her native city in 1947, with an appearance at the first film premier in Birmingham for Whispering City. 

Anderson's induction into the Walk of Fame took place on February 8, 1960. 

 

Tallulah Bankhead [film]

Born in Huntsville on January 31, 1902, Bankhead began her career at age 15 with a small part in a silent film made in New York City. Her final acting appearance came in a two-part episode of the Batman TV series in March 1967. I've discussed those episodes here and here. She died December 12, 1968.

In between those dates Bankhead made some movies, most prominently Lifeboat as mentioned above. I've also discussed her 1932 film, Faithless. She spent the 1920s becoming famous on the London stage, then returned to the U.S. and conquered Broadway with appearances such as The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman's drama based on her mother's family in Demopolis and set in that town. Bankhead's performance as Regina Giddens was widely lauded, but Bette Davis landed the role in the 1941 film version. 

Over her career Bankhead made almost 300 appearances on film, the stage, radio and television. She was inducted into the Walk of Fame on the same date as fellow Alabamian, Mary Anderson--February 8, 1960. I've also written about her stage appearances in Birmingham. The Encyclopedia of Alabama has a nice entry on Bankhead. 

Tallulah in Faithless [1932]

Source: Pinterest

Clarence Brown [film]

Although he was born in Massachusetts, Brown's family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was 11. After high school he he earned two engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee. Brown ended up at the Peerless Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, working in the silent film industry. In World War I he served as a fighter pilot and flight instructor. After his war service, he headed to Hollywood and a career as a film director that lasted from 1915 until 1953. 

Brown [1890-1987] directed such classics as Anna Karenina and Ah, Wilderness [both 1935], The Human Comedy [1943], National Velvet (1944), The Yearling (1946) and Angel in the Outfield (1951). In his many years at the MGM studio he directed Joan Crawford in seven films and Greta Garbo in six. He was nominated for an Academy Award six times but never won.

So, what was the Alabama connection? Well, there are a couple....

After college graduation, Brown went to work for the Stevens-Duryea Company, an auto manufacturing operation located near his birthplace of Clinton, Massachusetts. But then, "I became the traveling expert mechanic for Stevens-Duryea.  One of my calls was to a dealer in Birmingham, Alabama, who took a liking to me, and he set me up in a subsidiary company, called the Brown Motor Car Company. I had the agency for the Alco truck, the Stevens-Duryea, and the Hudson.  It was around this time—1913, 1914—that I became interested in the picture business.” He made these comments to Kevin Brownlow, author of a wonderful history of silent movies, And the Parades Gone By [1968]. 

Brown's time in Birmingham was apparently pretty short; I've yet to discover any documentation of it. He did almost have another connection to the city. At one point he was engaged to actress Dorothy Sebastian, a Birmingham native. I'll be writing about her in the second half of this post. Although Brown married four times, none of his wives was Sebastian. 

He, too, was inducted on February 8, 1960. 

Johnny Mack Brown [Film] 

Brown [1904-1974], no relation to Clarence, achieved fame initially as a star running back at the University of Alabama. He was a factor in the 1926 Rose Bowl where the mighty University of Washington Huskies were upset by the Crimson Tide. By the following year Brown was appearing in comedy and romantic silent films.

His studio attempted to make him a leading man with such actresses as Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. That effort didn't work out, and by the mid-1930s Brown began making westerns. He starred in dozens before his career faded in the 1950s. 

I've written several blog posts about Johnny Mack Brown. One explored Our Dancing Daughters, a 1928 silent film in which he starred with Joan Crawford and fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian. Those two also appeared together the following year in The Single Standard, along with some actress named Greta Garbo. I plan to write about that film at some point.

I devoted five [yes, five!] blog posts to another of Brown's eight 1928 films, A Lady of Chance. His co-star is the great Norma Shearer. I spent so much space on this film because not only is Brown's character from Alabama, but much of the film is set in a fictional town in the state. I've explored how one of Brown's appearances with Crawford didn't pan out, and one of his many westerns, the 1945 release Flame of the West in which Brown plays a physician. 

He was induced February 8, 1960. That must have been Alabama Day in Hollywood. 

Brown emotes to Norma Shearer in A Lady of Chance [1928, silent] before his transformation into the star of dozens of B-movie Westerns.

Brown even starred in his own comic book series from 1950 until 1959. 

Pat Buttram [TV]

Buttram [1915-1994] was born in Addison, a small town in Winston County, Alabama. He first achieved fame as the sidekick of singing cowboy Gene Autry in more than 40 movies and 100 episodes of Autry's TV show. From 1965 until 1971 he played the character Mr. Haney on the popular Green Acres TV show. Before his death he did voice work in various animated films including The Aristocats, The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? One of his last roles was a cameo appearance in Back to the Future III. 

He was inducted on August 18, 1988. 

Pat Buttram as Mr. Haney in Green Acres

Source: Wikipedia 

Chuck Connors [TV]

According to Wikipedia, Connors [1921-1992] is one of only 13 athletes to play in both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. His baseball career eventually led him to Los Angeles, and when he realized he would not make a career of sports he quickly transitioned into acting. In 1952 and 1953 he appeared in films with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster and John Wayne. Thus began a prolific career in movies and television that lasted until just before his death at 71. Despite many film roles, Chuck Connors is probably best remembered for two western TV series, The Rifleman and Branded. 

Connors athletic career led to his Alabama connection. As seen below, he played a year with the minor league Mobile Bay Bears baseball team.

He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 18, 1984. 

This photo shows the 1947 Mobile Bay Bears, who won the 1947 Southern Association Baseball League championship. Chuck Connors can be seen in the top row, third from the left.

Source: University of South Alabama Archives

Chuck Connors as The Rifleman in 1962

Source: Wikipedia

Nat King Cole [TV, recording]

Although he was born in Montgomery, Cole's family moved to Chicago when he was four years old. At age fifteen he dropped out of high school and joined his older brother Eddie's musical group that recorded two singles in 1936. Cole had his first solo success in 1940 with the song "Sweet Lorraine". From then until his death Nat King Cole achieved enormous success as a singer and musician with album and singles recordings and live performances. From November 1956 until December 1957 the Nat "King" Cole Show on NBC was one of the first television programs hosted by a black. The network's inability to find a national sponsor limited its run.

Cole did a bit of acting. I've written about his role as fellow Alabamian W.C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues. He also appeared in Cat Ballou. Cole [1919-1965] is another Alabamian inducted on February 8, 1960.

Cole released several dozen albums during his lifetime. This 1960 release was the most successful Christmas album of the 1960s, selling over 6 million copies. 

Sally Field [Film] 

During a career that began in the early 1960s, Sally Field has appeared in numerous iconic movies and TV shows. She began on television with the comedies Gidget (1965–1966), The Flying Nun (1967–1970), and The Girl with Something Extra (1973–1974). By the late 1970s she started a run of films that included Smokey and the Bandit I and II [1977, 1980], Places in the Heart [1984], Absence of Malice [1981], Steel Magnolias [1989], and Mrs. Doubtfire [1993]. In the 2000s Field returned to series television with recurring roles in ER and Brothers and Sisters. 

Field has also starred in several films with Alabama connections. These movies include Stay Hungry [1976], Hooper [1978], Norma Rae [1979] and Forrest Gump [1994]. In her 2018 memoir In Pieces, Field has some interesting comments about most of these films. The exception is Forrest Gump, which she mentions only in passing along with other films of that time, such as Mrs. Doubtfire. 

About Stay Hungry [pp 275-286, 288, 294], she noted, "...I flew to Birmingham, Alabama, where I lived for seven weeks in a squat, crumbling motel along with the other actors, a smattering of crew, plus the director (Bob Rafelson)..." The film, about the world of body builders, also starred Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger, just beginning his film career. Rafelson had brief flings with Fields and other women during production. His wife Toby, designer and producer on the film, soon filed for divorce. 

Field worked for the third time with Burt Reynolds on Hooper [pp 340-345]. She wondered why filming was done in Tuscaloosa, since the film had nothing to do with Alabama. She had a break during shooting and flew back to Los Angeles to meet with director Martin Ritt, who was seeking the female lead for his upcoming Norma Rae. After she returned, Ritt called her at her rented Tuscaloosa house to tell her she had the part. 

In her memoir Field devotes a good bit of space [pp 344-352, 355-7] to Norma Rae, a complex, intense role that won her a Best Actress Oscar. One anecdote features Burt Reynolds. He showed up at her Opelika condo "in a Cadillac convertible and a cloud of red Alabama dust. 

Field has another connection to Alabama. Her maternal grandmother, Joy Bickley, was born in the state in the late 1800's [p. 17]. Field's mother, Margaret, was an actress herself whose own film and television career ran from 1946 until 1973. 

More notes are below the photos. 

She was inducted on May 5, 2014.

Field and Jeff Bridges in Stay Hungry [1976], based on Alabama author Charles Gaines' 1972 novel and filmed in Birmingham. 

Sally Field played Mrs. Gump in the classic Forrest Gump [1994], based on the 1986 novel by Alabama author Winston Groom. 

One of Field's greatest performances was Norma Rae, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. The film explores union organizing in a southern textile mill and much filming was done in Opelika. Actress and Birmingham native Gail Strickland had a supporting role. 

Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in Hooper, their third film together. 

Susan Hayward [Film]

Hayward [1917-1975] started off as a fashion model but left New York for Hollywood to try out for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. She missed out on that part, but made films in the late 1940s and 1950s that gave her Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She won for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in the 1958 production I Want to Live. 

The actress had a bit of an unusual connection to Alabama. In 1957 she married Floyd Chalkley, a Georgia rancher and businessman. They lived in Carrollton until his death in 1966. The couple also bought property in Cleburne County near Heflin and became well known in the area. Follow the link in the first sentence of this paragraph for my blog post about that phase of her life. 

I've always been a fan of Hayward. One of my favorite films of hers is the 1951 western Rawhide with Tyrone Power. Her ability to play strong women also shines in that role.

She was yet another star inducted on February 8, 1960.

Hayward proudly holds her Oscar. 

In June 1969 Hayward came to Auburn University to watch her son Gregory Baker graduate from the School of Veterinary Medicine. On the left is Harry M. Phillpot,PhD, President of Auburn University from 1965 until 1980. He was there during my years as a student and employee at Auburn. 

Source: Auburn University Digital Library

TO BE CONTINUED 

Tallulah Does Birmingham

I recently read Joel Lobenthal's massive  Tallulah: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady [2004]. This biography of some 590 pages could barely contain the events of Bankhead's life--and she lived "only" 67 years. 

I've done several blog posts on Bankhead and will no doubt do others in the future. I wrote about her 1932 film with Robert Montgomery, Faithless and her 1944 film Lifeboat. She made two appearances, sort of, on Lucille Ball comedy shows. I've also written about a 2018 visit to the Jasper home of her father, William B. Bankhead.

Discussion of her Birmingham theatrical appearances follows this biographical sketch that I wrote for the "Lucy and Tallulah" post. 



She was born in Huntsville on January 31, 1902, as a member of what became the most prominent political family in Alabama history. Her father, grandfather and uncle all served as U.S. Congressmen from Alabama; her aunt Marie would succeed her husband Thomas Owen as head of the state archives. She grew up mostly in Jasper or Montgomery with relatives and when older in New York. She and sister Eugenia were in and out of public, private and boarding schools in Alabama, New York and other places. 

When she was fifteen Tallulah entered a movie magazine contest hoping to win a screen test. She did, and her father reluctantly allowed her to go to New York in the company of one of her aunts. Over the next several years she played small roles in several silent films and Broadway plays. 

By 1923 she was on her own in London, and the celebrity Tallulah began to take shape. Over the next eight years she worked in a dozen plays, mostly poorly received except the 1926 London version of Sidney Howard's Pulitzer-winning They Knew What They Wanted. Yet she became one of the few people in England recognized by first name only. She was a society darling with her beauty, wit, affairs and daring outfits. One incident in particular attracted much notice. She attended a boxing match in Germany featuring fellow Alabama native Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling. Tallulah spiced up the match by shouting obscenities at the Nazis present. 

In 1931 she left the depressed theater industry in London and moved to Hollywood with a contract from Paramount Pictures. Although her costars in six films included Charles Laughton, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant, none of the movies clicked with the public. For five years in the 1930's she also appeared on Broadway, again in less than stellar productions. She tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but despite interest from David O. Selznick she was ultimately deemed too old--at 34. In 1937 she married fellow actor John Emery at her grandmother's home in Jasper--but they divorced with no children in 1941.

In 1939 Tallulah's career on Broadway took a successful turn. She played Regina, the lead role in The Little Foxes, written by Lillian Hellman and based on her mother's upscale family in Demopolis. In 1942 she starred in a successful production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. Both performances won her New York Drama Critics Awards, and she toured the country in each after their Broadway runs ended. Life magazine put the actress on the cover as Regina for its March 6, 1939 issue. In 1948 her appearance in a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives put her on the cover of Time. She also had a major role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film Lifeboat; one of her co-stars was fellow Alabamian Mary Anderson.

By 1950 film and Broadway roles were becoming scarce for Tallulah as she reached age 48. She simply began another career in radio. From 1950 until 1952 she hosted the variety program The Big Show on Sunday nights. Her enthusiasm and wit, combined with guests ranging from Groucho Marx and Judy Garland to Louis Armstrong and Margaret Truman made the program a big success. Despite that, advertisers were moving to television, and when the show ended Tallulah found herself a frequent guest on variety shows there. She also wrote her autobiography, which promptly sold ten million copies.

Before her death in 1968, Tallulah had more stage and film roles and even played the Black Widow in two 1967 episodes of the television series  Batman. She also made two appearances on different Lucille Ball shows, one in the flesh and one in spirit; I discuss those in the blog post noted above.



Lobenthal's biography discusses several specific theatrical appearances by Tallulah in Alabama--mostly Birmingham--as she toured the country in various revival productions. The first he notes is an early May 1937 engagement at the Temple Theater. Bankhead appeared in "Reflected Glory" a 1936 play by George Kelly in which she played actress Muriel Flood. In her curtain speech Tallulah declared that no matter where she traveled, "I am just an Alabama hillbilly." I imagine the audience loved it, even if they didn't believe it. From July 1936 until May 1937 the play toured in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, Chicago, Washington, DC, and finally Birmingham.

In early November 1938 Bankhead was back at the Temple in "I Am Different" by Zoe Atkins. In matinee and evening performances, she played Dr. Judith Held, European author of popular books on psychiatry. Vince Townsend reviewed it for Birmingham News.

Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes opened on Broadway on February 15, 1939. The setting is a small Alabama town in 1900. Bankhead played Regina Giddens who struggles with her two brothers controlling the family fortune. The play, based on conflicts in Hellman's mother's family in Demopolis, no doubt spoke to Bankhead. After all, she had escaped the confines of a powerful Alabama family herself.

The play closed in New York on February 3, 1940, after 410 performances. A two season tour of the U.S. began that fall which included the 1941 Birmingham productions. 

In 1941 a film version was released; Bankhead lost the role of Regina to Bette Davis. That one was not the first time she starred in a Broadway production but lost the film version to Davis. In November and December 1934 Tallulah played frivolous socialite Judith Traherne. in George Brewer, Jr.'s "Dark Victory." Her performance was praised by critics, but the play was not commercially successful. Despite the short run, Davis must have seen it; she eventually admitted that her Oscar-nominated performance in the 1939 film had been modeled after Bankhead's stage version. 

Bankhead in her iconic role as Regina Giddens in the 1939 Broadway production of The Little Foxes.

Source: Wikipedia

The BhamWiki entry on the Temple notes Bankhead appeared there in Noel Coward's play "Private Lives". Lobenthal describes her performing in that play more than once in Alabama in the fall 1949. Reportedly at curtain calls she waved a small Confederate flag at the audience. She had starred in a Broadway revival of the play the previous year. 

As I was finishing this blog post, I just happened to find the following item in a strange source, the first edition of Reader's Digest Treasury of Wit & Humor published in 1958. There it was, on page 85:

"The always unpredictable Tallulah Bankhead has been known to introduce devastating ad libs into plays in which she was starring. One Christmas week she was playing Private Lives in Birmingham, Ala., practically her home town. In the midst of the humorous second act, while she and Donald Cook were lounging on a couch, she suddenly exclaimed, "Get away from me, you damn Yankee." And reaching into her bosom she hauled out a tiny Confederate flag--which she proceeded to wave enthusiastically. The audience shook the theater to its foundation." --Ernie Schier in the Washington Times-Herald

Lobenthal describes other ad libs--not involving a flag--in his biography. Cook, a prolific film and Broadway actor, starred with Bankhead in the 1948 revival of the play. I wonder if the great Noel Coward, the English author of the play would have approved. 

You can see a list of Bankhead's Broadway appearances here. 

Bankhead onstage in "The Little Foxes" at the Temple Theater in 1941

Source: Photographed by Cook for the Birmingham News

via Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Archives

Bankhead in her dressing room at the Temple Theater during the run of "The Little Foxes" in 1941

Source: Photographed by Cook for the Birmingham News 

via Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Collections

The Temple Theater in 1925

Source: BhamWiki

The Temple Theater in 1965

Source: BhamWiki

Tallulah remains a cultural icon of sorts. It's been a while since I read this 1987 novel by George Baxt, but I remember enjoying it.