"Any Day Now" in Birmingham

Back in 2014 I wrote a piece on films and tv shows set in Birmingham. One of the titles I included was Any Day Now. As I said at the time, "As far as I know, it’s the only scripted television series set in the city. The CW’s current series Hart of Dixie is set in a fictional small town in south Alabama. These may be the only two scripted television series set in the state."

In addition, I wrote, "Any Day Now ran on the Lifetime network from August 1998 until March 2002 for a total of 88 hour-long episodes. Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint played middle aged versions of two childhood friends--one white, the other black--who grew up in Birmingham in the 1960s. Potts' character has remained in town, where she and her husband and two children struggle financially. Toussaint's character became a successful attorney in Washington, D.C., but when her father dies she moves back, sets up a practice, and resumes the friendship.

"Each episode featured scenes from the lives of the two women in both the past and the present. The show ended after four seasons because Potts chose not to renew her contract; she wanted to spend more time with family. According to the IMDb entry, at least some filming was done in Birmingham."

I recently watched the first of the 88 episodes, "Unfinished Symphony", originally  shown August 18, 1998. Rene Jackson's father has died, and she returns to Birmingham to attend the funeral. Her childhood friend Mary Elizabeth Sims learns of his death and debates attending his funeral; the two women had not parted on good terms. M.E., as she's known, does go, and the reunion that begins awkwardly soon becomes friendlier. In this episode we also see in the black and white flashbacks how Rene and M.E. met and some of their first adventures together.

As you can see from the screenshots below, the series is firmly linked to Birmingham. I enjoyed the first episode and hope to watch others. I'm sure events of the 1960s will appear in the flashbacks, and how "contemporary" Birmingham is portrayed will be of interest as well. The Wikipedia entry includes some reactions from critics during the initial run of the show. 

Any Day Now currently airs on StartTV. I was unable to find any current availability elsewhere or any legitimate VHS or DVD releases. 

Doctor Kills His Wife in Bessemer in 1943--or Did He?

I'm still making my way through the World War II issues of the Gadsden Times saved by paternal grandmother Rosa Mae Wright. Here's another recently found item; I've piled up a number of others and have many more issues to examine. You are in for some real treats.

This item describes the violent death of a Mrs. Laura Ball Blue at her home in Bessemer on May 23, 1943. She was almost decapitated by a "heavy charge" from a shotgun, which was found in another room. As the first article notes, her husband J. Howard Blue was about to be charged with first degree murder. 

Shortly after 9:30 the previous night the coroner received a call from the husband, a physician, and when he arrived at the house found Mrs. Blue's body  and an incoherent Dr. Blue. His wife had apparently just come into the house from the garage; car keys were still in her hand. Both of their sons were away from home at the time.

Blue was a "widely known Bessemer physician" who specialized in eye, ear, nose and throat disorders. He was freed on bond after a July 7 preliminary hearing, but finally indicted for first degree murder by a grand jury on August 6 and returned to jail without bond. The December 25, 1943, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association picks up the story:

"Physician Sentenced on Murder Charge.—  Dr. James Howard Blue, Bessemer, was found guilty by a jury of murder in the second degree and sentenced to fifty years' imprisonment, newspapers reported November 17. Attorneys for the defense announced that motion for a new trial would be filed. At the physician's first trial last September a mistrial was declared. Dr. Blue was charged with the shooting of his wife, May 23."

I've yet to determine exactly what happened after this trial, but I've picked up the story of Dr. Blue in the early 1950s. He is listed in the 1951 Bessemer city directory under "Physicians and Surgeons" with an office at 1828 3rd Avenue, phone R207. According to Google Maps that address is in the same block as the Bright Star Restaurant. By publication of the 1953 Bessemer city directory, we find this entry: "Denzil R. Blue--ear, eye, nose & throat specialist, wife Lola M. Office at 1828 3rd Avenue, home in Lakewood Estates".

Denzil was apparently a nephew of James Howard Blue; the Blue family seems to have had several physicians. James Howard had died on March 10, 1953, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. Poor Laura Blue was also buried in Elmwood. Her husband remarried in 1950 to Vera Tucker; he was her third husband. She, too, is resting in Elmwood. 

As the second article notes, Blue contended that first wife Laura killed herself. 

That "Manasco Hits Communists" is a line inserted there in error. 

Birmingham Postcard: Jefferson Hospital

Here we have yet another entry in a series devoted to postcards from my collection. I have many that are unused, but the ones actually mailed are double snapshots of history both for the card itself and the message written on it. 

The postmark on this card is dated August 20, 1943. The front shows Jefferson Hospital in Birmingham, constructed in 1940 with the help of New Deal loans and a grant. The hospital opened in February 1941 with 575 beds, 11 operating rooms, maternity wards and an all-electric kitchen. For two years during World War II the 10th and 11th floors of Jefferson Hospital housed a secret training facility for officers and enlisted men of various armed forces units.

The facility became a center of the new Medical College of Alabama that welcomed the first students in September 1945. Renamed Jefferson Tower in 1979, the building remains a landmark on the giant University of Alabama at Birmingham campus. 

The card was printed by the Merchants Cigar and Candy Company in Birmingham. Other city cards from the company that I spotted on eBay and at Alabama Mosaic include Lake Purdy Dam, Alabama Power Company building, a rock garden pool, looking east on 20th Street at night and the Sloss-Sheffield furnace. The company seems to have operated from about 1937 until 1946, although I did not find them under either "Cigars" or "Candy" in the 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages directory.

So what does the message side of the card tell us? The sender is Charles Troutman, a soldier stationed at Camp Sibert, a World War II chemical weapons training facility that sprawled over 36,000 acres in Etowah and St. Clair counties. The facility opened in 1942 and was named after Major General William Sibert, the first head of the Army's Chemical Warfare Service and a Gadsden native. 

Troutman is writing to his father, Charles H. Troutman, Sr., in Flagstaff, Arizona. He notes that he was up that day at 4am and began shooting practice at 6. He shot a 161 which he declared "was good but could have been better." The previous night had been cool but today was a "scorcher" although the air was "unusually dry". Troutman mentions "Kodachrome", the Eastman Kodak film introduced in 1935. Not sure what he means by "OCS" unless it refers to the 35mm slide film Kodak put on the market in 1936. At any rate, "some were very good."

Another question concerns the "OTB 01039771" at the top of the card. Does the abbreviation stand for "Operations Training Branch"?

On August 10 Charles had written his mother, using a postcard that showed climbers on Mount Washington, New Hampshire. "Getting cooler", he said. "Have a long training film tonight. Sure is tiresome here. Everyone is on edge."

As the historical marker below notes, Camp Sibert was activated on December 25, 1942, and deactivated almost exactly three years later on December 31, 1945. The camp could hold about 30,000 troops, and almost half of all the U.S.'s World War II CWS soldiers trained there. You can read more about Camp Sibert here and here. Many photos taken at Camp Sibert can be found on Alabama Mosaic. 

In 2017 Lindsey Rebekah Wilson wrote a thesis at Jacksonville State University, "Camp Sibert: Inside the Training Camp and its Significance to the Chemical Warfare Service". 

Charles H. Troutman, Jr. [1914-1990] during World War II

Found at Ancestry.com

Source: Historical Marker Database

Entrance to Camp Sibert ca. 1943

Source: Alabama Department of Archives and History