Johnny Mack Brown Appears in Gadsden in 1945

I've written several pieces on this blog about football star, actor and Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown. Two of them discussed his 1928 silent films Our Dancing Daughters and A Lady of Chance. The first paired him with Joan Crawford [one of two he made with her] and another Alabama native, Dorothy Sebastian. He starred with Norma Shearer in the second film, much of which is set in Alabama. These attempts to make Brown a romantic lead did not take, and westerns became his forte. I've written about his role in 1930's Billy the Kid, the first sound film about the outlaw; and covered his 1945 Flame of the West in which he plays--of all things--a doctor. 

Brown came to the attention of Hollywood after he helped Alabama beat the favored Washington team in the 1925 Rose Bowl. He scored two of Alabama's three touchdowns as the Crimson Tide became the first southern team to win that bowl game. He soon appeared on a Wheaties cereal box and signed a contract with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio to make movies. The attempt to make him a leading man in A-list pictures didn't pan out, and Brown soon moved into B-Westerns. Between 1927 and 1966 he made over 160 films, most of them westerns. So by 1945 when he made this personal appearance he was deep into that genre. 

"Alabama's Own Movie Star" made five appearances onstage that Sunday, May 5. Brown made seven films in 1945, so these afternoon and evening stage shows could have also promoted one or more of those. I found no ads for any of those films in the two issues of the Gadsden Times where I found this ad.

Rounding out the show were other performers, Trixie McCormick, "Famous Girl Rope Artist" and Carl Zeller and the Three Drifters. A quick search on Google did not turn up any information on Carl Zeller and the Three Drifters. Perhaps they were a western swing band, a popular subgenre of country music in the 1930s and 1940s. Trixie McCormick was indeed a rope artist, apparently from Montana who died in April 2001 at age 91. According to one source her real name was Ethyl Stokes.

Brown died in November 1974. Before his death he was inducted into both the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame's charter class of 1969 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1957. 

Gadsden Times 2 May 1945; the same ad appeared in the May 1 issue; these days were the Tuesday and Wednesday before the show. 

Nine issues of Johnny Mack Brown Comics were published from September 1950 until September 1952. 

Flame of the West was one of the seven movies Brown made in 1945 and the one in which he played Dr. John Poole.