Dad's Photographs at Auburn University in 1946

In one of our albums of old family photos I found a few from Dad's time at Auburn University in the second half of the 1940's. I've selected some for this post. I guess the shots were taken with a camera of Dad's, and someone else took the ones that include him. 

Of course, Auburn was known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) until 1960, when the name was formally changed to Auburn University. Mom says when they were there in the late 1940's everyone called it Auburn.  

Further comments are below. 

Theta Chi House ca. 1945

The website for the Auburn chapter of Theta Chi notes, "The first house was Dorm 12; the second house was located near downtown Auburn by the Freewheeler Bicycle Shop. Our third house, built in 1952, was located at 712 West Magnolia Avenue. Currently, we are living at 935 Lem Morrison Drive. The house was completed in the summer of 2007..."

At some point during his two periods at Auburn, interrupted by two years in the U.S. Navy, Dad was President of the fraternity. He was at Auburn from 1945 until July 1946 and again from 1948-50, when he was probably president. The house built in 1952 was being planned during that time; he and Mom left Auburn in December 1950 after he graduated.

The fraternity house shown in the photograph above is identified as the Theta Chi House ca. 1945 in a note in dad's handwriting on the back. 

Dad and presumably some fraternity brothers in front of the Theta Chi house. Dad is on the right holding the books.

Ross Chemical Lab ca. 1945

This building on West Thach Avenue was built in 1930 and named after Bennett B. Ross [1864-1930], a longtime chemistry professor at Auburn.

Ross Chemical Building [now Ross Hall] in a 1948 postcard

Source: Alabama Postcards Collection via Auburn University Digital Library 

Library ca. 1945 on West Thach Avenue

This library was one of  the Carnegie libraries built in Alabama; it opened in 1910. You can see the interior at that time here. I've written a blog post about those libraries. 

Today the library is Mary E. Martin Hall, named after the university's librarian from 1918-1949. The building house offices; when I arrived at Auburn in 1970, the registrar, graduate school and such were located there. 

Auburn's current Draughon Library was built in 1962. 

Here's the library in October 1910.

Women's Quad ca. 1945

A 1948 postcard of the girls' dormitories on the "quad" at Auburn

Source: Alabama Postcard Collection via Auburn University Digital Library 

Dad and some fellow engineering classmates? ca. 1945

Alpha Gams 1946 

I did not find any history or house photos on the Alpha Gamma Delta Auburn chapter website. Mom was not a sorority member, and she and Dad hadn't met yet, anyway!

Movies with Alabama Connections: Ocean's 11

Here we have another one of those blog posts examining a minor film appearance of something related to Alabama. This sort of thing is fun to do, and today's lesson pertains to the Frank Sinatra Ocean's 11 and not George Clooney's. I've seen the remake, but it's been a while and I don't think this Alabama connection made the cut. Someone correct me in the comments if needed.

Recently I just happened to catch ten minutes or so of the film [which I've seen several times] on TCM and low and behold that Alabama connection popped right up. I'd forgotten about it, so let's investigate. 

The original Ocean's 11 starred Frank Sinatra and four of his fellow "Rat Pack" members: Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis, Jr. Most of the film was shot in Las Vegas to give those guys something to do during the day before they took the stage for their casino shows each night. The story involves Danny Ocean [Sinatra] recruiting a group to rob five casinos simultaneously on New Year's Eve. Thrills and hilarity ensue before the final twist at the end. Angie Dickinson plays the ex-wife; Cesar Romero, Richard Conte and others fill out the supporting cast.

The state's big moment comes pretty early in the film. Danny runs into Beatrice, his ex, in the hotel, corners her in an elevator and  tells her, "I've got great news!" Beatrice, almost breaking into laughter, says "Auburn beat Alabama by twelve points." Danny, of course, has a bigger bet in mind. 

This appearance of the Iron Bowl in a major Hollywood production in 1960 must be one of the earliest such appearances by either school. In recent years Auburn University and its football team have numerous minor appearances in films and TV shows. There is of course the film A Love Song for Bobby Long in which two of the main characters are a former Auburn professor and a graduate student. Big Fish demonstrates some Auburn love. Auburn football games have appeared in the background of several TV shows and films. And because a production employee was an Auburn graduate, a school banner appeared for nine years on the wall of a bar often seen in the daytime serial General Hospital. 

I'll let an Alabama fan explore appearances of the Crimson Tide in such media. 

Jeremy Henderson of the War Eagle Reader blog, which tracks these things, explains the Ocean's 11 appearance by noting that when the film was made "Auburn was on top of the football world." That may be true as far as bookies were concerned, but would general members of the film's audience recognize the reference? After all, Auburn vs. Alabama was hardly a top college football rivalry at that time, and the first national telecast of an Iron Bowl did not take place until 1964. As far as I could determine, none of the story and screenplay writers on the film had any Alabama or Southern connections. 

No matter. We'll just take the reference and enjoy the film!

But wait, there's more!! Early in the film Sammy Davis, Jr., is talking about his career path after World War II and how he got into sanitation. The only baseball clubs available to him were "down South" and "can you imagine a one-eyed third baseman in Mobile?"

Wow, TWO #Alabama references in a Rat Pack movie!

Alabama Photos of the Day: Samford Hall at Auburn University

Auburn University's most iconic building is Samford Hall and its tower. The original building on the site, a four-story structure known as "Old Main", served the East Alabama Male College [Auburn's original name] from 1859 until it burned in June 1887. The current structure was built over the following couple of years and was also known as "Old Main". In May 1929 the building was named for Governor William Samford. After many interior changes over the years, Samford Hall is used today for administrative offices.

Below is a small selection of Samford Hall images and some comments. You can see many more via Alabama Mosaic. 

Samford Hall sometime ca. 1940. My parents were at Auburn in the late 1940's, so Samford may have looked similar to this view.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

The building to be known decades later as Samford Hall under construction ca. 1888

Source: Alabama Mosaic

This postcard from around 1930 gives the original name for the building, "Main".

Source: Alabama Mosaic

The bell in Samford rang on the hour for class change for many years, but has since been replaced by an electric clock. The bell remains in the tower.

Auburn University faculty in front of the "new" Old Main in 1914. Their identities can be found at the source page.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

These two photos were taken at winter graduation in December 2009. A couple of clowns are blocking the view in the one below. Wait--that's my daughter Becca and soon-to-be-son-in-law Matt Leon! Becca continued the family tradition of meeting a future spouse at Auburn just as my parents and Dianne and I did. Perhaps our new grandson Ezra Jasper Leon will do the same!

The Drake-Samford House in Auburn 1850-1978

Recently during one of my periodic paper reduction efforts, I found the February 12, 1978 issue of the Auburn Bulletin from which the last three items below were scanned. Before I talk about those, let me put them into context. 

For many years the Drake-Samford House stood at 449 North Gay Street on the corner with East Drake Avenue in Auburn. The magnificent home was built in the 1850's. By 1857 John Drake, Sr., lived there. His son, John Drake, Jr., became a physician and served the college for many years.

In October 1865 Caroline Drake and lawyer and future governor William J. Samford were married in the house. Auburn University's iconic Samford Hall is named after him. 

The first two black and white photographs below of the house were taken by W.N. Manning on April 2 and 3, 1934. Manning was a professional photographer in Auburn then working for the Historic American Building Survey program. The second one shows the wonderful mahogany staircase.

Now, as to the scanned items. They show before and after photos as the house was torn down in February 1978. A developer who owned the property intended to put an apartment complex there, but never did. The site is now a grassy lot. 

Some details here were taken from the 2012 book Lost Auburn by Ralph Draughon, Jr., et al. 

William J. Samford [1844-1901]

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

This caption implies that Steve & I formerly rented the house itself. No, not quite. We rented the two-rooms-and-a-bathroom shack behind the mansion; we are standing at the door. That place was the site of the Great Toilet Explosion while we lived there, but that's another story

April Fool's at Auburn University in 1962

I discuss all sorts of historical matters on this blog, but never one as serious as the subject of this particular posting. Here's what those crazy college kids at my Alma mater were up to eight years before I arrived. 

Below are some selections from the April Fool's Day issue of the Auburn Plainsman in 1962. You can see the entire issue here. 

Enjoy!

Newlyweds at a 1950 Auburn Football Game

I recently came across the aerial shot below in one of the Auburn University Libraries digital collections. The photo of the Cliff Hare football stadium in 1950 with the homecoming game in progress grabbed my attention because my parents were living in Auburn at the time. Mom tells me they were probably at this homecoming game since they attended home football games regularly that fall.

Mom and dad had been married in September 1950 and returned to campus so dad could finish the final semester of his degree. The football team had a discouraging season that year under coach Earl Brown. In fact, Auburn did not score at all in seven games and lost that homecoming game 41-0 to #11 Clemson. The team finished 0-10. Brown was fired and Shug Jordan hired. Mom tells me about the only thing Auburn fans had to cheer about during the games that year were first downs. 

Of course, Auburn University was actually the Alabama Polytechnic Institute or API at this time, but mom said no one called it that. The school was known then and had been for a long time as "Auburn". Founded in 1856 as the East Alabama Male College, the school was renamed Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama in 1872 when it became the state's first land-grant university. 

In 1892 Auburn became the first four-year coeducational school in Alabama. Renamed API in 1899, that name held officially until 1960 when the change to Auburn University was finally made. AU is now one of the few American universities that has land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant research designations.

Today, the football stadium is a bit bigger.

Source: Auburn University Digital Library 

Action during the 1950 homecoming game

Source: Auburn University Digital Library

Source: Wright family scrapbook

Mom and dad pose at their wedding cake at the First Methodist Church in Haleyville on September 10, 1950. The town's other claim to fame is the nation's first 911 emergency service that began in February 1968. 

A Film Projection Course at Auburn in 1923

Who knew that in 1923 Auburn University--then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute [API], of course--had a Motion Picture Projection Department?

Wandering around Lantern, the Media History Digital Library, will turn up all sorts of goodies. Recently I found the two-part article below in July 1923 issues of Motion Picture News. The News was published under that title from 1913 until 1930.

The article gives us many details about the projection course being taught at API as described to the editor by Professor A.L. Thomas, head of that department. Included are questions from the course's final exam and answers of one of the students. Over 100 students had taken the course since it first began in the 1918-19 school year. The auditorium at the school had two "latest model" Simplex projectors used by student projectionists for film showings six nights per week.

A bit of the history of movies at API is included in the article. Film projection first came to the campus in 1907. By 1911 an Edison projector had been installed for movie showings once a week for students. The College Band provided music, and a student served as projectionist. By 1915 the "College Picture Show" was operating two nights a week with a paid six-man orchestra.

The article is unsigned but at the very beginning the author refers to himself [?] as "the Editor", which might mean the magazine or the section editor. I could find no staff listing for the magazine in those two July 1923 issues.. 

I have found little information so far on the National Anti-Misframe League. The organization appears in issues of the Motion Picture News as early as 1917 and as late as 1925. A Google search returned nothing. The "Forum" was a regular feature of the publication for discussion of matters of interest to League members. The "Pledge" of the Forum found on the last page below is concerned primarily with taking care of the physical condition of film reels.  

In 1926 projection speed of silent films was standardized at 24 fps [frames per second]. Prior to that time projection rates could vary from 16 to 23 fps depending on the shooting speed of each film. I wonder if this change had anything to do with the League's apparent disappearance. However, there would still be the problem of the care of physical reels.

The article has two photographs taken on the API campus. The first shows students in one section of the class posing in front of an iconic building, Langdon Hall. Several cameras on tripods can be seen. The building dates from 1846 and was originally a wood structure on the campus of the Masonic Female Seminary. Moved to the API campus in 1883, the building was bricked and eventually named after Charles Carter Langdon, a school trustee from 1872 until 1899.

The second photograph shows students receiving instruction in the "motion picture laboratory." The building is no doubt one of the engineering department's locations at the time.

Women were admitted to the school in 1892, but none can be seen in these photos. Women were enrolled in engineering programs at API by 1918 or so, but probably most movie projectionists around the country were male.

Professor Albert Lee Thomas taught mechanical and electrical engineering at the school from 1904 until 1956.

Silent film projector from the 1920s

Source: eBay.com