Melinda Dillon Once Lived in Cullman

Among her many other acting roles, Melinda Dillon played the mother in two very well known American films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A Christmas Story. As these things work out, Alabama connections abound. Close Encounters did lots of filming in the Mobile area, and A Christmas Story was directed by Bob Clark, who spent some of his childhood in the state. "Where I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, we were lower middle class, but we actually had a maid.  I used to go with the maid on weekends to what would have been called 'Coloured Town' to play with the kids there—I loved them," he noted in a phone interview not long before his 2007 death in a car crash. Finally, Dillon herself spent some of her childhood in Cullman. Let's investigate.

According to her entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Dillon was born October 13, 1939, in the town of Hope. "Information about her early life is sparse, and Dillon remains an intensely private person." The IMDB and Wikipedia repeat this information about her birth. I'll come back to all this later in the post.

Her career began on stage. She was a member of the improvisational troupe The  Second City in Chicago in 1961. Alumni of that group include a roster of stars such as Alan Alda, Bill Murray and John Belushi. The following year she made her Broadway debut in the original production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? alongside Uta Hagan, Arthur Hill and George Grizzard. Dillon was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Tony award for her performance. By 1971 she had made a few more appearances on Broadway. 

In the 1960's she also had guest roles on such TV shows as The Defenders, East Side/West Side and Bonanza. Since then she has alternated television work with  films including Bound for Glory (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Absence of Malice (1981), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), The Prince of Tides (1991) and Magnolia (1999). Her final work seems to be three episodes in the Treat Williams TV medical drama Heartland in 2007. The Wikipedia entry for the recent sequel A Christmas Story Christmas noted that she retired in that year and thus did not participate in the film. 

OK, let's dig a little deeper into her family background for that Alabama connection. Her parents were Floyd Cardy, Jr. [March 22, 1912-August 14, 1978] and Essie Norine Barnett [April 15, 1915-February 16, 2006]. Floyd was a Jonesboro, Arkansas, native; Norine was born in Cullman. The two were married in Alabama City, Etowah County, on July 1, 1937. I found this information in U.S. Census and marriage records at Ancestry.com 

Dillon gave a rare interview with Robert Wahls in conjunction with her Broadway debut that was published in the New York Daily News on October 28, 1962 [Sec. 1, p. 16]: "90-Day Wonder: An Unknown Only Three Months Ago, 23-year-old Actress Melinda Dillon Shot to Stardom in Broadway Debut" In it she notes that her father Fred Clardy was an oil company representative working out of Cullman, where her mother ran a beauty shop.  

In the Wahls interview Dillon claims the Hope, Arkansas, birthplace because "daddy knew a doctor there and mother had lost one baby." Her parents divorced when she was five, and her mother did not remarry until May 17, 1947, in the town of Lipscomb in Jefferson County. Dillon's stepfather was Wilbur Samuel Dillon, whom she described as a provost marshal in the military police. The family spent 1948-1951 in Nurnberg, Germany, and moved often after that posting. At some point they settled in Chicago, where Melinda graduated from Hyde Park High School. She decided to remain in the Windy City when her parents moved again. 

We find a few more details about Dillon's father Fred Clardy, Jr., at his Find-A-Grave page. That source notes he was a World War II vet who worked as district manager for Alabama for the AMOCO company. Presumably after his divorce from Norine he returned to Arkansas, where he owned the Clardy Oil Company in Hot Springs, and where he is buried. 

The Clardy family appears in Cullman in the 1940 U.S. census. Presumably Fred and Norine [spelled Norene on the census sheet] had moved there sometime after their 1937 marriage in Etowah County. Perhaps as a district manager Floyd could live where he wanted in that area, and after all Cullman was Norine's home town. Why they were married in Alabama City also remains a mystery.

Other mysteries appear. The census enumerator, who questioned the family on May 2, 1940, listed Melinda Ruth as being seven months old, which fits her October 13, 1939, birth date. However, the birthplace is listed as "Alabama". So we are left to wonder about Dillon's actual birthplace.

Norine and daughter Melinda did live in the state until Norine's second marriage in 1947. Why the nuptials took place in Lipscomb, a town near Bessemer, is unknown. Norine died in 2006 in Leavenworth, Kansas. I have been unable to find any more information so far about Dillon's stepfather. 

UPDATE 5 February 2023

Dillon passed away on January 9, 2023. An article reviewing her career from The Hollywood Reporter can be found here. 

Source: Encyclopedia of Arkansas 

Dillon in Close Encounters. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this performance. 

Dillon in A Christmas Story. She should have won an Oscar for this one. 

Deb's Bookstore in Cullman

I always enjoy checking out bookstores when I travel, and recently I stopped at one in Cullman. Brother Richard and I had visited this one a few years ago, but I hadn't been back since. One day as I headed home from mom's in Huntsville, I passed by, so....

As you can see from the photos below, the place is large and packed. There are sections for biographies, non-fiction, self-help and such, but most of the inventory is fiction. Lots of fiction. There are large sections for romances, science fiction and fantasy, and --unusually--westerns. Louis L'Amour has his own section, as do Steven King, Clive Cussler, James Patterson, Stuart Woods, and others.  

The store had a website that was really just an online billboard with a video tour; it's no longer active. The Facebook page still exists. You'll just have to make a trip yourself....

Oh, the place is for sale. The owner informed me she's retiring this year and wants to sell. The price includes the building, inventory, computer system, a large parking lot and fifteen years worth of customer goodwill. 

Hmmm...

UPDATE 26 June 2021

I stopped in again and the place has indeed sold and is operating under a new name, Camelot Books and Comics. You can see a couple of signs at the end. For the most part, nothing has changed about the inventory as described above, which consist of some 250,000 items! 

Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker in Cullman

In my regular trips from Pelham to Huntsville to visit mom, I often take a break at the I-65 rest stop south of Cullman. On one stop last year I noticed the plaque below designating something--perhaps a specific stretch of I-65--as "Blue Star Memorial Highway." What's up with that, I wondered?

Well, a bit of research quickly found some history. The idea started with the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944 when 8,000 dogwoods were planted along US 22 to honor members of the armed services in World War II.  A blue star banner or flag can be used to designate residences where a family member is serving during a conflict. That 5.5 mile stretch of highway was designated "Blue Star Drive" by the state legislature in January 1945.

Later in 1945 the National Council of State Garden Clubs adopted the program and began extending it nationwide. The program is continued today by that organization under its present name, National Garden Clubs, Inc; details are here. Two other types of markers have been developed in recent years. 

Alabama has a number of them; a state-by-state listing up to May 2015 is here. From what I could determine from that list, this particular marker was dedicated on August 27, 1990. 

The "Blue Star Memorial Highway" now extends over 70,000 miles in 39 states. 

A Visit to Niki's West

On a recent Saturday Dianne and I visited Cullman to check out the Alabama Gourd Show. This event is one of two sponsored by the Alabama Gourd Society; the other is held in Clanton in March. Dianne has been wanting to combine her beading/jewelry work with gourds for some time, so she was able to pick up some beginner's tools and hints from various exhibitors. The craftsmanship and imagination on display at this show are pretty impressive. You can get a few hints below.

On the way back to Pelham we decided to have an early dinner at Niki's West, the legendary "steak and seafood" place on Finely Avenue in Birmingham. You can read more about them at their website and this article from 2013. You can read what owner Pete Hontzas had to say about Niki's influence in Birmingham in this 2017 article. 

If you've never eaten at Niki's, get there ASAP! You can go through the buffet line, which is all we've ever done, or order from the menu. Either way it's bound to be good. 

Dave Hoekstra's meditation on Niki's West and Greek soul food in Birmingham can be found here.

Bob Carlton has written "Niki's West: The story behind a classic Alabama restaurant" available here. 

I ordered the divine liver and onions and enjoyed it very much. Our son Amos declares this one to be "literally my favorite meal in the world".

Update April 22, 2019:  

Dianne, son Amos and I made it to Niki's this past weekend and took a few more photos; the first three are by Amos. 

Three Alabama Music Albums

I've recently been going through the several hundred vinyl records that Dianne and I own. Talk about a trip down memory lane. In among all the albums by It's a Beautiful Day, Jefferson Airplane, Hayden and Mozart, etc., I've so far found three with Alabama connections. Let's investigate.

The Locust Fork Band formed in Tuscaloosa in 1974 and has survived to the present day. The group combines performances of cover songs with a few originals and has often played festivals, including City Stages in Birmngham in 1989 and 1998.

The album I have is Playing 'Possum released in 1978. According to the brief BhamWiki entry on the band linked in the previous paragraph, they recorded a 30th anniversary album at Workplay in Birmingham in 2004. I have run across mention of an album called Overnight Success and wonder if that's it. However, I've found little else online beyond what's discussed below. 

The band continues to perform on occasion. This 2009 appearance at the Bottletree Cafe in Birmingham benefited the Black Warrior Riverkeeper organization. I have run across references to other performances in 2015 and 2017. The group maintains a Facebook page. You can read an interview with singer Nida Threet before their set at the 2015 Blueberry Jam Festival in Fairhope here.

This release is a real obscurity, featuring a jazz duo of singer Beth Jackson and singer/keyboardist Joe Hardin. Small World Records in Huntsville released the album of mostly jazz standards. 

Small World Records was apparently a part of the Smith Music Group. Their web site, which has a 2004 date and is apparently abandoned, has this description: "Small World Records, an independent label started in 1981, is credited with over 100 releases. The back catalog is out of print and there are no current releases."

I would think I acquired this album before Dianne and I left Auburn in the summer of 1980, but maybe not. I've tried searching online various combinations of the artists' names etc but have found nothing. 

I did post a query on Facebook's Huntsville Rewound group and received some helpful responses. Jackson and Hardin attended Grissom High School and played at a popular downtown place still in business, the Kaffeeklatsch. Drank a few cups there with friends myself over the years. Hardin is currently a professor in the English Department at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. He spent 23 years as a professional keyboard player, guitarist, songwriter and singer. No one offered any more information about Jackson or about Small World Records. 

This album is the oldest in the bunch. Childhaven is a children's home in Cullman associated with the Church of Christ. The facility has a long history that you can read about here.

Dr. Jim Wright, Executive Director of Childhaven, was kind enough to give me some background details on this album in an email to me on January 31, 2018:

"Del Brock was the college age (or a upper high school?) aged son of Barney Brock.  Barney was the first superintendent at Childhaven, coming in 1950 and leaving around 1964.  Del remains in Cullman, and is a member of our board of directors.  During those years, Del directed a chorus made up of Childhaven residents.  The chorus would travel and appear in churches, as a pr and fundraising arm for Childhaven.  They made one album - which you have a copy of.  (We have copies here in our archives.  The vinyl and jackets in our collection are not clearly dated - but we are pretty sure it is around 1962 - 63 when it was produced.  Del is uncertain as to the exact age."  

If you have more information about any of these albums and individuals, feel free to tell us in the comment section!

From a Colorado Prison Riot to St. Bernard College

His obituary in the New York Times in 1971 began this way:

"CULLMAN, Ala., Aug. 17 (AP)—The Rev. Patrick Frederick O'Neill, a long‐time priest and hero of a 1929 prison riot, died yesterday in a nursing home here at the age of 84."

That prison riot took place in Canon City, Colorado. Let's investigate.

Frederick O'Neill was born in Manchester, Ohio, on February 24, 1887. He joined the Order of St. Benedict in 1907 and was ordained a priest in 1915. In 1929 he was at the Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City and ministered at the prison. On October 3, while he was there, a prison uprising began, and guards were taken prisoner. 

In order to end the standoff, O'Neill placed dynamite charges--twice-- against the wall of the building where the prisoners & captured guards were located. In 1932 he received a Badge of Honor from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for his bravery. You can read the details of his incredible efforts here. A detail account of the prison riot is here.

Benedictine monks came to Alabama and established Saint Bernard Abbey in Cullman in September 1881. The abbey operated Saint Bernard College from 1929 until 1979. O'Neill apparently came to Saint Bernard Abbey soon after the riot and taught at the college for many years. 

Author Melanie Patterson, in her book Cullman: Images of Ameria [Arcadia, 2013, p. 45], notes that Fr. Patrick O'Neill, OSB wrote a film based on his experience in the Colorado prison riot that premiered at the Cullman Theater in October 1939. The book includes a photo of the theater. 

That film is apparently Mutiny in the Big House, released in 1939 and starring Charles Bickford as "Father Joe Collins." You can view the film at the Internet Archive. The entry at the Internet Movie Database makes no mention of Patrick O'Neill. However, the entry at Turner Classic Movies notes that a review in Variety at the time of release does explain that the film is based on the O'Neill/Canon City story. That entry also gives some interesting details about the film.

How the story that O'Neill wrote the script and the film "premiered" in Cullman is something of a puzzle. Perhaps O'Neill did write something, but was not given credit on the final product--a common occurrence in Hollywood. And perhaps the film was shown at the Cullman Theatre during its initial release.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Source: Find-A-Grave

Entrance to the Saint Bernard Abbey Cemetery where O'Neill is buried. 

Source: Find-A-Grave

Source: Wikipedia