Alabama Victory Ships in World War II

I seem to be doing a series on this blog about ships with names connected in some way to Alabama. This post fits that group. In previous items I've discussed the 1898 USS Alabama battleship, the USS Birmingham and early flight, the effort to save the World War II USS Alabama battleship, and the SS Selma, a concrete ship. This time let's look at Victory ships named for Alabama cities. 

During World War II various United States shipyards produced 531 ships of the Victory class, cargo ships that were an improved design over the older Liberty class. Five types were constructed across two main categories; 414 were standard cargo ships and 117 were attack transports. You can find a list of the ships here and by building shipyard here.  

Many of the Victory ships were named after U.S. cities. In my research I discovered seven vessels named after Alabama locations. As you'll see I found little information on four and more on three of them. I've included the shipyards where they were built.


SS Anniston Victory Permanente Metals, Richmond, California delivered Feb 21, 1945

SS Bessemer Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles delivered Aug 30, 1945. Had some commercial service in Vietnam, remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and berthed on the James River in Virginia until sold in the late 1980's and finally scrapped in India in 1991

SS Dothan Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered Nov 7, 1945

SS Eufaula Victory Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, delivered Dec 12, 1944

SS Selma Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles, delivered July 29, 1944

USS Talladega Permanente Metals, Richmond, California, delivered Oct 31, 1944. The Talladega was the only attack transport I found among the Victory ships with Alabama connections. The vessel worked various areas of the Pacific during the war, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. Here's the details on that from the Wikipedia entry:

Talladega sortied from Saipan as a unit of Task Group 56.2, the Assault Group, on 16 February, and arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of 19 February, "D-day".^[4] Four Marines pictured in Joe Rosenthal's famous flag-raising photograph debarked from Talladega to climb Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Mike Strank.^[2] After landing her troops, she remained off the beaches embarking combat casualties for six days before heading back toward Saipan.^[4]

His Wikipedia entry notes this information about Hayes, a Native American:

He was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film The Outsider (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Hayes. The movie inspired songwriter Peter La Farge to write "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," which became popular nationwide in 1964 after being recorded by Johnny Cash. In 2006, Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Sousley, Block and Strank are all portrayed in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers. William Bradford Huie, a Hartselle native, was a well-known novelist and journalist at the time. 

The Talladega also participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was finally scrapped in 1982. You can find many more details and a photo gallery about her here.

The city of Talladega has honored the ship with a monument on the courthouse square.

Photo taken by Rivers Langley 27 October 2011

Source: NavSource

SS Tuskegee Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered June 5, 1945. The ship spent seven years in commercial service after the war, then returned to the National Defense Maritime Fleet in 1952. In 1958 she was refitted as a Bowditch class oceanographic survey ship for the Navy and rechristened the USNS Dutton. She served in that capacity until February 1980; the vessel was scrapped in September 2007.

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SS Selma Victory and six other ships of the class being outfitted at the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Los Angeles in June 1944 

Source: NavSource Online

USS Talladega a Victory class attack transport ca. 1945

Source: Wikipedia

SS Tuskegee Victory after its conversion to the USNS Dutton

Source: Wikipedia 

Red Oak Victory in 2013, at that time the only operational vessel of the class

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama Photos of the Day: Moody Hospital in Dothan

Over the years many hospitals have come and gone in Alabama. Just in the past eight years thirteen hospitals have shuttered, all but one in rural small towns. This post examines one such defunct facility, Moody Hospital in Dothan. Incorporation papers for a new hospital in that city were filed on July 13, 1914. The three names listed on the papers included two local physicians and the wife of one of them. The doctors had practiced for some years in Dothan. I found some basic information about them in the 1907 Transactions of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. Charles Wesley Hilliard [1871-1958] had graduated from the University of Alabama's School of Medicine in 1895. He passed his state certification exam in Pike County that year and lived in Dothan. Earle Farley Moody [1880-1952] graduated from Tulane University's School of Medicine in 1903, passed his exam in Houston County that year and also resided in Dothan.  Two photographs of Moody Hospital are included in the Dothan Landmarks Foundation, Inc. book Houston County: The First 100 Years [Arcadia, 2003, p. 79]. Both show nursing staff and were taken outside the building. One is the photo used in the first postcard below. The caption there notes the hospital "operated until around 1966" and "administered the first dose of penicillin in the state in 1949."  The entry at the Wiregrass Archives site for the first photo below declares,  "The Dothan Eagle newspaper reported that doctors here administered the first dose of penicillin to an Alabama patient in 1946." Howard Holley's History of Medicine in Alabama makes no mention of penicillin, so further research is needed to determine the actual year and other details. Clinical use of penicillin began in 1942, so either year could be correct.  A Facebook page exists maintained by someone whose father purchased the property in the late 1960's and operated a business there until 2000. Unfortunately no other details are given, and the page has had no activity since April 2017.  Hilliard is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy and Moody in the Dothan City Cemetery. The men did not live to see the closing of the hospital they founded in 1914.  UPDATE 6 February 2022 A recent article by Alex Valdez from January 25, 2022, discusses future use of the former hospital.  June 1972 photo by Joseph Douglas Snellgrove Source: Wiregrass Archives June 1972 photo by Joseph Douglas Snellgrove Source: Wiregrass Archives 1920 postcard of Moody Hospital Source: Alabama Mosaic 1930 postcard of Moody Hospital Source: Alabama Mosaic The former Moody Hospital building via Google Earth

Johnny Mack Brown & "A Lady of Chance" (1)

After his football playing days at the University of Alabama ended, Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown signed a contract with MGM and took up residence in Hollywood. His spectacular performance in the team's win at the 1926 Rose Bowl against the University of Washington--which was heavily favored--created a media sensation. Brown even made the front of the Wheaties cereal box. Producer and director King Vidor took notice; Brown went to California again in 1927 and had a long career in the movies. His first film appearance came that year in Slide, Kelly, Slide--a baseball movie. 

Brown became best known as one of the kings of the B westerns; he starred in dozens--and dozens. Yet in the early part of his career--mostly the silent movie part--the studio attempted to make him a leading man to play alongside some of Hollywood's female stars including Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford [several times] and Norma Shearer. He even acted with fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian--along with Crawford--in Our Dancing Daughters also released in 1928. In the following year he starred opposite Mary Pickford in her first talkie Coquette--for which she won an Academy Award. He was sometimes billed as John Mack Brown in those days.

In 1928 Brown appeared in eight films. I recently watched one of those efforts, A Lady of Chance, released on December 1 of that year. Brown is the romantic lead opposite Norma Shearer, at the time one of the biggest stars of either sex in Hollywood. She also happened to have married the previous year Irving Thalberg, who at the age of 26 in 1925 became head of production at the newly formed MGM studio. I wonder if the former football player from Alabama was a bit nervous his first day on the set?

I'm going to do something a bit different with this topic, five different posts containing about twenty screen shots each from the movie. That will take us through the entire 78 minute film. Why am I doing this? Well, this movie not only stars an Alabama native early in his career, but a significant portion of the film is set in the state as well. So there's that. Hmm, I wonder where that idea came from?

Comments are below many of the photos. I'll have some final thoughts on the film at the end of the last post. 

This production was Norma Shearer's last silent film. She continue acting until 1942; her final film was Her Cardboard Lover. Shearer was the first actor to be nominated five times for an Academy Award; she won in 1930 for The Divorcee. Her brother Douglas G. Shearer was a pioneer of sound design in motion pictures; he won seven Academy Awards during his long career. The two were the first siblings to win that award.

The film was written by A.P. Younger and Edmund Goulding. Younger wrote for some 60 films between 1919 and his suicide in 1931. Goulding had a long career as screenwriter, director, songwriter and producer; he directed the classic film noir Nightmare Alley in 1947. He died in 1959.

Robert Z. Leonard was an actor director and producer whose career lasted from 1913 until 1957. He died in 1968.

The film was edited by Margaret Booth, whose Hollywood career spanned nine decades. 

As of this writing, you can view A Lady of Chance on YouTube.

Three supporting actors in this film were all veterans. Lowell Sherman who played Brad, had success as both an actor and director. He directed May West and Katherine Hepburn in two successful films before his untimely death at age 46 in 1934. Gwen Lee, who played Gwen, had mostly supporting roles in some 60 films. Eugenie Besserer often played mother roles as she did here; she acted that part for Al Jolson's character in The Jazz Singer.  

The early part of the film introduces us to Dolly Morgan, known as "Angel Face".  She is a parolee still using her looks to entrap wealthy men into situations where she can relieve them of some of that wealth. Two other con artists, Gwen and Brad, recognize her and persuade her to join them in their next job. The pair attempt to bilk Morgan out of her share after their success, but she manages to steal the entire $10,000 and disappear.

Here's what the New York City police had on "Angel Face"

Dolly next turns up in Atlantic City where she happens to meet Steve Crandall, a businessman from Alabama, at a convention. 

Steve is working on a telegram but is interrupted before he pays for it.

Dolly reads the telegram to Crandall's mother, which mentions the coming deal that will be worth a million dollars. Naturally, Dolly's interest in Steve is immediate. 

Dolly pays for the telegram, and thus the cynical and crooked city woman and the innocent from Alabama can "meet cute."

And does Steve ever fall hard for that "angel face". 

You can just see the wheels turning in Dolly's head as she realizes she has this sap in the palm of her hand and plots her way to Steve's coming riches. 

The black man pushing their cart through the park one evening has been entertaining them with song, so here we have the first "ahem" moment of this more than eighty-year-old film. This actor looks familiar, but he is unlisted in the film's entry on IMDB.

TO BE CONTINUED