Alabama Yesterdays: dentist

Friday, March 27, 2020

Hollywood Actress Marries Birmingham Dentist

I recently watched the 1945 film Flame of the West, one of the dozens of westerns Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown made during his long career. I'll skip any details since I plan a blog post soon about the movie. However, in addition to Brown there's another Alabama connection in this film.

One of Brown's two leading ladies is Lynne Carver. I wasn't familiar with her, so naturally I turned to Wikipedia. And what should I find but that connection.

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Carver appeared in more than 30 movies between 1934 and 1948. She played Bess in the 1938 "A Christmas Carol" and Mary Jane in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" the following year. She also starred as Alice Raymond in two of the Dr. Kildare series of films based on Max Brand's novels. She made several movies with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

Carver's birth name was Virginia Reid Sampson. Early in her Hollywood career she briefly dated Howard Hughes. Carver died age 38 on August 12, 1955, after a long battle with cancer. At the time she was married to her third husband, theatrical agent William Mullaney.

Lynne Carver's first husband was Birmingham dentist Ralph Clay McClung [21 April 1907-25 February 1989]. As noted below, the two met at the 1935 Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. They were married at the court house in Selma on March 31, "accompanied by a party of friends who motored down from Birmingham." The engagement and marriage were kept secret for almost two months. Carver wanted to continue her film career, and McClung planned to keep his dental practice in Birmingham. By mid-December 1936 the couple were divorced; Carver married her second husband the following year.

On Anestry.com I found McClung's World War II draft registration card. He registered on October 16, 1940, when he was 33 years old. The card tells us that he had a light complexion, weighed 150 pounds, had brown hair and blue eyes and stood 5'11".

The 1940 U.S. census at the same site notes that McClung lived in a rented house on Highland Avenue, where he was also living in 1935. Four women, two of whom were his sisters, also lived in the house. His marital status? "Divorced". Alabama marriage records show that he married Dorothy Greagan Hill on August 8, 1950. The 1959 Birmingham City Director has them living at 2918 Overhill Road in Mountain Brook. His office was at 2027 First Avenue North. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

His son, Ralph Clay McClung, Jr., is also a dentist.