"Quantum Leap" Visits Alabama

I've written blog posts fairly recently about Dr. Who's visit to Montgomery in the 1950's and the Alabama connection in an episode of Granchester, the British detective show. Now it's time to examine visits to the state in some episodes of Quantum Leap. 

Actor Scott Bakula has been very active in film and television since 1986. He is currently starring in NCIS: New Orleans, which premiered in 2014. THAT show has an Alabama connection, since one of his co-stars is Decatur native Lucas Black. Another high-profile role for Bakula was Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise, which ran 2001-2005. From 1989 until 1993 Bakula starred as physicist Sam Beckett in the time travel series Quantum Leap. 

The premise of that show involved an experiment that sent Beckett leaping back in time into the body of someone living in that period. Beckett spends each episode attempting to correct an historical mistake with help from a friend, Rear Admiral Al Calavicci [played by Dean Stockwell] who appears in the past as a hologram. OK, Beckett's hero Albert Einstein might not buy this idea, but it's the McGuffin that drives the show.

Wikipedia sums up the program: "The series features a mix of humor, drama, romance, social commentary, and science fiction. The show was ranked number 19 on TV Guide's "Top Cult Shows Ever" in 2007.^[1][2]" 

Comments on the Alabama episodes are below. Both involve racial issues; Alabama is often the go-to state for that sort of thing in fiction, films, and television. The Grantchester and Dr. Who episodes also mined that rich and troubled history. 

In "The Color of Truth", the seventh episode of the first season, Sam leaps into the body of Jesse Tyler on August 8 1955. Tyler is the chauffeur for the elderly Miss Melny Trafford, a well-respected member of the community of Red Dog, Alabama. At first Sam doesn't realize Tyler is black; complications ensue.

A fan of the show has chosen "The Color of Truth" as one of the ten best episodes. You can read more about the episode and its cast here. The episode was first broadcast May 3, 1989. 

The Quantum Leap fan podcast about this episode can be found here. 

In the episode "Justice" Sam leaps into Tallawaga County, Alabama, on May 11, 1965. His host Clyde is being inducted into the Ku Klux Klan at that very moment. Sam discovers the Klan is unhappy with Nathaniel Simpson, the son of Clyde's maid who is helping register blacks to vote in the upcoming election. Complications ensue. 

The episode was the fourth of season four, and first broadcast on October 9, 1991. 

The Quantum Leap fan podcast about this episode can be found here. 

TV Guide October 21, 1989

Movies with Alabama Connections: The Sin of Nora Moran

If I followed the Alabama connection in this film into other movies, I would never have to find other topics for this blog. Late in his career Henry B. Walthall, a major star in silent films, appeared in this 1933 crime drama. Walthall was a Shelby County native and made dozens and dozens--and dozens--of films between 1909 and 1936. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

As The Sin of Nora Moran opens we learn that Nora, lover of a married Governor, sits on death row convicted of a murder that the District Attorney, the Governor's brother-in-law, helped her cover up. She has refused to tell the truth about the crime in order to save people she loves. We can sympathize because she had killed a man who raped her. We eventually learn she claimed to have murdered him to cover the accidental death actually caused by her lover--the Governor. Got that?

Early in the film we follow Nora as she unsuccessfully looks for a job until she's hired as the assistant to a circus lion tamer. He eventually rapes her, and Nora leaves the circus for New York City. Before that we get to see an incredible wrestling match between the tamer and one of the lions.

This film is a strange amalgam of scenes set in the present as Nora awaits her fate and flashbacks--and flash forwards within those flashbacks-- to various periods as we learn about her earlier life. There are visions of the dead and from the soon-to-be-dead. District Attorney John Grant narrates the tale to his sister, the wife of Governor Dick Crawford, who is Nora's lover. There are also interesting tracking shots,  montages, and at one point a rather lingering focus on the backsides of some young ladies in a chorus line.

Zita Johann who plays Nora was an Austrian-American actress with some credits in Broadway productions and a few films. In addition to this one, she's also remembered for her role in the classic 1932 horror film The Mummy. 

Walthall has a small role as Father Ryan, who has known Nora since her days as a little girl in his orphanage. By this time, three years before his death, Walthall was acting in smaller roles but many of them. He finished his final film only three weeks before he died of an intestinal illness at age 58.

We can find Walthall listed in the 1880 U.S. Census at age two. His parents, Junius L. and A.M. Walthall, were living on their farm near Harpersville with young Henry, an older sister, and his father's mother. By 1900 they were living in Columbiana, and Henry, then 22, was a deputy sheriff. He had been educated mostly at home, but attended Howard College for six months. Walthall served in the military during the Spanish-American War, but caught malaria and was not deployed overseas before the end of hostilities. 

At some point he left Alabama for New York and began a career on the stage. By 1909 he had made his first film for D.W. Griffiths' Biography Studios. His role in Griffith's infamous 1915 film Birth of a Nation made him a star. I'm planning a blog post on Walthall in the near future and will explore his career on the stage and in the movies.

You can read appreciations of the film here and here. Nora Moran was the product of Majestic Studios, a Poverty Row outfit that operated from 1930 until 1935. This crisp 65-minute film is a strange one, but well worth watching. You can find it online at the Internet Archive.

This film is known as a pre-code Hollywood film, meaning it was made before the implementation of strict content rules for motion pictures rigidly enforced from 1935 until the mid-1950's. The rules are widely known as the Hays code after the man who developed them. I've written about another pre-code film with Alabama connections, the very strange--and I mean very--1934 production, Murder at the Vanities. 

More comments are below some of the images. 

One of the film's original posters, designed by Alberto Vargas. This same image was used on the 2013 DVD release. 

Born in Peru, Vargas moved to the U.S. as a young man after art studies in Europe. He soon began poster designs for the Ziegfield Follies and then Hollywood studios. He is most famous for the many pin-up paintings he did for Esquire during World War II and later for Playboy. 

We learn that Nora was a resident at the orphanage run by Father Ryan. She was adopted by a couple who are soon killed in a car wreck.

In this fantasy sequence three men gather around Nora's casket to talk about her execution, which has not yet taken place. Father Ryan is there, along with the District Attorney and the Governor. Her former lover, on the right in the photo below, notes that he doesn't like the way they've fixed her hair. His companion the district attorney replies that they shaved part of it so the current would go through her body. Her lover insists that's not true....Father Ryan remains silent and stoic. 

In another of several fantasy sequences in the film, an adult Nora visits Father Ryan in his office at the orphanage. 

Walthall did make it into the main credit sequence, but his role is rather small. 

Henry B. Walthall [1878-1936]

Source: Wikipedia 

A Quick Visit to Arab

East and south of Huntsville you can find several small Alabama towns with "exotic" names: Arab, Egypt, Joppa and to the east of Scottsboro there's even a Hollywood. On a trip last year winding through that part of the state my younger brother Richard and I visited Owens Cross Roads, Scottsboro and ended up going through Arab. 

I've written about West Station Antiques and Gibson's Books in Owen's Cross Roads and Scottsboro in two posts here and here. In this posting I'm discussing Arab. Perhaps one day we'll visit Egypt and Hollywood. 

So why is the town named Arab? Stephen Tuttle Thompson settled in the area around 1840. By the late 1850's a community known as Thompson's Village had developed around his farm. In 1882 Thompson applied to the U.S. government for a post office; one of the possible names he submitted was "Arad", the middle name of his son. The story goes that a postal official interpreted that as "Arab". And here we are. 

This truly was a quick visit, so I'm not doing justice to the town here with just a few photos and a bit of history. One thing we missed was the Historic Village near the city park. This complex of ten buildings recreates life in the area from the 1880's until the 1940's using authentic furnishings and decor. You can read about the origin and development here. A Veterans' Memorial is located at the entrance of that city park. 

The population of the town was just over 8000 in the 2010 U.S. Census. Yet despite its small size Arab can claim several notable people. Liles Burke is a native and a U.S. judge for the northern district of Alabama. Vernon Derrick was a musician who lived most of his life in Arab; he died in 2008. He played mandolin and fiddle with the Stanley Brothers, Jimmy Martin's bluegrass band and Hank Williams, Jr.'s Bama Band. Jill King is a country music singer born in Arab; she released her first album in 2003. Another country music singer, Wayne Mills, was also an Arab native who was murdered in Nashville in 2013. He had released five studio and two live albums. Baseball pitcher Jack Lively was born in Joppa, but settled in Arab after his athletic career ended. 

One of the most famous people associated with Arab is Fred Nall Hollis, who was born in Troy but graduated from high school in Arab after his family moved there. "Nall" as he is known professionally has since become an internationally renowned artist. He studied in France and under Salvador Dali and works in many media, including mosaics, sculpture, drawing, porcelain and carpets. He has traveled and lived widely, but in 2005 returned to Alabama where he built a studio in Fairhope.

More comments are below.

Businesses along a portion of Main Street [Alabama 69]

This photo and one below are the view as we drove into town on Main Street.

Tuttle Thompson Park is located downtown.

Looking back toward downtown from the pocket park

Our Uncle John and Aunt Myrna Shores, mom's older brother and his wife, are buried in Brookwood Cemetery and Memorial Gardens.

Uncle John and Aunt Myrna in the mid-to-late 1990's 

Arabian Motel in Arab, 1940

From the Wade Hall Collection at Troy University Libraries
via Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Hotel Thompson in Arab, 1940

From the Wade Hall Collection at Troy University Libraries
via Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Dickson's Truck in Arab, 1940

From the Wade Hall Collection at Troy University Libraries
via Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Arab is one of several Alabama towns included  in James W. Loewen's Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism [2018]. Historically the term "sundown town" indicated a place to be vacated by blacks before dark. Today's broader definition indicates a neighborhood, town or county with planned discrimination against blacks, Jews and/or others. You can read more about Loewen's Alabama towns here. 

 

Alabama Author: Lelias E. Kirby, M.D.

Wandering--so to speak--through my book collection recently, I came across this collection of short anecdotes by Lelias E. Kirby, M.D. Corncobs, issued by the Birmingham firm A.H. Cather Publishing in 1973, was Kirby's first book. Two more came out in 1975, Cotton Pickin' Coon Huntin' Country Boys [also A.H. Cather] and How Me and Amos Won World War I [Commercial Printing Company, also in Birmingham]. More information about that latter book can be found at the end of this post. Since Cather was a printing operation, I presume these books were self-published by Kirby. 

So who was Lelias Kirby? He was born on October 28, 1895, in Etowah County. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. and then Emory School of Medicine in 1926. Before college he farmed and coached in high school. On August 19, 1927, he married Jean Harms, and they would have three children, two daughters and a son. The Sayers biographical compilation cited below noted that he was a retired physician-surgeon, a Democrat, a Methodist and had three hobbies: writing a column syndicated to weekly newspapers, speaker at clubs and conventions and making unusual walking canes.

From what I could gather, Kirby had hospital privileges at East End Memorial Hospital, which eventually became Medical Center East. According to the 1940 American Medical Association Directory, Kirby had an office in Birmingham at 5357 1st Avenue North, where his hours were 3-5 pm. That directory, the 1940 U.S. Census and the 1969 compilation all give his home address as 1 North 80th Street. You can see a Google Street View of the house from October 2018 here. 

Kirby cited writing a syndicated newspaper column as one of his hobbies. A blurb on the back of this book written by the editorial page editor of the Birmingham News identifies Kirby as a frequent contributor to the letters-to-the-editor section of that paper. No specific sources of the book's contents are given.

Corncobs contains numerous short anecdotes and tales covering the topics indicated in the contents below. These writings express a fondness for the simplicity of his youth and in a few cases hostility to elements of the contemporary society. You can tell a lot from the titles: "Life Has Its Ups and Downs", "The Stove Wood Box", "The Blacksmith Shop", "The First Christmas" and "Everybody Talks about the Weather".

 In "Mothers-in-Law" Kirby makes a defense of the species, including his own. "Should the Old Terminal Come Down?" is a poem about Birmingham's Terminal Railroad Station, which was demolished in 1969. In 

"The Doctors say 'Phooey on ERA'" Kirby tells us exactly what he thinks about the Equal Rights Amendment: "No, we men like women as they are--we prefer that they use cosmetics and perfume rather than plumber and mechanic's grease to attract the opposite sex." In one of the rare essays related to his medical practice, "Snake Doctor", he recounts an amusing incident when he tried to administer some antivenom to a patient bitten by a rattler. 

Early in the collection is "My Most Unforgettable Character", which refers to the Reader's Digest long-running article series, "The Most Unforgettable Character I Have Ever Met." In Kirby's case he wrote about Dr. George H. Denny, President of the University of Alabama from 1912 until 1936. Kirby gives several examples of Denny's kindness to him as an undergraduate in the early 1920's. 

Kirby died on October 5, 1977, and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery. His wife Jean died in 1985 and is also buried there. 

Sources for this post include Ancestry.com and the book Who's Who in Alabama, Volume 2 [John W. Sayers, comp., 1969, p. 244]. A picture of Dr. Kirby, described as a "1977 press photo" is currently for sale on eBay. 

Published in 1975, this book describes the experiences of Kirby and his brother in World War I. Read more about it in this essay by Mary Anne Ellis. 

Source: Find-A-Grave

When the Circus Came to Town

In an October 2018 issue of our local Pelham Reporter newspaper I found an ad for a one-day appearance November 3 in Columbiana by the Loomis Brothers Circus. You can see it near the end of this post. As fate would have it, I had watched a two-part "American Experience" documentary about the circus in the U.S. on Alabama Public Television not long before that. Somebody was trying to tell me something, so here we are.

In January 2017 the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus made its final appearance in Birmingham. That circus had come through the city for many years; we took our young children to see it at the BJCC in 1988 and 1991. Sample tickets are below. On May 21, 2017, the circus ceased operations after some 146 years of touring under various names and owners. Declining attendance and high operating costs brought an end to one of America's--and the world's--classic entertainments. Much smaller circuses continue to tour the U.S., but an era seems to be winding down. I remember taking our kids once or twice to see one of those smaller outfits at the Riverchase Galleria back in the day. 

The modern circus dates from 1768 when Philip Astley began trick horse shows near London. Two years later he hired acrobats, jugglers, a clown and tightrope walkers to fill the time between the shows. On April 3, 1793, a Scotsman named John Bill Ricketts opened the first circus performance in the U.S. in Philadelphia. George Washington attended a performance. 

The glory years of the circus in the U.S. were roughly the 1830's until well into the 1950's. In the 1830's the first American to operate a major circus was Victor Pepin. In 1825 Joshuah Purdy Brown began the use of a large canvas tent for a circus. P.T. Barnum began touring a freak show with William Cameron Coup, who developed the multiple ring circus and circus travel by train.. Dan Rice became the most famous circus clown during this period. 

Thus by the Civil War most elements of the traditional circus were in place. After the war numerous circus organizations large and small toured America and much of the world for decades with their combinations of human and animal entertainment. Since the 1970's many groups with a different circus aesthetic, such as Cirque du Soleil, have developed. China, Russia and other nations have contributed to circus development and variation as well. Human desire for spectacular entertainment being what it is, the circus will no doubt survive in some form.

Written and other resources on circus history are vast. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has put online oral histories from circus workers both inside and outside of the big top; you can find more information here and here. Steph Post's essay on great sideshow cons is here. A web site devoted to circus history is here. Susan Salaz has written about Peru, Indiana, the "Circus Capital of the World."

This blog post is by no means a history of the circus in Alabama; that remains to be researched and written. However, I do want to cover a few random things I've come across recently on that topic. Perhaps I'll return to it in the future.

You can find other photographs related to circuses in Alabama here. George Singleton's 1972 essay about a circus crossing the Alabama River at Claiborne in 1908 is here.

Source: The Daily Ardmoreite [Oklahoma] 26 January 1906, p. 3

The BhamWiki.com site has an entry on this circus/sale, but the story is different. According to that version, the circus ended its run in Sylacauga and wintered in Birmingham. Show receipts were stolen, and the management was forced to schedule an auction. James Bailey of Barnum & Bailey offered $150,000 for everything, and the auction was cancelled.

Montgomery Advertiser and State Gazette 26 Dec 1860

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History 

Circus by Zelda Fitzgerald

This oil on canvas painting, completed in 1938, is in the collections of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. By this time Zelda was deep in the depths of her clinical depression and round-robin stays in various sanitariums. Perhaps the image is based on a memory of Zelda's about seeing the circus as a child in Alabama.

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A circus parade on the square in Huntsville in 1913. In the left background is the First National Bank building supposedly robbed by Frank and Jesse James in 1876.

Source: Huntsville-Madison County Public Library

Legendary circus clown Emmett Kelly during a visit to Birmingham in 1955

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Ringling Brothers Circus at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery January 1958

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Window of the New Idea Barbershop in Birmingham in 1937 as photographed by Arthur Rothstein. I've written a blog post about this photo here.

Gunther Gebel-Williams and his tigers with the Ringling Brothers Circus in Birmingham on February 10, 1979. He worked with the circus as an animal trainer from 1968 until 1990. 

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Red Skelton in Birmingham at the Barnum Circus 10 February 1979

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Elephants in the Dixie Circus performing at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery 29 May 1970

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Here's that ad I mentioned above for the Loomis Brothers circus. According to their web site, the circus has been touring for more than 20 years. 

Source: Pelham Reporter 31 October 2018, p. 1B

Remember those visits with the kids to the Ringling Brothers circus at the BJCC I mentioned?  I've got the ticket stubs. Dianne was pregnant with Becca during that first one in 1988.