Grand Theater in Huntsville

Recently my brother Richard and I were going through some papers at mom's house in Huntsville, and we found this piece torn from a newspaper many years ago. Mom saved an item on the other side, but this side gives the source and date and includes an advertisement for a movie showing at the Grand Theater. Neither Richard nor I remembered the Grand even though we both grew up in Huntsville. So naturally I decided to investigate.

I found some information on the Cinema Treasures site and a page devoted to Huntsville movie theaters. The Grand first opened in April 1920 on Jefferson Street, but that original movie house burned in December 1924. Its replacement opened the following year and featured a Robert Morton theater organ. The Theater closed on May 25, 1960.

As the ad below notes, the theater featured the final local showings that day of The Bridge On the River Kwai, a classic World War II film released on December 14, 1957, in the United States. I suspect the Grand was a second-run theater at the time of this ad, since the film is showing there six months after its U.S. release.

Can't beat those ticket prices, though! 

Alabama Photo of the Day: Homewood Theatre in 1941

The first photo below shows the Homewood Theatre after its renovation in 1941. Below that is an article from the Birmingham News in January of that year describing the changes coming to the venue. The second photo shows the theater around 1928, and the final one of the building was taken in March 2019. 

The 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages theater listings gives the address as 2834 South 18th Street. The architect for the redesign was Wilmot Douglas; you can see a list of some of his other buildings in the Birmingham area here. He also designed the College Theatre which opened in East Lake in 1949. 

The Cinema Treasures site says the theater closed around 1963. If you have other information or memories about the Homewood Theatre, feel free to leave them in the comments section. 

Taken in 1941 by a photographer named Rushing for the Birmingham News

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives & History

Birmingham News article January 1941 

Source: Birmingham Rewound

C. 1928 Birmingham News photo of the Homewood Theatre from the Birmingham Public Library's Birmingham News Photograph Collection (Item BN545)

Films advertised include "Arizona Wildcat" (1927), "Fireman, Save My Child" (1927), "While the City Sleeps" (1928), "Tarzan the Mighty" (1928), "The Scrappin' Ranger" (1928), and "Beauty and Bullets" (1928). The door on the left is marked "Colored Entrance".

Source: BhamWiki

This photo via Google Maps shows the building in March 2019. 

The Federal Theatre Project in Alabama

The Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal program designed to promote new and classical theatrical productions and provide work for playwrights, actors, musicians, directors and others during the Great Depression. Plays and musicals were produced in many cities across the country, including Birmingham. The program began on August 27, 1935, and was cancelled June 30, 1939. 

Here's Wikipedia's summation of the project, which was driven by the vision of director Hallie Flanagan:

"Within a year the Federal Theatre Project employed 15,000 men and women,^[7]:174 paying them $23.86 a week.^[8] During its nearly four years of existence it played to 30 million people in more than 200 theaters nationwide^[7]:174 — renting many that had been shuttered — as well as parks, schools, churches, clubs, factories, hospitals and closed-off streets.^[3]:40 Its productions totalled approximately 1,200, not including its radio programs.^[4]:432 Because the Federal Theatre was created to employ and train people, not to generate revenue, no provision was made for the receipt of money when the project began. At its conclusion, 65 percent of its productions were still presented free of charge.^[4]:434 The total cost of the Federal Theatre Project was $46 million.^[3]:40"

Very little has been written about the project in Alabama, which closed in January 1937 when its personnel were transferred to Georgia. The Alabama Mosaic site has about 34 articles mostly from contemporary newspapers via the Birmingham Public Library. Some of those are below with comments. 

I recently read an article by John R. Poole, "Making a Tree from Thirst: Acquiescence and Defiance in the Federal Theatre Project in Birmingham, Alabama" published in Theatre History Studies 21: 27-42, 2001. In it Poole discusses the only black project in the Deep South, which happened to operate in Birmingham. Several plays originated in this unit, and I'll also discuss some below the relevant newspaper articles. Poole wrote his dissertation, cited at the end with some other materials, on the project in Georgia and Alabama.  

Before its demise the Federal Theatre Project became the subject of Congressional criticism and investigation. Many of the productions addressed, sometimes  graphically, racial and labor injustices and other problematic topics. A few of the Birmingham plays fit that profile as noted below.

What also happened is that for some intense months in 1936 a lot of theater was produced in Birmingham involving both white and black actors and audiences and in some cases tough subjects. 

Jefferson Theater on 2nd Avenue North around 1903. Most of Birmingham's "white" plays were produced here.

Source: BhamWiki

Industrial High School [now Parker]. Most plays of the "Negro" unit were produced here. 

Source: BhamWiki

Birmingham Post 31 March 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic 

"Home in Glory" a "symphonic drama" was written by Clyde Limbaugh, the white director of the Negro Repertory Theater, the first federal project in Birmingham. The previous year Limbaugh had participated in "Roll Sweet Chariot" a project presented at Legion Field. Rehearsals for "Home" took place at the Y.W.C.A. for blacks since the play about black life in Shelby County featured 26 black actors and a chorus of 100. As noted below, the production took place at Municipal Auditorium on two nights in mid-April. There was apparently a third performance; according to Limbaugh, in total 2500 people attended. 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Birmingham Post 2 April 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

During this period Limbaugh was also busy with projects outside the Federal Theater, including this "minstrel" show with an all black cast staged at the Industrial High School. 

Birmingham Post 24 April 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic 

This article gives us some details on the Federal Theater Project for white professionals and audiences in Birmingham. The plan was to pay $75 a month "be it for villainy, heroism, or plain butlering." The first production to open about May 12 will be "After Dark" by Dion Bousicault, "an old-fashioned melodrama with plenty of asides." Director Verner Haldene was previously with the Montgomery Little Theater, and had taken over April 23 from Ivan Paul of the Federal Theater's Washington office. The play's 25 actors included veterans of the Birmingham Little Theater. Performances were planned for Tuesday through Saturday nights with a Saturday matinee; prices ranged from 20 to 40 cents. The company was large enough to support one always in Birmingham and another touring the state. 

Birmingham Age-Herald 12 May 1936 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

Birmingham Post 13 May 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

Birmingham News 24 June 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

This article sums up the season as presenting a "series of successful play", ending with a second week of "Chalk Dust" that "deals with educational problems in these trying times." Optimism ran high; the piece notes rehearsals will take place over the summer for the fall season. 

Birmingham News 9 July 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic 

Noted here is "Swamp Mud", the second production of the Birmingham "Colored Unit." The venue was Industrial High School, with Clyde Limbaugh the director and Wallace Pritchett the musical arranger. The play, set among prisoners in the south Georgia swamps, included works songs and spirituals sung by a choir of 200 voices. Seating was available for both blacks and whites. 

Source: Library of Congress

Birmingham Post 9 July 1936

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

We learn here that "Swamp Mud" had been first presented by a group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The symphonic drama featured an "invisible choir. 

Author Harold Courlander had a long career as novelist and anthropologist, publishing 35 books and plays and many scholarly articles. He died in 1996. 

 

Arthur K. Akers [1886-1980] was a Birmingham writer who published several dozen stories in various magazines between 1910 and 1936. Some featured stereotypical African-American characters and dialect. You can see a list of them here and here.

Source: Library of Congress

Birmingham Post 5 November 1936 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

The Birmingham Federal Theater Project will suspend performances until after Christmas, and hopefully take its successful production of "It Can't Happen Here" on a state tour. That play, based on the 1935 Sinclair Lewis novel, had premiered on October 27 in 21 theaters in 17 states. The company also plans to begin work on "Altars of Steel" a play by Thomas Hall-Rogers about the development of the steel industry in Birmingham. That play was produced in Atlanta the following year to great controversy; see references below. 

 

Birmingham News 16 May 1971

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections via Alabama Mosaic

This article provides some more interesting details. The Jefferson Theater remained "dark and deserted" after the theater project left in 1936 and was finally torn down in 1947. There's also an anecdote from Federal Theater Project national director Hallie Flanagan's testimony before the U.S. House committee about subversive influence in the productions around the country. U.S. Representative Joe Starnes of Alabama wanted to know if the 16th century English playwright Christopher Marlowe was a communist. 

FURTHER REFERENCES

Flanagan, Hallie (1940). Arena: The Story of the Federal Theatre. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

Ralph T. Jones, ‘Altars of Steel Highly Praised as Best Drama Ever Presented Here,” Atlanta Constitution, April 2, 1937, 11

John McGee, Federal Theatre of the South: A Supplement to the Federal Theatre National Bulletin, Quarterly Bulletin 1, no. 2 (October 1936),

John Russell Poole, The Federal Theatre Project in Georgia and Alabama: An Historical Analysis of Government Theatre in the Deep South (PhD Diss., University of Georgia, Athens, 1995)

Mildred Seydell, “Altars of Steel Aids Communism with Tax Money,” Atlanta Georgian, April 4, 1937, 4D

Drama in "Pokerville", Known to Us as Wetumpka

Although born in London in 1810, Joseph M. Field came to America at a very young age and remained here until his death in 1856. In 1827 he began an acting career in Boston, but three years later left the city looking for better opportunities. By 1833 he was in the Old Southwest touring with Sol Smith, the co-manager of a theatrical company that worked large cities such as New Orleans and Mobile and many small towns along the routes. Both men published accounts of life on the theater circuit in the U.S. and especially in the Southeast and Alabama. 

Smith published his book Theatrical Management in the South and West for Thirty Years in 1868, the year before his death. I plan a blog post in the future on Smith and his career. In this post let's look at Field's The Drama in Pokerville, published in 1847.

Field's book falls into a genre of literature known as Old Southwestern humor that was popular in the antebellum period before the Civil War. The Old Southwest consisting of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas was America's Wild West at the time. The sketches and tales embracing this humor featured regional dialects and portraits of the many con men, gamblers, confidence artists and other criminals as well as their victims inhabiting the cities, towns and roads of these states. Also skewered are the pompous airs and prejudices of residents. 

The authors portrayed many denizens of the region as exotic, exaggerated types often lazy or crooked whether white, black or Native American.Two of the best known works in the genre originated in Alabama: Joseph G. Baldwin (1815-64), The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi: A Series of Sketches (1853) and Johnson Jones Hooper (1815-62), Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, Late of the Tallapoosa Volunteers; Together with "Taking the Census" and Other Alabama Sketches (1845).


Thus Field unlike Smith turned his experiences into humorous fiction. The Pokerville "drama" takes up almost half the book. In his essay on Fields in the Encyclopedia of Alabama Charles S. Watson summarizes the Alabama connections. "Pokerville probably is based on Wetumpka, Alabama, where Field had performed in a two-week theatrical run in a billiard room. Two stories about Sol Smith's company are specifically located in Alabama. "'Old Sol' in a Delicate Situation" takes place in the Mobile Theatre, and "A Night in a Swamp" describes Sol Smith's company en route from Georgia to Montgomery as they pass through the Creek Nation in Alabama. In The Drama in Pokerville, Field ridicules the pomposity of local social leaders and censures small-town prejudice against the theatre."

The brief excerpt below gives a taste of Fields' biting, sarcastic humor--and ridicule. A poster is printed advertising "The Great Small Affair" drama and attracts much interest since there is a "great desire" to have a theater in Pokerville. The town already had several brick stores, was situated at the "head of navigation" and located "somewhere, on the 'Big'--something" and thus bound to prosper. The nearby larger town of "Coonsborough" [Montgomery?] already had a theater. But there was a "heap" of taste in Pokerville, and the manager of the theatrical troupe could make "a corde of money" there. Fields' tongue is firmly in cheek during these and other observations.

He observes that Pokerville had no theater as yet, but did have three taverns, thirty-three bar rooms, a billiard room and a ten-pin alley. At least priorities were in order. I suppose the time had come for a little culture!

As you can see from the table of contents included below, Fields devotes a lot of attention to the doings in Pokerville surrounding "The Great Small Affair". You can find the book and enjoy more of his Alabama portrait here. 

Fields died in Mobile on January 28, 1856. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daughter Kate Fields, the only child of Joseph and his wife Eliza, became a journalist and lecturer. She is also buried in Mount Auburn along with both parents.

An illustration from Pokerville

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A Trader Joe's Opens in the Alabama Theatre--in Houston

On November 2, 1939, an art deco movie house named the Alabama Theatre opened in Houston, Texas. The first film shown was The Man About Town with comedian Jack Benny. In December 1983 a final movie appeared on the screen, the low budget horror title Mortuary. The Alabama Bookstop opened in the theater the following year. That business, later acquired by Barnes and Noble, operated until September 2009. You can see photos of the bookstore interior at this site. 

Despite several proposals, the facility's future remained in doubt until 2011 when the Trader Joe's market chain announced plans to open its first store in the Houston area. The next year the chain opened that store in the former theater and preserved much of its exterior and interior architectural delights. 

The Alabama in Houston was built in the same year as the River Oaks Theatre; both were owned by the Interstate chain. That company, which operated from 1905 until 1976, had vaudeville houses and movie theaters in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. I have not found any mention of operations in Alabama. Perhaps founder Karl Hoblitzelle admired our own Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, which had opened in 1927.

The Trader Joe's at The Summit is nice, but we seldom shop on the 280 corridor. If only Joe's had chosen a historic building downtown to re-purpose...

UPDATE 4 May 2021

Erum Salam has written a fascinating article about shopping at this Trader Joe's that includes appreciation of the remaining Art Deco features. 

Source: Wikipedia

South City Theatre in Pelham

On October 9 Dianne, myself and a friend of ours attended a matinee performance of George Batson's play "Design for Murder" at South City Theatre in Pelham. Back in the winter Dianne and I had seen their production of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap", and we thoroughly enjoyed both of these performances.

South City Theatre has mounted over 150 adult and children's productions since its founding around 2000. In 2015 the non-profit company moved to its current location in Pelham. The venue is small but intimate, and it's nice to have live theater so close to home.

Below are some photos and more information related to the most recent production we saw and to the play itself. 

These two photos show the set for "Design for Murder". 

"Design for Murder" is licensed by the Samuel French Company. Below are a couple of quotes from reviews of earlier productions and the plot summary on the company's web site. Written in 1960, the play is set in the 1930's. Batson seems to have written a number of comedies and light-hearted mystery plays over several decades. Tallulah Bankhead also toured in Batson's final production, "House on the Rocks", according to his obituary in the New York Times. 

"A swell chiller. A couple of juicy killings and the identify of the culprit well concealed." - New York Mirror 

"A fast moving, highly tensed whodunit." - London Stage

"Tallulah Bankhead toured in this exciting play. The story concerns Celia Granger, her son David and her efforts to maintain the traditions attached to her family and home, a magnificent old mansion on the Hudson River. Suddenly a young maid is killed and Celia finds herself living in a violent present. The detective on the case, a rugged self made man, is revealed to have admired Celia and brings a touch of romance to her life. When the chauffeur who had stumbled upon information linking David and the slain girl is also brutally murdered suspicion falls on every member of the cast. The climax finds Celia alone in the house and the murderer ready to strike again. Comedy is supplied by two women friends who also figure among the suspects."

That Night Movie Fans "Besieged" the Alabama Theater

No, I'm not referring to a showing of Gone with the Wind. That film first appeared in Birmingham on January 31, 1940, at the Ritz Theatre.

In March 1952 Birmingham saw its first actual Hollywood movie premiere. Birmingham News amusement editor Lila May Caldwell wrote two articles about the film Steel Town and the stars who also appeared in the city that month. See the articles below; links are provided where you can find more readable copies.

Her second article notes that an estimated 7000 people saw three showings of the film on March 20, and 7000 more jammed the streets as the stars arrived for the 9 pm show. Fans "shrieked welcome" to Ann Sheridan, John Lund, and Howard Duff.

Steel Town was filmed at a factory in California, but local businessmen urged Alabama Theater manager Norris Hadaway to convince Universal-International executives to hold the premiere in Birmingham. He did, and the "first picture ever to dramatize the making of steel" and its stars came to the Magic City.

The story follows a mill owner's son who has gone to work in the facility to learn the ropes. He's also living incognito with a steelworker's family; the daughter just happens to be played by Ann Sheridan. Her boyfriend played by Howard Duff  and the son played by John Lund vie for her affections as the steel is made.

I haven't seen this Technicolor film, but will now have to search it out. The Internet Movie Database identifies the film's tagline as "Men of steel! Women of flesh!" What more could a movie fan want?

 This article appeared in the Birmingham News on March 9, 1952.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections



A second article appeared in the Birmingham News on March 21.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections



Birmingham Photos of the Day (36): The Shubert Theatre Orchestra

Local developer Frank O'Brien opened his four-story "O'Brien's Opera House" at the corner of 1st Avenue and 19th Street North in 1882. The actual auditorium, built for traveling theater groups, was located on the second floor and seated over 1200 patrons. The first floor was occupied by a grocery store, dentist's office, hardware store and a saloon. A hotel took up the top two floors. 

You can read the rich history of this building at the BhamWiki site linked below. In 1910 the facility was purchased by the Shubert Organization, a chain of theaters that still operates today. Although Shubert was successful at the site, the fire marshal declared the building unsafe the following year. The building was finally demolished in 1915. Today a plaque marks the location. Before his death in 1910, O'Brien had served in the Alabama House of Representatives and as Jefferson County Sheriff and Mayor of Birmingham.

The last photo below shows the Shubert Theatre Orchestra which had a very short life.

This undated photograph shows O'Brien's Opera House.

Source: BhamWiki.com

 Source: BhamWiki.com

This photograph notes that H.E. Snow was the orchestra's manager. The Archive site linked below identifies the date of this photo as somewhere between 1890 and 1910, but the Shubert Theatre operated only in 1910 and 1911. Of course, some of the musicians may have played in previous orchestras at the theater.

Source: Alabama Department of Archives & History Digital Collections 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (17): 19th Street in 1908

The 1908 coffee table book Views of Birmingham Alabama (title page below) has a number of fascinating photographs of the area from that time. The photo below shows 19th Street looking north from 1st Avenue. 

The street is busy. Pedestrians are on the sidewalks and crossing the street. Two streetcars can be seen in the distance. A horse-drawn carriage is coming toward us. We can see a prominent "Saloon" sign on the lower left and what looks like another one on the lower right.

Across the street is a large "Gayety" sign, and we can see "New Gayety" down the building on the left. These signs advertise the Gayety Theatre which opened in the building in 1905. Theatricals performed there were of the burlesque variety.

The building, seen completely in the photograph below, opened in 1882 as the O'Brien Opera House. Follow the Bham Wiki link for a fascinating history of the structure, which was torn down in 1915. The site is a parking lot today.

An undated photograph of the Gayety Theatre in its first incarnation as O'Brien's Opera House which opened in November 1882. Source: Bham Wiki

Birmingham Photo of the Day (12): Birmingham Theatre in the 1940s

This photograph by Oscar V. Hunt is taken from the Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections . BPL's record for this photograph notes the marquee as proclaiming the Birmingham Theatre "the largest and finest colored theatre in the entire South, 1st run pictures and stage shows exclusively for colored people."

According to the BhamWiki site, this building at 17th Street and 3rd Avenue North was constructed in the 1890s as a public auditorium. The Birmingham Theatre opened there in 1946 but was unsuccessful; the building was demolished in 1950.

O.V. Hunt photographed scenes in Birmingham for many years; he died in 1962. BPL has many of his photographs in their collections. Alabama Mosaic indexes more than 200 of them.