Birmingham Photo of the Day (14): Lyric Theatre in 1953

Here's a photo of the Lyric Theatre from the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections. People are coming to see Woman They Almost Lynched, a B-western released in March 1953. The four stars listed on the marquee were B-movie stalwarts of the day. In smaller roles the film also featured Ellen Corby, who would go on to greater fame in the TV show The Waltons; and veteran character actor Jim Davis who also did a prominent stint on TV as Jock Ewing on the original Dallas.

I hope when the restored Lyric reopens they show some classics like this one!

Keystone Then and Now

If you asked people in northern Shelby County “What do you know about Keystone?” most who could answer at all would probably mention Keystone Plaza, the shopping strip along U.S. 31/Pelham Parkway at the Pelham-Alabaster line. Yet Keystone was once a thriving little community between those two towns.

 In the late 1890s Fred Hardy constructed kilns for a lime plant and named it Keystone Lime Plant. The operation grew and soon enough men were employed that a small community developed around the plant. The place, known originally as Hardyville, included grocery and dry goods stores, a barber shop and the plant’s offices. A post office opened in 1898 and Hardy served as first postmaster.

Hardy soon sold the plant, and by 1904 the post office served a community called Keystone. The plant burned in 1923, but reopened on a limited basis. Mortar was made there during World War II and the entire plant 1965. The community remained but the post office closed in 1972.

The Alabama Almanac and Book of Facts 1955-56 gave a few more details about Keystone. A telegraph office operated in the community at that time. E.L. Purdy was Superintendent of the Keystone Lime Works, Inc., plant; and G.W. Bentley was Foreman. Lime works also operated in the nearby communities of Landmark, Saginaw, Roberta and Pelham.

A 1937 state highway map show communities named Keystone and Hardy between Pelham and Alabaster. I wonder what the story is for Wilmay, south of Alabaster and probably another Shelby County community absorbed by growth. Neither Foscue's Place Names in Alabama or Harris' Dead Towns of Alabama tell us about Wilmay. 

The Alabama Official and Statistical Register for 1943 includes a list of U.S. Post Offices in the state as of July 1940. Keystone is one of the offices listed in Shelby County. 

Do you know anything? If so, leave a comment below.

15 August 2014: Since this item was originally posted, I've come across another remnant of Keystone. On August 6 the Alabaster Reporter published an article entitled "Keystone Mobile Home Park now fully in Alabaster." Thus the community of Keystone currently survives in the name of a trailer park and a strip mall at least!                                                                         
3 September 2014: And here's yet another remanant of Keystone on the right as you head south on U.S. 31/Pelham Parkway near the Pelham-Alabaster line:

20 July 2016: I've recently been contacted by a member of the Hammond family, who has graciously provided the photographs below from various family members. Thanks to all of you!

18 February 2018: The Shelby County Historical Society Quarterly Newsletter in its November 2017 issue [Volum19, Number 4, pp. 1-2] reprinted an article from the September 7, 1908, issue of the Columbiana Sentinel, "Keystone Lime Company's Plant One of the Greatest of its Kind in all the Southern States Keystone, Alabama". The article includes a photograph of what appears to be the company's office building. The article notes the company employs 155 people and has "a private telephone line to Siluria, Saginaw and Maylene."

This Google Earth view is from 2016.

“The greatest city in Alabam’”: Songs about Birmingham

            If the discussion turns to popular songs about American cities, Birmingham, Alabama, probably doesn’t come to mind first. Instead, classics like “New York, New York,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” might be the ones people name. Yet cities all over the world have their own songs—“Tijuana Jail” by the Kingston Trio, anyone? Or maybe “La Rumba de Barcelona” by Manu Chao or “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head? And our city is no exception.

            One of the earliest such songs is the 1916 “If Ever I Get Back to Birmingham (To the Girl Who Waits for Me)” by composers James Alexander Brennan and O.E. Story.  Both men were from Boston and may never have been south of the Mason-Dixon Line, much less to Birmingham. Songwriters of this era often incorporated images and scenes of a romantic, pastoral, yet mysterious and exotic South that never really existed. Two 1918 songs by Brennan were “When It's Cotton Pickin' Time In Tennessee” and “When The Steamboats On The Swanee Whistle Rag-time.”

Cover of sheet music for "If I Ever Get Back to Birmingham" (1916)
Source: BhamWiki.com

            The lyrics of the song describe the singer’s sadness and longing at his distance from his “girl” and his lack of money for the $19.60 fare to reach her. The only image specific to Birmingham is that of the railroad that will take him there if he could buy a ticket. He does declare that “I will settle down in Alabam’” if he  gets to the city. The piece was intended for a vocalist with piano accompaniment.

            Over the next two decades many Birmingham songs made their way into popular culture. “Birmingham Jail” has the music of traditional American folk song “Down in the Valley” and lyrics by a guitar player named Jimmie Tarlton. He claimed to have written them while actually in the jail on a moonshine charge. “Write me a letter, send it by mail,” the singer tells his Bessie, “Send it in care of Birmingham Jail.”

            In November 1927 Tarlton and Tom Darby recorded the song in Atlanta for Columbia Records; over 200,000 copies were quickly sold. The pair produced two follow-up songs with less success, “Birmingham Jail No. 2” and “New Birmingham Jail.” The original version has been recorded by numerous artists such as Eddy Arnold, Peggy Lee, Slim Whitman, Lead Belly, and as recently as 1993 by Jerry Garcia.

            Another song close to local culture is “Mining Camp Blues”, recorded in February 1925 by Trixie Smith and Her Down Home Syncopators for Paramount Records. Smith, who had attended Selma University, personalized her lyrics and referred to her father “Diggin’ and a haulin’, haulin’ that Birmingham coal.” Like so many blues, this one sings of death: “It was late one evening. I was standing at that mine./ Foreman said my daddy had gone down for his last, last time.” Smith herself is “nearly dying, from these mining camp blues.”

            The tradition of local artists writing about their city continued in “Birmingham Boys,” recorded in 1926 by the Birmingham Jubilee Singers. In this case the lyrics by Charles Bridge announce a much more upbeat attitude and the pride as “Birmingham boys we” who have moved from the country to the bustling city.

            This fervent connection to Birmingham continues today. On her 2006 CD My Glass Eye city native Beth Thornley’s “Birmingham” has a litany of city details meaningful to her because “it’s in the blood and in the mud/ down in Birmingham.”

            Other songs from the 1920s include Duke Ellington’s “Birmingham Breakdown” (1926) and Charlie Johnson’s “Birmingham Black Bottom” (1927). The great Ethel Waters performed “Birmingham Bertha” in the 1929 film musical On with the Show.

            Western movie star and singer Gene Autry is not usually associated with Birmingham or even the South, but early in his career in November 1931 he recorded “Birmingham Daddy.” Autry sings as a man whose “baby turned me down” and he’s leaving town to find a new “mama.” “If love was liquor, and I could drink/” he declares, “I’d be drunk all the time, I’d go back in town, to Birmingham.”

            “Birmingham Bounce” by Sid “Hardrock” Gunter and his band is sometimes cited as the first rock and roll song. The piece was recorded in the city in 1950 and became an area hit later covered by the likes of Lionel Hampton, Tommy Dorsey and others.

Cover for the music for "Birmingham Bounce" by Hardrock Gunter

Source: BhamWiki.com

            Several country songs about our city have appeared in recent decades. In her 1973 “Birmingham Mistake”, Sammi Smith sings about a child abandoned in the city. The previous year Lester Flatt released “Backin’ to Birmingham” that tells the story of a truck driver whose rig’s forward gear doesn’t work, so he has to drive the load in reverse all the way from Chicago.

            Two versions of “Paint Me a Birmingham” by Tracy Lawrence and Ken Mellens came out in 2003. The narrator asks an artist to paint his memories of the plans he had made with a past love. Two years later Cledus T. Judd made fun of the song with his recording “Bake Me A Country Ham.”

            Many other well-known artists have written about Birmingham, some in recent years. There is bandleader Louis Jordan’s “Fat Sam from Birmingham”, John Hiatt’s “Train to Birmingham”, Ani DiFranco’s “Hello Birmingham”, John Mellencamp’s “When Jesus Left Birmingham” and Randy Newman’s “Birmingham” (“The greatest city in Alabam’”).

            Two famous city natives have written well-known material about their hometown. Avant garde jazz great Sun Ra released The Magic City album in 1966; the title piece is a 27-minute improvisation by his orchestra. Sun Ra’s cover art invokes the demolished Terminal Station and it’s Magic City sign.

Sun Ra performing at The Nick in August 1988. Photo by Craig Legg
Source: BhamWiki.com 

 In a completely different style is Emmylou Harris’ “Boulder to Birmingham” in which she declares, “I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham/ If I thought I could see, I could see your face.” 

Emmylou Harris performing in San Francisco, 2005
Source: Wikipedia

            As you might expect, several significant songs about the city reflect the turmoil of the 1960s. Richard Farina’s “Birmingham Sunday” has been recorded by Joan Baez. Similar songs include Harry Belafonte and R.B. Greaves’ “Birmingham, Alabama”, Phil Ochs’ “Talking Birmingham Jam” and John Lee Hooker’s angry “Birmingham Blues.”

            Another large category includes songs by well-known artists that mention the city. Groups and individuals ranging from Lynard Skynard and the Rolling Stones to Chuck Berry, Tom Waits (two songs!), Talking Heads, Sheryl Crow, Bob Seger, Little Richard and Tori Amos have given shout-outs to Birmingham. All in all, the universe of songs about the city is none too shabby.

            Perhaps the single most familiar tune about Birmingham is “Tuxedo Junction.” Written by native Erskine Hawkins and named after the streetcar junction in the Ensley neighborhood, the song was recorded by his orchestra in 1939, sold a million copies and reached the #7 position on the pop charts. The following year Glen Miller and his orchestra covered the song, rode it to #1 and made it a big band jazz standard. The vocal group Manhattan Transfer also had success with it in a 1975 recording; I enjoyed their live version a few years ago at a concert at UAB's Alys Stephens Center. Hawkins felt the music invoked the thriving entertainment scene around that junction in Ensley during the 1930s..

            I have included a generous selection of Birmingham songs here, but even more have been written and performed by artists local and national. The BhamWiki.com site has a helpful “List of Songs about Birmingham” that will give you more leads. Local author Burgin Mathews covers many in depth in his 2011 booklet, Thirty Birmingham Songs: A Guide. Happy listening!

           

YouTube & other videos

“Birmingham” by Randy Newman, covers by Taylor Hicks and others
http://bit.ly/15n0N1g

“Boulder to Birmingham” by EmmyLou Harris—several versions
http://bit.ly/1c6AlKZ

“Birmingham Bounce” by Hardrock Gunter and covered by others
http://bit.ly/1dfeswn

“Tuxedo Junction” by Erskine Hawkins, covers by Manhattan Transfer, Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller and many others
http://bit.ly/1dfeC6N

“Mining Camp Blues” by Trixie Smith & the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzi-os7Az4

“Birmingham Bertha” by Ethel Waters
From the 1929 film musical On With the Show
http://www.20sjazz.com/videos/singers/birmingham-bertha.html

“Birmingham Breakdown” by Duke Ellington
Performed at a 2013 jazz festival in Connecticut by the Wolverine Jazz Band
http://www.20sjazz.com/videos/tradition-lives-on/birmingham-breakdown.html

This post previously appeared at DiscoverBirmingham.org in August 2013.

Birmingham Photo of the Day (13): U.S. Weather Bureau Station in 1908

 In 1870 Congress had established a weather service under the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In 1890 the service moved to the civilian Department of Agriculture and to the Commerce Department in 1940. Today the National Weather Service is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Official weather observations began in April, 1882, in the Birmingham area, just a few years after the city was founded. Until September 14, 1895, records were not continuous, done in cooperation with railroads such as L&N and often used volunteers. At this time the office was located in the Walker and Jordan Building on First Avenue North; instruments were on the roof of the building.

A full-time facility began operation in July 1903, and the office and instruments were moved to the Title Guarantee Building at 21st Street and 3rd Avenue North. The first official Weather Bureau observation was made at 8:00 a.m. on September 1. W.A. Mitchell noted that "The day began clear and unusually cool...Maximum temperature for the day was 79.0 degrees. Fresh north wind." By January 1904 the station was recording a storm that turned out to be tornadoes with damage about a mile north of the station.

In 1907 a building for the service was constructed at the corner of 12th Avenue [then Alta or Elta] and 13th Street on a hill north of downtown. The service remained in this building until December 1, 1945, when Weather Bureau activities were consolidated at the Birmingham airport. 

A history of the National Weather Service in Birmingham is available here.

U.S. Weather Bureau Station 

 From the book Views of Birmingham, Alabama published in 1908

Mom Makes the Front Page in 1949

Before she and dad married, my mother Carolyn Shores did some modelling for Avondale Mills. Along with other young women, she appeared at various fashion shows and in newspaper advertisements. The photo below shows her on the left along with others at a show in early June, 1949. She was 19 years old.

That particular show took place in the Continental Room, a lunch, dinner and event space in Birmingham's Tutwiler Hotel. Back in August, 1937 that same room was used for the wedding reception of famed Alabama actress Tallulah Bankhead and actor John Emery after the marriage took place at her father's home in Jasper.

As noted on the masthead, the Avondale Sun was a newspaper for employees of all Avondale Mills and their families. Mom was the youngest child of Methodist minister John Miller Shores, and family members turn up in the paper several times in various contexts. I found an item in a 1934 issue noting mom among other children who had perfect attendance at kindergarten for the month of September. I've also found a notice of a luncheon hosted at the parsonage in Sylacauga by my grandmother Tempe, and various notes about aunts Heth and Marjorie. 

The Comer family had expanded the company into Sylacauga with the giant Eva Jane mill in 1913. The plant was named after the wife of founder B.B. Comer. In addition to the plant itself, the company also supported schools, churches and stores for employees. Unable to compete with overseas competition, the company and all its operations closed in 2006. The empty Eva Jane building burned in 2011.

The entire run of the Avondale Sun from 1924 until 2006 is available in Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections.

Mom's modelling career didn't last long. After marriage, she and dad raised my brother Richard and me. Some forty years ago she began painting, first in oils but soon changing to watercolors. She is still at it; her art can be found at her web site and for sale on ArtFire and Etsy. She's on Pinterest too!

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.

Who Are Birmingham Natives Sonia Sanchez and Margaret Walker?

            A number of black women born in Alabama have achieved great success or sometimes great controversy in their lives and careers. Coretta Scott King from Marion is one who comes immediately to mind. Lesser known in this state is Marva Collins who was born in Monroeville but who went on to great achievement as an educator in Chicago. She has published several books based on her experiences in the Windy City and was the subject of a 1981 made-for-tv movie in which she was played by Cicely Tyson.

            Birmingham has its share of individuals in this group: Condolezza Rice (academic, National Security Advisor, Secretary of State), Angela Davis (political activist, academic), Vonetta Flowers (Olympic gold medalist), Odetta (singer) and Nell Carter (actress and singer). Two well-known writers who are Birmingham natives are Margaret Walker and Sonia Sanchez.

            Margaret Abigail Walker was born on July 7, 1915, the daughter of a Methodist minister, Sigismund Walker, and his music teacher wife Marion. Raised in Mississippi and New Orleans, she graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago in 1935. The following year she began work with the Federal Writers’ Project, a federal program designed to help authors during the Great Depression. She earned a creative writing master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1940. Her thesis, a collection of poems, was published as For My People and won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Award.

            In 1943 she married Firnist James Alexander, an interior designer; by 1949 the family had settled in Mississippi, where Walker had accepted a faculty position at Jackson State College. In 1968 she founded what is now the Margaret Walker Center, an archive and museum devoted to the study of African-American history and culture. She retired in 1979 and died in 1998.

            Margaret Walker published other collections of poetry as well as non-fiction, but her best known work is probably her only novel, Jubilee. Published in 1966, the novel grew from stories about her great-grandmother, Margaret Brown. Set in Greenville, Alabama, the novel follows the story of a slave woman into Reconstruction. More about Walker can be found in her entry in the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

            Sonia Sanchez was born Wilsonia Benita Driver in Birmingham on September 9, 1934, and attended Tuggle Elementary School. In 1943 she went to live with her father, sister and stepmother in Harlem. She graduated from New York City’s Hunter College in 1955. She later studied poetry under Louise Bogan at New York University. Sanchez has retained the name of her first husband although that marriage did not last. A second marriage to poet Etheridge Knight also ended in divorce.

            Over the course of her still-active career Sanchez has published a number of poetry books as well as plays and children’s books. She taught at eight different universities before her retirement from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1999. She has read her work and lectured at more than 500 colleges in the U.S. and other countries. In addition to other awards, she received the Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year in 2004. You can learn more about her life and work at her website and her entry in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. 

 The photographs of Margaret Walker and Sonia Sanchez are taken from their entries at BhamWiki.

 A version of this piece appeared at DiscoverBirmingham.org in September 2013.