Birmingham Photos of the Day (32): Railway, Power & Light Company in 1908

These photos continue the series from the 1908 book Views of Birmingham. As befits the topic's importance to the city, nine photographs related to the Birmingham Railway, Power and Light Company were included in the book. Railroads, electrical power and lighting were services badly needed in the booming Magic City and thus were used in this promotional book alongside the magnificent homes, businesses, churches, etc.  

The company was incorporated in February 1898 to consolidate various railway, light and gas companies then serving the city. That merging was completed in 1901, and Robert Jemison, Jr., became president. As a real estate developer Jemison [1878-1974] was responsible for numerous projects in Birmingham and Mountain Brook. 

More details about this company and its successor, the Birmingham Electric Company, can be found at the BhamWiki site here and here. 

Bookmarks for Some Alabama Bookstores (2)

In October 2014 I posted the first installment of a series on bookmarks with some sort of Alabama connection. That post covered some of my collection from bookstores; this one covers the rest. A third post will include bookmarks related to libraries.

I've made some comments on individual bookmarks below.

Now the Alabama Booksmith

The Homewood location is still in business, with the same phone number

They added a fax number to this bookmark.

This bookstore opened in late 2004, according to its still-operating web site. Sadly, the store closed a year or two ago. I visited several times; by the end, the bookstore was more or less gone and only a coffee shop and cafe were left. The last calender available on the site is February 2013. 

The Books-A-Million chain began in 1917 as a newsstand in Florence, Alabama, and by the early 1960's expanded into a group of bookstores known as Bookland. Eventually there were 72 of those stores, mostly in the Southeast. I remember one in the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover until January 2007. There are still a few of these stores operating as a subsidiary of BAM. 

Books-A-Million, the Alabama-based chain now often known as BAM, has used bookmarks for job ads.

Apparently this store is no longer operating. 

This store, no longer in business, listed numerous services on their bookmark.

Lodestar was included on a site devoted to independent bookstores: "They feature books that support diversity, healing, and political change. The focus areas include world religions, women's studies, studies, psychology, recovery, alternative health and the literary arts." 

The Haunted Book Shop that operated in Mobile for many years is one of Alabama's legendary bookstores. The store is probably the only one in the state that has inspired TWO memoirs:

 Mobile's Haunted Book Shop : a sentimental reminiscence by Caldwell Delaney [1986] 

 The Spirit of the Haunted Book Shop : a history celebrating the 50th anniversary by Jack Pendarvis [1991]

UPDATE 9 January 2020: The Haunted Book Shop reopened in 2018. 

Inside the Haunted Book Shop, date unknown

Mostly a used paperback store, Betty's Books opened sometime in the 1990's. I remember visiting once before the store relocated to a small commercial area across U.S. 31. The store has changed ownership and several years ago became Books Etc. I've visited the current incarnation several times and always find something. The place is small but packed with goodies. 

[Added in August 2015; updated 9 January 2020: Bienville Books is now the Haunted Book Shop]

On a recent trip to Mobile I visited Bienville Books on Dauphin Street. I recommended the place highly. There are two stories of old and new books and many other goodies. I especially enjoyed the selection of titles related to Mobile and the rest of Alabama.

Another bookstore in the Birmingham metro now sadly closed was this one in the Colonnade retail development. According to the BhamWiki site, the independent bookstore opened there in 1992, later moved to Mountain Brook and finally closed on March 31, 2009. I visited the Colonnade location only once as I remember.

You can find entries on many closed bookstores in the Birmingham area at BhamWiki.

Mother's Days Past in Alabama

Celebrations of motherhood were practiced among ancient cultures, including the Greeks and Romans. A modern day to honor mothers is celebrated in many countries around the world, and the concept originated with Anna Jarvis in the United States early in the 20th century. 

Born in West Virginia, Jarvis became a literary and advertising editor for an insurance firm in Philadelphia. When her mother Ann's health began to decline, she moved to Philadelphia so Anna could care for her. Ann died on May 9, 1905.

Various efforts to honor mothers had appeared in the United States in the 19th century. Ann Jarvis, who had nursed soldiers on both sides in the Civil War, had created Mother's Day Work clubs to work on public health issues after the war.

After her mother's death, Anna began a sustained campaign to create a Mother's Day. In 1910 her efforts started reaching fruition as West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. Alabama U.S. Senator J. Thomas Heflin wrote and achieved passage of a national recognition when Congress passed a law on May 8, 1914. The following day President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in support of Mother's Day. In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt approved a stamp to honor the day. 

By 1910 Alabama had also recognized Mother's Day. Below you can see a newspaper notice from May 1, 1910, that Governor B.B. Comer had issued a proclamation declaring Sunday, May 8, to be Mother's Day in Alabama. Just below that notice is another one about Comer, noting he had been kicked by a horse and would be unable to the upcoming World's Fair banquet to which the mayor of New York City had invited him.  

Sentiments surrounding Mother's Day appeared in a 1926 issue of the Avondale Sun published for employees of the state's Avondale mills. The author of the letter, Charlie Harris, declared "And on Mother's Day you should send your mother something to make her happy."

Mother's Day in 1963 was not so happy for some people in Anniston. The article below notes that two homes of blacks and a black church were riddled with shotgun fire from a passing car in the afternoon. The homes were filled with people celebrating the day; the church was empty. Luckily no one was injured. In May 1961 Anniston had been rocked by violence during the Freedom Rides through Alabama.  

By the early 1920's Mother's Day had been fully commercialized by the greeting card, floral and candy industries. For years Anna Jarvis unsuccessfully fought these changes; she felt the celebration should be about sentiment, not money. She spent her last years in some economic distress and finally in a sanitarium. She never married and never had children of her own. 

Anna Jarvis [1864-1948]
Source: Wikipedia

Source: USStampStories.com 

Source: Avondale Sun April 30, 1926, page 6
[Published for employees of Avondale Mills in Alabama] 

Source: Pensacola Journal May 1, 1910, via the Library of Congress' Chronicling America digital collection. The same notice appeared in the Washington, D.C., Evening Star on the same date. 

 Source: Birmingham News May 13, 1963, via Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections. 

A Film Projection Course at Auburn in 1923

Who knew that in 1923 Auburn University--then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute [API], of course--had a Motion Picture Projection Department?

Wandering around Lantern, the Media History Digital Library, will turn up all sorts of goodies. Recently I found the two-part article below in July 1923 issues of Motion Picture News. The News was published under that title from 1913 until 1930.

The article gives us many details about the projection course being taught at API as described to the editor by Professor A.L. Thomas, head of that department. Included are questions from the course's final exam and answers of one of the students. Over 100 students had taken the course since it first began in the 1918-19 school year. The auditorium at the school had two "latest model" Simplex projectors used by student projectionists for film showings six nights per week.

A bit of the history of movies at API is included in the article. Film projection first came to the campus in 1907. By 1911 an Edison projector had been installed for movie showings once a week for students. The College Band provided music, and a student served as projectionist. By 1915 the "College Picture Show" was operating two nights a week with a paid six-man orchestra.

The article is unsigned but at the very beginning the author refers to himself [?] as "the Editor", which might mean the magazine or the section editor. I could find no staff listing for the magazine in those two July 1923 issues.. 

I have found little information so far on the National Anti-Misframe League. The organization appears in issues of the Motion Picture News as early as 1917 and as late as 1925. A Google search returned nothing. The "Forum" was a regular feature of the publication for discussion of matters of interest to League members. The "Pledge" of the Forum found on the last page below is concerned primarily with taking care of the physical condition of film reels.  

In 1926 projection speed of silent films was standardized at 24 fps [frames per second]. Prior to that time projection rates could vary from 16 to 23 fps depending on the shooting speed of each film. I wonder if this change had anything to do with the League's apparent disappearance. However, there would still be the problem of the care of physical reels.

The article has two photographs taken on the API campus. The first shows students in one section of the class posing in front of an iconic building, Langdon Hall. Several cameras on tripods can be seen. The building dates from 1846 and was originally a wood structure on the campus of the Masonic Female Seminary. Moved to the API campus in 1883, the building was bricked and eventually named after Charles Carter Langdon, a school trustee from 1872 until 1899.

The second photograph shows students receiving instruction in the "motion picture laboratory." The building is no doubt one of the engineering department's locations at the time.

Women were admitted to the school in 1892, but none can be seen in these photos. Women were enrolled in engineering programs at API by 1918 or so, but probably most movie projectionists around the country were male.

Professor Albert Lee Thomas taught mechanical and electrical engineering at the school from 1904 until 1956.

Silent film projector from the 1920s

Source: eBay.com 

Valley Elementary School in Pelham on a Postcard

Recently I was going through my Alabama postcard collection and came across the one below. Both of our children attended Valley, and I remember walking under that front entrance canopy many times. 

The school operated from 1964 until 2015. Pelham has created its own school system, built a new elementary school and no longer needs this one. Apparently the city will allow a developer to create an "entertainment destination" there.  

Dr. Norma Rogers became principal in the early 1970's and served until 1991 when she became Superintendent of Shelby County Schools. The address now is 310 Opportunity Drive. Directory assistance informs me that phone number has been disconnected.

At some point during either our son's or daughter's time at Valley this key chain was given out. My daughter entered Riverchase Middle School in the 1999-2000 school year, so the key chains were distributed before then. Ditto on the button and bumper sticker below. 

The Long, Strange History of "Alabama Song"

Recently the Library of Congress added The Doors first album The Doors to its National Recording Registry that recognizes items of importance to the nation's audio culture. That 1967 album by the group includes a song called "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" which has wound its way through world music for almost a century. Let's take a look at that long, strange history.

And no, this one is not the "Alabama Song" on Allison Moorer's album of the same name. This "Alabama Song" is also known as "Whiskey Bar", "Moon Over Alabama" and "Moon of Alabama" and it began life deep in the heart of 1920's Germany.

The lyrics originated with German poet, playwright and theatrical director Bertolt Brecht [1898-1956]. Written in 1925, they first appeared in his collection Hauspostille [Manual of Piety in Eric Bentley's 1966 translation] two years later. 

In that same year Brecht began a collaboration with composer Kurt Weill  [1900-1950] on Mahagonny-Songspiel, a short opera they prepared for the Baden-Baden Festival. German singer and actress and Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya [1898-1981], playing the prostitute Jessie in that production, first sang the song in public. "Alabama Song" and one other piece were performed in English, with translation provided by frequent Brecht collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann [1897-1973]. 

By 1930 the songs of the short opera had been included in Brecht and Weill's epic political satire, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, where the prostitute character's name has become Jenny. The longer work was first performed in Leipzig in March 1930.

Lenya did not appear in the new opera, but she released a recording of "Alabama Song" to coincide with its premiere. Lenya continued to perform the song for the remainder of her career. She did play the prostitute Jenny character in the 1928 premiere of Brecht and Weill's best-known work, The Threepenny Opera. That work, performed over 10,000 times around the world, continues to be popular and is famous for introducing the song "Mack the Knife."Lenya is perhaps best remembered today for her role as Rosa Klebb in the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love. 

The lyrics below are those used in the Door's 1966 recording. An amazing variety of other artists have performed "Alabama Song" over the years. The Mitchell Trio folk group included it on a 1964 album. Bette Midler included the number in her shows in 1977 and it's available on her Live at Last album. David Bowie, Nina Simone, Marianne Faithfull, David Johansen, and Marilyn Manson have all recorded or performed the song. Numerous others are included on a lengthy list on Wikipedia. 

I have a CD "All that Jazz: The Best of Ute Lemper" released in 1998. On it Lemper performs several Kurt Weill songs, including "Alabama-Song." The German singer and actress is a well-known modern interpreter of Weill's work.

In 1965 the album Mack The Knife And Other Berlin Theatre Songs Of Kurt Weill was released featuring saxophonist Eric Dolphy and pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The album opened with "Alabama Song", recorded in January 1964 just six months before Dolphy's death. 

The album was reissued with additional tracks in 2008; the cover of that version is below. You can hear it on YouTube along with other versions under the various titles. According to the Wikipedia article on the song linked above, trombonist and arranger of the song Mike Zwerin asked Dolphy to "play what [he] felt about Alabama."

Now we come to the question of the hour. What in the world does this song have to do with Alabama? Beats me, although we do have plenty of whiskey bars, moons, mamas and dying in the state. Perhaps it just seemed exotic to some artistic Germans in the 1920's; perhaps the word fit the rhythm. 

After the Nazis came to power, the work of Brecht and Weill was banned and they, along with Hauptmann, immigrated to the United States until after World War II. Whether they ever visited Alabama during those years is unknown.




Bertolt Brecht
Source: Wikipedia

Weill in 1932
Source: Wikipedia 



Lenya as photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1962
Source: Wikipedia





A 1930 recording of the song by Lotte Lenya

Source: Internet Archive 

Source: Discogs.com 

Well, show me the way
To the next whisky bar
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why

Show me the way
To the next whisky bar
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why

For if we don't find
The next whisky bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you
I tell you we must die

Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey, oh, you know why

Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whisky, oh, you know why

Well, show me the way
To the next little girl
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why

Show me the way
To the next little girl
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why

For if we don't find
The next little girl
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you
I tell you we must die

Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whisky, oh, you know why