Some Old Alabama Postcards (1)

Over the years I've collected Alabama postcards and want to share a few in this post. I've gathered together some old ones that were actually mailed and have scanned both sides. I have some comments below. I think several of these cards were purchased at Ackley's Rocks in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The shop features mostly minerals, crystals, etc., but has a section devoted to stamps, postcards and such. 

In a future post I'll look at some of the unused postcards in my collection.

According to Wikipedia, the first postcard was sent in 1840 in England. Collecting and studying postcards is called deltiology.

You can see many more old Alabama postcards at AU's Alabama Postcard Collection and UA's Historic Postcards of Alabama. 

This card postmarked 1943 [1948?] features Mr. Vulcan himself and a simple message to Mrs. Carter in Georgia. I wonder where Fizzy or Fuzzy was standing when he [she?] wrote his message--a drugstore, perhaps? 

The card was made by the E.C. Kropp Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You can see a postcard of the company's plant here. Founded in 1898, the firm operated under the Kropp name until sold in 1956. Several other cards below are also products of the company. 

That George Washington one cent stamp was first issued in 1938. 

This "Phototint card made only by Detroit Publishing Co." is declared along the left margin of the message side. The card features Old Shell Road in Mobile and is copyrighted 1906. The card was mailed at 4:30 P.M. on September 1, but the last two digits of the year didn't print very well; it may be 1928. 

The author of the message told mother in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, of a safe arrival in Mobile and plans to leave the next morning. "The author notes "It [sic] pretty hot over here." The one cent Benjamin Franklin stamp was first issued in 1927. 

This one is another E.C. Kropp card postmarked on January 3, 1940 at 8:30 P.M. and mailed with one of those same one-cent George Washington stamps. The author of the message declares "Birmingham is a very pretty city."

The Masonic temple pictured was torn down in September 1970 and used as a parking lot until the construction of the AmSouth-Harbert Plaza. The theatre had opened in 1925 as part of the Loew's chain and seated 3100. Vaudeville, plays and films appeared there. Actors such as Bela Lugosi and Tallulah Bankhead performed on the stage.

The town of Lanett was first known as Bluffton, but the name was changed after the Lanett Cotton Mills opened in 1894. The town has had a long relationship with West Point across the Georgia line. Mill owners Lafayette Lanier and Thomas Bennett developed the entire area in the late nineteenth century, providing employment to many people. The name "Lanett" was created from their last names. By 2009 the last cotton mill in Lanett had closed.  

The anonymous author of the note on this card was obviously close to the married couple in Nebraska and a busy person as well. The date on the postmark from the West Point post office appears to be April 1948. The author seems proud of that 1946 Chevy--wonder what model it was. That one-cent George Washington stamp makes another appearance.

Running up the middle of the card is the designation "Genuine Curteich". Curt Teich was a German immigrant who opened his business in 1898 in Chicago. The company became the largest manufacturer of postcards in the world and operated until 1978, four years after his death. 

This building opened in late 1939 as the Jefferson-Hillman Hospital; I have explored its history and place at the UAB School of Medicine in a couple of previous blog posts here and here. 

The original version of The Price is Right game show ran from 1956 until 1965, first on NBC-TV and for the final couple of years on ABC-TV. Often featured was a "Showcase" of multiple prizes in which home viewers were invited to submit bids on a postcard. This card must be one of those bids. I wonder if Miss Parrish won.

This card is another one from the Curt-Teich company. This particular four-cent Abraham Lincoln stamp was first issued in 1954. The card was apparently distributed at least locally by the Moore News Company of Birmingham.

This card features St. Vincent's, one of the "finest and best equipped" of Birmingham's "ten excellent hospitals" circa 1942. There is no stamp or postmark; we can assume the card was never mailed. I wonder if Celia was the sender or intended recipient?

The Boston company of Tichnor Brothers, Inc., produced this card. 

A 1908 photograph and another postcard of St. Vincent's can be seen in one of my earlier blog posts here.

This card was mailed by someone just passing through Alabama on their way to Florida. Apparently the recipient's parents lived in Birmingham. The "Bankhead" mentioned is the Bankhead Hotel [now the Bankhead Towers] which opened with 350 rooms in 1926. The hotel was named after Senator John H. Bankhead, Tallulah Bankhead's grandfather. 

This E.C. Kropp card has that one-cent George Washington stamp and was postmarked at 12 noon on December 13, 1947. As the card notes about the Birmingham-Southern College Library, it "contains many volumes of interesting reading material and is greatly used by the students."

Alabama Book Covers (9): William March

Novelist and short story writer William March is probably best remembered for one novel published in 1954, The Bad Seed. Actually, adaptations in other media are probably better known than the book and author. That same year Maxwell Anderson wrote a two-act play from the book that ran for 334 performances on Broadway before closing in September 1955. In 1956 a film starring Patty McCormick in the title role was released and was a hit for Warner Brothers in both the U.S. and Great Britain. The ABC network premiered a version for television in 1985. The story is a classic evil-child tale that still resonates today despite the use of the idea by endless horror movies.

March was a Mobile native born in September 1893 as William Edward Campbell. A highly decorated U.S. Marine in World War I, March built a career in business after the war. Before his death in New Orleans in May 1954, March published several novels and many short stories. Most were set in Alabama. 

March wrote about his war experiences in his first novel, Company K. A film adaptation by Robert Clem appeared in 2004. Clem has filmed several other works related to Alabama. March's short story "The Little Wife" was adapted for television three times by 1955. 

March's papers are in the Hoole Special Collections at the University of Alabama. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Tuscaloosa. The Encyclopedia of Alabama and Wikipedia entries offer good introductions to his life and work. Roy Simmonds' book The Two Worlds of William March was published in 1984.

William March ca. 1933

Source: Wikipedia

Birmingham & Tinseltown in the 1920's & 1930's

I recently finished a fascinating book by William J. Mann, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood. Mann examines the 1922 murder of famed silent film director William Desmond Taylor and three actresses whose lives and careers intersected with his own: Mable Normand, Mary Miles Minter and Margaret Gibson. 

The book develops a new solution to Taylor's murder, which has never been officially solved. Along the way it details other scandals of the era involving illegal drugs and alcohol, wild parties, orgies, and other such behavior that so delighted gossip mongers and horrified self-appointed moral watchdogs, or "church ladies." Anyone unfamiliar with the American silent film era, from its earliest days in New York and New Jersey before the move to southern California, should read this book. It's a great introduction to the times, early film making, and the strong personalities on both sides of the camera.

Early in the book, in a discussion of pressures building to reform the film industry, I found it on page 68--the Alabama connection:

"On the various affiliated Committees for Better Films scattered throughout the country, such women as ...Mrs. Neil Wallace of Birmingham, Alabama..." As Mann notes, "These reform-minded women seemed to be everywhere." Those committees were affiliated with the National Board of Review, an organization "charged by the industry to ensure that all films released were suitable for the screen." 

The film industry hoped that by policing itself, regulation by federal and state governments would not develop. This battle between film makers and reformers continued until the early 1930's when Hollywood adopted the Hays Code of even stricter self-regulation. That Motion Picture Production Code, as it was formally known, governed film content until 1968.

Wondering about further details on Mrs. Neil Wallace, I remembered having a copy of Kristen Nicole Kitchen's, "Film Censorship in Birmingham, Alabama, 1921-1937: The Marginally Successful Reign of the Birmingham Better Films Committee." She completed this master's thesis at the University of South Alabama in 2000.

Early in her account, Kitchen writes, "Birmingham, Alabama, addressed the issue of motion picture regulation in 1921 by passing a city ordinance establishing the Office of Amusement Inspector (City Commission Minutes 191, City Ordinance 743-C). The Amusement Inspector was responsible for regulating all forms of public amusements and had complete control over which movies were shown within the Birmingham City limits (Appendix C). The Amusement Inspector was often called by concerned citizens, requesting that she view
certain films and consider banning them from public viewing. Using criteria outlined in the Birmingham City Code (Appendix C), the Amusement Inspector could force theater managers to cease exhibition of any film she deemed 'unsuitable.' Reasons for film closures ranged from onscreen nudity to inappropriate subject matter, such as birth control or unfaithful wives.

"Shortly after Birmingham's first Amusement Inspector was installed in office in 1921, it became clear that there were simply too many movies for one person to view. Needing immediate assistance, the Amusement Inspector formed the Birmingham Better Films Committee, an informal control group designed to provide her with movie reviews and recommendations." [page 2] 

As Mann discusses, this pattern developed in many cities across the country, bringing pressure from many different community groups on the film industry. As Kitchen notes, by 1930 around 100 were attempting to regulate film content. Mrs. Wallace served as Birmingham's Amusement Inspector in 1930. Film censorship ordinances remained on the books in the city until 1961.

I suspect that this Mrs. Wallace was the Neil Robinson Wallace listed in the 1940 U.S. Census as living on 14th Avenue South, aged about 70. She was also listed in the 1910 census as a widow, although her name given there is Neal R. Wallace. Her obituary appeared in the Birmingham News, page 6, on February 8, 1960. You can read more about her here and here. Her birth name was Cornelius Robinson; she was named after her father and called "Neil." She had married John Henderson Wallace in September 1887. One day I'll have to dig out that obituary and confirm the connection. 

A specific example of "Banned in Birmingham" is mentioned in Stephen Vaughn's article "Morality and Entertainment: The Origins of the Motion Picture Production Code" published in Journal of American History 77(1): 39-65, June 1990. On page 40 Vaughn notes, "In 1929 Birmingham, Alabama, banned The Road to Ruin (1928), which dealt with female drinking, abortion, and incest." The BBFC was not doubt involved. Further research in local newspapers should uncover some details of such events. 

I have examined silent films made in the Birmingham area in a series of blog posts beginning here. 

The Road to Ruin was remade in 1934 as a sound film.

Source: Wikipedia 

Skyline Farms: A 1930's Experiment in Alabama

By the mid-1930's the Great Depression had settled deep in America, and the Federal government had various programs underway to alleviate the social and economic devastation. One effort tried to help citizens with farming cooperatives in rural areas. Forty-three of these projects were established by the Federal Emergency Relief Agency, and Skyline Farms in Jackson County was one of them. In fact, as David Campbell's Encyclopedia of Alabama article notes, Skyline was among the largest.   

Skyline was developed on property of some 13,000 acres bought by the Federal government for that purpose. The project in Jackson County was available to whites only; a project at Gee's Bend in Wilcox County opened for African-Americans.

A common area included a school, commissary, warehouse and manager's office. Some 180 individual farms ranged from 40 to 60 acres; families were chosen from local relief rolls. The cost of housing and farm equipment had to be repaid from crop income; mostly potatoes and cotton were grown. Health and veterinary insurance were covered by the federal government

Arts, crafts, dances and music were also important at Skyline. The Skyline Farms Band played at the White House for Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and were the first traditional music group to play for a president in that setting. Famed musicologist Alan Lomax recorded seven songs by the band in Washington, D.C., in May 1938. Those recordings are now part of the Archive of American Folk Song. 

By the early 1940's Skyline Farms suffered from crop failures; a hosiery mill constructed by the government also failed. Soon the farms were being sold to private owners; just two original families were able to buy their farms. 

A 2013 blog post by Deborah L. Helms discusses efforts to preserve the heritage of Skyline Farms. The article includes recent photographs of the surviving rock school and store and a house as well.

Children and teacher around a blackboard in the early makeshift school at Skyline Farms in February 1937. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, one of many photographers who documented life across American during the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration and other federal agencies. Rothstein took numerous photographs all over the state in the mid-1930's.  

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History Digital Collections 

Skyline Farms Junior High School, probably late 1930's

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives & History Digital Collections

Technical Sergeant William Davis of the 311th Infantry was a former resident of Skyline Farms. He was killed in action in Germany in February 1945.

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Collections

Below is a letter and its envelope written by Davis from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to his aunt Jodie Sharp at Skyline Farms in October 1942. Other letters to Jodie Sharp can be found at the ADAH Digital Collections.

The photographs below were all taken by Arthur Rothstein at Skyline Farms in September 1935.

Men working in a sand pit

Crops with shadows

Wife of a sharecropper to be resettled at Skyline

Clearing land 

Sawmill at Skyline


In 1937 Rothstein and another photographer, Ben Shahn, took many more pictures at Skyline. Below are two of them, the first by Rothstein and the second by Shahn.

Inside the project store

A square dance in progress

Old Alabama Stuff (10): Pine-Barren Bogs in 1922

The article below written by Roland Harper appeared in 1922. As L.J. Davenport, the author of the Encyclopedia of Alabama article about him notes, "He was one of the last botanists to visit and describe the native vegetation of the Southeast before it was altered drastically by human activity." Harper documented his field trips with extensive notes and more than 7000 photographs. 

He took a circuitous route to Alabama. Born in Maine, he lived with his family there and in Massachusetts while his father worked as a science teacher and school administrator. When Roland apparently came down with tuberculosis, the family moved to Georgia. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1897 with a degree in engineering.

The family moved back to Massachusetts, and within a couple of years Harper had published his first botanical paper. He enrolled in Columbia University where he studied both botany and geology and received a PhD in 1905. In that same year he began working for the Geological Survey of Alabama and continued there until his 1966 death.

Over the course of his long career Harper published hundreds of items, including books and scientific papers. His major works include The Economic Botany of Alabama published in two parts in 1913 and 1928. Other works include Forests of Alabama [1943] and Preliminary Report on the Weeds of Alabama [1944].

Wikipedia has this to say about pine barrens: 

"Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pinelands occur throughout the northeastern U.S. from New Jersey to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, Canada and northern Eurasia. Pine barrens are plant communities that occur on dry, acidic, infertile soils dominated by grasses, forbs, low shrubs, and small to medium sized pines." 

Harper notes this botanical feature of pine forests in sand, gravel or clay stretching from Delaware into Alabama and Mississippi. These areas support bogs of typically unusual or rare plants. In Alabama Harper says the bogs are scarcer since the soil has more clay.

He describes his visits to a portion of these bogs in Autauga and Chilton counties in 1905 and 1921 respectively. Harper "examined quite a number of them" in Chilton County after noticing a pitcher plant from his train car. His article includes lists of woody plants and herbs including some not previously reported in the area.

The article by Davenport linked above gives more information about Harper's life and career. A book-length biography by Elizabeth Findley Shores is cited below. I am pleased to note that she is a relative!


Torreya was a journal published under that title from 1901 until 1945 by the Torrey Botanical Society named after a professor at Columbia College in the mid-19th century. Harper's article can be found at the Internet Archive here.



Further Reading

Davenport, L. J. and G. Ward Hubbs. "Roland Harper, Alabama Botanist and Social Critic: A Biographical Sketch and Bibliography." Alabama Museum of Natural History Bulletin 17 (May 1995): 25-45

Shores, Elizabeth Findley. On Harper's Trail: Roland McMillan Harper, Pioneering Botanist of the Southern Coastal Plain. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008

Roland Harper

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama  

Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960 (3): Dorothy Sebastian

Dorothy Sebastian's film career flamed briefly in the late 1920's and early 1930's and then just as quickly burned out. During that period she did appear in major roles in several high-profile films with other stars of the time.

She was born in Birmingham on April 26, 1903, one of five children of Robert and Stell Sabiston. Robert was a minister and the couple had served as foreign missionaries before settling in Birmingham. Stell was a painter, and Dorothy and her mother operated a small shop selling portraits and needlepoint creations. 

Dorothy eloped with her high school sweetheart, but the marriage ended in 1924. At this point she headed to New York and what she hoped would be a dance and acting career. She played a chorus girl that year on Broadway in George White's Scandals which opened in June and ran for 196 performances. She appeared in that show with her new last name.

Sebastian managed to get a screen test with United Artists and appeared in her first five films in 1925. In 1927 she was the female lead in a Tom Mix western, The Arizona Wildcat. The next year she played along with Joan Crawford and fellow Alabama native John Mack Brown in the drama Our Dancing Daughters. 

Her acting career continued into the early sound era. In 1929 she appeared in Spite Marriage with Buster Keaton, who was her lover at the time. She also had an affair with director Clarence Brown. Interestingly, Brown had operated an auto dealership in Birmingham before World War I.

In the early 1930's Sebastian asked for a raise in her MGM contract, but the studio refused and dropped her from its roster. She appeared in a few more films before she married William Boyd, better known as cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy. That marriage ended in 1936 in a bitter divorce. 

Sebastian continued to appear in a few small roles until her final film appearance in 1948. During World War II she worked in a defense factory where she met her future third husband, businessman Herman Shapiro. She died of cancer in April 1957.

A lengthy biography can be found at the Internet Movie Database along with a complete list of her films. A web site devoted to Sebastian can be found here. 

Unless otherwise noted, images are from the Lantern media history digital library.

Dorothy Sebastian

Source: Wikipedia 

Source: BhamWiki

Picture-Play Magazine 1926

Photoplay 1927

Screenland 1928

Motion Picture Classic 1928

The 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters starred two Alabama natives, Sebastian and Johnny Mack Brown, who was a football great at the University of Alabama before heading to Hollywood.

Dorothy Sebastian, Joan Crawford, and Anita Page in a publicity still for OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928):

Source: The Hollywood Revue blog