Birmingham Photo of the Day (48): Symphony Orchestra in 1963

This photo was taken at a performance on the Jacksonville State College campus on February 1, 1963. The school's A Capella Choir appeared with the orchestra.

Orchestra-size ensembles based in Birmingham appeared beginning in the early 1920's. By 1956 a professional group known as the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra had formed. In 1979 the organization became the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. 

That day in Jacksonville in 1963 the music director and conductor of the orchestra was Arthur Winograd. In 1964 he became the director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until his retirement in 1985.

Arthur Winograd [1920-2010]

Source: BhamWiki

Bryce Hospital: Some Photographs (1)

The original structure of Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa is currently undergoing an extensive restoration; you can read about it here. The wonderful Alabama Mosaic site has a number of old photographs taken both inside and outside Bryce over the years. I've posted some here with comments below each one. There are many more, so I'll revisit this topic at some point.

These photographs are eerie in their appearance of "normalcy". The Alabama Insane Hospital, as the facility was originally known, had a long history of innovation in treating the mentally ill well into the 20th century. As the decades passed, Bryce developed the same problems as similar facilities--too many patients and too little staff and funding. In 1972 Bryce became the subject of a landmark lawsuit that changed mental health care in large institutions nationwide. 

In August 2014 I posted an item with a few photographs about a quick trip to Bryce. You can read more about Bryce Hospital here and its namesake Peter Bryce, the first superintendent, here.

In 1881 Joseph Camp spent five months as a patient at Bryce; his account has been published as An Insight into an Insane Asylum. In 1992 The Letters of a Victorian Madwoman, edited by John S. Hughes, was published and documented the thirty years a female patient spent at Bryce from 1890 until 1920. 

This postcard of the drive up to the front entrance dates before 1940.

This pre-1950 photograph shows the main entrance from a different angle and another building in the background.

A more prosaic view of some Bryce buildings, probably in the 1940's 

Two nurses around World War I

Male patients in the dining room in the 1940's

Female patients in the dining room in the 1940's 

A ward of hospital beds in the 1940's

Male patients in the reading room, 1940's 

Children's dormitory ca. 1950. There seems to be a patient in the crib at the lower left.

Inside the cupola of the main building

An aerial view of the hospital campus some time before 1980

An operation in progress around 1916

The "Recreation Hall" around 1916. Note female patients seated on one side, males on the other. Female patients are dancing with female nurses and male patients with male attendants.

The library, presumably for staff, around 1916

The records room around 1916. I wonder if any of these have survived.

That Time Bugs Bunny Headed to Alabama

Many of us of the Baby Boom persuasion remember classic Bugs Bunny with great fondness. The "wascally wabbit" first appeared in 1940 and numerous cartoons followed until 1964. I have not seen many of his various incarnations since he reappeared in 1976, but I sure remember watching his older adventures on Saturday morning cartoons. He was always a favorite of mine; his savage sarcasm in the face of everything made Mickey Mouse seem like a wimp.

There are many gems among the classic Bugs cartoons. One I especially like is the 1957 "What's Opera, Doc?" After the Marx Brothers 1935 film A Night at the Opera and this cartoon, I'm not sure how opera has survived as a serious art form. 

Now we come to the subject of this post, the 1953 cartoon "Southern Fried Rabbit".  Since it was released just over a year after I was born, I doubt if I saw it in the theater. I do seem to remember it from those Saturday morning marathons. I have been unable to find a copy online, but according to the Wikipedia page for the cartoon, it has been released on a Looney Tunes DVD.

"Southern Fried Rabbit" times in at just under seven minutes in length. The cartoon opens with Bugs lamenting, "What carrots. Look at this tired specimen. I haven't seen a decent carrot for months around these parts." He then notices a newspaper headline announcing a record carrot crop in Alabama. "Alabama? Well, I'm Alabamy bound!" the rabbit announces. Bugs is referencing a 1924 Tin Pan Alley tune made famous by singer Al Jolson.

Of course, there are complications. Confederate Yosemite Sam tries to shoot him as soon as he crosses the Mason-Dixon Line. Bugs tells him the war ended over 90 years earlier, but Sam announces, "I ain't no clock watcher." Many in our fair South seem to share that philosophy.

You can read the details of Bugs' visit to the South below, where I've copied the Wikipedia description. Bugs wonders why the South is so far south, another bit of wisdom hiding in a cartoon. I don't think Bugs ever makes it to Alabama and those great carrots.  

Source: Wikipedia

Title card from the cartoon

Source: Wikipedia 

A severe drought has ruined the carrot crop in Bugs Bunny's northern home. Upon learning of a boom crop in Alabama, Bugs decides to make the trip to the fertile soils (later exhaustedly asking, "I wonder why they put the South so far south?"). As soon as he crosses the Mason–Dixon line, he is shot at by "Colonel" Sam, who chases him but then quickly realizes that he crossed the Mason–Dixon line and runs back, saying he has to burn the boots as they "touched Yankee soil!". Bugs asked Sam what the deal is, only to hear that Sam believes he is a soldier of the Confederate States of America and has received orders from General Robert E. Lee to guard the borders between the Confederate States and the United States. When an annoyed Bugs points out that the "War Between the States" ended nearly 90 years ago, Sam says that "I ain't no clock watcher!" and shoots Bugs away, prompting the rabbit to make several attempts to shake his antagonist.

First, Bugs disguises himself as a banjo-playing slave, singing "My Old Kentucky Home." When Sam asks for something "more peppy", Bugs promptly sings "Yankee Doodle," leading Sam to call Bugs a traitor. Bugs then begs Sam not to beat him, pulls out a whip (disguised as a banjo string), and forces it into Sam's hands, making Sam look guilty. After fleeing, the rabbit immediately comes in disguised as Abraham Lincoln, scolding Sam for "whipping slaves". Sam tries to protest with repeated "buts" but Bugs in response hands him a card to "look me up at my Gettysburg Address". Bugs' cover is blown, however, when his cotton tail shows through Abe's trenchcoat, prompting an infuriated Sam to chase Bugs into a tree. Bugs twice blows out Sam's match as he's trying to light a cannonball (the second time with an extended pipe), but the third time (even though Sam takes the precaution of going even further away from the tree than the second attempt) results in Sam taking an explosion.

Bugs then disguises himself as Stonewall Jackson (here as "General Brickwall Jackson"), fooling Sam into marching into a well. Later, Bugs flees into a mansion, where he disguises himself as Scarlett O'Hara (from Gone with the Wind), and when Sam searches the mansion for Yankees, he takes a cannon explosion looking inside a closet.

Bugs at last succeeds in getting Sam when, disguised as an injured Confederate soldier, he informs him that "the Yankees are in Chattanooga" in Tennessee. Sam marches to "Chattanoogee", and the finale has him using a shotgun to threaten the New York Yankees, preventing them from competing in an exhibition baseball game against the Chattanooga Lookouts: "The first dang Yankee to step out of that dugout gets his head blasted off!!!".

Alabama Book Covers (12): William Bradford Huie

Born in Hartselle in 1910, William Bradford Huie had a long, varied and controversial career as a writer of novels, non-fiction and investigative journalism. He graduated from Morgan County High School and in 1930 the University of Alabama. Soon he and new bride Ruth had settled in Birmingham where he wrote for the Post newspaper for several years. In 1936 he and a colleague started the pro-business magazine Alabama, the News Magazine of the Deep South. Although Huie stayed less than a year, the magazine continued publication until 1955.

Huie served in the Navy in World War II, and his experiences would give him lots of material for future novels and non-fiction. He spent much of the 1950's as a writer and then editor at the American Mercury Magazine and also traveled on lecture tours and made various television appearances.

By the second half of the decade he and Ruth had settled back in their hometown of Hartselle. Huie had already begun what might be called the Civil Rights period of his career. He and fellow Alabama native and writer Zora Neale Hurston attended the appeal and second trial of Ruby McCollum in Florida in 1954. McCollum, a wealthy and married black woman, had killed her white physician lover. The judge had issued a gag order, which Huie was accused of violating. He was arrested and spent a brief time in jail. 

He covered the murder of black teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 and the Freedom Summer murders in that state in 1964. Huie interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s killer, James Earle Ray; King had written the introduction to Huie's book about the Freedom Summer deaths. In recognition of his efforts, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in his yard in 1967. He was interviewed in 1979 about these events for the documentary Eyes on the Prize. In 1997 a documentary about Huie appeared, I'm in the Truth Business.

Huie spent the rest of his life in Alabama. After Ruth died in 1973, he and his second wife lived in Scottsboro and then Guntersville where he died. He is buried in Hartselle; the public library was named after him in 2006. His papers were donated to Ohio State University. 

Below the photographs are some covers of Huie's books with comments on a few. 

William Bradford Huie [1910-1986]

Huie is buried in the Hartselle City Cemetery. 

Published in 1967, this novel was filmed in 1974 with Lee Marvin and Richard Burton in the cast. A recent assessment of this film by David Cranmer can be found on his blog Criminal Element. 

Published in 1942, Mud on the Stars was Huie's first novel and very autobiographical.

One of Huie's best known books, Slovak was published in 1954. In 1974 NBC broadcast a television movie version starring Martin Sheen. He won an Emmy for the performance, but refused to accept it since he felt actors' work should not be compared. Son Charlie had a small role in the production.

The novel Revolt of Mamie Stover (1951) follows a woman from Mississippi who rises through prostitution in Hollywood to become a war profiteer in Honolulu. This book, The Americanization of Emily (1959) and Hotel Mamie Stover (1963) form a trilogy with the same narrator. In 1956 Jane Russell played the title character in the film version of Revolt. 

Huie published this novel set in World War II in 1959. James Garner brought his considerable charm to the film version in 1964. Starring along with him were Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn. 

Alabama Library Bookmarks

Back in October 2014 I posted a piece on "Bookmarks for Some Alabama Bookstores" featuring items from my collection. This time I'll share some bookmarks I have from Alabama libraries.

Most of these examples come from public or academic libraries. I've also included one from a museum and another from the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I've scanned both sides unless one side was blank. 

Bookmarks have been widely used by libraries since they are an inexpensive way to advertise services, hours, new programs and so forth. I suppose they may not be used as much these days, since the same information can be put on a web site or Facebook page. 

Bookmark histories can be found here and here.

The Alabama Public Library Service is a state agency supporting public libraries across Alabama.

Bailey Cove is one of the many branches of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

The Alabama Virtual Library provides online database access to residents of the state. 

The Encyclopedia of Alabama is not a library, but it's such a wonderful resource that I wanted to include it here.