Alabama Yesterdays

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Dan Dunn's Creator Crash Lands in Siluria

Well, it wasn't really a crash, more of an emergency landing, but let's adopt a little of the comics' drama for this title!

I was on another mission recently, looking at The Heritage of Shelby County [1999] in search of some history of Siluria, and ran across this fascinating tale.

"Once a small single engine airplane, piloted by the author of a comic trip, developed problems and made an emergency landing in Roy's field. The ground was soft and the wheels lodged in the dirt causing the plane to upend. The pilot was not seriously injured, His comic strip was about a police detective, Dan Dunn, and appeared in the Birmingham newspaper. Shortly after the plane accident Dan was chasing a villain on top of a freight train and commented that he would catch the rogue before they reached Siluria."
--Jerry and Alice Vandiver, entry on Siluria, p. 29

Let's investigate.

According to the entry on Siluria by the Vandivers, "Roy" was Mal Roy who owned property and a store near Thompson High School. Buck Creek, a tributary of the Cahaba River, flowed through his property. That school opened in October 1921.

So who was Dan Dunn??

In September 1933 Dan Dunn began as a daily comic strip and eventually appeared in 135 newspapers. A color Sunday strip was soon added by the Publishers Syndicate distributor. Dunn began life in a comic book issued in May of that same year. That one-issue comic is considered the first U.S. comic with original material ever published.

In 1936 two Dunn stories were used in a pulp magazine. In the following year he appeared in one of the Big Little Books from Whitman Publishing. Many of the comic strips have recently been reprinted.

The fictional detective was created by Norman W. Marsh and probably influenced by the success of Dick Tracy comics. Marsh had worked as an art assistant to Chester Gould, Tracy's creator. Marsh wrote and drew the Dunn strip until 1942, when he joined the Marines. After the war he created two even more obscure strips, Hunter Keene and Danny Hale.

A 1952 newspaper article about Marsh gave some more background on the man. "The cartoonist's own life has been at least as adventurous as his hero's. He served in the Marine Corps in both world wars, enlisting at 16 in the first and commanding a line company in the second. In the rest of his 51 years he has worked as a prizefight manager, sailor, pilot, speculator and detective."

The 1940 U.S. Census finds Marsh living in Evanston, Illinois, with his wife and daughter. His profession was listed as "cartoonist" and his birth year "about 1901." The 1952 newspaper article gives his address as 1234 West Lake Street in Chicago.

I have so far been unable to locate any further information about Marsh, including his death date. Maybe one day I'll track down more information about that plane landing in Siluria, too!

Source: Stripper's Guide

The comic book origin of Detective Dan Dunn

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Pulp.Net

Dan Dunn's Big Little Book appearance

Source: DTA Collectibles

The recent Dunn reprint.

Source: Amazon

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (4)

In May 2016 daughter Becca and husband Matt Leon moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, so he could start his new faculty position at the University of Central Oklahoma. Dianne and I went along for the move, and as a result of that trip I posted a blog entry on Creek names that had followed Native Americans on the Trail of Tears from Alabama to Oklahoma.

Dianne and I recently made a trip through Edmond to Colorado Springs to visit her father. In this post and two more I'm sharing some of the photos I took in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Bear with me, and in the final post there are several Alabama-related payoffs!

I'm discussing these photos somewhat randomly, so here goes. Part 2 of this series can be found here and part 3 here.

We spent our second Saturday with the kids wandering around the town of Guthrie. Unfortunately, Amos had already returned to Baton Rouge from Colorado Springs, so he was not with us.

Guthrie, Oklahoma, was once the state capitol, and the Guthrie Historic District contains over 2000 buildings. The Carnegie Library seen below was the first tax supported library in the state.

Guthrie has a number of antique shops, and we visited several. In one we found this item among a set of plates featuring all the states.

Once upon a time J.C. Penney stores even reached smaller towns like Guthrie.

OK, now we come to another Alabama connection in Oklahoma. Upstairs in a rather dark corner of one of those antique stores we found this item. The close-up above comes from the lower left of the poster below. That poster advertises The Phenix City Story, a 1955 film about the widespread corruption in that town. Albert Patterson ran for state attorney general intending to clean up the criminal activities, but he was assassinated. As a result Governor Gordon Persons declared a minimal martial law and sent in the National Guard to take over law enforcement duties.

The poster cost $75.00 and was not in the greatest shape, but it's probably an original and now I wish I'd bought it!

Guthrie has historical markers outside many buildings, including this bar. Future silent film star Tom Mix supposedly tended bar here before leaving for fame in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the place is not in business at the moment but the interior that we could see from outside was impressive.

Here's the entrance to the Blue Bell.

Guthrie has LOTS of wonderful old buildings to explore!

Our visit to Guthrie began in the Oklahoma Frontier Drugstore Museum where we found lots of fascinating stuff including this display. That's a ceramic chamber pot on the left; the odd looking one on the right is a bedpan from England. Once upon a time in my days as an Auburn University student I came across a bedpan just like that, which until it disintegrated Dianne used as a flower pot on our deck.

Another Alabama related item popped up as Dianne and I were heading home. Somewhere in the rural flatness of Oklahoma along I-70 we passed a giant billboard that read, "Alabama! Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail."

So for now we bring to an end this latest episode of "Finding Alabama in Oklahoma." Before we left on this trip, daughter Becca asked us to bring some Alabama-related items they can't find in Oklahoma: Good People beer, Conecuh sausage, and boiled peanuts! We were happy to oblige.

Until next time....

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (3)

One of the defining features of Colorado Springs is the view of Pikes Peak. Other features include the U.S. Air Force Academy and the large numbers of current and retired military personnel.

Although the town was founded in the late 19th century, most development seems to have taken place in the past three or four decades. The hills are crowded with vistas of new housing developments, and major roads are lined with commercial development---endless strip malls, mostly.

Fortunately, history and great natural beauty can be found there also. After a week or so, however, I start to miss all the southern greenery!

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, and we got to visit on this trip. A snow-covered Pikes Peak is in the background.

Here was pretty much our view coming and going across Kansas and eastern Colorado. Did you know that part of the country is very flat???

We had spotted this church on our way to Colorado Springs, and we stopped on the route home to take pictures. I believe it's in the small town of Simla, a bit over halfway between the Springs and I-70 on U.S. 24.

The wind farms were ubiquitous in Kansas and eastern Colorado. Some towers were close to I-70, others were far in the distance. We could not help thinking of the Martian invaders from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

A common sight in Oklahoma are the "grasshoppers" or pumpjacks that draw oil from onshore wells with weak pressure. They are everywhere, including neighborhoods.

;

In Kansas we often saw these high-rises of the plains. We also passed several small towns with significant history. From I-70 you can see the twin spires of the Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria. When it was dedicated in 1911, Saint Fidelis Catholic Church was the largest church west of the Mississippi. We also passed the exit to Nicodemus, the only surviving western town founded by African-Americans after the Civil War.

Did I mention that we saw a lot of windmills? Now and then we also saw the much smaller wooden windmills on individual farms.

Now we come to some serious stuff. We arrived back in Edmond, Oklahoma, on the second Friday of our trip. The next day daughter Becca, son-in-law Matt, Dianne and I traveled a few miles to Guthrie, a town once the capitol of Oklahoma. The Guthrie Historic District contains over 2000 buildings, so there's a lot of history to see. One place is the Oklahoma Drug Store Museum, which is filled with fascinating things!

More about Guthrie in the final post in this series.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (2)

We drove to Edmond on a Friday. Here's the son-in-law and daughter as we dined alfresco for lunch the next day. Son Amos flew into Edmond Friday night from Baton Rouge so he could join Dianne and I for the drive to Colorado Springs. So except for Dianne we were all Alabama natives in Oklahoma!

That Saturday afternoon we all walked around downtown Oklahoma City in the area where Becca works for the Parks and Recreation Department. We spent some of that time at the Myriad Botanical Gardens which was well worth the visit!

I'll be discussing some photos from Kansas and eastern Colorado in the next two posts. While Dianne, Amos and I were in Colorado Springs we visited Manitou Springs, a nearby hamlet nestled at the foot of the Rockies. In contrast to that warm day in Oklahoma, the Colorado Springs area presented us with five or more inches of snow a couple of days after we arrived.

Manitou Springs is full of shops, art galleries, and restaurants to keep you busy when you're not looking at the mountains.

One of our favorite landmarks in Manitou Springs is this Sinclair station and its dinosaur.

For more than 50 years my mother, Carolyn Shores Wright, has been painting, mostly in watercolors. Many of her works have been licensed for prints and other objects. While in Manitou Springs we went into The Taos Maos shop and found one of several stained-glass sun catchers made by Amia from her work. Mom's an Alabama native too, so there you go.

Over the years we've run across mom's work or items licensed from it at numerous places ranging from J.C. Penney to Cracker Barrel and Disney World.

Her original watercolors, prints and other items are sold on ArtFire and Etsy. If you are ever in the Pelham, Alabama, area, her work is also available at Encore Resales and Vintage Interiors.

Here are Dianne and Amos clowning around with a bear in Manitou Springs.

This sight greeted us outside our hotel on Wednesday morning.

And now for a taste of things to come. Here are a few of the many windmills we saw driving across Kansas and eastern Colorado along I-70. Did you know that part of the country is really flat???

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Alabama Film Actresses Before 1960: A List

I've been gathering various related blog posts into lists, and this one covers the series "Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960".

Lottice Howell in Gay Madrid

Patricia "Boots" Mallory

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960 (7): Boots Mallory

In its January 1933 issue New Movie Magazine declared she was "Delectable Boots Mallory, the new Fox find..." Let's investigate her Alabama connection and her career.

Several sources give New Orleans as Mallory's birthplace; her mother Myrtle was born in Louisiana. However, other sources give Mobile. The 1940 U.S. Census lists New York as her birthplace. I have been unable to locate her family in Mobile until the 1930 U.S. Census, when her father John H., mother and several brothers and sisters are all listed. Mallory herself had left for New York by then. A number of sources do give her birth date as October 22,1913, including her Social Security record that lists Louisiana as her birthplace.

Mallory is known to have attended Murphy High School, which began as Mobile High School until the name change in 1927. That 1940 census gives "Highest Grade Attained" as the 8th grade. Around age 12 she started playing banjo in an all girls band. She also appeared as a dancer at the Lyric Theatre, Mobile's early vaudeville house. At some point a travelling group from the Ziegfield Follies came through town and noticed her. She soon relocated to New York City.

Mallory appeared in George White's Scandals of 1928, which ran on Broadway from July 1928 until January 1929. She followed with roles in the Ziegfield Follies of 1931, that ran from July until November of that year. She seems to have made enough of an impression in these musical revues to warrant a move to Hollywood.

In September 1931 famed director and actor Eric von Stroheim signed a contract for a film version of Dawn Powell's play Walking Down Broadway. The production would be von Stroheim's first sound film and feature his "discovery" Boots Mallory as one of the two female leads. The story featured strong sexual themes too explosive for the era, and von Stroheim's version was drastically cut and new scenes added. The film was finally released in April 1933 as Hello, Sister!. Von Stroheim's version is apparently lost; he never directed another film.

The first of Mallory's films to be released was Handle with Care in December 1932. As with Hello, Sister!, James Dunn played the male lead in this comedy-drama that has Mallory taking care of two rambunctious children left by her dead sister and falling in love with Dunn's character, an assistant district attorney. Oh, and assassins kidnap the pair of lovebirds but the children save the day. In the film Mallory sings "Throw a Little Salt on the Bluebird's Tail."

As a result of her appealing performance in that film, Mallory was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1932, an annual promotion by theater owners. Yet this positive publicity was undermined by the negatives surrounding Hello, Sister!. For whatever reasons, Mallory's film career did not last very much longer.

She made less than a dozen movies. In April 1933 Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 was released. In this musical comedy short, Mallory appears with numerous other stars under the guise of studio portraits coming to life. The cast includes Chico Marx, Mae West, Ginger Rogers, and Bebe Daniels. Also appearing is fellow Alabamian Johnny Mack Brown, the former University of Alabama football player making a name for himself in westerns.

Mallory acted in three more films in 1933, Humanity, The Wolf Dog and Carnival Lady. Two more films followed in 1934, one in 1935 and two in 1938. One of those two was Swiss Miss, a Laurel and Hardy comedy in which she appeared uncredited. She never returned to the screen. She also made two appearances on the Lux Radio Theatre in September 1936 and February 1939.

Her Wikipedia entry notes, "A tall blonde, Mallory was well regarded for her striking looks and was photographed by such photographers as George Hurrell. She also posed for risque lingerie photographs, and was painted nude by the pin-up artist Rolf Armstrong."

Mallory married three times. Her first husband was Charles Bennett, a much older New Zealander who began his career in silent films in 1912. She married him at age 16. By 1933 she was free to marry William Cagney, actor James Cagney's lookalike brother, an actor and film producer. The couple adopted fraternal twins Jill and Stephan. They divorced in 1946; one rumor claims Mallory caught her husband in a very compromising position with actress Ann Sheridan. The following year Mallory married actor Herbert Marshall; they remained together until her death in 1958.

The article reproduced below, "Along Came Bill!", has a long profile of Mallory and discusses her poetry and an operation she had.

Her ashes are interred at Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. Many more images of Boots Mallory can be found on this Pinterest page.

Mallory's birthplace remains to be determined. I leave you with two quotes about her from the Mobile Press-Register newspaper:

"Patricia (Boots) Mallory,, blonde film star and native of Mobile, was married Saturday to William Cagney after an airplane elopement to Tia Juana...Cagney is a brother of James Cagney and a recent arrival in the Hollywood film colony."
-Tuesday, September 26, 1933

"Patricia (Boots) Mallory, native Mobilian, former stage and screen beauty and wife of actor Herbert Marshall, died yesterday in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., of a chronic throat ailment.
-December 2, 1958

That latter piece goes on to note her marriages to Cagney and Marshall. It also says she was working as an usherette at the Lyric Theatre in Mobile when the Ziegfield Follies performed there.