Johnny Mack Brown & "A Lady of Chance" (2)

Our adventure through  A Lady of Chance, the 1928 film starring Johnny Mack Brown and Norma Shearer continues. Part one can be found here. 

We pick up the action on Dolly and Steve's date in the park, where the talk has turned to the value of plantations....

Dolly no doubt has visions of how wealthy Steve must already be, living on a plantation and all....

The couple soon ends up in Dolly's hotel room, where Steve makes his declaration:

Not only that, but he asks her to marry him, too! 

They confirm their feelings with a hug and kiss, and Dolly agrees to marry Steve. But of course she has two fingers crossed. 

Dolly's old partner in crime Brad shows up while she is packing. He wants his share of their latest crime, but Dolly outwits him again and heads south with Steve.

The newlyweds soon arrive in Steve's hometown of Winthrop, Alabama. 

The workers at MGM worked their magic to create an "Alabama" town on the set in Hollywood where the film was shot. 

Steve's mother and brother Hank meet the newlyweds at the train station, and they drive home. 

Dolly is surprised that the Crandall homestead is not quite a plantation. That sign declares the location of "Steve Crandall Cement Construction."

Naturally Dolly is disappointed, but Steve assures her his new cement invention with make them rich. 

So Steve carries Dolly over the threshold while she is probably wondering what she's gotten herself into.

TO BE CONTINUED

Johnny Mack Brown & "A Lady of Chance" (1)

After his football playing days at the University of Alabama ended, Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown signed a contract with MGM and took up residence in Hollywood. His spectacular performance in the team's win at the 1926 Rose Bowl against the University of Washington--which was heavily favored--created a media sensation. Brown even made the front of the Wheaties cereal box. Producer and director King Vidor took notice; Brown went to California again in 1927 and had a long career in the movies. His first film appearance came that year in Slide, Kelly, Slide--a baseball movie. 

Brown became best known as one of the kings of the B westerns; he starred in dozens--and dozens. Yet in the early part of his career--mostly the silent movie part--the studio attempted to make him a leading man to play alongside some of Hollywood's female stars including Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford [several times] and Norma Shearer. He even acted with fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian--along with Crawford--in Our Dancing Daughters also released in 1928. In the following year he starred opposite Mary Pickford in her first talkie Coquette--for which she won an Academy Award. He was sometimes billed as John Mack Brown in those days.

In 1928 Brown appeared in eight films. I recently watched one of those efforts, A Lady of Chance, released on December 1 of that year. Brown is the romantic lead opposite Norma Shearer, at the time one of the biggest stars of either sex in Hollywood. She also happened to have married the previous year Irving Thalberg, who at the age of 26 in 1925 became head of production at the newly formed MGM studio. I wonder if the former football player from Alabama was a bit nervous his first day on the set?

I'm going to do something a bit different with this topic, five different posts containing about twenty screen shots each from the movie. That will take us through the entire 78 minute film. Why am I doing this? Well, this movie not only stars an Alabama native early in his career, but a significant portion of the film is set in the state as well. So there's that. Hmm, I wonder where that idea came from?

Comments are below many of the photos. I'll have some final thoughts on the film at the end of the last post. 

This production was Norma Shearer's last silent film. She continue acting until 1942; her final film was Her Cardboard Lover. Shearer was the first actor to be nominated five times for an Academy Award; she won in 1930 for The Divorcee. Her brother Douglas G. Shearer was a pioneer of sound design in motion pictures; he won seven Academy Awards during his long career. The two were the first siblings to win that award.

The film was written by A.P. Younger and Edmund Goulding. Younger wrote for some 60 films between 1919 and his suicide in 1931. Goulding had a long career as screenwriter, director, songwriter and producer; he directed the classic film noir Nightmare Alley in 1947. He died in 1959.

Robert Z. Leonard was an actor director and producer whose career lasted from 1913 until 1957. He died in 1968.

The film was edited by Margaret Booth, whose Hollywood career spanned nine decades. 

As of this writing, you can view A Lady of Chance on YouTube.

Three supporting actors in this film were all veterans. Lowell Sherman who played Brad, had success as both an actor and director. He directed May West and Katherine Hepburn in two successful films before his untimely death at age 46 in 1934. Gwen Lee, who played Gwen, had mostly supporting roles in some 60 films. Eugenie Besserer often played mother roles as she did here; she acted that part for Al Jolson's character in The Jazz Singer.  

The early part of the film introduces us to Dolly Morgan, known as "Angel Face".  She is a parolee still using her looks to entrap wealthy men into situations where she can relieve them of some of that wealth. Two other con artists, Gwen and Brad, recognize her and persuade her to join them in their next job. The pair attempt to bilk Morgan out of her share after their success, but she manages to steal the entire $10,000 and disappear.

Here's what the New York City police had on "Angel Face"

Dolly next turns up in Atlantic City where she happens to meet Steve Crandall, a businessman from Alabama, at a convention. 

Steve is working on a telegram but is interrupted before he pays for it.

Dolly reads the telegram to Crandall's mother, which mentions the coming deal that will be worth a million dollars. Naturally, Dolly's interest in Steve is immediate. 

Dolly pays for the telegram, and thus the cynical and crooked city woman and the innocent from Alabama can "meet cute."

And does Steve ever fall hard for that "angel face". 

You can just see the wheels turning in Dolly's head as she realizes she has this sap in the palm of her hand and plots her way to Steve's coming riches. 

The black man pushing their cart through the park one evening has been entertaining them with song, so here we have the first "ahem" moment of this more than eighty-year-old film. This actor looks familiar, but he is unlisted in the film's entry on IMDB.

TO BE CONTINUED 

John Benson Brooks' "Alabama Concerto"

John Benson Brooks [1917-1999] was a jazz pianist and composer

born in Maine. In the early part of his career in the 1940's he wrote the
music for hits by Tommy Dorsey's orchestra with vocalist Frank Sinatra
and others. Later he adapted folk music such as blues and spirituals
to the elements of modern jazz. During this later period he worked with such
jazz greats as Gil Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan and Miles
Davis. You can read a more detailed account of his professional life written by Eugene Chadbourne at AllMusic.

In 1950 folklorist, anthropologist and novelist Harold Courlander made a
field trip to Alabama and recorded blues, spirituals, hollers and children's
gaming songs. He wrote about the trip in "Recording in Alabama in 1950" in Resound: A Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music (October 1985). Alabama folklorist, Ruby Pickens Tartt, assisted Courlander just as; she had done for John A. Lomax on his trips to Sumter County between 1937 and 1940. 

In the mid-1950's Brooks and Courlander met and began a collaboration based on some of the material the latter had recorded in Alabama. One result was Brooks' 1958 recording Alabama Concerto that features Brooks on piano, Cannonball Adderley on sax & Art Farmer on trumpet. In 1963 a revised and enlarged second edition was published of Brooks' musical score Negro Songs from Alabama.

John Benson Brooks

Source: Discogs 

Harold Courlander

Source

This 1959 release by Adderley includes "Stars Fell on Alabama" and the presence of another saxophone great, John Coltrane. Coltrane wrote a composition, "Alabama", after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in September 1963.

The classic "Stars" was composed in 1934 by Frank Perkins; Mitchell Parish wrote the lyrics. A 1975 version appeared on Adderley's Phenix album.

Music recorded by Harold Courlander in Alabama was released on six vinyl records between 1951 and 1960. They have also been issued on CD. 

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 1: Secular Music (1951)

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 2: Religious Music (1956)

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 3: Rich Amerson—1 (1960)

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 4: Rich Amerson—2 (1955)

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 5: Spirituals (1950)

Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others (1955)

Alabama History & Culture News: September 12 edition

For a number of years I've been posting links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles in the "alabamahistory" group at Yahoo!Groups. Most of the articles are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio websites. You can subscribe to the emails there if you wish; I send out two or three a week along with relevant meeting announcements and so forth. 

Here's the latest batch:

Sean Dietrich: Stars align for this Southern boy's latest novel Montgomery Advertiser That camper is where Sean wrote his latest novel “Stars of Alabama,” which was released on July 9. ... “I've never released a book like that before.”.

Harper Lee Also Wrote About Alabama Football Wall Street Journal Like most rabid fans, she watched every Alabama game. ... She famously wouldn't publish another book for more than a half-century—and it turned ...

Birmingham Unveils First Historical Lynching Marker at Sloss Furnaces Birmingham Times ... unveil the marker, said “Jake McKenzie and Tom Redmond are two names that must be remembered in Alabama's history. They were both victims of ...

IAC hosts exhibit by Alabama artist showcasing the darker truths about Alabama's history Troy Tropolitan The International Arts Center (IAC) is holding a reception with Mike Howard and his “Pivotal Moments in Alabama History” exhibit on Friday, Sept. 13.

From Three on a String to Ken Burns documentaries, this Alabama Music Maker is making history Alabama NewsCenter Bobby Horton has been interested in the Civil War since he was 9 years old, igniting his lifelong love of history. “Every adult male in my life, from my ...

Painful reminder but necessary: Montevallo's new historic marker about a lynching

AL.com

My adopted hometown -- Montevallo, Alabama - -is in the very heart of the Heart of Dixie, pretty near to the geographical center of the State of ...

On this day in Alabama history: Solomon Seay Jr. died

Alabama NewsCenter

Solomon Snowden Seay Jr., born in Montgomery on Dec. 2, 1931, served in the U.S. Army in Korea before earning a law degree and passing the ...

Frederic at 40: Retracing Alabama's only death from 1979 hurricane FOX10 News Frederic at 40: Retracing Alabama's only death from 1979 hurricane ... Among the stories in that lineup is the tale of Alabama's only death directly ... contained a record of Eula's burial at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Bayou La Batre.

Depot Days to offer new festivities Hartselle Enquirer The Hartselle Historical Society will welcome Steve Murray from the Alabama Bicentennial Committee, who will share stories about Alabama's first 200 ...

New memorial at Sloss Furnaces will recognize local lynching victims Birmingham Business Journal “Jake McKenzie and Tom Redmond are two names that must be remembered in Alabama's history. They were both victims of unspeakable hate and ... Birmingham unveils county's first marker recognizing victims of lynching - AL.com Full Coverage

New historical-marker trail honors Tuskegee-area history-makers Opelika Auburn News New historical-marker trail honors Tuskegee-area history-makers ... It also joins six other Alabama trail sites that comprise the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

Red Mountain Park was once a sea of stumps? Explore 200 years of landscape changes in Alabama Bham Now When I was in the 4th grade, I took my first Alabama history class. Without fail, each day, the teacher outlined Alabama on the chalkboard–the ...

On this day in Alabama history: NFL star Buck Buchanan was born Alabama NewsCenter Buck Buchanan, born on this day in 1940, was a standout football and basketball player at A.H. Parker High School in Birmingham. He played football ...

Huntsville police release new information in cemetery investigation WAAY Huntsville police release new information in cemetery investigation .... In order to build on historical land in the state of Alabama, according to the ...

New historical-marker trail honors Tuskegee-area history-makers Opelika Auburn News New historical-marker trail honors Tuskegee-area history-makers ... It also joins six other Alabama trail sites that comprise the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx bring the pain in masterful 'Just Mercy' New York Post If “Green Book” piqued your interest in racial relations in the South, just wait ... a wrongly accused Alabama man on death row in the 1980s and 90s.

New book features Huntsville's haunted past whnt.com She says Alabama's oldest Masonic Lodge is very haunted. “And when we ... Jacque wrote a book called “When Spirits Walk” about 15 years ago.

On this day in Alabama history: Bessemer mayor, council voted to incorporate

Alabama NewsCenter

Industrialist Henry Fairfield DeBardeleben founded Bessemer in 1886 after buying 4,000 acres of land for a planned new town in Jefferson County ...

UA professor offers alternate campus tour highlighting enslaved people AL.com Luna, a young, enslaved woman at the University of Alabama in 1850, was ... Green said she was inspired to research UA's history of slavery after a ...

On this day in Alabama history: Race car driver Donnie Allison was born

Alabama NewsCenter

Part of the “Alabama Gang” and brother of racing champion Bobby Allison and uncle of Davey Allison, Donald “Donnie” Allison was born Sept. 7, 1939 ...

On this day in Alabama history: John Carroll Catholic High School opened Alabama NewsCenter John Carroll Catholic High School is a private high school located just off Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham. It started with the vision of John Carroll ...

Founder of Ross Neely Trucking dies

AL.com

The founder of a 60-year-old Alabama trucking company has died. ... service will be held on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery.