Saturday, December 7, 2019

Alabama History & Culture News: December 7 edition



Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these articles are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!


Take a gospel journey with this blind Alabama group that has toured seven decades strong
Singing with the Blind Boys of Alabama, whose beginnings as a group stem back to 1939 with a history of live performance dating to 1944, isn't a ...

Alabama Power Foundation marks 30 years of giving
Alabama Power Foundation marks 30 years of giving ... Calhoun said the foundation's mission fits in with the history of Alabama Power, with the ..

FAMU professor serves as model for Rosa Parks sculpture in Alabama
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida A&M University history professor served as the model for a Rosa Parks sculpture unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama.

On this day in Alabama history: Alabama Shakespeare Festival opens new theater in Montgomery
On this night in 1985, stars didn't just fall on Alabama – they arrived for a specific occasion. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's new 100,000 square ...

On this day in Alabama history: Two Alabama counties incorporated
Dec. 6 brought us the incorporations of Montgomery County in 1816 and Cleburne County in 1866. Montgomery County was created prior to Alabama ...

Alabama Bicentennial honored with another great book
Alabama Heritage magazine is the sponsor of “Alabama: From Territory to Statehood, “ part of the Alabama Heritage Bicentennial Collection.

Campus monuments, memorials tell a one-sided story
The University of Alabama landscape is dotted with monuments to the ... that the University should be more open and honest in telling its own history.

On this day in Alabama history: Columbiana founded in Shelby County
Originally settled as Columbia in 1821, the Alabama legislature added the additional syllable by a vote in 1832. On this day five years later, ...


He landed a job with the Alabama Highway Department, which later became the .... Holley decided to start with Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.


Category Summary (Cyndi's List - United States/Alabama - Maps & Geography)
http://cyndislist.com/us/al/ma ps/
* New Links :       1
* Updated Links : 0
* Total Links :      30


Alabama Bicentennial: 200 years of political scandals and scrapes
Leah Rawls Atkins described the site of Cahawba in “Alabama: The History of a Deep South State: Bicentennial Edition,” co-authored with William ...


Mobile, Ala. (WKRG) — The owner of an iconic store in Mobile that sells only Christmas collectibles and decorations has died. Robert (Bob) Moore ...


Howard Cruse, underground cartoonist and 'godfather of queer comics,' dies at 75
Mr. Cruse returned to his youth in Alabama with “Stuck Rubber Baby” ... 'Stuck Rubber Baby' certainly isn't standard comic book fare,” wrote comics ...


Native American tribes take part in ceremonial flag swap for Alabama Bicentennial
Native American tribes take part in ceremonial flag swap for Alabama ... The festivities will culminate with a parade, historical park dedication, festival, ...


Alabama Sports Hall of Fame announces Class of 2020
The Board of Directors of the State of Alabama Sports Hall of Fame is ... He finished seventh in school history in rushing yards and fifth in rushing ...

Montgomery opens old time capsule to celebrate bicentennial
It's not yet clear what they wrote, but little did they know they were writing to history makers including Kay Ivey; Alabama's first Republican female ...

On this day in Alabama history: Work began on Guntersville Dam
It took the Tennessee Valley Authority more than three years to complete Guntersville Dam, which gave Alabama its largest lake. The structure is 94 ...


This is our history: How white supremacy still thrives in Alabama
This is our history, not a granite obelisk in Linn Park but a racist, oppressive foundation of law. And here we are 118 years later, and the Alabama ...

New bicentennial park to display 'turning points' in Alabama's history
New bicentennial park to display 'turning points' in Alabama's history ... (WSFA) - Alabama celebrates its 200th birthday with a new Alabama ..


Rosa Parks statue unveiling packs Court Square in downtown Montgomery
The civil rights memorials are a partnership between the city of Montgomery, Montgomery County, the Alabama Department of Tourism and the ...

Auburn legend, former Heisman winner Pat Sullivan has died
He helped the Tigers snap their five-year losing streak to Alabama with 192 passing ... they faced also undefeated and third-ranked Alabama at Legion Field. ... “Pat Sullivan is not only a big part of our football history, leading us to a ...

Montgomery to open time capsule for 200th anniversary
AP. The City of Montgomery and the Alabama Department of Archives and History show, during a ceremony at the Archives on Monday December 3, ...


Peggy Wallace Kennedy Reckons With Her Father's Legacy Of Segregation
Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Alabama Gov. ... a key player——on the wrong side——of this inspiring and heart-wrenching history.


Program on Alabama's historic photographs set for Tuesday in Decatur
Photographer Frances Osborn Robb will speak about the state's photographic history at the Alabama Center for the Arts' Visual Arts Building in ...

Alabama honors Native American tribes it exiled
“Today, we acknowledge that Alabama's history includes the stories of many peoples and cultures, and that our past has many chapters, some more ...


On this day in Alabama history: Pivotal UA President George Denny was born
His name later memorialized in Tuscaloosa landmarks like Denny Chimes and Bryant-Denny Stadium, George Denny was born on this day in 1870.



On this day in Alabama history: The earth opened up underneath Calera
A massive sinkhole opened up on this day in 1972. The sinkhole, located near County Road 84 and Overhill Road in Shelby County, was referred to ...
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Friday, December 6, 2019

Drama in "Pokerville", Known to Us as Wetumpka

Although born in London in 1810, Joseph M. Field came to America at a very young age and remained here until his death in 1856. In 1827 he began an acting career in Boston, but three years later left the city looking for better opportunities. By 1833 he was in the Old Southwest touring with Sol Smith, the co-manager of a theatrical company that worked large cities such as New Orleans and Mobile and many small towns along the routes. Both men published accounts of life on the theater circuit in the U.S. and especially in the Southeast and Alabama. 

 Smith published his book Theatrical Management in the South and West for Thirty Years in 1868, the year before his death. I plan a blog post in the future on Smith and his career. In this post let's look at Field's The Drama in Pokerville, published in 1847.

 Field's book falls into a genre of literature known as Old Southwestern humor that was popular in the antebellum period before the Civil War. The Old Southwest consisting of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas was America's Wild West at the time. The sketches and tales embracing this humor featured regional dialects and portraits of the many con men, gamblers, confidence artists and other criminals as well as their victims inhabiting the cities, towns and roads of these states. Also skewered are the pompous airs and prejudices of residents. 

 The authors portrayed many denizens of the region as exotic, exaggerated types often lazy or crooked whether white, black or Native American.Two of the best known works in the genre originated in Alabama: Joseph G. Baldwin (1815-64), The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi: A Series of Sketches (1853) and Johnson Jones Hooper (1815-62), Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, Late of the Tallapoosa Volunteers; Together with "Taking the Census" and Other Alabama Sketches (1845).
Thus Field unlike Smith turned his experiences into humorous fiction. The Pokerville "drama" takes up almost half the book. In his essay on Fields in the Encyclopedia of Alabama Charles S. Watson summarizes the Alabama connections. "Pokerville probably is based on Wetumpka, Alabama, where Field had performed in a two-week theatrical run in a billiard room. Two stories about Sol Smith's company are specifically located in Alabama. "'Old Sol' in a Delicate Situation" takes place in the Mobile Theatre, and "A Night in a Swamp" describes Sol Smith's company en route from Georgia to Montgomery as they pass through the Creek Nation in Alabama. In The Drama in Pokerville, Field ridicules the pomposity of local social leaders and censures small-town prejudice against the theatre."

 The brief excerpt below gives a taste of Fields' biting, sarcastic humor--and ridicule. A poster is printed advertising "The Great Small Affair" drama and attracts much interest since there is a "great desire" to have a theater in Pokerville. The town already had several brick stores, was situated at the "head of navigation" and located "somewhere, on the 'Big'--something" and thus bound to prosper. The nearby larger town of "Coonsborough" [Montgomery?] already had a theater. But there was a "heap" of taste in Pokerville, and the manager of the theatrical troupe could make "a corde of money" there. Fields' tongue is firmly in cheek during these and other observations.

He observes that Pokerville had no theater as yet, but did have three taverns, thirty-three bar rooms, a billiard room and a ten-pin alley. At least priorities were in order. I suppose the time had come for a little culture!

 As you can see from the table of contents included below, Fields devotes a lot of attention to the doings in Pokerville surrounding "The Great Small Affair". You can find the book and enjoy more of his Alabama portrait here. 

 Fields died in Mobile on January 28, 1856. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daughter Kate Fields, the only child of Joseph and his wife Eliza, became a journalist and lecturer. She is also buried in Mount Auburn along with both parents.


















An illustration from Pokerville

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama





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Monday, December 2, 2019

Alabama History & Culture News: December 2 edition





Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these articles are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!
Birmingham's Buck Buchanan makes NFL's centennial all-star team
... with Buchanan selected as one of the seven best defensive tackles in the league's 100-year history. Three other players with Alabama football roots ...

Fire guts another historic Huntsville home
Fire heavily damaged this house in Huntsville's Twickenham Historic District ... is one of the largest collections of pre-Civil War era homes in Alabama.

Rosa Parks Statue to Be Unveiled in Alabama
The unveiling coincides with the anniversary of Parks' historic Dec. 1, 1955 ... the Alabama Department of Tourism and the Montgomery Area Business ...


How a Meteorite Ruined an Alabama Woman's Afternoon 65 Years Ago Today
The piece that didn't hit Hodges landed a few miles away and is now in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

On this day in Alabama history: Bo Jackson was born
Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson was a standout athlete at McAdory High School in McCalla, winning two state decathlon titles, throwing baseball ...

Pond Spring Invites Patrons to Stroll Through a Christmas Past
Pond Spring: The General Joe Wheeler Home, a historic property of the Alabama Historical Commission, is located in Lawrence County in Hillsboro, ...

Legion Field: Future unsure after century of history
Alabama's Million Dollar Band marches during the 1970 Iron Bowl. ... for nearly a century, but some believe the Old Gray Lady's years are numbered.

On this day in Alabama history: Yolande Betbeze Fox was born
Yolande Betbeze Fox's stunning stand shook the pageant world in 1951. But before that day, she had already built a reputation as strong-minded and ...

'Africaville' author Jeffrey Colvin finds a good read wherever life takes him
Colvin, who grew up in Alabama, served in the Marine Corps and is a graduate of the United ... He'll discuss his new book at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec.

America's last slave ship could offer a case for reparations
Alabama steamship owner Timothy Meaher financed the last slave vessel that brought African captives to the ... he was cleared of charges by a judge, according to “Dreams of Africa in Alabama,” a book by Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf.


Montgomery premiere of 'Just Mercy,' film based on Bryan Stevenson book to raise city's profile
“A lot of people that never really had Montgomery or Alabama on their radar are now interested in coming,” said Dawn Hathcock, vice president of the ...

Howard Cruse, acclaimed Alabama-born underground comics artist, dead at 75
Alabama native Howard Cruse, a trailblazer in the underground comics world ... Gay Comix was an anthology featuring LGBT comic book authors and ...

Beyond the Poarch Creek Indians, there's a lot more to Alabama's native american history
In more recent history, many in Alabama have become accustomed to reading headlines about the Poarch Creek Indians earning millions from its ...

Johnson: Nancy Gardner Sewell has seen racial change, though Alabama 'still has miles to go'
As Alabama celebrates its 200th birthday in December, as it rolls out a unique, colorful—and, yes, at times embarrassing—historical narrative, ...


Pioneer Museum of Alabama puts postcard collection on display
Pioneer Museum of Alabama puts postcard collection on display ... Perhaps, Union Springs history buff Wade Hall was thinking about the value of a ...


Alabama Bicentennial commemoration nears grand finale
Over the last three years, the Bicentennial Commission, the Alabama Tourism Department, the Department of Archives and History, the Alabama ...

On this day in Alabama history: Izzy Jannazzo went the distance
From almost from the beginning, Isadoro Anthony “Izzy” Jannazzo was a fighter. Born in the Ensley community near Birmingham in 1915, he took up ...


On this day in Alabama history: Clarence Fountain was born
Clarence Fountain was a student during the 1940s at the segregated Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega when he and four friends formed a ...

Alabama 200: See top 10 sports moments in Alabama history
In commemoration of Alabama's bicentennial, AL.com and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame collaborated to identify the top 200 sports moments in ...

The story of us: Alabama history 10000 BC to now
Today, on the occasion of the soon-to-arrive Bicentennial of our statehood, here's a timeline of Alabama history, following its course from the age of ...


On this day in Alabama history: Auburn beat Alabama for sixth straight time
The Auburn Tigers overcame the Alabama Crimson Tide 17-10 on this day in the Iron Bowl. The 25th ranked Tigers beat the Crimson Tide during ...

'The most emotional day in Auburn history': Impact of 1989 Iron Bowl still being felt 30 years later
The Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama always is, no matter the stakes. And this one had plenty of stakes. The Crimson Tide were 10-0 and ...


In 1954, an Extraterrestrial Bruiser Shocked This Alabama Woman
In 1954, an Extraterrestrial Bruiser Shocked This Alabama Woman .... for a while before donating it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Another ...

On this day in Alabama history: Marx Brothers played the Lyric
The Lyric Theatre first opened its doors in January 1914 during a boom period for the young city of Birmingham. Boasting more than 1,500 seats, ...


Troy University's Rosa Parks Museum to commemorate Rosa Parks Day
The bill's passage made Alabama one of four states to designate holidays in ... Her historic election in 2000 represented the first time in the more than ...

Alabama Bicentennial celebrated at Decatur High School
Decatur High School is celebrating Alabama's Bicentennial. Students gathered in the auditorium Friday morning to learn about Alabama's history and ...

On this day in Alabama history: Former state Treasurer Young Boozer III was born
Birmingham native Young Boozer III grew up in Tuscaloosa, the son of University of Alabama football star Young Boozer. He earned a bachelor's ...

On this day in Alabama history: US Rep. George Huddleston was married
On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1917, Alabama Congressman George Huddleston married Bertha L. Baxley and the couple would have five children.


New Hope Rosenwald School receives donation
FREDONIA — Members of the New Hope Foundation met with representatives of the Coosa Valley Resource Conservation & Development Council ...

Before Writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Harper Lee Loved Alabama Football
If you had to guess who the biggest fan of Alabama football is, you might say any ... TRENDING: Book: Author Harper Lee Is An Alabama Football Fan ...


Author extols cultural, economic importance of Coosa River (with photos)
Many of those memories river residents have shared with Deutsch have made their way into his book, “Alabama Rivers: A Celebration & Challenge.
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