Thursday, June 3, 2021

Arnold G. Diethelm, M.D., RIP

Early this past February I wrote a post about Charles McCallum, D.M.D., M.D.,  who had died on January 16. Dr. McCallum was a very important figure in the history of the UAB and its School of Medicine, eventually serving as President of the university. He also served two terms as Mayor of Vestavia in his "retirement".

I'd like to take note here of the passing of another giant in the history of UAB and medicine in Alabama, Arnold G. Diethelm, M.D., who died on January 28. He was born in Baltimore into a multi-generational line of doctors, graduated from Washington State University in 1953, and Cornell University Medical College in 1958. A fellowship in transplantation at Harvard followed, then study of transplant immunology in England under Sir Peter Medawar, a Nobel Laureate. In 1967 he was recruited by Dr. John Kirklin to come to Birmingham and begin a transplant program at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

Dr. Diethelm performed the first organ transplant in the state of Alabama on May 8, 1968; the operation was successful. By 2018 more than 14,000 organs had been transplanted by the program, which expanded to include hearts, livers, lungs, pancreas and multi-organ procedures. Later in life Dr. Diethelm received kidney and liver transplants himself. 

Named a full Professor of Surgery in 1973, he chaired the medical school's Department of Surgery from 1982 until 1999. A football player at Washington State, Dr. Diethelm became a Crimson Tide fan after moving to the state. He even invited former coach Gene Stallings to give a grand rounds lecture at the Department of Surgery in 1998.

You can read more about Dr. Diethelm in his obituary in the Birmingham News and an official remembrance from UAB and one from the Department of Surgery. He was inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame in 2004. 




Dr. Diethelm reviewing a patient chart in 1991 




Dr. Diethelm in a hospital suite ca. 2000. You can see more material related to him here

Source: UAB Archives 



This article reprinted Dr. Diethelm's Presidential address at the Southern Surgical Association annual meeting in 1989. The source is Annals of Surgery May 1990. The article is one of 195 he published as indexed in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database. 




Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Alabama History & Culture News: June 1 edition

 



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


Alabama pastor leads church that survived the Tulsa Race Massacre 100 years ago
After the riot, the church hosted the graduation ceremony for Book T. Washington High School. The church did sustain some damage and was later ...

Birmingham birthed from 'weeds and briars' 150 years ago today
From “Jefferson County and Birmingham, AlabamaHistorical and Biographical ... In “The Valley and the Hills: An Illustrated History of Birmingham and ...
7 vintage Alabama homes and the fascinating history behind them
“I've always been into Southern history and architecture,” the Florence-based mortgage underwriter explains. “I love to explore off the beaten path.”.

Filmmaker releases details about new book
It is a film about the integration of Alabama football and basketball teams. Now, he has written a biography about Bob Gilliland, the first man to fly the ...

Oak Ridge Boys' William Lee Golden writes book
Golden's book, “Behind the Beard,” covers his childhood in Alabama, his time with The Oak Ridge Boys, what his first wife said when he was unfaithful, ...

She was buried beside several family members in the cemetery at the Stateline Methodist Church just across the Alabama line. Easter was remembered ...

He was buried there, before being returned to Pleas Mount Cemetery in Gurley in 1949. Pvt. James Samuel Birchfield died in Italy as a medic in ...

Alabama's Tyner Rushing to play 'Bama born badass' in new Chris Pratt series
The series, based on a best-selling novel by Jack Carr, focuses on James Reece, a Navy SEAL “who has nothing left to live for and everything to kill ...

Child publishes a book in Huntsville
In Connecting North Alabama, WAAY 31 introduced the "Every Child has a Story" non-profit organization. On Sunday, one of the authors from the ...

Monroeville author releases debut novel, 'The Souls of Clayhatchee'
For example, his grandparents grew up in Alabama. "This is one of my favorite novels on my book shelf!"⁣⁠

Have you visited the Bessemer Hall of History?
The facility is housed within the old Alabama Great Southern Railroad depot, a historic train depot that served passengers from 1916 until the late ...

Huntsville museum salutes military history and service members' sacrifices
Other collections include individual medals, military vehicles and aircraft. Visitors can even “go aboard” Alabama's “40&8” World War I French military ...


Timeline of Birmingham's 150-Year History
–During a mass meeting at Birmingham's Sardis Baptist Church, Shuttlesworth and other local black ministers establish the Alabama Christian ...


Oldest Alabama HBCU, Talladega College considering reviving football program
“The year 2021 marks the one-hundred-year anniversary of our historic back-to-back championship win,” said Hawkins in a press release. “Given the ...

Mount Hebron East Baptist Church celebrates 125th anniversary
Ralph Foster, a commissioner for the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission, presented the church with a certificate during the anniversary ...


60 Years Later, Freedom Riders Roll into Birmingham
The Freedom Rights Museum is a historic property of the Alabama Historical Commission. It is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. “Having the bus ...

ALDOT installs Trail of Tears national historic signs in Limestone County
The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has authorized a local resident with the Trail of Tears Association to display official national ...

Rooster Bridge a Unique Part of Demopolis History
From the West Alabama Newsroom–. The Rooster Bridge near Demopolis was originally built 102 years ago. It's construction closed the only gap in a ...

And his weekends are busy performing at weddings and funerals, where the lone bagpipe never fails to give listeners chills. “Amazing Grace” is the ...


Fuller wraps up book tour in Chambers County
Since the start of March, Fuller and the Alabama Forestry Association have been going to different elementary schools promoting “Lucy Meets a Logger.” ...

Old Monroe County Courthouse
An Alabama courtroom where two famous American authors played as children became the setting for a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Been Here? 1.

African American genealogy researcher, Southern photography historian to headline MSU ...
Robb is author of “Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839-1941” (University of Alabama Press, 2017) and is writing a book about A.C. Oxford ...


Markers to Honor Fight for Female Suffrage in Alabama
The fight to allow women to vote in Alabama will be recalled in a series of historical markers across the state. By Associated Press. |. May 22, 2021.

Purple marker shows where Alabama women made history
State and local leaders dedicated a new historic marker in downtown Huntsville Wednesday marking the complicated battle of Alabama women for the ...

Alabama Freedom Riders recall their fight for equal treatment
Two Birmingham natives who participated 60 years ago in the historic Freedom Rides told their stories to an inquisitive and admiring crowd ...

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Alabama Photo of the Day: Hugh Bagley

I recently came across this photograph and decided to investigate a bit. The information I've  found on Bagley came from several sources: U.S. Census records, Alabama marriage records and his World War I registration card at Ancestry.com, and the Gold Star Database maintained by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. That database is derived from a project the Archives undertook in the 1920's to obtain information from relatives about each of Alabama's dead in World War I. Bagley's mother Willis filled out his form. The plan was to publish a book about these men, but that never happened. 

The subject of the photo was born in the small community of Jenifer in Talladega County on September 7 1897. At the time Bagley registered with the military, he was working as a laborer at a furnace in Ironaton in Talladega County. He arrived at Camp Dodge, Iowa, for training on October 28, 1917. You can see a number of postcards of buildings and activities at the camp here. More information on Camp Dodge is here. As a member of the quartermaster corps he departed Hoboken, N.J., for France on February 9, 1918. Like most African-American soldiers in World War I, he served in a supportive, non-combatant role. He died of unknown illness on November 11, 1918, which happened to be Armistice Day. Perhaps he died in the 1918 influenza pandemic

Bagley's parents were married on January 9, 1892, in Jenifer, Alabama. I found the Bagley family in the 1910 U.S. Census. The father is listed as Guss Bagley, age 36, the mother is Willis Bagley, 25. They lived in Ironaton on Virginia Street with their six sons ranging in age from 1 to 16. Apparently three other children had not survived. Hugh was the second oldest at 13; he could both read and write. 

Hugh's mother Willis filled out the Gold Star form on November 3, 1921. On the line for "Father" she wrote, "Know nothing of Gus Bagley". Had her husband and Hugh's father abandoned  her at an earlier point? She notes that her son went to school in Ironaton and that a "Prof. Barnhill" was one of his teachers. Willis declared that Hugh was a Republican, a Steward in the Methodist church and "Died without going into an engagement."


or 


















Bagley is buried in the Jenifer Cemetery in Talladega County 

Source: Find-A-Grave


Friday, May 21, 2021

Gail Patrick in "The Maltese Falcon"

For a long time I've been looking for an Alabama connection to the classic Humphry Bogart film The Maltese Falcon [1941]. Well, not really, but I have found one--almost. 

The original novel by Dashiell Hammett began life serialized in Black Mask magazine; the first installment appeared in September 1929. Alfred A. Knopf issued the entire novel in hardback the following year. The work fell between a pair of other Hammett novels, The Dain Curse and The Glass Key. Except for a few short stories, the work is the only appearance of the iconic detective Sam Spade. 

In the years since, the book that chronicles the search for a mysterious bird statue has been adapted in a series of films and other properties. The first one appeared soon after Hammett's novel was published in book form. The 1931 The Maltese Falcon starred Bebe Daniels as the femme fatale Ruth Wonderly and Richard Cortez as Sam Spade. Like the 1941 version, this Falcon follows closely the book's story except more of Hammett's homosexual elements are present in this Pre-Code film and removed in the later one. For a number of years after the mid-sixties this film was known as Dangerous Female to distinguish it from the Bogart remake. I've seen this version and it's pretty enjoyable if you can forget about Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and the other excellent actors. But we do get Bebe Daniels!

In 1936 Bette Davis and Warren William appeared in Satan Met a Lady, a very loose adaptation. Warner Brothers studio owned the rights to Hammett's novel and decided to milk the property for another release. Very little of Hammett's work survived. Then that best known 1941 version has been followed in more recent decades by The Maltese Bippy [1969], a vehicle for Dan Rowan and Dick Martin of Laugh-In fame with Rowan as Sam Smith. In 1975 The Black Bird featured George Seagal as Sam Spade, Jr., in another comedic take. With Hollywood's current fascination with recycle and reuse, a new version could well appear soon. A stage version by Bryan Colley did appear in 2008. 

On February 2, 1943, a serious interpretation of the story was broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre. Lux [named after its soap sponsor] ran on various networks from 1934 until 1955, adapting Broadway plays in its first two seasons and then films. For eleven of those years the great Cecil B. DeMille introduced the stories, including The Maltese Falcon. That version starred Edward G. Robinson as Sam Spade and Gail Patrick as his female nemesis Miss Wonderly, or Brigid Shaughnessy or whatever. You can read the script of this adaptation here & listen to it on YouTube

And there's the Alabama connection to The Maltese Falcon--Gail Patrick. I've written about Patrick's extensive film career as well as her years as executive producer of the classic Raymond Burr Perry Mason TV series. Patrick was born in 1911 in Birmingham as Margaret LaVelle Fitzgerald. She graduated from Howard College, remained there for a brief period as acting dean of women, then spent two years in law school at the University of Alabama. On impulse she entered a contest by Paramount Studios; although she did not win, she was offered train fare to Hollywood for herself and her brother. She made her film debut in 1932; she died in 1980. She had many prominent acting roles before retiring in 1948. I've also written about her early role as one of the murder victims in the very strange, very fascinating 1934 film Murder at the Vanities. 

I wonder what other radio goodies are to be found in Patrick's career? 


A couple of Patrick's studio glamour shots
















Thursday, May 20, 2021

Alabama History & Culture News: May 20 edition

 



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


Gaddy rolls into retirement
book he was especially proud of detailed Alabama players who served in World War II. “Paul Bryant Jr. came to me with a book he had gotten of ...

Martha Young's New Book, 'Finding April', is an Empowering Journey of a Girl With a Miserable ...
Martha writes, “Imagine life in a small Alabama town as a little redheaded girl growing up in a family of six where physical and mental abuse from your ...

'The Wonder Years' Reboot First Look Takes a Trip to '60s Alabama
But this time, The Wonder Years follows a Black family in Alabama, and a young 12-year-old boy with a great imagination. Watch The Wonder Years ...

USA TODAY's New “Never Been Told” Project Seeks to Spotlight the Untold Stories of People of ...
USA TODAY's Javonte Anderson, enterprise reporter for racism and history, traveled to Alabama in April to shine a light on Jimmie Lee Jackson's ...

Historic marker recognizes Huntsville's role in women's suffrage movement
The Historical Marker subcommittee of the AWSCC identified and ... 1920, and Dr. Frances Roberts, a driving force in Alabama's historic preservation ...


Real-life Harper Lee mystery chosen for Daniel Boone Regional Library One Read program
Cep's book begins with the story of Willie Maxwell, an Alabama minister suspected of murdering several people — including two wives — in the 1970s ...

Satchel was from Mobile, Alabama, and Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas. Both are buried in Kansas City, Missouri. Leroy “Satchel” ...
Attendees learn how to preserve and protect cemeteries to keep history alive | News | selmasun.com
Here in Alabama a nonprofit organization run completely by volunteers is dedicated to just that task – the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance ...
"Independent Bones" By: Carolyn Haines
Don Noble's newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace Atkins, Carolyn Haines, Brad Watson, and eleven other ...

Monroeville, Alabama Elects Its First Black Mayor In City's 121-Year History
Monroeville, Alabama elected its first Black mayor in the city's 121-year history, The Hill reports. Monroeville is a small town with less than 6,000 ...

Forrest Gump True Story: Every Historical Event & How Accurate They Are
Forrest goes on to play football at the University of Alabama, fight in the Vietnam War, meet multiple presidents and found BubbaGump Shrimp. Though ...
DON NOBLE: Book features stories of struggle and survival in a small Southern town
These are also set in Appalachia, the last gasps of it, in a fictional town called Copeland's Crossing, Alabama. From that village one road runs south to ...
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study's Legacy Is America's Continued Abuse of Black Bodies
... Male” was conducted from 1932 to 1972 by the United States Public Health Service at Tuskegee University, a historically Black college in Alabama.
Uniquely Alabama: Baseball Legends From A Football State
BIRMINGHAM, AL — We all know that Alabama is football country, and ... But a deeper look into how well Alabama is represented in the long history of ..

“Selma” a remarkably resonant, revealing and rewarding historical film
Johnson, Tim Roth as Alabama Governor George Wallace, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover, and Oprah Winfrey (who also served as one of the film's ...
Small town Alabama: Wetumpka
Whether you want to spend a day surrounded by nature, leisurely shopping or exploring history, Wetumpka has you covered. RELATED: Alabama town ...
Alabama Original: Main Street Cafe
The Main Street Cafe in historic downtown Madison. "We look at the book and if it's available then I'll say 'absolutely, I'll be glad to put ...
Alabama remembers the Freedom Rides that happened 60 years ago this month
The Alabama Historical Commision and Alabama Tourism Department are ... Freedom Riders will be available for book signings afterward in the ...
Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department, said he believes ... Welcome Center – is also in the works near the Old Plateau Cemetery.
Donna P. Turner's New Book, 'Navigating the Journey of a Lifetime' Brings an Indulging Narrative ...
Donna P. Turner, an Alabama Native, a successful noted speaker, and educator, has completed her new book, "Navigating the Journey of a Lifetime": ...

Saving America's Amazon
His latest book explores Alabama's unusual biodiversity and aims to inspire residents to help preserve it. Staff photo/ Allison Marlow. Posted Friday, May ...

How Jim Crow-Era Laws Suppressed the African American Vote for Generations
By 1910, registered voters among African Americans dropped to 15 percent in Virginia, and under 2 percent in both Alabama and Mississippi, ...

Restored vintage Greyhound bus from Freedom Rides Museum going on tour
The bus will arrive at the Freedom Rides Museum, a historic property of the Alabama Historical Commission. The bus tour carries out the theme of the ...

The Delectable History of Alabama White Barbecue Sauce
But Alabama's regional sauce, with its white, creamy appearance, stands out from the crowd. We have Big Bob Gibson, the pit master behind what ...