| I recently ran across these first two photos in one of Auburn University Libraries' digital collections and being a retired librarian and bookstore denizen since the days of my youth, they grabbed my attention. Let's investigate. The photos show the interior of two bookstores in Auburn in 1950, Hawkins' and Burton's. The quotes about each store come from the linked source. At some point Mr. Hawkins died and a bookstore entrepreneur from Tuscaloosa named Paul Malone purchased the store and renamed it Malone's. George Johnston had been working there and took over management; he purchased the store in 1953. The Johnston family took full control in 1960 and renamed it Johnston and Malone, which became J&M in 1968. That's how the store was known when I arrived in Auburn in June 1970. You can read more about J&M here, here and here. I've found nothing yet on Mr. Hawkins' background, but that's not the case with with the founder of the other store, Robert Wilton Burton. Although born in Georgia in 1848, he grew up in Lafayette and spent most of his adult life in the Auburn area. After the Civil War he taught school in Lee County and Opelika until he and his brother opened a bookstore in that town. In 1878 faculty members at the college then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama asked him to open a bookstore in Auburn to serve the school and community. Burton's Book Store became a center of literary and intellectual life and operated until 1968. Before his death in 1917 Burton published numerous poems and humorous stories in newspapers and national magazines. With the income he built a one-story house for his family affectionately called the "Four-Story Cottage". Although listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1980, the Queen Anne-style house on East Magnolia Street was demolished in 1993. In May 1957 Paul Malone was one of the incorporators of Malone's Book Store, Inc. in Tuscaloosa. The business was dissolved in 1968. I raided my parents' collection of Auburn University yearbooks from ca. 1947-1950 and other sources for book store ads and photos beyond the two I found initially. I couldn't stop myself and have included them below in order to create a mini-history of bookstores in Auburn. I wonder if my parents are in either of these photographs. They were at Auburn in 1950. If you have any information or memories about these stores, please tell us in the comments section. UPDATE 19 March 2022 One Auburn bookstore I didn't discuss was Anders, which closed recently after 56 years in business.  Hawkins Bookstore in 1950
"Hawkin's Bookstore in Auburn in 1950 was called 'The Friendly Bookstore.'
George and Paul Malone took over the store years later and named it Johnston
and Malone's." Source: C. Harry Knowles Photographs Collection, Auburn University Libraries  Burton's Bookstore in 1950
 Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook  Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook  Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook  In this photograph taken around 1910, we are looking down what is now College Street in Auburn. The building on the right in front of the water tower is Burton's Book Store. Toomer's Drug Store is the building with the awning. Source: Auburn University Digital Library  At some point a Wright Brothers Book Store operated in Auburn. "The water tower behind reveals its location on the north side of Magnolia Avenue a few doors east of Toomer's Drug Store. Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes & Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs. New South Books, 2012, p. 129  J & M Bookstore today Source: J & M website |
Alabama Yesterdays: Random wanderings through Alabama history
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Alabama Photos of the Day: Two Auburn Bookstores in 1950
Friday, August 20, 2021
Birmingham Photo of the Day (80): Paris Bookstall Protest in 1971
I came across this photo on the Alabama Archives site as linked below; that page has the following description of the event in April 1971:
"Christian demonstrators marching on the sidewalk in front of the Paris Bookstall, an adult bookstore in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. They are holding up their index fingers to mean "One Way / Jesus Way" (the slogan on a poster used by the same demonstrators at a later event)."
Well, I thought, this one should be interesting to research. And so it was...
Birmingham has had its share of adult bookstores and theaters over the years and Paris Bookstall was one. The business was operated at 2125 Fifth Avenue North beginning in 1969 by Chester McKinney, who also managed the Pussy Cat Adult Theatre at 7610 First Avenue North. More about that facility momentarily.
On February 26, 1970, in a case in Mobile, the Alabama Circuit Court declared a magazine called "New Directions" to be obscene. On March 10 a state attorney and state investigator delivered a letter to McKinney informing him of the the Mobile court decree. On March 31 the two men returned to the store and purchased a copy of the magazine. McKinney was charged and convicted of selling obscene material in a jury trial. He appealed to the state Criminal Court of Appeals, which upheld the conviction. McKinney then appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court rulings on May 9, 1974, and denied McKinney's request for a rehearing.
He did not stop there, however; the U.S. Supreme Court took the case and heard arguments on December 15, 1975, and rendered a decision on March 23 the following year. Justice William Rehnquist delivered the court's verdict: "We reverse." McKinney had been convicted of selling material judicially declared obscene by the court in Mobile but had not been allowed at his own trial to litigate the obscenity of "New Directions". Bill Baxley was Alabama Attorney General at this time.
How much longer the Paris Bookstall operated after this decision I have been unable to discover. McKinney seems to have kept it going for some years despite the protests and court cases.
Oh, about that Pussy Cat Adult Theatre. In April, May, July and August 1971 a city police sergeant purchased tickets and viewed the adult films "Vice Hustler", "Dead Eye Dick", "Love on a Mountain", and "Fantasy of Love" as well as various short films. McKinney was charged with violations of a municipal ordinance against "knowingly exhibiting obscene color motion picture films." His trial court convictions were upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on October 29, 1973. I've yet to find what happened after that decision; perhaps McKinney paid a fine and devoted his resources to fighting the "New Directions" case.
The Paris Bookstall sign can be seen down the sidewalk on the right. Presumably that is the former Bankhead Hotel, now the Bankhead Towers in the background.
Photo by Ralph Farrow, April 1971
Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History Digital Collections
Thursday, August 12, 2021
Ted's Restaurant in Birmingham
Recently Dianne and I were returning home from Huntsville and decided to stop somewhere for lunch before reaching Pelham. We first tried Niki's West on Finlay Boulevard, a legendary place we've enjoyed several times, but it was packed. So we got back on the Interstate and then exited at UAB intending to go to another favorite, Makarios at Five Points. We never made it, since we passed by Ted's Restaurant and swung in there instead.
We had eaten at Ted's once before, many years ago, and the lunch this time was as good or better than we remembered. We can highly recommend this meat-and-three with a Greek spin. Dianne had the souvlakia which was excellent; she let me have a taste! Since she got the last skewer of that, I tried the baked chicken and it too was delicious--as were the veggies.
Ted's is one of many restaurants with a Greek pedigree that have opened in Birmingham and Alabama over the past century. Ted Sarris and his wife Litsa opened the place at 328 12th Street South in 1973. Tasos Touloupis and his wife Beba bought the restaurant in 2000 and refurbished the interior and expanded the menu.
If you are in the area. or even if you're not, give Ted's a try. You can read more about the history of Ted's here. More about Birmingham's Greek restaurants is here and others in Alabama here.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Alabama History & Culture News: August 10 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!
| Project named for man killed in 1947 Alabama lynching gets federal funds Multiple other sites in Alabama received grants through the program, including historic Black churches and sites linked to the civil rights movement. Note ... |
| Birmingham's Jordyn Hudson premieres documentary on youth and civil rights history Houston Brown, former presiding judge of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. Former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington. “Youth have always ... |
| "The Heathens" By: Ace Atkins Ace Atkins Novel Features Dangerous Road Trip ... Don Noble's newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace ... |
Answer Man: What is the origin of the state's name, Alabama?
A: According to an article on the Alabama Department of Archives and History website, Alabama was the name of a southern Native American tribe in ...
Civil Rights Institute calls for increased security after historic marker destroyed
“With the support of Alabama Power, BCRI has made a commitment to work with the Alabama Historical Commission Preservation Office to replace ...
| COLUMN: Old Recording Reveals Alabama Soldier's Lost WWII Stories Tuscaloosa Patch Founder and Field Editor Ryan Phillips shares a personal tale about family stories that were thought to be lost to history. |
Birmingham Public Library: Book Review: "The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor Of The 16th Street ...
Find out what's happening in Birmingham with free, real-time updates from Patch. Let's go! I feel we should celebrate Black History and ...
| Group launches fundraising campaign for film about Alabama's voting rights activism Transform Alabama wants its storytelling project to connect today's activists to the state's long history of movement foot soldiers. By. Micah Danney. |
| Army base unveils historical marker honoring Black soldier who was lynched on base 80 years ago Felix Hall, whose body was found hanging in a ravine at the base on March 28, 1941. The Army Times reports that Hall grew up in Alabama and joined ... |
| Hunting 80-million-year-old shark teeth in Alabama's Black Belt ... of the ocean,” said Allie Sorlie, education outreach coordinator for the Alabama Museum of Natural History, which organized the fossil hunting trip. |
Throwback Thursday: 1926 Rose Bowl, Alabama vs. Washington
Throwback Thursday: 1926 Rose Bowl, Alabama vs. Washington. Alabama's first appearance in a bowl game resulted in its first national championship ...
| Grant awarded to preserve historic Lowndesboro school This grant is one of 53 projects in 20 states (including 7 others in Black Belt Alabama) that the NPS will fund to help preserve sites and history related ... |
| Floyd Cooper, illustrator of Black life for children, dies at 65 ... a celebrated children's book illustrator who explored African American experiences in stories rooted in history, like one about a boy in Alabama in ... |
Plans move ahead on Helen Keller, Rosa Parks statues for the Alabama State Capitol grounds
It's not clear whether two women from Alabama who made history ever met. But it won't be long before Helen Keller and Rosa Parks – or, rather, their ...
Thursday, August 5, 2021
That Time a Tree Fell in Mom's Back Yard
On Saturday afternoon, June 19, my 91 year old mother Carolyn Shores Wright was sitting peacefully in the sunroom on the back of her house in Huntsville. Suddenly she heard a loud crash and soon realized a huge pecan tree in her back yard had fallen completely over. Luckily the tree fell more or less between the house and a garden shed; as shown below, only minor damage to the roof of the house occurred.
On the following Wednesday Eager Beaver Tree Removal, which had been out the previous week removing another tree for mom and several for a neighbor, returned to do their thing. This time they brought a huge crane.
More details below some of the photos.
Here's a view from behind the root ball of the tree; mom's house is on the right. Visible is the screened porch and a chimney. That white siding is on the sunroom where mom was sitting.
Two closer views of the tree against the house.
Another view of the tree in the yard.
Here's the corner of the sunroom on the back of the house. Mom was sitting on a couch close to that window when the tree fell.
This view was out the basement back door; you can see the top of the garden shed behind the treetop.
This photo was taken on the morning of the removal. Those green leaves behind the roof are the downed pecan.
Oh, boy, the crane has arrived! I wish my three-year old grandson Ezra had been there to watch this big machine in operation.
Clearing the top part of the tree out took several hours. Then the crane work began!
Finally the roof damage was clearly visible.
Several of these giant pieces were lifted over the house. The entire tree was reduced to sawdust by another giant piece of equipment the tree service brought along.
And a third piece of equipment was used to reduce the stump to sawdust.
Here's all that was left of that tree when the job was finished. Amazingly, there was no other damage to the yard.
Luckily there was no serious damage to the roof and the roofing company was able to repair it pretty easily and even matched the twenty year old tiles pretty closely.
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Alabama History & Culture News: August 3 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!
| Southern Literary Trail highlights Alabama authors A display about Lillian Hellman and “The Little Foxes” at the Marengo County History and Archives Museum in Demopolis. The dress, a re-creation of ... |
| 'Through Her Eyes' Is A Must See Summer Movie Humanizing A Moment In Civil Rights ... Summer of 2021 Movie Picks,Through Her Eyes is the latest Civil Rights-era historical drama to take place in Selma, Alabama, following 15-year-old ... |
Birmingham man begins long process of cleaning up neglected cemetery
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —. A Birmingham cemetery with a long history of neglect continues to deteriorate.
| Alberton Baptist Church, Kinston, celebrates 125 years of serving community The Joe Farris Family, Billy Chamblee and The Old Country Church Choir provided special music. Ellen Dewberry of the Alabama Baptist Historical ... |
| First Baptist Church, Trussville, celebrates 200th anniversary Lonette Berg, executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission, and Michael Ethridge, director of operations for Birmingham Metro ... |
Alabama state archives announces new exhibit on women's suffrage
Entitled “Justice Not Favor: Alabama Women & the Vote,” the new exhibit, presented by the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), will ...
| Over $2.8 million awarded to preserve historic sites in Alabama related to civil rights Over $2.8 million awarded to preserve historic sites in Alabama related to civil rights. by Sumner Harrell. Sunday, August 1st 2021. AA. 16th Street ... |
| 'The Epicureans' latest novel by Dothan native And like his first two books – Pulitzer-nominated “Land O'Goshen” and “Pickett's Charge” – the book has its roots in Alabama. “I have tried to write a book ... |
| History of Iron Man statue It was originally placed in a pasture owned by Howard James at the intersection of Alabama Highway 36 and Forest Chapel Road, but it was then ... |
| Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Centre, celebrates 125th anniversary ... Baptist Association and a commissioner for the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission, presented the church with a plaque in a later service. |
| National Parks Service grants funds for Civil Rights history preservation in Selma Specifically, the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL Legacy Foundation Inc. has received $500,000 to complete re-roofing of gabled and ... |
$2.8 million awarded to Alabama historic sites
$2.8 million awarded to Alabama historic sites ... Birmginham's historic 16th Street Baptist Church. Rep. Terri Sewell announced Wednesday that over ...
| Alabama NewsCenter — Green Acres Is the Place to Be for Wings and a Side of History This iconic eatery is a popular draw in the middle of Birmingham's Fourth Avenue Historic District, which grew out of the city's segregationist past and ... |
Historic AG Gaston Motel restoration will 'shine a light' on civil rights history
After an additional comment period, a final plan is expected to be unveiled in spring 2022. Alabama NewsCenter is presenting a continuing series ...
| Dr. James McCollum celebrates UAH Romanian connection with book Dr. James McCollum, a Professor Emeritus with The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has ... |
| US Civil Rights Trail companion book a showcase for Alabama history Decades later, as Alabama's state tourism director, it inspired him to take a state list of African American heritage sites and create the Alabama Civil ... Birmingham's Carver Theatre: 'We're happy to say it's back' The depth and breadth of Alabama's connection to the history and development of jazz is more extensive than she ever imagined when she started the ... |
Friday, July 30, 2021
Carson McCuller's "A Domestic Dilemma"
Carson McCullers' collection The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories was first published in 1951. One of the stories has an Alabama connection.
McCullers is probably best known for two novels, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter [1940] and Member of the Wedding [1946]. She was born on February 20, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia, and died in Nyack, New York, on September 29, 1967, only 50 years old. After high school graduation, she moved to New York City to study music at Julliard. The story "Wunderkind" in this collection, her first published work, is probably autobiographical from that experience.
She soon abandoned music and began to study creative writing. Besides the two novels already mentioned and this collection, she published two others novels and a variety of plays, poems and other items. Her relatively short life was characterized by chronic health problems, marriage, divorce and then remarriage to aspiring writer Reeves McCullers, and infatuations with various women that were never consummated.
Many of McCullers' writings explore the loneliness of her characters and its effects on their lives, and that applies to her story "A Domestic Dilemma". The story first appeared in the magazine section of the New York Post newspaper on September 16, 1951. As the tale begins, Martin Meadows leaves his New York City job for the journey to his suburban home and wife Emily and two small children. When he arrives, he finds the kind of chaos that's become all too frequent in his life. His wife is day drinking more and more, often neglecting the children to the point of problems.
Martin's company had transferred him to New York. "The change from Alabama to New York had somehow disturbed her; accustomed to the idle warmth of a small Southern town, the matrix of the family and cousinship and childhood friends, she had failed to accommodate herself to the stricter, lonelier mores of the North. The duties of motherhood and housekeeping were onerous to her. Homesick for Paris City, she had made no friends in the suburban towns. She read only magazines and murder books. Her interior life was insufficient without the artifice of alcohol."
Emily's husband even hired a maid from Alabama, but that doesn't help. The secret drinking continues, with Emily often calling him at work the next day to apologize for her behavior the night before. She is totally lost in her new environment, and Martin has been unable to help her.
I wonder if some of McCullers' own experience when she moved to New York just out of high school found its way into this work. "A Domestic Dilemma" is well worth reading, like all the items in this collection. McCullers was a wonderful writer. You can read a more detailed analysis of the story here.
A film based on McCullers' first novel was released in 1968. Although the work is set in small town Georgia, the movie was filmed in Selma. You can see the Edmund Pettus bridge in the background of this title card below. I'll be doing a future post on the film and novel, both of which are excellent.
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