Alabama History & Culture News: January 17 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. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Horror in Alabama: The genre's roots in the state run deep, from 'Scream' to 'Get Out' - al.com AL.com They swapped location of the 1983 book from Norway to Demopolis, Alabama. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). Alabama connection: Stars ...

Dan Abrams Authors New Book About Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Trial - Law & Crime

Law & Crime

The coming new book Alabama v. King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Criminal Trial that Launched the Civil Rights Movement takes a look at the ..

Filmmaker from Opelika tells untold stories of African Americans in Alabama | Local News ... Opelika Auburn News Theo Moore has a passion for learning history and sharing these stories with others. His goal is to share the untold, inspiring success stories of ...

Was Alabama the 1st US State To Declare Christmas an Official Holiday? - ToysMatrix

ToysMatrix

Historical records show that, in 1848, the Alabama state Legislature first labeled Christmas a bank holiday — a legal title that mandates a one-day ...

Ambushed in Eufaula: Alabama's forgotten race massacre - al.com AL.com I want to show you what a hole in Alabama history looks like. Downtown Eufaula is postcard pretty. It fits the Hollywood idea of what a small ...

A place for untold history: Historians and Black leaders in Auburn share high hopes for ... Opelika Auburn News A historical marker in Loachapoka indicates that the first Rosenwald Fund school was built there in ... Jeremy Gray of Alabama House District 83.

Opelika's Abby Snelling makes a stitch in time to embroider history into art - Alabama NewsCenter Alabama NewsCenter (Tessa Battles / Alabama Living). History may be made one moment at a time, but Abby Snelling is capturing it one stitch at a time.

National Geographic Announce New Documentary – “Clotilda: Last American Slave Ship ... What's On Disney Plus Stacye Hathorn, Alabama State archaeologist, Alabama Historical Commission; Joseph Grinnan, maritime archaeologist/diver, SEARCH, Inc. Kamau Sadiki, ...

EJI's New Legacy Museum Named Alabama Tourism's 2022 Attraction of the Year Equal Justice Initiative The new Legacy Museum provides a comprehensive history of the United States with a focus on the legacy of slavery. From the Transatlantic Slave ...

The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning

B Raines - 2022

… A secret beneath the murky waters of an Alabama swamp has been revealed.
One hundred … After successfully returning to Alabama from Ouidah, one of Africa’s
most notorious slave … ,” producing one of the most definitive accounts in the …

History on display in sculpture at Alabama Bicentennial Park

Alabama NewsCenter

The bronze sculptures in Montgomery's Alabama Bicentennial Park represent pivotal moments in Alabama's history. (contributed).

Alabama's capitol is a crime scene. The cover-up has lasted 120 years. - al.com AL.com State of Denial: How white-washed history poisons Alabama. ... Perched atop Goat Hill in Montgomery, the Alabama capitol is the sort of backdrop ...

Whiskey Bottle Tombstone – Clayton, Alabama - Gastro Obscura Atlas Obscura Whiskey Bottle Tombstone. Clayton City Cemetery. Clayton, Alabama. In 1863, a woman buried her hard-drinking husband beneath his beloved booze.

Birmingham author writes book to help people find purpose in life - YouTube YouTube A Birmingham native has released a new book that helps people find their purpose in life. Eric Jones' new book is titled “When Passion Me

BREAKING: Oak Mountain State Park expands 1644-acres, thanks to Forever Wild and EBSCO Bham Now Last week, before 2021 came to an end, the state of Alabama's Forever ... To put the size of the expansion into perspective, Alabama's largest and ..

Nat King Cole & W.C. Handy

These two musical giants from Alabama are linked by the 1958 film St. Louis Blues. Cole played Handy in the film named after one of his best known songs and loosely based on his life. Actress Ruby Dee and several other jazz greats such as Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald also appear. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is in the movie, which features more than ten of Handy's songs. Cole released an album of Handy compositions to accompany the film. 

William Christopher Handy was  born in Florence on November 16, 1873. He was the son and grandson of ministers, and the family saw that he received a good education. His father Charles discouraged an interest in secular music, but Handy was able to gain local exposure to it anyway in the form of folk and popular music from a fiddler, "Uncle Whit" Walker and the marches and cakewalks of minstrel shows passing through his home town. 

Handy earned a teaching certificate, but soon was making more money at the Bessemer Iron Works near Birmingham. He joined a vocal quartet that toured as far as St. Louis, where they were stranded, and he heard some of the folk materials that would become his most famous composition. He then joined a minstrel show as the cornet player in their marching band and toured to Canada, Cuba, and many others places. After a time back in Alabama and in Mississippi, he settled in Memphis where his blues song writing and publishing flourished. By the time of his death on March 28, 1958, Handy was known around the world for his musical contributions. A U.S. postage stamp was issued in his honor in 1969. 

Handy felt the film would be "the crowning glory" of his career, as noted by David Robertson in his 2009 biography, W.C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues [p.228]. The "biopic" was hardly accurate, but as Robertson observes, Cole looked good in the role of Handy.

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery on March 17, 1919. In 1923 Coles' Baptist minister father moved the family to Chicago along with so many other blacks moving north in the Great Migration. As he grew older the young Nat heard jazz legends such as pianists Earl Hinds, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson in nearby clubs. His mother taught him piano, and he dropped out of high school at 17 and joined his older brother Eddie's jazz groups, Within a few years he had married, moved to Los Angeles, dropped the "s" from his last name and formed the Nat King Cole Trio with a guitarist and bass player. The group's lack of a drummer was unusual at the time. 

By the age of 25 Cole picked up the nickname "King" & the King Cole Trio had increasing popularity in both west and east coast venues. Their 1943 recording "Straighten Up and Fly Right" had such success the group crossed over to the pop charts. Capitol Records began marketing Cole's velvet voice with love ballads, and in 1955 the Trio disbanded. Cole's popularity continued until his death on February 15, 1965, and his recordings of "Unforgettable", "Ramblin' Rose" and others have remained popular. His 1960 release The Magic of Christmas was the biggest selling such holiday album of the 1960's. 

Cole's achievements include a short-lived variety program on the NBC television network. Due to a lack of sponsorship the show only ran for 30 episodes in 1956 and 1957. Yet the program broke new ground; never before had a black had such a prominent role on American television.

St. Louis Blues was not Cole's only film appearance. He is the uncredited piano player in the El Rancho nightclub sequence of the 1941 Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane and played the Sunrise Kid in Cat Ballou, released the year he died. In between he appeared as himself, as a singer or piano player in a variety of movies and television episodes. He had a major dramatic role alongside Gene Berry and Angie Dickinson in Samuel Fuller's 1957 war movie, China Gate. Other such roles includes Night of the Quarter Moon [1959] and Istanbul [1957].

If Cole had not died so young, perhaps he would have expanded his work in films and television. 

Nat King Cole and W.C. Handy in 1958

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

That Time John Dodge Died in Mobile

Recently one of my Google Alerts coughed up an interesting article. The piece was a brief notice about the unmarked grave of John Lewis Dodge [1893-1916], who has an unfortunate connection with Mobile. Because he was a professional baseball player in 1912 and 1913, the Society for American Baseball Research had paid for a marker at the plot in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, which was installed early in December 2021. 

Some sources say Dodge was born in Tennessee in 1889, but the 1900 U.S. Census has him as seven years old and living with his family in Bolivar, Mississippi. His father, born in Louisville, was a physician who moved to Bolivar to set up his practice and met his mother Fannie. The census also lists a two year-old sister, Mary. 

Fannie developed tuberculosis, and despite the family's move to Arizona she died in 1902. John's father died two years later, back in Mississippi, apparently from an overdose of chloroform he was using to self-medicate his headaches. What happened to John Jr. and Mary in the following few years is unknown, but by 1909 John was playing professional baseball in a minor league in Arkansas. 

Over the next four seasons with various teams he batted well and played even better on defense at third and second bases and shortstop. Late in the 1912 season he was called up by the Philadelphia Phillies and made his major league debut on August 29. Even though he played in only 30 games, he managed to demonstrate his defensive skills in a number of  plays noted by newspaper accounts.

Dodge was traded to the Cincinnati Reds on June 3, 1913, three games into the season and played his final game for them on October 5. His offense improved in the 94 games, but his defensive skills deteriorated--he made 27 errors at third base. During his major league career Dodge had a .215 batting average, made 90 hits, had four homers and 48 runs batted in, and scored 38 runs. 

New management of the Reds sold Dodge's contract to a Louisville Class AA team, at the time the highest level of minor league play. Perhaps the Reds wanted a more consistent player. His defense and hitting improved, but apparently not enough; he was traded down to the Nashville Class A team on July 27 of the 1914 season.

Among Dodge's teammates was pitcher Tom Rogers; the two would have a fateful reunion of sorts in 1916. In the 1915 season Dodge started off hitting well, but soon tapered off as pitchers figured him out. He was released by the Nashville team and then played winter ball in New Orleans.

For the 1916 season Dodge signed with the Mobile Sea Gulls, where he probably felt he had a final chance to move back upward toward the majors. He was hitting well after 39 games, but then came a home contest against his former team, the Nashville Volunteers, on June 18. 

In the seventh inning Dodge was hit with a fastball above his left eye. The Nashville pitcher was his friend and former teammate, Tom Rogers. At first the injury was not considered serious, but as a precaution Dodge was carried off the field and taken to the Inge-Bondurant Sanitarium, a private Mobile hospital. His condition worsened overnight and by the next morning Dodge was comatose. He died early that evening of internal hemorrhaging in the brain. 

His only survivors were his sister Mary Elizabeth and a grandmother in Memphis. On August 15 Mobile and the Chattanooga Lookouts played an exhibition game that raised $1500 for Mary. The sister later married, had two daughters and died in Connecticut in 1975. 

Dodge has been described as the first professional baseball player killed by a game pitch. In 1920 a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, Ray Chapman became the first major league player to die in this way. These two men are certainly the best documented cases, although there may have been others in the early days of the game.  

I am indebted to the article on Dodge written by Chris Betsch at the Society for American Baseball Research site and the entry on Dodge at BaseballReference.com You can find much more information there. 

A general history that covers 1877-1973 is Robert Obojski's 1975 book, Bush League: A History of Minor League Baseball. 

Dodge playing for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1913

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Baseball Reference

Dodge's new marker in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY

Source: WDRB.com 

The private Mobile hospital where Dodge was taken after his injury. 

Alabama History & Culture News: January 4 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. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Jerry Summers: WIlliam B. King - Bama's Vice President - Chattanoogan.com

Chattanoogan.com

The social and political history of the great State of Alabama has been filled with many unique individuals. The thirteenth Vice President of the ...

'African Town' traces the history of the last slave ship sent to the US - NPR NPR EYDER PERALTA, HOST: The Clotilda sleeps under the muddy waters of the Mobil River in Alabama. It was found there in 2018, and researchers said last ...

From Broadway to blues to big bands, Birmingham's musical talent shaped the sounds of a nation Alabama NewsCenter Alabama NewsCenter is closing out Birmingham's 150th birthday with a sonic bang, delving deep into the musical history of the Magic City.

Metro Roundup: Shoal Creek added to Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage - Hoover Sun Hoover Sun The 2014 PGA Champions Tour Regions Tradition golf tournament took place at the Shoal Creek golf course. The Alabama Historical Commission added 15 ...

Greenville named among Alabama's best downtowns

The Greenville Advocate

These historic buildings have found new life while still preserving their history. For example, the historic train depot built in 1910 now houses the ..

Ancient Alabama journeys through 500 million years of the state's history - al.com

AL.com

In this series, Ancient Alabama, we've covered 500 million years or so of Alabama's history. That length of time calls for a new definition to the ...

90 years on: Remembering the Scottsboro Boys - Alabama Political Reporter Alabama Political Reporter Alabama laid the groundwork for later Supreme Court decisions that provide ... “We need to step back and stop seeing it as something historical,

Birmingham boasts an extraordinary musical legacy over 150 years - Alabama NewsCenter Alabama NewsCenter Birmingham's rich music history includes such greats as, clockwise from upper left, Dennis Edwards, Erskine Hawkins, Hank Ballard, Lionel Hampton, ...

Fifteen locations added to Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage - WTVM

WTVM

Several locations in the Wiregrass were added to the Alabama Register of ... Saint Paul A.M.E Church and Cemetery, Brundidge, Pike County.

OBITUARY E.O. Wilson, naturalist dubbed a modern-day Darwin, dies at 92 | Reuters

Reuters

He even ventured into fiction - although he stuck to a topic he knew a lot about - in 2010 with "Anthill," a coming-of-age novel about an Alabama ...

Leading American naturalist EO Wilson, dubbed 'Darwin's heir', dies at 92 - BBC News BBC Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1929, EO Wilson said he developed an interest in ... His 1978 book On Human Nature, which won a Pulitzer Prize, ...

Alabama paleontologist helps discover new 40 million-year-old shark species - al.com AL.com He is working on a book about the state's fossil shark teeth showing why Alabama is one of the best places in the world to study ancient sharks, ...

DNA found preserved on sunken slave ship could help descendants track ancestors - The Telegraph The Telegraph A sonar image created released by the Alabama Historical Commission shows the remains of the Clotilda, the last known US ship involved in the ...

Auburn Project Would Highlight History of Black Community - USNews.com USNews.com ... in Auburn would highlight the history of the city's Black community, the Opelika-Auburn News reported. ... Tags: Alabama, Associated Press.

Brundidge Council recognizes St. Paul AME, Rodgers family - The Troy Messenger

The Troy Messenger

Boyd said the Alabama Register recognizes Alabama's historic places and encourages their continued preservation. “Listing in the state register is ...

Chattanooga pastors travel through Alabama to learn history, bridge racial divides ... Chattanooga Times Free Press Chattanooga pastors and faith leaders traveled through Alabama earlier this month on a trip to visit civil rights landmarks and continue efforts ...

What's Coming to the Blog in 2022?

For several years now I've been writing these "What's Coming" posts. You can read the 2021 post here and earlier ones here. I include a wish list of topics I hope to cover, and look at past lists to see which ones I managed to write and which I didn't. There's more wishing than achievement in these lists, but here we are for 2022. 

One of the topics mentioned last year that I'd like to finally do involves the natives or people with state connections who have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I've actually started this one; naturally, the list turned out to be pretty long. I'll probably have to split it into a couple of posts. And naturally I could follow that piece with ones on people from the state who have won Oscars, Emmys and Tony awards. Dream on.

I hope to complete four other posts in 2022 that I've been pondering for some time. Two of the most important figures in the history of LSD, Humphry Osmond and Timothy Leary, have Alabama connections--one early in his life and the other near the end of it. Henry Walthall was a major silent film star in the U.S., and his career extended into the talkie era until his death in 1936. He was a Shelby County native. Huntsville native Harry Townes became a very busy actor in Hollywood for several decades, especially on television. In 1974 he became an ordained Episcopal minister and returned to the Rocket City after retirement from acting in 1988. Speaking of Townes, I'd also like to do a post on the various state natives who appeared on the classic Perry Mason tv show. Townes acted in several episodes, as did R.G. Armstrong. Louise Fletcher and Cathy O'Donnell also turned up on the show. One day I'll also have to write a piece on all the Alabama connections on the Gunsmoke series. 

I did manage to complete two posts from last year's list. Back in the summer of 2016 I did five posts on "Beulah Vee's Cedar Chest." My dad's older sister died in 1939 just a few months after high school graduation; naturally I never met her. My grandmother Rosa Mae Wright kept a large cedar chest filled with her daughter's memorabilia. Most of those contents were donated to the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery; they form a sort of time capsule of one person's life in Gadsden, Alabama, in the 1920's and 1930's. I wrote a piece to describe that donation process and bring the story to a close.

Another topic I wanted to cover was Truman Capote and Marilyn Monroe. I had already done a pretty bogus post connecting MM and Alabama, but the one I wrote this past year was a bit stronger. You can read it here. 

In 2022 I'm sure I'll do new entries in ongoing series, such as films with Alabama connections, the usual crop of posts on "let's connect [fill in the blank] to Alabama!" and the usual stuff I haven't even thought of yet.

In closing, here are the number of posts I've written each year:

2021-90
2020-108
2019-110

2018-74

2017-80

2016-99

2015-91

2014-95

A total of 747 posts so far....sheesh....makes me tired just thinking about that...

Osmond coined the word "psychedelic"

Leary entered the University of Alabama in 1941 and stayed two years before being expelled. 

The ceremony for Bankhead's star was February 8, 1960

 

Walthall in 1918

Townes in the "OBIT" episode of The Outer Limits first broadcast on November 4, 1963 

Raymond Burr as Perry Mason and R.G. Armstrong as his client in the episode "The Case of the Petulant Partner" first broadcast on April 25, 1959

Louise Fletcher and Raymond Burr in "The Case of the Larcenous Lady" first broadcast on December 17, 1960

Cathy O'Donnell being cross-examined in "The Case of the Fickle Fortune" first broadcast on January 21, 1961

Mason's secretary Della Street [Barbara Hale] pretends a come-on to Townes in "The Case of the Lazy Lover" first broadcast May 31, 1958

Some Pelham Christmas Ornaments

In the late 1990's and early 2000's when the kids were in secondary school, Dianne, Amos, Becca & I attended several Christmas tree lightings held at the Pelham Civic Complex. These events typically had performances by middle school and high school choirs [in which both children sang], performances of students at the ice skating school, an appearance by Santa driving the Zamboni out on the ice, and the lighting of a large Christmas tree.

Audience members who arrived early enough were given an ornament commemorating the event. I'm not sure when this tradition started, but the earliest one we have is from 1998 and the latest is 2003. Maybe we didn't attend the 2002 one; after 2003 our youngest Becca was no longer in high school, and we haven't returned in subsequent years. 

The event continued in 2021, although changes have been made. For the first time, a parade on U.S. 31 was held. You can see the 2021 tournament below. 

I wonder if anyone has a complete collection. And do other cities create these sorts of trinkets?

Source: PelhamStrong Facebook page