Friday, January 21, 2022

Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery: Intersections in Alabama

Today I'm posting a piece by a guest author, Dr. James Boogaerts of the UAB School of Medicine. He discusses the way in which the specialties of cardiology and cardiovascular surgery came to the state-specifically at what is now the UAB Heersink School of Medicine-after World War II.

A more detailed look at some of this history can be found in 

Holman WL, Deas DS Jr, Kirklin JK. Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB): A Legacy of Innovation, Education, and Contributions. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2020 Winter;32(4):606-616

A good overview of the state's medical history is Howard Holley's 1983 book, A History of Medicine in Alabama. 

I would like to thank Dr. Boogaerts for allowing me to add his piece to AlabamaYesterdays. I have added a few images and notes at the end. 

Much of Alabama's medical history is poorly documented. I've written quite a few related posts on this blog; you can find links to some of them here



History of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery

-  Intersections in Alabama -





James Boogaerts, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease

Received his Ph.D. & M.D. from LSU Medical Center in New Orleans, completed his residency and a cardiology fellowship at UAB 1984-90

  

     Dr. John Burrett, first cardiologist in Alabama, arrived in Birmingham in 1946. Dr. Burrett had lived on East 88th Street in Manhattan when he graduated in 1937 from New York Medical College, where his father was dean. He subsequently moved to Boston and worked in the physiology lab of Dr. Walter B. Cannon at Harvard, then trained as a cardiology fellow with Dr. Paul Dudley White, who had begun the first cardiology service in the U.S., at the Massachusetts  General Hospital, in 1916.  Dr. Burrett and Dr. White co-published a research article on congenital heart disease in 1945.

 


John Burrett 



Paul Dudley White           

 

     One question regarding the John Burrett story is why an established physician from the Northeast would move to the South in the mid-40s and join the faculty of the Medical College of Alabama, which had moved in 1945 from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham.  The facts are that Dr. Burrett had met Dr. Joseph Donald, an Alabama surgeon, during his military service and he had met and married a nurse, Clara Bray, who was training in Manhattan.  Her home was in Orlando, Florida, but her extended family was from Georgia.

 


Tinsley Harrison



Al Blalock



Vivien Thomas 



     Tinsley Harrison came to UAB in 1950.  His roommate and close friend during med school and residency at Johns Hopkins (in the 1920s) was Alfred Blalock, who performed the first-ever elective cardiovascular surgery on November 29, 1944, with VivienThomas talking him through the operative procedure.  Two decades later, Levi Watkins - by happenstance - followed the pathway of Vivien Thomas to Vanderbilt and later to Johns Hopkins. Levi Watkins enrolled in Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1966 and then moved through Johns Hopkins as a surgical resident and joined the faculty at Hopkins as a cardiac surgeon.     


   


Dr. Levi Watkins



Luther Hill



Michael DeBakey





John W. Kirklin

 Earlier, Luther Hill had performed the first successful emergency cardiac surgery in the U.S. - in Montgomery, Alabama in 1902 - when he sutured the heart of patient with a penetrating stab wound.  Michael DeBakey, while a medical student at Tulane in New Orleans, pioneered use of the roller pump for blood transfusions in the 1930s; the roller pump was later used in the first heart-lung bypass machine in 1953.  In 1955, while at Mayo Clinic, significant improvements were made by John Kirklin and his team.  Kirklin was recruited to UAB in Birmingham in 1966.





Dr. Andreas Gruentzig 


     Andreas Gruentzig arrived at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta in 1980.  One of his cardiology fellows was Gary Roubin.  While on faculty at Emory, Roubin pioneered development of the intracoronary stent.  He came to UAB in 1989.



Dr. Gary Roubin      

 


      Contributions of physicians working in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia - Luther Hill, Tinsley Harrison, Michael Debakey, Al Blalock, Vivien Thomas, John Kirklin, Levi Watkins, Andreas Gruentzig, and Gary Roubin - are thus connected to both early and recent pivotal events in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery.


 

See   *pump*  and   *balloon*  and   *stent*  pages





Article by Burrett, White and others published in the July 1942 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation while Burrett worked in White's lab in Boston. 










After he joined the Medical College of Alabama faculty in 1946, Dr. Burrett published a few articles in his area of expertise. two of them are listed below. The one above appeared in the October 1947 Jefferson-Hillman Hospital Bulletin and had a different format. As noted on the first page above, he reviewed the "so-called orthodox therapy" on myocardial infarction [heart attack]. His talk at the house staff bi-monthly seminar was followed by extensive discussion of his remarks.  



1: BURRETT JB, KAHN SS. Incidence of a very slow ventricular rate in a young adult with A-V block and Stokes-Adams attacks. Jefferson-Hillman Hosp Bull. 1947 Jul;1(3):56-64. PMID: 20252035.

2: BURRETT JB. Nonsurgical congenital heart disease. J Med Assoc State Ala. 1950 Sep;20(3):79-81. PMID: 15437143



 

Monday, January 17, 2022

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
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
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 ...
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
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
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 ...
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
(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 ...
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
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
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
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 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
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
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 ..

Thursday, January 13, 2022

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











Friday, January 7, 2022

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






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

Source: WDRB.com 




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











Tuesday, January 4, 2022

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
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
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 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
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
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
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 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
Birmingham's rich music history includes such greats as, clockwise from upper left, Dennis Edwards, Erskine Hawkins, Hank Ballard, Lionel Hampton, ...


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
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
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
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
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
... 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
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 pastors and faith leaders traveled through Alabama earlier this month on a trip to visit civil rights landmarks and continue efforts ...


Saturday, January 1, 2022

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. ArmstrongLouise 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