Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid

I recently picked up and flipped through my copy of William K. Everson's classic A Pictorial History of the Western Film, as one does when escaping the heat of an Alabama summer day. What did I find but a couple of stills and some discussion of Johnny Mack Brown's role as William Bonney in the 1930 film Billy the Kid. Let's investigate.

I've already written about the Dothan native, University of Alabama football star and actor in several pieces on this blog. Early in his career MGM tried to turn him into a romantic lead, such as the 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters in which he starred with Joan Crawford and fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian. That same year major star Norma Shearer and Brown appeared in A Lady of Chance. I've devoted five posts to that film, since much of it is set in Alabama. 

In 1930 he was teamed with Crawford again in Montana Moon, which also co-starred Dorothy Sebastian. A third pairing with Crawford did not work out. Audiences failed to respond to early showings and MGM ordered the film Complete Surrender reshot with Clark Gable opposite Crawford. 

Brown soon left MGM and moved into westerns. I've posted about one of those, the 1945 "Flame of the West" in which he plays a new physician in town. Now it's time to look at another. 

Billy the Kid was one of four films Brown made in 1930 and was directed by King Vidor [1894-1982], whose career in the movies began in 1913 and lasted until 1980. The film also stars Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett, the lawman who tracked down and shot Billy on July 14, 1881. The outlaw had been sentenced to hang, escaped and killed two deputies in the process. As it happens, Garrett was born in Chambers County, so there's a second Alabama connection in this film.  

Today Henry McCarty aka William Bonney aka Billy the Kid is an iconic character with many appearances in popular culture, ranging from films and television episodes to comics and video games. But in 1930 he was just beginning his rise in the pantheon of western outlaws.

A folk song "Billy the Kid" appeared at some point in the west; the Sons of the Pioneers recorded it in 1937. A play "Billy the Kid" ran on Broadway in 1906. Two silent films about Billy were released in 1911; both starred women impersonating the male outlaw. Brown & Vidor's 1930 film was the first sound movie devoted to the Kid, and the first in which a male starred in the role!

This film was one of two released in 1930 that a used 70mm widescreen process; the other was The Big Trail starring John Wayne. Unfortunately, the Great Depression prevented cinemas from upgrading to widescreen and only a few such  movies were made at the time. The process would lie dormant until The Robe filmed in Cinemascope and released in 1953. Wayne's widescreen version has been restored, but the only known version of Brown's film is standard-width. 

Billy the Kid runs 95 minutes and was release on October 18, 1930. The film was shot on various locations such as Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, San Fernando Valley, and Gallup, New Mexico. As the IMDB notes, the great silent film star of Westerns William S. Hart was an uncredited technical advisor. He owned some of Billy the Kid's "six shooters" and was friends with such legends of the West as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. 

Images two through six below are taken from Everson's book and offer some interesting details about the film. Hart is shown in the first photo offering one of Billy's guns to Brown. The second photo is a scene with a confrontation between Garrett and Billy. In the the text shown from the book, Everson discusses the dominance of long shots and lack of closeups and the effect of that in the standard-width version. The film is available from Warner Archive; a preview can be seen on YouTube. 

By the mid-1930s Brown began a long series of western films for several studios, including Republic, Universal and Monogram. In the 1950s his likeness appeared in a series of comic books published by Dell. He is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame [1957] and the first class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame [1969]. He died November 14, 1974. Brown was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers in 2008. 

Source: YouTube 

Source: Grand Comics Database

Gail Patrick in "The Preview Murder Mystery"

One of the topics I bring out from time to time on this blog is film actresses from the state whose careers began before 1960. I've covered some others after that date, too, but today's post fits that group. 

One of those pre-1960 actresses is Birmingham native Gail Patrick. A career overview I posted in 2015 is here. In 2019 I wrote about her role as a private detective [really!] in Murder at the Vanities, a truly bonkers 1934 pre-code film. In 2020 I posted about her post-acting career as Executive Producer on the classic Perry Mason TV series and her appearance in the final episode. In 2021 I wrote about her role as the femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon--a radio version, but still....

Now we come to her role in The Preview Murder Mystery from 1936. I watched this one recently on TCM and really enjoyed it. There's a rather interesting framing device--it's a movie about the making of a movie and features quick action, witty dialog and some murders. Director Robert Florey would helm over 50 movies and numerous episodes of TV shows in his long career. By the time he made this one, he had already directed such classics as the Marx Brothers first feature, The Cocoanuts [1929] and Murders in the Rue Morgue [1932]. 

The film being filmed is "Song of the Toreador", and we get to see some extensive scenes in its preview screening. We also see even longer scenes involving the filming process, so that the cast and crew of "Toreador" are much of the cast and crew of Preview. Very meta. "Song" is a remake of a silent film starring the late husband of Patrick's character, Claire Woodward Smith. 

A lot of this film's snap, crackle and pop is courtesy of the performances by and dialog written for Reginald Denny and Frances Drake as they play the studio publicity head and his secretary. A running gag is Denny's constant proposals of marriage, and refusals by Drake, whose character is an astrology nut and keeps telling him the stars are not aligned properly.

Catch this movie if you have a chance. It's only an hour long and is available on YouTube. 

Some more comments are below. 

The entrance to the movie company's lot is actually the entrance to Paramount Studios, lightly disguised. 

The film has a number of shots making interesting compositions. Florey's cinematographer was Karl Struss, who worked on numerous Hollywood films and was a pioneer in 3-D. 

And here she is, ladies and gentlemen, Gail Patrick!

Now we see Patrick as she appears in "Song of the Toreador". 

And now we see Patrick in the preview audience watching herself onscreen.

As the murders mount up, Patrick is questioned by police. 

This film has a lot of shadow-and-light interplay in various scenes.

Birmingham Photo (86): Joiner Furniture Company

I stumbled across this photograph as I wandered around the Alabama Mosaic web site. As the site notes, "Alabama Mosaic is a repository of digital materials on Alabama's history, culture, places, and people. Its purpose is to make unique historical treasures from Alabama's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories electronically accessible to Alabama residents and to students, researchers, and the general public in other states and countries." I've certainly found a lot of goodies there over the years.

The bit of research I did on the Joiner Furniture Company produced very little information. According to the source of the photo, the Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections, it was taken in 1930 and shows the store at 1716 2nd Avenue North. According to BhamWiki, the six story structure is now known as the Jefferson Home Furniture building and was constructed in 1915. The J.E. Cain Furniture company operated there in the 1920's followed by Joiner. Duke Brothers Furniture took over in 1945 and then Jefferson Home, which remodeled it in the 1960s. More recent efforts to convert the building to lofts or self-storage were unsuccessful.

Below the photograph is a portion of the "Furniture" section of the 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages. Ironically, Joiner's entry follows Jefferson's, its eventual replacement in the building. 

At the lower left in the picture can be seen the marquee of Joiner's neighbor, the Jefferson Theatre. Opened in 1900 as a vaudeville house, the theater closed in the Great Depression and was demolished for a parking lot in 1946. 

I can't make out the sign in the lower right of the photo. 

One final note: look at all those cool cars!

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Source: Birmingham Yellow Pages 1945

Louise Fletcher in "Bat Masterson"

Oscar-winning actress and Birmingham native Louise Fletcher had a long career in film and television before her death in September 2022. Among her many performances were an Oscar-winning turn for Best Actress as Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and several appearances as a religious leader in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series from 1993 until 1999. Despite her many years in Hollywood and her last years in France, she maintained a connection with the Episcopal church in Birmingham where her father served as rector. 

After graduating from Ramsey High School, Fletcher enrolled at the University of North Carolina and graduated there in drama in 1957. Then she headed to Hollywood. According to the IMDB, she appeared in episodes of four TV series in 1958: Flight, Playhouse 90, Yancy Derringer and Bat Masterson. 

I recently watched that episode of Bat Masterson, which starred Gene Barry as the western lawman, gambler and journalist. The series was loosely based on Richard Connor's biography of the real Masterson [1853-1921]. This particular episode, "Cheyenne Club", was the tenth of the first season and first broadcast on NBC-TV on December 17, 1958. Fletcher, playing Sarah Lou Conant, had significant speaking parts in two scenes. 

By 1963 Fletcher had appeared in TV series such as Perry Mason, The Untouchables, One Step Beyond, Wagon Train, Sugarfoot, 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, The Lawman and others. She took a hiatus from acting, but returned in 1974 for the Robert Altman film Thieves Like Us. The following year Milos Forman cast her in his film version of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and she continued acting in numerous projects until 2020. 

Fletcher & Dean Harens as her fiance, Steven Haley

Fletcher and Gene Barry as Bat Masterson

Alabama Photos: Langdon Hall at Auburn University

One of Auburn University's most prominent older buildings is Langdon Hall on South College Street. I remember it well from my student days at AU in the early 1970s. I watched films there and heard visiting speakers on several occasions. 

The building was constructed in 1883; the architect was W.P. Wood, an 1881 alumnus of the university. The auditorium was remodeled in 1950, and Langdon is now used as an auditorium and personnel office. 

The structure was named after Charles Carter Langdon (1805-1889), a Mobile cotton broker, newspaper editor and mayor. He was also an Auburn trustee from 1872 until his death. Fellow trustees named the building Langdon Hall after his death.

Langdon Hall in the 1930s

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Langdon Hall in 1897

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Charles Carter Langdon 

Source: Auburn University 

Bees Making Honey Down in Sunny Alabam' .

I've done a few posts on this blog about songs and music related to Alabama. Two such pieces on songs from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be found here and here. I've written an item on three pretty obscure albums by state musicians. I also wrote an extensive post on songs featuring Birmingham. I recently came across another relevant early 20th century song, so here we are. 

The title is a mouthful: "When the Bees Make Honey Down in Sunny Alabam'". You can read the lyrics below. The singer tells us he's anxious to go home not only to see his folks "who are like a pair of bees in a honey comb" but also to see his "honey lamb" on a Sunday afternoon and maybe buzz up a "honey moon". It's a lighthearted romantic tune with lots of wordplay related to bees and honey.

So who wrote this classic? 

Actually, three men very accomplished in their day were responsible. Two  collaborated on the lyrics, Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. Born in New York City, Lewis was a cafe singer who began writing in 1912. His other songs include "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", which was introduced by Al Jolson in a Broadway musical. His songs were used in such recent films as The Pelican Brief [1993] and Big Fish [2003], which was based on the 1998 novel by Birmingham native Daniel Wallace. 

Co-lyricist Young was born in New York City. He was also a singer and entertained U.S. troops in World War I. In 1935 with Fred Ahlert he wrote his most famous tune, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." Young also wrote "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" and "Dancing with You."

Composer Walter Donaldson was born in Brooklyn. He also wrote music for such standards as "Makin' Whoopee", "My Blue Heaven" and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby."

The publishing company Waterson, Berlin and Snyder was founded in 1908 as the Ted Snyder Company. Partners Henry Waterson and Irving Berlin joined in 1917. By the 1920s the firm was one of the largest publishers of popular sheet music in the U.S.

I've come across two recordings of this song. The first was released by Columbia in 1919; the singers are Irving and Jack Kaufman. Jack was the older brother; he, Irving and Philip often sang together. Irving began his recording career in 1914. He sang in a vaudeville style, but even so recorded with such jazz greats as Bix Beiderbecke and the Dorsey Brothers. A link to the recording at the Internet Archive can be found below.

A more recent recording by Ian Whitcomb [1941-2020] from 2007 is available on Spotify. Whitcomb was an English actor, author and singer-songwriter who wrote several books on popular music, including the classic After the Ball [1972]. He stimulated a revival in the use of the ukulele, which he played in concerts, records and film scores. 

This sheet music is from my personal collection. 

This 1919 recording is available at the Internet Archive. 

WHEN THE BEES MAKE HONEY DOWN IN SUNNY ALABAM' (Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young / Walter Donaldson, 1919) I just feel like telling the world I'm happy and gay; I just feel like telling you why I'm feeling that way; This is just the time of the year when bees start to buzz, And I've got a bee in my bonnet, simply because: I will be the busiest bee that you ever knew; Sipping honey all thro' the day that's just what I'll do; When the bees are buzzin' away near some Rosemary, How I love to bumble around just take it from me. When the bees make honey down in sunny Alabam', That's when I said, I'd be sending a telegram; Down to honey suckled home, Where my folks live all alone; They're like a pair of honey bees, In a honey comb. I'm gonna make a beeline straight for home, That's where I am, And I've a plan to buzz around with my honey lamb; Some Sunday afternoon, If I don't get stung, there'll be a honey moon, When the bees make honey, down in sunny, Oh! you Alabam.

Source: International Lyrics Playground

Joe Young [1889-1939] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

Sam M. Lewis [1885-1959] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

Walter Donaldson [1893-1947] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out, Part 2!

Our son Amos Jasper Wright IV is an urban planner by profession, but he has been writing and publishing fiction for some years. In 2018 his collection of short stories Nobody Knows How It Got This Good was published by Livingston Press. This summer his first novel, Petrochemical Nocturne, has appeared, also published by Livingston. 

When Nobody Knows came out, I naturally wrote a blog post about it. The Kirkus review of the book is here. An interview with him about the book is here. In October 2018 Amos appeared on a panel alongside two other writers with new short story collections at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. 

So here we are with Amos' first novel, Petrochemical Nocturne. Kirkus has reviewed this title, and so has Bill Plott for the Alabama Writers Forum. Bradley Sides interviewed Amos for the Alabama Writers Cooperative. Once again Amos will be appearing at the Louisiana Book Festival. 

Both books are available from Bookshop.org, a book vendor where every purchase supports independent bookstores. The link for Petrochemical is here and Nobody Knows is here. 

If you have read or do read either of these books, please go to their GoodReads pages, say a few words, and rate the book. In the first paragraph above the books' titles link to those pages. Of course, if you buy from Amazon or other outlet,  reviews there would be greatly appreciated. And you can always request that your local library purchase one or both titles. 

"A bristling, lurching, and often insightful investigation of the past."  Says Kirkus about Petrochemical

In his review, Bill Plott wrote about the novel, "Although a novel, this is also an extraordinary work of history. Using Cancer Alley as a setting, Wright has penned a book that is essentially about racism – the systemic and pervasive racism of not just the South but also the nation. Perhaps no white historian has told it with quite the passion that Wright brings to the table."