Back in the Days of the Poll Tax

As one does in these days of modern times, I recently wandered through the online riches at the Smithsonian Institution web pages. The Alabama resources there are numerous, and this time I came across the poll tax payment certificate seen below.

Along with literacy tests, property or residency requirements, U.S. poll taxes were one of the methods used to prevent African Americans from voting beginning in the last quarter of the 19th century. After the Fifteenth Amendment enabled the right to vote for African Americans, a number of states enacted poll tax laws as a legal method to restrict voting rights. The poll tax was especially effective in disenfranchising potential black voters since African Americans made up a disproportionate number of the poor who could not afford to pay. Of course, a number of poor whites were also affected. 

This certificate is evidence that Alice Irby, a resident of Selma, paid the tax on January 29, 1966. An examiner from the U.S. Civil Service Commission certified the document. Voter registration for blacks in Dallas County had been problematic for decades. In 1958 the Commission met in Montgomery and took testimony about problems faced by blacks trying to register to vote in the state. At that time 130 of 15,115 eligible blacks in Dallas County were registered. 

In going through mom's house in Huntsville, my brother Richard and I have recently discovered five family documents that are related to this topic. See them below with comments. 

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from the Family of Alice Irby

Here is dad's voter registration on July 19, 1948, in Etowah County. His residency address given, 1113 Chandler Street in East Gadsden, was his parents house, and one I visited many times before my grandmother Rosa Mae Wright died in 1997. At some point the house number changed to 1313; that's the only one I remember. You can see the house in this blog post. Dad returned home from his U.S. Navy service on July 10, so he didn't wait long to register. 

The back of the certificate outlines the extensive requirements for voting: two years' residency in the state, one in the county, and at least three months in the precinct prior to the election. The potential voter also had to register and pay the poll tax. 

This poll tax receipt from Etowah County dated October 25, 1948, is apparently for my grandfather. He served in U.S. Army briefly at the very end of World War I.

 

After dad finished his naval service, he returned to Auburn to finish his education. That's where he and mom met and were married in 1950. After he graduated, the couple moved to Gadsden and lived there for a few years. Then dad got a U.S. civil service job with the army in Huntsville. This registration certificate in Madison County, dated November 11, 1955, shows their first Huntsville address, 150 Redstone Park. That neighborhood was former military housing turned to civilian use after World War II. 

Here is the certificate for dad's poll tax exemption allowed by his military service. 

Mom registered to vote in Huntsville the same day as dad. 

Birmingham's Hillman Hospital Opens in 1903

In July 2014 I posted an item on this blog, "Hillman Hospital and How It Became UAB." I recently came across the article below published in the May 3, 1903, issue of the Birmingham Post-Herald just before Hillman opened. The piece is full of fascinating details about this early city hospital, which replaced a 100-bed facility that had burned in 1894. Various temporary quarters were used until Hillman opened for paying patients on June 16, 1903, the day after a reception for local visitors. 

Groundbreaking ceremonies had taken place on May 2, 1902; a year was required to build the facility. The article declares medical advances "make the hospital one of the great institutions of today...The charity hospital is in a class alone. No other philanthropic institution is comparable to it. The Hillman hospital is a charity hospital" and will be to Birmingham what Bellevue is in New York." Birmingham Medical College, which had opened a new building next door, provided most of the hospital's medical staff.

About $60,000 was spent to build the hospital, which was four stories high of red brick and white stone. The building was fireproof and heated by steam; it featured electrical elevators, gas and electricity lighting and steam heat. The interior finish was native pine, and the bathroom and operating room floors were Venetian mosaic. Hillman had room for about 98 patients. 

The basement held clinics, dispensary, physician offices, laboratories, the laundry, various storerooms, and the boiler and fuel room. On the first floor were the nurse superintendent and resident physician offices, reception room, six private rooms, and two large wards. Six more private rooms, two more adult wards and a large children's room with sunlight and toys were located on the second floor. 

On the third floor could be found the surgical amphitheater with seating for 80 students, a private operating room and sterilization and anesthesia rooms. Also located there were five more private rooms and two wards for surgical patients. The top floor had a kitchen with dumb waiter connection to the other floors. Also found there was a dining room, nurse's dormitory and six private rooms. 

The article includes extensive quotes from the newly-hired superintendent of nurses at Hillman, Miss Nannie Boyce Hamilton, "one of the best equipped young women in the profession. She has diplomas from the famous hospitals of the north, and to her experience and training she adds a wonderful executive and business ability. she is a very remarkable young woman."

Miss Hamilton praised the plainness of Hillman Hospital furnishing which mad cleanliness much easier, "affording no lurking place for dust." She notes the presence of a study and sitting room for nurses' use in their time free from patient care or classes. Hamilton hoped to establish a nurses' library, and pointed to the amphitheater, private operating rooms and large children's ward as important features. 

Hillman was a charity hospital, but did take paying patients who were the ones able to afford private rooms. Four graduate nurses and eight student nurses cared for those private patients. Hillman Training School for Nurses graduated seven students in 1903. 

All of these wonderful facilities and staff did not prevent financial problems that Hillman soon developed. By May 1907 Jefferson County agreed to assume the outstanding $9000 debt on the property, and under it's control the hospital continued to admit charity patients.

I did a bit of research on Annie Kendrick Walker and Nannie Boyce Hamilton, but found very little. Walker did publish two family histories, Memoirs of the Graham Family [1908] and Old Shorter Houses and Gardens [1911]. On March 24, 1900, she had published a profile of popular novelist Mary Johnston in the New York Times; Johnston lived for a period Birmingham. 

Hamilton did not remain at Hillman for too many years. The Holley book cited below notes that the nursing superintendent at Hillman, a different woman, remained in that position in 1907 when Jefferson County took over. 

Further Reading

Holley, Howard L. A History of Medicine in Alabama [1982]

Holmes, Jack D.L. A History of the University of Alabama Hospital [1974]

Wright AJ. Hillman Hospital. Hektoen International spring 2015

Source: Views of Birmingham, 1908

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