Mines, Mills & Moonshine: Silent Filmmaking in the Birmingham Area, Part 1

Part two of this series is here, part three here, part four here and part five here.

            The spring 2012 filming at Rickwood Field of 42, a feature film about baseball giant Jackie Robinson, brings to mind other movies shot in the Birmingham area over the years.  The original home of the Barons was also used extensively in Cobb [1994], a portrait of another baseball great, Ty Cobb. In the mid-1970s filming of Stay Hungry [1976] brought Jeff Bridges, Sally Fields, and a body builder named Arnold Schwarzenegger to the city as Bob Rafelson directed the film version of Alabama author Charles Gaines’ novel. In recent years numerous features have been filmed in the area. Birmingham’s place in feature films goes much further back however; three of the earliest Hollywood movies made in the state were filmed here in the days when films were silent.

            Silent filmmaking arrived in the South very early in the twentieth century. Beginning in 1908, the Kalem Company operated in Jacksonville, Florida, each winter. At least eight films were made between 1916 and 1926 at Norman Studios, also in Jacksonville; all featured totally black casts. For about a decade until 1919, when most filming had moved from the northeast to California, Florida was known as the “Winter Film Capitol of the World.” In addition, the very first Tarzan film, Tarzan of the Apes staring Elmo Lincoln, was shot in Louisiana in 1918.

            If Marilyn Davis Barefield is correct, the Kalem Company filmed one of its titles in the region. In her book History of Mountain Brook, Alabama and Incidentally of Shades Valley [1989; p. 88] she writes, “Old Kalem Company filmed “Moonshiner’s Daughter” in a cave near Bluff Park Hotel and Hales Springs. Dr. J.E. Dedman played the moonshiner and Irene Boyle his daughter. Stuart Holmes and Charlie Armstrong played a moonshiner and a revenuer.” Since the Kalem Company was founded in New York City in 1907 and was purchased by Vitagraph Studios in 1917, Moonshiner’s Daughter was presumably made during that decade.

Stuart Holmes
Source: The Movie Card Website

George Kleine founded the Kalem Company in 1907 with Samuel Long & Frank Marion.
The company was named for their initials K, L and M.

Source: Wikipedia

Irene Boyle

Dr. James Edwin Dedman 

Source: Notable Men of Alabama by Joel Campbell DuBose

            During its existence Kalem released almost 1500 films; and because it owned no studio, early filming was done on location in New York City or New Jersey. Kalem was among the first companies to film year round and thus set up its Florida operations. In 1910 Kalem became the first U.S. company to film outside the country when A Lad from Old Ireland was made in Ireland. After making several more films there, Kalem moved a crew and actors to Palestine in 1912 for From the Manger to the Cross, the first five-reel film.

            Did Kalem really come to the Birmingham area to make a silent movie? Irene Boyle and Stuart Holmes were indeed film actors. According to the Internet Movie Database, Boyle appeared in over three dozen movies between 1913 and 1923, although Moonshiner’s Daughter is not included. Holmes appeared in over 400 films between 1909 and 1964; the Birmingham film is not included in his list either. This absence may just be a reflection of the IMDB’s weak documentation of silent films, however; copies of most silent films have not survived and secondary information is often the only evidence. Holmes and Boyle are known to have made at least two films together, both in 1913 and both Kalem films: The Face at the Window and Open Switch.

            The “Dr. J.E. Dedman” mentioned by Barefield was Birmingham physician James Edwin Dedman.  He was born in Selma in 1870 and graduated from the University of Alabama. After medical school in Nashville and further training and practice in New York City and Indianapolis, he settled in Birmingham in 1898. By 1904 he was married to Madge Whitney and they had one daughter. What drew him to film acting is unknown. His profile in Dubose’s Notable Men of Alabama [volume 2, 1904, pp 166-168] indicates no thespian interests. Dedman died in March 1953.  “Charlie Armstrong” has not been identified and may have been either a professional actor or a local like Dedman. 

            The Bluff Park Hotel and Hale Springs are discussed in James F. Sulzby, Jr.’s wonderful Historic Alabama Hotels and Resorts [1960, pp 74-77]. The Springs were named after Gardner Hale, who owned the property from 1858 until his death in 1885. The hotel was constructed in 1907 and operated until 1923; it burned in 1925.

            According to J. W. Williamson’s Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films [1994, pp 5-6, 23-25], Kalem did indeed release a film called The Moonshiner’s Daughter in April, 1908. His book reprints the studio’s detailed plot synopsis printed in The Moving Picture World’s April 4 issue. Unfortunately, nothing is mentioned about either the cast or filming location.

            Kalem also released Peggy, the Moonshiner’s Daughter in 1911. That film starred Alice Joyce and Carlyle Blackwell, however. Three other films entitled The Moonshiner’s Daughter were released by other studios between 1910 and 1914. The topic was apparently a popular one at the time. In 1898 a play by Bernard Frances Moore called “The Moonshiner’s Daughter: A Play of Mountain Life in Three Acts” was published in Boston and may have achieved some success in vaudeville and other venues. How or whether the play is related to any of these films is unknown. A search of several years’ worth of Birmingham newspapers and other sources will probably be needed to determine more details about Kalem in Alabama.

[To be continued]

This piece appeared on the Birmingham History Center's blog in November 2012.

Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1)

In my first blog post of this year, "What's Coming to the Blog in 2022" I mentioned a desire to cover individuals and others--such as musical groups--who have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and some significant connection to Alabama. I also hope to cover the Oscars, Emmys and Tonys in a similar fashion. No, I probably won't do the Golden Globes; I have to stop somewhere. 

I'll let Wikipedia set the stage:

"The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600^[1] five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of musicians, actors, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others. The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust."

So this post is the first of two on the Walk of Fame. Most entries are actors and actresses; many are Alabama natives. Others are included because they have some other significant connection to the state. I was unable to locate photos of the actual stars of most honorees, but have included other illustrations. Let's begin....

UPDATE: On February 27, 2023, Birmingham native Courteney Cox received a star on Hollywood in the "Television" category. You can read all about it here. 

Alabama [recording]

Up first is the musical group Alabama, "the most commercially successful country act in the 1980s". The entry at the Walk of Fame web site gives a pretty detailed history of the band from Fort Payne. The ceremony was held on October 6, 1998. 

Mary Anderson [film]

Mary Anderson was born in Birmingham on April 3, 1918, and died April 6, 2014. Her acting career in films and television stretched from 1939 until the 1960s. She had a small uncredited role in the classic 1939 film The Women, then made a speaking role appearance as Maybelle Merriwether in Gone with the Wind that same year. Many significant film roles followed, including 1944's Lifeboat, an Alfred Hitchcock movie in which fellow state native Tallulah Bankhead also appeared. She brought her star power to her native city in 1947, with an appearance at the first film premier in Birmingham for Whispering City. 

Anderson's induction into the Walk of Fame took place on February 8, 1960. 

 

Tallulah Bankhead [film]

Born in Huntsville on January 31, 1902, Bankhead began her career at age 15 with a small part in a silent film made in New York City. Her final acting appearance came in a two-part episode of the Batman TV series in March 1967. I've discussed those episodes here and here. She died December 12, 1968.

In between those dates Bankhead made some movies, most prominently Lifeboat as mentioned above. I've also discussed her 1932 film, Faithless. She spent the 1920s becoming famous on the London stage, then returned to the U.S. and conquered Broadway with appearances such as The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman's drama based on her mother's family in Demopolis and set in that town. Bankhead's performance as Regina Giddens was widely lauded, but Bette Davis landed the role in the 1941 film version. 

Over her career Bankhead made almost 300 appearances on film, the stage, radio and television. She was inducted into the Walk of Fame on the same date as fellow Alabamian, Mary Anderson--February 8, 1960. I've also written about her stage appearances in Birmingham. The Encyclopedia of Alabama has a nice entry on Bankhead. 

Tallulah in Faithless [1932]

Source: Pinterest

Clarence Brown [film]

Although he was born in Massachusetts, Brown's family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was 11. After high school he he earned two engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee. Brown ended up at the Peerless Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, working in the silent film industry. In World War I he served as a fighter pilot and flight instructor. After his war service, he headed to Hollywood and a career as a film director that lasted from 1915 until 1953. 

Brown [1890-1987] directed such classics as Anna Karenina and Ah, Wilderness [both 1935], The Human Comedy [1943], National Velvet (1944), The Yearling (1946) and Angel in the Outfield (1951). In his many years at the MGM studio he directed Joan Crawford in seven films and Greta Garbo in six. He was nominated for an Academy Award six times but never won.

So, what was the Alabama connection? Well, there are a couple....

After college graduation, Brown went to work for the Stevens-Duryea Company, an auto manufacturing operation located near his birthplace of Clinton, Massachusetts. But then, "I became the traveling expert mechanic for Stevens-Duryea.  One of my calls was to a dealer in Birmingham, Alabama, who took a liking to me, and he set me up in a subsidiary company, called the Brown Motor Car Company. I had the agency for the Alco truck, the Stevens-Duryea, and the Hudson.  It was around this time—1913, 1914—that I became interested in the picture business.” He made these comments to Kevin Brownlow, author of a wonderful history of silent movies, And the Parades Gone By [1968]. 

Brown's time in Birmingham was apparently pretty short; I've yet to discover any documentation of it. He did almost have another connection to the city. At one point he was engaged to actress Dorothy Sebastian, a Birmingham native. I'll be writing about her in the second half of this post. Although Brown married four times, none of his wives was Sebastian. 

He, too, was inducted on February 8, 1960. 

Johnny Mack Brown [Film] 

Brown [1904-1974], no relation to Clarence, achieved fame initially as a star running back at the University of Alabama. He was a factor in the 1926 Rose Bowl where the mighty University of Washington Huskies were upset by the Crimson Tide. By the following year Brown was appearing in comedy and romantic silent films.

His studio attempted to make him a leading man with such actresses as Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. That effort didn't work out, and by the mid-1930s Brown began making westerns. He starred in dozens before his career faded in the 1950s. 

I've written several blog posts about Johnny Mack Brown. One explored Our Dancing Daughters, a 1928 silent film in which he starred with Joan Crawford and fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian. Those two also appeared together the following year in The Single Standard, along with some actress named Greta Garbo. I plan to write about that film at some point.

I devoted five [yes, five!] blog posts to another of Brown's eight 1928 films, A Lady of Chance. His co-star is the great Norma Shearer. I spent so much space on this film because not only is Brown's character from Alabama, but much of the film is set in a fictional town in the state. I've explored how one of Brown's appearances with Crawford didn't pan out, and one of his many westerns, the 1945 release Flame of the West in which Brown plays a physician. 

He was induced February 8, 1960. That must have been Alabama Day in Hollywood. 

Brown emotes to Norma Shearer in A Lady of Chance [1928, silent] before his transformation into the star of dozens of B-movie Westerns.

Brown even starred in his own comic book series from 1950 until 1959. 

Pat Buttram [TV]

Buttram [1915-1994] was born in Addison, a small town in Winston County, Alabama. He first achieved fame as the sidekick of singing cowboy Gene Autry in more than 40 movies and 100 episodes of Autry's TV show. From 1965 until 1971 he played the character Mr. Haney on the popular Green Acres TV show. Before his death he did voice work in various animated films including The Aristocats, The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? One of his last roles was a cameo appearance in Back to the Future III. 

He was inducted on August 18, 1988. 

Pat Buttram as Mr. Haney in Green Acres

Source: Wikipedia 

Chuck Connors [TV]

According to Wikipedia, Connors [1921-1992] is one of only 13 athletes to play in both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. His baseball career eventually led him to Los Angeles, and when he realized he would not make a career of sports he quickly transitioned into acting. In 1952 and 1953 he appeared in films with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster and John Wayne. Thus began a prolific career in movies and television that lasted until just before his death at 71. Despite many film roles, Chuck Connors is probably best remembered for two western TV series, The Rifleman and Branded. 

Connors athletic career led to his Alabama connection. As seen below, he played a year with the minor league Mobile Bay Bears baseball team.

He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 18, 1984. 

This photo shows the 1947 Mobile Bay Bears, who won the 1947 Southern Association Baseball League championship. Chuck Connors can be seen in the top row, third from the left.

Source: University of South Alabama Archives

Chuck Connors as The Rifleman in 1962

Source: Wikipedia

Nat King Cole [TV, recording]

Although he was born in Montgomery, Cole's family moved to Chicago when he was four years old. At age fifteen he dropped out of high school and joined his older brother Eddie's musical group that recorded two singles in 1936. Cole had his first solo success in 1940 with the song "Sweet Lorraine". From then until his death Nat King Cole achieved enormous success as a singer and musician with album and singles recordings and live performances. From November 1956 until December 1957 the Nat "King" Cole Show on NBC was one of the first television programs hosted by a black. The network's inability to find a national sponsor limited its run.

Cole did a bit of acting. I've written about his role as fellow Alabamian W.C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues. He also appeared in Cat Ballou. Cole [1919-1965] is another Alabamian inducted on February 8, 1960.

Cole released several dozen albums during his lifetime. This 1960 release was the most successful Christmas album of the 1960s, selling over 6 million copies. 

Sally Field [Film] 

During a career that began in the early 1960s, Sally Field has appeared in numerous iconic movies and TV shows. She began on television with the comedies Gidget (1965–1966), The Flying Nun (1967–1970), and The Girl with Something Extra (1973–1974). By the late 1970s she started a run of films that included Smokey and the Bandit I and II [1977, 1980], Places in the Heart [1984], Absence of Malice [1981], Steel Magnolias [1989], and Mrs. Doubtfire [1993]. In the 2000s Field returned to series television with recurring roles in ER and Brothers and Sisters. 

Field has also starred in several films with Alabama connections. These movies include Stay Hungry [1976], Hooper [1978], Norma Rae [1979] and Forrest Gump [1994]. In her 2018 memoir In Pieces, Field has some interesting comments about most of these films. The exception is Forrest Gump, which she mentions only in passing along with other films of that time, such as Mrs. Doubtfire. 

About Stay Hungry [pp 275-286, 288, 294], she noted, "...I flew to Birmingham, Alabama, where I lived for seven weeks in a squat, crumbling motel along with the other actors, a smattering of crew, plus the director (Bob Rafelson)..." The film, about the world of body builders, also starred Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger, just beginning his film career. Rafelson had brief flings with Fields and other women during production. His wife Toby, designer and producer on the film, soon filed for divorce. 

Field worked for the third time with Burt Reynolds on Hooper [pp 340-345]. She wondered why filming was done in Tuscaloosa, since the film had nothing to do with Alabama. She had a break during shooting and flew back to Los Angeles to meet with director Martin Ritt, who was seeking the female lead for his upcoming Norma Rae. After she returned, Ritt called her at her rented Tuscaloosa house to tell her she had the part. 

In her memoir Field devotes a good bit of space [pp 344-352, 355-7] to Norma Rae, a complex, intense role that won her a Best Actress Oscar. One anecdote features Burt Reynolds. He showed up at her Opelika condo "in a Cadillac convertible and a cloud of red Alabama dust. 

Field has another connection to Alabama. Her maternal grandmother, Joy Bickley, was born in the state in the late 1800's [p. 17]. Field's mother, Margaret, was an actress herself whose own film and television career ran from 1946 until 1973. 

More notes are below the photos. 

She was inducted on May 5, 2014.

Field and Jeff Bridges in Stay Hungry [1976], based on Alabama author Charles Gaines' 1972 novel and filmed in Birmingham. 

Sally Field played Mrs. Gump in the classic Forrest Gump [1994], based on the 1986 novel by Alabama author Winston Groom. 

One of Field's greatest performances was Norma Rae, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. The film explores union organizing in a southern textile mill and much filming was done in Opelika. Actress and Birmingham native Gail Strickland had a supporting role. 

Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in Hooper, their third film together. 

Susan Hayward [Film]

Hayward [1917-1975] started off as a fashion model but left New York for Hollywood to try out for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. She missed out on that part, but made films in the late 1940s and 1950s that gave her Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She won for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in the 1958 production I Want to Live. 

The actress had a bit of an unusual connection to Alabama. In 1957 she married Floyd Chalkley, a Georgia rancher and businessman. They lived in Carrollton until his death in 1966. The couple also bought property in Cleburne County near Heflin and became well known in the area. Follow the link in the first sentence of this paragraph for my blog post about that phase of her life. 

I've always been a fan of Hayward. One of my favorite films of hers is the 1951 western Rawhide with Tyrone Power. Her ability to play strong women also shines in that role.

She was yet another star inducted on February 8, 1960.

Hayward proudly holds her Oscar. 

In June 1969 Hayward came to Auburn University to watch her son Gregory Baker graduate from the School of Veterinary Medicine. On the left is Harry M. Phillpot,PhD, President of Auburn University from 1965 until 1980. He was there during my years as a student and employee at Auburn. 

Source: Auburn University Digital Library

TO BE CONTINUED 

Birmingham Photos of the Day (74): "The Unconquered"

Helen Keller is one of the most famous and iconic people ever born in Alabama. She is known around the world; Japan, Spain, Nicaragua, India, Liberia and the United States have honored her with postage stamps. In 2009 her statue became one of two figures from Alabama at the U.S. Capitol. She appears on the Alabama state quarter issued by the U.S. Mint in 2003. A statue of Keller, along with one of Rosa Parks, will be coming to the Alabama state capitol grounds. 

Keller died in 1968. On June 15, 1954, when she was 72, a documentary film about her life, The Unconquered, was released. The film premiered at the Temple Theater in Birmingham, and Keller was in attendance. The film depicts how Anne Sullivan helped a young blind and deaf girl become a world-renowned author and advocate and the first such person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The film, which is 55 minutes long and is also known as Helen Keller in Her Story, includes footage of Keller's visits or memories of Dwight Eisenhower, Martha Graham and other notables.

The film was directed by Nancy Hamilton and written by her & James L. Shute. Hamilton was an actress, playwright, producer and director who died in 1985. Her film won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; she was the first female to win that award. Legendary stage actress (and writer, producer and theater owner) Katharine Cornell narrated the film. Cornell died in 1974. 

An earlier silent documentary about Keller, Deliverance, was released in 1919. The ninety minute film had actors playing real people at younger ages. Helen Keller, her mother Kate Adams Keller, brother Phillips Brooks Keller, Anne Sullivan, and Helen's secretary Polly Thompson also appeared as themselves. Silent film blogger Fritzi Kramer has posted an extensive review of this film here.  

Keller's life has also been depicted in The Miracle Worker, a 1959 stage play that William Gibson adapted from his own 1957 script for a television production. These were adapted from Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. The film version starring Patty Duke as Keller was released in 1962.

The photos below are related to the Birmingham event. You can see photographs of the Temple Theater in 1925 and 1965 here.

Premier of "The Unconquered" at the Temple Theater in 1954

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Collections

 Helen Keller and her secretary/companion arrive at the Temple Theater for the premier.

Alabama Dept. of Archives & History Digital Collections

Helen Keller, third from the left, at a party at the home of Mrs. Morris Bush in Birmingham after the movie premier. Nell Rankin is seated at the far left. Polly Thompson is at Keller's left. The other woman is unidentified.

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives & History Digital Collections

Another photo from the party at the Bush home after the film premier. Keller and Thompson are seated; Nell Rankin is standing on the far left. The ballerina and others are unidentified. 

Alabama Dept. of Archives & History Digital Collections

Keller blows out the candles on a cake at the film premier. Thompson is standing beside her; the young man is unidentified. The cake is decorated with words in icing: Spirit, Courage, Patience, Success and Rainbow. 

Alabama Dept. of Archives & History Digital Collections

Source: IMDb

Source: IMDB