What's Coming to the Blog in 2018?

For the fourth time I'm taking a look at what's ahead for AlabamaYesterdays in the coming year, and what kind of success I've had fulfilling my own prophecy at the beginning of 2017, etc. All previous posts are below.

I maintain a long laundry list of possible blog post topics. Some may never get done, but I keep the wish list going. Here's a few I HOPE to do in 2018:


-Carnegie Libraries in Alabama

-Ambrose Bierce in Alabama

-Alabama Women at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893

-Alabama Author Michael McDowell's 1977 Dissertation on Death

-Birmingham Doctors in 1920

-P.T. Barnum Visits Alabama

-Langston Hughes' Alabama Poems

-There's a Ticket Stub for That [a journey through 30 or so years of movies, concerts, etc.]

-Vladimir Putin's Alabama Connections [just kidding--maybe]



Looking at the list for 2017, I'm pleased to note I actually managed to complete posts on four of the topics listed. These included my dad's time aboard the USS Errol, notes from a trip to some historical sites in Montgomery, several posts on 19th and early 20th century songs with Alabama connections, and artist Anne Goldthwaite. Hopefully, I'll be at least that successful!

I should also top 400 posts since March 2014 sometime this year. See you in the funny papers. 

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What's Coming to the Blog in 2017?

On January 1, 2016, I posted an item under a similar title purporting to described what was coming to the blog in the coming year. I had done the same thing in 2015; both of those posts are copied below.

So here I am wondering what's coming in 2017. Looking back at the predictions for 2015 and 2016, I realized I actually have posted some of the stuff I listed.

I did explore the Alabama connections in Rock Hudson's 1953 film The Lawless Breed. I have started a series and completed several entries on actresses from Alabama who achieved fame in Hollywood before 1960. I did take a look at Augustus Thomas' 1891 play "Alabama" and some old Alabama postcards.

I will leave topics listed in 2015 and 2016 but not yet covered to discovery by discerning readers. They all remain on the "to do" list.

I also hope to get around to at least some of these topics in 2017:

-Dad and the USS Errol

-A Visit to Montgomery

-The Lady from Lipscomb Who's Buried in Austria

-More Early Alabama Songs

-Harriet Martineau Visits Alabama in 1835

-Alabama's Weird Tales Connections

-Anne Goldthwaite, Alabama Artist



Sometime fairly early in 2017 I will also be putting up the 300th post on this blog. Scary. I started the blog in March 2014 and have posted some 285 items so far. Scary.

As I noted in closing the 2016 speculations, the various series such as "Alabama Book Covers", "Old Alabama Stuff", "Birmingham Photos of the Day" and so on will continue. And other topics will surely pop up that I don't even see coming at me yet. Isn't this fun?

And as granddad still used to say, "See you in the funny papers."

You do know what funny papers are, don't you?

See the post "Pondering Alabama Maps (7): October 2, 1866"

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What's Coming to the Blog in 2016??

On January 1, 2015, I posted a document with a similar title. Here I am again one year later doing more or less the same thing.

First, let's take a look at last year's list, which you can also find below. I've actually posted blogs on a couple of the topics I intended to do. In February I covered the film The Lawless Breed and its connections to Alabama. Two more postings in that series followed during the year and more are in the pipeline.

I also started the series on film actresses from Alabama before 1960 and have posted on Lois Wilson and Gail Patrick. Dorothy Sebastian is next and others will follow.

And that's it. All the other topics I listed a year ago have yet to appear on this blog. What can I say? I'm easily distracted. Don't worry; they are all still in that mythical pipeline and some may even pop up in 2016. I also have many other topics "coming soon":


-What was America's first female detective doing in Montgomery before the Civil War?

-Some old Alabama postcards and the messages they send to us

-Some Alabama medical ads in 1911

-Augustus Thomas' 1891 play "Alabama"


Of course, the various series such as "Alabama Book Covers", "Old Alabama Stuff", "Birmingham Photos of the Day" and so on will continue. And other topics will surely pop up that I don't even see coming at me yet. Isn't this fun?

And as granddad still used to say, "See you in the funny papers." You do know what funny papers are, don't you?

What's Coming to the Blog in 2015??

People will be born, people will die. People will fall in love, get married, fall out of love, get divorced--wait, wrong list!

What's in store for THIS BLOG in 2015? Maybe I can get more specific with that one.

I began this blog in March 2014 and by the end of the year I'd put up 95 postings. Crazy. Topics ranged from old books to silent movies to old photos to abandoned drive-ins to a giant frog in Mobile. Oh, and Alabama Pizza Pasta in London. All of it related in some way to Alabama history. Mostly.

This year the onslaught of random quirkiness will continue:

-What's the Alabama connection in Rock Hudson's 1953 film The Lawless Breed?

-Who were some well-known movie actresses from Alabama--besides Tallulah Bankhead--long before Kate Jackson, Louise Fletcher, Courtney Cox and Kim Dickens?

-What three famous film directors have Birmingham connections?

-Who were all those photographers criss-crossing Alabama for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s?

-Who were three female writers from Alabama whose first names began with Z?

-Who was Ambrose Bierce and why did he come to Alabama in the 1860's?

-What kind of career has train robber Railroad Bill had in blues and folk music?

-Will the madness ever end?

As my grandfather used to say, "See you in the funny papers."

What's Coming to the Blog in 2017?

On January 1, 2016, I posted an item under a similar title purporting to described what was coming to the blog in the coming year. I had done the same thing in 2015; both of those posts are copied below. 

So here I am wondering what's coming in 2017. Looking back at the predictions for 2015 and 2016, I realized I actually have posted some of the stuff I listed. 

I did explore the Alabama connections in Rock Hudson's 1953 film The Lawless Breed. I have started a series and completed several entries on actresses from Alabama who achieved fame in Hollywood before 1960. I did take a look at Augustus Thomas' 1891 play "Alabama" and some old Alabama postcards.

I will leave topics listed in 2015 and 2016 but not yet covered to discovery by discerning readers. They all remain on the "to do" list.

I also hope to get around to at least some of these topics in 2017:

-Dad and the USS Errol
-A Visit to Montgomery
-The Lady from Lipscomb Who's Buries in Austria
-More Early Alabama Songs
-Harriet Martineau Visits Alabama in 1835
-Alabama's Weird Tales Connections
-Anne Goldthwaite, Alabama Artist



Sometime fairly early in 2017 I will also be putting up the 300th post on this blog. Scary. I started the blog in March 2014 and have posted some 285 items so far. Scary. 

As I noted in closing the 2016 speculations, the various series such as "Alabama Book Covers", "Old Alabama Stuff", "Birmingham Photos of the Day" and so on will continue. And other topics will surely pop up that I don't even see coming at me yet. Isn't this fun?

And as granddad still used to say, "See you in the funny papers."

You do know what funny papers are, don't you?

See the post "Pondering Alabama Maps (7): October 2, 1866"

888888888888888888888

What's Coming to the Blog in 2016??

On January 1, 2015, I posted a document with a similar title. Here I am again one year later doing more or less the same thing.

First, let's take a look at last year's list, which you can also find below. I've actually posted blogs on a couple of the topics I intended to do. In February I covered the film The Lawless Breed and its connections to Alabama. Two more postings in that series followed during the year and more are in the pipeline.

I also started the series on film actresses from Alabama before 1960 and have posted on Lois Wilson and Gail Patrick. Dorothy Sebastian is next and others will follow.

And that's it. All the other topics I listed a year ago have yet to appear on this blog. What can I say? I'm easily distracted. Don't worry; they are all still in that mythical pipeline and some may even pop up in 2016. I also have many other topics "coming soon":


-What was America's first female detective doing in Montgomery before the Civil War?

-Some old Alabama postcards and the messages they send to us

-Some Alabama medical ads in 1911

-Augustus Thomas' 1891 play "Alabama"


Of course, the various series such as "Alabama Book Covers", "Old Alabama Stuff", "Birmingham Photos of the Day" and so on will continue. And other topics will surely pop up that I don't even see coming at me yet. Isn't this fun?

And as granddad still used to say, "See you in the funny papers." You do know what funny papers are, don't you?

What's Coming to the Blog in 2015??

People will be born, people will die. People will fall in love, get married, fall out of love, get divorced--wait, wrong list!

What's in store for THIS BLOG in 2015? Maybe I can get more specific with that one.

I began this blog in March 2014 and by the end of the year I'd put up 95 postings. Crazy. Topics ranged from old books to silent movies to old photos to abandoned drive-ins to a giant frog in Mobile. Oh, and Alabama Pizza Pasta in London. All of it related in some way to Alabama history. Mostly.

This year the onslaught of random quirkiness will continue:

-What's the Alabama connection in Rock Hudson's 1953 film The Lawless Breed?

-Who were some well-known movie actresses from Alabama--besides Tallulah Bankhead--long before Kate Jackson, Louise Fletcher, Courtney Cox and Kim Dickens?

-What three famous film directors have Birmingham connections?

-Who were all those photographers criss-crossing Alabama for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s?

-Who were three female writers from Alabama whose first names began with Z?

-Who was Ambrose Bierce and why did he come to Alabama in the 1860's?

-What kind of career has train robber Railroad Bill had in blues and folk music?

-Will the madness ever end?

As my grandfather used to say, "See you in the funny papers."

What's Coming to the Blog in 2020?

What's coming to the blog in 2020 you ask? Beats me, I answer....

For several years now I've posted this sort of item on January 1 listing subjects I hope to cover in the coming year. You can read the 2019 post below; it contains links to 2018 and earlier years.

In 2019 I wrote 110 posts, the most of any year since I began the blog in 2014. That number, though, is inflated by the "Alabama History & Culture News" posts I started adding to the blog in July. This post makes a total of 550 on the blog. 

How many posts from the 2019 list did I manage to write?? Well, other than the ongoing ones--some family history stuff, films with state connections, etc--the only one was "A Legacy and Justice Visit to Montgomery". Seems I'm falling further and further behind... 

The "what's coming" posts are really wishin' and hopin' lists. I have a long list of topics I'd like to write about and naturally, no matter how many I write, it keeps growing. New topics just keep forcing themselves into my consciousness. 

So here are some wishes and hopes for 2020.



-The USS Birmingham & Early Flight

-Tallulah Does Birmingham

-Posts on visits to Scottsboro, Arab, Clanton, Calera, etc

-Alabama Actors R.G. Armstrong & Harry Townes [This one was on the 2019 list also; maybe I'll get it done this year! Of course, that goes for all the unwritten posts on these lists...]

 

-The Strange Writing Career of Clement Wood

-Movies with Alabama connections: The Fountainhead, The Dragon Painter, Stars in My Crown, Bright Road, Rebel in Town

-I've wanted to do "Did Mobile's Florence Maybrick Murder Her English Husband in 1889?" for a long time, and I really must get to it this year. Such a juicy story!

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What's Coming to the Blog in 2019?

Once again I want to start the new blog year at AlabamaYesterdays with a review of past efforts and a list of posts I hope--hope being the operative word--to do in 2019. I note that from the 2018 list, only the posts on Carnegie libraries and P.T. Barnum were actually completed. So all the others remain in the ongoing wish list. That 2018 post includes the lists from previous years as well. There are still a lot of topics waiting patiently for their turn. 

First, let's do the numbers:

2018-74

2017-80

2016-99

2015-91

2014-95

A total of 439 posts so far....sheesh....makes me tired just thinking about that...

2019 possible posts:

-Alabama's "Weird Tales" Connections

-Shelby County's Silent Movie Star: Henry Walthall

-Some Old Alabama Postcards (2) [I've acquired a number of new goodies for this post]

-Harriet Martineau Visits Alabama in 1835

-There's a Ticket Stub for That [a journey through 30 or so years of movies, concerts, etc.]. I've actually begun some organizational work behind the scenes on this one, which was also on last year's list. 

-Alabama Actors R.G. Armstrong & Harry Townes [You probably know their faces, since both men had very active film and television careers]

-A Legacy & Justice Visit to Montgomery

-New entries in ongoing series, such as films with Alabama connections

-Family history stuff, such as "A Memory Tour of Huntsville" & "Some Alabamians in New Orleans (2)" [That latter one may become a regular feature as long as our son Amos is living there!]

-The usual crop of posts on "let's connect [fill in the blank] to Alabama!"

-The usual crop of stuff I haven't even thought of yet

I guess I better get to work..

What's Coming to the Blog in 2023?

Who knows?

Well, here I am again, at the beginning of another year and another hopeful post describing what I plan to write for this blog. What's that laughter I hear? You know the old joke, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. 

Last year's blog post, sans illustrations, is below. As usual, I didn't do so well in completing my proposed entries. No posts about Alabama's psychedelic connections [Humphry Osmond, Timothy Leary, Charles W. Slack]; Henry Walthall, the silent film star born in Shelby County; or the various state natives who appeared on the classic Perry Mason TV series. I did manage to do a post on Harry Townes, the very prolific television actor born in Huntsville who appeared on that show several times. 

I also wrote about people with Alabama connections on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There are so many I'll have to do a second post on that topic, hopefully this year. Another subject I've wanted to explore is my collection of family ticket stubs from concerts, movies and other events that date back to the 1970s. That topic will have to be divided into several posts.

I have specific plans for a few other posts this year. These include "Roy McCardell and Birmingham", "Some Old Alabama Car Tags", "Old Ads for Alabama Bookstores" and "Anthony M. Rud's 1923 "Weird Tales" Story 'Ooze'", which is set in the state.

We'll see how all this turns out...

Now, let's do the numbers:

2022-89
2021-90
2020-108
2019-110

2018-74

2017-80

2016-99

2015-91

2014-95

A total of 836 blog posts...I'm going to rest now...

Roy McCardell [1870-after 1940]

Source: Wikipedia 

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What's Coming to the Blog in 2022?

You can find this post with illustrations here. 

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...

What's Coming to the Blog in 2016??

On January 1, 2015, I posted a document with a similar title. Here I am again one year later doing more or less the same thing.

First, let's take a look at last year's list, which you can also find below. I've actually posted blogs on a couple of the topics I intended to do. In February I covered the film The Lawless Breed and its connections to Alabama. Two more postings in that series followed during the year and more are in the pipeline.

I also started the series on film actresses from Alabama before 1960 and have posted on Lois Wilson and Gail Patrick. Dorothy Sebastian is next and others will follow. 

And that's it. All the other topics I listed a year ago have yet to appear on this blog. What can I say? I'm easily distracted. Don't worry; they are all still in that mythical pipeline and some may even pop up in 2016. I also have many other topics "coming soon":


-What was America's first female detective doing in Montgomery before the Civil War?  

-Some old Alabama postcards and the messages they send to us

-Some Alabama medical ads in 1911

-Augustus Thomas' 1891 play "Alabama"


Of course, the various series such as "Alabama Book Covers", "Old Alabama Stuff", "Birmingham Photos of the Day" and so on will continue. And other topics will surely pop up that I don't even see coming at me yet. Isn't this fun?

And as granddad still used to say, "See you in the funny papers." You do know what funny papers are, don't you? 

What's Coming to the Blog in 2015??

People will be born, people will die. People will fall in love, get married, fall out of love, get divorced--wait, wrong list!

What's in store for THIS BLOG in 2015? Maybe I can get more specific with that one.

I began this blog in March 2014 and by the end of the year I'd put up 95 postings. Crazy. Topics ranged from old books to silent movies to old photos to abandoned drive-ins to a giant frog in Mobile. Oh, and Alabama Pizza Pasta in London. All of it related in some way to Alabama history. Mostly.

This year the onslaught of random quirkiness will continue:

-What's the Alabama connection in Rock Hudson's 1953 film The Lawless Breed?

-Who were some well-known movie actresses from Alabama--besides Tallulah Bankhead--long before Kate Jackson, Louise Fletcher, Courtney Cox and Kim Dickens?

-What three famous film directors have Birmingham connections?

-Who were all those photographers criss-crossing Alabama for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s?

-Who were three female writers from Alabama whose first names began with Z?

-Who was Ambrose Bierce and why did he come to Alabama in the 1860's?

-What kind of career has train robber Railroad Bill had in blues and folk music?

-Will the madness ever end?

As my grandfather used to say, "See you in the funny papers."

What's Coming to the Blog in 2021?

For several years now I've been doing these "What's Coming" posts. You can read the 2020 post 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. So, here we are for 2021. 

I've chosen five subjects I'd really like to get done this year. 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 recently 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 plan a post to describe that donation process and bring the story to a close.

Another topic I'd like to cover is Truman Capote and Marilyn Monroe. I've done a pretty bogus post connecting MM and Alabama, but this one is a bit stronger. I also hope to take a look at Anthony M. Rud's short story "Ooze" which was published in the very first issue of the legendary Weird Tales pulp magazine in 1923. The story is set in "the piney woods jungle of southern Alabama". Oh, that reminds me, I also need to do a piece on Birmingham native Mary Elizabeth Counselman, who published several stories in Weird Tales. 

I also want to start this year what will probably be a long series of blog posts. A number of natives or people with state connections have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and I could follow that piece with ones on people from the state who have won Oscars, Emmys and Tony awards. 

I actually did complete four topics from the 2020 list: the USS Birmingham and Early Flight, Tallulah Does Birmingham and visits to Scottsboro and Arab [but not Clanton and Calera!]. Posts listed but not written [and these have appeared in previous years] include very busy actors R.G. Armstrong [a Pleasant Grove native] and Harry Townes [Huntsville]. I also didn't do something on the strange writing career of Clement Wood or on Florence Maybrick--did the Mobile native really kill her English husband? 

This coming year 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.

These "what's coming" posts are really wishin' and hopin' lists. I have a long master catalog of topics I'd like to write about and naturally, no matter how many I write, it just keeps growing. You know, I could just do blog posts with lists of topics I'd like to do blog posts on. I guess I better get to work...

Now for the numbers each year:

2020-108
2019-110

2018-74

2017-80

2016-99

2015-91

2014-95

A total of 657 posts so far....sheesh....makes me tired just thinking about that...

What's Coming to the Blog in 2025?

Since 2015 I have begun each year with a post outlining some of the pieces I'd like to write in the coming year. These posts have become a history of futility on this blog. I list some topics I'd like to cover, and in the coming year I might get one or two of them done. So many topics, so little time, so many new topics popping up all the time. If you have the inclination, you can read all about it: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. 

For instance, last year's listing included the item, "Five Points South in Birmingham in 1987"; I have a neat map to use with it. I also had on my dance card "Louisa Shepard, MD". She was the first southern woman to be awarded a medical degree from a southern institution. She graduated from the Graefenberg Medical Institute operated in Dadeville by her father, Dr. Philip Madison Shepard, from 1852 until 1861. Then there were R.G. Armstrong and Henry Walthall, two Alabama natives who became incredibly busy actors. You might recognize Armstrong, who was born in Pleasant Grove; he appeared in so many films and tv shows before his death in 2012. Walthall never appeared on television; he died in 1936. Born on a cotton plantation in Shelby County, he made dozens of silent and sound films from 1909 until his death. Finally, one topic I mentioned for the 2024 list was Livingston Press, an independent publisher based at the University of West Alabama that since the 1970s has issued numerous works of fiction and other genres.

Perhaps in 2025 I'll get to one or all of these posts. What others would I like to write? Well, there's part 2 of "Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame". I only managed the first half of the alphabet in part 1. Speaking of women doctors in the state, there's the sad tale of Laura Burton and Irene Bullard, two physicians who established a joint practice in Birmingham before World War I. Unfortunately, Burton was murdered by her second husband and Bullard left the state. It's quite a tale.

Earlier this year I wrote about a portion of my ticket stubs collection, the ones for concerts. Next I'd like to do one on the stubs I have for sporting events. Finally, I hope to get around to a post on the visit son Amos and I made in January 2023 to the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa. I've already completed one on another place we visited on that trip, the Capitol and Old Tavern.

I thought about doing an inventory from all these "What's Coming" posts of ideas I listed but have yet to write about. That thought quickly gave me a headache. Well, I guess I'll be back in January 2026 to see how all this speculation for 2025 turned out.

Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2)

I've written posts about Wilson here, here and here. She's one of many with state connections who will be featured in part 2.

Laura Evelyn Compton and first husband Captain Chesley Thomas Bartee on their wedding day 25 November 1893, Nanafalia, Alabama.

Compton later divorced her steamship captain husband, went to medical school and married fellow student Allen Burton. They moved to Birmingham, and Laura set up a practice with Irene Bullard. They had an office in the original Watts building. Laura was later murdered by her husband, and Irene left the state to practice elsewhere. See this site for more information.

Some Birmingham Barons ticket stubs in my collection. My son and I attended a Barons game this past August, and the only "stub" I have is a printout of the confirmation email I received. Pathetic. I ask you, what kind of world is it without colorful, meaningful ticket stubs?

I'm an Auburn fan, but I will try to do justice to this topic. War Eagle!

Paul W. Bryant Museum