Happy October (Island)!

October Island by William March.  First Edition, Little Brown and Co., 1952.

March's sixth novel, published in 1952, did not receive the same critical praise as some of his earlier works.  Some did like the novel, like the New York Times critic, Charles Poore, who praises March's "novel of salt and savor" full of "quiet, uninsistent irony" and his "mordant undertones of commentary on what it truly means to be an outcast."  But we love it, and we love our William March all the same.  And we really love this dust jacket, which is full of mid-century style. Happy October.

The greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread? Alabama Football of Course!

This bread-shaped gem is a detail of the official Alabama vs. Sewanee football game, held at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama on October 17, 1925. This item is from our extensive collection of University of Alabama published  materials, ranging from course catalogs and yearbooks and everything in between, including an extensive collection of University of Alabama football programs.

The detail here is from the November 14, 1959 game against Georgia Tech, which was played at Legion Field, also in Birmingham.

What is the significance of these two teams together?  Well, we used to play Sewanee and Georgia Tech all the time, and in fact, our fight song, Yea Alabama, features the first line that says, "Let the Sewanee Tiger scratch, Let the Yellow Jacket sting!"  And while we don't sing those lyrics anymore, but start with a rousing "Yea Alabama! Drown 'em Tide!", it's true that the first references in the song are to two schools we just don't play anymore.  A fitting blog post today, what would have been Coach Paul Bryant's 99th birthday!  Roll Tide Roll!

Alabama's Storyteller, Kathryn Tucker Windham

We recently said goodbye to renowned storyteller, author, photographer, and radio personality, Kathryn Tucker Windham. She will be greatly missed, but she will live on in our hearts and through her stories. The Hoole Library houses over twenty different works, including sound and video recordings as part of our Alabama Collection.

Born in Selma, Alabama and raised in Thomasville, Ms. Windham inherited her gift of storytelling from her father, a local banker, at a very young age. From early on, she also showed a keen interest in writing. At the tender age of twelve, she began writing movie reviews for the Thomasville Times.

Her career as a reporter would continue to grow, and she began to work as a freelance journalist in Thomasville after graduating from Montgomery’s Huntingdon College in 1939. Windham became a police reporter and features writer for Montgomery’s Alabama Journal. Her work as a reporter in a very masculine profession was groundbreaking and inspiring to women writers all over Alabama and beyond.

Ms. Windham also had a lifetime love of photography, a passion and talent she put to use as a courthouse reporter and editor for the Birmingham News. Later, she would begin publishing books of her photographs and including them in works. She is well known for many, many things, but many think of her 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey when they think of her. Everyone loves her ghost stories. Inspired by an inquiry about “Jeffrey,” a friendly ghost residing in the Windham’s home in Selma, Windham began a series of collections of ghost stories, the first being 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, published in 1969. She followed up with collections of ghost stories from Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, more Alabama ghosts, and Southern ghosts.

She has been featured as a teller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee over twelve times. She authored a book, My Name is Julia and created a one-woman play of the same name, which she performed in period costume about another great Alabamian, Julia Tutwiler. The play was debuted at the Birmingham Public Library in 1981.

There is a special place in my heart for Kathryn Tucker Windham -- as her stories were the foundation for the first major exhibition I did at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. In Fall, 2000, just after coming to The University of Alabama, I worked with MFA candidate in the Book Arts, Suzanne Gray, on her MFA Thesis exhibition, Piano Lessons and Other Recollections, a book of stories by Ms. Windham, which was printed, illustrated, and bound by Suzanne Gray as her thesis project. The exhibit featured Suzanne's work as well as a selection of Ms. Windham's books, and included a tombstone pinata which I keep in my office to remind me of that exhibit and the opening.

Detail from Piano Lessons and other Recollections, stories from Kathryn Tucker Windham
Major Tiara Press, 2000. From the Hoole Library Book Arts Collection
Prefaces by Lori Allen Siegelman and Suzanne Gray.
This book was letterpress printed by Suzanne Gray from photopolymer plates and lead types on Frankfurt paper using Adobe Garamond and Garamond Italic typefaces. ... Twenty-six of the 125 copies are bradel bound with hand-colored illustrations and are in protective containers. They are lettered A to Z. Ninety-nine copies are quarter-cloth bound and numbered 1 to 99.
Illustrations by the printer; decorative papers by the printer and Suzanne Moore.

Students, scholars, and storytellers alike will return to Ms. Windham's stories and books. They are here for you to enjoy! I like to think that maybe Kathryn Tucker Windham herself is here with us sometimes -- I'd love nothing better to catch a glimpse of her and Jeffrey in the stacks, making mischief. She of all people, would appreciate that notion -- inscribing her books to her legions of fans, young and old, like this:

Makes your eyes light up. Your tummy say, "Howdy!"

Stove Pilot. Eleventh Edition, September, 1955. Alabama Collection. TX 715.U54

A couple of pages from the fantastic community cookbook, Stove Pilot, part of the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection and in the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture. Stove Pilot was done in several editions, compiled by the Women's Club at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama for the benefit of overseas recovery. The recipes are enchanting and humorous and the drawings are even better. The recipes for Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy are side by side, and in the right order -- making those of us who are old enough to remember, or those artificially aged by our professions to hum a little tune made famous (??) by Dinah Shore, Ella Fitzgerald and June Christy. So if you are thinking about baking this weekend, no cake! Go to the oven and make some ever-lovin'....

"I never get enough of that wonderful stuff!"

Publishers' Binding: Remembering Cuba (Week) Edition

So last week was Cuba Week at The University of Alabama. Here's a little Memories of Cuba (Week) binding for you to enjoy....

Memories of Cuba and other poems
by Janan Ewan
Boston, R.G. Bager, 1908.
pba01177, from the Hoole Alabama Collection

Remembering Tony Curtis: William Bradford Huie@100

Yesterday, we lost one of the great elder statesman of the American cinema, Tony Curtis. Among his many great films is one that was written by Alabama author and University of Alabama graduate, William Bradford Huie. Huie's book, Hero of Iwo Jima was turned into the 1962 film starring Tony Curtis about Marine Corporal Ira Hamilton Hayes, one of the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Huie, in his role as war correspondent and reporter, wrote numerous memorable pieces, including several about his experiences and the experiences of others during World War II and its aftermath.

We will celebrate William Bradford Huie in November and through the Spring 2011 semester, with an exhibit, a film screening, and several other events based on his life and work. Visit http://www.as.ua.edu/wbhuieat100/ and http://wbhuieat100.blogspot.com/

Marveling at Marbling

One of the many wonders of working with rare books is the magnificent things you find within -- like these amazing marbled end papers. This is just a taste of what I came across today working with Confederate Imprints and Alabama collection materials from the mid-19th century. Enjoy!

Tell us your favortite Southern Novel!

A Tennessee Judge: A Novel, by Opie Read (Chicago: Laird and Lee, 1893).

It probably isn't this page turner by Opie Read, but we have it the Hoole! Please send us a note with your favorite Southern novel, and tell us why you think it's cool, and who knows, we might just exhibit it in our new exhibit - FAVORITE SOUTHERN NOVELS!

We also welcome your information about Alabama authors, new and old! Send me an email at jlfeldma@ua.edu if you know of an author that we might not yet be aware of!

Roll Tide!

Up from History: A Lecture on the Life of Booker T. Washington

pba00977
Up from Slavery
(J. L. Nichols and Co., 1901)

pba001870
The Story of My Life and Work
(J. L. Nichols and Company, 1900)
Featuring an image of the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama

pba00976
Working with the Hands: Being a Sequel to Up from Slavery, Covering the
Author's Experiences in Industrial Training at Tuskegee
(Doubleday, Page and Co., 1904)

Tomorrow, April 9, 2009 at 4 pm in Gorgas Library room 205, Dr. Robert J. Norrell will present the lecture, Up from History: Resurrecting Booker T. Washington's Historical Reputation.

Norell is the Bernadotte Schmidt Chair of Excellence in the Department of History at the University of Tennessee. Norrell previously taught in the Department of History at The University of Alabama. His latest book, Up From History: The Life of Booker T. Washington (Belknap Press, 2009) has received great acclaim and reviews.

Featured here are a few of Booker T. Washington's works from the Hoole Special Collections Library. They, along with 15 other of his works were included in the Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books. A gallery and essay on Washington is also included in the project.

Please join us to learn more about this fascinating and important American pioneer! A signing and reception will follow the talk. Co-sponsored by the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, The University of Alabama Libraries, and the generous support of Dr. Lakey and Susan Tolbert.

Forget Cabot Cove -- Anne George's Birmingham and her Southern Sisters Mysteries

Writer, publisher, teacher, and poet Anne George was born on this day, December 4th, in 1927. She passed away in 2001, leaving a literary legacy that reaches far beyond her home state of Alabama.

Anne was born Anne Carroll Bell in Montgomery, Alabama. She was raised by her grandparents initially and moved to rural Lowndes County as a young girl. It was in her childhood that she became enamored with the detective stories -- from the magazines in her grandparents' house. Upon graduating high school, she attended Judson College in Marion, Alabama and graduated in 1949 from Samford University with a degree in English and Spanish.

She married and moved to Birmingham, where she taught English for over two decades. During that time she attended graduate school at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, earning an MA in English and Education in 1971. She also pursued a doctoral degree, and during that time founded Druid Press with her fellow student Jerri Beck. After ten years in the publishing business, they sold the press and Anne began writing full time.


She is best known for her Southern Sisters mystery series. This popular series began as a short story based on herself and a cousin. The first book in the series, Murder on a Girls' Night Out, was accepted for publication less than a week after she sent it to her agent. She eventually published seven books in the series, with such titles as Murder on a Bad Hair Day, and Murder Shoots the Bull. All of her writing is greatly influenced by her surroundings -- making Birmingham, Alabama center stage for her mysteries.


She was also a successful poet, publishing two volumes of her work. Though she is gone, she is not forgotten by her legions of fans who identify with and idolize Patricia Anne and Mary Alice, two unlikely sleuths full of Southern charm and humor.

Anne George, as an Alabama author, is included in the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection.

Farewell to Odetta

This groundbreaking and inspiring folk singer and champion of African-American history and music passed away yesterday. Odetta was born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Alabama on December 31, 1930.

When she was just six years old, she moved to Los Angeles with her family. She received classical voice training as a child and performed with a madrigal group (secular music from the Renaissance and early Baroque period -- all vocal) in junior high school, but by the time she finished high school, she became much more interested in other forms of music. She began her adult musical career in a touring production of the Broadway musical, "Finian's Rainbow", a Irish-ish musical with a score that included gospel and blues elements.



After the tour ended, her career blossomed when she performed as a folk singer in San Francisco in the early 1950s. She performed regularly and was close with folk legends Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She was already well established when the folk music scene became extremely popular and commercial in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Odetta's passionate and soulful voice, and her ability to captivate her audience deeply influenced the career paths of latter day folk performers Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. She was a major influence on singers like Janis Joplin and Bruce Springsteen.

And while she did become involved in acting and in other areas, she remained for her entire life a passionate advocate for folk music and its importance. She said, "The folk repertoire is our inheritance. Don't have to like it, but we need to hear it. I love getting to schools and telling kids there's something else out there. It's from their forebears, and its an alternative to what they hear on the radio. As long as I am performing, I will be pointing out that heritage that is ours." Her passion for African-American folk music still serves as a hallmark of the Civil Rights and Black Pride movements. She was a champion of African-American history and culture both thought and in action -- through her powerful voice and through learning, performing, and sharing these important songs with an audience around the world.

In 1999, she was recognized with the National Medal of Arts awarded by President Bill Clinton, and in 2004, she was a Kennedy Center honoree. In 2000, the Library of Congress honored her with its Living Legend Award.

Sound recordings by Odetta can be found in the Hoole Library's Sound Recording Collections.

"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time." --Maya Angelou

An Evening (on film) with Eugene Walter!

"A student of human endeavors on this busy planet." --Eugene Walter

Join us at 7 pm on Thursday, November 20 in Gorgas Library room 205 for a fun-filled evening with a screening of the new documentary film by Alabama native, Bob Clem (Waterfront Pix) on fellow Alabama native and Renaissance man, Eugene Walter!

Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians documents the life and career of a writer, poet, actor, artist and raconteur whose work celebrates the art of living and personifies the culture of the coastal South. Living in Paris and Rome, Walter (1921-1998) lent his unique personality and wide-ranging talent to a number of different endeavors, many of them at the heart of the postwar artistic renaissance in Europe -- winning numerous awards for his poetry and fiction, helping start the Paris Review, working with and acting in the films of Federico Fellini and other Italian directors, editing the poly lingual literary magazine Botteghe Oscure and meeting and entertaining many of the most famous writers and cultural figures of his time.

From his beginnings in Mobile, Alabama, Walter was blessed with survival skills that enabled him to live the bohemian life, dedicating himself to artistic pursuits without visible means of support. He ran away from home literally as soon as he was able to walk, moving in with his grandmother, then receiving shelter from Mobilians who recognized his talent and his brilliance.

He lived for a time in a warehouse, then in the back of the city's famed Haunted Book Shop (its co-founder and dear friend of Eugene Adelaide Trigg passed away last month at the age of 89),
then as the ward of local theater patron Hammond Gayfer. Walter would later be honored by his native city as an artistic 'Renaissance Man' for his achievements in so many creative endeavors.

Eugene Walter was one of the last of an increasingly rare breed -- the freelance, wandering poet, living day to day in pursuit of art, truth and beauty. Paris and Rome are no longer the inexpensive cities they were in the aftermath of World War II, where artists and writers could survive on a few dollars a week.

Most writers and poets today have an academic affiliation, or else a full time job with little time left to write, to dream and to live in the fantasy world that Eugene Walter inhabited every single day, to the delight of most everyone he met. His story is not to be missed! The film was funded in part by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from the Sybil Smith Charitable Trust, A.S. Mitchell Foundation, M.W. Smith Foundation, Malbis Memorial Foundation and Ben May Foundation.

Eugene's books are included in the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection. There is also a small manuscript collection relating to Eugene Walter at the Hoole Library. You can review Eugene's author information and some of his tangible contributions to literature via This Goodly Land.

Watch a preview! And please join us for a fun opportunity to celebrate this treasured world citizen!

Holding Court with The Prince of Frogtown! An Evening with Rick Bragg at UA Libraries

There is just about nothing better than a great story. So if you love great stories told by an outstandingly spectacular storyteller, please join us at 7 pm on Wednesday, October 29th in Gorgas Library room 205 for an opportunity to meet renowned Alabama author, Pulitzer Prize winner and University of Alabama professor of Journalism, Rick Bragg.



His latest book, The Prince of Frogtown (Knopf, 2008) is the final volume of his beloved American saga that began with All over but the Shoutin' and continued with Ava's Man. in The Prince of Frogtown, Bragg closes his circle of family with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his stepson.

This event, like all UA Libraries lecture series events is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the reading, with books for sale courtesy of the Supe Store. The UA Libraries Lecture Series is made possible in part through the generous support of Dr. Lakey and Susan Tolbert. A copy of the flier is available here for download -- and for more information on the UA Libraries Lecture series visit the website at www.lib.ua.edu/events We hope to see you there!

And if you haven't already, take a look at Rick's piece on Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide recently published in Sports Illustrated.

A Best-Selling Author was Born....Carl Carmer and Stars Fell on Alabama

October 16 marks the birthday of bestselling author and former University of Alabama professor of English, Carl Carmer. Born in 1893 in Cortland, New York, Carmer came to The University of Alabama in 1927 after completing graduate work at Harvard University. His experiences in Alabama led to his best-selling book, Stars Fell on Alabama.

The New York Times review from the period said, "Carmer reveals himself here as a writer of more than ordinary perceptiveness and imagination, with the power of extracting from what he sees, hears, and feels an essence which is fundamentally poetic."

What he saw, heard, and felt, from experiences all over the state, still stand today as powerful documentation of folkways, and of the racial violence and conflict that existed in Alabama. Carmer became friends with people who took him all over the state, and he experienced first hand everything from foot-washings and shape note singing, to myths and superstitions (like the legendary night in 1833 when "stars fell on Alabama -- the Leonid meteor shower), as well as the horror of an actual lynching -- and he wrote about it all with great honesty.

Carmer left Alabama in 1933 (coincidently one hundred years after the stars fell...)to serve as the assistant editor at Vanity Fair magazine.

Carmer had a colleague, Clarence Cason -- who also wrote honestly about Alabama during this same period. An essay on Carmer and Cason, exploring their work and Cason's tragic fate was published in 2003 in the journal Southern Cultures, by Dr. Phil Beidler of the UA Department of English. This fascinating essay,Yankee Interloper and Native Son: Carl Carmer and Clarence Cason Unlikely Twins of Alabama Exposé is a very worthy read and gives a great glimpse into these two men and the period in which they wrote.


Carmer went on to write thirty-seven books in all, in addition to his editorial and consultant work, advising on matters of folklore for Walt Disney productions! He also recorded four albums of folk music. His most famous work, Stars fell on Alabama has been in print for many years, most recently reprinted by The University of Alabama Press in 2000, with an introduction by former NY Times editor and Alabama native, Howell Raines. The images above are first editions of the book from the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection. Carmer died in 1976 at the age of 93. Today is the 115th anniversary of his birth.

Portrait of Carl Carmer from This Goodly Land entry on Carmer

Visit Alabama Authors at http://www.lib.ua.edu/Alabama_Authors/
or Carmer's entry in This Goodly Land to learn more about him and more about Alabama's rich literary heritage!

Family Bible: A Memoir (Wednesday 10/1 @ 7 pm (@ Hoole, of course!)

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 1, 2008, Melissa J. Delbridge will discuss and read from her memoir, Family Bible (UIowa Press, 2008). The event will take place at the Hoole Special Collections Library located on the 2nd floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall on The University of Alabama campus (500 Hackberry Lane).

A native of Tuscaloosa and UA alum, Melissa Delbridge has published essays and short stories in the Antioch Review, Southern Humanities Review, Third Coast, and other journals. She is an archivist in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University. Delbridge lives with her family in Orange County, North Carolina, where she spends her leisure time letting the dogs in and out, making pickles, plotting vengeance, substantiating rumors, and working on a novel.

Her book, along with many, many others are a part of the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection - as she is an Alabama native.

Please join us for what will certainly be a great event. This is part of the UA Libraries' lecture series and is co-sponsored by New College.

“Delbridge knows sorrow like she knows the rhythm of her own heart. . . . Fans of Carson McCullers won't want to miss this one—witty, tragic, and relentlessly wise.”

—Booklist, starred review

Cotton Dethroned!

98 years ago today, on September 3, 1910, the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) was first discovered on Alabama soil. The unbelievable devastation the boll weevil caused to cotton crops throughout the South was the catalyst for diversifying agriculture in Alabama, ultimately dethroning "King Cotton" in favor of other crops like peanuts, soybeans and timber.


The book featured here is one of many from Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books that feature cotton as a design element, decoration, ornament or motif. Here are a few more for your perusal... some very realistic, some beautifully stylized. To look at over 5000 more books and lots more, visit PBO!




An impressive, albeit strangely wonderful statue dedicated to the boll weevil stands in Enterprise, Alabama.

Olympic History and a great Alabamian

Seventy-two years ago today, on August 3, 1936, track and field athlete and native Alabamian Jesse Owens won his first of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913 and moved with his family to Cleveland Ohio when he was nine. He attended Ohio State University and won a record 8 NCAA individual championships, four in 1935 and four in 1936. And in the span of forty-five minutes on 45 minutes on May 25, 1935 at the Big 10 meet at the University of Michigan, he set three world records and tied a fourth.

Despite his international fame and success as an athlete, he faced huge challenges and humiliations because of racial bias and Jim Crow laws in his native country. For example, after being given a ticker-tape parade in New York, he was required to take the freight elevator to his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. His story, much like the story of fellow Alabamian and stellar athlete Joe Louis is filled with tragedy stemming from racial bias. Both men also share in their contributions to anti-Nazi efforts leading up to the United States' participation in World War II.

In 1996, The Jesse Owens Memorial Park opened in his hometown of Oakville, Alabama. An poem by Charles Ghigna is inscribed on the plaque dedicating the park, and it reads:

May his light shine forever as a symbol

for all who run for the freedom of sport,

for the spirit of humanity,

for the memory of Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976, and posthumously given the Congressional Gold Medal in 1990. He is also recognized in Germany, with a street and a school named for him in Berlin. His birthplace in Oakville, Alabama dedicated a park in his honor in 1996, and also brought the Olympic Torch through the community, commemorating his Olympic triumph sixty years earlier. The Ohio State University named their track and field stadium, The Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

Much more can be learned about Jesse Owens in Hoole's Alabama Collection -- where books about Owens and other great Alabamians abound. And later this week, if you choose to watch the 2008 Olympics, it is interesting to think about some of the people who helped pave the way -- as Americans and world citizens --- for those who compete today.

Il y a longtemps... The Pélican Girls in Mobile and Yellow Fever Comes Full Circle

Detail of , Guillaume de L'Isle's map Novissima tabula regionis lvdoviciana gallice dictæ La Lovgsiane iam olim quidem sub Canadæ et Floridæ nomine in America Septentrionali [Nuremburg; 1730?]
From the Hoole Library's map collections.

Four hundred and four years ago today, on August 1, 1704, a group of French colonists welcomed twenty-three young women to their new home. These "well-bred" young women, nicknamed the "Pélican Girls", arrived from France under an order of Louis XIV aboard the ship called the Pélican. They were recruited to move from France to the wilds of Fort Louis de La Louisiane (the original name for Mobile) just two years after its founding in 1702. Their purpose was to marry the men and raise families in order to increase Mobile's population. They were also known, especially later when another group was sent to New Orleans, by the names filles du Roi (girls of the King) or filles à la cassette (“casket girls”) aptly named for their little boxes of personal belongings they brought with them from France.

The Pélican Girls' arrival was much welcomed, but they brought with them an unwanted guest - yellow fever, which was introduced to the ship in Havana. Most of the Pélican girls recovered from the illness, but a large number of the first colonists, along with many Native Americans in the surrounding area succumbed to the disease.

Fort Louis de la Louisiane, was the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana, and was founded by two French Canadian-born brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.

A list of the young women, clipped from the Google Books version of Colonial Mobile an Historical Study Largely from Original Sources, of the Alabama-Tombigbee Basin and the Old South West from the Discovery of the Spiritu Santo in 1519 until the Demolition of Fort Charlotte in 1821, by Peter J. Hamilton (Houghton Mifflin, 1910) which is available online here.

"

Of course, there are copies of this book in the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection, including Hamilton's 1897 edition.

And speaking of yellow fever, there are some great materials available in our collections (and now available online) about W.C. Gorgas (see June 30, 2008's cool@hoole entry Great News! and Great Letterhead from Loving Son W.C. to his Doting Mother, Amelia.)


It is the public health work that Alabamian W.C. Gorgas did in Cuba that led to his success in eradicating yellow fever in Panama and making the Panama Canal a reality. The opening of the Panama Canal helped to make Mobile Bay a booming port city in the 20th century, long after the Pélican Girls, but an interesting link in the history of Alabama and the city of Mobile.

The Archer, the Thief and UA's 1938 Rose Bowl Team

This very cool picture from our collections features The University of Alabama's football team in 1938 -- after their defeat in the Rose Bowl. In the photograph are two men who stand out a little bit -- with elaborate costumes. Who are they? Well, they are Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, stars of the 1938 film, The Adventures of Robin Hood.


The University of Alabama football team were no slouches -- but it was never clear (to me, anyway) exactly why they ended up on this particular movie set, with these particular actors -- until just this week when the connection came in the form of a television show on sharp shooters on the History Channel. The probable connection? Howard Hill!



Who? While he may not be a household name in every household, Howard Hill certainly was a man who had his share of the limelight. Hill, known by many as the "World's Greatest Archer" (and "Ol' One Shot") was born November 13, 1899 in Wilsonville, Alabama. He won 196 consecutive field archery tournaments between 1926 and 1942, and also won the International field meet in 1942.

Hill was a Hollywood stuntman and consultant, working with actors and on movie sets from the late 1930s through the 1950s. Among his many credits include that of archery instructor and stuntman for The Adventures of Robin Hood!



In fact, Hill and Robin Hood title character star Errol Flynn were longtime friends -- here they are fishing together aboard Flynn's yacht.



According to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, (he was inducted in 1971) Howard Hill "took more than 2,000 game animals and 1,000 reptiles and fish in 12 countries.... and was the first man to kill a bull elephant with a bow and arrow." Cover details featured here are from books from the Hoole Alabama Collection, Hunting the Hard Way, and Wild Adventure. Both recount Hill's encounters with wild animals around the world as well as a broad range of advise and information for the budding archer or archery enthusiast-- he not only was an archery superstar, but also designed and made all of his own equipment. 


Hill's legacy lives on in fiction through DC Comics' Green Arrow series. In the comic, Oliver Queen (aka "The Emerald Archer") refers to Howard Hill as his childhood hero, and it eventually ends up that Hill bestows upon Queen the legendary bow that he used on the set of The Adventures of Robin Hood. When Queen dies, his son Conner Hawke takes over the family business -- fighting crime with Hill's legendary Robin Hood bow -- it's fiction meets fact meets fiction!

So it seems -- the Archer (Hill) and the Thief (Robin Hood/Errol Flynn) and the 1938 Rose Bowl team come together here - connected through Hill and with all probability someone knowing someone from back home in Alabama -- but not from school. Howard Hill not only was a heck of an archer, but he also played baseball for that other big school on the other side of the state -- Auburn University.