100 Years, A Million Dollars, 1000 Strong and a Few Cool Photos!

 

 

 

 

HAPPY 100TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA'S

MILLION DOLLAR BAND!

The Million Dollar Band will be joined on the field tomorrow, September 22, 2012 by Million Dollar Band alums during the halftime show, making the band 1000 strong!

Bonus points if you can tell me the name of the Drum Major in that first picture!   

All Latin, Big and Small

1968: The Year that Changed the World

Exhibit poster for 1968: The Year that Changed the World
- inspired by Thomas Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

A new exhibit from the collections of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library is now available -- 1968: The Year that Changed the World is an opportunity to reflect on this important time through the lens of the materials in the Hoole Library. Forty years after 1968, we still look upon that year as a pivotal one in the worlds of politics, culture, art, music, literature, and life.

Through our print collections, sound recordings, and more, this exhibit offers some insight into life both on the UA campus and in the world during 1968.

1968 Corolla (Detail) of Afro-American Society

1968 brought Robert Kennedy to campus as part of the Emphasis program in March of 1968, just three months before he was assassinated. 1968 was the year the first African-American student association was established on campus, and this year marks the 40th anniversary.

Assorted buttons - detail from 1968 Corolla

The exhibit is far-reaching, looking at art, music, literature, campus life, culture, war, and many of the things that were on the minds of students and others 40 years ago.

Soundtrack of the 1968 musical, Hair!

The exhibit also features some materials currently on loan and donated by UA alum Janet Stevenson, who was a student at The University of Alabama in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We even have her Fall 1968 calendar on display! This exhibit also features a few of the many, many LPs from the collection of UA History professor John Beeler, who was quick to loan some of the most important albums of 1968 to include in the exhibit.

Lumpy Gravy by Frank Zappa (1968)

To get a sense of campus life in 1968, come to see the exhibit! And if you want a real blast from the past, be sure to visit our digital collections which feature the 1968 Corolla as well as a full array of the talks and the program from Emphasis '68.

This exhibit was developed with graduate student, Audrey Coleman from the department of American Studies. Please join us in commemorating the 40 year anniversary of such an important year. We hope to have an event in December to "let the sunshine in".... stay tuned. Peace.

Remembering the King (and the man who crowned him)

Elvis passed away 31 years ago yesterday. This photograph was taken in 1974 in Memorial Coliseum (now Coleman Coliseum) on The University of Alabama campus and is part of our vast holdings of University photographs, a component of The University of Alabama's archives which as housed at the Hoole Library. These photographs range in scope to include campus buildings and scenes, specific events, and everything in between.  We have made some of the photographs available in our digital collections, and are continuously adding more.  This group of digital materials is called The University of Alabama Encyclopedia. 

Elvis Presley played at UA twice in the 1970s -- and he wasn't alone. The campus attracted huge acts, especially in the 1950s through the 1970s including the Rolling Stones, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, and many, many more.  In the earlier years, concerts were held in Foster Auditorium, and later at the Coluseum. Tuscaloosa's spot between Atlanta and New Orleans made it an ideal venue for these kinds of performances. 

While we remember the King, it's not a bad idea to think about the man who made him what he was. That man was Sam Phillips. He moved from his native Florence, Alabama to Memphis, and opened a recording studio where he worked with Blues pioneers and made some of the very first Rock and Roll recordings.  The image of this current historic marker which stands in Florence, Alabama is courtesy of biologist and Florence native, Stuart McGregor. 

Phillips got his start as a DJ in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and relocated to Memphis in 1950 where he opened the Memphis Recording Service.  He also launched his own record label, Sun Records, where he recorded Elvis and many others. 

Phillips is credited by many as not only with discovering Elvis Presley, but also recording the first Rock and Roll record,  "Rocket 88" by a band called Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. That band was led by none other than Clarksville, Mississippi native Ike Turner. 

Materials about Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Memphis blues, music, and much more are available in the Hoole Library's Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture.

Hamp@Hoole: Happy 100th Birthday to the Legendary Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton would have been 100 years old this week. He passed away in August of 2002 at the age of 94, a musical legend and performer for a remarkable eight decades.

Hampton was born on April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. After his father was killed in World War I, Hampton and his mother moved to Birmingham, Alabama. They later moved north to Kenosha, Wisconsin, then to Chicago. His earliest musical experiences were in Birmingham, playing drums in a Holiness church. He started his professional musical career as a drummer, touring with bandleaders in the 1920s, then moving to Los Angeles in 1927.

Everything changed for Hampton in 1930, when during a recording session with Louis Armstrong. It was in this session that Hampton would first play the vibraphone -- the instrument he made legendary. When Armstrong asked him if he knew how to play, he said "yeah, I can play that" (based on his experience with a xylophone), and he recorded "Memories of You" on vibes with Armstrong.

Hampton went on to play in the 1930s with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and soon after was recording under his own name for RCA Victor -- recording sessions with musicians like Dizzie Gillespie. In 1940 he assembled his own big band, with members including such legends as Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, and the legendary singer and Tuscaloosa, Alabama native, Dinah Washington. Though he is most widely known as a vibraphonist, he is often remembered for his wild drum performances. Most performances included him working the drums, vibes, singing, and playing piano.

Hampton's legend lives on as a dynamic band leader and vibraphonist -- and it is he that was responsible for making the vibraphone what it is today. And his passion for music and life is reflected in the legacy he left behind both in recordings, and in his good works in politics and in the community.

The W.S. Hoole Library's sound recordings include several by Lionel Hampton from the Wade Hall Sound Recordings. Images from a few of the albums are featured here.

Here's an early television recording of Hampton and his orchestra with his hit, "Flying Home".

Happy Birthday to Alabama's own Clarence Carter!

Patches [sound recording] / Clarence Carter. (Detail)
New York : Atlantic, c1970. Sound disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in. From the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library Wade Hall Sound Recording Collection, LP 14010

January 14 is the birthday of Clarence Carter, a native of Montgomery, Alabama. Carter was educated at the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega and Alabama State College in Montgomery with a Bachelor's Degree in music. He released his first album, This is Clarence Carter, forty years ago in 1968.

Carter's career spans four decades, with his most known hit being th 1970 song, Patches, which reached #2 on the UK charts and #4 on the US pop charts and was nominated for a Grammy in 1972. Carter was inducted in the Alabama Music Hall of fame in 2002.

Carter recorded Patches, and several other songs in Muscle Shoals -- where recording artists of all stripes - pop, jazz, rock, soul, and country, made hits using that famous Muscle Shoals sound. Carter reinvented himself for a whole new audience in the 1980s and 1990s with songs like Strokin'. His most recent album was released in 2007 entitled, The Final Stroke.

The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library's holdings include excellent resources for those interested in learning more about Alabama's rich and diverse musical history. Materials from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture, as well as our sound recording and sheet music collections and manuscript collections and of course materials from the Alabama Collection, provide a wealth of information on Alabama music.

Speaking of Sound Recordings, be sure to stop by and see Hear Hair Here: Hair Do's and Hair Don'ts from the Hoole Special Collections Library.