What's COOL@HOOLE: Highlighting the collections, events, items, happenings, ideas, new acquisitions, discoveries, initiatives, and everything else that's Cool @ the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at The University of Alabama.
It was 122 years ago this week, on March 31, 1889, that the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by the tower's designer, Gustave Eiffel. Among the dignitaries were the French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard and over 200 construction workers -- the men who risked their lives to build the tower.
These two images of the Eiffel Tower are from a photo album/scrap book belonging to Dr. Herman and Mattie Hesse. The album contains picture postcards and photographs from the Hesses' trip to Europe aboard the S.S. Berlin in the summer of 1930. These souvenir cards are typical of the items sold near the tower. This photo album is part of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library's extensive photograph collections. While the name may sound familiar, it is not the same (Nobel Prize-winning) Hermann Hesse of Siddhartha and Steppenwolf fame!
The remarkable landmark structure of the Eiffel Tower plays a role in the mystique and draw of Paris as the ultimate destination --- signifying decadence, exoticism, and elegance among other things.
Sheet music from the Wade Hall Sheet Music Collection offers incredible insight into the sounds of eras gone by. The piece featured above is housed in the Hoole Library, and is included in our rich digital collections -- the piece is available here: http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0004_0000002_0001605
This World War I era hit, How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After they've seen Paree) really says it all. Paris at the end of the first World War and in the 1920s was in stark contrast to rural life in America.
This wartime hit continued to be sung and performed and remained popular through the 1930s and 1940s. It was performed in the World War II era classic film, For Me and My Gal, by none other than Judy Garland!
Here are a few versions for your listening pleasure -- one from the 1910s, one from the 1930s, one from the 1940s, and two more "modern" versions in banjo and "barbershop"!
It's none other than Dr. Werner Von Braun. Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) pictured with his wife, Maria, at the first annual picnic of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in 1969 -- celebrating the moon landing! This is from the Marshall Space Flight Center employee newsletter, and a far cry from the stoic look Dr. Von Braun usually put forth in public.
Come to Hoole on Tuesday to see more space-y stuff!
In honor of Valentines Day, and of course, in celebration of the Year of Alabama Music! Love Will Keep Us Together, by the Captain and Tennille, A&M Records, 1975, from the Wade Hall Sound Recordings Collection at the Hoole Library. So, here's Alabama's own Toni Tennille -- of the Captain and Tennille!
Cathryn Antoinette Toni Tennille was born in Montgomery on May 8, 1940. Part of a musical family, her dad, Frank Tennille, was the singer for Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, a local big band ensemble. Her mom, Catherine, was the host of Montgomery's first daytime talk show. Toni studied at Auburn University and went on to worldwide fame as part of this musical duo.
Love Will Keep Us Together was written by Howard Carpenter, and was the title track of their A&M Records debut album in 1975. The song had been covered by Neil Sedaka on his 1974 album Sedaka's Back. Just one year later, Love will keep us Together the first of many #1 hits for Captain & Tennille, topping the Adult Contemporary Chart. Love Will Keep Us Together was also the first of two of their songs to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Enjoy!
Detail from Quarterbacking by Bart Starr with Mark Cox (Prentice-Hall, 1967) from the Hoole Alabama Collection
The Green Bay Packers will make their fifth Super Bowl appearance this Sunday, and what better way to celebrate is to talk a little bit about someone who who knows a thing or two about winning Super Bowls for the Packers.
Detail from A Perspective on Victory (NFL Books, 1972) from the Hoole Library's Alabama Collection
Bart Starr donned a #15 green and gold jersey to play quarterback for the Packers from 1956 to 1971. Starr’s first season as starting quarterback was 1959, Vince Lombardi’s first year as coach of the Packers. With Starr at quarterback, the Packers won five NFL Championships in seven seasons. Starr led Green Bay to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders in the first and second Super Bowls, respectively. And Starr was named Most Valuable Player of both of these games (Guess who was MVP of Superbowl III -- Fellow University of Alabama player and graduate, Joe Namath!). After Starr concluded his playing career, he remained with the Packers, first as an assistant coach in 1972 then as head coach from 1975 to 1983. Starr appeared in the Pro Bowl four times, was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, and has a National Football League award named in his honor, given annually to an NFL player of outstanding character. He is one of five Green Bay Packers alumni to have his number retired.
Bart Starr, from the 1956 Corolla in his uniform as Quarterback for the Crimson Tide.
Bryan Bartlett Starr was born in Montgomery, Alabama on January 9, 1934. Prior to his professional career with the Packers, Starr played football at Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery under head coach Bill Moseley. As a senior quarterback and punter, he earned all-state honors. Under both “Red” Drew and J.B. Whitworth, Starr served as quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Starr is featured in the book, Crimson, sharing that The University of Alabama is one that “has always offered uniquely strong foundations for athletic achievement, as well as academic excellence.” Of his time here he says in Crimson, “It was at The University of Alabama where I was privileged to meet so many people who have left their footprints on my life, and where still today, I gain strength and feel a strong sense of pride for what my alma mater has done for me and for so many others who came before me, after me , and for those still to come.” Starr is a successful businessman, inspired public speaker, and tireless charitable work, including the Rawhide Boys Ranch, which was established by Starr in 1965 to work with at risk youth and their families.
On Superbowl Sunday, Alabama fans can lend their support to both the Packers and the Steelers, as we have two former University of Alabama football players competing on opposite sides of the football field in Super Bowl XLV this Sunday. Charlie Peprah now plays for the Green Bay Packers and Anthony Madison plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The cheering will be extra loud at Hoole's own Allyson Holliday's house -- a native of Green Bay, shown here with Bart Starr as a little girl, with her dad and sister, but we should all give a cheer for Bart Starr, Alabama's very own Super(bowl) Starr!
Hoole Library's own Allyson Holiday, being held by Bart Starr (on the left). Her dad (in pre-cheesehead Packers gear) and sister are on the right.
Thanks to Jamie Burke for her Bart Starr Super-sleuthing and scanning!
Few Alabama authors have written more, and have produced so much variety as Wayne Greenhaw. He has written novels, plays, works of non-fiction, and several hundred articles in regional, national, and international publications.
Wayne will be at the Hoole Library on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 5 pm (talk to begin at 5:30 pm) to discuss his new book, Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists took on the KuKlux Klan in Alabama (Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press, 2011)
Greenhaw is the 2006 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer, given annually by the Alabama Writers’ Forum and Alabama Southern Community College at Monroeville’s Alabama Writers’ Symposium. In 2005, Greenhaw was recipient of the ninth Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction, given annually by the University of Alabama’s College of Communication, joining such distinguished writers asGay Talese, Rick Bragg, Diane McWhorter, andHowell Raines.Greenhaw's short story, "The Old Guy," won first place in the Hackney Literary Awards at Birmingham Southern College's 2007 Writing Today conference.
After graduating from high school in 1958, Greenhaw traveled to Mexico from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by four different trains. In the central Mexican mountain Spanish colonial town of San Miguel de Allende he attended Instituto Allende. He returned for the next three summers, studying at the writing center under Ashmead Scott.
At The University of Alabama he studied under the legendary Hudson Strode. In 1967, after working as a reporter for the Alabama Journal, Montgomery's afternoon newspaper, his first novel, the Golfer, was published by J.B. Lippincott Company.
After his first nonfiction book, The Making of a Hero: Lt. William L. Calley and the My Lai Massacre, was published in 1971, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard.
Wayne Greenhaw's talk on his new book, Fighting the Devil in Dixie will begin at 5:30 pm, but doors will open at 5 pm. Books will be on sale for the event, and a reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by University Libraries, the Alabama Center for the Book, the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, and the WBH@100 Collaborative Group. As part of the event, Wayne Greenhaw will present the Hoole Library with some personal copies of his works to be included in the Alabama Collection. In addition, we have a very special guest to introduce Mr. Greenhaw!
About Fighting the Devil in Dixie:
" Shortly after the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Ku Klux Klan—determined to keep segregation as the way of life in Alabama—staged a resurgence, and the strong-armed leadership of Governor George C. Wallace, who defied the new civil rights laws, empowered the Klan’s most violent members.
As Wallace’s power grew, however, blacks began fighting back in the courthouses and schoolhouses, as did young Southern lawyers like Charles “Chuck” Morgan, who became the ACLU’s Southern director; Morris Dees, who cofounded the Southern Poverty Law Center; and Bill Baxley, Alabama attorney general, who successfully prosecuted the bomber of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and legally halted some of Wallace’s agencies designed to slow down integration. Fighting the Devil in Dixie is the first book to tell this story in full, from the Klan’s kidnappings, bombings, and murders of the 1950s to Wallace’s run for a fourth term as governor in the early 1980s, asking forgiveness and winning with the black vote."
Charlie Louvin, born Charles ElzerLoudermilk on July 7, 1927, passed away yesterday, January 26, 2011. A native of Jackson County, Alabama, the furthest county in the Northeast of the state, the Louvin brothers (Ira and Charlie) began their career in Gospel music in the 1940s. Ira was killed in 1965 in an automobile accident, but not before releasing over a dozen albums. Charlie went on to a solo career that lasted the rest of his life, and the brothers are 2001 inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Charlie Louvin, and the Louvin Brothers will live on in their music, which to many transcended the religious messages. Oddly, they are most often remembered for their shocking 1959 album cover for Satan is Real. Widely considered one of the "worst" and "most iconic" album covers of all time, it features the Louvin brothers standing in front of a quarry in front of a giant plywood Devil, while hidden tires soaked in kerosene burn behind them as fire & brimstone.
Critic Scott Walden called the Louvins bluegrass music's Velvet Underground and said "their comprehension of the tortured throes of a drunkard's Satan-infested soul are no less profound than Lou Reed's own understanding of a heroin junkie wrestling with a world devoid of meaning beyond the piercing tip of the needle... The depth is there in Satan is Real. This album transcends the immediate kitsch appeal of its cover. There is a reason why songs from this album have been performed by the more commonly accepted genius of artists such Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris."
The Hoole Library does not have this album, but would welcome someone to donate it to the collections! (hint hint!)
