ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current and Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Adventures in Genealogy
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History

A Movie Star Thrill in the Thirties

11/9/2016

 
Aileen Kilgore Henderson
The Nelson Eddy Fan Club Beat 11, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, sixteen-year-old Aileen Kilgore and her pet Guernsey, Skinny Dugan, 1938 (courtesy the author).
I was sixteen years old and in the twelfth grade when I saw in the newspaper at school that Nelson Eddy was to appear in Birmingham. I yearned to go with all my heart but I lived in the red clay hills of Tuscaloosa County. What chance did I have? An amazing thing happened. The Frisco Railroad called my father to work third trick at Freight Yard Junction in Birmingham that night. He said he’d take me! I had forty-nine cents from typing for my teacher’s husband. Daddy gave me a penny to make enough for a gallery ticket. In my diary I wrote: “March 3, 1938, I spent most of the few minutes, after I found I could go, collecting my overcoat, our lunch, a scarf, and everything else I thought I’d need. All the way to Birmingham I was haunted by the dread there would be no gallery tickets left. The old Lizzie crawled along so slowly and every car that zoomed past I’d say to myself, They’re sho’ going.
“At last I got my first look at Birmingham. Daddy showed me Vulcan way, way across on the mountain. At the Tutwiler Hotel I was so busy looking around I didn’t notice where we were going. The little look-see I had was interesting! The man at the desk said the box office had been moved to the auditorium at five that afternoon. He told us how to get there and sent us out a side door he said so we wouldn’t lose our bearings--but maybe he wanted us to disappear quick, as we certainly didn’t fit in that glamorous setting.
 
“When we had come in the front, the revolving door had been moving so I thought it went automatically. When I stepped into the door on the way out, I started moving but it stood still. I got a crack on my noggin that made me understand I was supposed to push, and I did. We had to walk back to the car (two or three blocks) and try to find the municipal auditorium. We got caught in two or three traffic jams and finally stopped at a gas station to ask directions. He said we’d passed it. We tried to turn around and go back. Several cars got crossed and it seemed ages until we arrived at the place. I was a knot of anxiety but Daddy never once lost patience. 
​
“There were crowds all out in front. Another age passed before we found a parking place and then Pop had to drive in several times before he had the lizzie fixed right. We walked three blocks back to the auditorium and went inside. I looked around at all those young men in tuxedoes and the women in evening gowns. We finally found a line in front of the ticket window. After standing there for fifteen minutes, inching up to the window the woman said, ‘Gallery tickets outside around the corner.’ When we got around there we had to stand in another line but I finally clutched the green ticket in my hand. Pop left and I scooted up about fifteen flights of stairs, presented my ticket at the door, and began searching for a seat. I had begun to think I wouldn’t find one but in the very last row there were several. All the while before it started I watched the young ladies below (miles below!) flirting around (also old ladies) in their long slinky evening gowns. 
"We finally found a line in front of the ticket window. ... I clutched the green ticket in my hand ... and began searching for a seat. ... in a few minutes Nelson Eddy himself strode out on the stage."
“The main lights went off and the spotlight focused on the piano. Everybody started clapping and in a few minutes Nelson Eddy himself strode out on the stage. I was very disappointed because I couldn’t distinguish a single feature of his face. I could tell he was blond and could see his figure distinctly but not his face. Most of his selections were operatic. I enjoyed ‘The Blind Plowman,’ and as an encore ‘Sweetheart, Will you Remember.’ I liked that one best of all. He sang it last and as we left everybody was humming it. I also remember one about a king wearing purple tights (ha, ha, ha, ha, ha) and one Monsieur Eddy said was about a French soldier who returned home to find that his sweetheart had married another man and he was ‘quite put out about it.’ When it was over (it seemed mighty short for fifty cents) I strolled into the bottom part and looked around. I found a program on the floor and, tucking it under my arm, I dashed up the street keeping an eye out for Pop. He was standing on the corner and we went to the Lizzie. In a few minutes I got my first look at Freight Yard Junction. It was a little, long gray building, inside two inches thick in dust. [The second trick operator] said MacBride, the agent, swept it once a month and poured water on it to keep the dust from choking him.
 
“Soon after we got there, I went out to the car and crawled under the overcoats on the back seat. [About eleven] I went back in the office and stayed until one or two o’clock. Then I went out and slept until I nearly froze and went back in. I listened to the dispatcher’s phone and slept a while on the table, until the telegraph instruments woke me, and I crawled back in the car again. The car was parked between two railroad tracks and if there was not a train going by on one, rooting, tooting, bong-bong, spew-spew, racket-racket, there was a train on the other. And when they were not there, the planing mill next door was letting off steam. At six o’clock I ate a dried beef and lettuce sandwich-mmmmmmgood. Agent MacBride came in at 7:30 and we left about an hour later."
 
Now more than seventy-five years afterward, I realize how much more I got out of my fifty cents than just a movie star. 

Author

Tuscaloosa County native Aileen Kilgore Henderson is an educator and award-winning author of children's literature. In addition to her novels for young readers, Henderson has published two memoirs. She won literary awards for The Summer of the Bonepile Monster and Hard Times for Jake. Her most recent publications are essays, "In the Shadow of the Long Leaf Pines" (University of Missouri New Letters) and "Two Old Ladies and One Big Snake" (University of Tampa Review). 

Subscribe to Alabama Heritage

Comments are closed.
    Subscribe To AH!
    Alabama Heritage BLOG
    At Alabama Heritage, we owe many of our successes and smooth operations to our fabulous student interns. We hope that with this blog--written mostly by our interns as well as history students from UAB and a few from our own editors--our readers will have an opportunity to get to know the students who bring so much to the table with their enthusiasm, hard work, and expertise!

    If you're interested in our internship program, check out the details here.
    Read More Blogs Here

    Archives

    March 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    AH Field Trip
    Architecture
    Civil Rights
    Civil War
    Farming
    Horticulture
    Military
    Mill Town
    Music
    Mystery
    Native Americans
    Preservation
    Scandals
    Sports
    The Depression
    WWI
    WWII

    RSS Feed

Online Store
​Customer Service
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
Corporate Sponsors
News
Join Our Email List

Employment
UA Disclaimer
UA Privacy Policy ​
​Website comments or questions?  

Email ah.online@ua.edu
Published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
​Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local: (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free: (877) 925-2323
Fax: (205) 348-7473

alabama.heritage@ua.edu