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Birmingham Jazz Vocalists, Undated Recording
This undated reel-to-reel recording from the Frank Adams collection includes performances by the following vocalists:
Doris “Dot” Adams, “I’ll Be Around” Avery Richardson, “After the Party” Fletcher “Hootie” Myatt, “Poor Butterfly” (partial)…
Frank Adams
Frank Adams, 1978
Senator Tom Heflin with violin, 1928
Alabama Senator Tom Heflin poses with a violin delivered anonymously to his Washington, D.C. office, 1928. The senator’s rabidly anti-Catholic pronouncements, widely denounced by his colleagues and the press, drew comparisons to the despotic emperor…
Big Jim Folsom and his Strawberry Pickers, c. 1946
Gubernatorial candidate James E. “Big Jim” Folsom on the campaign trail with his Strawberry Pickers, c. 1946. The larger-than-life, two-time Populist governor made rural string-band music central to his folksy image, barnstorming the state with the…
Big Jim Folsom's Strawberry Pickers at Birmingham Radio Station WTNB
Governor “Big Jim” Folsom’s Strawberry Pickers at Birmingham radio station WTNB, c. 1947.
Folsom promised the members of his campaign band that he would provide them all jobs with the State of Alabama, if he was elected. Following Folsom's 1947…
Folsom promised the members of his campaign band that he would provide them all jobs with the State of Alabama, if he was elected. Following Folsom's 1947…
Big Jim Folsom "conducts" the Meat Grinders, 1962
Governor “Big Jim” Folsom, accompanied by his wife Jamelle, “conducts” members of the Meat Grinders, his 1962 campaign band. Twice elected to the Alabama governor’s office, Folsom lost the 1962 election to George Wallace, a former protege whose long…
Big Jim Folsom, Jamelle Folsom, and the Meat Grinders, 1962
Governor “Big Jim” Folsom, with his wife Jamelle and his 1962 campaign band, the Meat Grinders.
Jamelle Folsom at piano
Jamelle Folsom, wife of Governor “Big Jim” Folsom, at piano. Undated press photo.
Birmingham Heritage Band at Oscar Adams victory celebration, 1988
Victory celebration for Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar Adams, Birmingham, 1988. Original press caption: “Oscar Adams dances with wife Anne-Marie to ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’” Taking a solo behind the couple is Adams’s brother, saxophonist…
Laura Washington at Grundy's Music Room
Birmingham-born Laura Washington joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra as a teenager in 1946, scoring a hit that year for the band with her performance of Joe Liggins’ “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” (The Hawkins/Washington cover reached #2 on the…
Dot Adams, "Stars Fell On Alabama"
“Stars Fell On Alabama”: Dot Adams with the Frank Adams band at the Woodland Club, 1960s. For fourteen years in the 1950s and ’60s, the Frank Adams band performed nearly every weekend at the Woodland Club, a “honkytonk” on the edge of Birmingham, in…
Frank Adams and Band, Undated Recording
This undated reel-to-reel recording from the Frank Adams collection includes Adams on clarinet and alto saxophone, drummer Herbie Bryant, bassist Ivory “Pops” Williams, and other unidentified performers. Performances include two upbeat instrumentals,…
Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam
Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam. Undated photo.
Noel "Kid" Ray and Band
Birmingham pianist, bandleader, and regional featherweight boxing champion, Noel “Kid” Ray, with his band, 1920s. Ray later moved to Gadsden, Alabama, to pursue a career in radio broadcasting.
Photo courtesy Patrick Cather.
Photo courtesy Patrick Cather.
Mary Frady, Jerry Frady, and Ruby Fallon for Anniston radio station WSPG
Mary Frady, Jerry Frady, and Ruby Fallon perform for Anniston radio station WSPG, undated.
Army Band Postcards (2), Camp McClellan
Army band practice at Camp McClellan, near Anniston, Alabama, in a 1918 postcard. The Southern Music Research Center archive includes two copies of this postcard. One, addressed to Miss Mary Sewell in Jacksonville, Alabama and signed "Your classmate…
German POW Band at Camp Aliceville
The Stardusters, German POW band at Camp Aliceville. The Aliceville POW camp, which operated from December 1942 – September 1945, offered its prisoners a range of cultural activities, including musical and theatrical groups, college-level courses…
Music at Camp Rucker
Music at Camp Rucker, Dale County, Alabama. Press photo, 1950.
Draper Prison Band, 1953
Draper Prison Band at Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery. Press photo, September 1953. Newspaper caption: “Prison band whoops it up—It has become customary for the Draper Prison band to play in the Capitol rotunda the closing night of the legislative…
Music at the Crippled Children's Clinic, Birmingham
Jane Elmore, age 10, plays piano at the Crippled Children’s Clinic, Birmingham, Alabama. Press photo, 1951. Also pictured are Sylvia Whitlow, Cary Ussery, and Larry Woods.