1950

1950 was the 79th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

• The Birmingham Museum of Art was created by the City of Birmingham.
• The Birmingham Zoo obtained land at Lane Park.
• Birmingham passed an ordinance outlawing communism.
• The Civiettes Club adopted "Spastic Aid" (cerebral palsy) as their primary project.
• Bull Connor campaigned unsuccessfully for Governor of Alabama
• The Jimmie Hale Mission moved to 24th Street and 3rd Avenue North.
• A post office was established for Fultondale.
• Vestavia Country Club opened.
• Marcus Hancock became Birmingham Police Chief.
• Cooper Green was created a Knight of St Olaf by the King of Norway.
• Alton Earl Potts became pastor of McElwain Baptist Church.
• Yolande Betbeze was crowned Miss Alabama at the Alabama Theatre.
• The University of Alabama School of Nursing was founded with Florence Hixson as its dean.
• Coleman Cooper moved his Apollo Boys' Choir from Dallas, Texas to Palm Beach, Florida.
• February 9: The Little Garden Club was accepted into the Garden Clubs of America.
• February 27: Archer Howard Hill killed a bull elephant with a bow and arrow for his film Tembo.
• May 25: Shades Valley High School, already opened to students for nine months, was officially dedicated.
• Summer: The Gaslight Theatre produced a season of plays at 313½ 20th Street North.
• July 29: George Breland tossed hundreds of pamphlets printed for the Alabama Communist Party onto the street from the 10th floor of the Woodward Building.
• September 2: The 1st Avenue Viaduct was dedicated.
• October: The second annual Bessemer Corn Festival was held.
• November 8: Vestavia Hills was incorporated. Verner Adams took office as mayor on December 19.
• December 10: Service on the No. 6 Pratt-Ensley streetcar line ended.

Business

• Norris Hadaway took over management of the Alabama Theatre.
• Bestor and Virginia Pounds Brown opened The Book-Keepers in Mountain Brook Village
• A. G. Gaston shuttered his Brown Belle Bottling Company.
• The Birmingham Post-Herald was formed from the merger of the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Age-Herald.
• Calhoun Shoes was founded.
• Green Acres Cafe opened in North Birmingham.
• WAFM-FM relocated to FM 99.5.
• WBRC 6 began producing live local programs and expanded its nightly newscast.
• WFMH-FM went on the air at FM 101.1 in Cullman.
• The Bond Clothing Company reopened after a fire.
• Food Town opened in Bessemer.
• Smith's Variety was founded.
• The Connors Steel Company was purchased by the H. K. Porter Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Abe Berkowitz partnered with Arnold Lefkovits in the firm of Berkowitz & Lefkovits
• November: Liberty National Life Insurance Company acquired the Family Reserve Insurance Company.

Sports

• September 9: The NFL's Detroit Lions defeated the Chicago Cardinals 24-16 in an exhibition game at Legion Field.
• Satchel Paige signed with the St Louis Browns.
• Sam Hairston won the Negro American League triple crown with a .424 average, 17 home runs and 71 RBI.
• Alabama State won the Magic City Classic by a score of 16-12.
• Alabama defeated Auburn 34-0 in the 1950 Iron Bowl.
• Former Birmingham Barons infielder Walt Dropo was the American League's Rookie of the Year.

Works

Art

• A small copy of the Statue of Liberty, entitled "To Strengthen the Arm of Liberty," was donated to Woodrow Wilson Park by the Boy Scouts' Birmingham Area Council.

Buildings

Birmingham City Hall

• Rickwood Field was expanded with new box seats and relocated dugouts.
• Temple Beth-El underwent an interior renovation.
• Shades Cahaba High School was converted to an elementary school.
• Birmingham City Hall
• Harmer Street bridge over Valley Creek in Brighton
• St Elias Maronite Church
• THC Drive In, Adamsville
• Bethel A.M.E. Church reopened after repairs from a 1946 fire.
• Wesley Hall at Trinity United Methodist Church
• The Phoenix Building was doubled in size, over the site of the demolished Jefferson Theatre.
• Legal Services Building
• Green Springs Villa renovations
• Alberta Baptist Church
• 1st Avenue Viaduct
• 1st Church of Christ Scientist on Highland Avenue
• Vestavia Country Club

Music

• The Gospel Harmoneers were re-named the Gospel Harmonettes.

Film

• The Underworld Story with Mary Anderson
• Last of the Buccaneers with Mary Anderson
• Hunt the Man Down with Mary Anderson

Individuals

• James Foy joined the office of student affairs at Auburn University.
• Cartoonist Hubert Harper joined the staff of The Birmingham News.
• Leslie Wright began working in the office of Senator Lister Hill.

Births

• January 18: Pat Sullivan, Heisman-winning Auburn quarterback and Samford Bulldogs football coach
• February 5: Terry Beasley, All-American Auburn wide receiver
• February 8: Gerald Allen, Alabama State Senator
• February 12: Margie George, business owner
• February 10: Lonnie Holley, artist
• February 23: Jim Gunter, Jefferson County Commissioner
• March 6: Johnny Musso, football player
• March 14: Rick Dees, radio DJ
• March: Keith Harrelson, commercial writer, photographer, and club owner
• April 8: Jimmy Tillette, Samford Bulldogs basketball coach
• May 4: Jack Baker, baseball player
• May 6: Tom Huey, poet and playwright
• May 18: Steve Duncan, homebuilder
• May 27: Carl Spurlock, news anchor and actor
• June 21: Danny Hicks, Mayor of Oneonta
• June 28: Stanley Oliver, Alabaster police chief
• July 11: Larry DeLucas, astronaut and scientist
• July 17: Branko Medenica, sculptor
• July 24: Frank Martin, BJCTA director
• July 25: Ceil Snow, former Miss Alabama
• July 30: Craig Legg, artist
• July 31: Frank Topping, government and college administrator
• August 8: Greg Bass, radio host and studio owner
• August 13: Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County
• September 2: Lamar Johnson, baseball player
• September: Dale Benos, UAB physiologist
• October 1: Bo Berry, jazz trumpeter and bandleader
• November 10: Bobby Horton, musician and music historian
• November 12: Larry Donaldson, engineer and Alabama Theatre volunteer
• Buddy Anderson, Vestavia Hills High School football coach
• Anthony Barnes, Birmingham Water Works Board president
• Watson Brown, former UAB Blazers football coach
• Gayle Cunningham, JCCEO executive director
• Yana Davis, public radio executive, newspaper editor and history instructor
• Abdurrahim El-Keib, former University of Alabama professor and interim Prime Minister of Libya
• Paul Ferrone, Alabama Symphony Orchestra manager
• Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, president of Birmingham-Southern College
• Billy Gafford, Birmingham Fire Captain
• Courtney Haden, audio producer, radio host and columnist
• John Heine, cartoonist and artist
• Bruce Irwin, CEO of American Family Care Medical Centers
• Jimmy Joe, sales clerk
• Amos Kennedy, letterpress artist
• Tim Lennox, host and producer of For the Record
• Eduardo Neiva, communicologist and UAB professor
• Jim Parkman, attorney
• Frank Poe, BJCC executive director
• Gene Robinson, founder of Integrated Medical Systems
• K. Lee Scott, composer and teacher
• David Wheeler, Alabama Power executive and state legislator
• Richard Yeilding, CEO of Yeilding's

Graduations

• Robert Bell, bachelor of arts from Birmingham-Southern College
• John Cross, master's of divinity at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia
• Joe Dickson, from Fairfield Industrial High School
• Lillie Fincher from Immaculata High School
• Herman Spivey, aeronautical engineering at the University of Alabama
• Calvin Woods, from Parker High School

Marriages

• April 15: John Wright married Jeanne Stallings.
• Betty Jane Rase married composer Buddy Baker.

Deaths

• March 1: Joseph Gelders, civil rights activist
• May 22: A. Clinton Decker, sanitation engineer and first Mayor of Fairfield
• June 3: Dolphus Shields, carpenter and Sunday School superintendent
• June 27: Roy Kracke, first dean of what is now UAB
• June 28: Jaybird Coleman, harmonica player
• July 16: Christian Rambow, former Alderman
• July 26: W. Paul Pim, cartoonist
• August 4: Harry Coveleski, star pitcher for the 1910 Birmingham Barons
• September 7: Lonnie Noojin, hardware wholesaler and former coach and athletics director
• October 26: Clement Wood, poet and writer
• November 29: Tommy Stagg, U.S. Army paratrooper
• Rick Woodward, industrialist and owner of the Birmingham Barons

Context

1950 saw recognition for the People's Republic of China and Israel. The world's population stood at about 2.5 billion. Mt Lamington in New Guinea erupts, killing 5,000. India forms a republic. The Soviet Union successfully tests a nuclear bomb. L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics is published. The Korean War began in June. Uruguay wins the FIFA World Cup. Florence Chadwick swims the English Channel. Pope Pius XII accepts the theory of evolution. Peanuts and Beetle Bailey both debut in newspapers. Truth or Consequences debuts on television. Mother Teresa begins her work in Calcutta. Shirley Temple retires from show business, and Ben Hogan wins the U. S. Open.

Notable 1950 births included Natalie Cole, Julius Erving, Jay Leno, Stevie Wonder, Princess Anne, and Tom Petty. Deaths that year included George Orwell, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Al Jolson, George Bernard Shaw, and King Gustaf V of Sweden.

1950s

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