GET TO KNOW FANNIE FLAGG

“Hello! I’m thrilled to talk to anyone from Alabama!” Fannie Flagg’s distinctive, warm Southern voice says A outhern from the other end of the receiver. It’s a dreary day S in Birmingham, but there’s no doubt Flagg’s sunny disposition could part the clouds and bring the Treasure sunshine anytime. “I was worried about the storm! I thought ‘Oh no, maybe I won’t be able to get WITH WIT, WISDOM, AND A WHOLE through!’” It’s this upbeat nature that has become a hallmark of the legendary author. She’s personal and LOT OF SOUTHERN CHARM, THIS present in her conversations, like you’re just catching LEGENDARY AUTHOR, ACTRESS, up with an old friend. The course of her 50-plus-year career has seen Alabama’s own Fannie Flagg conquer AND ALABAMA NATIVE HAS MADE just about every facet of the entertainment industry HER MARK IN THE ENTERTAINMENT and more than solidify herself as a Southern treasure. She’s had roles in TV shows and movies including INDUSTRY WHILE STAYING The Love Boat, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and TRUE TO HER ROOTS. Grease; taken a turn on Broadway in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; and was a staple on classic game shows including , , and . But she’s always found her way back home to Alabama, and to her one true love—writing. Flagg has authored numerous novels: Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man; Standing in the Rainbow; A Redbird Christmas; Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!; Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven; I Still Dream About You; The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion; and her most recent, The Whole Town’s Talking. But the novel that put her on the map and cemented her place in Southern literary history was the mega-hit at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The novel, whose namesake setting was based off the real-life Irondale Cafe that Flagg’s great-aunt once owned, dominated ’ Best Seller List for 36 weeks and was subsequently turned into a movie starring , , Mary-Louise Parker, , and . Flagg co-wrote the screenplay as well, which led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

TEXT BY TAYLOR DOUGHERTY PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW SOUTHAM ANDREW BY PHOTOGRAPH

82 MARCH | APRIL 2018 ALABAMA MAGAZINE 82 GET TO KNOW

KNOWN FAR AND WIDE FOR HER BELOVED BOOK- TURNED-MOVIE FRIED GREEN TO- MATOES, FLAGG'S IMPRESSIVE RÉSUMÉ INCLUDES LESSER-KNOWN ACHIEVEMENTS LIKE HER STINT AS A MORNING- SHOW PRODUCER IN BIRMINGHAM. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY WBRC-TV COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH

I think people want to read about good people. I know I do. If I’m writing a book, I don’t want to put negative, bad things into the universe. If I can’t put something positive out there, I don’t want to do it.” As she recounts the creation of many of her famous novels, it’s evident that there’s almost as much material for a book on how her books came to be. She enthusiastically recalls a particular story of a time when she rented a house in Magnolia Springs to write A Redbird Christmas and quickly found out she wasn’t the only famous author living on the street. “Winston Groom, who wrote Forrest Gump, and Martin Childress, who wrote Crazy in Alabama, were my neighbors right up the street. At one point all three of us were living in Magnolia Springs, and all three of us wrote a book about Alabama that got turned into a movie! Isn’t that something?” We joke that there’s clearly some good luck on that street. She’s accomplished so much, but there’s one thing she would still like to do: write a play. “It’s the one thing I’ve never done, and I don’t know why I haven’t,” she says. “I love the theater and you’d think it would be a natural thing for me to do; I was an actress. Do you think I should?” It’s hard to imagine anyone saying no to that. She’s often mentioned alongside the likes of and Truman Capote as one of the great Southern writers, Her Southern roots have impacted and influenced it’s really Alabama that I’m writing about,” she says. “I someone to continue to try and remind everybody that a title she considers a great honor. “It’s what I aspire to be. every word she’s ever written, and she has been praised don’t know what it is. I think there is a special bond there are a lot of wonderful people in the world, and I think that some of the best writers have come from the for her authentic portrayal of Southern culture and life, and love that people who are raised in Alabama have. I that everything is not dark and horrible, and that people South, and I’m very proud to be considered among writers often populating her novels with characters based directly have traveled quite a bit, and to this day, I’ve never been aren’t terrible,” she says. “There’s just not a lot of writers like Harper and Truman. It’s a very proud and old tradition. on friends and family from her own life and giving the anywhere where people are sweeter and nicer.” that write about middle-class ordinary people that get We have a story to tell, and I think that we, hopefully, speak small town a voice to be proud of. “Every book that I She also notes that she feels a responsibility to write up every day and go to work, pay their rent, do their very well for the South.” write, even though I sometimes set them in the Midwest, about real small-town life because she didn’t see anyone thing, and I think somebody’s got to remind people. And Flagg’s The Whole Town’s Talking is available in else doing it. “Honestly, I think there is a need for bookstores.

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