Hedges 1 Cinematic Memory and the Southern Imaginary: Crisis in The
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Hedges 1 Cinematic Memory and the Southern Imaginary: Crisis in the Deep South and The Phenix City Story Gareth Robert Andrew Hedges A Thesis in the Department of the Humanities Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Concordia University Montréal, Québec, Canada June 2016 © Gareth Robert Andrew Hedges, 2016 Hedges 2 Hedges iii Abstract Cinematic Memory and the Southern Imaginary: Crisis in the Deep South and The Phenix City Story Gareth Hedges, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2016 This dissertation is a historical and theoretical study of the southern imaginary at the intersection of mass and regional culture. The focus is on two cinematic treatments of significant violent crimes in the region during the 1950s: firstly, the assassination of Albert Patterson, which prompted the clean of the “wide open” town of Phenix City, Alabama; and secondly, the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi, which played a critical role in accelerating the African American freedom struggle. The Phenix City Story (Allied Artists, 1955), and Crisis in the Deep South, an unproduced 1956 screenplay written by Crane Wilbur, were both products of the media frenzy surrounding these actual events and they each involved investigation and research into local circumstances as part of their development and production. Rooted in film studies, history and cultural studies, the method of this thesis is to look backward to the foundational elements of the texts in question (e.g., the ‘raw material’ of the actual historical events,), and forward to the consequences of cinematic intervention into local commemorative regimes. In this way, I chart how the overlaps and interconnections between these film projects and others of the era reveal the emergence, consolidation and dissolution of a larger “cycles of sensation,” a concept outlined by Frank Krutnik and Peter Stanfield. The thesis offers a radical close reading of these texts to illuminate the complex relationship between Hollywood film and historical fact. The thesis examines southern exceptionalism and outlines the ways its romantic visions of “moonlight and magnolias” inform the treatment of the American South in the cinematic imagination, while tracing presentations of the modern American South through the popular hicksploitation cycle of the 1970s. The failed attempt to make a film out of the murder of Emmett Till in the 1950s demonstrates the limitations of Hollywood’s ability to address civil rights issues. My analysis of The Phenix City Story uncovers connections between the film’s racial melodrama and the Alabama town’s hidden history of racial violence and the Ku Klux Klan activity, while arguing for the role race played in the political corruption that the film’s narrative exposes. iii Hedges iv Acknowledgements This project has accrued many debts over its long genesis. I am extremely grateful to my supervising committee. I am also humbled and impressed by their formidable talents and contributions to their respective fields. I am proud to have benefited for their many years of support, guidance and ultimately, patience with this project. Many thanks to Katie Russell from Film Studies, who supervised this project from its beginning, encouraged every aspect of its development and also facilitated other research and teaching opportunities. The History department’s Elena Razlogova consistently provided incisive commentary, thoughtful recommendations and practical advice. Dr. Razlogova’s input compelled me to question basic assumptions about this work broadening the scope of the project. Will Straw from Art History and Communications at McGill University expressed belief in this project from our first meeting and generously served as an invaluable resource throughout. My admiration for Dr. Straw’s work preceded our meeting and I’m deeply grateful for his friendship and counsel. Sincere thanks to the Humanities Doctoral Program and its directors during my tenor, Katie Russell, Erin Manning, and Bina Freiwald, as well as assistant Sharon Fitch, who provided departmental support. The larger Concordia community furnished excellent resources, lecture series and colleagues throughout my graduate studies. I am especially grateful to the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema as well as the Communications department for their generous role in shaping a vivid broader intellectual community, in which I was glad to participate. Craig Morrison of the Music Department generously enlisted me a number of times as teaching assistant which kept me in touch with student’s work during research and writing phases. Special thanks are due in particular to all students I have been fortunate enough to teach, grade or otherwise interact with during this project. Material support by way of a fellowship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC) supported this my research. Portions of that research were presented at annual conferences held by the Film Studies Association of Canada – l’Association canadiennes des études cinématographiques (FSAC-ACÉC). This work also owes much to the skilled librarians across North America, especially those concerned with inter-library loans, without which none of this would have been possible. While in my undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona, I received formative encouragement from Susan White, Caryl Flinn, and Mary Beth Harolvich, all of whose passion, iv Hedges v knowledge and generosity originally inspired my pursuit of this path. Marisa Grizenko and the History department’s Gavin Taylor generously read and reread (and re-reread) versions of this thesis as it was written and their help was instrumental in its completion. Thanks to my parents, especially my mother, Diane Hedges, a teacher, who accompanied me throughout my travels across five states. I also would like to recognize my indefatigable aunt and legendary Quebec men’s basketball coach Olga Hrycak, whose focus and charity is a model for leadership. Finally, thanks always to Allison Smith, my partner in all things (from enthusiastic traveling companion to beleaguered co-defendant to wife), who assisted with the critical stages in the development of this project and whose support, humour and good judgment were indispensable. (The first night we talked I showed her my Yugoslavian Walking Tall poster, and she understood). Her patient and loving presence is constant source of inspiration and happiness. v Hedges vi Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Chapter I: Screening Crime within the Southern Imaginary .......................................................... 1 Chapter II: Southern Exceptionalism and the South of the Screen ............................................... 30 Chapter III: Emmett Till and the “Crisis in the Deep South” for Hollywood cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s ............................................................................................................................. 59 Chapter IV: Phenix City, Alabama and the story of The Phenix City Story ................................ 95 Chapter V: Reading The Phenix City Story in southern history ................................................. 140 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 179 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 189 Filmography ................................................................................................................................ 218 vi Hedges vii List of Figures Figure 1.1—Press photo “Phenix City. Policemen,” 2 Sep., 1953……………………………...3 Figure 1.2—Press photo “Hot whisky bottle,” 30 May, 1955…………………………………..6 Figure 1.3—Phenix City Mayor Elmer Reese with National Guard, 27 Jun., 1954……………29 Figure 2.1—Election Day, 15 Sept. 1952………………………………………………………31 Figure 2.2—Display ad for double bill of Wild River and Louisiana Hussy in Detroit, 28 May, 1960..........................................................................................................................41 Figure 2.3—Display ad for Bayou, 1957......................................................................................53 Figure 2.4—Display ad for Poor White Trash, 1961....................................................................53 Figure 3.1—J.W. Milam with family in the Sumner courthouse, 1955.......................................63 Figure 3.2—Sheriff Strider with 100-lb. fan, 1955.......................................................................63 Figure 3.3—Ad for Look story in Des Moines Register, 11 Jan., 1956........................................67 Figure 3.4—Portrait of Crane Wilbur as an actor, 1917...............................................................74 Figure 3.5—Poster for exploitation film Tomorrow’s Children, 1934.........................................74 Figure 3.6—Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market, c. 1955............................................................92 Figure 4.1—Guardsmen on patrol in front of