# Alabama Short Stories: The Alabama History Podcast > Alabama Short Stories is a podcast and book series created and hosted by Shawn Wright, a lifelong Alabamian based in Homewood. Each episode tells a true, engaging story from across Alabama — stories about artists, inventors, athletes, musicians, and extraordinary people that never made it into the fourth-grade Alabama history textbook. The podcast ran for six seasons and has been compiled into two companion books. ## Pages - [Home](https://alabamashortstories.com/): The main landing page for Alabama Short Stories, featuring all episodes organized by season. - [About](https://alabamashortstories.com/about/): About the podcast, the host Shawn Wright, and the origin story of Alabama Short Stories. - [The Books](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-books/): Information about *Alabama Short Stories: Volume 1* (Seasons 1–3) and *Volume 2* (Seasons 4–6), available in paperback, hardback, Kindle, and audiobook. - [Media](https://alabamashortstories.com/media-alabama-short-storie/): Press materials for Alabama Short Stories, including author photos, book cover images, and press releases for Volumes 1 and 2. ## Episodes ### Season 6 - [Alabama Short Stories Volumes 1 & 2 – Order Your Copy Today](https://alabamashortstories.com/alabama-short-stories-volumes-1-2-today/): Season 6 book promo episode. An overview of both companion books — what's in each volume, where to buy them, and how to support the podcast. - [Rickwood and Willie Mays](https://alabamashortstories.com/rickwood-and-willie-mays/): Season 6, Episode 10. The history of Rickwood Field, built in 1910 for the Birmingham Barons, and the 2024 MLB game held there honoring Willie Mays. - [Auburn Buys a Painting](https://alabamashortstories.com/auburn-buys-a-painting/): Season 6, Episode 9. After World War II, the U.S. State Department assembled a traveling modern art exhibition to win the Cold War culture battle — and Auburn University ended up with one of the paintings. - [Johnny Mack Brown, the Rose of Alabama Football](https://alabamashortstories.com/johnny-mack-brown-the-rose-of-alabama-football/): Season 6, Episode 8. The story of the 1926 Rose Bowl, the first time a Southern team was invited, and Johnny Mack Brown's role in Alabama's underdog victory and subsequent Hollywood career. - [The Alabama Gold Rush](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-alabama-gold-rush/): Season 6, Episode 7. The largely forgotten gold rush that happened in Alabama long before the California gold rush of 1849. - [Irene Teel Sees Into the Future](https://alabamashortstories.com/irene-teel-sees-into-the-future/): Season 6, Episode 6. The story of Mrs. Irene, an Alabama woman born with a sixth sense who became a local legend — and the father who tried to protect her from the scrutiny fortune tellers faced. - [Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald](https://alabamashortstories.com/zelda-sayre-fitzgerald/): Season 6, Episode 5. Zelda Sayre grew up in Montgomery as a socialite and daughter of a politician, until a young soldier named F. Scott Fitzgerald swept her off her feet and into literary history. - [Sacred Harp Music](https://alabamashortstories.com/sacred-harp-music/): Season 6, Episode 4. The story of Sacred Harp music — a distinctly Southern genre named after its songbook — and how it survived into the 21st century in Alabama. - [Spider Martin "World's Greatest Photographer"](https://alabamashortstories.com/spider-martin-worlds-greatest-photographer/): Season 6, Episode 3. Spider Martin was a Birmingham commercial photographer who documented the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, producing some of the most iconic civil rights images in history. - [From Good Roads to Great!](https://alabamashortstories.com/from-good-roads-to-great/): Season 6, Episode 2. The history of roads in Alabama, from Indian trails to the early automobile era and the push to build modern highways across the state. - [Searching for Cudjo and the Clotilda](https://alabamashortstories.com/searching-for-cudjo-and-the-clotilda/): Season 6, Episode 1. Cudjo Lewis was a captive aboard the Clotilda — the last slave ship to enter the United States in 1860. Two writers, decades apart, went to Mobile to find him and tell his story. ### Season 5 - [Alabama Short Stories Season 5 Teaser](https://alabamashortstories.com/alabama-short-stories-season-5-teaser/): Season 5 preview episode. Host Shawn Wright previews the upcoming season. - [Veteran's Day Gets Its Start In Birmingham](https://alabamashortstories.com/veterans-day-gets-its-start-in-birmingham/): Season 5, Episode 10. After World War II, Birmingham native Raymond Weeks fought to expand Armistice Day into a national holiday honoring all veterans — and he won. - [Smith Lake Fills Fast](https://alabamashortstories.com/smith-lake-fills-fast/): Season 5, Episode 9. When Alabama Power built Lewis Smith Dam in Northwest Alabama, they planned carefully for the filling of the basin — until unexpected rains changed everything. - [Regions Lights Up the Holidays](https://alabamashortstories.com/regions-lights-up-the-holidays/): Season 5, Episode 8. How Birmingham's Regions building uses its glass facade and programmable lights to create large-scale holiday art visible across the city. - [John Henry, Steel Driving Alabamian](https://alabamashortstories.com/john-henry-steel-driving-alabamian/): Season 5, Episode 7. The folk hero John Henry is said to have died competing against a steam drill in West Virginia — but some believe his story actually happened right here in Alabama. - [Carrie Tuggle Starts a School and Changes Lives](https://alabamashortstories.com/carrie-tuggle-starts-a-school-and-changes-lives/): Season 5, Episode 6. Carrie Tuggle moved to Birmingham in 1883 and dedicated her life to building a school for Black children, changing the educational landscape of the city. - [Harper Lee and Truman Capote](https://alabamashortstories.com/harper-lee-and-truman-capote/): Season 5, Episode 5. Two of America's most celebrated authors — Harper Lee and Truman Capote — grew up next door to each other in Monroeville, Alabama, and shaped each other's work for life. - [Hugo Black Takes a Trolley](https://alabamashortstories.com/hugo-black-takes-a-trolley/): Season 5, Episode 4. Alabama Senator Hugo Black was FDR's first Supreme Court nominee — but if the President had done a deeper background check, the outcome might have been very different. - [Yolande Betbeze – Miss America](https://alabamashortstories.com/yolande-betbeze-miss-america/): Season 5, Episode 3. Mobile's Yolande Betbeze won Miss America in 1951 — and then used the platform to challenge the contest's sponsors and reshape the pageant's future. - [Shorty Price, Alabama Football's Number One Fan](https://alabamashortstories.com/shorty-price-alabama-footballs-number-one-fan/): Season 5, Episode 2. The story of Shorty Price, whose devotion to University of Alabama football went so far beyond ordinary fandom that it became the stuff of legend. - [Sam Zemurray Goes Bananas](https://alabamashortstories.com/sam-zemurray-goes-bananas/): Season 5, Episode 1. A Russian immigrant moves to Selma, discovers bananas at the Port of Mobile, and hatches a plan that leads him to become the most powerful banana magnate in the world. ### Season 4 - [Alabama Short Stories Season 4 Teaser](https://alabamashortstories.com/alabama-short-stories-season-4-teaser/): Season 4 preview episode. Host Shawn Wright previews Season 4, announced alongside the publication of *Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1*. - [Joe Cain and the Mobile Mardi Gras](https://alabamashortstories.com/joe-cain-and-the-mobile-mardi-gras/): Season 4, Episode 10. Mardi Gras started in Mobile, Alabama — not New Orleans. After the Civil War, Joe Cain single-handedly revived it by dressing as a Chickasaw chieftain and marching through the streets. - [Bombingham](https://alabamashortstories.com/bombingham/): Season 4, Episode 9. In Birmingham, the Klan used dynamite as a weapon of terror — until the resilience of the city's North Side neighborhoods refused to be broken. - [Horace King, Architect, Engineer and Bridge Builder](https://alabamashortstories.com/horace-king-architect-engineer-and-bridge-builder/): Season 4, Episode 8. Born a slave, Horace King became one of the most accomplished bridge builders in the antebellum South — and left his mark on the Alabama State Capitol itself. - [Banning the Beatles](https://alabamashortstories.com/banning-the-beatles/): Season 4, Episode 7. When John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, a Birmingham radio station took action — and a national firestorm followed. - [Lonnie Johnson, Inventor of Fun](https://alabamashortstories.com/lonnie-johnson-inventor-of-fun/): Season 4, Episode 6. Lonnie Johnson of Tuskegee was an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who accidentally invented the Super Soaker while working on a heat pump in his bathroom. - [A Dying Woman Dreams of Japanese Gardens](https://alabamashortstories.com/a-dying-woman-dreams-of-japanese-gardens/): Season 4, Episode 5. A Japanese war bride named Katie Parsons fell in love with Birmingham. When she learned she had an inoperable brain tumor, her dying wish was a Japanese garden in the city's memory. - [Tallulah Bankhead – Say Anything About Me, Darling, As Long As It Isn't Boring](https://alabamashortstories.com/tallulah-bankhead-say-anything-about-me-darling-as-long-as-it-isnt-boring/): Season 4, Episode 4. The daughter of a U.S. Senator, Tallulah Bankhead refused to play by anyone's rules — forging a career on stage and screen that shocked prudes and charmed everyone else. - [Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Mighty Wurlitzer](https://alabamashortstories.com/siouxsie-and-the-banshees-and-the-mighty-wurlitzer/): Season 4, Episode 3. In 1986, British goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees played the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham — and encountered the famous Mighty Wurlitzer organ. - [Listen to This Podcast, or the Devil Will Get You!](https://alabamashortstories.com/listen-to-this-podcast-or-the-devil-will-get-you/): Season 4, Episode 2. The story of the devil — Beelzebub himself — holding court on I-65 in Alabama, and the roadside religious art that inspired the episode. - [Claudette Colvin Gets Up For No One](https://alabamashortstories.com/claudette-colvin-gets-up-for-no-one/): Season 4, Episode 1. Nine months before Rosa Parks, a 15-year-old Montgomery high school student named Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat — and paid a steep price for it. ### Season 3 - [Season 3 Teaser](https://alabamashortstories.com/season-3-teaser/): Season 3 preview episode. Host Shawn Wright previews Season 3. - [Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1 – The Book](https://alabamashortstories.com/alabama-short-stories-the-book/): Season 3, Episode 11. Announcement of the *Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1* companion book, collecting the first three seasons of the podcast with photos. - [Kudzu](https://alabamashortstories.com/kudzu/): Season 3, Episode 10. How kudzu came to cover Alabama — and why the real story of this invasive plant is far more complicated and intentional than the legend suggests. - [Stars Fell on Alabama](https://alabamashortstories.com/stars-fell-on-alabama/): Season 3, Episode 9. The origin of the phrase "Stars Fell on Alabama" — the true story behind a famous slogan that is at once a song, a book, and a piece of Alabama identity. - [USS Alabama](https://alabamashortstories.com/uss-alabama/): Season 3, Episode 8. The history of the USS Alabama (BB-60), the World War II battleship that now rests in Mobile Bay as a museum and memorial. - [Where Did That Town Name Come From?](https://alabamashortstories.com/where-did-that-town-name-come-from/): Season 3, Episode 7. A tour of Alabama's strangest, most interesting town names and the French, Spanish, English, and Native American cultures that left them behind. - [Lou Wooster](https://alabamashortstories.com/lou-wooster/): Season 3, Episode 6. When cholera ravaged Birmingham in 1873, most citizens fled. One woman — a prostitute named Lou Wooster — stayed behind to care for the sick and earned a lasting place in city history. - [The First 911 Call](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-first-911-call/): Season 3, Episode 5. The first 911 call in the United States was placed not in a major city, but in Haleyville, Alabama, on February 16, 1968. - [Douglas Leigh Lights Up Times Square](https://alabamashortstories.com/douglas-leigh-lights-up-times-square/): Season 3, Episode 4. Alabama native Douglas Leigh transformed Times Square with spectacular illuminated billboards — including the famous smoking Camel cigarette sign — making him the "Sultan of Signs." - [Miss Fancy](https://alabamashortstories.com/miss-fancy/): Season 3, Episode 3. Miss Fancy was Birmingham's beloved Asian elephant, purchased from a circus for Avondale Park — and she became a neighborhood institution who roamed the streets, accepted treats, and gave rides for decades. - [Ruth Elder, Pilot](https://alabamashortstories.com/ruth-elder-pilot/): Season 3, Episode 2. After Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Alabama's Ruth Elder decided she could do it too — and nearly did, becoming one of the most celebrated female aviators of the 1920s. - [Close Encounters in Mobile](https://alabamashortstories.com/close-encounters-in-mobile/): Season 3, Episode 1. In 1976, Steven Spielberg chose Mobile, Alabama as the filming location for *Close Encounters of the Third Kind* — bringing Hollywood money and spectacle to a city that needed both. ### Season 2 - [Alabama Short Stories Season Two Teaser](https://alabamashortstories.com/season-two-teaser/): Season 2 preview episode. Host Shawn Wright previews the stories coming in Season 2. - [Vulcan's Torch](https://alabamashortstories.com/vulcans-torch/): Season 2, Episode 10. The story of Birmingham's Vulcan statue — the world's largest cast iron statue — and the green-or-red torch he held to signal traffic fatalities across the city. - [William Rufus King – Alabama's Vice President](https://alabamashortstories.com/william-rufus-king/): Season 2, Episode 9. William Rufus King moved from North Carolina to Alabama, helped write the state's first constitution, and became the only Alabamian ever to serve as Vice President of the United States. - [Clark Byers Sees Rock City](https://alabamashortstories.com/clark-byers-sees-rock-city/): Season 2, Episode 8. Clark Byers was the man who painted "See Rock City" on hundreds of barn rooftops across the South — one of the most effective grassroots advertising campaigns in American history. - [Andrew Jackson Beard – Inventor](https://alabamashortstories.com/andrew-jackson-beard-inventor/): Season 2, Episode 7. Andrew Jackson Beard was born a slave in Pinson, Alabama. After emancipation, he became a farmer and self-taught inventor who patented the Janney coupler — a device that made railroading far safer. - [The Cut in Red Mountain](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-cut-in-red-mountain/): Season 2, Episode 6. The story of the massive cut blasted through Birmingham's Red Mountain to connect the city with Homewood and the communities to the south — a decades-long engineering effort that changed the city's geography. - [The Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall – Tom's Wall](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-wichahpi-commemorative-stone-wall-toms-wall/): Season 2, Episode 5. Tom Hendrix of Tuscumbia spent 30 years building a stone wall by hand — 8.5 million pounds of stone — to honor his great-great-grandmother's forced walk on the Trail of Tears and her journey home. - [The Club at the End of the World](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-club-at-the-end-of-the-world/): Season 2, Episode 4. The history of Birmingham's exclusive private dining club, "The Club," and what it was like to ring in Y2K there with the city spread out below. - [John Pratt – Inventor of the Typewriter](https://alabamashortstories.com/john-pratt-inventor-of-the-typewriter/): Season 2, Episode 3. John Pratt was a writer, lawyer, and newspaper editor in Centre, Alabama, who invented a writing machine years before the Remington typewriter — and never got the credit he deserved. - [Gordie Howe Scores a Goal](https://alabamashortstories.com/gordie-howe-scores-a-goal/): Season 2, Episode 2. In the mid-1970s, the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA brought world-class professional hockey to Alabama — and Gordie Howe, the greatest player of all time, came with them. - [Fess Whatley](https://alabamashortstories.com/fess-whatley/): Season 2, Episode 1. Fess Whatley was the bandleader at Birmingham's A.H. Parker High School who trained generations of jazz musicians — including Erskine Hawkins and Sun Ra — who went on to fill the biggest stages in the world. ### Season 1 - [Alabama Short Stories Season One Teaser](https://alabamashortstories.com/alabama-short-stories-season-one-teaser/): Season 1 teaser episode. Host Shawn Wright introduces the Alabama Short Stories podcast and its mission. - [Bear Bryant Wants You to Call Your Mama](https://alabamashortstories.com/bear-bryant-wants-you-to-call-your-mama/): Season 1, Episode 1. The inside story of Bear Bryant's famous "Call Your Mama" PSA — told by the creative director who made it, Shawn Wright's father, Leo Wright. - [Greenville Basketball and the First State Championship](https://alabamashortstories.com/greenville-basketball-and-the-first-state-championship/): Season 1, Episode 2. Thirty years after basketball was invented, Greenville High School fielded a team good enough to play in the first Alabama state basketball championship tournament in 1921. - [Able and Baker in Space](https://alabamashortstories.com/able-and-baker-in-space/): Season 1, Episode 3. Before humans went to space, the U.S. sent two monkeys — Able and Baker. Baker, a squirrel monkey, survived and retired to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. - [Football Goes to Court, Homewood vs. Tuscaloosa](https://alabamashortstories.com/football-goes-to-court-homewood-vs-tuscaloosa/): Season 1, Episode 4. In 1974, the three-year-old Homewood High School football team made the state playoffs — and a dispute over eligibility rules ended up in court before the season was over. - [The First Radio Station in Alabama, WSY](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-first-radio-station-in-alabama-wsy/): Season 1, Episode 5. The story of WSY, Birmingham's first radio station, and the early days of broadcasting in Alabama when the technology was so new that listeners had no idea what it was. - [The Sylacauga Meteorite](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-sylacauga-meteorite/): Season 1, Episode 6. In 1954, Ann Hodges of Sylacauga became the first person in recorded history to be struck by a meteorite — while napping on her couch. - [The Portraits of William Frye](https://alabamashortstories.com/the-portraits-of-william-frye/): Season 1, Episode 7. A German-trained portrait painter named William Frye came to Alabama in the mid-1800s and left behind a body of work — including portraits of the host's own ancestors — that spans the state. - [She Painted on Spider Webs](https://alabamashortstories.com/she-painted-on-spider-webs/): Season 1, Episode 8. The story of an Alabama woman who discovered she could paint delicate, permanent works of art on spider webs — a technique so unusual it drew national attention. - [Birmingham's Miss Liberty](https://alabamashortstories.com/birminghams-miss-liberty/): Season 1, Episode 9. Birmingham has its own Statue of Liberty — a replica that stood atop a downtown building for decades before disappearing. The episode traces where she went and what she meant to the city. - [Mary Anderson: Inventor of the Windshield Wiper](https://alabamashortstories.com/mary-anderson-inventor-of-the-windshield-wiper/): Season 1, Episode 10. Alabama native Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903 after watching a New York streetcar driver struggle in the rain — but she never profited from her patent. ## Optional - [Sitemap Index](https://alabamashortstories.com/sitemap_index.xml)