PR2004 Jan 22

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(Tuscaloosa) - The sixth annual presentation of the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame awards has been scheduled for Saturday, March 13, 2004. The annual award ceremony and gala will take place on the campus of Shelton State Community College at 9500 Old Greensboro Road in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“Since 1999, Theatre Tuscaloosa, in partnership with Shelton State Community College, has hosted the Stage and Screen Hall of Fame,” said Paul K. Looney, executive director of the event. “I’m proud to announce that our honorees for 2004 are the famous cowboy movie star Johnny Mack Brown and comedienne Brett Butler.”

Johnny Mack Brown first came to national attention as an All-American running back at the University of Alabama where he scored two of the three touchdowns in a winning effort against the favored Washington Huskies in the famous 1926 Rose Bowl game. After graduation, he tried his hand at coaching for a short time but went to Hollywood and began doing bit parts around 1927 in silent films.

Born in Dothan, Alabama on September 1, 1904, Brown became a successful leading man at MGM for nearly five years, appearing opposite some of the world’s most famous actresses. In films with Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford he proved himself as a strong leading man but the development of “talkies” found his southern drawl more suited to westerns.

Brown's first appearance in a western was in “Billy the Kid” in 1930 with Wallace Berry and directed by King Vidor and is still considered one of Brown's best films. In the 1930’s Brown appeared in five western serials and in 1937 he teamed with John Wayne and Joel McCrea to make “Born to the West” and “Wells Fargo.” By the end of the 1930’s, Brown was one of the industry's top ten moneymaking western actors.

Beginning in 1939 and over the next decade, Brown made nearly 75 western films with two actors - Fuzzy Knight and Raymond Hatton. These films were predictable and popular; each one made money. He appeared in a handful of westerns in the 1950s and was a guest star on several television programs. His last film was “Apache Uprising” in 1966.

In all, Brown made more than 170 films during his career in addition to TV guest appearances. Prior to his death on November 14, 1974, he said two of his proudest accomplishments were his star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama on January 30, 1958, comedienne, writer and actress Brett Butler wrote in her 1996 autobiography, “I would have been born in Tuskegee, where we lived, had the town not been too small to accommodate a hospital.”

As an adult, Brett had a stormy three-year marriage. She has been quoted as saying, “I was married to a sub-literate, terra-cotta-toothed imbecile with violent tendencies.”

After their divorce she obtained a job as a waitress and started performing stand-up routines - for which she had shown an aptitude when still a child - at local comedy clubs and at refuges for battered women. Her incisive, anti-male insults, delivered in a southern drawl, gave her a prominent reputation and within a few years she had started to appear in guest roles on TV and by 1987 as a writer on Dolly Parton’s series.

By September 1993 she was starring in her own comedy series, “Grace Under Fire.”

“Grace Under Fire” centered on Butler (who also served as one of the Executive Producers) in the title role as a recently divorced mother as she tries to rebuild her life. Against this serious backdrop, the show found its humor in the relationships between Grace and her co-workers at the oil refinery, her neighbors Wade and Nadine, and Russel Norton, the bachelor pharmacist.

The show, which rated regularly in the top ten garnered Golden Globe nominations for its star in 1995 and 1997 for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series and in 1995 Butler won the “Q Award” for Best Actress in a Comedy Series at the “Viewers for Quality Television Awards.” By 1998 the successful five season run came to an end.

Butler has remained busy during the past five appearing in movies and on television as well as touring the country with her popular stand-up comedy.

The 2004 Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame Gala and Induction ceremony is being chaired by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Buchanan and Mr. and Mrs. David Fitts of Tuscaloosa.

The annual black-tie event on the campus of Shelton State Community College begins at 7:00 P.M. with a cocktail party and silent auction. At 8:00 P.M. the awards ceremony with singers, dancers and video presentations takes place in the Bean-Brown Theatre. Immediately following the awards a dinner dance is held in the atrium of the campus.

Tickets for the event begin at $200 per couple with a portion of the cost being tax-deductible. Tickets for the March 13 event may be purchased by calling the Theatre Tuscaloosa box office at 205-391-2277.