The Sky Fell on Alabama
By Bill Russo
2017 – published by CCA Media, Cape
Cod, U.S.A.
All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by
any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the
publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
This report is true and fully verifiable. No names have been changed. It is a tale mostly about a woman who to her
great regret, and not of her own doing, became perhaps the most unique
individual in the history of the world. Parts
of the narrative have been dramatized for effect.
***
Tuesday, November 30 1954: Sylacauga, Alabama
It started out like any other weekday for Ann Hodges. She fixed breakfast for herself and her husband.
After Eugene had left to go to his job as a utility worker for the electric
company, she began her housework.
After doing the breakfast dishes, she started her regular housecleaning
routine while listening to her favorite programs on her new console radio. It
was the latest 1954 model. Much more than just a receiver, it was a decorative
mahogany floor model complete with a three speed record player. The set was nearly as big as a four drawer dresser.
In 1954, television was becoming the primary night-time family
entertainment medium, but the daylight hours still belonged to radio. Soap
Operas filled the airwaves from right after breakfast until dinnertime. At half past noon, like millions of other
American women, Ann Hodges listened to ‘The Romance of Helen Trent’, followed
15 minutes later by ‘Our Gal Sunday’.
Shortly after “Sunday” signed off the air, Mrs. Hodges began feeling
unwell. She rubbed her forehead hoping a
rapidly worsening headache would go away.
Dizziness overcame her and forced her to lie down on the living-room
couch. Reclining on her soft cushions and
warmed by a pretty quilt, she felt a little better. She became drowsy and fell
asleep.
After a brief nap, she stirred at 1:45. She knew the exact time because “The Guiding
Light” had just begun on the CBS Radio Network.
As the announcer said, ‘brought to you by Ivory Soap, the most famous
soap in the world’, she happened to look out her window at the marquee of the
Comet Drive-in Movie Theater across the street from her house. The theater had
a neon sign that showed a comet streaking toward the heavens. The featured
movies were advertised underneath the speeding comet.
“War of the Worlds,” she laughed.
“That film came out last year and it’s just now getting to the Comet. I
heard the movie was kind of silly but the radio show was the scariest thing I
ever heard.”
Ann remembered back to Halloween Night 15 years before. She had just
turned 19 and was among thousands, maybe millions, of radio listeners who were
badly frightened when the CBS Radio Network started broadcasting reports that
the Martians had invaded earth.
It turned out that Orson Welles had pranked a nationwide audience
with a ‘Trick or Treat’ broadcast of a play based on the book, The War of the
Worlds. She remembered how frightened she was until the end of the broadcast
when Welles admitted that the program was just his version of putting on a
white sheet and going ‘boo’! She smiled at the memory and then fell back to
sleep.
Outside, the temperature was 66 degrees, about average for
November in the communities around the Birmingham area. The sky was clear. One
year after the end of the ‘Korean Conflict’, business in the United States was
very good. The Down Jones Average of 30
Industrials hit a new high of 364.
Jimmy Tate Tucker of the Birmingham & Chattanooga Investment
firm had left his office early, after celebrating the closing of a deal to
handle the nearly one billion dollar portfolio of the South’s largest
transportation conglomerate. It was just
one of many plums that he had secured for the firm in 1954, by far the
company’s most successful year.
After an hour’s drive he was back home in Sylacauga where he had
promised to pick up his wife and take her on a two week vacation to Boston and
New York. They would board the Crescent
City Special in Birmingham and arrive at the Pennyslvania Station in 23
hours. The plans were to have dinner in
their roomette, share a bottle or two of fine wine, a romantic interlude, and
then drift off to sleep to the gentle rocking of the train.
Jimmy Tate’s plan was about to be changed. As he drove by the Comet Drive-In Theater on
Odin’s Mill Road, he saw a bright, reddish light streaking through the
afternoon sky like a Roman candle trailing smoke. It looked like it was coming straight for
him. He pulled hard on the steering
wheel and crashed into the sign advertising the drive-in’s double feature -
“War of the Worlds” starring Gene Barry and “It Came From Outer Space”.
The thing did not hit his vehicle; instead, it passed overhead and
with a ferocious, thunderous boom, crashed through the roof of a white-frame house
across the street from the Comet Drive-In.
***
An explosion with a deafening rumble jarred Ann Hodges from her
nap. Her eyes were open but she was
unable to react to what happened next.
The ceiling above her head disintegrated, as a searing hot object
the size of a softball broke through it a blazing speed. It smashed into her beautiful new radio
splitting it in two and then bounced off the wreckage and flew at her.
The thing flew across her quilt, slashing it like a hot knife in
butter. It struck her left hip, leaving
a sepia bruise almost as big as a cat.
It also bruised her left hand.
She was in shock from being struck by the falling object and at the same
time, she was afraid that she had been fatally injured.
Jimmy Tate Tucker and a few neighbors quickly broke down the front
door and found Mrs. Hodges in a dazed and uncommunicative state.
An ambulance had been dispatched after a neighbor telephoned the
police. The attendants rushed the woman to the hospital where it was determined
that amazingly, her injuries were limited to a very bad bruise.
She was treated by Doctor Moody Jacobs, a young physician from
nearby Decatur, who was just a year removed from medical school.
Young as he was Doctor Moody Jacobs did enter the record books of
the medical profession however, for he was the first medical man to treat a
person who was struck by something from outer space.
And as for Mrs. Ann Hodges, she became the first and only person in
the history of the world to be struck by a meteor.
Investigators were able to determine not only that the object was
a meteor but also they were even able to identify the odd shaped asteroid it
came from.
Had this space rock streaked across the sky in the 2000s it would
have been photographed by owners of Androids and iPads. Tweeted, and
Facebooked, it would be seen by millions within minutes.
As it was, word of mouth was sufficient to draw hundreds of people
to the neighborhood. Friends, neighbors,
gawkers, and strangers were traipsing all through the home to get a peek at the
damage as well as the meteor.
When Mr. Hodges returned from work after being notified of the
incident by telephone he quickly shooed out all of the unwelcome spectators,
except for Jimmy Tate Tucker, whose car had been wrecked when he crashed into
the Drive-In sign.
“It was like a fireball in the sky, Mr. Hodges,” Jimmy Tate told
him. “It looked like an arc from a
gigantic welding machine. I thought it
was going to hit me. I swerved my car to
get out of the way and crashed into the Drive-In. Then I saw the fireball hit your roof. There was a tremendous explosion and a
massive brown cloud of dust, debris, and smoke.”
“Well what were they saying about Communists and such?” Hodges
asked.
“Oh you know, it’s that cold war thing. People are thinking they
are seeing Communists under bushes and behind trash cans all over the
country. Anytime anything happens,
there’s a large group of people who are certain that the ‘Reds’ are behind it.”
“Yes, I guess that’s so,” Hodges allowed, “and I also heard that some
people thought that a plane had crashed. I’m going to the hospital now to check
on my wife, I’ll drop you at your house on the way.”
By suppertime Mrs. Hodges story was on all of the radio
newscasts. Many of the fledgling TV stations
didn’t have a local newscast until 11 p.m., by then the whole country had
gotten the story from the radio networks.
Experts from universities were interviewed by the score. The consensus was that Mrs. Hodges was
unique. No one in human history had ever
been struck by a space rock. It was
especially odd because most meteorites that manage to get through the
atmosphere in solid form, strike Earth’s vast, uncharted remote spaces, or fall
into the ocean.
An astronomer from Florida State College opined that among the
billions of humans and pre-humans that have lived on earth, Mrs. Hodges is the
only one who has ever been struck by an object from outer space. “You have a better chance of getting hit by a
tornado, a bolt of lightning, and a hurricane all at the same time,” he said.
***
I’ve told you that Mrs. Hodges survived and her physical damage
was not great. But what about the space
rock? What happened to that heavy black
chunk of unearthly stone?
When Gene Hodges got back to his house after making sure his wife
was okay, he was met by the Police Chief of Sylacauga who said, “I’m sorry
Eugene, but I have to confiscate the rock.”
“Sheriff that rock fell through our roof and it could have killed
my wife. I think it belongs to us. I’m not giving it up!”
“Listen to me Eugene. I
have to take that rock. I got orders.”
“What are you talking about? You’re the sheriff. Who gives you orders?”
“The Air Force,” said the sheriff.
“The Air Force?”
“Yup. They heard about the
space rock on Paul Harvey’s newscast on the radio and they want it. Seems like they think that the Commies might
be behind this. They have to examine the
rock.
***
Eugene drove back to the hospital the next morning and was informed
that he could take his wife home that
afternoon. She was still tired and fell
asleep as soon as she was in her own home, where quick repairs to the roof and
ceiling had already been completed.
When she awoke at six p.m. Eugene had dinner ready; Chicken soup
with cheese and crackers. While they ate
he gave her a rundown of what had happened while she slept.
“The phone was ringing off the hook. A lot of the calls were from neighbors and
such to make sure you are okay. But
there were other calls from people wanting to buy the rock.”
“You mean it’s worth something Eugene?”
“Shoot Ann, it’s the only space rock in all of history that ever
hit somebody! That makes it worth
plenty!”
“Well how much were they offering Eugene?”
“At first nobody got into exact figures, but one old boy said he
was prepared to pay in the thousands. Then when I told that to the next guy
that called, he said he’d go as high as five thousand!”
“Thousands? Oh Eugene. You
know, with big money like that we could buy our own house instead of renting
this place. Call that guy back and make
the deal. We don’t want the stinking
thing anyway. It wrecked our new radio
and it almost killed me.”
“There’s a problem Ann. I
don’t have the rock. The sheriff took
it.”
***
At a secret location, possibly in Nevada, government geologists
examined the space rock which later came to be called the “Hodges
Meteorite”. They spent weeks and finally
rendered the verdict that the 8.5 pound object was indeed a visitor from outer
space and had never been in the hands of, or had any connection with, the
Communists.
After finally decreeing that the rock was indeed an E.T., the
government spent many months deciding what to do with it. Thanks to people like
Jimmy Tate Tucker and others who took up their cause, public opinion was
staunchly in favor of giving the rock to the Hodges.
"I feel like the meteorite is mine,” Mrs. Hodges said, “I
think God intended it for me. After all, it hit me!"
Ultimately after more than a year, the Government returned the
space rock to the Hodges. As Eugene and
Ann were preparing to test the pricing waters, something bad happened.
“That meteorite rightfully belongs to me and I’m going to court to
get it.”
This new stumbling block came in the form of recently widowed
Birdie Gay, their landlord. She hired a
lawyer and was prepared to go to court after being assured by her attorney that
since the meteorite fell on her property, she was the lawful owner. In a
written statement, Birdie Gay said, “The meteorite fell through my roof and
onto my floor. I own it.”
Mrs. Hodges on the day after the space rock nearly killed her. The
rock is being held in the left hand of the Police Chief.
***
The weight of the law was on Birdie Gay’s side, but not the weight
of public opinion. Once again Jimmy Tate
Tucker and the newspapermen of Alabama went to bat for her. Faced with reams of bad publicity and
probably more than one obscene phone call, the widow Gay agreed to sell the
meteorite to Eugene and Ann for $500.
The deal was struck and the Hodges soon began to put out feelers
to buyers. Sadly, Eugene and Ann found
out that the attention span of the American public is weeks, months at
most. It had been more than a year since
the sensational story broke and the teeming masses had moved on. Forgotten almost completely was the story of
the meteor and the only woman in the history of the world who was hit by a
space rock and lived to tell about it.
Plagued by bouts of depression, Ann finally told Eugene to give
the rock away. “Get rid of it Eugene. We’re
only using it for a doorstop anyway and it’s so depressing.”
Reluctantly, he turned the meteorite over to the Alabama Museum of
Natural History in 1956 and got a thank you and zero dollars for it. The rock is on display there, to this very
day.
As for Ann, she began to spiral downwards. She suffered a nervous
breakdown, was divorced in 1964, and died eight years later of kidney failure.
She was 52 years old.
Eugene who survived into the 2000s well past the age of 80, said
that he believed the meteorite crash and the long delay by the government
before it was released took its toll on his ex-wife. He said “She never did recover”.
The director of the museum agreed, saying that she was not at ease
with the publicity and attention that the event caused. Sadness as well as
physical ills and mental anguish clouded the last 18 years of her life.
***
As you have read, things went very badly for poor Mrs. Ann Hodges. Had this unfortunate calamity happened in the
2000s she probably would have made millions from interviews, books, and sales
of movie rights. Instead, her life was ruined and cut short far ahead of its
time.
Despite those facts, this story does have a very happy
ending. No not for Ann Hodges, or
Eugene, or Birdie Gay or even Jimmy Tate Tucker.
It has a happy ending for someone you haven’t met yet. At the time of the story, he was a 60 year
old African American share cropper with a bent back and an empty wallet.
On December first, 1954, Julius McKinney’s gnarled hands were
wrapped around the handles of a rusted plow being dragged along by a crusty old
mule that looked like he’d been in the traces almost as long as his
master.
It was a clear, sunny morning with the temperature close about 60,
so Julius had decided to make use of the day collecting firewood and turning
over some of the soil on the few ragged acres that he had control of. Sharecropping
was one of the only ways for poor Southern farmers both black and white, to
make a living.
The Sharecropping era was nearly at an end in the 1950s. Mr. McKinney knew that before long, some
corporation would come along and buy up all the land in the area and that would
end it for him and the other farmers. He
had no idea of what he’d do then, or where he’d live.
Instead of ideas and knowledge gained from books or schooling, the
only real education Julius had was behind a plow or picking cotton – and yet he
was innately an intelligent, taciturn man.
He knew when to speak and when to hold his tongue. It was a skill that had gotten him more
respect in the community at large than most African Americans had in the
segregated South of the 1950s.
When he spotted a bizarre hunk of black rock about the size of a
baseball, just lying on top of the dirt his mule was about to turn; he picked
it up, examined it, put it in his lunch sack and finished out his work for the
day.
During the afternoon, his usually empty field had been visited by
policemen, firefighters, Air Force people, and a throng of curious local
residents.
Asking Julius if he had seen anything, he asked them instead,
“Just what are you fellas looking for?”
“We’re not sure,” replied one of the firefighters. “There might have been a plane crash around here. I guess you heard that yesterday afternoon something
fell through the roof at Mr. Hodges’ house.
We’re just trying to find something to explain the mysterious sight in
the sky.”
“If you see anything at all out of the ordinary you call us
immediately,” ordered one of the Air Force officers. Handing Julius a business
card, he said gruffly, “You call me right away if you spot anything. You understand me?”
“Yes sir Captain, I’ll call you directly,” said Julius, “then
whatever I see, you can come and take it away like you took the rock that fell
on Mrs. Hodges. Is that right sir?”
“Exactly. You make sure you do it now. Hear?”
“Sir, yes Sir!” said Julius with an internal smile on his face
that Mr. Air Force couldn’t have seen if he had been wearing 14 pairs of
glasses all at once.
“I can’t tell them what I found, cause if I do they will take it,
Mama,” said Julius to his wife at supper that night. “I got a notion that this
thing is worth some money. Maybe a big
chunk of it.”
“When I was over at the mercantile this afternoon, I did hear talk
that Mr. Hodges was offered five thousand dollars for his rock,” she reported.
“He won’t get a penny Mama, cause they took his rock. They’ll take ours too, if they find out about
it.”
Julius didn’t actually have any friends among the white community,
but there was one man he regularly spoke with on a friendly first name basis –
Jim Dave Halpin, the postman.
At the mail box, the next afternoon he shared his predicament with
Jim Dave and Halpin proved to be a great friend after all, by contacting a
lawyer who arranged a secret sale of the meteorite to the Smithsonian
Institute.
Julius and his wife lived a long, happy life and never revealed
how much money they got for the space rock.
With a smile Julius would tell close friends, “I got enough. Enough to give
my friend Jim Dave a bit of a reward for helping me.”
“I also had enough to pay cash for a house and to buy a new
car. There was also some left over to
put in the bank,” he said with his internal smile now fully displayed on the
outside.
The sad part, as it relates to Ann Hodges, is that the rock that
Julius found was only 3.5 pounds. The
one that almost killed her was more than twice as big and certainly would have
brought in at least $5,000 if she had been able to sell when the market was
eager for it.
After both pieces were safely housed in their respective museums,
the scientists studied them and confirmed that Julius’ smaller rock was a part
of the Hodges meteorite that apparently split off as it entered the earth’s
atmosphere.
***
post script:
Among the hundreds of people who saw the meteor streak across the
Alabama sky that last day of November in 1954 was five year old Billy Field. Sixty
years later his memory of the incident was still as vivid as the afternoon it
happened.
In a 2014 interview he stated:
"I was standing in the back yard with my mother, who was at
the clothesline. I remember this object shooting across the sky with a white
trail that I pointed out to my mother. There was a loud boom and black
smoke."
Perhaps inspired by that seminal moment, Billy Field grew up to be
a film producer. He researched the meteor
story and interviewed the Hodges, Mr. McKinney, and other people.
He put together a script and sold it to 20th Century
Fox. Today, it sits moldering in some forgotten corner of an office somewhere
in Hollywood gathering dust. Just one
more script that was purchased but never made it to step two - casting and
filming.
There may never be a movie made of the Hodges Meteorite, but Billy
Fields, now in his late 60s, hopes there is.
Either way, Field, who is retired in the city of Tuscaloosa, says
"It was the biggest thing to literally ever hit the town of
Sylacauga, Alabama.”
The
end
Bill Russo, retired on Cape Cod, was educated in Boston at the
Huntington School and at Grahm College in Kenmore Square. He was editor of several newspapers in
Massachusetts as well as a former disc jockey, news writer/presenter, and
broadcaster for various outlets in New England.
His sighting of a swamp creature just before the turn of the
century, led to appearances in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary Film,
America’s Bermuda Triangle, and on Destination America’s Monsters and Mysteries
series.
In addition to his radio and newspaper work, he held management
positions in logistics and warehousing as well as a stint as an ironworker and
President of Boston Local 501 of the Shopmen’s Ironworkers Union.
