June 8, 1984  

Polly Holliday, a Jasper native, played many roles in a multi-decade career in theater and Hollywood, including her most famous: the sassy Southern waitress Flo in the hit TV series “Alice.” But she debuted one of her more memorable characters on this day in 1984 when the comic-horror movie “Gremlins” was released in the U.S. She played Ruby Deagle, the aged, rich and heartless widow who controls the bank in the mythical town of Kingston Falls, where the gremlins wreak havoc. Deagle comes to an untimely end in the film, which has become a campy cult classic. Later in the film, the gremlin responsible for it all is seen wearing Mrs. Deagle’s clothes and the red wig that hid her white hair.

Read more at IMBD. 

The waitresses of the hit television show Alice: from left to right, Beth Howland, Linda Lavin and Walker County native Polly Holliday. (Encyclopedia of Alabama)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.