icepickphil

Anyone know what's up with the old theatre on Chenevert that used to house the live music venue Liberty Hall in the 70s?

Really great photo you got there...Totie was something else. I googled "Sammy Bo" and came up with nothing so I must have the name wrong. My take on the Tidelands in the 60s is that it offered Houstonians a swank nightclub to see Vegas level stand up comedians perform. I don't think they had musicians but I could be wrong about that. It wasn't necessarily a comedy club as they became to be known in the 80s. Maybe some of the other South Main hotels had rooms that hosted similar entertainers. Like the Shamrock maybe? One of the top Houston sports figures of the 1950s -- Rice University's star running back Dicky Moegle -- worked there and probably in addition to being a partner in the place was a meet and greet guy. Moegle was the running back who was tackled in the '54 Cotton Bowl when an Alabama player came off the bench during the play.

When I was in grade school in Houston in the mid sixties a classmate of mine's father was the booking agent of the Tidelands. He would put up some of the entertainers that were performing there at their home when they were in town. A couple of the entertainers I remember meeting were Sammy Bo and Totie Fields. Must have been a real swinging place back then. The former Rice University football star Dicky Moegle was involved with it somehow...maybe part owner.