57Tbird

T-Bird, were you at the Alabama game that year?

No, but a bunch of us were watching it on TV at Kay's on Bissonnett. I'll never forget it. Didn't realize what had happened, at first, when Tommy Lewis of Alabama came off the sideline and decked Dicky Moegle as he was running in the clear for a TD at about the 50 yard line. It happened so fast. No instant replay then. Didn't take long for everything to get straightened out though, and Moegle was given the TD. It made Tommy Lewis an instant celebrity. I think I remember him being on the Ed Sullivan show the next Sunday.

OK... This from one who actually went there. I can only speak of the mid-late 50's era. There were two, larger than life, Indians sitting/kneeling by a campfire on the roof/overhang. The campfire at night, had glittering lights, such that it appeared, with the technology available at that time, the fire was burning. There were lights shining on the Indians. This display was primarily for the Main Street side, but could have been visible from Fannin. The phrase was "Fried Chicken, Savage Style". No "skillet". See an ad I found in my Rice yearbook of 1954... http://tinypic.com/e99p2v.jpg I also had the pleasure of my first encounter with raw oysters there after a few beers. Absolutely delicious!!

well, she just turned 57. so maybe by a couple of years.

Well...My glory years there were the early-mid 50's, so I have her beat by a lot more than a couple of years. Tradition was to go to Bill William's if you had a date...usually after a movie. Then, depending on, shall we say, how well you and your date were acquainted, you might go to Hermann Park, park by the lake, and "watch the submarine races". If you didn't have a date, then you would go out to Stuart's and park on the back row and talk cars with other guys and maybe a car full of girls would cruise by looking for some nice boys to buy them a Coke.

I have an excellent reference, my mother. Memory like a steel trap, it's a little rusty, but once you jog her around a little bit, BOOM, she's got it.

Your mother is probably younger than I am.

Only one I can think of, with the Indians on top, would be Bill William's on South Main where University Blvd intersected near the Rice U. campus. They had a dining room as well as the drive-in area. The Indians were cooking over a campfire. There was a sign that read, "Fried Chicken, Savage Style".

Great Southern Life Insurance Co. occupied a building on this corner in the mid-50's. I had a summer job there just after I graduated from high school. There was a park called Dunlavy Park just south of there that had a swimming pool. I have no idea how long Great Southern was there. Seems like I remember a Great Southern building near Richmond and Buffalo Speedway when I worked for TI on the SE corner of Buffalo Speedway and Richmond in the early-mid 60's. Does anyone know the evolution of the occupancy of the Richmond-Dunlavy corner from the 50's on?

Thanks for specifying the camera! I love those old rangefinders.

If anyone saw "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", it's the same camera that Gwyneth Paltrow used.

It's affectionately known as "The Brick", due to its shape (and weight).

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That description prompted me to dig out my old C3 to measure and weigh.

5"W x 3"H x 2"D and 8 1/2 lbs. That's pretty close to a brick.

If I am not mistaken, Julius LaRosa sang the National Anthem at the opening Dome game

I never heard that they played baseball at Jeppesen. Interesting

I know the Colt 45's had their temporary stadium right next to the dome.

Colt stadium i think.  lots of uncovered bleachers and mosquitos

Maybe he meant the last game the Buff's played at their old stadium by UH where Fingers in now.  Cullen at 45.

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You're correct! The 45's didn't play at Jeppesen. Couldn't have.

I attended lots of games at Colt Stadium and endured many mosquito-bitten nights and sun-burned days watching the Colt 45's.

The Oilers played their first games at Jeppesen Stadium before moving on to Rice Stadium and then the Astrodome.

My dad took me to the opening of the Astrodome in 1965. The Astros played the Yankees and Micky Mantle hit the first home run ever in the dome. I saw President Johnson there with Judge Hofheinz in his glassed-in skybox. I think the Astros actually won.

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I also saw that game. The Astros did win it, 2-1 in extra innings, if I remember correctly. My wife bought me two tickets in the front row of the mezzanine, just behind third base, for each of the five pre-season games there just before the regular season started. Those ten tickets cost $35. The first game was on a Friday night with two day-night double-headers on the weekend. According to the scoreboard, the game in the pictures must have been an afternoon game with the Yankees that the Astros won 3-2. The scoreboard clock shows 3:53. Thanks for the memories, jb4647.

I remember Valian's being a little bit farther south of the intersection.  If you came out of the circular drive in front of the Shamrock and crossed Main you went into the parking lot of Valian's, iirc.  SpaceAge posted some 1969 listings in the 50s Era Med Center Hotel thread which put Valian's at 6935.

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That is Valian's just north of the big parking lot across Main from the Shamrock. I went there often when I was at Rice in the mid-50's. Had my first pizza there. Not sure if it was still Valian's when that photo was taken, but that is where it was.

does anyone know what the restaurant was that is to the right (in the aerial shot).  just south of the holcombe intersection - across the street

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Valian's

I was trying to remember the name of that place!  I went there a couple of times.  It was not far off Almeda Rd., which was Texas 288 back then.  I'm pretty sure it was on an east-west street rather than a north-south, probably between Elgin and where I-45 cut through, south of downtown.  The colors were blue and white inside and it was freezing in there.

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Polar Wave Ice Palace was at Hutchins and McGowen

i was good friends with a jamail in high school

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Me too. Where?

So it appears that most of my memories of Houston are accurate.  This article says that NABISCO was on Holcombe.  Someone else told me that the Prudential Building was also on that street, and I remember it, too.

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Nabisco was bordered by Holcombe, Almeda, and OST. My wife lived about 2 blocks from there when we were dating. I loved the aromas that wafted over to her house. Prudential building was/is on Holcombe and Fannin.

Naturally, there was a Someburger at Studewood and 11th, and that one may still be there. There was another on 19th in

OK...who recognizes this phone number:

CApitol 2-7171

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Doggone! Had forgotten all about that until I saw it. That was time service wasn't it? Used it many times. I think the current temperture was later incorporated in addition to the time. It started out as just Capitol-7171 as far back as I can remember.

How about Rettig

I asked a good friend of mine who worked at NASA in it's early Houston years. This was his reply...

"According to my close friend, Pete ........, whom I called to ask about your question, there were no less than 14 locations scattered around town. NASA/JSC was created in Jan/62, and Pete arrived, age 19, Jan/64. (I arrived Jan/66.)

Ellington Field was occupied by NASA and was, by far, the location with the largest number of employees. Other locations were the Lane Wells bldg, with the oil rig out front, across from Gulfgate Mall, Palm Center Apts (Graphics), Rich Bldg on Telephone Rd. When NASA first came to Houston, Jan/62, there were 40-50 total employees."

The earliest exchange I can remember is from when I lived on Elgin in the early 40's. It was Lehigh-6464 (dial L-6464). We moved to Southampton about 1946 and our exchange was LYnchberg (LY-), which begat LYnchberg9 (LY9-), which became JAckson9 (JA9-), and then just 529-. What was interesting was the party line that we always had, that we shared with someone else. Finally got a private line in the early 50's.

Years ago I read some book that took place in Houston in the 1930s, and they mentioned that Bible Cyclorama on Shepherd.  I didn't know it was a real place.

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I found it. It was located on the east side of Shepherd, about midway between Westheimer and W. Alabama. I remember it from the 40's - 50's. It was built in the late 30's. I don't know when it was torn down.

You mentioned Jimmie Green Chevrolet. Do you happen to remember the Humble station at Shepherd and Westheimer? It was owned by a fella named Waddie Wadkins (Wattie Watkins?), and he had a deer processing facility on the Shepherd side of the building.

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Was the Humble station on the southwest corner? St. Anne's Catholic church was on the northwest corner, and I think there was a little shopping center on the northeast corner. Actually, I think Jimmie Green's Chevy dealership was next door to a Gulf station on the southeast corner. I'm not totally positve. I remember a Watty Watkins from a long time ago, but not in connection with that station or deer processing. I think maybe most guys with the last name of Watkins were called Watty. Right down Shepherd to the south was a big circular building...almost across from the Alabama theater, but to the north a bit. It had a huge circular mural inside depicting figures from the Bible. I think it was called the Bible Cyclorama, or something like that.

57 TBird, I couldn't remember if it was in Stafford or Sugar Land.  It was on 90 and you're right, it was in Sugar Land.  Wasn't it across from the sugar factory somewhere? 

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Yes. Almost directly across from it.

In doing a search for Playland Park and the races they used to have featuring AJ Foyt and Billy Wade led me to a blurb about there being a racetrack at Arrowhead Park. I am pretty sure I know where it was because I remember seeing the monorail off South Main past where it makes the bend at the conjunction with Holmes. However, all my searches for Arrowhead came back with the stadium in KC.

Now, there used to be stock car races in the late 60

Does anyone remember the old theater in Stafford?  It was on Main (90).  We drove by there about a year ago and it was gone.  My friend and I saw Saturday Night Fever there when we were 12 or 13 (we snuck in to see it because we were underaged).

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Are you sure about one in Stafford? I lived in Mo City, right next to Stafford, and drove through there almost every day. Where was it? Maybe it was built after I left the area in 1978. I do remember one in Sugar Land on Hwy 90.