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57Tbird

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Posts posted by 57Tbird

  1. I may have missed it, but there was a big, public ballroom way out Main, on the right, where my mother and step-father used to go with their friends. If you unearth that, name and/or pictures, would love to see it.

    57Tbird, I remember the Indian sign at Bill Williams. Wasn't the dancing neon red? And there was some wording about Indian-style, meaning it was appropriate there to eat your chicken with your hands, instead of being expected to use knife and fork. Ah, the beginning of causual and the end of priggy requirements of etiquette.

    I think it was the End o' Main Ballroom.

    Eating Bill Williams' fried chicken with your hands was "Fried Chicken - Savage Style". I never knew that you could eat it any other way.

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  2. What's the history of Montrose Elementary School? When did it open/close and is the building still there?

    Montrose Elementary was built in 1913, in the block bounded by Stanford, W. Main, Sulross, and Greeley. Don't know when it closed, but the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts was built on its former site in 1971. This info from a friend who attended Montrose in the 40's.

    Just out of curiosity, why do you ask?

  3. Yes, the nursery was huge, and the bar-b-que place was great, it had wonderful fries and chopped beef sandwiches. I believe that there was also a bowling alley and a burger king on that stretch of post oak, and the burger king must be one of the originals. I think the firm (based in miami) started in 65 and that is about the time that we started eating whoppers.

    I think you're right about that Burger King being one of the originals. I had never heard of them before that one opened. My regular Sunday evening trek was Landsdowne to W. Airport to Chimney Rock to Gasmer to Post Oak to Burger King, just north of Willowbend. Mid-60's... a Whopper was $.35.

  4. Yep, Pepper was there when I was. He might have been

    principle at that time though. I remember Rivers Lodge,

    and also a new Asst. Washington if I remember right..

    I forgot who was the head principle out of that bunch..

    It was either Lodge, or Pepper. I don't have a yearbook to

    double check..

    MK

    Fred Pepper was my baseball coach at Lamar High School in the early 50's. He was very good. He went to Rice in the mid 40's and was, briefly, a pitcher in the Yankee's farm system before he came to Lamar. I had heard that he eventually became the principal at Westbury.

  5. I remember the event well, but never knew the details until I read your link. I just remember a guy walked onto the school grounds and blew up a satchel killing a couple of kids.

    I remember thinking how easy it would have been for someone to repeat that act, but I never worried about the possibility of it happening at my school. It was a lot like

  6. .... I went to River Oaks Elementary School. ....

    Have you seen the R.O. Elementary Alumni website? I contacted the webmaster, Peter Denman, ROE Class of '66, and told him I had some old class photos given to me by a friend who attended. I inquired if he would like to have them for his historical pictures section on the website. He had just started a section with old class photos and he was happy to get them. Check it out if you haven't already.

  7. I spent the first years of my life in the late 30's in the Riverside/Riverside Terrace area at 2655 Oakdale, just west of Ennis. I wonder what that house looks like now. Neighbors were Leon Jaworski, a young, up-and-coming attorney, and a very young Bill Archer, future congressman, both of whom some of you may know of. I attended kindergarten and first grade at Sutton Elementary, which was not too far from my house. I see there is now a Sutton in Sharpstown. I guess the original Sutton I attended was renamed.

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  8. I know that's South Main on the extreme right side of the picture, but which direction are we looking? West? East? I've looked up and down South Main on Google Earth and I can't find any sign of an old airport. Is it the property now occupied by the Butler Stadium complex? Where was it exactly?

    You're looking east in that photo. See post #1 by MaxConcrete on this topic for the approximate boundaries of the airport. It would have been just about due north across South Main (90A) from Butler Stadium. Westbury now occupies the old airport site.

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  9. I received the following in a PM from a new member of the forum... curious1. I couldn't help him with his inquiry, but possiby someone (maybe sevfiv or suredid) who has been in that area recently can help. Not sure why he hasn't posted this. If someone can offer any information, I'll pass it on in reply to his PM. Thanks!

    "I grew up in the Harrisburg/Manchester areas of Houston in the 30s, 40s and 50s. I roamed every street and railroad track in these areas. In 1945, a Harris Elementary teacher told us about a historic marker located east of the Milby home, across Broadway and behind Jack Roach Ford. I found it easily and checked it out several times. The marker basically stated that The Capital of the Republic of Texas was located at the site, and it gave dates. I live in Mississippi now. In 1990, my brother and I looked for the marker and couldn't find it. I think I'm the only person that knows the marker ever existed. Do you know what happened to it? The location was between the Milby home and Glendale Cemetery, but closer to the Milby home. It was north of the railroad tracks that ran by the cemetery. 'Preciate any help you can give. (The Houston Library was clueless)"

  10. Filio,

    More on Bobby....

    He gave Kenny Rogers a gig in 1959 and replaced David Clayton-Thomas in Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1972, but piano player Bobby Doyle made the most impact locally by establishing Ego's, a dark apartment complex lounge on South Congress Avenue, as a live music venue in the early '90s.

    A musician's musician, Doyle succumbed Sunday to lung cancer, surrounded by friends and relatives in his North Austin home. He was 66.

    Able to handle requests for songs by everyone from George Gershwin and Nat King Cole to Jerry Lee Lewis and Stevie Wonder, Doyle, who was blind, was a brilliant, self-taught piano thumper who possessed a raspy, soulful voice.

    "There aren't too many white guys that can do Ray Charles, but Bobby Doyle was one of them," said keyboardist Riley Osbourn.

    "He had such a broad range," Osbourn said. "He could play blues, R&B, gospel, jazz. . . . He had his own style by combining all those things."

    He was "the main cat," said former Asleep At the Wheel pianist Danny Levin. "If you were thinking about doing a solo piano thing, Bobby Doyle was the guy you looked up to."

    A Houston native, Doyle moved to Austin at age 7 to attend the Texas School for the Blind. While at McCallum High, where he was the first blind student to graduate, he played on KVET-AM on Saturday mornings.

    "Bobby always had a transistor radio in his pocket," said Eddie Wilson, who would later book his former classmate at Threadgill's. "He'd be bopping to the radio in class. He'd keep it just loud enough for him to hear, but not the teacher." Bassist Jon Blondell, who played in a trio with Doyle in the '90s, said the pianist "had the ears of a bat."

    After high school, Doyle started the Bobby Doyle Three, a popular local jazz outfit, with a University of Texas student named Kenny Rogers on standup bass. Rogers soon dropped out of college to play full time with Doyle, singing high harmony and playing bass on the 1962 album "In a Most Unusual Way."

    The trio disbanded in 1965, and Rogers went on to become a country-pop sensation.

    "Bobby told me that he used to write checks for Kenny Rogers for five years, then Kenny went on to make $200 million and ain't written Bobby a check once," Wilson said.

    But the Gambler never forgot Doyle; about 10 years ago, David Letterman asked Rogers to name the best musician he'd ever played with, and "Bobby Doyle" came out instantly.

    Doyle also impressed producer Phil Spector, who used him on several sessions in the late '60s, when Doyle lived in Los Angeles.

    When Clayton-Thomas left BS&T in '72, Doyle was tapped as a replacement, but the piano player didn't last long with the horn-driven pop band, appearing on only two tracks on 1972's "New Blood."

    Doyle moved back to Austin in the late '70s and performed five nights a week at an East Riverside Drive lounge. But he was soon back on the road, ending up with steady work in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe during the '80s.

    He moved back to Austin for good in 1990, performing every Thursday and Friday at Ego's, a dive he'd enjoyed playing during visits to Austin.

    The word got out that there was an incredibly soulful singer and piano player at Ego's, and Doyle's sets soon were frequented by musicians and hipsters. Two nights a week, the dank, hidden joint on South Congress was cooler than any basement jazz club in Greenwich Village.

    Because of Doyle's draw, the club started booking other acts, even rock bands, and the dive was transformed into a scrappy stop on the live original music circuit.

    Doyle also played regularly at the Driskill Lounge and Eddie V's. Doyle played regularly until two months ago, when he became too ill. Wilson said playing music was one of Doyle's few pleasures after his wife, Mary, died in August 2004. They had been married for 17 years.

    "They were quite a team," Wilson said. "I've never seen a couple have so much fun together. He was ready to go the day after Mary died."

  11. Everybody knows what happened to Kenny Rogers, (especially that goofy looking godawful plastic surgery) but does anybody know whatever happened to Bobby Doyle?

    I read in the Austin paper a couple of weeks ago that Bobby Doyle died.

    His obituary....

    Robert G. "Bobby" Doyle Robert G. "Bobby" Doyle, age 66, of Austin, Texas, died on Sunday, July 30, 2006. He was born on August 14, 1939, in Houston, Texas, to Edward and Ella Doyle. Bobby was a renowned musician, whose original trio included himself, Kenny Rogers and Don Russell. He appeared on the Joey Bishop Show, the Steve Allen Show, and toured with Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Kirby Stone Four. In recent years Bobby performed regularly at Ego's, Driskill Hotel, and Eddie V's Restaurant. When he wasn't performing, he enjoyed all sports, especially baseball and football. Bobby was preceded in death by his loving wife, Mary; his parents; his daughter, Kathleen; and by two of his sisters. He is survived by his children, Michael, Kevin and Adam and wife Melissa; stepchildren, Lewis Powell III and wife Barbara, Misty Lampani, and Melanie Kooser and husband David; brothers, George Doyle and wife Edith, John Doyle and wife Geneva, Patrick Doyle and wife Jean, Raymond Harkey; sister, Ruth Drousche; and by 5 grandchildren, Lewis IV, Dominic, Logan, Addison, and Evelyn. A Memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 3, 2006 at Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel with Mr. Duane Miller officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Bobby's name to The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and South Texas, 2224 Walsh Tarlton Lane, Suite 200, Austin, Texas 78746, (800)880-9474.

    Published in the Austin American-Statesman on 8/1/2006.

  12. Shouldn't mix things up, but old Frontier Fiesta just came to mind. Anyone frolicking there around 1953-54? My cousin, 6 years older, was a Frosh in '53 and the whole family went. I think his parents were a little shocked at how bawdy it all was, but we kids loved it. Kenny Rogers headlined one of the shows, though he was still locally known only at the time. Quality stuff and ultimate fun.

    Okay, so I'll lump all the show business in one post. How about the Larry Hovis Trio? Although he went on to fame in Hogan's Heroes, I'll always remember the super performances of his musical group at civic events and cocktail lounges through early 1960's.

    I went to just about all the Frontier Fiesta shows in that time-frame. Loved it! Knew some of the kids who performed there. Some of the more famous were Tommy Sands and Paula Ragusa (who later became Paula Prentiss). They were comtemporaries of mine at Lamar HS. Robert Foxworth also went to Lamar, but he was several years behind me. I don't remember Kenny Rogers performing at the FF, when I was going, but I did see him around town, when he started out with The Bobby Doyle Trio and, later, with his group, The First Edition.

    Speaking of the "Larry Hovis Trio", I remember Larry as a member of a group from Reagan High called The Four Spades. They were a big hit playing at the Frontier Fiesta and at school proms around town. Happen to have a picture of them from about 1953. Of course, you know which one is Larry.

    FourSpades-1953.jpg

  13. This is making me question the reliability of HCAD's records, however: My house on Torchlight*, which, according to HCAD, was built in 1959, is in the picture, but one a bit farther down the street, which, according to HCAD, was built in 1958, is not. :huh: I was trying to see if I could help you date the picture any more precisely, but your guess is as good as (or better than) mine. 1959ish sounds about right.

    I agree about the accuracy... rather inaccuracy... of the HCAD dates. They have my old house listed as built in 1964. It was built in 1961...the year I moved in. The house of my old neighbor across the street from me was built in 1960. HCAD has that right, and it is not in the picture. I checked the HCAD build dates of some of the other houses in my neighborhood that are in the picture, and they are listed as built in 1958, which might be a little early. So I agree with the dating of the photo.... 1959-early 1960.

  14. That is a fantastic photo! Amazing to see what the area around my first house, in Westbury South, looked like just before it was built in the Spring of 1961. Many vacant lots. I was on the west side of Landsdowne, between Fontenelle and Firenza. We were really out in the boonies then. Had to go a Burger King on Post Oak, near WillowBend, for our first Whoppers. The races at Meyer Speedway on Saturday nights sounded like they were almost next door.

  15. I remember walking to the Fun Club at the Alabama Theater (bookstop) on Saturday morning on the West side of Shepherd (early 1950's). The Bible Cyclorama was on the East side of Shepherd (Jimmie Green?). St. Anne's was and still is on the Northwest corner.

    Well... I walked and sometimes rode my bike to the Alabama Fun club on Saturday mornings. Only, I did that scene a few years before you, in the late 40's. Jimmie Green Chevrolet was not there yet. I don't remember when it was built (early-mid 50's maybe), but it was next to the Bible Cyclorama. Then there was a Gulf station just north of him on the southeast corner of Shepherd and Westheimer. Was Chris' Coney Island still on the southwest corner of Shepherd and W. Alabama? We would go there after the movie for Coneys and liquid refreshments. From what area did you walk to the movie? I'm familiar with the territory, since I knew a lot of kids who lived close to the Alabama.

  16. I have some historical aerial photographs I would like to post, but I have had no success in including imagery in my posting. Can anyone tell me how to get it in here, and what the size limit is?

    Some of the more popular image sharing sites are photobucket, tinypic, and flickr. Just sign up and follow their instructions for uploading your photos to post here or elsewhere. Resize your pictures to the size most have done in HAIF. At one time there was a 500 KB size limit, I think.

  17. MK, i enjoyed your post; some replies to some of your comments are below:

    Dude, if you have that 1960 air photo of Westbury digitized, I would LOVE a copy. I'm an aficionado of the old neighborhood, big time..I have very few pics..

    Here is a 1960 photo that MK made reference to in an earlier post of his about the location of an old airfield in Westbury. This came from a website about old air fields in the Houston area. This is of an area of Westbury South, where I bought my first house in 1961. You're looking south in the picture with South Main (Hwy 90A) running east-west across the top. Chimney Rock is the north-south street to the far left. Landsdowne (street my house was on) is the next street to the right running parallel to Chimney Rock. That's Meyer Speedway under construction at the top. W. Airport is in the middle of the photo, starting at the little curve in Chimney Rock. No Hillcroft yet.

    WestburySouth-1960.jpg

  18. .... It made so much money that Spiegel was able to build a free-standing adult theatre on Richmond, and open another adult movie house in the Rice Village off Kirby - Cinema West II. ....

    This from the July 21, 1969, Houston Post. Must have been the Art Cinema at one time. I remember seeing this one. It was just across the parking lot from Rodney's Men's Clothing Store in the Village.

    ArtCinema-1969.jpg

  19. This one's for you T-Bird

    Thanks, Mark! I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting up with Norman when I had my first car, a '51 Chevy, worked on at Jimmie Green Chevrolet, on Shepherd between Westheimer and W. Alabama. There was a problem with my brakes that the mechanic wanted to talk to me about. I went back to the work area and who should be the mechanic who wanted to see me? None other than "Stormin' Norman". What a surprise! This must have been about 1953-54.

  20. Mark, Even though I knew that wasn't Playland-Houston, thank you for affirming that I still have a few kilobytes of memory left upstairs. Those "real" pictures of Playland-Houston brought back a lot of memories, and most of the details were as I remembered. Those races were some of the most fun times of my mid-teens to mid-20's youth, so I guess that's why a lot of the details were imbedded. Your pictures of the races with the cars, track and stands were fantastic. I only wish I could have had the foresight to have taken similar pictures when I had the chance. One of my favorites was Billy Wade. Many times, he and Norman Pierce would mix it up out on the track. I remember them getting into a fight with each other after one race.

    Thanks again for the great pictures! I look forward to seeing more.

  21. okay boys and girls here is one for the ages

    playland1954b.jpg

    Scrambling around the pits trying to get ready @ Playland

    Playland1954.jpg

    That's (L to R) my father H H Barnes his little brother (and Mechanic) Robert Barnes, Ralph Beckett, and a very young Lloyd Ruby!!!!

    This sure doesn't look like the track set-up I remember at Playland Park on South Main in Houston. With all due respect, this may be a Playland race track, but it's somewhere else other than Houston.

    The only thing it has in common with the Houston Playland layout is some carnival rides in the background.

    I went to dozens of races there between 1950 and when it closed down in the early 60's, so the memories are pretty well etched in what gray matter I have left. I saw just about everything there...modifieds, midgets, powder-puff derbies, figure-8 races, demolition derbies. I don't remember any sprint-car races though, like the cars shown in these photos. I think the track might have been too short for them. There could have been some, though. I do remember lots of sprint-car races at Meyer on the half-mile track there.

    First...There were no trees in the area. The track ran east to west. The start-finish line was on the north side with a small press box at the top of the stands. I always sat in the south side stands. The parking area was behind these stands, with not much to the south except open land and some motels. To the north, there was the U-turn of the roller coaster and then a few motels and other small structures over to OST where Prince's Drive-In was located at the intersection of Main and OST. The entrance to the raceway was on the west side of the track at the far east end of the amusement park area. At the east end of the track was the pit area. Beyond the pit area were open fields and no trees. The parking area for the amusement area was between the park and South Main. I think Gaido's was on the other side of Main from Playland.

    Second... There was no white picket fence around the pit area; nor was there any grass in the pit area. There were well-worn horizontal boards about 3'-4' high that encircled the track. Behind that track barrier was a tall chain-link fence...maybe 8-10' tall that was in front of the stands on both the north and south sides. At the west end of the track, outside the wooden barrier, was a corrogated metal fence/wall about 8' tall. Just outside this was the entrance to the raceway for the spectators. I mentioned in another thread about Playland that I was standing in the entrance area when Blackie Lothringer's came flying over the wall during warm-ups and killed a couple of people not more than 50' from me. It's amazing that no one else was killed during the races there, over the years. I remember several times when cars would hurdle over the barrier and into the chain-link fence, almost into the people sitting down in front. Safety regulations today would never allow a set-up like they had back then. The entrance to the pits was through a gate at turn 3. The exit was back through another gate at turn 4. The pit area was asphalt and no grass.

    Third...There is a blue tent and a white house in the upper left background of one of the photos. Nothing like that at Playland in Houston.

    Fourth... I showed these photos to some contemporaries of mine who attended races at Playland, and they concurred that those pictures were not from the Playland we know.

    So...I don't know where the description of these photos came from, but I'm sure they are not of Playland-Houston.

    I love the pictures and hope you post more of them.

  22. Houston - A History and Guide - American Guide Series - Harris County Historical Society - 1942

    This is the text that accompanied the picture of the Milby House. I should have included it when I posted the picture. Keep in mind this was written in 1942...

    The MILBY HOUSE (private), 614* Broadway, is a typical plantation style structure surrounded by spreading oaks hung with Spanish moss. The yard is lined with neat flower beds and winding walks; a brick fence is topped with an iron railing.

    Built in 1864 on the crest of a gentle slope, the first structure was a long, two-story wooden house, to which a brick mansion was added in 1885 by Charles H. Milby. The old part was remodeled and used for a kitchen. The bricks have since been covered with concrete blocks. Wide galleries on two sides terminate in a glassed conservatory. More than 100 shutters cover long French windows.

    At the time of its erection, the house was in the pioneer town of Harrisburg, then a busy village, now a Houston suburb. Its business and industrial district lay along Buffalo Bayou, beside the railroad shops, and wharves. From the upper gallery of the Milby house, stern-wheel and side-wheel boats could be seen as they plied industriously on the bayou to and from Houston and the coast, carrying passengers and cargo.

    Diminutive locomotives with Mother Hubbard stacks hissed and puffed as they passed, pulling their trains of freight and travelers. Ox- and mule-drawn wagons, and horse-drawn buggies plodded down the long dusty street.

    Not far from the Milby house, a narrow wooden bridge spanned Bray's Bayou on the road to Houston. The clatter of hoofs and of steel-rimmed wheels resounded above the steady hum of near-by sawmills on the bayou banks; those little milk made lumber of pine logs that were floated down the stream.

    Mrs. Milby's father, John Grant Tod, was a stockholder in Texas

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