57Tbird

Lance Berkman

He earned his PhD in Math at Rice in the mid-60's. I think he did some teaching there after his pro career.

Two that come to mind during my time there in the mid-50's are Frank Ryan (Quarterback-Browns) and King Hill (Quarterback-Eagles).

Thanks for the clarification. I did remember seeing the Cotton Bowl. I guess I just assumed the telecast was on New Years day.

Wow!! Subdude...You continue to impress me with your collection, or expertise, on where to find things like this. I will forward this piece of memorabilia to the former owners. I am sure they will be most appreciative. Thanks! I have them looking for an old menu from their establishment. They said they have a bunch of them stored away in a box somewhere. I will post, if I get one. Hebert's Ritz was a fine dining establishment in its time. Would be interesting to compare prices with today's menus of comparable restaurants. I am curious about the spelling of McGowen. On the card, it is McGowan. I thought it was spelled with an "e".

I am acquainted with the husband of the daughter of the Hebert who owned the Hebert's on McGowen, so I forwarded your comments to him. His reply: The Hebert family associated with Hebert's Ritz on McGowen is not related to the Hebert now in business with the meat markets. The corned beef and red beans and rice were served for lunch only. We closed the restaurant in 1987, and the building was demolished shortly thereafter. The economic crunch of the times gave us an excuse to close it and get out of an increasingly competitive business. We had inherited the business and were not content in the operation of it. We are are now happily retired and living in contentment overlooking the shores of Galveston Bay.

Well, silverartfox....Looks like I have some competition for the Old F*** title around here. Good to have someone to help me with 40's-60's Houston memories and other assorted items of interest. I went to Valian's often in the 50's after Rice home games and on other occasions. It has been discussed here often. It was across Main from the Shamrock. I also remember Bud Bigelow's and Weldon's...located as you mentioned.

Potted meat sandwiches and peanut butter/jelly sandwiches were standard fare for me in my school, sack lunches loooooooong ago. I had Spam when I didn't have potted meat. Strangely, I liked both of them. Glad I didn't know what was in the potted meat. I guess that was before the ingredients had to be posted on the can. Please don't tell me what's in Spam. I still like it.

Cain was the first murderer, according to biblical accounts. If you make trouble you are raising the spirit of Cain.

Wecome, sprintcar! From your comments, it's good to see there is someone on this forum that appears to be almost as old as I am...maybe older. From previous posts of mine, you can see that I went to many races at Playland and then to Meyer, when it opened. I always thought Playland was a 1/4 mile track, but you should know better than I. Did you read in a previous post of mine that I was very close to Blackie Lothringer's car when it came flying over the fence/wall that night? Were you there that night? Thanks for posting more names of the drivers of that era. I remember them. One you left out was Norm Pierce. He and Billy Wade had many close races to the finish line at Playland. A close friend of mine, Ben Bishop, raced at Meyer when it first opened. He was a rookie and only raced for a year or two. He ran in a '57 Chevy. Know him? Did you ever race at the old Arrowhead Park Speedway? I saw A. J. Foyt race there in midgets a few times when he was just starting out.

My dad told me many years ago (before there was a TV station in Houston) that the radio station, KPRC, call letters stood for Kotton Port Railroad Center. Don't know where that came from, but I remember him telling me. I saw my first TV broadcast in Houston on that January 1, 1949, at a friend's house. They were broadcasting the Cotton Bowl game that day. SMU was one of the teams...with Doak Walker and Kyle Rote. Don't recall the other team. There was a problem with the TV that no one knew how to fix. The picture kept rolling from bottom to top. I bet we looked funny as we kept nodding our heads to follow the picture. Of course, no one there knew that there was a simple adjustment called the Vertical Hold that could have fixed the problem. Since TV's were a new technology, no one wanted to attempt to turn any knobs for fear that it might self-destruct.

Gaido's was on the west side of South Main...right across from Playland. Have no idea why they used the same address. The Playland ad is 1947 time-frame.

I believe this address places it about where South Main and Murworth now intersect.

Try The Center for American History There was no concession stand in the balcony area that I can remember from the mid 40's - early 60's.

Name of the street was Buffalo Drive. When I was a kid, I played baseball, in a teen league, against a team they sponsored... The Townhouse Buffaloes.

You're right! I had forgotten about that one. I saw it, so must have been at the Windsor. I don't think the Windsor Theater was built until the early 60's, though. I know the Windsor shopping center was under construction in the mid-50's because we had impromptu drag races on several Sunday afternoons in the parking lot, which was completed while the shopping center buildings were still under contruction.

The screen was about a 90 degree arc/segment of a circle, if I remember correctly. I know the first Cinerama movies that came out used three cameras/lenses to shoot the action on three different reels. The three film reels were then placed in projectors that were synchronized to shoot in one-third sections on the screen, so that the motion/action would move from one section to another in a continuous motion to theoretically appear as shot with a single camera/lens. However, there was always a distinct separation/overlap between the sections that was, at times, very distracting. The best seats were at the center of the arc. I guess you could say it was a very rough version of today's IMAX, but the screen was not nearly as high. This is all from memory, so the details may not be exact, but it gives you a general idea of how the system worked. I think the first Cinerama movies debuted in the early 60's. That's when I saw my first one.

No dome....just a huge curved screen. I think they used three projectors for the wrap-around effect. The first ones, I know, were done that way. It may have evolved to a one projector configuration later on. I think How the West Was Won was the first Cinerama movie.

When the Windsor first opened, it was a Cinerama theater. I remember seeing It's a Mad, Mad World and Grand Prix in the Cinerama format there. T is correct. Very nice seats!

I just recently came across this thread, and since I know someone who was intimately familiar with the Cork Club, I thought I would pass this info by him for his comments. An interesting bit of trivia... "The discussion says the second location of the club was on Travis. Actually, the second location was on Fannin, across from the Warwick Hotel...in the Republic Insurance Building. It then moved to the Century Building. Yes, there was talk of having it open, after it closed in the Century Bldg, in a building at Hwy 6 and Memorial, but it never got beyond talk. McCarthy was going to receive a monthly, small set fee for allowing the use of the name Cork Club. The guy who owned the building was going to take over the Club and use its membership list to promote tenant leasing in his building. He was a con-man from Chicago and a real sleaze bag. The reason he was never able to complete the building was that his past finally caught up with him."

Would that place be near Weslayan? Is it a restaurant or meat/seafood market? A good friend of mine has mentioned a good meat market in that area, but I don't remember the name. I know this one sells beef, but I'm not sure about the seafood.

I remember Larry Kane very well. He was a contemporary of mine. He worked part-time as a DJ at the time he was attending San Jacinto High School just down the street from KNUZ. His real name was Harry Lieberman. The San Jacinto class of 1954 had their 50th reunion last year and Paul Berlin was one of their celebrity guests.

Heights, you are right on! I remember them as Elliot, Walter, and Bennett, if we are talking the same group here. They played at the Steak and Ale on the SW Fwy not far from Sharpstown Mall in the mid-70's. My daughter and some her pubescent friends adored them. My wife took them to see E, W, & B in person and they got to (gulp) talk to them. I forget which was her favorite. I bet that 41 year-old "girl" still has a record or two of theirs.

You mean to tell me that Shirar's is still there!? When I was a young kid, living on Elgin in the early 40's, I used to walk by there and drool at those new Schwinn's on display in his window.