Urban Animals huge party called Porno Picnic

[terrbo]

I went to two of these in the early 80's. Mostly skates and friends of skaters.. on this pretty large tract of land. I keep wanting to say it's off Tuam.. and the person who's land was went by the name (or nickname?) of Reno Nevada. Lots of fun.. I remember hearing Austin musician (and actor, I hear?), this guy named Dino Lee. I remember him performing in his underwear? Pretty wild parties!

I wish I could remember the exact location of these Porno Parties. Don't know how long they had em. I got turned on to this annual party by my boyfriend at the time's friend.

?????

[musicman]

in the 90's i know they were having porno clown skates yrly.

[terrbo]

in the 90's i know they were having porno clown skates yrly.

I keep thinking... maybe near where that large building on Albany was/is? I went to a "No Noise Ordinance" festival there in the early 90's. Where they had those Porno Picnics was probably condos or townhomes now..

[isuredid]

I went to two of these in the early 80's. Mostly skates and friends of skaters.. on this pretty large tract of land. I keep wanting to say it's off Tuam.. and the person who's land was went by the name (or nickname?) of Reno Nevada. Lots of fun.. I remember hearing Austin musician (and actor, I hear?), this guy named Dino Lee. I remember him performing in his underwear? Pretty wild parties!

I wish I could remember the exact location of these Porno Parties. Don't know how long they had em. I got turned on to this annual party by my boyfriend at the time's friend.

?????

The Porno Picnic was at the NE corner of Bremond and Helena. I believe this was the home of (someone can correct me if I'm wrong), one of the founders of The Family Hand and Liberty Hall. The property was on the grounds of the old Oak Place Estate and may have been one of the old outbuildings. I was well hidden away from the street and was right down the street from the old Family Hand location (Brazos River Bottom bar) Brazos and McGowen.

I remember Dino Lee's White Trash Revue and his backup singers "The Jam and Jelly Girls"

The Ooze Brothers (Born to Ooze) were a part of that Porno Picnic scene too.

Dino Lee Video on YouTube

Dino Lee Video

[escapee]

Ah, the Porno Picnic. I almost remember. Yes, here it is. The OOze Brothers, Mongo and Lloyd, street comedians, were everywhere back then. One of the brothers got up on stage totally naked to make a speech, opened his mouth, and muttered, "Too many drugs, can't talk." He still got a hearty cheer. There were some sights to see: a tall woman in dominatrix garb leading around a very good-looking young man who was wearing only a speedo and a dog collar with a long chain; two-/threesomes doing whatever their sunburned skin could stand to do; a building with XXX rated movies going on. And the whole time, the cops waiting outside the fence to catch anybody breaking the law as they left. Needless to say, many people hung around inside the grounds until very late.

There were alway lots of Animals at any party back then, but I don't remember them organizing the Porno Picnic. I only went to one, and it turned out to be the last one. One of the brothers, I think it was Lloyd had a birthday party every year at Club Hey Hey or the Bon Ton Room. It was the Bruce Henry Davis Yearly Going Out of Business Sale. What a hoot THOSE parties were.

I think I'm losing brain cells just thinking about all that drinking.

Anybody else remember those times?

[FilioScotia]

Ah, the Porno Picnic. I almost remember. I think I'm losing brain cells just thinking about all that drinking. Anybody else remember those times?

It's completely lost in the haze and that's the catch. It's like Woodstock. If you can remember it, you probably weren't there.

[isuredid]

[BlueSquirrel]

The first Porno Picnic I went to was in the late 70's, '78 I think. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who remembered these times!

The woman who lived in the house there was named Linda of Higgler's B Shop fame. She had a series of resale/junk shops. L & B Trading Post was one of them. She had a store on the north east corner of West Alabama and Audubon about the same time that the Porno Picnics were starting up back then.

Ah, the bad old days . . . . sigh.

[northbeaumont]

I went to two of these in the early 80's. Mostly skates and friends of skaters.. on this pretty large tract of land. I keep wanting to say it's off Tuam.. and the person who's land was went by the name (or nickname?) of Reno Nevada. Lots of fun.. I remember hearing Austin musician (and actor, I hear?), this guy named Dino Lee. I remember him performing in his underwear? Pretty wild parties!

I wish I could remember the exact location of these Porno Parties. Don't know how long they had em. I got turned on to this annual party by my boyfriend at the time's friend.

?????

There's only one way that I know how to put on my underwear: yellow in the front and brown in the back.

[BlueSquirrel]

I went back and checked my map. The Porno Picnic was held at the corner of McGowan and Bailey. The property faced McGowan, right where Albany dead ends into it. If you came down Albany it was a dogleg turn up the driveway.

It was a wierd property. There was a long warehouse -like space on the east end of the building and another similar, but smaller space on that closer to Albany. Behind it all was a little house. It was all one building to the best of my memory, but it was as though it had been added onto haphazardly.

I have no idea what it was in its original incarnation, but it was a wonderful place to hang out.

The Porno Picnics got way out of hand in the end. I worked the door in 1985. There was a cover charge and people showed up from God knows where. It got pretty wild and strange. I stayed away from the last one. Little bit too much strange for me.

[BlueSquirrel]

I went to two of these in the early 80's. Mostly skates and friends of skaters.. on this pretty large tract of land. I keep wanting to say it's off Tuam.. and the person who's land was went by the name (or nickname?) of Reno Nevada. Lots of fun.. I remember hearing Austin musician (and actor, I hear?), this guy named Dino Lee. I remember him performing in his underwear? Pretty wild parties!

I wish I could remember the exact location of these Porno Parties. Don't know how long they had em. I got turned on to this annual party by my boyfriend at the time's friend.

?????

Dino Lee came off very subdued at the Porno Picnic. I don't think he was really ready for what was happening. After all, the guy was a performer and a lot of what went on was very much for real and not on a stage.

The next night at Fitz's he attempted to make up for it. I still remember him announcing over and over that "this (his Fitzgerald performance) was the real Porno Picnic!"

What a silly man!

[terrbo]

Dino Lee came off very subdued at the Porno Picnic. I don't think he was really ready for what was happening. After all, the guy was a performer and a lot of what went on was very much for real and not on a stage.

The next night at Fitz's he attempted to make up for it. I still remember him announcing over and over that "this (his Fitzgerald performance) was the real Porno Picnic!"

What a silly man!

did a google search on Porno Picnic and found this article. Rather old art., but good article, IMHO. If y'all've already read it, apologies!

The Party's Over

A classic Houston hell-raiser dies after two decades of debauchery

By Steve McVicker

Published: May 10, 2001

The life of the party is dead. Nevertheless, when word of his death spread last week, Bruce Henry Davis insisted as usual on having the last laugh. But this time, none of his friends thinks it is funny.

• <H5 class=caption>From left, Hudgins, Davis and Campbell (and a child drummer) teamed up for their Ooze Brothers album.</H5>
  

The demise of Davis, 52, was duly noted last week in a paid obituary in the Houston Chronicle. Accented by an appropriately impish-looking picture of Davis sporting a straw fedora, the notice began by notifying readers that the city's favorite wild child passed away on April 27 "due to too many years of partying too hard."

Indeed, the irrepressible Davis could not have said it better himself. Apparently he did say it himself -- or at least he wrote it about two years ago, with a blank left for the actual date of death.

A native Houstonian, Davis graduated from Spring Branch High School and the University of Texas. His advanced degree came in decadence, though. Davis will be best known for his annual Going Out of Business bashes, coupled with events with less elusive titles: Porno de Mayo, Porno Picnic, Pornteenth and Porno July. Loosely referred to as parties, they were in reality nothing short of semi-organized debauchery.

He owned his own advertising agency, but friends say that for Davis, the party never ended. A close associate scoffed at the claim two years ago that Davis had stopped drinking.

"He was cheating at solitaire," explains Richard Hudgins, Davis's longtime co-conspirator in outrageous bad taste and good times. "Bruce was just bound and determined to live hard, die young. But unfortunately he didn't leave a good-looking corpse. He did leave a beautiful memory."

The friends are best remembered, at least by those who still can, as two-thirds of the infamous trio known as the Ooze Brothers. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Hudgins, Davis and the late Greg Campbell often took on their alter egos of Mongo, Lloyd and Syndrome, a.k.a. the Ooze Brothers.

In what could charitably be called a comedy routine, the three donned outlandish clothes, played toy instruments and satirized popular songs: "I Shot John Lennon (But I Did Not Shoot the Deputy)," "Johnny B. Hung" and "(I Can't Get No) Rely Tampons." They produced a record of one performance at their home base of Fitzgerald's, the Heights music club.

More than anything else, the three were known as King Hell partiers. An early Porno Picnic -- replete with scantily clad women, skin flicks and mind-altering substances -- was where Hudgins and Davis first became friends.

Hudgins recalls that he went to get a beer for his large-breasted first wife only to return and find a stranger, Davis, standing behind her with his arms under her armpits and his hands "squeezing her tits."

"And I said, 'Hey, asshole, that's my wife!' And he goes, 'Well, I know that!' So immediately, I liked him."

Surprisingly enough, they divorced a short time later. He started hanging out with Davis, and the Ooze Brothers were born. Campbell was the first to depart -- killed in a drug deal gone bad.

Davis and his friend continued oozing for two decades, until maturity finally caught up with Hudgins. He remarried, had a child and, like most 52-year-olds, slowed down. Davis didn't. Hudgins says his friend became isolated and depressed as he continued his hard-living ways.

"Nothing made any difference," says Hudgins. "I tried sweet love, tough love, everything I could to get him out of the doldrums, but he just wouldn't hear of it. He was going to do it his way. He was a tough guy."

Davis never married. Five years ago he told Hudgins he was taking himself out of the dating game. It was then that Hudgins knew Davis was in serious trouble. "I'd never heard Bruce say that," says Hudgins. "I was real surprised that he wouldn't be out there going after the snatch. To me that was the first of the seven deadly warning signs."

About nine months ago Hudgins confronted him about his failing health. Davis said he had lost the will to live. At that point Hudgins began distancing himself emotionally from his old friend, preparing mentally for the inevitable bad ending.

Donna Alexander met Davis years earlier, when she was just starting out in the medical marketing business. She still credits his early ad campaign for much of the success of her company, Marketing Rx.

"Part of his genius and brilliance were the words he used," says Alexander. "He used words in a funny sense when he was an Ooze Brother, but he really was the ultimate copywriter. He had a tremendous command of words."

Alexander, who relocated to Houston recently after several years in Dallas and Florida, ran into her old friend early last month as she shopped at Randalls near West University Place. As usual, Davis was dressed strangely, wearing a weird hat, an extremely loud aloha shirt, striped pants and fluffy slippers. But it was not Davis's attire that caught the attention of Alexander and her husband.

Instead, they were horrified by his yellow eyes, jaundiced and bruised skin, distended stomach and swollen ankles. The couple tried to convince Davis to see a doctor, but he insisted he was fine and brushed off their suggestions -- or so they thought.

Davis apparently took the recommendations to heart. A few days later he checked himself into Ben Taub Hospital for treatment of his failing liver and kidneys. On Easter Sunday, he emerged like some sort of detoxed Jesus.

But by April 25 Davis was back in intensive care. Doctors told his sisters that he would not be coming out alive this time. Mongo Hudgins went to see his Ooze Brother one last time.

"I saw him on Wednesday, and he was so weak and tired," says Hudgins. "So I cried pretty thoroughly that day. I came back and saw him later in the day and told him that the doctors said he was going to die there." Hudgins asked if there was anything he could do.

"Nothing I can think of" was Davis's terse reply.

Bruce Henry Davis died two days later.

Davis was a "born-again agnostic," so there will be no memorial service, Hudgins says. There will be a memorial bash. On May 20, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., the usual suspects will gather at the Shady Tavern on West 20th Street for the Final Annual Going Out of Business Party to remember the fallen ringmaster.

As usual, the music will be provided by old friend Tommy Dardar and his Sheetrockers band, along with Rock Romano -- a.k.a. Dr. Rockit -- and Little Screaming Kenny.

"He just didn't want to live," says Hudgins dejectedly. "And in that case, it was time to move on. He just let things go to hell is what he did. And a lot of people sure will miss him."

Already feeling the loss is Dardar, who drove him home from the hospital on Easter. "He said he wasn't prepared to live to 55," says Dardar. "He was on a mission, and I guess he accomplished it. But I'm going to miss Bruce the way he was before, before he started on that mission."

[northbeaumont]

I went back and checked my map. The Porno Picnic was held at the corner of McGowan and Bailey. The property faced McGowan, right where Albany dead ends into it. If you came down Albany it was a dogleg turn up the driveway.

It was a wierd property. There was a long warehouse -like space on the east end of the building and another similar, but smaller space on that closer to Albany. Behind it all was a little house. It was all one building to the best of my memory, but it was as though it had been added onto haphazardly.

I have no idea what it was in its original incarnation, but it was a wonderful place to hang out.

The Porno Picnics got way out of hand in the end. I worked the door in 1985. There was a cover charge and people showed up from God knows where. It got pretty wild and strange. I stayed away from the last one. Little bit too much strange for me.

Shouldn't it been more appropriately called an "uncover" charge?