FilioScotia

Crown Automotive? I don't think so. I don't remember an automotive service place at that location. I remember it was Crown Plumbing - a 24/7 plumbing service outfit that evolved into ARS, American Residential Services.

Houston had three big one-screen first run movie houses, all built in the 1920s. The Metropolitan at 1018 Main Street, was just two doors down from the Loew's State at 1014 Main. You can't tell from the front, but the Loew's was very luxurious on the inside. You felt like you were walking into the palace at Versailles. Their websites include photos of their interior. Metropolitan: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1702 Loew's State: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1703 The Majestic Theater was several blocks away at 908 Rusk, and it was the grandest movie palace of all. Majestic: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1672 It's been years since I've been in downtown Houston so I have no idea what is in those locations now.

And you should NOT under any circumstances read the trash version of the story written by John Hill's second wife Ann Kurth Hill. Murder in Texas is the book that became the TV movie, and it's mostly cheap and tawdry fiction. That's why Hollywood TV moguls just fell all over themselves turning it into a a prime time movie. The late and lamented Thomas "Tommy" Thompson was a very good and prolific Houston newspaper reporter who poured his journalistic talents into writing very erudite and readable non-fiction true-crime stories. Blood and Money is his best, and it is the best and most accurate telling of this crazy and sordid story. Sadly, Thompson left us far too soon. He died of a liver infection in 1982, just weeks after his 49th birthday.

Get your hands on the book Blood and Money by the late Tommy Thompson. He was a very fine Houston newspaper reporter who turned to writing very good true crime books. Blood and Money is the most detailed and truthful telling of the John Hill saga yet written. You can buy it on Amazon.

Let us resist reading anything sinister into this. Houston is a major TV market, and KTRK is one of the big 3 TV stations. It's a fact of life that people come and go in that business all the time.

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You're right Michelle. Convenience stores are ALL alike. Same layout and same inventory of short shelf-life basic necessities. Only difference is the name. I'm also baffled that anyone would want more of them - especially more 7-11's. They all charge ultra high prices for everything. It's the price we pay for their "convenience." Personally I can't stand them, but there are times when I have to go to one near my home in east Texas because it's after hours or very early in the morning and my supermarket isn't open. I think that's one of the definitions of "necessary evil." Oh well.

Are we taking about the corner that's now occupied by the American General building complex?

Well, actually, the Yellow Rose is at 8334 Gulf Fwy, and it's an Erotic Massage Parlor, one of those places that guarantee you a "happy ending." You may be thinking of the Ramblin' Rose, a neighborhood country-atmosphere bar on Spencer Highway at Preston Road.

That is very true. It's the biggest difference between traditional Country Music and all other genres.

Just a guess, but maybe San Jacinto looking north from Clay? Another guess: Polk looking west from around Milam or Travis.

Too young? Christi has been working in TV for almost 40 years and she's a grandmother. Not that there's anything wrong with that. She has tons of award winning experience and a lot of years left, and she could keep working somewhere if she wants to. Maybe she will. Who knows? I think she's tired of the grind and just wants to stay home and get to know her grandkids. A lot of people in TV reach that point sooner or later. It's a tough business that can burn you out at some point. I think that's where she is now. Best wishes to her. Mazel tov. Enjoy your retirement.

I could be wrong about this, but I don't believe 100% Oldies formats, even "recent" Oldies, have ever worked well in Houston. I can remember only one that made money - Oldies 105 - And it went away years ago. Stations that play Oldies now don't list them as their primary format. They mix them in with the genres that make their money and keep them on the air. Many people say they love listening to Oldies, but they can't be found when the ratings are measured.

I'll be damned. I remember Lee Cook coming and going from my radio station down the hall from Phonoscope. He was friends with the station owner John "Shorty" Powers. I never knew till today that he was the owner of Phonoscope. That explains the gimmicky cross promotion deal I described in my first response here. I also have to say that if the Nassau Bay Phonoscope operation was an example of Cook's "expertise" in building a cable TV system, I have to wonder how he has survived in that business. I will say only that I was never impressed with it.

I don't know if it was the first of its kind around here, but in the early 60s when NASA was moving in and Nassau Bay was coming into existence, somebody came up with the idea of a "Community Antenna TV System" (CATV) and every home there would be connected to it by cable. I believe the thinking was that since everybody who lived there worked for NASA or a NASA contractor, residents could have access to important NASA information and notices by just turning on the TV. The system was named Phonoscope, and it was a flop because NASA never put much of its info on the cable. The studio was in the old Nassau Bay Professional building on Upper Bay Road, and it operated only sporadically because Phonoscope didn't have people there running it all the time. Most of the time it just showed old movies, and when the movie ended the screen went blank. They did a gimmicky cross promotion with the easy listening FM radio station I worked at down the hall, KMSC 102.1. (now KMJQ Majiq 102) In addition to carrying our radio signal, they put two small wall mounted cameras in the control room, one pointed at the DJ, the other at an easle where we put the album cover of the record we were playing. The DJ camera came on when we opened the mike to talk, and when we weren't talking, viewers - if there were any -- could see the name of what we were playing. Very exciting stuff. No wonder it died after only a couple of years. I see trucks with the name Phonoscope on the side around Houston from time to time, but I doubt it's the same company.

I remember a Jerry Lewis Movie Theater somewhere around there, and I think it was at Voss and San Felipe. It was one of a number of movie houses Jerry Lewis opened back in the 70s promising they would only show G-Rated "family" oriented movies. They were locally owned franchises and they only lasted a few years. They didn't fail because of poor attendance, but because the business model never worked. They were history by 1980.

OK folks here's the story on Mount Houston. The Texas State Historical Association says: "MOUNT HOUSTON, TEXAS is east of U.S. Highway 59 near the Dyersdale oilfield in north central Harris County. It was founded on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway ten miles from Houston. A post office operated there from 1910 until 1918. In 1914 Mount Houston had two churches, a sawmill, a lumber company, numerous market gardeners, and a population of 100. By the 1980s three churches and three schools were within a mile of the townsite, but the community had not significantly increased in size." The Dyersdale oilfield was in the general area where East Mount Houston intersects with Mesa Rd in northeast Harris County. So there you have it. At one time there was only Mount Houston Road, which ran east of US 59 out to the Mount Houston community. At some point over the years, the road was extended to the west of 59, and that extension was named West Mount Houston. This still doesn't explain where the name "Mount Houston" comes from. I'm guessing there's a rise in the otherwise flat Gulf Coast terrain that's high enough to qualify as a hill, and some early jokester named it Mount Houston.

You're talking about the Harris County Youth Village in Seabrook. It's operated by the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, and here's a link to their website that tells you everything you need to know about it. http://www.hcjpd.org/residential_facilities.asp

I'm not trying to hijack this thread but I'm reminded of a posting I made on the subject of telephone exchange names nearly ten years ago here on HAIF. In the days of word-prefixes on phone numbers, you could tell at a glance what part of town a person lived in. For example, MOhawk numbers were in Bellaire. Actually, they still are, because the letters "MO" are "66" on the dial. Even today many numerical prefixes in the 713 area code tell me where a phone number lives, because at one time, ALL Houston phone numbers were 713. This is hardly a complete list, but here some others, with the current numeric prefixes listed first, 22 - CApital, and it was the downtown Houston area. 52 - JAckson, in the Montrose area 62 - NAtional, on the west side. It replaced the MAdison exchange in the 1960s. 64 - MIssion, on the southeast side. 65 - OLive, also on the southeast side 92 - WAlnut, on the east end.between the Gulf Fwy and the Ship Channel. 46 - HOmestead, on the west side north of Buffalo Bayou and in Spring Branch 69 - OXford, on the north side. 63 - MElrose - also on the far north side. 45 - GLendale, in east Harris County in the Jacinto City Channelview area 47 - GReenwood, in Pasadena, Deer Park and La Porte. Originally, this was GRand, but it was changed to GReenwood in the mid 50s. I have no idea why it was changed. 48 - HUdson, in South Houston, and later the Clear Lake Area as NASA moved in. This was changed to HUnter in the 1970s. Again, I don't know why. 86 - UNderwood, in the Heights. 78 - SUnset - West Houston west of Post Oak 68 - OVerland - Much of Spring Branch and parts of Memorial Using words as prefixes went the way of the Dodo bird when the population grew and they needed more phone numbers, and they decided they could no longer use numbers that conformed to the first two letters of a known word. So that's why we now have "numbers only" phone numbers. Ah yes. Progress.

For what it's worth, assuming the "J" in that phone number was short for JAckson, the number would today be 713-522-0164. A reverse phone number search at Whitepages dot com shows this number now belongs to Dr. David Moore-Jones at 1824 Kirby Dr. in River Oaks. I wonder if he still gets calls from somebody trying to call the Gay Nineties Club.

There really was a time not all.that long ago when the term "Gay 90s" referred to the fun and frivolity the upper classes enjoyed in the 1890s, and it had nothing to do with homosexuality.

You're harking back to the time when Ford had a parts plant here in Houston. It was on Harrisburg in the building that's now a coffee plant. Check out some of the old local Ford dealership photos on this link: http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/840188-vintage-dealership-photos.html

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the park in the photo was Colonial Park in West U. The clothes the men are wearing look very 1920s, and West U came into existence in the early 20s. It is also true that West U has always been a very upscale white collar neighborhood, so it's very possible that it could have built a nice public park like the one in the photo.

For Matty: The Sears Hardware on Hwy 6 near West Road is in a free standing building and is not connected to the long strip center next door. And it's still there.

Generally speaking, your chances of winning a prize are inversely proportional to the value of the prize. If the prize is a pair of concert or baseball game tickets, they're easy. The cheaper the prize, the better the odds. They'll give away dozens of tickets in the weeks leading up to the event. If they're giving away a big prize like a Jeep Cherokee or a Love Boat cruise to the Caribbean, all entries go into a hopper for a single drawing with only one winner.