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The Waugh Hoo Drive Inn (!) was at the corner of Waugh and Gray (on the other side of W Gray but a couple blocks east of Captain John's)..

Thanks a million-Let's see if this jives with my colleague's remembrances. Where in the sam hill did you find this info??

Was it across the street? The closest thing I could find for 1963 was the Blue Grass Inn.

My colleague says that the drive inn was across the street from Captain John's and Fred Astaire dance studio. Blue Grass inn was a chicken joint and she thinks that Rettig's and Blue Grass were in business before the drive inn was in operation.

What time frame?

the 50sand 60s

This should probably go in the defunct restaurant section but does any one remember a drive in restaurant on W. Gray near Captain John's? Please -a colleague and I cannot remember the name. We think the name started with a "W" ( we don't think it was Weber's).

I had to take the video down, there was a copyright issue.

Copyright problems??? Devon, your snippet was great...J.R. Gonzalez's Chronicle Blog has the 22 minute KTRK film let's see if that works.

http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2011/08/1960s-film-profiles-houston-after-dark/

I think the library microfilm files are the only place you're going to find local reviews of 2001. The Chronicle's online archives don't go that far back, and they've never posted the Houston Post archives online. Happy hunting. It's fun digging through microfilm files. Really.

Thanks I thought that would be my only alternative. I tried Jeff Millar's name on Google but that didn't help . Any info on Carl Mann and/ or Art Casper (Mann with Channel 2 and both with UH Basketball in the 60sl ) and their whereabouts/past years? I can usually depend on you Filio for much info on Houston Old Time Media info

Have been reading about and re watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. Does anyone know where I can find reviews of the film from the Chronicle or the Post from back in the Summer of 1968. I think the old Houston Press was out of business by then. Is microfilm at the Library my only shot or is there anything on the net? Any help or tips would be great

Sorry to grave-dig but Swamplot posted a link to a HBJ article where a real estate broker said that he was working on five Steak 'n' Shake deals in the Houston area. One to open this year and four next year. The HBJ article didn't identify where; another poster in a different thread here on HAIF said she'd heard that one was coming to Pearland next to Red Lobster. Anyone have any more info about locations? I know at one time SnS was interested in The Woodlands College Park area and I've heard rumors of Cypress and Sugar Land also.

Wasn't their slogan a spelling variation of "Take Home A Sack"?

Clips from the "Remember in Houston when" facebook page videos.

Great stuff from yesteryear...so many memories and thoughts of a more innocent time

Parking within the TMC core is extremely profitable. Standard TMC rates get to $12 at just over 2 hours, which is as long as any doctor visit takes in the TMC. I'm sure MD Anderson will add a new building on the site with a large garage. Hopefully they integrate the adjacent rail stop thoughtfully.

Shamrock Hilton, Prudential Bldg. the icons always seem to come down in Houston. As stated before it is truly sad to see the building being taken apart. My brother was able to get some of the marble and granite that was taken down several years ago from the building. Too bad they couldn't salvage those slabs before they implode the building.

I remember Burger Haus on park place. Near some engineering firm.

Also... I dont recall a "Pizza place next to a flower shop on the NE side of the Park Place- Broadway- Gulf Fwy. traffic circle"... there is a pizza place on the NW side of that same interchange... Papa's I think.

My wife remembers a Goggi's Pizza in the area

I used to sneak around the property when I was a kid in the 60's. It wasn't far from where I lived. I stayed away from the house because it was said to be haunted. ( What abandoned property wasn't haunted when you were young?) I just liked the area because it was so woodsy, unlike anything else in the area.

My dad worked for Hubert Lumber Co in town and they did a lot of work for Meyer. In fact I believe that Meyer and Krist Hubert and others began the MeyerLand subdivision. Since we had an open invitation, we went to the area often in the late 50s and early 60s to go fishing at the pond on the acreage (we called it "Meyer's Lake"). It was stocked with perch and other fish so for we small fry using cane poles it was a treat to catch "the whoppers". Meyer often held barbecues on the property for companies related to the construction business. Such a bucolic place before the urban sprawl.

Presumably they've always had a ninth grade. In Aldine ISD they had a ninth grade in high school at the very beginning, but in the 1950s, again in the 1960s and then permanently after 1999 they were out as there was no room for them. After 1999, ninth graders had their own dedicated schools.

As for Houston ISD, sorry, that I can't say.

Now, a better question, and one I'm looking for an answer for, is when 12th grade became mandatory in Texas. At Aldine ISD, when the first high school opened in 1933, there was no 12th grade. I know 12th grade existed and that several Southeast Texas schools had it at the time. I've read stories of schools refusing to play one another in football because one school had 12th graders (a few of whom were 19 years old) and the other school didn't. So while it existed, it apparently was up to the individual school district. It wasn't mandatory in the early days of the UIL.

HISD moved the 9th grade Junior High School students to High Schools in the 1981-82 School Year. High Schools then became grades 9-12 and the new titled "Middle Schools" had grades 6-8. I decided to move to Westbury HS from Fondren JHS since I taught 9th graders.

Weingarten's were everywhere in the 60's I believe the grocery store at Meyerland Mall started out as a Weingarten's.

I think the first grocery was either a Henke's or an A&P..the first Weingarten's I remember was at Weslayan and Bissonett and later a new one built in Bellaire near Cedar Street , west of Rice between Bellaire and Bissonett both stores are now Randall's.

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Several items I either think I remember or know ...In the shoe department they had machines that showed Xrays of your feet to determine size and width and the curvature of your foot,,,these things had more radiation that medical ones and were finally done away with. I think I remember large murals on the walls on the main floor similar to federal arts works from the depression...is my mind playing tricks on me?? Near there was a Kress store, Delman theatre, One's a Meal, Prince's, Cleburne and Welden's Cafeterias, St. Agnes School...

Does anyone have any information or at least the name of the 1950s venue? Its demolition due to construction of 288 led to the late 1970s? article in the Post or Chronicle It must have been a major stop for bands on the rise. In the 1960s it continued as a major touring venue known as the Cinder Club perhaps concurrent with the Motown era.It was so long ago I may not have all details correct. Is this connected to the rumor-fact of Bill Haley living in the Menil Collection area in the early 1950s?

I just remember going to the Cinder Club in the late 60s to see the top acts. We never felt like the frat boys in "Animal House"!

Poncie Ponce was a star of Hawaiian Eye back in the 60s

In an earlier post someone mentioned Bill Worrell and a Channel 2 sportscaster who died. That was Bill Enis? One of his sons Bart is still in town and does work on Astro's games.

Someone also mentioned Chris Chandler's show on Channel 2 at 5:00pm.

I cannot remember the name of a local afternoon music and talk show on Channel 2 with Paul Schmidt in the 50s and one of the top performers on the show was a young Johnny Nash of "I Can See Clearly Now" fame.

Is the EDIT option gone?

The MM lady in the photo is Maxine Messenger...before she had her hair done at Michael-Lyndon's. Maxine had a talk show too. It was called Maxine at the Mark. It was broadcast live in the mid 1980's from the Adams Mark Hotel on Briarpark Drive.

Marietta Marich, another local MM, had a show on NBC with her husband Bob in the 1950's and 1960's. Here is a link to a 1958 photo of her from Life magazine.

Life

Poncie Ponce was a star of Hawaiian Eye back in the 60s

In the earliest days, virtually all local TV was live. The original owner of Channel 2 expected it would not only be live but remote so he equipped the original studios in the Milby Hotel downtown with only one camera and put two on a remote truck.

After network feeds began filling prime time on TV, Channel 2 kept up a lot of local programming, entertainment and otherwise, in addition to the required Pretty Serious Programs in the Sunday morning ghetto.

They tried several times to come up with a late nite talk show to follow Carson when the Tonight show was on until midnight. These included Midnight with Marietta hosted by Marietta Marich, who was with one of the local theatre companies (not the Alley I don't think). There was also the Bill Calder show

That's Calder on the right, a KPRC DJ in the era when KPRC was playing big band and swing and jazz; next to him is comedian Bill Dana. The next person looks like Skitch Henderson to me; then there are the members of the Kingston Trio and somebody else.

The guest is identified as Poncie Ponce, whoever that is; does anybody recognize the lady cohost? Hint: the initials are MM.

These were both in 1964, pre-video tape so probably done live.

KPRC also regularly did a Saturday night program, After Midnight?, which was off-beat humor, skits, a little bit of wierdness, etc.

Love Street

It was a very groovy place despite this strange smoke that always seem to linger in the air.

The sites mentioned by cadetdonfan and fringe are outstanding if you want anything related to the music scene in Houston and Texas in the 1960s. I believe that fringe's site is one he put together.

Used to go to the Drag Weinerscnitzel a bunch in 1967...losers of boarding house card games would trek/ walk on down from 22nd and buy for the players...bad news on cold nights. Still go in Bryan and Austin...put the darn franchise in SugarLand

Anybody have any info ( Stations, times, years run) on a syndicated kid's program here in Houston on Saturdays called "Big John and Sparkie" and/or "No School Today"

According to the special section in the Post-Dispatch about the move, the facility was 7/8s mile from Sugar Land Industries, Inc., which I take to be a reference to Imperial Sugar, and within sight of the SP and SF trains passing through town. I never found a better description of the location so whether it was to the east or west of IS or north or south of the rails I don't know.

KPRC was one of the most powerful stations in the Southern US at 2500 watts and was known from coast-to-coast in an era when there were a lot fewer signals cluttering the dial and some localities still observed 'silent night' once a week when local stations would stay off the air so listeners could pull in signals from far away.

The site was specifically selected so that passengers on the trains could look out the window and see the station they had listened to back home. The big sign on top of the building was lighted and a timer ensured that the lights would be on by dusk so passengers on night trains would be able to see it, too.

The location was near the present intersection of HWY 90 and Eldridge Rd. just north of the RR tracksThe concrete pylons for the tower were removed a few years ago to make way for a professional building now somewhat complete on the old site. I only know this because my Dad pointed it our to me many years ago when we used Eldridge as a way to get to HWY 90 on our way to Richmond/Rosenberg.

How long has the coin shop been down on the corner? Seems I remember it from the mid 80s. But, my mind is fuzzy from too many 3 for 1 happy hours at the Caribana back then. It was right next to Variety Fair.

Man I remember Sullivan's Island next to it in the early 70s

Just read that the Village institution Variety Fair will be closing down within the next 90 days...what a shame, what a great place of fond memories, just another addition to the dwindling number of Houston landmarks that come to a sad end.