Dave W

I remeber they just closed up like overnight and if you had something there for repair Marvin Zindler had to get involved. I think they sent everything in the repair department to their home office in Florida? but it got fixed and sent back. I can only remember there was one on the South Loop near Crossroads and Mangurians

They filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy and were liquidated under the supervision of a bankruptcy trustee. An uncle of mine was a TV repairman at the South Loop location, he was unable to get any of his testing and repair tools and equipment back, and AFAIK no customers with pending repairs got their TVs or other appliances back.

Bruce, your memory of Bert's house later being a restaurant jogged my memory. I believe the restaurant was Jamil's.

Edit:

1953 image of the Bert Wheeler mansion located at the present-day Bethany United Methodist Church.

By 1957 the mansion was demolished and the church can be seen:

TTA

TTA

The convenient way to travel today

Fly dependable, TTA

Trans-Texas Airways

Don't ask me how or why I remember that.

^^^ Landa Park is very old but it's just a large city park, not an amusement park. Does have a miniature train though.

The park at Main & Kirby was Kiddie Wonderland, not Kiddieland. There's a similar but even older park of the same type still operating in San Antonio, Kiddie Park. It's on Broadway at Mulberry on the southeast edge of Brackenridge Park.

Another old Houston kiddie amusement park was Wee Wild West on Post Oak.

Playland Park was owned by the Slusky brothers, Sam and Louis. After Sam was killed in the racetrack accident in 1959, Louis lost interest and closed it. IIRC Louis never lived in Houston, Sam was active in running the park and track.

The Dome Shadows was in Buffalo Plaza Shopping Center, which was built about 1958. Murworth only existed west of Timberside back then, but that is where the segment between Main and Buffalo Speedway later dead-ended.

Sonny Look's was built in the old End Of Main Ballroom building which had been vacant for some time. No idea how long it lasted, I was long gone from Houston by then.

Bert Wheeler owned a lot of land in that area. He was the original owner of the Las Vegas and 29 Palms motels.

I suppose I should clarify then. Whatever it may have been later, it was built by Bert Wheeler as his private residence.

The name was Gateway Crystal Pool. Most people just called it Gateway.

I'm absolutely certain it opened before 1958 or 1959. The pool and rink were both already open when my folks moved to the area in 1950. I took my first swimming lessons from Les Oldfield in the early 1950s. The slide and bubble canopy weren't added until about 1955.

I heard Les Oldfield tell my dad that he would shut the pool before he would ever integrate it. I remember him as a nice man, but he was a man of his time in what was a segregated city.

That was Bert Wheeler's house. It was never a club.