Reporter
Texas Monthly Reporter
(Page 2 of 3)
Earlier, emcee Jim Franklin, a sartorial triumph in a Texas flag, ski goggles, Armadillo-head helmet and black cape, sallied from the wings and introduced the Mayor, who received an enthusiastic whoop and holler. As Franklin asked Hofheinz to stand and take a bow, he and Officer Weaver were pulling away from the Pavilion, headed toward the Whitehall Hotel for a meeting with the Japan-Texas Association.
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
Important court dates scheduled this month: Former House Speaker Gus Mutscher's bribery conspiracy case will be heard on April 10 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mutscher's appeal, along with those of former aides Rush McGinty and Tommy Shannon, will be heard together. All three received five-year probated sentences in 1972 for conspiring to accept loans and stock deals from Houston promoter Frank Sharp. . . . Frances T. Farenthold's proceeding against Governor Dolph Briscoe, accused of violating a new state election law, will be held April 8 in Austin. Briscoe is accused by Farenthold of violating the new law by soliciting contributions prior to his appointment of a campaign manager. Briscoe contends that the money solicited for the dinner before his appointment last October 19 of a campaign manager will be used only to help retire his 1972 campaign deficit.
FILM FLAM MAN
Former Texas Film Commission Director Warren Skaaren reports that movie makers in Texas this spring have been busier than a horsefly at a polo game. Dallas film producer Martin Jurow has found East Texas to be an ideal locale for two horror flies. He is finishing up At the Stroke of Murder near Leigh (that's near Marshall) witli an all Texas cast. Premiering this month is Don't Hang Up, starring Eddie's daughter, Susan Bracken. You will recognize Jefferson and Marion County in this one. ... A major production produced by David Parridines for David Frost, Leadbelly, begins rolling soon on locations near Austin and Navasota. Director Gordon Parks, Sr. has talked to musician Isaac Hayes and Sounder star Paul Winfield to play the legendary Texas blues singer. . . . Veteran producer Stanley Jaffee begins shooting Dallas author A. C. Greene's book, The Santa Claus Bank Robbery on location in Cisco where the slapstick holdup occurred just before Christmas, 1927. . . . Texas Star Productions, headed by Dallasite Bob Kurtz, goes to Palestine to begin work on Tumble Down Dead. . . . Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, and Michael Sachs star in Sugarland Express, premiering this month. Critics already are praising Bill Atherton's (Ms. Hawn's husband) performance.
BLIGHT TURNED BRIGHTER
It is a place in the city where B the landscape is more important than the characters, which cannot be said of many urban areas. The Vieux Carre in New Orleans and sections of Charleston and Savannah qualify. And so does the King William Historical District in San Antonio.
Dominant in this landscape are 75 or more Victorian homes of the late 19th century in various stages of restoration, ranging from the lavish Morton/Polk/Mathis House to dilapidated anachronisms waiting to be born anew.
The three streets comprising the heart of the district are a wilderness of turrets, chimneys, balconies, and porches resting among trees. It is a landscape that does not nourish avarice or greed. There is a monolithic poise about the neighborhood, a quietness that makes King William an oasis of calm near the city's hub.
To hurry would destroy the spirit of the place. This spirit is its charm and the reason San Antonians are rediscovering this decayed inner-city section.
The San Antonio River winds southward from downtown, forming the northern boundary of King William. The city's River Corridor Commission's preliminary plan is for further landscaping and development of the river through the neighborhood, hopefully to be finished before the bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
The exodus of San Antonians from the area toward the suburbs began after World War II, and continued until the mid-Sixties. During the war, those who lived in the bigger homes received tax breaks from the government for converting their homes to apartments because of the housing shortage. Some remained duplexes or single apartments, but since 1970, more and more owners are reconverting to single family dwellings.
Homes in the area reflect almost every major architectural influence from the 1860s to the 1920s: neoclassical, European, native, Victorian, Greek Revival. This classic example of Greek Revival began as a one-story house but was remodeled by Louis Oge in 1881. Today, it is an apartment house owned by Marshall Steves.
While many followed their fortunes north to Terrell Hills, some recognized the beauty and historical value of the area and moved in. Mr. and Mrs. William Watson bought their 144-year-old, one-story home in 1948. In 1944, Mr. and Mrs. George Isbell moved into their beautiful two-story stone home, built in 1878. Mrs. Carrie Steves still lives in one of the three Steves homes in the King William area, a magnificent two-story structure that has seen three generations of this well-known San Antonio family.
Miss Margaret Gething, a decorator specializing in historical restoration and the person largely responsible for the designation in 1967 of King William as the first historical district in Texas, moved to 409 East Guenther to begin restoration work along Washington, Madison, and King William Streets.
Thanks to the efforts of Miss Gething, Ted McAllister, and others interested in King William's preservation, the area has survived onslaughts from rapacious city councils, pseudo do-gooders, and progress in general.
Influential and interested citizens have helped along the way. Texas premier architect O'Neill Ford moved his architectural offices to 528 King William in 1955. Wealthy bachelor Walter Mathis began restoring the first of four houses in the area in 1967, one of which (at 401 King William) is one of the section's most extravagant.
Today, not only has flight away from the neighborhood stopped, but an unprecedented number of San Antonians are clamoring for real estate. Younger couples such as Mr. and Mrs. Jay Monday, architect and designer John Larcade, and architect Bruce Duderstadt, have bought and are restoring homes in the King William district.
On Saturday, April 27, King William Street will be closed off from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. for the King William Fair. There will be German and Mexican food, an art show, craftsmen working, music, and for two dollars, a tour through four homes.
REMEMBER THE ALAMODE
If you have been spurned and tossed aside, your performances not exactly playing to boffo grosses lately, and you're tired of being greeted everywhere with the welcome accorded a typhoid carrier, well, your Winter of the Long Knives is over. Snap to and check the cut of your jib because it's San Antonio Fiesta time.
For the 83rd time, the city adjourns for ten days (April 19-28) to whoop and frolic and cut up and generally run hog wild.
Every wholesome activity known to man unfolds somewhere in San Antonio during the next ten days including six parades, a Mexican rodeo, a 100-mile bicycle race, airmen and WAFs passing in review, a college rifle championship, and a young girl's synchronized swim group. Yeah!
HILLBILLY HEAVEN IN AGGIELAND
Willie Nelson has really done it this time. Tired of losing money on his July Fourth music festivals, the popular Austin-based singer has got him some sure-nuff businessmen to direct this year's extravaganza.
This year, Willie tried to escape the heat, he really did. "Willie Nelson's Easter Parade of Country Rock" was scheduled for April 13 at Rio Vista, south of Cleburne, but the law got increasingly uneasy. Cleburne's first massage parlour has just opened and Sheriff Cliff Benson didn't relish an onslaught of country-western freaks on top of an expected deluge of sex "preverts."
So Willie and Dr. John Young of Athens, together with three men from Bryan—Judge Bill Vance, Jim Campise, and Tony Joe Varisco—have put together the granddaddy of all country western music festivals.
"The Willie Nelson Second Annual Fourth of July Picnic" will be held July 4, 5, and 6 at Texas World Speedway in College Station from noon to 11 p.m. each day. Eight dollars a day or twenty bucks for all three days gets you in to hear ||| continuous music on two stages. The management guarantees no intermissions.
Here is the three-day line-up that reads like the American Federation of Musicians' directory: Leon Russell, Willie Nelson, Rita Coolidge, Lefty Frizzell, Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Rich, Bill Monroe, Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings, Sammi Smith, Johnny Rodriguez, Charlie Pride, Tom T. Hall, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Murphey, Doug Sahm, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, John Prine, Kinky Friedman, Roger Miller, Ray Price, Kenneth Threadgill and others. Leon and Willie will play each day.
Send your money for advance tickets to: Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic, Inc., Box 9500, College Station, Texas 77840.
WATTS UP?
On July 1, 1954, local Jaycee president Charles Ringler, and Dick Mitchell, president of the then Texas Neon Sign Manufacturing Company, hit the switch and a 71/2' X 13' neon American flag high atop the old county courthouse in Fort Worth lit up for all to see. Sky rockets, pin wheels, and roman candles paled that July 4th before the 1400-pound, light-bulb blazing flag.
But it was not to last. Protests poured in from the American Legion and other outraged Cow-towners who felt it was not a "real flag," as one old timer I talked to put it. "It was metal, it was ugly, and you couldn't raise or lower it. Hell, it was no flag a'tall." The once-glowing Old Glory has been destroyed, but it remained aloft until 1961 when it was finally removed the same cumbersome way it was erected.
MANDATE FOR MARTY
Despite spending a million dollars in its news effort alone, Dallas' WFAA-TV, Channel 8, companion station to the Dallas Morning News, consistently lagged behind the two other major stations in the Metroplex area.
It was embarrassing that the ABC affiliate station that ranked second in the nation (behind San Francisco) in major market news programming ranked last in the ARB and Nielsen rate books. Last fall, more viewers watched the six and ten p.m. newscasts on WBAP, Fort Worth's Channel 5; and on the noon news, the public preferred the Dallas Times Herald's KRLD, Channel 4, and WBAP to their wealthy colleague on Young Street.
The whiplash of blame fell on several backs, one of the first being the broad back of former anchorman Don Harris. Harris was controversial, a born devil's with the uncomfortable position. advocate who felt comfortable His forte was in hosting a show like News 8, Etc., where he could question provocative guests and establish something more than the usual witless doggerel heard on similar shows.
Harris had two strikes against him. First, as an anchorman, his ratings were awful. Second, he wanted to continue as anchorman. But the third strike took him out. A $40,000 consultant study showed that his prickly personality adversely affected viewers. They didn't like him. General Manager Mike Shapiro offered him News 8, Etc., but to remain as anchorman was out of the question. Harris presently is weekend anchorman at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles.
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