Texas Primer: Barbed Wire
It spelled the end of the open range and the beginning of modern Texas.
March 1984 Issue
Features
The Deluxe Down-and-Dirty Goose Hunt
In which a group of society ladies samples the thrills and chills of an essentially masculine pastime.
In the Wings
Backstage at the Houston Ballet is a world of pastel shadows, brilliant spangles, and anxious waiting.
“I Beat Ben Barnes and John Connally in a Fair Fight”
When Bames-Connally Investments announced plans to build apartments in a South Austin neighborhood, the residents banded together to try to stop them. They won the battle but lost the war.
At the Mercy of the Court
What do drunks, prostitutes, lunatics, and elevators have in common? They’re all part of the weird 24-hour-a-day world of the Dallas County courthouse.
Western Art
This story is from Texas Monthly’s archives. We have left the text as it was originally published to maintain a clear historical record. Read more here about our archive digitization project. From 1983 to 1986, Texas Monthly’s regular feature, “Western Art,” highlighted artists’ takes on the classic
Columns
Big Oil Paranoia
Robert Sherrill’s Oil Follies of 1979-1980 leaves no detail unremarked in its effort to pin the blame on Big Oil; in Ronnie Dugger’s On Reagan the author is as unbending an ideologue as his subject is.
Classical Music
Who Needs Singers?
In conductor’s opera, each of the vocalists becomes just one more instrument in the musical ensemble.
Jazz
Back in the Mood
A definitive Smithsonian Recordings collection sets a new standard for big band anthologies; other big band recordings prove that swing remains vibrantly alive.
Movies
Mermaid Love
Ron Howard’s Splash is a refreshing frolic; Broadway Danny Rose gives us the old soft shoe; And the Ship Sails On is out to sea; Reuben, Reuben is a dark but funny double-decker.
Weather
I-10 On Ice
In five hours on icy roads the author covered 35 miles and discovered the perils of driving in a state that is unprepared for real winter.
Reporter
Reporter
Texas Monthly Reporter
Looking for the essence of Texas in El Paso, the soul of Dr. Red Duke in Houston, the secrets of status in Dallas, and a quirky West Texas empire in Balmorhea.
Miscellany
State Secrets
State Secrets
Mesa gets an unwanted ally in its battle against Gulf; how to turn $100 million into $12 million; why 1984 is a good year for incumbents; the legal establishment takes aim at a controversial supreme court judge.
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