November 1986 Issue

Davy Crockett painting.
On the Cover

Davy Crockett, Still King of the Wild Frontier

He was a master of tall tales and a genius at self-promotion. But was he anything more?

Features


The Long, Lonesome Road

Fred Thomas was young, poor, and black. Not only was he afflicted with the terror of schizophrenia, he was also faced with the chaos of the Texas mental health system.

Columns


Movies

Ball of Glitter

Technologically, Captain EO is a marvel, but the plot is banal to the point of retrograde; Touch and Go has drive and laughs; True Stories has no stories; The Men’s Club is a stag party with pretensions; Shanghai Surprise is a passable waste of time.

Forty-two Per Cent Potent

In the novel Paradise, Donald Barthelme offers a cereal box of current events and social observations; Laura Furman challenges the dogged ideal of family in Tuxedo Park; Karleen Koen’s Through a Glass is a crash-bang publishing event.

Who Made the Cut?

On LPs spurred by the MTV limelight, Timbuk3 blends street beast with witty wordplay, the True Believers combine six-string moxie with striving vocals, and the Tail Gators pack a sonic wallop.

Reporter


Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Will the beaches of Boca Chica become sand traps? Will hard-core punkers perform on Dallas’ favorite kiddie show. Peppermint Place? Will Texas Republicans shell out for their Great Hispanic Hope.

Web


On the Menu: Wildfire

It’s probably not fitting to call Georgetown a small town anymore. With incredible growth brought on by development in north Austin and Round Rock, a considerable university population and a burgeoning cultural scene, it’s hardly Mayberry, USA. But it does have a town square, a lunch counter, a historic

Miscellany


State Secrets

State Secrets

Who’ll follow Fred Akers at UT? Environmentalists and sportsmen team up to black a dam; two congressional races are political barometers.

The Quidnunc

The Quidnunc

Sizing up Phyllis Diller; foiling Esquire’s great expectations; hopping continents with honeymooners Lloyd and Joanne Davis.

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