From William Williams (the man with the great name) at my old hometown's Big D 60's Music Yahoo Group:
"Gene F. is doing some work on the upcoming revised edition of the Handbook of Texas Music, and I noticed this article on Kat's Karavan. Staying up late with a transistor radio under the covers listening to all this really wild music that you couldn't hear anywhere else - those were formative music experiences for me."
KAT'S KARAVAN.
Kat's Karavan was a rhythm-and-blues radio program broadcast from Dallas from 1953 to 1967 on WRR-AM. The program aired R&B music to a primarily white teenage audience with burgeoning interests in music previously off-limits to them because of contemporary race relations.
In the 1950s white-owned radio stations across the country were just beginning to dabble in playing music made by African Americans. Unsure of the commercial prospects of such a venture, many radio stations were reluctant to cross racial lines in their programming. Kat's Karavan defiantly played early R&B music performed by blacks, even though the show was hosted by and aimed at whites. The show was particularly influential because of its formatting, its personalities, the large region it broadcast to, and the number of famous musicians who came of age while listening to it.
Kat's Karavan showed strong support for local music acts such as the Nightcaps, who recorded their only album (Wine, Wine, Wine) at the WRR studio in 1959; the single of the same name was used as a promotional vehicle for the show. This album, which also included the song "Thunderbird, " influenced upcoming local artists including Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and members of ZZ Top.
While promoting local music, Kat's Karavan also exposed its listeners to musicians from outside Texas, including such legendary blues figures as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Thus the show intended to expand the horizons of its listeners and inform them of the musical styles being created by black musicians.
The show's disc jockeys also contributed to its success. Kat's Karavan was co-hosted by Jim Lowe, Jr., and Bill Carroll, who provided comedy for the listeners and encyclopedic knowledge of the music and the musicians. Lowe became such a well-loved figure in the Dallas area that, for forty years, he was the voice of the mechanical cowboy, Big Tex, at the State Fair of Texas. Another notable co-host of Kat's Karavan was Englishman John Peel. His work on the show in 1961 marked his early broadcast career before he returned to England to host the BBC radio program Top Gear. (In 2009 a CD set chronicling Peel's broadcasts later in his career was named KatsKaravan.)
Kat's Karavan was also successful because of its unique format. Lowe and Carroll divided the show into two parts. The first began at 10:30 each weeknight and centered on R&B vocal groups, while the second began at 11:15 and focused on both electric and acoustic blues. All these blues styles influenced the development of R&B. The show informed listeners of contemporary R&B developments and their historical backgrounds. Two rare segments of a 1961 broadcast of Kat's Karavan have been discovered and donated to WRR by a private collector.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Observer, November 11, 2004. Robert Wilonsky, "Peeling Back John Peel's Dallas Daze," Dallas Observer, May 16, 2007 (http://blogs. dallasobserver. com/unfairpark/ 2007/05/peeling_ back_john_ peels_dallas. php ), accessed October 23, 2011. Kevin Walters, "Historical 1961 WRR Broadcasts Found" (http://ryono. net/xtra/ oldies/1957/ jimlowe.htm), accessed October 23, 2011.
Cathy Brigham
Showing posts with label Big D 60s Yahoo Group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big D 60s Yahoo Group. Show all posts
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Jacksboro Highway in the 50s & Memories of the Sunset Ballroom by Phil Strawn
Here is a re-post from the Big D 60's Yahoo Group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BigD60s/
Jacksboro Highway in the Fifties and Memories of the Sunset Ballroom by Phil Strawn
Back in the early fifties, my father for a very short while, owned the long demolished Sunset Ballroom on Roberts Cutoff Road, just off Jacksboro Highway in West Fort Worth Texas.
Dad was a country fiddle player and realized that trying to play nightly gigs at other clubs and managing his own club didn't work, so he hired his childhood buddy and best friend Big Dick Hickman as his trustworthy manager.
Dick was a huge guy that made an impression on you. His hands were as big as a ham and his head even bigger. Add his 6ft to the mix and he looked menacing, but was really a teddy bear. My father and him had grown up together in depression era Fort Worth and remained best friends their entire lives.
Dick, besides being the new manager, was also pulling double duty as the clubs bouncer. After seeing him in action a few times, the old place became less rowdy and business improved.
Dick was a family man and a peaceful sort, so he soon became weary of kicking unruly patrons rears every night, so my father hired Toes Malone to take his place as the official bouncer and security manager.
Toes was a likable two-bit north side thug that had one too many run-ins with the Fort Worth mob. The boys in the mob all liked him thought he was a funny guy so when he tried to horn in on their action or crossed them in any way, instead of just killing him outright like anyone else, they would shoot or cut off a body part to teach him a lesson. After two major discussions in back ally's with his admirers, and the loss of an arm , Toes got his new name. He didn't give up though. Being the mean little son of a gun that he was, he had two small pen knife blades fitted into the toes of his boots. He was pretty agile for a one armed cat, and could carve you up like a Winn Dixie beef before you knew what was happening to you. No one messed with Toes. He was the original Bad Leroy Brown of the south.
The patrons loved him so much, they would ask him to show his little toe knives to their wives just for laughs. He would hoist his boot up on the table and proudly display his shiny little blades to anyone who asked. The wives would open up their Lucky Strike packs on his boot tip blades. He was part of the entertainment, sort of a hoodlum head waiter that would kill you if you complained about anything. My father said his presence increased business, so in spite of his reputation, he kept him own. He did admit in later years that firing Toe's would have likely led to his own early demise. Toes couldn't help himself and finally crossed the mob too many times, so they blew him in half with a shotgun on a dirt road out buy the Crystal Springs Ballroom. My Father, though saddened by this, was relieved that he didn't have to fire him.
Toes didn't have any real friends, so the memorial was mostly attended by some musicians, the mob and patrons from the Sunset. On his casket, there sat his little knife boots and a nice 8x10 picture of a 10-year-old Toes . Very fitting.
The Sunset was also where the famous Roger Miller goosing incident happened. It's been said it happened at Rosas or any number of clubs in the area, but it happened at the Sunset. Roger Miller of future King of the Road fame grew up in Fort Worth and struggled many years in the joints before making it big in Nashville. Roger was a half assed fiddle player just starting to write songs and used to frequent the Sunset, Stella's, Crystal Springs and other places that would let him sing and play for a few bucks. One August night at the Sunset, he was onstage singing a tune and torturing his fiddle for the crowd . The dance floor was full of sweaty tummy rubbing dancers doing their best to not pass out from the heat. There was one lady in very tight peddle pushers dancing with a fellow and really putting on a good show for the boys on stage. She got her rear right up against the stage and Roger Miller, being the pre-Icky Twerp idiot that he was, couldn't resist reaching out with his fiddle bow and goosing her rear. She jumped.. pushed her dance partner away and slugged him in the nose. The injured fellow, with the help of whiskey and coke, stumbled and fell into a table full of visiting mob boys that had come to see Roger hurt his fiddle. The brawl lasted about ten minutes and cleared the club. Dick was carrying the fighters out two at a time. The mob boys whooped up on most everyone within a three table area, and the rest of the people just whooped each other. The FW police came in, sat and had a free coke, took their pay off money and left. Roger was told to not play the fiddle anymore. Soon after that, he went on to Nashville and Springfield MO, started writing tunes and working in better dives. My Mother finally told Dad to sell the place or he would be living there.
Dad sold it to Dick, Dick hated it, sold it to some other criminals and it finally became a gambling joint in the late fifties before closing in the early sixties. Most of the greats did manage to play there; Lefty Frizzle, Marty Robbins, Bob Wills, Bill Boyd and the Cowboy Ramblers, Willie Nelson, The Doughboys and others
. One Saturday night, Bob Wills had a show in Weatherford that was canceled, so on the way back into town, he stopped at the Sunset and being friends with my Dad, Bob took the whole band on stage and did a great impromptu show. Word spread fast, and within a short while, the place was packed wall to wall. I have an 8x10 black and white picture of Bob and my Dad playing twin fiddles. The place was in the worst part of Fort Worth and had a bad reputation, but it's stage saw some of the greatest musicians country music has ever seen.
Jacksboro Highway in the Fifties and Memories of the Sunset Ballroom by Phil Strawn
Back in the early fifties, my father for a very short while, owned the long demolished Sunset Ballroom on Roberts Cutoff Road, just off Jacksboro Highway in West Fort Worth Texas.
Dad was a country fiddle player and realized that trying to play nightly gigs at other clubs and managing his own club didn't work, so he hired his childhood buddy and best friend Big Dick Hickman as his trustworthy manager.
Dick was a huge guy that made an impression on you. His hands were as big as a ham and his head even bigger. Add his 6ft to the mix and he looked menacing, but was really a teddy bear. My father and him had grown up together in depression era Fort Worth and remained best friends their entire lives.
Dick, besides being the new manager, was also pulling double duty as the clubs bouncer. After seeing him in action a few times, the old place became less rowdy and business improved.
Dick was a family man and a peaceful sort, so he soon became weary of kicking unruly patrons rears every night, so my father hired Toes Malone to take his place as the official bouncer and security manager.
Toes was a likable two-bit north side thug that had one too many run-ins with the Fort Worth mob. The boys in the mob all liked him thought he was a funny guy so when he tried to horn in on their action or crossed them in any way, instead of just killing him outright like anyone else, they would shoot or cut off a body part to teach him a lesson. After two major discussions in back ally's with his admirers, and the loss of an arm , Toes got his new name. He didn't give up though. Being the mean little son of a gun that he was, he had two small pen knife blades fitted into the toes of his boots. He was pretty agile for a one armed cat, and could carve you up like a Winn Dixie beef before you knew what was happening to you. No one messed with Toes. He was the original Bad Leroy Brown of the south.
The patrons loved him so much, they would ask him to show his little toe knives to their wives just for laughs. He would hoist his boot up on the table and proudly display his shiny little blades to anyone who asked. The wives would open up their Lucky Strike packs on his boot tip blades. He was part of the entertainment, sort of a hoodlum head waiter that would kill you if you complained about anything. My father said his presence increased business, so in spite of his reputation, he kept him own. He did admit in later years that firing Toe's would have likely led to his own early demise. Toes couldn't help himself and finally crossed the mob too many times, so they blew him in half with a shotgun on a dirt road out buy the Crystal Springs Ballroom. My Father, though saddened by this, was relieved that he didn't have to fire him.
Toes didn't have any real friends, so the memorial was mostly attended by some musicians, the mob and patrons from the Sunset. On his casket, there sat his little knife boots and a nice 8x10 picture of a 10-year-old Toes . Very fitting.
The Sunset was also where the famous Roger Miller goosing incident happened. It's been said it happened at Rosas or any number of clubs in the area, but it happened at the Sunset. Roger Miller of future King of the Road fame grew up in Fort Worth and struggled many years in the joints before making it big in Nashville. Roger was a half assed fiddle player just starting to write songs and used to frequent the Sunset, Stella's, Crystal Springs and other places that would let him sing and play for a few bucks. One August night at the Sunset, he was onstage singing a tune and torturing his fiddle for the crowd . The dance floor was full of sweaty tummy rubbing dancers doing their best to not pass out from the heat. There was one lady in very tight peddle pushers dancing with a fellow and really putting on a good show for the boys on stage. She got her rear right up against the stage and Roger Miller, being the pre-Icky Twerp idiot that he was, couldn't resist reaching out with his fiddle bow and goosing her rear. She jumped.. pushed her dance partner away and slugged him in the nose. The injured fellow, with the help of whiskey and coke, stumbled and fell into a table full of visiting mob boys that had come to see Roger hurt his fiddle. The brawl lasted about ten minutes and cleared the club. Dick was carrying the fighters out two at a time. The mob boys whooped up on most everyone within a three table area, and the rest of the people just whooped each other. The FW police came in, sat and had a free coke, took their pay off money and left. Roger was told to not play the fiddle anymore. Soon after that, he went on to Nashville and Springfield MO, started writing tunes and working in better dives. My Mother finally told Dad to sell the place or he would be living there.
Dad sold it to Dick, Dick hated it, sold it to some other criminals and it finally became a gambling joint in the late fifties before closing in the early sixties. Most of the greats did manage to play there; Lefty Frizzle, Marty Robbins, Bob Wills, Bill Boyd and the Cowboy Ramblers, Willie Nelson, The Doughboys and others
. One Saturday night, Bob Wills had a show in Weatherford that was canceled, so on the way back into town, he stopped at the Sunset and being friends with my Dad, Bob took the whole band on stage and did a great impromptu show. Word spread fast, and within a short while, the place was packed wall to wall. I have an 8x10 black and white picture of Bob and my Dad playing twin fiddles. The place was in the worst part of Fort Worth and had a bad reputation, but it's stage saw some of the greatest musicians country music has ever seen.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Anybody Got Remembrances/Memorabilia from The Cellar Clubs?
Wm. Wms. at the Big D 60's Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BigD60s/
posted this information. Can anybody out there help?
Participation in The Cellar documentary
Posted by: "Giles Mccrary" taogiles@sbcglobal. net festivetao
Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:49 pm (PDT)
I have spent the past six weeks working on a documentary about The
Cellar. The more research I read, and the more interviews I get on
tape, the more excited I become. This documentary will be able to
reach a much larger audience than first I expected because of its
universal relevance that will be established as the documentary
explores the Cellar Club's juxtaposition to the relevant social issues
of that time, parochial as well as global. It will also examine
poignant existential issues within a specific population as it
remembers the past and reflects on the present.
I need photos, film, and memorabilia related to The Cellar (Fort
Worth, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) as soon as possible. This is
where the members of the list serve can help me in telling The Cellar
story. I am only interested in photos or film taken in or in front of
the clubs between 1959 and 1974, and/or musicians, patrons, and
employees associated with The Cellar during said time frame. The
photos that are published on the web are exactly what I´m looking for,
except I need better resolution than can I can get by copying from the
internet. If you can help me, I need CD ROMs of your images or the
actual photos so I can scan them. If you do send photos for me to
scan, they will be handled with the upmost care and promptly returned.
I can´t guarantee that every image will be used, but I need to have as
much choice as possible.
Please contact me by email...
taogiles@sbcglobal. net
www.gilesvid. com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BigD60s/
posted this information. Can anybody out there help?
Participation in The Cellar documentary
Posted by: "Giles Mccrary" taogiles@sbcglobal. net festivetao
Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:49 pm (PDT)
I have spent the past six weeks working on a documentary about The
Cellar. The more research I read, and the more interviews I get on
tape, the more excited I become. This documentary will be able to
reach a much larger audience than first I expected because of its
universal relevance that will be established as the documentary
explores the Cellar Club's juxtaposition to the relevant social issues
of that time, parochial as well as global. It will also examine
poignant existential issues within a specific population as it
remembers the past and reflects on the present.
I need photos, film, and memorabilia related to The Cellar (Fort
Worth, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) as soon as possible. This is
where the members of the list serve can help me in telling The Cellar
story. I am only interested in photos or film taken in or in front of
the clubs between 1959 and 1974, and/or musicians, patrons, and
employees associated with The Cellar during said time frame. The
photos that are published on the web are exactly what I´m looking for,
except I need better resolution than can I can get by copying from the
internet. If you can help me, I need CD ROMs of your images or the
actual photos so I can scan them. If you do send photos for me to
scan, they will be handled with the upmost care and promptly returned.
I can´t guarantee that every image will be used, but I need to have as
much choice as possible.
Please contact me by email...
taogiles@sbcglobal. net
www.gilesvid. com
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