Elvis In East Texas - A Slideshow

[JSngry]

...a lot of this is about my hometown, Gladewater, Tx.

http://lannymedlin.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?s=0&username=lannymedlin&a_id=2148148&s_id=2310698

The Lee apartment building pictured, former home of KSIJ studios, is literally a three minute walk up the street from the house we moved to in 1967.

And I played in an R&B band in the summer of 1975 that played in one of the mentioned-but-not-pictured honky tonks on Highway 271. By then, the highway was integrated, although the tonks were not.

Never did go to the Reo Palm Isle, though, and not just because I didn't then appreciate the hard hardcore country they booked (then). Even if I did, the way I looked would have guaranteed a serious asskicking, no questions asked.

Now, if somebody can do a similar presentation about Reba's Moulin Rouge (also in Gladewater) where James Brown and countless other R&B acts played in the 50s and early 1960s, then the whole story can be told, or at least one part of it.

Ah, roots!

[Joe]

[Dave James]

I am seriously liking Wayne. That's some nasty lap steel guitar, not to mention the bass player who's off on his own tasty trip.

[Joe]

About 2 years ago, I saw Wayne Hancock give what I believe was the single most inebriated performance I've ever seen by a professional musician. And you know what? It as still a great show.

[JSngry]

I wonder what "Gladewater highway" he's referring to - 271 (connects to Tyler) or 135 (connects to Kilgore). Both were heavily-laden with ramshackle joints that had enough room to drink beer and at least hear some music. And don't think that the beer selection would have been more varied than the music selection...tried and true favorites on all counts. You didn't go to these places to be surprised...

What kept them going for so long was easy - they all existed literally just on the other side of the city limits sign. In the limits, you could sell beer only until 9. Outside, you could sell beer and liquor until midnight (or 2 AM if the business was there). For years, the good people of Gladewater tried to get their government to expand the city limits, but somehow (ahem...) the votes were never there. Finally, in the early-mid 70s they were able to annex a few feet at a time, until finally they had surrounded all the tonks, which then, of course, hung on bravely for as long as they could. But by then, everybody went to Longview anyway. Only losers of the worst kind wanted to hang out every night in a lonely, crumbling joint getting knocked out on cheap beer within the city limits... Some tried to convert to diners/restaurants, but that ground is haunted by the ghosts of honky tonks past. The lone memorial to days of yore is the one liquor store that has always been there (RBs) and is still there and still doing buisness.

The joints on 271 were visible, but 135...that was where you could go off the main roads (and sometimes off the road) and find a joint...but that's another story...

In the meantime (and back to Elvis in East Texas), this gig fascinates me: http://www.elvis.net/live/liv55.html

August 10, 1955 - Gladewater - Texas - TX - Flatbed truck at Bear Stadium

With Jim Ed and Maxime Brown.

This is what's left of Bear Stadium today:

What you can't really tell from that photo is that there is no flat land on any side of that place. There's a steep hill to the right which is where the (now old) high school is. To the left there's Highway 80 heading downhill towards Big Sandy, in the back there's nothing but a steep drop, and in front there's a little street with a a few homes + Highway 80 heading uphill towards Longview. Throw in bleachers on both sides of the field and aconcession stand (still the best Frito Pie in the history of the world) just inside and to the left, and you got some possibly...sensitive logistics involved in getting a big hayride-sized flatbed truck off the street and into that place.

And fwiw, my Uncle Vernon swears that he saw Elvis at one of the high school gigs. I've no reason to doubt him. It was Gladewater High School, and Vernon was a student there then, as was his older brother Jake (RIP) who, knowing him, probably took a girl to the same show and then went off afterwards and scored with her.

Edited February 4, 2011 by JSngry

[JSngry]

Here's your chance to look around what's left of the 271 scene. Just know that all that nothing used to be something.

Google "1936 South Tyler Street, Gladewater, TX" go to street view, and dig around.

Gladwater will be up the road to the right.

Edited February 4, 2011 by JSngry

[JSngry]

Up for all the deep Elvis fans, of whom I know we have many here.