Just after high school, friends and I attended the Memorial Hall in Brownwood for a number of shows from the fake wrestling of “Gorgeous George”, to the genuine music of many western singers. Robert “Bigfoot” Moore, James “Peanut” Denison, Joe Tatum and I saw many of the shows which we couldn’t afford – if one of our group had lacked the ability to get into the building and open a back door for the rest of us. We did not see this ruse as being deceptive, but our only choice for our being able to attend.
The biggest star I ever saw in the Memorial Hall was Hank Williams, who appeared there just after I graduated from High School in 1950. He had released so many top songs in the country field earlier and was well-known along with all the great western musicians, such as Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubbs.
Hank Williams had 35 singles that had reached the top ten of the Country’s best sellers list. Some of his best were, “Your Cheating Heart”, “Hey, Good Looking” and “I’m so Lonely I Could Cry”. Hank had long been addicted to alcohol and drugs, and evidently was suffering that night from this adversity when he appeared in Brownwood. His songs were steady with emotion, but his legs were wobbly, causing him to stumble all over the stage. It was a pity to see someone with so much talent killing himself like that. He died in December of 1952 while traveling to one of his western performances in Ohio.
Myself, along with three of my friends, were present for a number of programs at the Memorial Hall and we were fortunate to have such an opportune time to see several big-time performers, some who were trying to advance their careers. Some were not necessarily real big stars back then when we attended their shows, but they went on to become well-known entertainers.
The one that was to become the biggest was Elvis Presley. I remember him performing at the Memorial Hall with other singers on two occasions. I remember that after the first appearance, we went to the old Dixie Café near the railroad underpass in Brownwood for coffee and, while there, Elvis stuck his head in the door, but left hurriedly when he saw so few people inside. I don’t know if he was looking for sex or food, but there were no girls present. I can’t blame him for making a fast exit as it was not much of a place to eat and used mostly by the locals who worked for the railroad or performed other night jobs.
I don’t remember ever seeing ‘girls of the night’ trying to hook up with anyone at the Dixie Café. I had heard that no one ever had to look for hookers because there were so many promiscuous women who would gladly serve a” treat” for free to those who sought it. None of the four of us ever found this to be true, but it aroused our naïve inquisitiveness.
Brownwood, at this time, was a bulwark of Christian fundamentalist dogma that had been corrupted by Camp Bowie soldiers during WWII, where 100,000 soldiers trained and lived near a city of fewer than 14,000 citizens. I have heard that so many Brownwoodians engaged in moneymaking operations, involving sex and alcohol, that it would haunt their consciences for many years. However, I don’t remember ever seeing too many who seemed to be suffering from this affliction.
At this time, Elvis was just beginning to travel around with other singers and trying to make a name for himself. It was long before he signed with his agent, Colonel Parker, who helped to make him famous but also kept him from becoming the international singer he could have been. I have heard that Colonel Parker restricted Elvis from traveling to Europe because he was afraid of not being able to return to the U.S.; due to his own problems and that this was the reason Elvis was never able to travel abroad, as most of the other stars have done.
Elvis had made some songs earlier, but what we enjoyed most, along with his other fans, were his songs that he had sung on the Louisiana Hayride where he later became a regular performer. Some of these were “Blue Moon over Kentucky”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, and “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog”.
When we saw him, he was working with his guitarist, Scotty Moore and his bass player, Bill Black. They became very famous along with Elvis and were quite talented musicians themselves. He began to get some fame and was on several shows, like Steve Allen and others. Elvis, to my friends and I, was a star because he really made the kind of music that we liked, but his stardom didn’t really rise until he was on the Ed Sullivan show.
That was really when he exploded on the stage for so many people to see and appreciate his music and his style of presentation. Wiggling his hips and shaking his legs had caused many evangelicals and other bible-thumpers to censure and criticize him. This only caused him to become more famous and popular as the youth saw it as a way to protest their parents disparaging and condemnatory ideas.
There were other performers who appeared in the Memorial Hall during this time. Some who appeared with Elvis was Slim Whitman, Slim Willet and, as previously mentioned, Hank Williams. Slim Whitman was an older singer (born in 1923) and known for his yodeling abilities and his smooth, high three-octave range gained him to be christened as “countrypolitan”, although I have never used or heard the term before.
He sold over 120 million recordings and often toured with Elvis Presley. He was best known for “Indian Love Call” and “Rose Marie”. He was known as “America’s Favorite Folk Singer” and was very popular throughout Europe, something that Elvis could have achieved if the Colonel would have allowed it.
Another musician I saw on two or three occasions was Slim Willet (Winston Lee Moore) of Dublin, Texas, although I remember him claiming Abilene as his hometown. His first hit was released in 1950 and was “Tool Pusher from Snyder”. He also appeared on the Louisiana Hayride with Elvis and others. He later had other songs such as “Red Rose, No Love song to you”, and his biggest hit, “Don’t Let the Stars get in your eyes”. Perry Como and many others recorded this big tune of his.
I haven’t thought much about these people who came to the Brownwood Memorial Hall in my earlier days, but my daughter asked me to mention them, as she felt it to be significant for me to try to recall some of my past happenings of importance to me. Maybe, I should add to my blog about my meeting with both Lee Trevino and Raymond Floyd while we were living near Horizon City in El Paso County?