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The birds of Petty's Motor Hotel

Saturday, November 14, 2009
petty's motor hotel neon sign early morning
petty's motor hotel neon sign early morning
Petty's Motor Hotel in Lufkin, Texas

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Travels with Charley

Thursday, November 12, 2009
Seattle, 1961 (photograph by Hans Namuth)

I'm trying to get reinspired to do some sort of photographically oriented road trip by among other things, rereading a favorite of mine, John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Basically, Steinbeck set out in the fall of 1960 to "rediscover America." He had spent the better portion of the previous decade living and travelling in England and France, and he felt he'd lost touch with the Joads, the "Docs," the Trasks, the George Miltons of America. Presumably, he felt this would hinder his ability to write authentically about them.

Rocinante, National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, California

So he loaded up supplies, as well as the book's namesake, an "old gentlemen French poodle known as Charley" (p. 7), into a customized, modified camper truck he christened Rocinante.

As far as doing any traveling of my own (mainly day tripping), I'm currently stuck in this mode, for the most part:

In long-range planning for a trip, I think there is a private conviction that it won't happen. As the day approached, my warm bed and comfortable house grew increasingly desirable...to give these up for three months for the terrors of the uncomfortable and unknown seemed crazy. I didn't want to go. (p. 17)

Now, if I could drive through America circa 1960 armed with a 21st century digital camera (or really any camera for that matter), I wouldn't be sitting here typing this right now! The chance to photograph neon signs alone boggles the mind, not to mention the motor courts and gas stations. But alas, that America has vanished.

Okay, I'm not a drinker, at all (the most alcohol consumption I was ever involved with was done, ironically, before I was of the legal drinking age), but I'm tickled by this passage:

Because I was self-contained, I thought it might be nice if I could invite people I met along the way to my home for a drink, but I had neglected to lay in liquor. But there are pretty little bottle stores on the back roads of this state. I knew there were some dry states but had forgotten which they were, and it was just as well to stock up...You never know what people will want to drink. I ordered bourbon, scotch, gin, vermouth, vodka, a medium good brandy, aged applejack, and a case of beer. It seemed to me that those might take care of most situations. It was a big order for a little store. The owner was impressed.

"Must be quite a party."
"No--it's just traveling supplies." (p. 21)

Now, let's visualize that, shall we:

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Rebirth of Rebirth of The Pines

Saturday, November 07, 2009
Texas Escapes is featuring my Rebirth of The Pines post.

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"You Belong to Me"

Friday, November 06, 2009
Written primarily by Chilton Price, "You Belong to Me" was published in 1952. That year saw two major artists of the Swing Era, Jo Stafford and Patti Page, sing hit versions. Can you imagine this happening today? The same exact song recorded and released by two different artists within a month of the other? I think that shows the strong appeal of the melody and lyrical message. According to the Wikipedia entry, Stafford's version is apparently the most popular. As well as being her greatest hit, it topped the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom was the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart.

Yet despite all of that, I still feel the song belongs to Patsy Cline. Her version seems more heartfelt and authentic. It has a melancholy to it the other versions rarely achieve. From her 1962 Sentimentally Yours album:


I love the Egyptian/tropical imagery at the very beginning of this song. The first verse, lyrically, is definitely the best (in my humble onion). It sets the romantic/exotic tone which lasts for the duration of the recording. The way she pronounces "darlin'" gets me every time. There's something so quintessentially "Country" about her dialect (especially on that word), thus making it purely American.

Dean's version is pretty cool, no doubt being heard on the radio along with the other versions, as it was released in early 1953:

A later version of the song, by The Duprees, also made the Billboard Top 10, reaching #7 in 1962:

On a somewhat related note. YIKES!:

And then you have dreamy, little Johnny Sinatra from the 1940s:

What a strange visual mix and aesthetic. Are they even in the same dimension? He is obviously a rehire for their lead singer. The three older, Jewish gentlemen, groomed as if it is the 1970s, are no doubt the original members of the group, i.e. the ones who kicked out the original lead singer because success, fame, drugs or personal issues had caused his ego to spiral out of control. And I know absolutely nothing about the Duprees other than they recorded "You Belong to Me," so that's all speculation.

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Ben Milam

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The granddaughter of Ben Milam recently emailed me some scans of newspaper clippings and black and white photographs associated with her grandfather's architectural career. She granted me permission to post them. Milam was an architect of some acclaim who resided on Galveston Island. His period was the 1930s through early '50s, his most prevalent style appearing to have been Art Deco or Streamline Moderne.

ben milam
Stephen F Austin Jr High school in Galveston designed by Ben Milam
Stephen F. Austin Junior High School, c.1939

Newspaper article on Stephen F Austin school
A 1939 Houston Post article about the school

Orginal Hill's Rest. designed by Ben Milam
The Original Hill's Restaurant, c. 1940

I ate there a few times as a kid during the '70s. It is no longer there, I believe. Demolished by man, it once sat on Seawall Blvd.

Coca Cola factory in Galveston
I'd never realized this building was originally the Coca-Cola factory in Galveston. By my time, '70s/'80s, it was a series of restaurants, usually Mexican food.

img079
"Four Apartment Building" plans


S.S Galveston
The S.S. Galveston/U.S.S. Galveston/Mayflower Hotel

S.S. Galveston designed by Ben Milam
Drove or rode by this place many times. Such a shame it was demolished (2006)! It had become sort of seedy by my time ('70s, '80s). It was also up on the Seawall.

Cotton Exchange designed by Ben Milam
Galveston Cotton Exchange, c. 1940

And a couple pictures of mine, of the 1950 circa, Pennington Buick Co.:
pennington buick
pennington buick detail
img177

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Great Songs from Great Britain

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
I've recently been listening again, for the first time in a while, to a favorite Sinatra album, Sinatra Sings Great Songs from Great Britain. It is, like many of his Reprise recordings, a mixed bag in terms of quality. But, like much of his Reprise catalog, when it is good, it is so very, very good.

One of the things I love about Great Songs from Great Britain is its relative obscurity. Recorded in London during the summer of 1962, it was initially released the same year only in Great Britain. It was finally released stateside in 1990 on compact disc. I couldn't have gotten my copy (complete with German import sticker on it) back in 1998 if it weren't for the Internet. I seriously doubt the album or compact disc has ever sat in any of the local music stores (many of which have since closed), but obviously I could be mistaken.

Supposedly, Sinatra would not allow its release in America because he was unhappy with the quality of his voice. From the CD liner notes, written by James Isaacs:

Great Songs from Great Britain never reached the colonies -- until now. It is the only collection that Sinatra in his then-dual roles of CEO of Reprise Records and his label's meal ticket, scrubbed for domestic release while clearing it for foreign markets.

A unapologetic perfectionist, the singer felt that his voice, after a recently concluded seven-week, 30-city world tour, was in less than peak form.

Recording with arranger/conductor Robert Farnon

And further illumination from my personal Sinatra bible, Will Friedwald's Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art:

...the unending pastoral richness of Robert Farnon's orchestral backgrounds contrasts sharply with the startling thinness of Sinatra's voice. What's worse, both arranger Farnon and singer Sinatra has no forewarning that they should be planning the album for a vocal artist proceeding at half-steam, and the extremly slow tempos of these romantic ballads leave Sinatra with no place to hide.

So, how bad was the voice of The Voice? On the best songs, a person unaware of the background would probably have no idea the singer and voice were exhausted. I'll let you be the judge.

  • The album's opening track, "The Very Thought of You," is vintage Sinatra. This ranks up there with much of what he recorded during his classic Capitol Records era (no doubt why this beautiful song and performance was selected to be the first on side one):


  • One of my overall favorite Sinatra recordings would have to be "If I Had You," a song he'd recorded twice before, in 1947 on The Voice of Frank Sinatra and 1957's A Swingin' Affair!. One of the standout qualities about this track happened by accident. According to Sinatra's pianist, Bill Miller, about the piano he was supposed to be playing: "someone forgot to tune the goddamn thing, which was unheard of." It occurred to Sinatra to ask if a celesta might be handy. It's hard to imagine this without it:


  • Perhaps my favorite song on this particular album, "The Gypsy," was a #1 hit for The Ink Spots back in 1946. But as good as their version may have been, only Sinatra could make the listener believe it was actually about him (and he was singing it to you and only you!):


  • Two of the other "better" songs from Great Songs from Great Britain, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "A Garden in the Rain," the only song I've included in this post where one might get a sense of the supposed "thinness" of Sinatra's voice during the three day recording session:



    Sinatra and Farnon

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    • Rebirth of The Pines

    Saturday, October 31, 2009
    pines theatre
    Constructed in 1925, this is the way it was in July 2006.

    first street in lufkin, morning
    Looking down First Street, January 2007

    And then suddenly, one morning in April 2007, Lufkin awoke to find it in this condition:
    damaged pines theatre marquee
    ouch
    No one is really sure what happened, but it was theorized an 18-wheeler or delivery truck somehow crashed in to it. It is in this state it sat for a while.

    By May 2008, I'd pretty much given up on it ever being repaired.
    pines theater on cloudy day

    I'd expected it to continue going down, but I was stunned to see it like this a year later, April 2009:
    pines theater in morning on cloudy day
    front on pines theater
    I had heard rumors that a restoration was under way, but this looked like more of a dismantling, which it was. But instead of destroying, the removed neon and giant green glass, inlaid fleur-de-lis, it was all being refurbished:

    the pines theater all shiny and new
    Wow!!

    the pines theater all shiny and new
    What's old is new again. In fact, it's downright shiny.

    the pines theater all shiny and new
    Way to go Lufkin! Bravo. You restore some faith in mankind.

    the pines theater

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    The Face...

    Friday, October 30, 2009

    Here is an article a friend and I did for our high school newspaper back in October 1984. It was about a "legendary" marking on an UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch) building in Galveston, called "the Face." There are various stories and explanations as to its origin and who is supposedly depicted - disgruntled former UTMB patient, the owner of the property on which the building is now located, for example - but it just as easily could have been our theory...

    Click on it to make it bigger (that's what she said)

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    Early morning: Richmond/Rosenberg

    Wednesday, October 28, 2009

    I drove home from visiting family in Eagle Lake this past weekend via Richmond/Rosenberg. As is sometimes the case, I was rewarded by finding a couple of things I'd never photographed before, and a couple of things I got in a new light.

    herradura restaurant
    I'd snapped this great Herradura Restaurant neon sign before, but I just had to pull over as I entered Rosenberg to get it against the morning sky.

    herradura restaurant

    cole theatre
    I couldn't leave Rosenberg without getting some pics of the old "colored" theater, the beautiful, Art Deco Cole Theater. Built in 1937, I'd taken some of it previously. A current musical obsession, The Ink Spots, performed here in 1948.

    cole theatre

    fort bend county courthouse
    Fort Bend County Courthouse, c. 1909, Classical Revival/Beaux-Arts

    Upon leaving Richmond, I did a double take as I drove past Larry's Original Mexican Restaurant. This type of thing fills me with so much joy I want to cry:
    larry's original mexican restaurant
    larry's original mexican restaurant
    larry's original mexican restaurant
    Jackpot!

    About eight miles east of Richmond is the town of Sugar Land, best known locally (at least at one time) for the Imperial Sugar factory:
    imperial sugar
    imperial sugar
    In 1907, the factory was purchased by Galvestonian (my hometown) I.H. Kempner, the great-grandfather (possibly great, great-grandfather) of a childhood friend. To further toot my own horn (toot, toot!), I briefly dated another grandchild, she being a cousin to the childhood friend.

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    R.I.P. Richard Gladwell

    Tuesday, October 27, 2009
    It saddened me to hear this past Sunday of the recent passing of Richard Gladwell. Gladwell was the host of a program played on NPR stations called With Heart and Voice. With Heart and Voice was "a weekly program of choral and organ music." I say "was," because I assume the show will be no more. I was encouraged required forced to go to Sunday school and attend church services until I graduated from high school. Consequently, I haven't been a regular church goer ever since. The closest I've come to being one again has been listening to With Heart and Voice every Sunday on my NPR station during my long, morning run (which I do, ironically, religiously). It has always reminded me of the great old Hook & Hastings pipe organ echoing throughout the church of my youth. Adieu, Richard Gladwell.

    "Trumpet Tune in D," by David Johnson (the theme to With Heart and Voice):

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