Cameron, Texas (population: 5,634), is Milam County Seat and 17 miles N of Rockdale, 71 miles NE of Austin, and 32 miles SE of Temple. I drove there last Saturday. Here are the pictures I took. You're welcome.
"Cry Me a River" was written by Arthur Hamilton and was published in 1953. The song's first release and most famous recording (on Julie Is Her Name) was by actress/singer Julie London in 1955. This version is featured in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It and was released as a single in April 1957.
On a somewhat related, trivial side note, The Girl Can't Help It was a favorite of The Beatles, and it had a fairly major role in the composition and recording process of "Birthday," from their 1968 release, The Beatles (The White Album). I have read somewhere that the film re-energized and inspired them in the song's ("Birthday") inception and recording. Here's a quote from Beatle Paul about that day:
"What happened was The Girl Can't Help It was on television. That's an old rock film with Little Richard and Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran and a few others... and we wanted to see it, so we started recording at five o'clock. And we said, 'We'll do something, We'll make up a backing track.' So we kept it very simple-- twelve bar blues kind of thing. And we stuck in a few bits here and there in it, with no idea what the song was or what was gonna go on top of it. We just said, 'Okay. Twelve bars in A, and we'll change to D, and I'm gonna do a few beats in C.' And we really just did it like that... random thing.
The Fabs with George Martin, working on "Birthday"
And we came back here to my house and watched The Girl Can't Help It. Then we went back to the studio again and made up some words to go with it all. So this song was just made up in an evening. Umm, you know. We hadn't ever thought of it before then. And it's one of my favorites because of that. I think it works, you know, 'cuz it's just... It's a good one to dance to. Like the big long drum break, just 'cuz, normally we might have four bars of drums, but with this we just keep it going, you know. We all like to hear drums plodding on."
I'd love to be able to stroll around (in a rapturous daze), armed with digital camera, soaking up that old Vegas style and ambiance. But, alas, no more.
Fremont Street in 1952
Obviously any visit to old Vegas would have to include a tour of all the old casinos on the old Vegas strip, so well immortalized in the original Ocean's 11. This gives me an excuse to include this repost, "EEE-O-Eleven":
the opening Saul Bass credits sequence with animated neon syncopated to the swingin', Nelson Riddle conducted version of the theme. Koo-koo.
Frank Sinatra's orange sweater (orange was his favorite color; he called it a "happy" color) It's good to be the king!
Josh Howard (Sammy Davis, Jr.) belting out the theme song, "EEE-O Eleven." Listen to the version he released at the time here.
coming as close as one ever will to hanging with "The Summit" (a.k.a. the Rat Pack, a name they rejected outright as a media created label) Applicants must be able to breathe pure cigarette smoke for hours at a time.
finally, after an hour (yawn), the heist is agreed upon by all (the eleven)
my God! Vegas in the late '50s!!! All of the following is long gone. Note the Silver Slipper in the left background. Patrice Munsel must have been hot shiat to have Buddy Hackett as "extra added". I am the Bill Snyder of bloggers. I've lightened this one to reveal the camel statues in the right foreground. Those are no longer empty lots, that's for sure. Notice the billboard announcing the Mint, which certainly is no more. Note the giant genie keeping watch over the Dunes.
it's full of great little moments and cameo appearances Red Skelton (playing himself) cutting in front of Danny Ocean (Sinatra) at the chip cashing window Sam Harmon (Dean Martin) and the Red Norvo Quintet doing a swingin', vibe-heavy version of "Ain't That a Kick in the Head". Awesome. Koo-koo, even. Sinatra looking right into the camera Shirley MacLaine at her cutest (she was the only "dame/broad" allowed, and was the Rat Pack's "mascot"; she appeared earlier in Some Came Running with Sinatra and Martin in 1958) a slightly jumpy Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) being "held up" by an animatronic Santa after the heist millions!
the final sequence, complete with the shot that inspired Quentin Tarantino's similar sequence in Reservoir Dogs
Cameron, Texas (population: 5,634), is Milam County Seat and 17 miles N of Rockdale, 71 miles NE of Austin, and 32 miles SE of Temple. I drove there last Saturday. Here are the pictures I took. You're welcome.
Ben Milam, for whom the county was named, is one of Texas' legendary heroes, losing his life in San Antonio early in Texas' battle for independence.
Former Milam County Jail (now the Milam County Historical Museum) and a pioneer cabin
"Cry Me a River" was written by Arthur Hamilton and was published in 1953. The song's first release and most famous recording (on Julie Is Her Name) was by actress/singer Julie London in 1955. This version is featured in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It and was released as a single in April 1957.
Reading the awesome book Las Vegas Then and Now makes me yearn for a time machine to travel back to the Vegas of the '50s and '60s. I wish I could have seen Fremont Street before it became an "experience." 
