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William Edward White

July 9, 2018

Brown University Baseball Team,
1879 National Champions.
One of these players is now regarded as the earliest black baseball player in big league history.

His name was William Edward White.

 

William Edward White
Is sitting directly behind the manager in the team photo.

 

“An answer commonly given to the question of who was the first black man to play major-league baseball is still Jackie Robinson in 1947. Knowledgeable baseball people know that Robinson was preceded by the Walker brothers, Moses and Weldy, for Toledo in 1884. Recent research, led by SABR’s Peter Morris, has uncovered evidence of still earlier African American participation in the major leagues. Morris’s detective work reveals that William Edward White, a former slave, had a one-game career for the National League’s Providence Grays on June 21, 1879.”

To read the balance of this most informative brief article by John R. Husman, please click the following link:

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-21-1879-cameo-william-edward-white

The Pecan Park Eagle also wants to thank reader/colleague/friend, Bill Hickman for calling our attention to the deeper meaning of the same Browns baseball photo that we used yesterday in a much lighter look column on the sport in the “good old summertime days” era. In irony, Bill’s mention of William Edward White “to have been (documented as) the first Afro-American (to play) in the majors, preceding Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Weldy Walker by five years,” as a far more accurate display of the zeitgeist of post-Civil War America.

So-called “people of color” simply didn’t have the same rights and opportunities as white people in America and, like almost all other avenues of possibility, baseball was busy signing on to the idea that our country could go from slavery ending with the Civil War to a “separate, but equal” society that divided people on the basis of color. ~ What a pile of crock that was!

Today we, at least, have a game in which everybody who plays well enough, will play. In fact, these are the good old days – the only ones we’ll ever have. – Smack dab in the here and now. – The only place anything ever gets done.

Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance once had a nice ring, but I like our Houston Astros 6-4-3 play better, especially when all three of our main guys are in the lineup for the Astros. It’a a long one. It goes from “Puerto Rico-to-Venezuela-to-Cuba-Ole!”

Enough rambling. Racism is the human race cancer. And it needs to die. In all forms.  As this man did, no one ever should have to pass for white, just to get a foot in the door. And that’s why it’s important to remember people like William Edward White, even if others suffered far more by comparison. No one among us should have to go through what he encountered to hide his true identity for the simple sake of avoiding someone else’s need to hate.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 1 Comment »

In The Good Old Summertime

July 8, 2018

 

WON BY THE BOYS.
_______________________
Livingston, Texas, July 15. – The married
men and the boys played a game of ball
here today, the losing side to pay for an
ice cream supper, given at the school
house tonight, resulting in a score of 44
to 16 in favor of the boys.
________________________
Houston Daily Post, July 15, 1896.
_________________________
Contributed by Darrell Pittman.

 

After receiving Darrell’s 1896 story, we looked for a team photo of “the boys” club, but came up empty. So, even though the actual club shown here is one of the 19th century Brown University teams, we have prevailed upon these silent thespians from baseball’s history to portray for us a sidebar note in the Livingston game story. We received no complaints from any of them to the exercise. – So, here we see “the boys” cooling their heels down at the school house after the game, as they patiently await the “married men” to show up and pay for the ice cream.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 3 Comments »

Pin Ball Baseball Was Great 4th of July Fun

July 4, 2018

 

During the summer of 1950, this little pin ball baseball game was my “heat of the day” companion during the 12 noon to 3 pm time that we were all forced inside from the so-called polio vulnerable period of Houston’s worst heat, and probably with good reason prior to the polio vaccine of 1957. In the summer of 1950 alone, over 500 Houston kids came down with polio from mild to fatal effect.

 

POOSH M UP, JR. had 4 games you could play on the same field, but baseball was the only one that held my interest from the start. My actual copy of the game was discarded by my dad years ago. He would do that with our things once we seemed to have “outgrown” them. ~ Sometime in the late 1980s, My brother John found this replica of my original game from our Pecan Park Eagle days and gifted it to me. For one evening, at least, I reacted like an addict who had not snorted a line of cocaine for several decades. Then I found a place for it on my wall of memories and have since settled thereafter for its now-quiet presence as a fond reminder of a very happy early time in my life.

 

Under the lower left side, the part that’s covered by the glove in the first photo, there is a lever you pull that propels the little pin balls, one at a time, up the release channel and onto the field. Pulled at full strength, the ball shoots fast on an arc around the top and then bounces off a metal piece that is designed to carry it bouncing all over the place. ~ Over time, you learn what it takes to reach that tiny space between the two large “U” spaces above that are marked here as “single” and “walk”. Get into the narrow slot between these and it counts as a “home run.” I did reach a point as a kid with my perseverating play time with the game in which back-to-backs were not uncommon. No brag. Any kid with finger dexterity and my capacity for obsession could also do it.

 

 

Happy Fourth of July, everybody! ~ Stay cool! Let Love & Peace rule! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | Leave a Comment »

Great Thoughts from the Houston Colt .45 Era

July 1, 2018

Watch out for the 360 degree rotations of the wire you complete each time you return the phone call receiver to the hook. One of these days, you are going to have to let the receiver spin free in the middle of a future phone call, or else, hold the whole tangled mess to your chin as you try to finish talking.

Great Thoughts from the Houston Colt .45 Era

…. About the Use of Telephones

  1. Unless you like standing up and trying to talk while someone else is washing dishes, never locate your phone high on the kitchen wall at home.
  2. Try to make sure that Ma Bell installs your phone in a room where its comfortable to sit, but never so close to the bedroom that you have to take the phone off the hook to keep callers from ruining a beautiful nap.
  3. Small pillows or blankets make good sound mufflers to phone rings you do not wish to hear.
  4. Always have a pencil and paper handy at the location spot of your phone. It will be helpful to taking messages and writing down phone numbers of new callers that you probably do not presently have in your Roll-A-Deck files.
  5. Remember. – If you do not have the phone number recorded somewhere, there will be no way to get it later from a silent phone, if you do not know who placed the call.
  6. Remember too. – People are only reachable by phone when they are near the instrument that connects them by wire with others. Try to build at least a mental list on the best times to try and reach certain others by phone.
  7. Make sure you always have up-to-date copies of the white and yellow pages near your phone. That one step alone will give you about a 95% chance of finding and reaching the party you wish to call at the right time.
  8. Phone technology is improving by leaps and bounds. New advances in swivel hooks have experts optimistic that we shall soon enough have a new phone connection wire that will not tangle and have to be unswiveled manually in the middle of an important phone call.
  9. With telephone lines that do not entangle coming our way soon enough, what more could we hope for in the future?
  10. One final consoling thought: If you are tired of getting phone calls, simply go for a walk, take a drive, or go to a ball game or movie. The phone will never catch up with you there.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 3 Comments »

Have Faith in Percy Fielding

June 28, 2018

HAVE FAITH IN PERCY FIELDING

By Maxwell Kates

Maxwell Kates

 

Six years ago this weekend, my family and I went for brunch at the United Bakers’ Dairy Restaurant located in the north end of Toronto. ‘The United’ has been owned and operated by three generations of the Ladovsky family since 1912. In accordance with Jewish dietary restrictions which separates meat from dairy, the restaurant is completely vegetarian.

United Bakers Dairy Restaurant – Today!

Parents and children often take opposite sides of controversial issues, in part as a reaction to one another. In our family, this type of psychology could be seen in our choice of baseball teams. My father is a Toronto Blue Jays fans while I have sided with their archrival Detroit Tigers. While my Tigers were struggling early in the 2012 season, the Blue Jays were faring slightly worse. After losing Victoria, Texas native Kyle Drabek for the season due to Tommy John surgery, the Blue Jays could only sit and watch as the disabled list claimed pitchers Chad Hutchinson and Brandon Morrow. Former 1st baseman Pat Tabler, now a Blue Jays analyst, remarked that in a career dating back to 1976, he had never witnessed a team lose three pitchers within a week.

The conversation at brunch turned to baseball, as it often does. I instigated my father with, “Well at least my team didn’t lose three starting pitchers within a week.” He rebutted with, “Yeah? Well at least MY team didn’t spend all their money on…Percy Fielding.”

Prince Fielder (aka Percy Fielding)

And so, from my father’s malaprop, a legend was born – the Legend of Percy Fielding. As the city of Detroit flirted with bankruptcy, the Tigers did indeed reward the erstwhile Milwaukee slugger with a nine year, $214 million contract. Batting cleanup, Percy hit a career best .313 batting average – possibly to match Detroit’s area code – while hitting 30 home runs and driving in 108. At the All-Star Game, Percy won the Home Run Derby against Toronto’s Jose Bautista. Meanwhile, the Tigers recovered in the second half of the season, winning their division before pacing the A’s and sweeping the Yankees on their way to the 2012 World Series.

Meanwhile, the nickname stuck. Through the grace of social media, Prince Fielder the baseball player became Percy Fielding the fictional character. He was known by that sobriquet not only in Detroit, but also places like Seattle and Raleigh, North Carolina. On Facebook I was even suggested to add ‘Percy Fielding’ as a friend, not the Detroit 1st baseman but as it turned out, a retired colonel in Her Majesty’s service. The nickname even developed its own slogan, “Have Faith in Percy Fielding.” It was a nod to the late composer who as it were, probably enjoyed his fair share of meals at ‘the United.’ He grew up in St. John’s Ward when the restaurant was located on nearby Spadina Avenue.

United Bakers Dairy Restaurant – Original Location

But Percy disappointed in the 2012 World Series, going 1-for-14 with an ill-timed force out at home plate as the Tigers were swept by the San Francisco Giants. After a frustrating regular season in 2013, Percy batted .182 in the American League Championship Series against Boston. In Game 6, Percy infamously rounded third base with awkward running antics, culminating with the ‘million dollar belly flop.’ The Tigers had seen enough, trading him to the Texas Rangers that winter for Ian Kinsler.

The Million Dollar Belly Flop

Percy Fielding’s brief but expensive foray with the Detroit Tigers and the Texas Rangers may be over, but the legend lives on. We’ll always have Percy.

Have Faith in Percy Fielding

PECAN PARK EAGLE TRIVIA CONTEST #1

Sharpen your pencils, it’s time to play the first annual Pecan Park Eagle Trivia Contest. But first, some baseball nostalgia for you. Most of the questions relate in some way to columns I have written for the Pecan Park Eagle in the past year. The numbers you see to the left consist of a point scale, for a maximum score of 40 points. To play, simply send an e-mail including your name and address to me at maxwelliankates@hotmail.com with “Pecan Park Eagle Trivia” written as the subject. Then include all of your answers in the text of the message. Contest closes on July 31, 2018. Winners will be announced in early August. Good luck to all those who play.

Trivia Contest

1)            2            Which Hall of Famer was the subject of a recent biography by Marty Appel?

2)            3            In what National League stadium did Willie Mays hit his 600th home run in 1969?

3)            2            Justin Verlander pitched two no-hitters for the Detroit Tigers. Who were the opponents?

4)            2            Which Astros player hit 53 leadoff home runs in his major league career?

5)            4            Roy Halladay was the third Toronto Blue Jays’ pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. Name

the other two.

6)            1            Who won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1953?

7)            5            Five members of the 1982 Houston Astros, four in uniform and one broadcaster, also

managed the team. Name them.

8)            1            According to Irish folk legend, what is the surname of the only man capable of killing a

local man-eating sea serpent?

9)            5            What five Astros players represented the team at the 1994 All-Star Game?

10)            4            How many African American pitchers have won 20 games in a season? Which of the

‘Black Aces’ won 20 games one season for the Astros?

11)            1            What village in upstate New York hosted the first SABR convention in 1971?

12)            4            Name two members of the Larry Dierker Chapter, both of Irish heritage, who played

professional baseball before the formation of the Houston Colt .45s. (Note that I didn’t

say MALE baseball players.)

13)            2            Who is the only living Hall of Famer to work as the director of a funeral home?

14)            3            What pitcher surrendered Rick Monday’s decisive home run in Game 5 of the 1981

National League Championship Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers?

15)            1            Who was the winner pitcher in Game 7 of the 1964 World Series?

 

TIE-BREAKING QUESTION

16)            1            What was the name of Bill McCurdy’s East End Houston sandlot baseball team?

“Just One More Thing….”

I’d like to thank Rick Bush, Wayne Roberts, and Tal Smith for following up on Bill McCurdy’s announcement last month for their help with Colt .45s photos for the expansion teams book. Bill Nowlin thanks you and I thank you. Have a great summer, everybody.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History | Leave a Comment »

I’m In The Nude With Glove

June 27, 2018

Who dat man?
Who dat man?
Gotta long beard
And a nude left hand!

I‘m In The Nude With Glove

(To the tune of “I’m In The Mood For Love”)

By Bill McCurdy

I’m in the nude – with glove
Simply because – they paid me.
Funny, but when they paid me
I stripped and grabbed – my glove.

Heaven is in – my eyes
Bright as the star – I’m under
Oh! Is it any wonder
I’m in the nude – with glove?

Why stop to think of whether
This little dream might fade?
I’ve put my stuff – together
Now I’m nude one, I’m not afraid!

If there’s a cloud above
If it should rain – I’ll let it
But for tonight, forget it!
I’m in the nude – with glove.

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For breaking news about the forthcoming ESPN annual edition on the athletic “body” in motion feature, check out this one of several multiple sources on the big deal this thing has become in our new “eyes on everything” media culture:

http://abc13.com/sports/dallas-keuchel-to-be-featured-in-espns-body-issue-/3621737/

Dallas Keuchel will be the first Houston Astro to participate in the series that is set to hit the news stands on June 29.

As per usual, one hopes that artful appreciation and scientific curiosity are behind this kind of pictorial attention, and, who knows, maybe this generation of marketing wizards will also become the first to prove that hope to be true.

Either way, yes or no, this old world will keep on turning.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture | 2 Comments »

Today’s Leaders and Look-A-Likes

June 23, 2018

“We Represent – the Back-To-Back-To-Back Guild!
And….
We Wish to Welcome You To – Minute Maid!”

2018 American League Batting Average Leaders

 Through Games of 6/22/2018:

# Leaders Team G AB H BA
1 Jose Altuve Astros 77 306 106 .346
2 Mookie Betts Red Sox 58 225 77 .342
3 Jean Segura Mariners 71 296 99 .334
4 Mike Trout Angels 75 259 86 .332
5 JD Martinez Red Sox 73 278 90 .324
6 Matt Duffy Rays 59 234 75 .321
7 Eddie Rosario Twins 71 282 89 .316
8 Michael Brantley Indians 63 258 81 .314
9 John Jay Royals 73 293 91 .311
10 Andrelton Simmons Rays 65 238 73 .307
  • Astros Above shown in bold type.

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LOOK-A-LIKES

Actor Ed Harris

New Rice Baseball Coach
Matt Bragga

Matt Bragga is the new Rice baseball coach. Proving yet again, in spite of our seemingly almost infinite capacity for looking differentially separate from one another, that there are still only a relatively few archetypes from which all these variations we occupy all evolve. Then along comes a face, smile, body type, and language/speech pattern that is DNA-remindful that Matt Bragga may be somehow related to a generationally older, but still working actor named Ed Harris.

If Bragga is anything as a coach that is remindful of a typical Harris movie character, Rice baseball foes better prepare to take a few slugs to the gut in seasons to come.

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People watching. It’s still our most popular universal pastime, but that’s also another reason why baseball is so big and now growing as an international sport. More than any other sport we know, baseball offers the observer a better long-time look at both the face and character of its players through the unfolding of each three-act play we fans call “the game.”

It even helps us survive games like the 1-0 Astros loss to the Royals last night. The Astros didn’t simply lose a winnable game at MMP Friday night. More accurately tuned to the way the whole contest played out, from the start of an Astro fan perspective, in the end, the Astros failed to win a losable game. They just played their part through 27 outs as a team that was on its way to losing until that final result was the one they reached – in spite of a gazillion aborted chances they failed to grasp as happier ultimate alternatives.

Today’s another day. We won’t begin to see today’s game script face until somebody throws the next pitch that counts.

When we do see it, it will not be the first time we see its ugly to handsome archetype configurations, while it is also establishing itself as like no other game we’ve previously ever seen.

Baseball. Gotta love it.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Movies, Pecan Park Days | Leave a Comment »

A Little Help, From and For Our Friends

June 23, 2018

The Wonderful Darrell Pittman Brings Us The Following Report….

 

From Darrell Pittman (Via E-Mail) ~

“It seems that the Galveston paper thought the name of the Travis Street ballpark was ‘Herald Park.’

“Evidently, the temporary ballpark at the Houston Driving Park on Harrisburg had the left field fence in so close that balls hit over it were declared to be doubles.”

~ Galveston Daily News, June 19, 1904.

 

The Magnificent Maxwell Kates Has a Colt .45 Research Request ~

From Maxwell Kates (Via E-Mail) ~

“Bill,

        “Hope all is well with you.  I am writing to follow up on an e-mail I sent on May 26 about the SABR book Bill Nowlin and I are working on about Expansion Teams.  As you know, it is slated to come out this October or November in time for my Houston visit.  We’ve got the text side of it under control. What we’re looking for is material we can use for graphics – photographs of the expansion draft, photos of the organizing group, any graphics at all (newspaper notices, pamphlets sent out to possible investors or sponsors, early season ticket solicitations, etc.). Bill has been copied on this message.

“Do you have anything along those lines for the Colt .45s from your photo archive at the Pecan Park Eagle? Are there other people to whom you can direct me who might be historians – individuals, or libraries – and who might have an item or two, or even a good collection?

“Even coming up with one or two things would be very helpful.

“I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.  Thank you for your assistance.

“Sincerely,

        “Maxwell Kates”

Dear Pecan Park Eagle Readers:

Beyond newly made retro caps, I don’t have a photograph, a scorecard, pennant, signed ball, or bobble head from the Colt .45 period. If you do have anything that could be photographed and sent to Maxwell by attachment for inclusion in his project, please do so soon.

We need to reach out and help him. Beyond Maxwell Kates, I cannot remember anyone else whose outsider early interest in our Houston area baseball history converted so rapidly into the kind of quality research and writing that Maxwell Kates brings to the table. And this thing he’s doing on the Colt .45s is the biggest leap he’s made to date.

You may contact Maxwell through his e-mail address so please do so, no matter how small you think your contribution may be. If it exists, no matter how small, it’s part of our Colt .45 history and it deserves to be connected to the larger family tree of things.

The e-mail address for Maxwell Kates is maxwelliankates@hotmail.com

If he wants to add other e-mail, address, or phone options, Maxwell is free to post those contact options as a comment at the end of this column.

Thank you.

Bill McCurdy

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:,
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 2 Comments »

Curt Walker: A Timeline into Father’s Day

June 17, 2018

Happy Father’s Day 2018, Everyone!

16.5 years after the fact, Rob Zimmerman (R) receives the induction plaque awarded to his great-grandfather, Curt Walker, by the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in December 2001.
**********
Photo by Bob Dorrill

If they asked me, I could write a book. But they didn’t ask. So, we will settle for a small column on the rich subject of Curt Walker as a timeline into the even taller topic of how culturally bound up the game of baseball was to so many of us when it came down to having a good father figure available when it came down to having a working father figure present in our lives — in some form, or forms — during our critical early time as innocent, but loving-needful boys and girls.

I had to look no further than my own father and his childhood experience to see the waves of paternal need placed into motion in my dad’s life by the loss of his own father early in life. In May 1913, at the age of 2 1/2, and as the 3rd oldest of four children born to William and Elizabeth McCurdy of Beeville, Texas — and only boy — my grandfather William McCurdy died of TB, leaving his family in the hands of my very strong grandmother, but without his presence as a model paternal presence. Grandad was the founder. publisher, editor, and principal writer of The Beeville Bee, the town’s first newspaper.

As a result, Dad got shipped off to boarding school almost as soon as his school age days began. It was there that he discovered his skill and affinity for baseball, a game he also played on the sandlots of Beeville every summer that he was home. It was an interest among the boys of Beeville that found strong reenforcement in the fact that three other slightly older town boys had played their ways to the big leagues by 1925.

Melvin Bert Gallia (YOB: 1891; MLB: 1912-1920), Curt Walker (YOB: 1896; MLB: 1919-1930), and Lefty Lloyd Brown (YOB: 1904; MLB: 1925, 1928-1937, 1940) were the native Beeville trailblazers to big league ball. Because of his own enjoyment of hitting, and also influenced by the fact that he shared the same BL/TR outfield post, easily converted Dad into becoming a big fan of Curt Walker, a condition which apparently worked fine for Walker, who became something of a 14 years older big brother figure to Dad as the two men’s friendship grew over time.

The presence of baseball gave Curt Walker and my dad the basis for a relationship that would last a lifetime. From the late 1920s summer times of Dad and his buddies going down to the Western Union or the Beeville Bee-Picayune offices to get the late afternoon scores for the Cincinnati Reds because that was Curt Walker’s team — to all the cups of coffee they shared later as grown men regular customers of the American Cafe — baseball was healing cultural water that brought new strength to areas of life that could hurt so bad.

Rob and Stacy Zimmerman of Charleston, SC included Houston on their family roots tour of South Texas to participate in the induction materials luncheon ceremony at the Jax Bar and Grill on Shepherd, held as part of our June SABR meeting.
**********
Photo by The Pecan Park Eagle

We owe a debt of gratitude this Father’s Day to Rob and Stacy Zimmerman of Charleston, South Carolina. Had Rob’s pursuit of information, lost and found, about Curt Walker, the man who turned out to be his great-grandfather, we may have lost the opportunity forever to have been reminded of why baseball is so important to the strength and structure of American culture. Had Stacy not been the patient life partner to Rob that she very obviously is, he might have been inclined to have abandoned the pursuit after we almost got together for a transfer of these awards to him years ago.

To that, I must say this about our newly found brother and sister, with a salute to the service they have each put forth in commitment to the rest of us:

“Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force ~ especially when its aims are supported by patience and resilience!”

A tight framed 8×10 bust of Curt Walker from this September 1919 photo of his brief stay with the Yankees at the tail end of his rookie season was also presented to the SC couple during the ceremony, along with a few other historical goodies and a round of Curt Walker stories. – Photo compliments of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library Collection, Cooperstown.

In addition to the 2001 Curt Walker Induction plaque from the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame. Rob Zimmerman accepted possession on Saturday, June 16, 2018, of an 8×10″ tightly framed facial profile of 23 year old Curt Walker dressed out as a 1919 New York Yankee. He also received a replica copy of Curt Walker’s 1926 Cincinnati Reds cap, a signed copy of Curt Walker’s Louisville Slugger bat, and a few books to read on Houston baseball history.

December 15, 2001. The Curt Walker Louisville Slugger bat was signed by Will Clark and all the other living fellow inductees from 2001, plus MLB stars likes Bobby Brown and Texas League icon Bobby Bragan. (Photo by Bob Dorrill.)

The room of our Saturday meeting overflowed with love, appreciation, and good feelings yesterday. And that’s as it should be. Today, Ron and Stacy are in Beeville, where my brother John McCurdy will show them where Curt Walker once lived – and then take them to Glenwood Cemetery to see where Curt Walker is buried.

Baseball is the great uniter of different people, even rivals, who are bound together – even in difference – to the importance of historic connectivity – and our shared commitment to the great game of baseball as the saving grace of us all.

Peace. Love. And Play Ball!

And Happy Father’s Day too!

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, Cooperstown, culture, History, Houston | 3 Comments »

A Brewster McCloud Review by Wayne R. Roberts

June 12, 2018

Brewster McCloud Soars Again
In the Astrodome, 1970.

A Brewster McCloud Review

By Wayne R. Roberts

Thank you, Wayne, for including me as a recipient of an e-mail that was really an Astrodome and Houston history column that cried out loudly for publication. ~ i.e., Welcome to The Pecan Park Eagle as another fine contributing author! ~ Bill McCurdy, Publisher.

I’ve been waiting for 12 years to get Brewster McCloud from Netflix but for some reason they haven’t carried it.  I was tipped that it is now available on Amazon in a new remastered DVD and ordered it.

In the event you haven’t seen it I’ll spare telling the plot of this surrealistic film made in Houston in 1970 by legendary director Robert Altman.  Never his most popular flick, it apparently was done immediately after MASH and uses many actors that appear  over ad over in Altman movies: Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, John Schuck, and Stacey Keach and introduces Shelley Duvall who Altman discovered in early film preparation when she was a clerk in the Greenspoint Mall Foley’s.  It also includes Margaret Hamilton who was the wicked witch in, yes, The Wizard of Oz.

Not particularly politically correct (was Altman ever?), it is a must for those who lived in Houston at that time.  For me, the shots in Astroworld are breathtaking—made in the area in which I groundskept, though not when I was there.

Quickly, here’s what I took away in this first viewing in 20 years, in no particular order:

  • Houston skyline, whoa, was it different
  • The Medical Center sure was smaller
  • Chase scenes occur in the South Main, Loop 610, OST area and the cow pastures and fields are shocking
  • Brewster lives in the bomb shelter in the Dome
  • Incredible behind the scenes shots of the Dome
  • On the radio: Hudson & Harrigan and KILT news
  • 1970 Houston Chronicle
  • Drive along South Main includes Ye Olde College Inn
  • North Main includes the old M&M Cotton Exchange (now UH-Downtown)
  • Love Street/Allen’s Landing
  • Astroworld Hotel exterior and rooms
  • Astrodome gift shop, Domeskeller, The Countdown Cafeteria
  • Houston Zoo
  • Game shots of the Astros from the screen where you passed to go from the outfield bleachers to the Mezzanine (or tried to sneak through)
  • Weingarten’s in Montrose
  • Mecom Fountain
  • Pre rehab buildings along Montrose Blvd
  • Uncrowded freeways—many many driving scenes of downtown and SW Houston, OST-Fannin area chase scenes
  • Humble and Esso gas stations
  • Brays Bayou
  • Allen Parkway at early Tranquility Park (I think that’s its name)

For us old-timers, this is a must watch.

This is worth a more elaborate McCurdy report after you see it!

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 2 Comments »

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