The Pecan Park Eagle

Eastwood Theater
Houston, Texas
1936-1960

Remembering the Eastwood. While looking for something else this morning, I ran across this brief post and response thread about the old Eastwood Theater on Leeland Avenue at Telephone Road. It was by Stan Gilmore and six reader contributors who apparently also experienced the post WWII fun of that iconic movie house in the East End. The other large ones for most of us East Enders back in that era included the Wayside on Telephone Road near Wayside Drive (that one later became home to the Jimmy Menutis Club), the Santa Rosa, further south on Telephone near Park Place Boulevard, and the Broadway on Broadway Boulevard near Milby High School. Several other smaller movie theaters also operated in the East End and throughout the city back in that time and all of you survivors from that period will know immediately the ones I write about here. As I’ve written previously, my home base smaller movie theater, the one that held me and many of the kids from Pecan Park and Mason Park spellbound at their Saturday double features, plus action serials and cartoons, was the Avalon, on 75th near Lawndale. Unfortunately, only one of these suburban, mostly art deco sculpted houses of Houston history, the Santa Rosa, survived the wrecking balls beyond the 1960s. The Santa Rosa, which also was located near the home of my old Houston Buff friend Jerry Witte at the time of his death in 2002, was still around then as an “adult” movie theater, but it too may be gone by now. I haven’t been back to the specific area of Jerry’s home since his death to know for sure about the fate of the Santa Rosa.

The oft-repeated punchline to this story is a familiar sad one for so much of Houston’s history until now. Each wonderful place of cultural and architectural history went down without a whimper of protest from Houstonians favoring preservation. Buff Stadium went down the same way. At least, today, we have a fairly well organized voice of protest in Houston against turning landmark places into parking spaces or strip centers. It’s only because we now have an activist movement in favor of sensible preservation today that a problem with “what to do with the Astrodome” even exists. Back in that earlier time, a vacant, unused and unusable building without the funds to resurrect it to a legitimate use would have long ago already added up to “no problem at all.” By this much time of standing idle, an Astrodome structure back then would have become additional parking space for whatever else new that was going on at the same property site.

Here’s a link to the Eastwood reference piece:

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/29034

Best Oxymoron of 2014. I saw it on a bumper sticker yesterday while waiting for the light to change at the east bound I-10 feeder road intersection at Echo Lane. It simply read “VEGAN TEXAN”. ~ How oxymoronic is that one, friends? And was the author of this impossibility simply pulling our chains – or was he or she attempting to defecate us on some rudimentary level? (i.e., “Are you ‘defecating’ me?”)

Congratulations to Channel 11. Hardly anyone these days could argue with the fact that the anchor personnel at all three of the major network connected TV stations in Houston (Channels 2, 11, and 13) have certainly improved the visual landscape at 5:00 AM. They have done it with faces and bodies that are far easier on the eye when simply waking viewers up during the work week. It’s not an easy job. Their challenge is a little bit of a struggle with the still grasping sandman for audience attention.

Darby Douglas
Traffic Reporter
Channel 11, Houston

Until recently in Houston, all of the traffic advisory positions were being staffed by attractive younger females like Jennifer Reyna at Channel 2, who does a good job, by the way. Her job, also apparently, is to make sure that her male viewers, at least, get lost in her charms long enough to get good info on their best choices for reaching work any given day while standing pat as a viewer long enough beyond the traffic reports to watch at least a commercial or two.

In that light, congratulations to Channel 11 for bringing back Darby Douglas, a slightly pudgy middle aged male staffer as their traffic “expert” in spite of the building all-cute-female pattern that has dominated TV traffic reporting figures since the time a few years ago that it swept male reporters like poor witty and bright Darby onto the street from the same Channel 11 (unofficially, of course) for not being a sexy female.

Jennifer Reyna
Traffic Reporter
Channel 2, Houston

OK, guys, we know what you are thinking. Attention to Darby’s Channel 11 traffic reports won’t spike higher in reader attention ratings as Darby turns his body sideways and sticks his chest out to point at the traffic map. It doesn’t matter. His grasp of various Houston traffic problems places him at the head of the TV traffic experts class. You may actually get some information from Darby that could help you find a better way to work in Houston, Texas. (Talk about oxymorons and we have to place anything that alludes to “easy driving” in Houston on our list.)

At any rate, the point is this simple. – Darby Douglas seems to do a good job of  offering alternatives around specific congestions that pile up normally and variably from day to day on Houston strrets and freeways.

Now that we’ve presented our short case in favor of Darby Douglas for local TV early morning traffic reports, give us at least two reasons why some of you will continue to watch Jennifer Reyna at Channel 2 – even on days you have no plans to go anywhere.

Have a nice Thursday, everybody – and hold onto your sense of humor wherever you go!