The Pecan Park Eagle

Menutis Club Whip Dancers in Houston, About 1959.

The Whip Dance is coming back on Saturday, September 3rd, when hundreds of Jimmy Menutis fans and the world-famous singing group, The Platters, all  descend upon the Petroleum Club in Lafayette, Louisiana to celebrate “3M: MENUTIS, THE MAN, AND HIS MUSIC.” No one in this country did more to spread the happiness and joy of Rock and Roll to the people of Houston, New Orleans, the Greater Southwest, or the Deep South than Jimmy Menutis – and on September 3rd,  – a fairly large group of us surviving early rockers will be gathering in Lafayette to celebrate both the birthday of the incomparable Jimmy Menutis – as well as our lifetime love for the music that found its wings during our mid-1950s coming of age generation.

Registration Info Amended: 8-14-2011. The party is now booked to capacity. See what that means by the information that follows this column as “Menutis Party Now Booked to Capacity.”

The party is scheduled to run from 7:30 PM to Midnight. A two-hour performance by the Platters is the main event feature, but a very nice contest for Whip Dancers is also planned, with the winning couple getting a nice all expenses paid trip awarded to them as gift from Jimmy and Ruth Ann Menutis. The rest of the evening will be filled with DJ-driven music from the 1950s, a few smaller prize-driven contests over our memories of musical lyrics from that era (I’m calling these little tests the “Lame That Tune” moments.)

A longtime family friend, the Hon. Paul Valteau, will be there to help us all appreciate an insider look at the man we mostly knew as Jimmy Menutis, our regional King of Rock and Roll, and Jimmy will help us personally take that walk down the corridors of our fondest memories of a genre that changed the face of American music.

I will be on hand to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the evening. To that invitation from the Menutis family, all I can say is that I am deeply humbled and honored to so serve, and that I promise you this much: You will get the best shot I can give this very special task. That’s the only way I know how to do things.

I grew up in both psychological and geographical proximity to the Jimmy Menutis Club on Telephone Road near Wayside. My family moved from Houston in October 1958, but by that time, I was a 20-year old student at UH and living also fewer than two miles up the Gulf Freeway from “JM” on the northern side of what our map here shows. The map shows my family home location in Pecan Park in relation to approaches by either the Gulf Freeway or Telephone Road.

The years 1953 to 1958 were explosive ones for change in the music of “my generation.” As a young white kid growing up in segregated Houston, all we got was a mainstream dose of ballads from that Saturday Night TV Hit Parade Show, featuring such artists as Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Patti Page, or the like. That’s what came through the mainstream AM radio stations too (There was no FM in 1953) and through our local record shops.

“The object of my affection, can change my complexion, from white to rosy red, anytime you hold my hand, and tell me you are mine.” (Nuf sed.)

Then, one fine day, without anyone firing a gun and yelling, “Start your search for something else,” we learned, with the help of a little radio dial twisting up to the land of four unit  call letters (KYOK at 1590, etc.) that, indeed, there were alternatives to the Saturday night sounds of Snooky Lanson, Russell Arms, Jill Corey, or Giselle MacKenzie of the Hit Parade.

We first thought of it as “black music.”  The black Dee Jays we heard called it “Rhythm and Blues.” All we knew is that this music moved and sounded and played out the same three minutes per song, twisting  through our brains with a very different ring to our sense of music or life in movement.

“I’m like a one-eyed cat – peeping in a seafood store!” – Big Joe Turner.

“How much is that doggie in the window – the one with waggly tail?” – Patti Page.

One of those lines woke up our testosterone-driven thoughts. The other rang like a rhyme from nursery school.

Guess which message we heard the loudest? That’s right. And it scared some adults so badly that they actually even gave some thought to banning rock and roll. All that sentiment did was fuel a couple of movies by New York Dee Jay Alan Freed and launched the motto that would soon be celebrated in a song by the great Chuck Berry: “Long Live Rock and Roll! – Deliver Us From The Days of Old!”

The mainstream radio moguls must have had their radar guns on us through out the whole shift because, by 1954, black artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and others were streaming into play on the previously all mainstream music logs of Houston radio stations.

The argument goes on forever over who was actually first, but there is little argument that the 1954 release of “That’s All Right” by the white Elvis Presley on mainstream bans made it easier for black musicians to get their work into play too. By the summer of 1955 and Chuck Berry’s release of “Maybelline,”  there was no doubt that  the music we now called “Rock and Roll” was here to stay in the big stream of American musical culture.

When Jimmy Menutis converted the old Wayside suburban movie theatre into his “Jimmy Menutis Club” in 1958, it was as though he had just opened an international airport for all the great early rock and roll artists to land and expand their careers into Houston. We young Houstonians were literally awestruck by the parade of big names that now came to Houston too.

Words fail. All of our lives were somehow changed because of the Jimmy Menutis Club. And, on September 3rd, we get our chance to celebrate the life of the man who made it all possible.

Here’s a little rock and roll parody to kick off the celebration:

Jimmy, Thank You!

Deep down in Louisiana – deep in Lafayette!

We’re gonna have a party – one you’ll never forget!

We’re gonna hear The Platters – watch some Whip dancers too!

We’ll party til the night is blazing – Red, Hot, and Blue!

We’ll celebrate the man who knew the music to suit us!

I hardly have to mention that he’s Jimmy Menutis!

We’ll crank it up and party on an evening so fine!

We’ll fool our bones to thinking that its 1959!

As long as we keep moving and can still jump and shout!

No need to keep explaining what the party’s about!

Except for …

Thanks! – Thanks, Jimmy, Thanks!

Thanks! – Thanks, Jimmy,  Thanks!

I said – Thanks! – Thanks, Jimmy, Thanks!

I said – Thanks! – Thanks, Jimmy, Thanks!

I said – Thanks! – Oh Yeah! – Jimmy, Thank You!

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Lafayette. As for everyone else, we’ll let you know here at The Pecan Park Eagle how the party went, but that’s a story for now that rests on the other side of the happening.

ADDENDUM: 8-14-2011 / MENUTIS PARTY NOW BOOKED TO CAPACITY

"NO MORE ROOM, FOLKS!"

The September 3rd Party in Lafayette, Louisiana honoring both the 87th birthday of former Houston and New Orleans club icon Jimmy Menutis is now booked to capacity for members of the general public who have not yet registered as guests and received in return a confirming invitation in the party by US Mail.

Here is how things work from this point forward:

General Public:  Only those registered guests with confirming invitations in hand will be admitted to the party. Regretfully, no new reservations by the general public are possible at this late date.

Old Friends & Menutis Customers: In the event that some old friends or customers have been lost at sea over the past few months, room will be found at the party table if these folks suddenly appear and contact the reservations line by e-mail only. The e-mail reservations address is:

http://rmenutis@brandedworksinc.com

Include your name, address, contact phone number, and a brief word on how you know Jimmy personally – or as a customer. Also, please specify how many people you are hoping to include in your late registration. Someone from the party arrangements team will then either get back in touch with you, or else, send you an invitation by US Mail.

For currently unregistered friends and customers, It is not enough to simply e-mail your intentions to attend into the preservationist. You must also receive an invite in the mail in return  to be admitted on the night of the party.

Walk Ups on the Night of the Party: People who show up on the night of the party with no official invitation,  or with no previously confirmed reservation, will not be admitted.  As all-embracing as the Menutis family is, they simply have to draw a line against making exceptions here – in fairness to all the other guests – and to the host whose life and music have made this special evening possible. Those of us around Jimmy Menutis do not want a single care or concern to get in the way of a night for great joy and celebration of his life and the music that filled it.

Bring Your Invites to Lafayette: For those of you traveling to Lafayette for the party, be sure to bring the invitation you received by US Mail because it is also your party’s ticket to admission on the night of the party. Think of it as you would any concert you ever attended. You have to have a ticket to go inside and take a seat.

Cool! That’s about it from here – for now.

In behalf of the Jimmy Menutis family, we thank you for your understanding!