Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (West: accept, typical)

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by outafocus

The Texas Theatre here did not have an atmospheric ceiling. I still think it was the prettiest theatre in downtown San Antonio.

The Texas Theatre in Seguin had a poor man's atmospheric ceiling. It had crystal stars attached to the dark blue ceiling and they seemed to twinkle while reflecting light from the projector beam.

I like that..."poor man's atmospheric ceiling!"

My dad recalls that in Laredo way back in the '40s, the local
movie "theater" had long wood benches.

When the movie projector broke...which it always did,
everyone would stomp their feet until it was fixed.

Watching Cantinflas was annoying sometimes because the laughter
was so loud, you couldn't hear what he was saying.

I've read that the great comedian, Charlie Chaplin, considered Cantinflas to
be the funniest comedian ever on screen.
You would have to fully understand the language to appreciate what Cantinflas did
or said on screen.

[huckster]

I must have gotten the Theater Ceilings mixed up. It was long ago when I used to go to the movies downtown. However, I can certainly, remember the beauty of the interior of the Texas Theater. Those old theaters were something else. Notice I wrote theater and theatre.
Theatre is for the hi-falutin. At least they think they are but most of them buy their clothes off the rack like all else.

Fellow poster and Proud GOP member-San Antonian Mud was commissioned to reproduce a piece of the Texas Theater interior wall- high up on the interior- 40 or 50 feet I'd think. Least way, I believe the face reproduced was from the Texas. This piece by Mud was erected along the Riverwalk for millions to see.
Can't pass it by, the countenance, and see the Figure without thinking about old Mud.

Originally Posted by outafocus

The Texas Theatre here did not have an atmospheric ceiling. I still think it was the prettiest theatre in downtown San Antonio.

The Texas Theatre in Seguin had a poor man's atmospheric ceiling. It had crystal stars attached to the dark blue ceiling and they seemed to twinkle while reflecting light from the projector beam.

[huckster]

Stan Laurel , a British actor, was the understudy of Charlie Chaplin. Stan Laurel become very famous as part of the Laurel and Hardy comic team of course.
Stan Laurel did well in talkies where Chaplin did not fare well. Laurel played the role of the bumbler of the Laurel and Hardy duo but was actually the comic genius of the pair and wrote nearly everything they did.
They played in over one hundred films together.

I believe Laurel and Cantinflas both were admirers of Chaplin.

Originally Posted by ranchodrive

I like that..."poor man's atmospheric ceiling!"

My dad recalls that in Laredo way back in the '40s, the local
movie "theater" had long wood benches.

When the movie projector broke...which it always did,
everyone would stomp their feet until it was fixed.

Watching Cantinflas was annoying sometimes because the laughter
was so loud, you couldn't hear what he was saying.

I've read that the great comedian, Charlie Chaplin, considered Cantinflas to
be the funniest comedian ever on screen.
You would have to fully understand the language to appreciate what Cantinflas did
or said on screen.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by huckster

Stan Laurel , a British actor, was the understudy of Charlie Chaplin. Stan Laurel become very famous as part of the Laurel and Hardy comic team of course.
Stan Laurel did well in talkies where Chaplin did not fare well. Laurel played the role of the bumbler of the Laurel and Hardy duo but was actually the comic genius of the pair and wrote nearly everything they did.
They played in over one hundred films together.

I believe Laurel and Cantinflas both were admirers of Chaplin.

First time I saw Laurel & Hardy comedy was at the State theater.
I was very young and confused why the chubby one was the mean
one on the screen whereas at home TV watching comedy teams, it
was the chubby one who was nice. But I was thinking of
Abbott & Costello.

As huckster pointed out, Stan Laurel was the one who orchestrated
the work while Ollie was content to sit back and would prefer to be
out on the Beverly Hills golf course.

Knowing this, Stan Laurel would do the scenes of exasperation by
Hardy in the afternoons, when the frustrated looks from Ollie
were real because he was ready to leave the studios and head
out for a round of golf before it got dark.

Besides Oliver Hardy, Chaplin and Jack Benny were one of the few that
dared to break the unwritten rule by looking directly at the camera to
let you in on what was happening to them in the film.

Bogart did it in the film noir, "The Big Sleep" and they kept it because
nobody would dare mess with Bogey and it fit the mood for that scene.

Edit: I must say that Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton also played to the
camera. This was early silent comedy and when talkies came out, it was
considered very funny to see & hear animals which was part of the menu
for Hal Roach's early Our Gang comedies and later, the Little Rascals.

I recall watching the Little Rascals and Popeye cartoons in the afternoons
on KENS 5, I believe the show was called Captain Gus with Joe Alston
as host.
Prior to this there was "Uncle Don's "Backyard Theater".
The format being about the same.
A group of kids sitting in benches & the host would ask for their
names and what school they attended afterwards the toons or
rascals were shown.

It was presented by Bosco Chocolate Syrup drink.
During half-time commercial spot.
One kid was selected and Captain Gus would fix him a glass of
milk chocolate.
Remember...this was "live programing".
One time a kid kid took a swallow and made a face saying that
it was horrible tasting!
I'll never forget it!

Joe also presented horror/thriller movies after the ten o'clock news.
It was called either "Project Terror" or "Shock" theater. It changed
names over the years.
Show would begin with Joe Alston dressed in black tux, saying in
a deep scary voice....

"Tired of the everyday routine....ever want to get away from it all....
then prepare yourself... for a..."SHOCK"...

followed by spooky laughter, lightning sounds and the 1930s
Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy or the Werewolf movies would come on.

In my opinion, the '30s monsters were the best! I know that
today's technology is great, but there's something about those creatures
that gave me nightmares yet I still watched them.

I had to sneak to the TV set in the living room quietly to watch because
my folks wanted me asleep and ready for school the next day!

[huckster]

Interesting post, great. I can recall much of what you write but of course your knowledge
of the Industry far exceeds mine. It would of course.
However you've not mentioned my film character favorite from the Old days. W.C. Fields.
Fields was notorious- for the character he portrayed onset -because it was fundamentally himself. Drunk
he was before he ever showed up to begin a day's work.
Never stuck to movie lines written for him by writers either, he created a lot of the comedy and slapstick
in his movies while filming.
Comedic genius, he thought of a lot of the material during acting. The story line always mirrored his life real life, and his take on life as it came to him.
Not one to be stopped because the material was too original, too funny. Hilarious.
I had never paid attention to Fields humor and a funny thing happened to me in college. I was in the basement of a college I attended in the attended in the seventies. It was a sort of technological area for the times. Computers were not used to keep track of the dewey decimal system back but still index cards were used.
Technology back then in the "Audio Visual Dept." as it was called were enormous vcr's and cassette players. Old Films, Rancho, were kept on videocassete, like Gone with the Wind, Grapes of Wrath etc.as a sort of cultural experience and so a W.C. Fields film was in there, " It's a Gift".
I watched the film while wearing soundproof headphones for listening so as not to disturb other students who needed silence. As I watched the film I was not ready for the hilarity I was to encounter. I began to laugh out loud so loudly that the librarian all the way upstairs and across the library had to come downstairs to quiet my laughter.
My embarrassment at this was complete. However I could not even hear how loud were my guffaws myself due to the soundproof headphones. Now I have a collection of Fields films.
Dudley Moore said in his narration of a bio of Fields(W.C. Fields, Himself) that he is called, "The most gifted comedian of the first half of the Twentieth century". After all.
Who wants to go and see a film about an old man and an old lady? Such was his talent.

[outafocus]

Good old Captain Gus. i remember Hector and Zombie were part of his crew. He also had a picture of Neppy the whale. I also remember a time when he accidentally came on without his mustache. It magically appeared after the first cartoon. I also remember whenever he picked cards for the Wishing Well Club, and one of the cards came from Yoakum, TX, he would exclaim "It's from YOAKUM, Zombie, Yoakum!" He always told the corniest jokes and riddles. I never missed it. I wish kids today had someone like Captain Gus to watch. It was a great part of my childhood.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by huckster

Interesting post, great. I can recall much of what you write but of course your knowledge
of the Industry far exceeds mine. It would of course.
However you've not mentioned my film character favorite from the Old days. W.C. Fields.
Fields was notorious- for the character he portrayed onset -because it was fundamentally himself. Drunk he was before he ever showed up to begin a day's work.
Technology back then in the "Audio Visual Dept." as it was called were enormous vcr's and cassette players. Old Films, Rancho, were kept on videocassete, like Gone with the Wind, Grapes of Wrath etc.as a sort of cultural experience and so a W.C. Fields film was in there, " It's a Gift".

I have a couple of old vcr's and cassette record/player machines along with
boxes of beta tapes & vhs tapes of movies that I recorded back in the day
when AMC had no commercials. I also have tapes when cigarette and beer
ads were very common in television.

"It's a Gift" (W.C. Fields) is a favorite. I have others, but didn't mentioned,
otherwise I would run of of ink!

Afternoons after school we watched "American Bandstand" with Dick Clark,
the "Mickey Mouse Club" & my favorite, Annette Funicello.
Henry "Pepsi" Peña Dance TV show also the KUKA radio broadcasts.

Later working at the KWEX studios on Durango Blvd, we would do the
Centeno Store and H.E.B. commercials...we'd get to eat the food that was
prepared for the spots afterwards.
I enjoyed doing camera work for Oscar Zamora along with his side kick Don Chema.
I had to cover my mouth to stop from laughing, but he loved it and didn't mind.

I got to do camera for Selena when she was beginning to make a name for herself.
She would come by on Wednesday with her dad & band. We'd record in the afternoons
and televised that evening.
She was a tremendous talent for such a young girl. I miss her.

I recall lunch time at Burbank High School eating in the cafeteria along
with Sonny Ozuna.
He had his friends from the band "Sunny & the SunGlows", he was not
conceited, he would sit with us kids.
I was a freshman and he was a senior. I mostly listen to him.
Nice person, with a powerful singing voice. He would practice outside
by the hallway to the cafeteria or in the gym.

I was proud when he appeared on the Dick Clark Show nation wide.

[huckster]

I never could watch the Mickey Mouse Club after school, nor American Bandstand. I was too young to be interested I guess.
I think there was a Howdy Doody program too. I do not or barely can recall it, as I write, I was too young.
Maybe I just was too fidgety, a trait I retain to this day.
I used to watch Captain Kangaroo program though in the mornings. Such ran the tastes as a kid.
I did watch Cap'n Gus and his cartoons also, afternoons between four and five o'clock after school, back in the sixties.
After Cap'n Gus and his popeye cartoons-right about then- Dad would be arriving home from his work at Kelly Field and supper would be ready, the timing perfect. That was about it. A kid's life. Meanwhile Dad seemed to be always attending night Classes at SAC, Trinity, and then St.Mary's and had soon left home for an evening of study, again. A very studious person my Dad was. Meanwhile my very old fashioned maternal grandmother whispered in my mom's ear that all this night college stuff was merely an excuse to get Dad out of the house nights. Dad earned his degree from St. Mary's, paid by the State because they paid veteran's college costs. A good deal indeed.
Meanwhile. I would go outside as the evening news would start at 5:30 p.m.and I wasn't ready to listen to that just yet. The most boring Game Show ever were probably my thoughts on the Cronkite evening news.
So. Out of doors I would go to goof off, wander the woods or seek another diversion.
At fifteen I began to work at my first real job and was working for the Ozarka Water Bottling Company part time. The bottled water company was located near downtown, just south off St. Mary's I think. Soon I was operating the forklift and performing oil changes on the large delivery trucks. A freight train would deliver a tanker car full of water there ,the railroad tracks ran right through the plant I can remember, supposedly from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Perhaps from Hot Springs I never knew. The Water was then pumped into the plant and dispersed into 5 Gal. bottles. They are still in business to this day.

The very Next thing. I worked for around forty years and retired. Now if I look back-all that time seems to have rushed by in a very quick blur. Just like this post. Dad is ninety two years old now, mom eighty seven. The Four sons are young, to not so young, men.
I am quite a bit older too and am home all day, once again. Cap'n Gus doesn't come on t.v. anymore
however, because I checked for it.

Rancho, you mention the famed singer Selena and how you were once on set with her. Coincidentally.
I think I heard on the news just this morning that a television show about a fictitious character
portraying a, Selena- like character, is set to begin soon. I was absentmindedly listening to the news
after breakfast this morning as I gulped coffee when I heard this- so the information relayed may be inaccurate. I barely caught this news at the end of what was said....something about the father and sister are the producers? I could hardly believe the news myself, really.


I too remember Sunny and the Sunliners Music group alright Ranch. They achieved some local notoriety with the release of their song , "Believe Me" in the late sixties. I must have been fifteen or sixteen yrs. old. The song always, seemed to be playing on the radio around here. Over the A.M. radio waves as this was the best we kids had for pop music. The F.M. band was for classical music I believe I remember, it was some time ago.
What I really remember is getting hypodermic injections as a little bitty kid. With any sniffle I caught it seemed we would leave our tiny southside home and go to see Old Dr. Clifton in his third floor office in the Nix building downtown on Saturdays. I think it was located there(?)where I would get anti-biotic shots.

Upon entering the office he pulled out of an always boiling tank full of water with a foot operated lid
( 3'x2'x1' stainless, also) a , huge, sterilized stainless steel and glass syringe. Held in the huge hands of Dr. Clifton. Shoot!, I thought. This was the worse swear word I knew as a kid. With Primitive medical
equipment, the thing was nearly a foot long it seemed to me. The syringe now seems of a size more appropriate for horses when glancing back to that period compared to the disposable syringes of today.

[ranchodrive]

Mostly teenagers watched American Bandstand.
Saturday morning TV programing was aimed for children.

I would watch the various shows including Mighty Mouse. Flash Gordon serials,
the Little Rascals were my favorite along with Bugs Bunny & Popeye.

Evenings there was Red Skelton, Jack Benny to name some, their were others
including westerns like Gunsmoke and the Ed Sullivan show where we first saw
Elvis perform. Dragnet and the various quiz shows,The $64,000 Dollar Question
and Twenty-One. My mom would watch the soaps with the organ music.

My dad watched wrestling on tv that was televised over on Josephine Street.
I remember the wrestlers, I just can't recall the names right now.

I knew Sunny Ozuna from Burbank days when he first started as "Sunny and the Sunglows".
In '63 it became Sunny and the Sunliners.
Shortly after the name change, Ozuna became the first Tejano artist to ever
appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand with his #1 hit,
"Talk To Me" that stayed on top for 17 weeks.

I still cringe thinking about the needles that were administered at the start of school
when I attended elementary in Laredo.

Also the shots that were given to me every week at Santa Rosa Hospital on Thursday
because I was very skinny, but I'm ok now.
Those needles were awful, unlike today which are not as big or painful.

Speaking of swear words. Spanish being my first language in Laredo, but moving
to San Antonio when I was 7...I learn the cuss words in English.

The first time I heard the "F" word from some kids, I thought they were saying,
"frog you"!
I was so naive, I had no idea about the word or the sex act. I believed my folks
when they told me that the doctor brought me in the "doctor's bag"!

Learning through dirty jokes in school about sex...I could not imagine my folks
doing that. Back then, no one told us about life or how children were made, not
even in school.
Ahhh... the good ole days!

[outafocus]

I found this on YouTube today. It sure brought back nice memories of Captain Gus.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpX1AblAzo