THE LAST WORDS OF BIG TEX…

Well, Guy Lombardo was at Louann's one night. I was selling popcorn table to table. They had a special table set up for them out in the middle of the club. I walked up to the table, but it was dark and I didn't recognize him. So I asked if he'd like to buy some popcorn. He looked up at me and said, "I'll make you a deal". He and his band were there with their wives. He said, "We want to go dance. If you'll sit here and keep an eye on the ladies' purses, I'll buy all the popcorn you've got." So I did, and he bought all my popcorn. I made more money that night than I ever thought I'd make in my life. Roy Orbison was there signing autographs. I wasn't selling popcorn that night. I was out picking up beer bottles off the tables. I used to like cleaning the tables. I'd sniff the beer bottles. On occasion I might have even sipped some beer out of a couple of them. Hell, when you're a kid you gotta get your beer where you can. So, Roy Orbison was over there signing autographs. He looked over at me and said, "Would you like an autograph too?" I said, "That's okay, I'll get one next time you're here". And he never came back to Louann's.

DROWNING IN A WHISKEY RIVER

So Whiskey River opens. Gatemouth Brown, Rusty Wier, Gary P. Nunn. We also had Ray Wylie Hubbard and Michael Martin Murphy. I had dinner with Michael at The Pawn Shop and he came over to Whiskey River and we really hit it off. B.W. Stevenson was there. Hoyt Axton. Delbert McClinton, Bees Knees, Shake Russell, Bugs Henderson all played there I’ll tell you one story - Paul McCartney from The Beatles came in one night. I think he was with Wings then. He was sitting with the Five Americans, I think Freddie King was playing that night.

BUD BUSCHARDT, HE’S SUMP’N ELSE!

The second weekend that I was at WFAA, things really changed. That was the weekend of November 22, 1963. I was still in school that day and they let us out early which was something they never did. So, I asked my professor “Dan, what do we do in a case like this?" He said, “There's my desk. There's my phone. You call RIverside 8-9631 right now.” So, I called, and actually got through the switchboard, and asked for Mr. Turner. And as luck had it, he happened to be on his way to lunch and ran into Jay Watson (WFAA Program Director) and Jerry Haynes in the lobby. Jay said, “I need studio quickly and camera live, whatever you can do.” And Turner said, “Well, what’s the big deal?” Jay said “The President’s just been shot.” And then it was absolutely crazy. I was running from studio to studio. Don said, “Strike all the studios you can."

DALLAS COWBOYS TIMELINE

Credit given to: Dallas Morning News, DallasCowboys.com, Pro Football Reference, Texas State Historical Society, ESPN, Wiki, a innumerable number of Cowboy fan sites, Dallas Public Library, and several hardcore Cowboy fans. This is a ‘living document’ and will be updated as new information is proven and added

A STARCK REALITY, THE GREG McCONE STORY

"Well, I am bringing up issues of concern but at the same time, I'm being hired to implement what it is they want to do." So, I said to them, "I don't know how you're gonna get a $10.00 cover charge or how six toilets are gonna take care of 2,000 people on a Saturday night, I've alerted them to my concerns. Now it's my job to figure out how to make it work." Now, Phillipe Starck's answer was, "This will be no problem. The men will use the ladies, the ladies will use the men's" and that's exactly what happened.

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DOWDY FERRY ROAD, THE JOHN FORD COLEY STORY

Back when we were kids, we would to go down to Dowdy Ferry Road years ago with our pistols. And we would shoot at the cottonmouths. We probably killed half the cottonmouth population over on Dowdy Ferry. Dan was always looking for something that’s a little bit more unique. And so, that was one. It was like 'Dowdy Ferry Road' was short, and every other song we had was like, “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” “Nights Are Forever Without You,” “We Don’t Ever Have to Say Goodbye” it was like, geez, let’s just pick something that’s three words.

JOURNEY TO TYME, THE MARK LEE STORY

My mother and dad went to some party at the Lamplighter Motel. Kenny and his band were playing poolside and Mom got a business card and that’s how it got back to me. I put it in my pocket and kind of forgot about it. I had found myself in a position of booking or helping to book a nightclub, not a nightclub in the regular sense of the word, but they had these apartment clubs back in those days. And there was an apartment complex over in Northwest Highway, off Webb Chapel. I think it is called La Fontana. A friend of mine, an older friend that worked for my father had been placed in charge of promoting and building this club up at the La Fontana Apartments, he took me along, and he said 'What do you think will work here?'. And I immediately said, 'a band'. Now my Mom had just given this card the night before while we were watching TV so I reached in my wallet and pulled out Kenny’s card and the rest is history.

LET ME PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!

When Joy Simmons opened the Comedy Corner, she wouldn’t book me, because she was booking all these LA acts with guys that had been on Carson, or this show or that. But Dallas didn’t know who they were, so they weren’t drawing very big crowds, and she finally booked me. And she said, you’re going to have to be the middle act. So, I middled for Gary Shandling, and I middled for Kevin Nealon, and next thing you know, she hired me to headline. And I put more people in there than some of their LA comics. And started headlining there. Bill Engvall was the in-house MC back then.