BURTON GILLIAM – “IT’S BUBBA!”

I went back to the fire station after 'Paper Moon', and about three months later I got this phone call. “Fire Station number 39, Gilliam speaking”. “Hello, my name is Mel Brooks. I’m a writer, director, producer, actor, and I’m getting ready to do a big picture, and I want you to be one of my stars.” I said, 'Thank you Mr. Brooks.' Boom, I just hung up the phone. What if he hadn’t called back? I’d have those two cows and living out in East Texas, wouldn’t I?

BARRY CORBIN… EXPOSED!

We did 'War Games'. My part was General Beringer. Apparently the Director, John Badham, thought I reminded him of his dad, who was an Air Force General and I ad-libbed the line “God damn it! I’d piss on a sparkplug if I thought it’d do any good! Let the boy in there, Major.” We had’em rolling in the aisles. As the 'Dallas' reboot was shooting, Patrick called. They brought me in to read JR's will, and I said to Patrick, ‘Well, I’m sorry to hear about Larry (Hagman passing away).' Patrick said, ‘Yeah, the SOB had nerve, didn’t he? He died in the middle of the season!

MIKE RABON, THE FIVE AMERICANS

We appeared on Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is. If we were playing in Houston somewhere and Dick Clark knew about it, he’d call us and say, “Would you guys come over and tape a song?” We would come by, go out by a swimming pool or something and tape our newest tune for him. We were on that show four or five times with the Knickerbockers and Paul Revere and the Raiders, so we were hot stuff. We did a lot of work with Dick Clark's Caravan Of Stars and wherever that took us, that's where we would go.

WHEN DALLAS ROCKED, THE KIRBY WARNOCK STORY

I heard about Jimmie Vaughan growing up because he was in The Chessmen and I was in high school at the time. Whenever we’d come through Dallas, we’d hear about the Chessmen with KLIF or something like that. When I saw them, you understand, this was back when people played live. You didn’t watch it on YouTube. You had to go to the club and see them play in person. And they just had a presence or a skill set that was just above everybody else. It was just Jimmie and Stevie, and there was everybody else.

JAMES MILLARD CUMBY

James had a brilliant, shrewd mind and a boundless curiosity and he often dabbled in photography, geology, mechanics, archeology, natural history and other disciplines that piqued his interest. James was a motorcycle enthusiast and rode a Harley Davidson. According to family members he was instrumental in developing one of the first panoramic photos. Looking closely, he can be found both at the far left end and at the far right end in the same photo. Notice the Davis Millinery Co of Dallas which made the Davis hats. They can still be found from time to time in antique stores.