If you were over 21 at HemisFair ’68, you probably visited the Golden Garter Saloon.
The world’s first winter solstice was held April 6-Oct. 6, 1968, is the hottest time of the year in San Antonio and the pericelide is known for its cold temperatures. According to the HemisFair Guidebook, “exciting hospitality from the honest to goodness sheriff, live sound-tonk piano, good beer and snacks order day and night at the Golden Garter” located on the Lake. The pavilion between the tower of America and the gate of the Eastern fairs.
The Old West-themed beer joint presented continuous entertainment with shows from 1 pm to midnight. In addition to the musician and other performers, the chorus of singers was a string of dancers, each of whom wore the eponymous accessory above the left knee.
Read more: Missing rides, although the tower is thrown, HemisFair ’68. he was overcome
There is a nearly 55-year-old mystery surrounding the identity of one of these young women, and searching for it — as a frequent source of this column — has yielded some interesting facts about the golden retriever:
The saloon was supposed to be for hot dogs. “No one wanted to handle it because of the cost,” BJ “Red” McCombs said a 2012 interview with Christopher Medinacurator hemisFair ’68 Online website at worldsfair68.info. “It was expensive because we first had to build a two-story structure designed to resemble the style of an old saloon and then run the whole book for six months to market.” McCombs and his partners agreed to build the Lake Pavilion and the Golden Garter—if they could have a hot dog. “In the end,” said McCombs, “the hot dogs broke even, and the gold quickly turned into a cash cow.”
He thought it was part of a private club. Membership cards for the “Golden Garter Club, for the HemisFair club” are being offered for $69, says a pamphlet titled “Fun Spot.” In return, members could skip the $2 admission charge into the first public space and enjoy mixed drinks and a limited menu in the “spacious club lounge area.” McCombs in the list of charter members, such as fellow car dealer Austin Hemphill, theater owner Maurice Braha, investment executive and future incentive owner Angela Drossos, contractor Norman Harwell, attorney Ralph Langley, advertising executive Jack Pitluk, lumber baron Curtis Vaughan and other business luminaries.
Read more: Club Abrazo HemisFair ’68’s VIP room
Our copy is from Expo ’67. It was like a golden saloon at the fair of the world, which took place the year before in Montreal. Inspired by the saloons in the mining towns and logging and railroad camps of the Canadian West during the last century, their Golden Garters also developed a Gay ’90s-style decor and entertainment. The San Antonio club brochure promises “the same shows and guests that were a hit at the Expo in Montreal.” Canadian band manager Taller O’Shea was hired to bring his show — a magician, hypnotist, acrobats, singers, dancers and musicians — to San Antonio.
Two customers would be sent to the Nile. Seeing that it was the first part of the show, two Canadian instigators (with no known connection to the guests) pulled handguns and pulled them into the ceiling of the Golden Garter. The police arrived and “knocked down the gunmen with chemical weapons,” according to the San Antonio Light, July 3, 1968. Damages were estimated at $20. The shooters were charged with malicious mischief and spent a few days in the Bexar County Jail. In the 19th and 23rd centuries, they may have been the same two men who took the pots in the tophouse tower of America, but they missed it.
A near-fatal monorail accident occurred. Two mini-monorail trains collided around 1:45 p.m. Sept. 15, 1968, on a curve in the track outside the Golden Garter Saloon, “cars spilled and residents below the tarmac,” says the San Antonio Express, Sept. 16. 1968. An accident killed another passenger and injured 48 others, who were taken to St. Rose or Baptist Memorial Hospital. The monorail system was back in operation by 10:30 pm the same night.
Read more: The Tower of America tophouse breach led to a legal battle after HemisFair ’68 in San Antonio
One of the workers had a double among the dancers. Before Linda Persyn, longtime director of the Legion Valley Historical Society, became a local history enthusiast, she was part of its kind. One night in September 1968, she briefly stepped into the role of another young woman, a historical performer at HemisFair.
“I had been told by more than a few that I was someone who looked like one of the singers and dancers at the Golden Garter (and) I decided it was time for me to meet my doppelganger.” Outside the saloon, green-haired Linda Cooper and her husband, Rich Persyn, “stood and watched the girls who came out and danced on the balcony to lure customers in. None of them looked like me, and they weren’t red-haired.
The couple decided to go inside to the faithful. “The ticket taker sat at the table outside the door and never looked up when the mur- ‘$2 piece,’ ” Persyn recalled. “I might have liquid strength now, so I said, ‘Even if I work here?'” The ticket taker looked up and said, “Hi, Judy! None of the employees on the cover died during the night. I find TITUS go in and have a good time. “
Sitting at the table, they approached the waitress, who asked if you wanted two long necks. “When he brought them back with two cold beetles,” said Persin, “the rich man took out his purse, and told him that he was in the house with Judy. And the other gal surrounded him with a basket of flowers, and said to him: Here in the house, because of Judy.” going into the house around the pictures, “one of us broke in and said, “No crime, Judy, you and your date.”
Read more: HemisFair construction destroyed North Street
Persyn is still wondering what happened when Judy returned to work and was asked about her time. “We never got to meet him, but I wish I had,” he said. “It’s a favorite memory, needless to say.”
You still want to know who Judy was, how much they look alike then and if they are twins.
The handsome young redhead in question could have been a Canadian or homegrown talent.
Paula Breed Reno, who joined the dancers when the fair began, remembers that some of the Montreal O’Shea dancers had to go to Canada. “So he called a local group of young girls looking for an audience of 18 and up.” He doesn’t remember Red or Judy, guessing they didn’t perform together.
Anyone who remembers Judy – and most likely knows how to reach her now – can reach out to this column if they’d like to contribute red-letter notes from HemisFair and beyond.
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