Tales from the Morgue

1961: Sun Bowl Halftime Show Blasted By California Viewer

12/31/1961

A halftime formation presented by the Texas Western College Marching Cavalcade at the Sun Bowl game Saturday drew a blast Sunday from a California television viewer.

The California viewer, who signed her name Mary Hobson Crow, was indignant over the formation of the hammer and sickle used during the halftime presentation “Let Freedom Ring.”

A telegram to Dr. Judson F. Williams, president of El Paso Chamber of Commerce (marked “Report Delivery and Get Answer) read:

“During the football game between Wichita and Villanova halftime festivities why was Khrushchev and the hammer and sickle dramatized – which school was responsible for such a demonstration – many viewers out here are really disturbed – please wire answer collect.

Mary Hobson Crow, 10282 Tujunga Canyon Blvd. Tujunga, Calif.”

Dr. Williams received the telegram at 10 a.m. Sunday and at 2 p.m. Wired back:

“Mary Hobson Crow,

10282 Tujunga Canyon Blvd.

Tujunga, Calif.

“Re your telegram – entire theme of 27th annual Southwestern Sun Carnival and Sun Bowl game based on “Our American Heritage.” Since quite evident neither you or disturbed viewers saw entire halftime ceremonies of Sun Bowl game I will give you brief description of theme and what took place.

"Opening ceremonies of game included some 10 local high school bands who combinded into pregame drill and concluded with playing of National Anthem.

"At halftime the celebrated band and Golddiggers of our own Texas Western College, which is part of the University of Texas system, presented splendid performance based on theme “Let Freedom Ring.” Objective to portray idea of freedom as opposed to Communism – that freedom will win over any adversary.

“Opening formation was radio tower depicting 'Voice of America” and hope offered world.

"Second formation was tradition at church signifying freedom of worship which Free World enjoys – introducing third formation was brief rendition of 1812 Overture with positive announcement that Khrushchev and his henchmen, represented by hammer and sickle which was formed on filed as a suicide monogram representing the enemy standing in way of world freedom. Band played brief portion of the Volga Poatman; immediately thereafter band broke into Stars and Stripes Forever and image of Uncle Sam was formed.

“Announcement then boldly stated “Here is the symbol of hope for free men everywhere” immediately followed by band playing 'Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “God Bless America” - then followed a medley of U.S. Armed Forces songs.

“Halftime ended with Golddiggers forming into celebrated dance line and band playing “Eyes of Texas.”

“We are immensely proud of our college and Sun carnival; would like to invite you and any other interested to plan now to attend next year's Sun Carnival in El Paso where sunshine is warm and friendly and where feeling of confidence and faith in true American tradition is still a part of our way of life.”

It was signed by Dr. Williams, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Bill Latham president of the Southwestern Sun Carnival Association.

1925: Christmas Swapping Season Opens; Still a Rush Time for the Clerks

December 27, 1925

“Ye well known last minute rush isn’t over for us poor shop girls,” confided a wan clerk Saturday, the day after Christmas.

“This post season shopping game in El Paso is no fun,” she continued. “It’s cut throat and I don’t mean tiddlelewinks.

“Dames come to exchange their marked down dollar fifty gifts for the best in stock. Sometimes it’s a matter of sizes, with mere man over estimating or underestimating his girl’s number tens.

"If stockings are too little, you can just bet a man gave them. And if they are big enough for two feet they came from the dearest girlfriend. Cat!

‘Some boldly ask prices, waiting in line half an hour to pipe the question. Then they coo, ‘I just wanted to know’ and watch you dive under the counter and through the stock list to find the duplicate to their present.

"If it was bargain stock, you know, girlie, brace yourself for a cold spell. There’s not even a thank you for the bad news, though mention of an ultra present brings smiles thick as crocodile hide.

“Sporting stock is another sport for post season workers. Unmixing gloves and handkerchiefs from the grab as grab-can counters and placing them on the shelves with labels to match is a neat prelude to the new year.”

Jewelry Clerk Speaks.

“Sure, folks come after Christmas to check up on present,” said a jewelry clerk.

“That fat woman is, I’ll bet. And that thin woman, probably.

“Married ones sometimes kick because the man spent so much! Would you believe it? The single ones never do.

“Clerks always spot them, those after Christmas snoopers, no matter how well they are disguised. Sometimes they ‘shop’ half an hour leading up to the big question. They look at beauty pins, at ash trays, at vanities, and at rings.

It’s Women Who Snoop

“Sometimes they judge for themselves, by flashing theirs along with the other ice. ‘Better’n this, not so good as that, twice as fine as the next,’ is printed over their faces for clerks to read.

“Often they ask for an appraisal, without suggestion of fees, frankly saying they want to check up on the fantastic claims of the diamond.

“’Could he have – I mean, is it worth $300?’ they ask. Sometimes the clerk is a good scout and lies like a gentleman. Sometimes he doesn’t have to, but sometimes he is plain grouchy.

“I personally want to hand ‘em a lemon when I can, those snoopers, but I remember the poor guy and don’t – unless it’s too obviously fake.

“Men are better about their gifts. It’s women who snoop.”

Around Town Aug. 27, 1895

The circus people are flooding the city with pictures of the Syndicate Shows.

The weather bureau hit it right in predicting showers Saturday and sunshine Sunday.

Will Julian did some clever work playing as first base and short stop Sunday afternoon.

Jack Cooper – and everybody knows Jack – celebrated his 47th birthday Sunday. His health was drank often and deep.

Advertising car No. 1 of the Great Syndicate Shows, with twenty-two men aboard, arrived yesterday in charge of Sir Charles Holton.

Last night was a dark and dreary one. The electric lights were uncertain and the dark clouds that hovered over the city were threatening.

San Antonio reporters are “filling up” on John Wesley Hardin rot, and publishing stories from people who never saw the late and unlamented.

The great Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight is going to be pulled off in Juarez and El Paso can commence making preparations to entertain the thousands of visitors who will come here.

There will be an important meeting of the El Paso Cycle Track association tonight at 8 o’clock at Feldman’s photograph gallery. All members are earnestly requested to be present.

Mrs. M’rose says she wants it understood that she did not return to El Paso for any trouble, but that she is here on business. She desired to secure control of Hardin’s manuscript to reimburse herself for money advanced.

The El Paso Tribune says that the Liberal is printed in Silver City. In compliance with the latest fashion set by El Paso journalists the Liberal gives notice to the Editor of the Tribune that if it does not, within the next ninety days, retract, apologize and give the source of information of this foul slander, it will publish him as a liar, a blackmailer and a villain, and will tell the public all about where he was and what he did during the four years previous to the discovery of America by the late lamented Sr. C. Columbus. – Lordsburg Liberal.

1998: Bighorn sheep herd near Alpine has 65 animals

04/22/1998

By Bill Knight / El Paso Times

The state wildlife management area 26 miles south of Alpine will be offering a chance - albeit from a distance - to get a look at some desert bighorn sheep. The area, which was donated to the state in 1985 for wildlife research and the demonstration of wildlife management, has possibly the best herd in the state, approximately 65 of the once nearly extinct animal.

"The animal was here historically," said wildlife biologist Scott Lerich, who works at the Elephant Mountain facility. "By 1880, there were only about 1,000 to 1,500 left in this state. By around 1940, there were about 300. And by the early 1960s, they were basically gone."

Civilization killed herds

Civilization almost did in the bighorn sheep, an animal that prefers high, rough, mountainous terrain and solitude. Domestic sheep and goat ranching, which brought barbed wire fences, highways, mining, railroads ... "all the things that settled the west almost eliminated them," Lerich said.

"We're still in the restoration mode," said Dr. Jerry Cooke, a biologist who is the Program Director for Upland Wildlife Ecology in Austin. "Only in the 1980s have we really started to become successful. The Texas Bighorn Society has been instrumental in raising funds and actually going out and physically helping us with the project.

"They come up with a quarter- to a half-million dollars right out of their own pocket," Cooke added. "It's the kind of story that brings chills. They really put their money where their mouth is. Here is a group who wants to see (bighorn) sheep in Texas, yet has no real chance of hunting them in their lifetime."

Population reaches 300

Over the last couple of decades, the population has grown to approximately 300 in Texas, scattered in seven different locations - all in the Trans-Pecos area.

"The mountain areas of our state have good habitat for them," Lerich said.

Dan Boone, president of the Texas Bighorn Society, said, "The state didn't have the money or the manpower to bring the desert bighorn back. We have an all-volunteer organization of about 350 members around the state. The desert bighorn are in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Nevada has given us some. We had four 40-acre pens in the Sierra Diablos where the sheep were bred and released.

El Paso vets help

"We've got a couple of members out in El Paso who have really helped us out," said Boone, who lives in Lubbock. "Wiley Heath and Larry Koym (are) a couple of vets who run the Americas Animal Clinic there. We got some disease in the pens and they came out three or four times. They volunteered their time and the medicine. We tried to pay them and they wouldn't accept anything. Really nice guys."

Koym said, "I'd always known there was a place there in the Sierra Diablos. Dr. Heath ran into a classmate of his from high school who was involved. We made three or four trips there to get them well. It was all just related to being in pens. We just got things straightened out and reassured them they would be healthy once they got out of the pens. A lot of sportsmen are involved in this, in saving this species."

The desert bighorn is an impressive animal. The rams weigh between 160 and 180 pounds; a big ewe goes around 120. The rams have large, curving horns; the ewes much smaller ones.

"Elephant Mountain is one of our stronger spots," Cooke said. "We've occasionally trapped sheep there and moved them over to Black Gap at Big Bend National Park. Elephant Mountain has been extremely productive. Black Gap, which is south of Marathon and west of Big Bend, was tough. We had as few as 20-25 at one time. When that is the case, every one that dies is a substantial fraction of the whole herd. We're up to 46-48 now, so we are starting to breathe a little easier."

 

1973: Sheldon Bought Plaza Block for $15,000 In 1881; Constructed Office Building

05/31/1973

Among the people the trains brought to El Paso in 1881 was Dr. Lucius Sheldon of Brooklyn, N.Y. He figured the town was ready to grow and he wanted to be a part of it

He bought the block now occupied by the Plaza Hotel, where the overland stage coach used to ease to a stop at Pioneer Plaza. He bought the site for $15,000 from Andrews Pierce, R. S. Spofford, Charles Balbridge, T. W. and James Pierce.

THE COMMUNITY already had two hotels, the Vendome and the Pierson, so Dr. Sheldon elected to construct an office building. It later became one of El Paso's most famous hotels. The red brick, four-story Sheldon Office Building was completed in 1884 and offered rental space for doctors, lawyers, dentists and real estate men. The Post Office also was located there for a time.

As demand arose, housekeeping rooms were rented in the building, with stovepipes sticking out the windows. In 1899 Dr. Sheldon brought a Brooklyn architect, Walter E. Parfitt, here to transform the office building into a first class hotel. The remodeling and addition of a wooden fifth story cost $35,000, a tremendous price in those days.

THE FORMAL opening of the hotel was a 2 p.m. Sept. 9 1900. The elevator, which may have been the first in town, was a marvel to the beholders.

Alderman John Fisher, who had been operating the Pierson Hotel at Kansas and Mills streets, moved to the Sheldon and ran it for 10 years.

He always kept bags of sand in the basement and, with the bellhops, would stack them on the sidewalk on Oregon street whenever there was heavy rain to keep water from flooding the hotel.

IN THOSE days the Southern Pacific, Texas and Pacific and Santa Fe railroads had separate depots. Hotel keepers would have runners and hacks at the train stations to bid for customers.

On March 12,1907, the Sheldon was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Charles DeGroff for $200,000. They spent $75,000 remodeling it the next year. Mrs. DeGroff was the mother of Burt Orndorff, who was hotel manager, Lee Orndorff, who became a prominent realtor, and Seth Orndorff who once was sheriff.

THE HOTEL dining room was the site of many formal parties by El Paso's social set. Before the Sheldon opened, such gatherings were held at one of the district court rooms in the old red brick courthouse on the site of the present City-County Building.

The property was acquired by Albert Mathias, an El Pasoan since 1884, in 1920 from Burt Orndorff and associates for $500,000. He later leased, the hotel to the Sheldon Operating Co. composed of James G. McNary, Felix Martinez, J. J. Mundy and J. A. Krakauer.

THE COMPANY sold the lease to Joe Goodell who then sold it to P. C. Steele. He was operating the Sheldon when it was virtually destroyed by fire April 9, 1929.

After the fire, Mathias leased the hotel to Conrad Hilton who built the present hotel on the site. The 17-story edifice was opened Nov. 6, 1930. Designed by Trost and Trost, it cost about $1 million. R. E. McKee was contractor.

The name was changed to Plaza Hotel in 1963 when Kramer Hotel organization took overthe management.

Bowie High students find subject they can dig into

November 1, 1983

Photo caption: Bowie High underground clubhouse members relax after a game of dominoes in their home away from home. They are Juan Zuniga (top), Stefan Montenegro (center left), Ernesto Felix (center right) and Angel Lucero (front). (Times photo by Al Gutierrez)

By Matt Prichard
Times staff writer

Ever have one of those days when you want to dig a hole in the ground and crawl in?

About a year and a half ago, a bunch of guys from Bowie High decided to do just that.

Ten Bowie students, age 14 to 16, carved into sand and clay on an empty lot in the block of St. Vrain and Hills streets and eight and Ninth avenues on the South Side.

They stuck posts in the hole and nailed plywood walls to hem. Two-by-fours became ceiling beams and a sheet of plastic and dirt covered the compartment.

A metal hatch attached to a square wooden frame became the door.

They were in business.

The boys said they have enlarged the underground room three times, using mostly scrap material found in lots and along highways. Now it’s some 8-by-10 feet in area and more than 6 feet in height.

“In the winter it’s pretty warm,” said Samuel Pardo, 16.” “And it’s good shade when the sun’s hot outside,” added 14-year-old Fernie Felix.

Does it leak when it rains? “Not yet,” said Albert Garcia, 14.

Other members of the hideout gang are Fred Frias, Mario Araujo and Jimmie Parra, all 15.

The group recently painted the inside white. Posters of rock musicians Ozzy Osbourne and Blackfoot decorate one corner. There’s carpet and ancient couches and car seats that are comfortable, but which have seen better days.

A neighbor, Guadalupe Orozco, 19, said the boys don’t bother him.

The metal door is covered with a tumbleweed, and if it hadn’t been for their adding one more luxury, the secret hideout might never have been discovered.

“We sometimes bring the TV and watch games on Sundays,” Garcia said. “And we bring the Atari,” said Javier Solis, 15.

Monday, however, an El Paso Electric Co. crew doing maintenance work on electric lines in the area spotted the extension cord that the boys had strung from a neighbor’s house across the alley.

They had nailed it up to the company’s post, across an adobe wall and down through the earth to the hideout.

“My supervisor told me to cut it before we left,” said company first-class lineman Yassu Grier.

Being without electricity didn’t bother the boys too much late Monday. They surveyed the damage then disappeared into the hole and settled down to a game of dominoes.

1914: New Traffic Code Effective Shortly

12/29/1914

According to city officials, the new traffic code will go to the printers today will become active within ten days form the day of the first publication. The code, which is a thorough measure, covers all phases of the city's traffic and is as important to the pedestrians as to those engaged in traffic business.

“It will pay the general public to familiarize themselves with the new code,” said one official at the city hall yesterday. “ There is really so much in it, and it touches on so many different subjects that every one should read it as soon as it is published, for their own protection.”

There are sections and sub-divisions of the code which regulate the manner of moving of household goods, as well as regulation of how many passengers a common carrier shall place in his vehicle, also the class of people that he may lawfully refuse to carry. So lengthy is the measure that it will require Chief of Police I.N. Davis a whole day to read it. The same task is in front of every member of the department,. Every patrolman will be compelled to know what the laws are and the only way will be to wade through the code, of which there are over a 100 sections.

In speaking of enforcing the new laws, Captain W.D. Greet at the police station said: “I do not anticipate any trouble. The ordinance will be published in the Times. Everyone will have a chance to read it. Of course, there are many things covered by the code that have not come to our notice, due to the fact that there were no city laws covering the situation, but I understand there is no extreme measure in the entire code. El Pasoans are not hard to deal with and comply with the law without the slightest trouble. I do not anticipate many additional arrests, while the people are learning the new law. The 'jay waling' section, I suppose, will get a few who are forgetful for a while, but that is the only thing which I think will be hard for the public to remember.

“The automobile business of the city.” continued Captain Greet, “is becoming a problem and we were in need of addition laws to regulate the business. One not familiar with the business can not imagine what a great volume of auto trade there is here, and how many times every day we are called to settle disputes between divers on points that heretofore have not been covered by a law. The new code was one of the most needed things in El Paso.”