From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   GTT wrote:   
      
   > Gerald, I believe that would be an interesting, and a worthwhile project.   
   > Those guys should be at least remembered!   But you may find some strange   
   > stuff when digging.  One of my earlier ancestors had a husband (not my   
   > ancestor) who is believed to have shot and killed the Sheriff.   He later   
   > became Sheriff himself!   That is the story, and there is some truth in it   
   > because another cousin, a retired officer from Travis county, is descended   
   > from that guy and he looked it up and verified the facts.   I don't even   
   > remember them well because the guy wasn't my bloodline.   BTW, the guy was   
   > later killed by his own grandson in a saloon.  I'd say he was probably a   
   > character I'd try to avoid, today.   
      
   One of our sheriff's was ambushed on his way home from the theater. I   
   talked once, back in the late 70's, with a very old man who, as a boy,   
   saw saw him shotgunned at the old railroad depot. I've never learned   
   what the sheriff did to make himself unloved by the community, but   
   everyone knew (and any number saw) who killed him. The man moved two   
   counties over and wasn't prosecuted. I guess it fell into the middle of   
   the generally three characters of homicide in that day and place, a   
   "killing", in which it was felt to have been necessary.   
      
   > If I didn't tell you before, congratulations on getting that job!   Sounds   
   > like one you are well suited for, with your talent for investigating and   
   > your ability to write well.   
      
      
   Hey. I'm about finished with the article on my grandfather that Mark   
   Odintz wanted me to do for the Handbook. Things like that seem easy,   
   until you try to put one together while maintaining the rigor the   
   Handbook wants and should have. Family members tell you specifics that   
   are hard to confirm from records. Here's an example -   
      
   I knew that my grandfather worked as a motion picture projectionist at   
   the time he introduced King Vidor to cinematography. In his papers are   
   early radio station licenses for the station in his home and for a   
   station he engineered at Goggan & Bros. music store on Market Street in   
   Galveston. My mother (his daughter-in-law, who first met him 20+ eyars   
   later) said that was where he worked as a projectionist. Goggan & Bros.   
   is well-documented as being owned by the Goggan family throughout its   
   history.   
      
   King Vidor, in his autobiography, says he (Vidor) worked as a ticket   
   taker and relief projectionist at a music store owned and operated by   
   Claude Brick - on Market Street. (Music stores were frequently where   
   early motion micture theaters were set up.) Vidor doesn't talk about my   
   grandfather being the projectionist, and he immediately goes on to began   
   talking about finding him building a camera and joining up with him to   
   film a hurricane.   
      
   With that, I can't legitimately write that my grandfather worked as a   
   projectionist at Goggan's (can't even say if Goggan had a theater,   
   although they clearly had their own early radio station) or that he and   
   Vidor worked at the same music store/theater. Were there two music   
   stores with theaters on Market Street? Was Vidor's memory hazy when he   
   wrote in 1953? It may take some inquiry with local Galveston historian   
   types and old city directories.   
      
   It brings up an interesting aspect of those days when movies and radio   
   were coming in. When you have to make your own home entertainment, music   
   stores had it good. I can imagine the owners looking at radio and seeing   
   a serious threat. Which would motivate many of them to become early   
   radio dealers. Which might motivate someone like Goggan to establish a   
   radio station to create a market for radios. (The stations were low   
   power and only part-time.) Being a music store had certain advantages in   
   early radio, when programs, including music, were live. You'd have all   
   the connections to musicians and all the instruments right there in the   
   store. Motion pictures, likewise, would be seen as cutting into the   
   dependance on home music-making. And you already had the piano to   
   accompany the films.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)