Crystal Springs: Where the Music Flowed. It doesn. Today one hears a typical urban sound sandwich: Traffic hums on one side; an auto paint and body shop mends fenders on the other side. But eighty years ago, on these five acres one could have heard a fiddle, a banjo, a piano, the voice of Milton Brown, and a few hundred people trying to forget the Great Depression one two- step at a time. Some even say this place was the cradle of western swing music. 1947 -- Patriot Yun Bong-gil (Yun Bong-cheon); -- 1948 -- The Night Before Independence (Choi In-gyu); The Prosecutor and the Woman Teacher (Yun Dae-ryong. This was Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion. Papa Sam was excavating sand and gravel for the army. Crystal- clear water filled a hole as fast as he dug it. By 1. 92. 0 Milton Brown was sixteen, and his family lived on Morton Street just off Burleson Avenue, now University Drive. In 1. 92. 3 Milton performed in an amateur show at the Majestic Theater. Their water turned a hole in the ground into a small lake for swimming. Then he built a concrete swimming pool (the springs kept it filled). He added some picnic tables. He moved in a wooden building that had been a store at Camp Bowie and turned it into a dance pavilion. Nothing fancy: the pavilion had ceiling fans for summer and a coal- burning stove for winter. As business grew Cunningham added an open- air dance floor. Crystal Springs offered fishing (Papa Sam also sold minnows), swimming, dancing, and picnicking. Papa Sam stressed a family atmosphere. Children were welcome, even on the dance floor. Papa Sam tried to control drinking and fighting. His bouncer was his two- hundred- pound son, Henry. Papa Sam even formed an orchestra that performed on WBAP radio. Note also that Montgomery Ward, then housed in the old Chevy plant on West 7th Street, also had an orchestra. But Crystal Springs struggled through its first five years. Then, in 1. 93. 0 Cunningham hired a western string band whose members included Bob Wills and Milton Brown. That band would soon have divided loyalties after W. The band became the Light Crust Doughboys and was sponsored on radio by Burrus Mill. With songs like 'Love Story' and 'You Belong With Me,' singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's self-awareness has catapulted her into fame. Get her story on Biography.com. Every Girl Should Be Married is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by Don Hartman and starring Cary Grant, Betsy Drake and Franchot Tone. Welcome to the Journal Inquirer's newly redesigned Website. The Journal Inquirer provides local news coverage for north-central Connecticut, as well as state news. On Saturday, the Sheridan Rotary Club, along with multiple other community agencies and churches, is providing a free meal to members of the Sheridan community. Overview of The Snake Pit, 1948, directed by Anatole Litvak, with Olivia deHavilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, at Turner Classic Movies. Impersonations By Walter Jon Williams. Nebula Award-winning author Walter Jon Williams returns to the sweeping space opera adventure of his. Milton Brown. So he gave them jobs at the mill. Milton was a salesman, Bob drove a truck, Herman worked on the loading dock. Author Gary Ginell, in Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing, wrote that Cunningham had printed a flyer promoting Crystal Springs and the Light Crust Doughboys: Crystal Springs the place to play. Join us friends and help us stay . Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies played at Crystal Springs almost every week from 1. Crystal Springs was part of the Brownies. Brown continued to experiment with the band. In 1. 93. 2 he added a piano to his . Milton was the first to have a jazz piano, the first to have double fiddles, the first to use amplified instruments in a western swing band. Standing from left: Fred Calhoun, Cecil Brower, Jesse Ashlock, Wanna Coffman, Derwood Brown, Ocie Stockard. In the early 1. 93. But people walked, hitchhiked, and arrived on bicycles and in Cadillacs. Son Henry would drive an old bus downtown to the streetcar line, pick up passengers, and carry them to the Springs for ten cents. The Brownies also used the bus for their tours. Bonnie and Clyde, despite being wanted by the law, would drive out to Crystal Springs to dance. After the Brownies began broadcasting from the Springs, Bonnie and Clyde also listened to broadcasts on the radio in their car. Clyde sometimes phoned in a song request dedicated to Bonnie. That year the band also began to record on the Bluebird label. By 1. 93. 5 Brown and his band were still playing at Crystal Springs on Saturdays but now recording for the Decca label. Clip is from the November 2. Dallas Morning News. By April 9, 1. 93. Papa Sam’s Crystal Springs Ramblers performed on radio station KTAT. Flour companies were popular sponsors of western bands: the Gladiola (milled by Edna Gladney’s husband Sam) Gentlemen on WFAA and the Burrus Mills Light Crust Doughboys and Bewley’s Chuck Wagon Gang on WBAP. Also on WBAP were Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies. But four days later, about 3 a. He was giving a ride home to a teenage girl who had slipped out of the house to go listen to his band. His 1. 93. 6 Pontiac Silver Streak hit a telephone pole across from the Avalon Motor Court. Brown may have fallen asleep at the wheel. He had a history of narcolepsy. Sixteen- year- old Katherine Prehoditch was killed. Note that the report refers to Jacksboro Highway as “Northwest Highway.”The show must go on: This listing appeared in the Star- Telegram radio schedule on April 1. And note that Ozzie Nelson and Orchestra closed the broadcast day at 1. He was thirty- two years old. After Milton. The band, now just the “Musical Brownies,” performed on KTAT and KRLD, but for many Crystal Springs patrons, Milton Brown was the Brownies, and the Brownies were a big part of Crystal Springs. When Milton died, part of Crystal Springs died, too. The Brownies disbanded in 1. Patronage declined at Crystal Springs. Establishment of Tarrant Field (later Carswell Air Force Base) and adjacent Air Force Plant 4, operated by Consolidated Aircraft, in 1. But eventually the pavilion was open only on Saturday nights. By 1. 95. 2 the Ramblers still played, but now Crystal Springs was billed as a “night club.”After . Sam’s son Henry ran the mobile home park. In 1. 96. 0 Crystal Springs still offered “western swing music at its best.” And Crystal Springs had plenty of competition from other ballrooms: Casino, Covered Wagon, Hi- Ho. Later in 1. 96. 3 the ballroom became Ray Chaney’s Stage Coach Inn. In 1. 96. 7 Crystal Springs, the dance hall that had been born of water, was destroyed by fire.(Trivia: One of the passenger cars of the Forest Park miniature train was named for Mary Helen Hames, a daughter of train concessionaire Bill Hames. She was married to Milton Brown, Brown pianist Fred.
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