Arts &amp; Entertainment

August 1, 1986

Why I Didn’t Attend Farm Aid II

Thank God I’m sort of a grown-up.

By Michael Corcoran

June 30, 1986

The Denton Dilemma

North Texas bands face a tough choice: living to make music or making music for a living.

By John Morthland

Film & TV|

May 1, 1986

How Bad Were They?

Larry Buchanan made movies that were so cheap, so incredibly flawed, and so dumb, they’re lovingly celebrated as the worst movies ever made. And he made them all in Dallas.

By Douglass St. Clair Smith

April 1, 1986

Solace in the Desert

With dogged independence, amazing endurance, and a rugged romantic vision, photographer Laura Gilpin helped create the way we see the West today.

Arts & Entertainment|

March 1, 1986

Turn It Up!

The rudest, crudest, and most obnoxious disc jockeys are on in the mornings. Here’s the best—or the worst—of the lot.

By Joe Nick Patoski

January 1, 1986

Friday Night Ringers

Why do the towns that have oil also have the best football players?

By Larry L. King

December 1, 1985

Professor of Football

Okay, now, listen up. This story is about Bill Yeoman, a really good football coach. Read it or run three laps after practice.

By Peter Elkind

November 1, 1985

The Art-by-the-Truckload School

They’re cheesy, they’re tasteless. But each black velvet painting is a one-of-a-kind work of art.

By Richard Zelade

Books|

August 31, 1985

Faces of the West

A collection of black and white portraits that capture the powerful effects of the West upon its people, with an introduction by Larry McMurtry.

By Larry McMurtry

July 1, 1985

The small-town orchestra has it all: performers who love the music passionately, audiences who lend their wholehearted support, and even occasional moments when all the instruments are playing the right note.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Film & TV|

April 30, 1985

A Date with Leatherface

Is there romance after a starring role in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? A leading man reveals all.

By Gunnar Hansen

April 30, 1985

The Shaggy Club

In a mixed-up world, mixed-up kids need somebody who really understands. In Dallas that somebody is a punk DJ called Shaggy.

By David Seeley

January 1, 1985

“Take Nothing and Make Something”

Working alone at his home in East Texas, Fox Harris is divinely inspired to create towering, fanciful sculptures out of junk.

By Suzanne Winckler

January 1, 1985

Towers of Power

So. Ralph Sampson listens to Grover Washington and Akeem Olajuwon craves Chinese food. Now you know.

By Harry Hurt III

December 1, 1984

O Christmas Tree

For a perfectly decorated tree, call Tom Osborn. But only if money is no object.

By Catherine Chadwick

November 1, 1984

Tiptoeing On the Ocean of Storms

What astronaut Alan Bean saw on the moon changed his life. Now, with paint and canvas, he’s trying to let the rest of us see it too.

By Al Reinert

August 1, 1984

The Marfa Art War

Sculptor Donald Judd had the vision. The Dia Art Foundation had the money. Now they’ve had it with each other.

July 31, 1984

The Fastest Nice Christian Boy in the World

Bobby Morrow was America’s most celebrated Olympic athlete in 1956. Today he wishes he’d never left the starting blocks.

By William Martin

May 31, 1984

Move Over, Southfork

Up for sale in Dallas, the Shanbaum house boasts a whopping 28,000 square feet and what may be Texas’ most comprehensive collection of sixties and seventies kitsch—along with a $2.75 million price tag.

By Alison Cook

Arts & Entertainment|

March 1, 1984

In the Wings

Backstage at the Houston Ballet is a world of pastel shadows, brilliant spangles, and anxious waiting.

Arts & Entertainment|

February 1, 1984

The Training Ground

To wind up on top in the news business, it pays to start at the bottom.

By Dan Rather

February 1, 1984

Texas Primer: The Texas Timex

Ever since LBJ’s gold Rolex appeared next to his gall bladder scar in news photographs, Texans have been buying the pricey timepieces by the carload.

By Mark Seal

January 1, 1984

Gambling on the Gamblers

Jerry Argovitz made himself unpopular with NFL management as an abrasive player’s agent. Now that he owns Houston’s new football team, he finds himself on the other side of the table—and the issues.

September 1, 1983

Passing the Bucks

Football recruiting makes the NCAA see red, but SMU sees orange.

May 1, 1983

Larger Than Life

Tom Lea, the grand old man of Texas painting, grew up among giants. No wonder he always used a big canvas.

By John Davidson

April 1, 1983

Hell on Wheels

In which John Howard, our toughest athlete, goes after a world bicycle record and hopes america will care.

By Harry Hurt III

March 1, 1983

The Cutting Edge

Texas' glass artists are leading a revolution in an ancient craft.

March 1, 1983

The Gittings People

Shoot enough portraits of Texans, and you'll have made a portrait of Texas.

By Nicholas Lemann

Books|

January 1, 1983

A Monumental Man

In The Path to Power Robert Caro brings the Texas of the twenties and thirties to hot, scrubby life, but tries to fit the young Lyndon Johnson into a prefabricated and constricting mold.

By Paul Burka

December 1, 1982

The Light Before Christmas

String the lights, hang the tinsel and the expense. It’s Christmas and the decorated homes of Texans are second to none.

By Christina Patoski

December 1, 1982

Coach Royal Regrets

Does Texas’ greatest college coach miss football? Nope.

November 1, 1982

Halftime Heroes

The bright-eyed, pink-cheeked cream of Texas youth aren’t scrambling on the football field. They’re playing in the high school band.

June 1, 1982

A Singin’ Fool

George Jones really lives the way he says he lives in the songs he sings.

By Pepi Plowman

June 1, 1982

His Name Was Forrest Bess

He was wildly eccentric, he lived in a shanty on the Gulf, he subsisted as a bait fisherman, he had bizarre notions of eternal life. He may have been the best artist Texas has ever produced.

Film & TV|

April 1, 1982

How Farrah Fawcett Changed the World

It was simple, really. With Charlie’s Angels, television discovered sex.

By Gregory Curtis

November 1, 1981

The Attack of the Electronic Beast and Other Pleasures

Four performers in Dallas are making a new kind of music that combines precision, grace, and crazy humor.

October 1, 1981

Throw It to Me!

Drew Pearson, Tony Hill, and Butch Johnson are wide receivers for the Dallas Cowboys—in other words, they’re artists, egomaniacs, fierce competitors, and the heart of the team.

September 1, 1981

Carl Lewis and the Exquisite Science of Jumping

All this twenty-year-old University of Houston student wants to do is jump farther and run faster than anyone else ever has.

By John Bloom

August 1, 1981

Trial by Piano

Why knock yourself out for two grueling weeks at a piano competition in Fort Worth? For $12,000—and a string of concert bookings money can’t buy.

March 1, 1981

Make Friends With the Quin Tikis

Onstage, all happy lounge acts are alike; offstage, all unhappy lounge acts are unhappy in their own ways.

By John Bloom

December 1, 1980

No Man’s Land

Welcome to Highland Park, a small town right in the middle of Dallas where the living is easy and time stands still.

By Richard West

September 1, 1980

The Modified Triple-Reverse, Double-Handoff Option

Football has degenerated into a routine encounter between two sets of programmed, steroid-stuffed robots. These trick plays could change all that.

By Paul Burka

August 1, 1980

Ring of Truth

Two brave bulls stood between Paco Olivera and the prize he had worked for all his life.

By Giles Tippette

June 30, 1980

My Home, the Galleria

Texas’ most glamorous mall has all the comforts of home and then some. So why not move in?

By Richard West

June 1, 1980

Spit and Polish

If throwing a spitball is an art, Gaylord Perry is Michelangelo.

By Larry Wright

April 1, 1980

Would You Pay $2.5 Million for That Painting?

‘The Icebergs’ is the most expensive American painting in history, but it is also the center of an art-world mystery with a trail leading from an English boys’ school to a Dallas millionaire.