Table of Contents

• Introduction: Sintesi Texana
• Part One: A Gallery of Performance Folk-Artists
  • 1. Commodore Hatfield: Prophet of the Trinity
  • 2. Cyclone Davis Jr.: "Bewhiskered Dervish"
  • 3. Port Arthur's Popeye, Bet-a-Million, and the Brownie Man
  • 4. Governor Willie
  • 5. Bobcat Carter
  • 6. William F. Drannan: A Hero, or "Nothing but a Damn Liar"?
  • 7. Madam Candelaria: "Most Outstanding Female Character of San Antonio History"
  • 8. Three Rode for Texas
  • 9. Wild Bill's Final Performance
  • 10. Sain-toh-oodie Goombi and Two Braids Tommy
  • 11. Hondo Crouch: "Imagineer"
  • 12. Trek Stars: Hickey, Hoopie, Plennie L. Wingo, and Others
  • 13. Arizona Bill
  • 14. Bicycle Annie
  • 15. Moses Evans: "Wild Man of the Woods"
  • 16. Robert Hall: Sharp-dressed Frontiersman
  • 17. Anthony Banning Norton: "Full-blown Eccentric"
  • 18. O. L. Nelms: The Most Thankful Millionaire
  • 19. Jim "Silver Dollar" West
  • 20. Bozo Texino
  • 21. Ray's Ornamental Gardens
  • 22. O. T. Nodrog, the Outer Dimensional Forces, and the Time Ark Service Modules
• Part Two: Other Texas Characters
  • 23. A Pair of Snake Kings and One Snake Queen
  • 24. Giants
  • 25. Big Sam
  • 26. Stout Jackson
  • 27. Milt Hinkle: Aerial Bulldogger
  • 28. Booger Red: "Ugliest Man Dead or Alive"
  • 29. Buck Gunter: Raisin' Hair and Ridin' Broncs
  • 30. Samuel E. "Doc" Asbury: Texas Nativist
  • 31. Quinta Mazatlan: Adobe Outpost in the Rio Grande Valley
  • 32. Four Great Ladies
  • 33. Five Aces of Magic
  • 34. Mystics
• Appendixes
• Appendix A: The Zeb Crawburg Memorial
• Appendix B: Astro Turf Ranchette
• Appendix C: Western Art
• Appendix D: Break on Through
• Appendix E: Zaney Blaney and the Beat

Promotional Information

Popular writer and performer Gene Fowler profiles a gallery of eccentric Texans

About the Author

Gene Fowler grew up in a Dallas showbiz family and has been writing and performing for theater since the 1960s. His previous books include Border Radio, Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows, and Crazy Water.

Reviews

"Although other books exist on Texas characters, they are fluff. Fowler's book is much more solid and extremely well researched." Anne Dingus, writer-at-large, Texas Monthly