For some reason, it appears to be more difficult to keep up with celebrities these days. Specifically, I am not even certain the following couples are still together, and in some cases, even alive. I’ve been collecting these photos for awhile now, to a point that I have enough to make an interesting article out of it. With no further ado, here is Part 1 of various couples from Hollywood, News, Television and Sports. We begin with Entertainment featuring Jeff Bridges and Susan Geston, followed by Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden; Amy Adams and Darren Le Gallo.
ENTERTAINMENT
William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman
Regina Lasko and David Letterman
Francois Henri Pinault and Salma Hayak
Jenny McCarthy and Donnie-Wahlberg
Jodie Foster and Alexandra Hedison
Keely Shaye Smith and Pierce Brosnan
Michael Caine and Shakira Caine
Ron Howard and Cheryl Alley
Henry Winkler and Stacey Weitzman
Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith called it splits in 2014.
Smart Americans don’t get their information from Big Media mainstream corporate news.
Intelligent people realize Hollywood movies today are intended for propaganda and social engineering for communism, socialism and New World Order dominance.
Who in entertainment business can you trust? Harvey Weinstein? Rob Reiner? Alec Baldwin? Whoopi Goldberg? Kathy Griffin?
Some people go to The Woods for hard truth and wisdom. With what is purportedly among the highest IQ in the movie business, some call James Woods the smartest and bravest patriot in California–or at least Hollywood.
“We are just Disney fans who want our real Disney back and not this creepy nonsense against American family values.”
“It seems like the same people who control Joe Biden control Disney. It’s that bad.“
The Walt Disney Company lost about $24 billion in market cap on Friday, November 17, 2022.
Today it was announced that Bob Chapek is OUT as Disney CEO and was replaced By PREVIOUS CEO Bob Iger.
🔹This is the struggling business empire’s worst stock price loss since 2001–the year of the September 11th attacks.
🔹Since the beginning of the year, Disney stock has dropped 44 percent –so far in 2022.
🔹They have lost over $4 billion just from its streaming service during Fiscal Year 2022
🔹Disney continues to struggle with ongoing problems with its theme parks and films, as well as their Disney+ streaming service that has exclusive rights to Disney movies and TV shows.
🔹Disney’s corporate officers keep blaming these losses on just about everyone but themselves. Most recently they have attempted to reassure their anxious investors that an upcoming price increase, amidst the Biden recession and an inflationary crisis, is negatively affecting entertainment budgets.
🔹Leadership plans an ‘ad-tier’ that offers limited content with advertising to help stop the profuse financial bleeding.
🔹Signs of their self-imposed wokeness dilemma is not a new phenomenon. By April 2022 stock was down 71%, and park attendance decreased 54%.
🔹Disney Plus continues suffering massive numbers (520,000+) of cancelled subscriptions.
A self proclaimed Disney Enthusiast described their family’s five-day summer 2022 vacation to Disney World.
“Our children walked away with the same feelings we (the parents) did,” said William D. from Texas. “Whoever is running Disney is ruining it. They are working far harder to social engineer than to entertain.”
“We spent almost $7,000 in their hotel, parks and restaurants,” he continued. “It was insane. They are doing everything they can to take away the nostalgia and emotions we cherish. Their changes are not good. This was our last trip. It seems like the same people who control Joe Biden control Disney. It’s that bad.”
“Service is down. Facilities are going downhill. Many rides are breaking down. Prices are sky high. Hotel rooms are as grim as some of the parks,” his wife, Judith said. “We’ve been coming annually for years and have never seen it anywhere near this bad. Their solution is to cut costs and hire more leftists with marginal credibility. It starts at the top. It feels dirty and slimey, both in the facilities and in their entertainment changes.”
What was Disney CEO Bob Chapek thinking by throwing the entertainment organization into progressive politics?
Chapek took on popular Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and the state’s Parental Rights in Education bill which prohibits educators from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation from pre-K through third grade.
Pregnant Goofy
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Chapek, leftist organizations, and mainstream corporate media erroneously tagged the bill with their buzz: “Don’t Say Gay.” The text of the legislation did not include the word “gay” and in no way outlawed its use.
“Their creativity is too focused on changing our thoughts,” William noted. “We heard there was big time controversy from the Star Wars and Marvel fanbases because of their terrible creative decisions.”
“Although some of the Board of Directors members fortunately left, their replacements are not better,” he revealed. “But hey, they’re not asking us. We are just Disney fans who want our real Disney back and not this creepy nonsense against American family values.”
Here are what Disney fans are posting on various social media sites:
Founded in 1947, the Las Vegas News Bureau, a component of the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, has been marketing the city as a destination and serves as a resource for national and international news. Here are photos released in 2022 that highlight Las Vegas like no one else.
October 31, 2022 has come and gone and the results are final. In all contests, looney liberal Democrats lost in every local, regional and national competitive event. Here are highlights of the results as fact checked by Twitter before midnight.
First Place: Pumpkin Carving
Willie Morris, from Deep in the Heart of Brady, Texas excelled in this Hillary Behind Bars Jack’o’Lantern.
Biggest Loser: Deceased Voters by Mail
Illegal voters from the deceased citizenry in Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta,Milwaukee, Phoenix,New York,Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Houston, Ft. Worth and Austin caused a landslide in losers.
Runner Up Winners
Jacksonville, Florida native Jackie Lantern created this three-way tie ensemble: LET’S, GO, and BRANDON.
Jerry Lee Lewis, the last pioneer of the SUN Records Rock n’ Roll era still standing, died this morning at age 87.
His representative Zach Farnum, released this message: “Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis. He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.”
Lewis taught himself to play piano when he was 9 and sang in church, drawing inspiration from preachers and musicians that traveled through his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana.
Lewis married his 13 year old cousin, Myra in 1958.
At 10, Lewis’ father mortgaged their family farm to buy him his first piano. He performed for the public for the first time at a local car dealership when he was 14.
Lewis crashed into the gates of Graceland, the famed home of Elvis Presley
Through Sam Phillips’ SUN Records in Memphis, Tennessee, Lewis began with the likes of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Charlie Rich as one of the original rock and rollers.
Lewis with Sam Phillips
Considered a music pioneer, Lewis released a number of timeless hits including “Great Balls Of Fire”, “Whole Lot of Shaking Going On” and “Breathless” before pivoting to country music and topping the charts with tunes like “What Made Milwaukee Famous,”“There Must Be More To Love Than This” and “Would You Take Another Chance On Me.”
Revisiting SUN studio site of the MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET
Over the course of his career, he won several Grammys and was an inaugural inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
When Lewis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, country star Hank Williams Jr. said Lewis “doesn’t ask for your attention, he demands it.”
“He doesn’t take a stage, he commands it,” Williams said.
To many American families, The Walt Disney Company has “GROOMING” and “WOKE” image problems and it shows.
While consumer prices continue to skyrocket up under the Biden regime, it appears new data for Disney is disappointing.
Millions of fans are turning away.
.
The more woke and leftist they become, Walt Disney “must be rolling over in his grave” with the lower financials and attendance of the company he founded.
As of this writing, The Walt Disney Company has a 12-month low of $90.23 and a 12-month high of $179.25 on it’s stock.
A recent survey revealed 92.6% of the over 18,000 surveyed believed the cost of a Walt Disney World vacation is out of reach for an average family.
This month KTLA News in the local Los Angeles area reported fans of the original “Happiest Place on Earth” are feeling a sense of loss….”The Magic’s Gone!”
Many travelers remain frustrated with challenges getting into their favorite park since Disney requires people to make advance reservations in addition to having tickets. The days of spontaneously visiting the theme parks are over it seems.
GROOMING and being WOKE are self induced problems Disney has created for themselves in their overt attempts at social engineering—like treating ethnic or sexual diversity as an opportunity for virtue signaling and political posturing.
It didn’t help that at the beginning of this month a rich but ungrateful Abigail Disney tore her great-uncle Walt Disney up for being “fascist” and stoking anti-Semitism and racism when he ran the company he co-founded with her grandfather Roy O. Disney.
NY POST readers grilled Abigail Disney
“He bordered on rabid fascism,” the 62-year-old heiress who suffers from drug addiction (with a long record of seeking on-and-off rehabilitation) said of Walt Disney.
🔹Disney World closed temporarily for Hurricane Ian this past month–the seventh closure in the park’s history. .
🔹In September 2017, the theme park closed for two full days because of Hurricane Irma and cost Disney World $100 million, the company disclosed.
🔹Disney World also closed early before Hurricane Dorian in September 2019.
🔹The longest shutdown in Disney World’s history was from the COVID-19 pandemic when the parks shut down for nearly four months in 2020. The closures walloped The Walt Disney Co.’s pocketbook, costing them billions as movie theaters, parks and cruises stopped abruptly.
The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an entertainment company worldwide.
It operates through two segments, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution; and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
The company engages in the film and episodic television content production and distribution activities, as well as operates television broadcast networks under the ABC, Disney, ESPN, Freeform, FX, Fox, National Geographic, and Star brands.
Its studios produce motion pictures under the Walt Disney Pictures, Twentieth Century Studios, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Searchlight Pictures banners.
Disney enjoyed local government and sole control over the Reedy District for the last 55 years. It looks like now they will be sharing power with the state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature is on track to create a successor agency that will lack some of the antiquated and unused powers of the original Reedy Creek district.
Disney tried to influence woke and social engineering with their 38 hired lobbyists.
Disney has focused in recent months on repairing its damaged relations with LGBTQ organizations. Last week, the Human Rights Campaign announced that it had accepted a contribution from the company, six months after rejecting it. HRC said that Disney had “stood firm in their commitments to our community.”
In the late 1970s, during university journalism classes, I first studied how movies, television, news and politics purposefully used manipulation techniques to control our thoughts.
It was then that I realized I was one of millions of moviegoers who unknowingly sensed the power of sublimation.
When director William Friedkin’s The Exorcist opened in 1973, it quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful horror films of all time.
Local newscasts reported viewers fainting, vomiting, and fleeing the theater, shaken by the film’s explicit depiction of a young girl named Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) possessed by demons and exhibiting blasphemous behavior.
But what we didn’t know was just how unsettled we became because of Friedkin’s insertion into the film surreptitiously—a frightening, subliminal image that was funneled straight into the audience’s subconscious.
Unbeknownst to us, there was a white-faced demon briefly flashed onscreen at 45 minutes and one second into the film.
At one hour, 43 minutes, and 13 seconds in, there is another 1/8 of a second flashes cuts in:
The micro shots were part of Friedkin’s strategy to unnerve moviegoers using both visuals and sounds that he felt stood the best chance of creating an uneasy atmosphere. The face was intended to represent one of the demons inhabiting Regan. Here is another:
The subliminal techniques worked. As of September 2022, the movie has garnered $441,306,145 in worldwide earnings.
The idea for manipulating the masses came from print media. In this day of internet advertising, propaganda and politics, “social influencers” are called in to impact purchases, choices and cultural norms. Let’s look at celebrity influencers of yesteryear:
Advertisers and bloggers know that most people will not spend much time looking at print advertisements or reading long articles. That’s where pictures and images come in.
WHISKEY A LA MODE
Here is a classic example of how hidden (subliminal) ideas, imagery, and words can be placed in print advertisements without immediate detection.
On average, people look at a print ad for no more than two seconds. In the following case the advertiser had two seconds in which to convey a message.
With this in mind, look closely at this advertisement and see if you notice anything interesting:
This is not a photograph of a glass of whiskey, this is a piece of artwork.
Take a look at this area of the print advertisement. Do you see the image of a dead wasp?
Here is a comparison of the image of the dead wasp with a darkened image of the dead wasp:
Below is a comparison of the image of the dead wasp with a picture of a wasp:
Notice that the colors black and yellow are prominent in this advertisement, the same colors of a wasp.
There are three subliminal images of birds in this advertisement.
BIRD #1: Above the image of the dead wasp is another image. Do you see the image of a vulture above the dead wasp?
This image is a cartoon rendition of a vulture. The vulture is hovering over the image of the dead wasp:
Here is a comparison of the image of the vulture with both another cartoon rendition and a photograph of a vulture:
BIRD #2: Take a look at this section of the print advertisement. Do you see the image of a dead white bird?
Here is a comparison of the image of the dead white bird next to a picture of a white bird:
BIRD #3: Take a look at this section of the print advertisement. Do you see the image of a Red-tailed Hawk?
Here is a comparison of the image of the Red-tailed Hawk’s head with a picture of a Red-tailed Hawk’s head.
The image of the Red-tailed Hawk looks like it is about to take flight due to the positioning of the wings:
COLOR PSYCHOLOGY There are three predominant colors in this advertisement: yellow, black, and gold. As mentioned previously, the colors yellow and black relate to the colors of a wasp.
Gold is another color of this advertisement which is the color of the whiskey in the glass.
To an addicted heavy consumer of alcohol, whiskey is as good as gold.
SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS Subliminal images of a wasp and birds in this Calvert whiskey ad have been revealed.
Through subliminal imagery and symbolic meanings, it appears that this ad is portraying an addicted heavy drinker’s life coming to an end.
🔹It is important to understand that the subconscious mind operates with symbols, pictures and images.
🔹They convey far more information than words. They reach us on an intuitive level. We understand images by making associations with them.
WASP SYMBOLISM: In this advertisement, the wasp is a symbol of whiskey because both the wasp and the whiskey are known for their ability to sting.
🔹This stinging of the alcohol can cause some rawness and discomfort in the short-term, and in the long-term it may have other consequences.
🔹A wasp can sting multiple times without harm to itself. Wasps do not die after stinging their victims.
🔹Since the wasp in this advertisement is dead, it has lost it’s power to sting.
🔹The whiskey (wasp) loses it’s power to sting after an addicted heavy consumer of alcohol dies.
VULTURE SYMBOLISM: In the ad above, the image of a vulture–a universal symbol of death–is hovering over the dead wasp.
🔹Death is inevitably approaching any heavy drinker.
WHITE DEAD BIRD SYMBOLISM: According to a Germanic superstition, the “omen most often associated with death was a white dove that would appear on the windowsill or in the room of the terminally ill and forewarn the family of the impending death.”
🔹Although a white dove has been a symbol of peace and hope for thousands of years, in this advertisement the dead bird represents the situation where the addicted heavy drinker has lost peace and hope as the end of his life draws near.
HAWK SYMBOLISM: In this advertisement, the hawk is at the top of the glass of whiskey and is poised to take flight. The hawk’s back is towards the dead white bird, the vulture, and the dead wasp.
🔹Hawk symbolism is also associated with death, for the birds often act as the bearers of souls heavenward.
🔹The hawk’s swiftness of darting down and grasping its weakened prey also serves as a symbol of death, injustice, and violence.
Now here is what the advertisers knew about the demographics of their consumers at the time:
🔹The top 5% of drinkers of alcohol accounted for 42% of the United States total alcohol consumption.
🔹About 17.6 million Americans abused or were dependent on alcohol.
🔹In the United States, excessive alcohol use accounted for an estimated average of 80,000 deaths annually.
On a global scale, the “harmful use of alcohol results in approximately 2.5 million deaths each year.
THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION
Think about how much information and statistics advertisers, propagandists, and social engineers had back then.
Now considering the enormous amount of spying via internet, cellphones, financial records, purchasing habits and locations you frequent, just how much more accessible are your customs, patterns and obsessions? How can these be used to not only track your existence, but manipulate your life?
Thank you for reading Part 2 of our Social Enginnering Manipulation series.
Listen up. A society that stops thinking for themselves is a populace that is easily led, easily manipulated and easily controlled whether through propaganda, brainwashing, mind control, or just plain fear-mongering.
White House Resident Joe Biden told CBS’ Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” last week, “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. It’s – but the pandemic is over.”
A few days later Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to all Congressional representatives that because of COVID and the “public health emergency is in effect” she was extending proxy voting until November 10, 2022.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded in the New York Post, saying “the Commitment to America champions policies to restore voters’ confidence in Congress, starting with ending Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proxy-voting abuse of power that allowed 90% of House Democrats to get paid without needing to show up for work.”
Democrats and RINOS are again using the COVID-19 pandemic as both psychological warfare disguised as a pandemic threat, and for unconstitutional political purpose. They are gaming the system.
Pelosi and Deep State operatives have repeatedly used COVID to persuade and force citizens to march in lockstep with a police state.
The more nimble and quick Americans recognized the Pelosi-Fauci types were ratcheting up the fear-factor. In retrospect, we know it was a sham–a carefully calibrated crisis set up in time for the 2020 Election and beyond. Part of the control included teaching and training the more gullible to distrust any who diverge from the norm: stay home, wear a mask, get a dangerous shot, vote by mail, etc.
As science writer David Robson explains: “Fears of contagion lead us to become more conformist and tribalistic… Daily reminders of disease may even sway our political affiliations… Various experiments have shown that we become more conformist and respectful of convention when we feel the threat of a disease… the evocative images of a pandemic led [participants in an experiment] to value conformity and obedience over eccentricity or rebellion.”
This is not a new experiment in mind control.
Add the government’s bias and capabilities to monitor online activity and change truth to so-called “disinformation,” and we settle in with false polices for speech, assembly, worship and employment. Using the three giant propaganda megaphones of…
🔹Media,
🔹Academia
🔹Hollywood
…ensures that facts conform to whatever version of reality the progressive propagandists embrace.
“…it is an illusion to believe that we as conservatives or as Christians can retreat into our private spaces, drive our pick-up truck to school or to work, pray in church, and (those who oppose Christianity) will leave us unmolested,” Dinesh D’Souza explained it back in 2016.
The policing of your mind in schools, in the military, on television and in news media reveals the dangers of how information and communication sources are gradually being linked together into a single computerized network. The result is intended to be your unrecognized and near anonymous control of what you will see broadcasted, what will hear, and ultimately what you will think.
Consider the state and federal level hate crime legislation that is intended to subdue so-called “hateful” thoughts and expression.
🔹It encourages and trains self-censoring and reduces free debate on various subject matter.
🔹The end goal of these mind-control campaigns—packaged in the guise of the greater good—is to see how far the American people will allow the government to go in re-shaping the country in the image of a totalitarian police state.
Do you recognize NEW WORLD ORDER and WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM creeping forward yet?
🔹The government’s fear-mongering is yet another key element in its mind-control programming.
🔹The formula is a simple tried and tested one. National crises, global pandemics, reported terrorist attacks, and sporadic shootings leave us in a constant state of fear.
🔹The emotional panic that accompanies fear actually shuts down the prefrontal cortex or the rational thinking part of our brains. In other words, when we are consumed by fear, we stop thinking.
🔹Fear not only increases the power of government, but it also divides the people into factions, persuades them to see each other as the enemy and keeps them screaming at each other so that they drown out all other sounds. In this way, they will never reach consensus about anything and will be too distracted to notice the police state closing in on them until the final crushing curtain falls.
The frightening part for me is that so many Americans don’t even realize they are being brainwashed—manipulated—into adopting an “us” against “them” mindset. All the while, those in power—bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations—move their costly agendas forward.
One of the great American theorists, Edward L. Bernays was my introduction to propaganda studies originally going back to the late 1970s. What he referred to as “an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country,” makes more sense now. We call it the “Deep State.”
Thank you for reading Part 1 of our Social Engineering Manipulation series.
With the help of the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (TMIIIP), the Lone Star State initiative is designed to build the state and local economies through the moving image industry and create jobs in Texas communities.
BOERNE
Just 30-minutes northwest of San Antonio International Airport is the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Boerne, Texas, where I raised my family.
It has been discovered by Hollywood for years as the city offers a picturesque vintage backdrop featuring turn-of-the-century architecture nestled in its thriving business district filled with modern boutiques, breweries, and restaurants that are ready to serve.
Their bustling downtown, the Hill Country Mile, is a colorful canvas of quaint shops flanked by winding pedestrian paths and parks situated along the gorgeous Cibolo Creek. At its heart, Boerne is anchored by a 170-year-old traditional Main Plaza, complete with a historic gazebo and surrounded by heritage Oaks.
Boerne is one of now over 150 communities across the state in the Film Friendly Texas program, including the neighboring cities of Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Blanco, Bandera, and San Antonio.
The Film Friendly Texas program provides ongoing training and guidance on media industry standards and best practices to help communities accommodate media production for film and TV. Film Friendly Certified Communities are trained to match local businesses with production-related needs and services while creating jobs for Texas-based crew members and residents.
Some notable productions filmed in Boerne over the years, including 1973’s The Sugarland Express starring Goldie Hawn; 1997’s The Newton Boys, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke; and 1999’s All the Pretty Horses, starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz.
Just minutes west of Boerne on Highway 46 is Enchanted Springs Ranch.
Enchanted Springs Ranch began as a Hollywood movie set in 2001 and has been a preferred filming location for over 20 years. The ranch features a large-scale Old West town that is perfect for filming movies, commercials, TV shows and music videos. The ranch is listed as an approved filming venue with the San Antonio Film Commission and works closely with the Austin Film Commission.
Texas-based TV travel programs like The Daytripper and YOLO TX have also filmed in and around Boerne.
SAN MARCOS
In the summer of 2022, San Marcos–home to Texas State University–announced the construction of a $267 million, 820,000-square-foot TV, film and virtual production studio.
City officials billed it as a studio set to bring in more than 1,400 industry jobs to the community.
“The multiuse project, located at the entrance of the La Cima master-planned community, will also feature modern lifestyle and collaborative workplace amenities, headlined by post-production facilities, a 50-seat screening theater and a full-service restaurant and coffee shop,” Hill Country Group said. “Twenty-five acres will be reserved for vendor and commercial space built to serve both the studio and surrounding community.”
MOVIES FILMED IN HILL COUNTRY
Some movies made in the Texas Hill Country region include (note movies I have appeared in are designated with “*” symbol):
50th Anniversary will be on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022 at John T. Floores Country Store & Dance Hall in Helotes, Texas. 3-7 p.m.
Admired by fiercely loyal fans, The Drugstore Cowboys have brought their electric energy to venues throughout the US and Europe.
The south side of San Antonio, in the neighborhoods surrounding McCollum and Harlandale high schools, are the childhood homes of many notable people in Country, Funk, Soul and Tejano Music.
Legendary Country Music DJ Hall of Famer and everybody’s “Cousin” Jerry King went to Harlandale in the 1960s. I can remember when King, along with other DJs and musicians, played with the likes of Willie Nelson and George Jones at a charity basketball matchup at the McCollum gym in the late 1960s.
During the 1972-73 school year Nashville recording artist Johnny Bush played on stage at the McCollum Auditorium. Country.
Down on Harding Blvd., a talented local newspaper country music and entertainment writer, John Goodspeed, served as an early inspiration for me.
The late Emilio Navaira, from the McCollum Class of 1980, was a Mexican-American musician who performed country and Tejano music nationally. His classmate from the year ahead of him, Yolanda Saldívar, is the convicted murderer of Latin music superstar Selena, and is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.
Especially in the late 70s and early 80s many of us would go watch Horizon perform. Southsiders Charlie, John, and Geoff Boggess joined classmate Freddy Carrillo and others (T-Bo Gonzalez, Bill Dudley, Larry Scott and Sahara Greer come to mind) and actually opened for the Commodores. The story goes they were offered to go on the road with Cool and the Gang but turned them down.
Through the years, southsider singers and musicians continued to play venues and dances as far away as Europe, on television and especially throughout the Lone Star State.
Some of the more enduring included Rex Allen McNeil, Walter “Tooter” Ripps, Ray Morris, Randy Potts, Lonnie Castleman, John Marsh, Leonard Wong, and the rockers, The Toman Brothers, Randy and Russell—and who could forget R
1972
In the fall of 1972, 17-year-old McCollum senior Dub Robinson had organized a country trio and began playing around a little bit. He went to go see Willie Nelson at the John T. Floore Country Store northwest of San Antonio in the foothills of the Hill Country town of Helotes.
Johnny Bush, Paul English, Willie Nelson
Nelson was to perform as a trio with drummer Paul English and Bee Spears on bass. The steel player didn’t show.
“I watched Willie play that gut string guitar and it didn’t lose anything,” Robinson remembers. Since age 12, Robinson had played professionally across South Texas, but on this night he was particularly inspired.
He called his drummer, Robert “Cotton” Payne, and his bassist, Tommy McKay the next day and proclaimed that if they could be a hundredth as good as Nelson was, they might have a chance.
They knew their taste in music was a blend of country, rock, and blues. McKay suggested the perfect name for their new band. It described the kind of “cowboy” who didn’t want to get his boots dirty.
I’ve followed Dub and other fellow McCollum Cowboys classmates over the years. He continues to be a favorite.
At a ten year class reunion in 1983 at the downtown El Tropicano Hotel Ballroom, Dub and his band honored his classmates as we danced in memories of “old times.” I was particularly honored. I knew the band was good, but when I was called over during a break, he asked me what Elvis song I was going to sing later that evening.
I suggested “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Hearbreak Hotel,” and “Hound Dog.”
He grinned, and with guitar in hand, said, “Okay. Let me hear you sing them.”
1983 McCollum 10 Yr Reunion. Dub (guitar) was the ultra-professional. What an honor for me.
I only had to belt out a sentence or a few words of each. He immediately knew what key and chords to play.
Later, when some of our classmates were literally pulling my pants off while singing, I looked back at Dub. He was grinning big time. He and his band never missed a lick. I tried my best not to also. It remains a fun and wonderful memory in my heart.
In 2011, while interviewing George Strait and Ray Benson at a fundraiser for wounded veterans at Tapatio Springs outside of Boerne, Texas, Strait said something that reminded me of Dub.
“When everyone thinks of Asleep at the Wheel, they think of Ray.”
That’s exactly how I feel about the Drug Store Cowboys. When I think of them, I think of Dub Robinson.
Dub Robinson on the left.
Dub just announced the band will be celebrating their 50th anniversary with a new CD. What are his thoughts?
In his own creative words, the songwriter, musician and singer posted:
Originally, McKay lasted about a year and a half and Randy Toman, (who now performs with his brother Russell), became the bassist for 13 years.
They became the touring band for country stars Gary Stewart and Stoney Edwards. The Drugstore Cowboys also backed Johnny Rodriguez, Freddy Fender, Johnny Bush and Gene Watson.
Other artists they shared the stage with or even backed up include Nelson, Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis, Frenchy Burke, Greg Allman, David Allen Cole, Charlie Daniels, the Mavericks, Jerry Jeff Walker, and even Asleep At The Wheel.
“They joined Stewart, who was known for such hits as “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles),” when his backing band could not make a gig at the old Kicker’s Palace,” Goodspeed once reported. “The owner told Stewart they knew all his songs and he gave them a try. Stewart hired them and they toured coast to coast. Robinson quit after four years.”
“I didn’t want to be somebody’s backup band the rest of my life,” he said. “I’m a songwriter first and wanted to do my own thing.”
In 50 years, at least that many musicians have played in The Drugstore Cowboys.
Some of the members went on to play for the Bellamy Brothers, Janie Fricke, Bill Anderson, and Judas Priest.
“I believe it’s all about the song. It’s a lot of work running a band, but I do it just to play my music the way I want to hear it,” Dub said.
Clever Journeys 