September 2022

News and Events from

The Museum of North Texas History

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MUSEUM OF NORTH TEXAS HISTORY

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

Dear Members,

We hope you enjoyed the August After Hours Art Walk featuring local artists Fuago and Kohi Zenji. For the September After Hours Art Walk, we will be opening the Real to Reel Regional Museum Network Exhibit in collaboration with the Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts and Culture. Be sure to stop by and learn how North Texas has influenced the Silver Screen and vice versa.

Some of y'all may have watched the City Council meeting on August 16, 2022. During the meeting, I presented our recommendations regarding the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum to the City of Wichita Falls. MoNTH staff worked closely with City staff to complete an inventory and assessment of the property over the last 18 months.

The four main ideas I presented were:

1. That the City of Wichita Falls donates most of the smaller items (inside the cars) to MoNTH so they can become a part of a collection.

2. Sell about two-thirds of the stock (train cars, etc.) on the property due to condition and redundancy.

3. Use the funds from selling a portion of the stock to restore the remaining engine and cars.

4. Create a park-like space with interpretative signage, explaining the history of the stock remaining on the property.

I’d like to stress that these are recommendations. The City Council took no action on these recommendations. MoNTH and City staff are working together to identify the next steps we need to take to continue this project.

Restoring and reopening the Railroad Museum is a huge undertaking. In reality, neither MoNTH nor the City of Wichita Falls can restore all the stock currently on the property. The staff worked hard to recommend a realistic solution and we think we accomplished that.

Madeleine

Downtown Wichita Falls - Art Walk

Thursday, September 1st

OPEN

5:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Real to Reel

The Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts and Culture will roll out the red carpet in September for its annual Regional Museum Network Exhibition. Real to Reel: North Texas in the Limelight will showcase curated collections from 12 area museums highlighting cinematic history in the region and its impact on area communities.

This is an opportunity to explore our region’s many connections to Hollywood in one location. From famous stuntmen and actors to filming locations, historic theaters, and more, Real to Reel separates fact from fiction and explores the impact of the film industry across North Texas.

“We are very excited that we will be presenting the regional museum network group exhibition Real to Reel at the Museum of North Texas History opening September 1,”

The exhibit will open during the After Hours Artwalk on Thursday, September 1st, and will run until October 8th. The exhibit is free to the public with donations accepted. "We hope the community will come out and see the cinematic history of their region."

Legends of North Texas 2021/2022

Eddie Hill joins previous Legend honorees Nat Fleming,

Joe Tom White, Robert Seabury, Roby Christie,

and Arthur Bea Williams.

Eddie and Ercie Hill

The Museum of North Texas History is pleased to announce the Legends of North Texas event honoring Eddie Hill, retired American drag racer, which will take place Wednesday, October 12, 2022. The event occurs at 11:30 AM at the Kemp Center for the Arts, 1300 Lamar Street, Wichita Falls, Texas.

Tickets for the luncheon will go on sale Wednesday, August 2, online (here) at Eventbrite and at the Museum during regular business hours. Individual tickets are $50 and tables can be purchased for $360. For more information, call the Museum at 940-322-7628.

Mr. Hill has won numerous championships on both land and water. Eddie is still the only racer to have been the yearly championship winner and fastest drag racer on both land and water. He also concurrently held speed records in both venues. Eddie has won trophies and races in nine decades from the 1940s to 2020.

“We are excited to honor Eddie Hill as the 2021-2022 Legends of North Texas. Not only has he contributed to the racing world, but he is also a fixture in Wichita Falls with his business, Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles”, says Museum Executive Director, Madeleine Calcote-Garcia.

(Eddie and Ercie Hill photo courtesy NHRA)

Bit of History

Each month we will highlight "bits" of North Texas history.

A Lady Comes to Burkburnett

“A Lady Comes to Burkburnett” first appeared in the August 1939 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine. Though having the same name as the current magazine for women, the Cosmopolitan of 1939 was a literary magazine featuring articles by authors such as Ambrose Bierce, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Edith Wharton, H.G. Wells, O. Henry, A. J. Cronin, Alfred Henry Lewis, Bruno Lessing, Sinclair Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, and Ida Tarbell. James Edward Grant penned “A Lady Comes to Burkburnett.”

Born in Chicago in 1906, James Edward Grant began his career as a journalist and served as a speechwriter for a prominent Chicago mayor. Grant was an accomplished short story writer with articles appearing in Cosmopolitan, Argosy, The Saturday Evening Post, and Liberty and a published novelist. He became an acclaimed screenwriter for over 50 films between 1936 and 1971, known for his crisp dialogue and “male-centric” environment.

Grant wrote screenplays for William Powell, Richard Widmark, Charlton Heston, Alan Ladd, and James Garner. Well known for authoring twelve screenplays for John Wayne, including “Hondo,” Grant wrote and directed “The Angel and the Badman” with Wayne and Gail Russell.

Grant was nominated for an Academy Award in 1958. Grant’s last filmed screenplay was for “Support Your Local Gunfighter” for James Garner. The film premiered in 1971, five years after Grant’s death in 1966.

“Boomtown” the 1940 film from MGM with Spenser Tracy, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr, focused on the relationship between two wildcatters over a twenty-year period. Describing Gable and Tracy as their “toughest and most virile,” the movie was well received by most critics who cited the oil field sections of the movie as having the most audience appeal. Cited as one of the 10 best films of 1940, “Boom Town” became the highest-grossing film of 1940 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Effects.

Do you have a copy of the article “A Lady Comes to Burkburnett?”

CATCH A SCREENING OF "BOOM TOWN" AT THE BURKBURNETT HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN BURKBURNETT DURING REAL TO REEL,

SEPTEMBER 1ST THROUGH OCTOBER 8TH.

TEXOMA GIVES 2022

Texas Association of Museums 2022

Excerpt from a presentation made to the

Wichita Falls City Council on May 17, 2022

Trust

Texas Museums are more than just an attraction, they are a trusted source of information. According to research done by Impacts Experience, the public trust in Texas Museums has grown by almost 3% since 2019. Their data shows that Texas Museums are more trusted than daily newspapers and are neck-in-neck with government institutions. By elevating trust in museums throughout the state, we prove our relevance beyond our four walls.

UPCOMING EXHIBITS

100^th Anniversary of MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY-TEXAS

Wichita Falls Junior College opened in September 1922, the second municipal junior college in Texas. It was operated by the Wichita Falls Independent School District and superintendent Randolph Lee Clark. Its liberal arts curriculum drew fifty-five freshmen that fall. Classes met in the high school on Broad Street. What a change 100 years brings!

(Photo from MSU Texas; Text from Texas State History Online)

German-Texas Settlers

The largest ethnic group in Texas derived directly from Europe was persons of German birth or descent. As early as 1850, they constituted more than 5 percent of the total Texas population, a proportion that remained constant through the remainder of the nineteenth century.

From their first immigration to Texas in the 1830s, the Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves. A majority settled in a broad, fragmented belt across the south-central part of the state.

(From Texas State History Online)