Longhorn Ballroom
The Longhorn Ballroom is a music venue and country western dance hall in Dallas, Texas (USA). It was known in the early 1950s as Bob Wills' Ranch House when the large ballroom was built and operated by western swing bandleader Bob Wills. When Wills sold the facility for tax purposes, the sprawling dance club was bought by Jack Ruby who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's accused assassin. Prior to acquiring and taking over operation of the Longhorn Ballroom, Dewey Groom managed The Silver Spur and other Dallas clubs for Jack Ruby.
On January 10, 1978 it achieved brief infamy in national music circles when the Sex Pistols appeared there and during their performance taunted the audience, resulting in a woman head-butting Sid Vicious. Before the Sex Pistols, the venue hosted mainly country music artists including Charley Pride, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Ray Price, Conway Twitty, Bob Wills, Loretta Lynn, Hank Thompson, Willie Nelson and Patsy Montana.
The Bob Wills concert album, "The Longhorn Recordings" featuring the music of Bob Wills and his steel guitar player Gene Crownover was recorded in the early Sixties at Longhorn Ballroom.
The Longhorn Ballroom returned to brief infamy in 1991, when 2 Live Crew refused to go on stage for a scheduled show, resulting in fights among their fans and police.
Dallas soul stalwart Johnnie Taylor released a live video filmed at the Longhorn in 1997.
Bobby Patterson, who claims in the introduction to his KKDA radio show to be "able to leap the Longhorn Ballroom in a single bound," recorded a live album there in 2002.
The owner of Longhorn Ballroom is now Raul Ramirez who also owns the restaurant "Raul's Corral" Mexican Restaurant right next to it.
[edit] References
- Noel E. Monk: 12 Days on the Road: The Sex Pistols and America, HarperCollins (1992) ISBN 0688112749 Google books
- Loretta Lynn, with Patsi Bale Cox: Still Woman Enough: A Memoir, Hyperion (2002) ISBN 0786866500 Google books
- Patsy Montana, Jane C. Frost: Patsy Montana: The Cowboy's Sweetheart, McFarland & Company (2002) ISBN 0786410809 Google books
- Dallas Observer article from November, 2008 http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2008/11/echoes_and_reverberations_the_2.php
