[AGL] Kelso on Fletcher

[Fontaine Maverick]

Eddie never let truth stand in the way of a good story.

My husband John and I and Fletcher and Libby with our two little girls went 
to Mexico- the Caribbean coast. Libby and I and the chiclets played on the 
beach and all of us took ferry rides, feasted on lobster while burying our 
feet in the soft sand, then went inland to spend the day at Chichenitza. On 
the trip Fletcher talked about the Deal, which he was  to open when we 
returned.- and he talked like a man making all executive decisions. I 
remember asking him what he intended to serve and he told me "steaks, chops, 
hamburgers - you know, drunk food." He may have bought it from Eddie, but I 
don't really remember Eddie's presence at all. In my mind it was always: 
Fletcher=Raw Deal.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <mike.eisenstadt at gmail.com>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s" 
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 5:43 AM
Subject: Re: [AGL] Kelso on Fletcher



>> Eddie Wilson, today the owner of Threadgill's restaurants in Austin, sold

> the original Raw Deal to Boone and Smitham in the summer of 1977. "I sold 

> it

> to them for it seems like $750, and I let em pay it out $50 a week," he

> recalled.

>

>> Wilson says it was ironic that before he had sold the place to Boone, he

> had thrown Boone out of the place "for overbearing loud intellectual

> conversations with Jim Smitham."

>

> That's not the story of the bar's origin that Fletcher told me poisonally.

> According to Fletcher, the bar was available to be rented with all its

> facilities for a modest price, something under $200 a month. This was the

> bar on Sabine St. Fletcher originally wanted to set it up as a private 

> club

> with 10 members or so to pay the rent.  But he couldn't find 10 that 

> wanted

> to. Around this time, Eddy was fired from his position as manager of the

> Armadillo World Headquarters and Fletcher gave the bar to Eddy to run. I

> remember the Armadillo ad on the radio at that time with the throwaway 

> line

> 'Yes Eddie there is life after the Armadillo.'

>

> When Fletcher got fired from his job at the paint store (they closed the

> fine arts department of the store), he and Smitham took over the bar.

>

> Fletcher was NEVER boisterous so Eddie's story that he threw Fletcher out

> seems farfetched. Fletcher had enormous gravitas and presence and I can't

> conceive of Eddie running Fletcher off or even thinking to do so.

>

>