Texas Pavilions & Music Hall
"Friendship at the Fair" is the theme of the Texas pavilion and its adjacent 2,400 seat Music Hall. In addition there is an exhibit called "Life on the Range" and "Art in Texas." The Frontier Palace restaurant and bar in the theater building sport a facade out of the Old West. Outside is a beer garden, snack bar and wandering entertainers.
The Music Hall presents a 90 minute spectacular called "To Broadway With Love." The new show, by producer George Schaefer, is an anthology packed with the moods and music of the American theater from "The Black Crook" of 1864 to recent hits. The show, which cost $1,250,000 to stage, has imaginative costumes and effects.
The plural in the name "Texas Pavilions" is correct; there were several buildings grouped together and the financial backers felt that the name would convey the size of the state of Texas. The Music Hall was hard to photograph, as it was largely blocked by the tracks of the AMF Monorail. This view is from just inside the Fair's River Gate. (CD #29 Set 151 #27)
"To Broadway With Love".This is the title of the 90-minute musical spectacular in The Music Hall. Presented by producer George Schaefer, who produced Teahouse of the August Moon, and Morton Da Costa, who directed The Music Man, the new show is an anthology packed with the moods and music of the American theater from The Black Crook of 1864 to recent hits. The show, which cost $1,250,000 to stage, has imaginative costumes and effects; it was cheered by every Broadway critic when it opened. (CD #24 Set 129 #4)
While praised by New York critics, the show was a resounding flop. The remote location of the pavilion may have played a part in this, as did the much lower than expected attendance for the Fair itself. Faced with mounting losses, the backers were forced to pull the plug on the show relatively early during the first year of the Fair. By the 1965 season they had pulled out of the Fair completely, and the building re-opened as the Carnival pavilion. Click here for more information on "To Broadway With Love." (CD #31 Set 158 #8)
Sudden Fun. Surprise is a feature of the entire area. A young man suddenly stands up and breaks into song. A girl walking along a path bullwhips a cigarette from the mouth of a friend. Two arguing waiters bring their feud to a head in a burst of gunfire.
A comedy gunfighter routine entertains guests outside the Frontier Palace restaurant. (CD #14 Set 71 #8)
Restaurants. Wildest and wooliest of the numerous dining areas is the Frontier Palace, where the air is filled with the aroma of chuckwagon beef, and girls dance the cancan. There are also Mexico, Tourism and New Texas snack bars, snacks with the beer in the Beer Garden, and a Shrimp Bar.
The main food area at the Texas Pavilions was the Frontier Palace restaurant, which not too surprisingly, featured steak prominently on the menu. (CD #29 Set 158 #13)
Want more information on the Texas Pavilions?
1-18-64 - Texans at the Fair to Show the East How the West Eats
9-23-64 - Complaint letter from Orange Julius
To Broadway With Love cast album