Book looks back at isle’s ‘famous night life’

“The Night Owl: Reminiscences of Galveston’s Famous Night Life,” by Christie Mitchell and Bill Cherry, offers a view of Galveston during the days when it was known as a wide-open city. Bill Cherry talked about the new book.

Q: Tell us about Christie Mitchell. What was he like?

A: Christie Mitchell was the oldest of the four children of Mike and Katina Mitchell. He was born in 1912 and died in February 1980. Remarkably, all of the Mitchell children received college degrees. Christie’s was in journalism from the University of Texas.

Mike Mitchell, a Greek immigrant, owned a small cleaning and pressing shop on 23rd Street just north of the old Buccaneer Hotel. Sam Maceo loaned him money when he was short to keep the Mitchell children in college.

Q: How did he get to be such a legendary character?

A: Christie was a very sensitive observer of nature and people. Like all of the Mitchells, he was a wonderful ballroom dancer, specializing in Latin American dances that were the rage during those years. His wife, Janie, was the daughter of a prominent dentist and his wife, Dr. Karl and Adelaide Mayers.

When they went on the dance floor, other dancers cleared to the sidelines to marvel at their grace. I tell about two of those occasions in the book’s foreword, one taking place and not being interrupted by police during a raid at the Towers Lounge.

Christie returned after college to write for the old Galveston Tribune. World War II interrupted that, and he joined the U.S. Navy, serving on a minesweeper. After the war, he was the police reporter for the paper but found himself more interested in using his talents to promote the island.

He and the Maceos created the Greater Galveston Beach Association. He ran it, wrote weekly columns for the paper telling about the night life and published a free tourist magazine, Galveston Week, that was available in the hotels. His sidekick-secretary was the very glamorous Juliet Pappi, who later married George Mitchell’s executive officer, Ed Russell.

For as long as I knew him, he drove one ancient, highly rusted Cadillac convertible or another. He named each of them “The Blue Goose,” whether or not they were blue.

He was easy to spot because the car top was down, summer and winter, and he would be perched in the driver’s seat with his Panama hat and big cigar, and he’d usually have at least one “glamour” girl in the car with him, most of the time, two or three.

He was easy to spot.

Q: The drink and the cigar were trademarks?

A: With respect to his drinking, let’s just say he and Janie did some serious partying. And he was never without his cigar.

Q: What was his most memorable personal quirk?

A: When Christie would see someone on the sidewalk he knew, if he wanted to speak with him, he’d stop the car where he was, open the door, leave it open and go to the sidewalk and kibbutz with his friend. People soon learned that honking did no good, so they’d just go around the car. The police ignored the violations, even though they often created serious traffic jams.

Q: If you had to pick just one story about him, what would it be?

A: Joe Murphy tells the story about working during college as a summer bartender for Christie at his Christie’s Beachcomber Restaurant on Stewart Beach. One time, Christie was in his office for a long time. Joe wasn’t sure what he was doing since Christie had the door shut. Then the door opened, Christie walked out and said to Joe, “Go out on the beach and bring back about 10 pretty girls in bathing suits. We’re getting ready to have a beauty contest. The winner is in my office.”

Q: Tell us about the book. When and where does it go on sale?

A: The book begins with several stories I wrote about Christie and his shenanigans. Those are there to help the reader understand why Christie was a very important part of Galveston’s success in the ’40s and ’50s.

The next couple of hundred pages are actual columns Christie wrote. The last pages are photos of some of the characters of that era like bandleaders Richard Bovio, Spike Jones, Frank and Hazel Incaprera and Bobby Tinterow and the Towers Hotel, where Frank Sinatra stayed when he performed at the Balinese Room.

Readers will find Christie’s beautiful descriptions of Galveston — “A near-full June moon spilled magic silver on a calm gulf, while East Beach was dotted with lovers in parked cars, the night winds, cool and refreshing, were playing a melodic symphony ...” as he follows the escapades of the night life characters, like Louise Bird, the Scorpion, Johnny Jack, the former circus high-wire artist known as the “Only Only” and the Hubba-Hubba Gal.

And if they read closely, they will find all of the evidence they need that most of the stories told today, stories about “wide open Galveston” that have been repeated over and over for 60 years, are either untrue or serious hyperbole disguised as truth.

The book is available now at amazon.com for $19.95. Bookstores and Galveston shops are invited to carry it as well.