Let's take a look at some samples of large scale art renderings gathered up from the Brownsville Staton archives. We'll call it "wall art" with the final images as full-sized murals.
Brochure image illustrating the tropical themed stairway
Recent photos of wall mural in theater building
1952 Fisher's Cafe had wall painting depicting a romanticized tropical lake with palatial habitations
El Rancho Grande Hotel at 1557 Central Blvd offered furnished rooms painted in various colors making each room unique to its own. This one also had a tropical garden theme. Who the artists were for the Majestic, Fisher's Cafe and El Rancho Grande Motel is not known time but time was spent attempting to discover that information.
Charro Drive in with what was an artist's earlier rendition of the mural for the screen tower
Romular Valentin Cuellar as a boy on his donkey
Mr Cuellar was popularly known as the Charro on his horse Valiente that was an honored performer at Charro Days parades since 1938.
1950 Brownsville Herald newspaper clipping
It has been said that Romulo and Valiente were the inspiration for the screen mural that was painted in 1949 when the theater opened on Boca Chica Blvd and lasted until the late 1970s or early 1980s
A (colorized version of) photo shared by the theaters first manager Marshall Nichol's who told me that the screen had to be retouched because the harsh weather downsouth took its toll on it and caused it to fade, crack and peel so an artist from Harlingen re-painted it. Manager Joe Trevino of the Majestic also said the same about the wall murals at the Majestic having to be touched up (or redone).
Corral Drive in was at Raymondville
The Van Nuys Drive In made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." It is shown here because of its striking similarity to the Charro Drive in. Many screen towers depicted western scenes like the movies that were popular at the time. The Van Nuys screen showed a Spanish Vaquero in front of the San Fernando Mission which still exists today. The drive in was torn down and a middle school was built in its place. It had expanded from a single screen theater to a four-screen theater and got rid of the car speakers on stands next to automobile and switched to short band radio frequency so sound could be heard from you car speakers. I visited this drive in many times in my youth and wanted to include it in this post which I hope you enjoyed as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you.
Peggy Palmer Fredrickson tells us:
"In 1953, my father, Jack Palmer, commissioned a mural for his dental office lobby in the Medical Arts building,105 W Elizabeth St (across from Church of the Advent). I believe it was done by a local artist, but I can't find any records in our family keepsakes. Daddy practiced in this office in the 50s and 60s - he moved his practice in 1968. The building is boarded up, and I don't know if the mural is still there."
Ed de Keratry mural -- Peggy Palmer Fredrickson
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