Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Islanders scrounging around for Balinese souvineers

NPR did a story on the demise of Galveston's Balinese Room.

They called it perhaps Galveston's best-known landmark. The key word is "perhaps." Not sure it was but can't say exactly what would be.

They mentioned "Sicilian born" barber Sam Maceo founded the joint and noted the illegal casino that thrived at the end of Balinese til the Tx Rangers shut it down in the late 50s but didn't get into the seamier aspects of the Maceo operation, which is probably just as well.

Better to idealize long-lost landmarks, we suppose.

Oh, and they played a riff from the ZZ Top tune "Down At The Balinese" at the end of the piece.

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