Remembering Bradley's

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Bradley Cafeteria – So what was so magical about the dances held in the basement of this building that sat on the north side of the Courthouse? It was a melting pot for all the teenagers of Lee, Butler, and Huntsville, so it always had a good crowd of fun-loving teenagers. It was a place where we met others, and had great times. The music was good and because Bradley’s was smaller than most of the other places, it was LOUD. It was an icon of our teenage years, matched only by Shoney’s and Jerry’s on the Parkway in our memories.

Jerry Brewer, the drummer for the Continentals, says that he and his band played for the first dance there. He thinks that the band sponsored it themselves. Escoe German Beatty, a 1965 graduate of Lee, remembers it just a little differently. She claims that she and her friends were instrumental in starting the legend of Bradley’s dances and hired the Continentals to play.

Escoe says, “There were 16 of us girls from the Lee High classes of ‘65 and ‘66 who formed a social club called ‘The Amber Ashes.’ There were no high school sororities allowed in schools back then, so we formed this as a private social group. The only reason that the club existed was to raise enough money so we all could go to Daytona, Florida, on Spring Break.  We did many things to raise money like selling Stanley products, donuts, and having car washes.”

Well, Escoe says her group was the first group to start holding dances at Bradley's Cafeteria.

Escoe remembers seeing the basement of the cafeteria on the north side of Courthouse Square and talking to the manager about renting it for a dance the first time.  “I can't remember for sure what we paid for it, but we also rented an off-duty cop for security as well.  Of course, the band we hired for the first dance was The Continentals.  I think we charged 25 cents a ticket to get in but it might have been 50 cents.”

Later the price for attending the dances went up to $1.00. You had to pay at the top of the stairs before you could go down to the dance in the basement, but since everything else was closed the music could be heard all around the Square on those quiet nights,. Dances were held most Friday and Saturday nights.

Escoe remembers songs like "Long Tall Texan", "Are You Alright?"(response: Hell Yeah!), "Rebel Rouser," and can never forgot the emotions when Jimmy Gentry would sing "Talk to Me."

Escoe recalls, “We all had so much fun, and it was all clean fun.  We thought it was risqué just to sing along with the lyrics that went "See that girl dressed in..." and "Nuts, hot nuts…." We had all heard of dirty dancing but when I watch the movie now I know there is no way any of us would have been able to show our face if we had danced like that!  The closest thing we got to dirty dancing was our favorite dance - the "Dog."

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd’ only regret about Bradley’s is that she did not get to dance with some of the greatest and cutest guys because they were already taken. She distinctly remembers the time she was watching some couples doing a very raunchy dance in her opinion. “Since I was somewhat shy and not very worldly, I asked someone what in the world they were doing,” she recalls. “I remember him saying they were doing a dance called the ‘Dirty dog’.”  All Patsy knows is that her mother would have killed her, or she would have been put on restriction for the rest of her life if her mother had ever gotten wind that she was dancing like that. “And back in those days, Mother knew everything I did before I could even get back home!”

Yes indeed, the dance got its design from the amorous moves of two dogs in heat in the backyard. It was dirty...but fun. Usually the boy and girl danced facing each other, but at some random moment the girl would give a hop and turn around putting her hand on her knees and lean forward a bit. The boy would move in and sometimes put his hands on the girl's hips and sometimes on the girl’s shoulders. Whether or not actual body contact was made with the thrusts he did...well, you remember your way and I'll remember mine. I loved that dance. For an Eagle Scout, it was the definitive Dirty Dancing - Huntsville style.

There is a great possibility that I was the person who could have been the male component of the couple that was doing that raunchy dance Patsy saw. I wish I could take credit (or blame) for being the one who introduced “The Dog” to Bradley's, but I can't prove it. I will say that I was one of the first to “do the dog” at Bradley’s.

I made a trip to Memphis in September or October of 1963 and attended a dance at a VFW club there. I didn’t know anyone there but I loved the music and I loved being a part of the crowd.

There was a local Memphis deejay, Rufus Thomas, who turned singer and had just released a record getting a lot of airplay in town. His song was called "The Dog.” I was standing in the crowd at the VFW and all of the kids gathered around in a circle and one or two couples were inside the circle. I looked in and they were doing "The Dog." Well, if you remember the look of Babe in Dirty Dancing when she saw the teenagers doing their dirty dancing, that was the same look on my face.

It was a chaperoned dance and the female chaperones quickly got inside the circle and broke up the dancing. Everyone went back to dancing normal dances but before long, the couples started in doing “The Dog” again. This happened several times during the evening and each time the dancers were threatened to be kicked out of the building, but they never were.

I watched them enough to learn the moves, because I knew I would never see that dance on American Bandstand. I don't know where else it was being done outside of Memphis, but when I returned to Huntsville and went to Bradley's I knew I may have been one of the first, but I wasn't the only one, who had seen and learned the moves. Dirty Dancing had come to Huntsville..."Do, the dog...Do the dog...everybody do the dog!"

Everything that was fun was thrown together in the dances. The bands were a mix of guys from Huntsville High, Lee, and Butler but most of my dance crowd was just Lee in the beginning. That crowd soon grew to include many Huntsville High and Butler students as well.

George Vail has memories of Bradley's as well.  The first time he went to Bradley’s he saw "The Rocks" performing with Randy Duck as lead vocalist, Skip Atkins on bass, Jackie Tiller on lead guitar, and Lee High School's own Larry Byrom on keyboard.

For those who don’t know, Larry Byrom eventually became a legend in the music industry.  According to information found on the web, Larry was born in Huntsville in 1948 but spent a lot of his childhood in South Bend, Indiana. He dropped out of Lee High School with a dream of reaching rock stardom. In the mid-Sixties, he joined a band called the Precious Few and went to professional status by performing on Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars. Larry’s next step was to head to California where he joined the group Hard Times, and appeared on the television show Where the Action Is! The Hard Times group called it quits before long and Larry got together with Nick St. Nicholas and formed another band, T.I.M.E., which stood for Trust in Men Everywhere. T.I.M.E. transformed into a new rock band named Steppenwolf and had hits like “Born to be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride.” Later in his life Larry Byrom returned to the South, and became a fixture in the Nashville country music scene. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

At midnight, when the band was forced to quit playing at Bradley’s, you usually walked out into the quiet night air, ears ringing from having stood directly in front of the speakers.  It seemed when you walked out of Bradley's downtown the silence always had the most startling effect on the ears.  Downtown was deathly quiet late at night and the ringing in your ears from the music was obvious.

I agree with Escoe about loving this song. It was my favorite slow dance song offered by the Continentals. I can still close my eyes and drift back to Bradley's basement and remember all the girls I got to dance with to that song. Let's remember "Talk to Me."

The Wayback Machine

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Once again I am going to ask Mr. Peabody (a.k.a. Amazon Alexa) to play me a song from those days and collect your thoughts about the song. 

So...Mr. Peabody, take us wayback. What is the first song you will play?

"A Teenager in Love" was originally recorded by Dion and the Belmonts, and released in March 1959. It appeared on their album "Presenting Dion and the Belmonts" (1959). It reached number 5 on the Billboard pop charts. Dion initially thought the song sounded "wimpy", but then realized the sound the song has when the Belmonts starting singing "ooh-wah" at the start of the song. 

Editor's Comments: I always liked Dion and the Belmonts' music. Again this week we feature a song that was not performed by our local bands at the dances we attended, but was a favorite record player hit at parties. This song was not really a slow-dance song or a real fast-dance song. I guess it was more of a song you listened to and sang along with. That said, it was also a nice song to shake to at Carter's. 

I was sent the link to the photo above that was published about Niles, LHS '65. 

I did not get any response to which show featured Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It was in fact, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (commonly referred to as simply Rocky and Bullwinkle) an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.

I plan on devoting some time in the next few issues remembering the music scene of Huntsville duirng our high school days. If you were one who enjoyed and participated in the dances you should enjoy it and I hope you will share some of your own memories. If you were not, then you will get a view of what you missed during that period.

Please keep those comments coming. Remember it is easy to make comments using the form below, which does not involve having to use your email.

LEE LUNCH BUNCH

FOR THE CLASSES OF ‘64, ‘65, ‘66

CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023

11:00 AM

Please save the date for our spring lunch and chat time for the beginning of the thirteenth year for Lee Lunch Bunch for the classes of ‘64, ‘65, and ‘66.

Carrabba’s is located on the upper parking level of Parkway Place Mall in Huntsville. We have reserved a limited space area for our group, so please do let me know asap if you will be coming. Most of the time in the past we have met on the last Thursday of April. That was not available this time, so it will be on the third Thursday of April instead. As always, place and space are issues, but we should have enough space at this restaurant for our group.

Please do let me know if you plan to be there.

Thanks! Patsy Hughes Oldroyd ‘65

H (256) 232-7583

C (256) 431-3396

keithandpatsy@att.net

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Last Week's Questions, Answers, and Comments

Linda Taylor,  LHS ‘65, "I was there at the Coliseum that night! Ran into the Continentals at the record shop, corner of Oakwood/Blue Springs, likely on the same weekend. It was a Good Life!"

Linda Kinkle Cianci, LHS ‘66, "Tommy, I think susiesellshomes is Susie Smith, 1966."

Skip Cook, LHS ‘64, "Another great black band was Poo Nanny and the Stormers.  My wife thought I was making up the name, until I asked Mr. Google and found an article about Poo Nanny."

Mary Ann (Bond) Wallace, LHS '64, "Tommy, evidently I was in never land when you and others were going to the coliseum for the bands of the 60s.  I do remember going many times to a place downtown that was in a basement on the square.  On the opposite side of the Square from the Franklin Brothers hardware store that is still there.  If I remember correctly you paid $5.00 to get in and dance your heart away.  I remember sweating like no tomorrow. Thank you for always sending us beautiful memories.  I wish I had been smart enough to have kept a journal of what I did each day of my high school and college years.  I have tried several times during my life to do that but I am just not a writer. Hope you are feeling better and Sue has a break from setting you up on antibiotics. Always wonderful to hear your memories.  You do such a good job of writing and publishing the Lee Traveler for all of us to read and remember."

Belinda German Talley, HHS '69, "Your outstanding writing and photo of the Madison County Coliseum revived many memories. Growing up in the '60s, I remember numerous groups performing there. My favorite is going backstage and getting James Brown's autograph, then seeing him perform his legendary song, "Please, Please, Please." Thank you, Tommy, for keeping our memories alive."

Below are two versions of "Please, Please, Please" for your entertainment. The first video is the 45rpm-record version of the song as it was released. This is the one we listened to at parties. The second video is a clip from James Brown doing the song live on stage.