Footloose - Huntsville Style

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 Courthouse Square? It was a melting pot for all the teenagers from Lee, Butler, and Huntsville, so it always had a good crowd of fun-loving teenagers attending. 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 hosting dances, 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, but Escoe German Beatty, a 1965 graduate of Lee, remembers it just a little differently. She says that she and her friends were instrumental in starting the legend of Bradley’s dances and hired the Continentals to play at the first dance held there.

 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 a private social group," says Escoe. The only reason 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 first 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 downtown 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 forget 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’s 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 air play 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.

An entry in my journal inspired a memory in "A Million Tomorrows...Memories of the Class of '64" which described my final contact with Bradley's.

Friday, May 29, 1964

The dance at Bradley's was the last one I would attend before I graduated.  It was also the last one with my old group.  I was not the only one who would not be at future Friday nights at Bradley's.  There were others who would leave town for college, and there were those who would get married.  Bradley's would become a part of their past just as it would become a part of mine.

The swan song of dances for me featured my favorite Huntsville group, The Continentals.  They played the songs that would echo in my mind for months and years to come.  In the lonely days to follow, in my reflections, the music of the night would fill my mind.  The memories all came back.  Songs like "Talk to Me," "Sleepwalk," and others took me back into the arms of the girls and the times of Bradley's.

The Wayback Machine

The Dog

Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. 

Rufus Thomas had a hit with "The Dog", a song he had originally improvised in performance based on a Willie Mitchell bass line, complete with imitations of a barking dog. The 1963 follow-up, "Walking the Dog", engineered by Tom Dowd of Atlantic, became one of his most successful records, reaching #10 on the Billboard pop chart.

What is probably a repeat of other stories I have related in the past, this week's review of the nights at Bradley Cafeteria should bring back memories for many of my readers. Not everyone can relate to that place, just as many could not relate to skating at Carter's Skateland. Even if you are not one of the alumni of Bradley's Friday and Saturday night dances, perhaps you might still find it interesting. Those of us who did attend cannot help but think back to the dance partners we had and to some very special songs which will always remind us of that spot. 

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Barb Biggs Knott,  LHS ‘66, "Great memories of Carter's Skateland. My skates with pink pom poms brought me great joy and fun times. I loved the music they played and I enjoyed many great times there."

Barbara Seely Cooper, LHS ‘64, "Carter's Skateland was a place where my entire family skated.  Mom and Dad did very little of it, but my 2 sisters and I were there several nights a week.  Cindy was by far the best skater.  Donna was not even 5 years old so she learned by holding on to me or to Cindy. Dad, ever practical, bought me a very good set of skates, but 2 sizes larger so I could "grow into them."  Never did - had to wear 2 pairs of thick socks.  ( Today I wear a size 5 shoe.)

Tommy's photo of his skate case brought back memories of using several bottles of fingernail polish to decorate my case and also Cindy's. The worst fall I had, and I had some beauties, was when I was wearing my charm bracelet.  Some of the charms may still be in my palm from trying to catch myself.  My most spectacular fall was during a fast skate going backwards into the curve when a kid fell in front of me.  The wall and I had quite the encounter.  The owners flashed the lights to make sure everyone knew what happened.  I recall skating with Tommy as well as a guy who ended up taking me to the senior prom.  He was in the army stationed at the arsenal.  The rink was definitely a gathering place and was a big part of my high school life.  Thanks for the memories, T. Tommy."

Cecilia LeVanWatson, LHS ‘68, "I loved Carter's Skateland. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons I had to be there. Hokey Pokey, couples dance and the Limbo!! The music was always current and played loud. I had a few falls… poms poms on my skates and a tiny flashlight on the bottom."

Belinda Talley, HHS '69,  "Tommy, you excel at painting with words. Thank you for taking us back to the Sixties. Carter's Skateland rolls us into our past. I remember skating to "Red River Rock." We formed a chain of people, all holding hands. Whoa, unto the poor soul at the end. I once accepted that position, holding on for dear life. I wonder if they were trying to sling you into the concession stand."

Jeffrey Fussell, LHS '66, "Tommy, “Let Me In”  is the song that I most associate with the music at Carter’s Skateland.  That was the only place I recall having heard it. Must not have gotten much airplay on WAAY."

"Let Me In" is the name of a 1961 song with music and lyrics by Yvonne Baker, recorded by Baker and The Sensations, which went to No. 2 on the US R&B singles chart and No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was the group's highest charting and most successful single. "Let Me In" may be most memorable for its repetitive "weeoo" refrain in the chorus.