Stories from the Hunter S. Thompson of Texas

The exploits and irreverence of Gary Cartwright's larger-than-life persona has led some to compare him to gonzo god Hunter S. Thompson. The comparison is apt, but Cartwright's fully-lived life seems less dogged by self-loathing. In his new memoir, The Best I Recall, the Texas journalist saunters through his wild years and arrives at a wisdom earned not just from befriending strippers, dope fiends, inmates, and politicians, but from harrowing heart surgery and losing his son, two wives, and a handful of friends to cancer.

There are laugh-out-loud moments, eloquent passages on

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friendship and grief, and the kind of you-can't-make-this-up stories your wild uncle might come up with if he had run-ins with the likes of Jack Ruby and Dennis Hopper. Here are a couple of the things you'll learn from reading The Best I Recall.

Come see Gary Cartwright himself this Saturday at Austin's historic Scholtz Garten on San Jacinto. Gary will be signing copies of his book from 3 to 5pm.

You Could Get Away With Some Stuff in 1970s Mexico

Some of Cartwright's exploits read like the plot of Argo but with much-mitigated consequences and more drug-fueled decision making. Cartwright and his "soul mate" writer Bud Shrake filmed a movie in Durango starring Dennis Hopper (Kid Blue, 1973). Before they got to the set, this happened:

We crossed into Mexico at Eagle Pass, where I convinced an overly diligent Mexican customs agent who was about to refuse Pete entrance because of his long hair that we were filming a movie about Jesus. Pete had been obliged to grow the facial hair, I explained to the confused customs agent, in order to convincingly portray the role of Our Savior.

On the same film shoot, the eccentric director made up his own rules for helming a feature film production. Cartwright recalls, "When his mostly British camera crew complained of fatigue and heat exhaustion, Marvin [Schwartz] laced their cocoa with amphetamines." Now that's problem-solving.

Top 25 Moments for Women in Texas History

Certainly the most recognizable female Texas governor (there have been only two), Ann Richards began her political career during a very exciting time in Texas and US history. Now in paperback, the award-winning Let the People In by Jan Reid situates Gov. Richards in this lively political period. Because of her influence, personality, and the fact there hasn’t been a Democrat in the Texas governor’s mansion for the last eighteen years, people continue to talk about her life and political career. Most recently, the media recalled Gov. Richards and her politics—especially her work with Sarah Weddington who successfully argued Roe vs. Wade in the Supreme Court in 1973—as Texas State Senator Wendy Davis undertook her marathon filibuster in the Texas legislature earlier this year.

To celebrate the paperback edition, we’ve rounded up twenty-five key moments of women in Texas politics. We would like to thank the Ruthe Winegarten Memorial Foundation for Texas Women’s History for compiling an extensive timeline of historical moments for Texas women on their website, womenintexashistory.org.

Watch the progression of women in Texas over the course of roughly 1,313 years.

1
Circa 700: Some women of the Caddo tribe, in present-day east and northeast Texas, become priest-chiefs (xinesí), thus possessing religious and political authority. Read more about the Caddo tribe in The Caddo Nation.

'Kaw-u-tz (Cado)'via Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library
digitalcollections.smu.edu/u?/wes,539

2

Circa 1686: The Caddo tribe elects a woman chief.

3

1731: Women are among the 56 Canary Islanders who establish first permanent civilian settlement in San Antonio. María Robaina Betancour is a leader of the settlement.

4

1872: Martha Bickler, a clerk for the General Land Office, is the first female state employee.

5

1902: Mrs. L. P. Carlisle becomes the first woman office holder in Texas, appointed to succeed her husband as Hunt County Clerk.

6
1912: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, tours Texas and revives interest in woman suffrage. As a result, local suffrage leagues form in Houston, Galveston, Dallas, and San Antonio. (Austin had formed one in 1908).

7

1913: Texas suffragists hold their first state convention. Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio is elected state president and revitalizes the Texas Woman Suffrage Association, which grows to 2,500 members in one year.

8
1919-20: Black women vote for the first time in Texas. Three Houston women run for office on the "Black and Tan" ticket of the Republican Party (state representative, Harris County clerk, and school superintendent). Mrs. R. L. Yocome, unsuccessful candidate for state representative, may be first Texas woman to run for a legislative position.

9
1924: Miriam A. Ferguson, running on an anti-Ku Klux Klan ticket, is the first woman elected Governor of Texas. She drives an anti-mask bill through the legislature to combat Klan practices.

Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson (1875 - 1961)

Politics as Usual – A Texas Legacy

Patrick Cox, Ph.D., is the author or co-editor of five UT Press books, including most recently Writing the Story of Texas, and former assistant director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the university. Sparked by last week’s events, here he takes a look at the recent history of Texas politics. 

'Politics as Usual – A Texas Legacy'

By Patrick Cox

Above: Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, speaks to her supporters. Photo by Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune.

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis of Fort Worth rose to national attention last week with her eleven-hour filibuster of an anti-abortion bill and Governor Rick Perry's subsequent personal attack. Texas politics and politicians have always been a source of amazement, entertainment, disbelief (they really said that?), and provocation. Sam Rayburn once said that all politics is local, but Texans often seem to find their way onto a larger stage and into political lore in memorable fashion.

One old saying compares the practice of the art of public speaking in Texas to a Longhorn: there should be two good points, but far apart, with a lot of bull in between. Noah Smithwick, a critical observer of Texas during the years of the Republic and early statehood, described the attributes and shortcomings of Sam Houston in his memoir, The Evolution of a State, or Recollections of Old Texas Days: “Though his peculiar bent did not incline toward the founding of a nation, every instinct of his nature prompted him to resistance when the life and liberties of the nation were threatened.”

One may wonder about the theory of evolution when we move from Sam Houston to Texas in the twentieth century. In retrospect, it is somewhat incomprehensible that we would have had the theatrics the entire nation witnessed in the Senate with either lieutenant governor Bob Bullock or Bill Hobby presiding. As for the governor and other elected officials making ill-advised and misguided statements, we do have many examples in our history.

When it comes to women, Texas governors have demonstrated a proclivity for inserting the proverbial foot in the mouth; consult The Power of the Texas Governor for many illustrations. Governor Bill Clements made one such cardinal mistake in his 1982 reelection campaign against Attorney General Mark White. When asked about appointing a member of a minority or a woman to the Public Utility Commission, Governor Clements responded that he did not know of any housewife qualified for the regulatory board. To compound the governor’s problems, White’s campaign changed “housewife” to “woman.”