[AGL] Kelso on Fletcher

[Gerry]

In 1977 Eddie had been canned at the Armadillo. The place was operating on
borrowed money and deeply in debt. The people who had put up the operating
expenses wanted some return on their investment...so they forced him out.

There was talk of opening a restaurant, Shrake was willing to finance the
opening, Lopez and Fletcher were up for running the place, but they were
dragging their feet. Eddie needed something to do so he found the location
on Sabine street and started the Raw Deal, started it in the face of their
inertia. He hired Galen to do the cooking and selected a menu that was all
meat and grease. One of his favorite quotes was, "Ain't no zucchini on the
menu!" The hash browns were as grease soaked as any in the free world.

Anyway, the place was a huge success. Sure enough, it became a hot spot. In
those days Eddie, Genie, and I were very close. I had recently returned from
8 years in the Bay Area and was looking for a gig. Eddie managed to get me
in the door at the Musician's union. (He had been elected president of that
august body--a very long story...) I hung out at the Raw Deal virtually
every day, plotting with Eddie and enjoying the camaraderie of the
alcoholics and heads of the contemporary Austin scene to which I had
returned.

But after a year or so Eddie began to see the potential of a real restaurant
and he was getting tired of the greasy grill and nightly drunks. Lopez and
Fletcher were still hanging out on the sidelines, bitching about him
stealing "their" idea. He finally found the old Threadgill's location and
decided that he could convert it into a restaurant with much more potential
than the Raw Deal. So, to everyone's surprise, he agreed to let Lopez and
Fletcher have the Raw Deal for a song. He had done all the heavy work and
all they had to do was continue his operation. Needless to say it worked and
over the years they put their stamp on the place. But make no mistake about
it, Eddie launched the Raw Deal and made it into a reality.

Over the years the Deal had several partners who helped finance its various
expansions. One of the first was Seegle Frye (sp?). He and Lopez and
Fletcher bought the old estate on Bee Cave Road where Doug Sahm was living.
It was a few acres with an old mansion, quite run down and badly in need of
a rehab. They had no funds for rehabilitating the place so they just sat on
it for a few years. When they sold it they made quite a bit of money, best
deal any of them had ever made, made them rich for a minute. Austin real
estate was very hot in those days. Fletcher used his profits to buy the
place in West Lake Hills that he and Libby lived in during the 1980's.
Seegle decided to open his own place and they bought him out. He opened
"Eats" on Bee Cave near South Lamar. Lopez, who had been the hands on
manager (Fletcher cooked), decided to take it easy. New partners at the Raw
Deal included Libby's father. Eventually they voted to make Fletcher the
hands on manager and Lopez "retired". He was still around on a daily basis
but no longer running the place. He and I were close friends and I got a
blow by blow account of the management decisions. He predicted that
Fletcher, his old friend since high school in Wichita Falls, would fail as
the manager.

Not to denigrate the recently departed but Fletcher really fucked the place
up. He did have the charm to be a compelling host but lacked the business
acumen to properly manage the staff and the finances. The accountant was
cooking the books, the bartenders were stealing, coke dealers were using the
place as a headquarters, etc. Ultimately it went broke. The crowning blow
was the discovery that he was hedging the employees withholding taxes and
using them for operating expenses until they, like the capital, were used
up. It is a wonder that he stayed out of jail. By then Libby had passed and
he was adrift, spending all his money and losing a lot of friends. Lopez
actually threatened to kill him but backed off and drank himself to death,
all his work at the Deal having gone up in flames.

I knew Fletcher for a long time, starting in 1965. He was a charming rogue
and had genuine creative ability. But he was not a business man and his
comic attempts to be one were his ultimate ruin. Friends got him a state job
after the Deal folded and he managed to survive although he also lost the
place in West Lake Hills where he had presided for years as an underground
hero. Yes, I loved the guy and am sorry to see him pass in such a tragic
manner. He will be remembered for the glory days when he was riding
high...won't we all.

End of story.
G



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fontaine Maverick" <fmaverick at austin.rr.com>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 6:03 AM
Subject: Re: [AGL] Kelso on Fletcher



> Eddie never let truth stand in the way of a good story.

>

> My husband John and I and Fletcher and Libby with our two little girls

went

> to Mexico- the Caribbean coast. Libby and I and the chiclets played on the

> beach and all of us took ferry rides, feasted on lobster while burying our

> feet in the soft sand, then went inland to spend the day at Chichenitza.

On

> the trip Fletcher talked about the Deal, which he was  to open when we

> returned.- and he talked like a man making all executive decisions. I

> remember asking him what he intended to serve and he told me "steaks,

chops,

> hamburgers - you know, drunk food." He may have bought it from Eddie, but

I

> don't really remember Eddie's presence at all. In my mind it was always:

> Fletcher=Raw Deal.

>

>

>

>

> ----- Original Message ----- 

> From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <mike.eisenstadt at gmail.com>

> To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"

> <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>

> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 5:43 AM

> Subject: Re: [AGL] Kelso on Fletcher

>

>

> >> Eddie Wilson, today the owner of Threadgill's restaurants in Austin,

sold

> > the original Raw Deal to Boone and Smitham in the summer of 1977. "I

sold

> > it

> > to them for it seems like $750, and I let em pay it out $50 a week," he

> > recalled.

> >

> >> Wilson says it was ironic that before he had sold the place to Boone,

he

> > had thrown Boone out of the place "for overbearing loud intellectual

> > conversations with Jim Smitham."

> >

> > That's not the story of the bar's origin that Fletcher told me

poisonally.

> > According to Fletcher, the bar was available to be rented with all its

> > facilities for a modest price, something under $200 a month. This was

the

> > bar on Sabine St. Fletcher originally wanted to set it up as a private

> > club

> > with 10 members or so to pay the rent.  But he couldn't find 10 that

> > wanted

> > to. Around this time, Eddy was fired from his position as manager of the

> > Armadillo World Headquarters and Fletcher gave the bar to Eddy to run. I

> > remember the Armadillo ad on the radio at that time with the throwaway

> > line

> > 'Yes Eddie there is life after the Armadillo.'

> >

> > When Fletcher got fired from his job at the paint store (they closed the

> > fine arts department of the store), he and Smitham took over the bar.

> >

> > Fletcher was NEVER boisterous so Eddie's story that he threw Fletcher

out

> > seems farfetched. Fletcher had enormous gravitas and presence and I

can't

> > conceive of Eddie running Fletcher off or even thinking to do so.

> >

> >

>

>