Prom Night - Vic and Al's

by Randy Welborn

Title

Prom Night - Vic and Al's

Artist

Randy Welborn

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Panel

Description

In the fifties, taking a date out for "fine dining" wasn't easy in small town America. There were plenty of hamburger joints, but no Olive Gardens or Outback Steakhouses. In Beaumont Texas however, "THE PLACE" to go was Vic & Al's.

In 1948, Vic Patrizi opened a frozen custard stand on the traffic circle at College & 11th Street. Vic's brother Al joined him and in 1958 the full-fledged restaurant introduced pizza to the area as well as other great Italian dishes like lasagna.

This scene depicts prom night and one adventurous couple has just arrived on a brand new Harley-Davidson. A unique feature of Vic & Al's was the wall covered with autographed celebrity photos, such as Vincent Price who starred that year in the classic horror flick, The Fly.

Notes from the artist:

All of the classic cars in this were rendered using my 1/18 scale die-case models. There's a '58 Pontiac Bonneville, '56 Chrysler Imperial, '58 Edsel and a '57 Studibaker Golden Hawk, which had 150 MPH on the speedometer ... and could do it!

I did meticulous research to get every detail accurate on the '58 Harley Duo-Glide

Viewer Comments:

"Thanks for the memories. My father, Al Patrizi, is in a nursing home here in Austin and has Alzheimer's disease. He is still warm, funny and the same ol' cutup he has always been. I can't wait to show him this wonderful drawing, and possibly hang it in his room to enjoy."
-- Cindy L. Patrizi

Uploaded

March 23rd, 2018

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