Snack Wagon

by Randy Welborn

Title

Snack Wagon

Artist

Randy Welborn

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Panel

Description

For more than 43 years, the "Snack Wagon" stood on the southwest corner of the Allright Parking Lot at Pearl and Liberty in Beaumont, Texas. It opened in Oct. 1949 and closed Dec. 1st, 1992.

For most of those years, Mr. Roy H. Towell, Jr. and his wife, Juanita personally served up the "Best HOTDOGS" in town as well as an assortment of other "goodies" from frozen custard to hot peanuts.

This scene depicts the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 17th, 1956, a rather "historic" day in Beaumont! Appearing at the City Auditorium with other Grand Ole Opry stars was RCA's newest "singing sensation," Elvis Presley! (tickets: $1)

Folks are grabbing a bite to eat before taking in the live show, or perhaps heading for the People's Theatre, where the double feature is "It Came from Beneath the Sea!" and "Creature with the Atomic Brain!"

Notes from the artist:

Since I want my nostalgic 50s era paintings to be authentic in every detail - depicting the theatres, diners and drive-ins in my home town of Beaumont Texas, I often tell folks "if you see Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, or James Dean in one of my paintings ... it's because they were there that day! Well, Elvis may not have been in the phone booth, as in this scene, but he was in town.

The classic diner car with the Pepsi and Seaport Coffee signs, the hot dogs, popcorn, and fresh roasted peanuts were a mainstay of the Americana for over 30 years.

the Snack Wagon was a favorite lunch spot for downtown Beaumont workers from the Beaumont Enterprise, Gulf Status Utilities and Southwestern Bell Telephone.

Classic cars in the scene include a '56 Olds, and on the left, Elvis' '55 pink Cadillac and of course my 1941 Cadillac Series 75 Limosine ...with a parking ticket on the windshield wiper!

That's me making hamburgers on the stainless steel grill ...

Uploaded

March 23rd, 2018

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