I grew up in Seabrook Texas in the 1970's. I got my drivers license at 16 and drove many many beach trips to Galveston. I remember driving by all the places in the photos. The Poop deck with the statue of liberty on the balcony and Guido's Big crab on the roof. That was just how it looked when you drove by it on Seawall Blvd. Thank you for posting Great memories.
I grew up in Galveston in the same time frame and there is one thing about the island that never changes and that is we lose some place from our youth and our memories of it every time a hurricane comes through.
@@skybarwisdom thats so true. Growing up as a Houstonian I had an appreciation for Galveston until I was an adult and visited other beaches. I came to see Galveston as "dirty" and all of the other nonsense people typically say about the town. Only recently have I REALLY started to appreciate the area and the role it's played in not only Texas history, but AMERICAN history. From June teeth, to all of the WW2 military installations throughout the area. It's truly fascinating. My best friends mom grew up there and I never understood her praise of the area until now. Watching this video, helps me see what she saw. Things we have trouble imagining today. We would do right by teaching our youth to practice pausing and appreciating all of the things that came before them.
My grandpa would bring the whole family❤❤❤❤❤ to Galveston damn near every weekend, he was an avid fisherman 🎣, he loved Seawolf Park and he would wade fish , he has since passed 😢😢
This was an outstanding trip down memory lane thank you so much.... I lived in and around houston, but spent many days at galveston in the 70's and 80's SOooo remember the poop deck.and the balinese.
Every summer from 1963-1969 my family would vacation in Galveston. We always stayed at the Galvez. We lived in Fort Worth. We stopped going after my father died in 1969. I took my family there once in 2001. Stayed at the Galvez. Ate at the Balinese. Probably changed a lot in 24 years . Maybe us empty nesters should take a trip down there after the battle ship Texas is opened
It has changed a lot, especially on the seawall where the hurricanes do the most damage. Those who love Galveston lose some place from their youth every time a hurricane comes through.
My sister worked there in the mid 70s and I had to take her after school and pick her up after work as well. We lived on 66th and Broadway so it was a nice round trip.
Thanks for the video, I grew up in Houston in the 70s and remember these places very well. That one hotel you were asking for the name of was called the Seahorse Inn. My wife and I stayed there once before they tore it down. Thanks for the memories..
It’s cool to see places my parents talked about (like the Bamboo Hut) and places I vaguely remember from the 80s. A little mind-blowing to see so many ppl just wearing jeans in the summer. Thanks for this vid!
Eibands in Galvez Mall used to be Woolco, the department store subsidiary of Woolworth. Eibands relocated from downtown after the entire Woolco chain shut down. The departure of Sears for Mall of the Mainland in Texas City turned out to be the death kneel for Galvez Mall.
I worked at Woolco for a couple of weeks at the grill (was it called the "Red Grille") as a teen before I got a job as a busboy at Dennys which was located in front of the Galvez Mall.
Thanks for mentioning KILE in the basement of the Galvez. My dad was one of the DJs in the early '70s. Some of my earliest memories are being there and wandering around while dad was on the air. I made a wrong turn a few times and ended up in the lobby. Whoops!
I remember falling asleep listening to those great 70s tunes on the radio he played for us. Good Times. Here are a few of them; ua-cam.com/play/PLzVaQ-AnJ9BNxuVBmaoC8YblFU44mwnNY.html
i heard the band ZZ TOP played at the balinese room in the 1960s. i remember my wife and little daughter staying at the commodore about 1979 , while on vacation there. i bought a cassette of the BOOGIE KINGS about 25 years ago, that was recorded live at the bamboo hut, i think that is right ? well that was a long time ago, and i could be mistaken. i miss the colonel b///// ?, where you walked down into a basement and he was selling war or military clothing, helmets , flags and nick nacks for the kids. i know my kids enjoyed it. sadly , it is no longer there.
That was the Colonel Bubbies military surplus on the Strand that you're reminiscing about. Do you remember if Commodore Hotel have a lounge on the second floor that had a balcony to sit on for guests that were staying there or off the street were welcome as well?
Lots of iconic shots and good memories; still, hardly scratched the surface on all the interesting things and historic places on Galveston island !!!❤❤
Yea, the new owners recently returned it to the original color after the latest rehabilitation and name change 'Grand Galvez'. It was white in the 70s I believe.
I was a busboy in the mid 70s during high school and those waiters back then were pure professionals. I also stayed on the island during Alicia and that was the last hurricane I stayed on the island for, after that I would ride them out at my mom's house in south Houston off of Fuqua.
This was super entertaining and interesting. I attended TAMUG for undergrad when Ike hit, and then received my masters from TAMUG in 2023. Galveston has such a special place in my heart. There’s just something about it that attracts me to it. I really hope to live there again one of these days. Thanks for sharing this!
I was stationed at Surfside Beach Tx in the mid 70's but I would go up coast to Galveston quite often to the Coast Guard base and tried to arrange my visits so I could spend some off time there. I remember a lot of the locations shown here.
The saucer shaped Lounge... That was the Seahorse hotel it was 34th and sea wall. Thanks for the photos I lived on 34th and R 1/2 as a kid you brought back some many memories. I loved going to the Galvez Mall on Sundays with my mother and aunt. We would eat at Wyatt's and I would go to the arcade after.
Thanks for clearing that up, brother. I lived right next to the mall behind my dad's Hudson gas station. I bet you went to the movies at the mall as well before or after playing video games at Aladdin's Castle.
Third generation BOI, raised in "Fish Village.". Sears didn't close up until the 1980's because I worked loss prevention there in '81 and into '82. Ft. Crockett gun emplacement was at one time The Snake Pit, but that may have closed in '69, I don't remember. I remember in the late 50's early 60's, local kids would ride their bikes down the sides of the hill covering the emplacement, and many would slide down the resulting trails the bikes made, on sheets of cardboard. Look out for the cactus though. The Flagship Hotel might have leaked a bit of rain, but it never got "flooded" by gulf waters. The UFO shaped building on the north end of that pier (in one of your pictures) was at one time KUFO radio station. I remember that pier when it was "The Pleasure Pier" - the first time. Parts of it were featured on an episode of the 60's TV show "Route 66," in the episode "Narcissus on an Old Red Fire Engine" from season 3. I got to go to the Balinese Room twice when it was a buffet dinner and theater in the mid 70's. The original owner of Gaido's was my 1 cousin twice removed (if I did that right). Lots of good memories of eating there. Hill's was more affordable though, and the food was acceptable. Pier 23 was, at one time in my youth, "The Golden Greek" owned by Paul Santire As a Steamship Agent, my boss in the 70's used to take me to Pier 23 to "drink" our lunch. They had an excellent sampler platter. The "saucer shaped lounge" was the Seahorse Motel office, with a restaurant or coffee shop down stairs. It was also featured in that episode of Route 66, with Alan Hale Jr. (The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) in a scene there. Don't remember a game room in Pier 23, but I played a lot of pinball and foos ball in the game room at The Pier Drive in on the corner of 25th & Seawall. Ate lunch a lot at The Pier too in the early 70's with my high school buddies. Hawkins Cottages sponsored a little league team at the Lindale Park ball field, and I only went in them one time to meet visiting family. The Poop Deck was in an episode of "Walker Texas Ranger." The Bamboo Hut was the original name, but over time, the folks that went there started referring to it as "the Hut" to sound cooler I guess. It was in competition with the Grass Menagerie a play of the name of the play and movie "The Glass Menagerie". When I was young, dad bought us a membership to the Jack Tar pool. FUN. I also mis-spent my early adulthood in the disco they had near the pool, and later where the old cafeteria used to be. The old IQ, where in the 70's i bought my "Bon Gusto" cigars. The Martini Theater where my high school girlfriend worked. Got to see a lot of movies for free about that time. One of them was "Willard." I remember seeing stuff as far back as Disney's "The Jungle Book" at the Broadway Theater. The palms trees that were painted on the walls of the inside of the theater made it a great place for a kid to watch that movie. Lots of memories in this video. Thanks.
I used to go to that disco at Jack Tar as well, good times. The Hotel Galvez used to have a disco in the east wing where the Terrace Ball Room/Veranda are, it was one of our stops as well as the Seahorse lounge/disco along the beach and then on to another around UTMB. I also worked at Guidos as a busboy at night before graduating from Ball High. The Bamboo Hut was on the beach because my sister used to hang out there before it was taken out by hurricane Alicia possibly. We watched Bruce Lee movies at the Martini and State (now Grand Opera House) theatre. Thanks for your insight.
I am 58, I feel fortunate to have grown up so free. Sadly, my grandkids will never experience the absolute freedoms we had. Galveston was a blast. These days the Popo is so bad no one I know goes to Galveston. You never know when you'll get the ride.
They might have sustained too much damage by one of the frequent hurricanes that have come through and the owners decided to not rebuild or for economic reasons, that happens a lot along the gulf coast.
I grew up in Seabrook Texas in the 1970's. I got my drivers license at 16 and drove many many beach trips to Galveston. I remember driving by all the places in the photos. The Poop deck with the statue of liberty on the balcony and Guido's Big crab on the roof. That was just how it looked when you drove by it on Seawall Blvd. Thank you for posting Great memories.
This was awesome! I was born and raised in Galveston, thanks for taking the time to put this together.
Those single headlight Pontiac firebirds are awesome!…….Those are so valuable today .
I grew up in Galveston in the 70's and 80's. Alot of these places are no longer here. I just want to say thank you for the memories.
I grew up in Galveston in the same time frame and there is one thing about the island that never changes and that is we lose some place from our youth and our memories of it every time a hurricane comes through.
@@skybarwisdom thats so true. Growing up as a Houstonian I had an appreciation for Galveston until I was an adult and visited other beaches. I came to see Galveston as "dirty" and all of the other nonsense people typically say about the town. Only recently have I REALLY started to appreciate the area and the role it's played in not only Texas history, but AMERICAN history. From June teeth, to all of the WW2 military installations throughout the area. It's truly fascinating. My best friends mom grew up there and I never understood her praise of the area until now. Watching this video, helps me see what she saw. Things we have trouble imagining today. We would do right by teaching our youth to practice pausing and appreciating all of the things that came before them.
My grandpa would bring the whole family❤❤❤❤❤ to Galveston damn near every weekend, he was an avid fisherman 🎣, he loved Seawolf Park and he would wade fish , he has since passed 😢😢
This was fantastic!! Thank you so much!!So many memories, just want to go back ASAP!
Absolutely gorgeous photo at the 5:42 mark.
This was an outstanding trip down memory lane thank you so much.... I lived in and around houston, but spent many days at galveston in the 70's and 80's SOooo remember the poop deck.and the balinese.
Every summer from 1963-1969 my family would vacation in Galveston. We always stayed at the Galvez. We lived in Fort Worth. We stopped going after my father died in 1969. I took my family there once in 2001. Stayed at the Galvez. Ate at the Balinese. Probably changed a lot in 24 years . Maybe us empty nesters should take a trip down there after the battle ship Texas is opened
It has changed a lot, especially on the seawall where the hurricanes do the most damage. Those who love Galveston lose some place from their youth every time a hurricane comes through.
My family owned burger chef on 12th and seawall
My sister worked there in the mid 70s and I had to take her after school and pick her up after work as well. We lived on 66th and Broadway so it was a nice round trip.
Thanks for the video, I grew up in Houston in the 70s and remember these places very well. That one hotel you were asking for the name of was called the Seahorse Inn. My wife and I stayed there once before they tore it down.
Thanks for the memories..
Thanks for the info, appreciated.
You are correct. Seahorse Inn
We t 2,Galveston almost every weekend in the 70.s Great place❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
It’s cool to see places my parents talked about (like the Bamboo Hut) and places I vaguely remember from the 80s. A little mind-blowing to see so many ppl just wearing jeans in the summer. Thanks for this vid!
Eibands in Galvez Mall used to be Woolco, the department store subsidiary of Woolworth. Eibands relocated from downtown after the entire Woolco chain shut down. The departure of Sears for Mall of the Mainland in Texas City turned out to be the death kneel for Galvez Mall.
I worked at Woolco for a couple of weeks at the grill (was it called the "Red Grille") as a teen before I got a job as a busboy at Dennys which was located in front of the Galvez Mall.
@@skybarwisdom Yes it was the Red Grille. I have a cup from there and Woolworth's Harvest House.
Thanks for mentioning KILE in the basement of the Galvez. My dad was one of the DJs in the early '70s. Some of my earliest memories are being there and wandering around while dad was on the air. I made a wrong turn a few times and ended up in the lobby. Whoops!
I remember falling asleep listening to those great 70s tunes on the radio he played for us. Good Times.
Here are a few of them; ua-cam.com/play/PLzVaQ-AnJ9BNxuVBmaoC8YblFU44mwnNY.html
i heard the band ZZ TOP played at the balinese room in the 1960s. i remember my wife and little daughter staying at the commodore about 1979 , while on vacation there. i bought a cassette of the BOOGIE KINGS about 25 years ago, that was recorded live at the bamboo hut, i think that is right ? well that was a long time ago, and i could be mistaken. i miss the colonel b///// ?, where you walked down into a basement and he was selling war or military clothing, helmets , flags and nick nacks for the kids. i know my kids enjoyed it. sadly , it is no longer there.
That was the Colonel Bubbies military surplus on the Strand that you're reminiscing about. Do you remember if Commodore Hotel have a lounge on the second floor that had a balcony to sit on for guests that were staying there or off the street were welcome as well?
Colonel Bubbas was on 23rd & The Strand. Got closed after hurricane Ike, 2008
@@skybarwisdomChez Joey
@@juantrevino8608 That's it. He had another club on University Blvd I believe but not sure of the name of it now.
@@skybarwisdom Was it the Sampan Club?
That hotel got decimated in 08 during Ike. RIP water front icon...
Lots of iconic shots and good memories; still, hardly scratched the surface on all the interesting things and historic places on Galveston island !!!❤❤
I purchased two of my first ever suits at Eibands!
I’m from Port Arthur, I remember going to Galveston on field trips, and playing against Bishop O’Connel high in sports
Remember Sambo's restaurant I think it was on Broadway?
I remember the Denny's on Broadway in front of the Galvez Mall (65th and Broadway). I don't remember a Sambo's except the one in Pasadena and Houston.
@@skybarwisdom ok maybe it was Dennys
The Hotel Galvez was pink at one time? It still is.
Yea, the new owners recently returned it to the original color after the latest rehabilitation and name change 'Grand Galvez'. It was white in the 70s I believe.
My dad waited tables at Gaido's and played the clubs on the island in the mid 70's. He stayed through Hurricane Alishia in 83.
I was a busboy in the mid 70s during high school and those waiters back then were pure professionals. I also stayed on the island during Alicia and that was the last hurricane I stayed on the island for, after that I would ride them out at my mom's house in south Houston off of Fuqua.
This was super entertaining and interesting. I attended TAMUG for undergrad when Ike hit, and then received my masters from TAMUG in 2023. Galveston has such a special place in my heart. There’s just something about it that attracts me to it. I really hope to live there again one of these days. Thanks for sharing this!
I was stationed at Surfside Beach Tx in the mid 70's but I would go up coast to Galveston quite often to the Coast Guard base and tried to arrange my visits so I could spend some off time there. I remember a lot of the locations shown here.
Back when it was cool to be sexy, have fun and enjoy life ……fantastic!
Galveston was so much better in the 60s and 70s
Even into the early 80's.
The saucer shaped Lounge... That was the Seahorse hotel it was 34th and sea wall. Thanks for the photos I lived on 34th and R 1/2 as a kid you brought back some many memories. I loved going to the Galvez Mall on Sundays with my mother and aunt. We would eat at Wyatt's and I would go to the arcade after.
Thanks for clearing that up, brother. I lived right next to the mall behind my dad's Hudson gas station. I bet you went to the movies at the mall as well before or after playing video games at Aladdin's Castle.
Third generation BOI, raised in "Fish Village.". Sears didn't close up until the 1980's because I worked loss prevention there in '81 and into '82. Ft. Crockett gun emplacement was at one time The Snake Pit, but that may have closed in '69, I don't remember. I remember in the late 50's early 60's, local kids would ride their bikes down the sides of the hill covering the emplacement, and many would slide down the resulting trails the bikes made, on sheets of cardboard. Look out for the cactus though. The Flagship Hotel might have leaked a bit of rain, but it never got "flooded" by gulf waters. The UFO shaped building on the north end of that pier (in one of your pictures) was at one time KUFO radio station. I remember that pier when it was "The Pleasure Pier" - the first time. Parts of it were featured on an episode of the 60's TV show "Route 66," in the episode "Narcissus on an Old Red Fire Engine" from season 3. I got to go to the Balinese Room twice when it was a buffet dinner and theater in the mid 70's. The original owner of Gaido's was my 1 cousin twice removed (if I did that right). Lots of good memories of eating there. Hill's was more affordable though, and the food was acceptable. Pier 23 was, at one time in my youth, "The Golden Greek" owned by Paul Santire As a Steamship Agent, my boss in the 70's used to take me to Pier 23 to "drink" our lunch. They had an excellent sampler platter. The "saucer shaped lounge" was the Seahorse Motel office, with a restaurant or coffee shop down stairs. It was also featured in that episode of Route 66, with Alan Hale Jr. (The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) in a scene there. Don't remember a game room in Pier 23, but I played a lot of pinball and foos ball in the game room at The Pier Drive in on the corner of 25th & Seawall. Ate lunch a lot at The Pier too in the early 70's with my high school buddies. Hawkins Cottages sponsored a little league team at the Lindale Park ball field, and I only went in them one time to meet visiting family. The Poop Deck was in an episode of "Walker Texas Ranger." The Bamboo Hut was the original name, but over time, the folks that went there started referring to it as "the Hut" to sound cooler I guess. It was in competition with the Grass Menagerie a play of the name of the play and movie "The Glass Menagerie". When I was young, dad bought us a membership to the Jack Tar pool. FUN. I also mis-spent my early adulthood in the disco they had near the pool, and later where the old cafeteria used to be. The old IQ, where in the 70's i bought my "Bon Gusto" cigars. The Martini Theater where my high school girlfriend worked. Got to see a lot of movies for free about that time. One of them was "Willard." I remember seeing stuff as far back as Disney's "The Jungle Book" at the Broadway Theater. The palms trees that were painted on the walls of the inside of the theater made it a great place for a kid to watch that movie. Lots of memories in this video. Thanks.
I used to go to that disco at Jack Tar as well, good times. The Hotel Galvez used to have a disco in the east wing where the Terrace Ball Room/Veranda are, it was one of our stops as well as the Seahorse lounge/disco along the beach and then on to another around UTMB. I also worked at Guidos as a busboy at night before graduating from Ball High. The Bamboo Hut was on the beach because my sister used to hang out there before it was taken out by hurricane Alicia possibly. We watched Bruce Lee movies at the Martini and State (now Grand Opera House) theatre. Thanks for your insight.
There was a 7-Eleven store on 28th and Seawall, but I think the one pictures is the store on 37th Street behind Gaido's Motel.
I am 58, I feel fortunate to have grown up so free. Sadly, my grandkids will never experience the absolute freedoms we had. Galveston was a blast. These days the Popo is so bad no one I know goes to Galveston. You never know when you'll get the ride.
I loved the Balinese Room!
Looks good to me, thanks
that was the seahorse inn i think!!!
That's my mother in the white bathing suits at the Jack tar Hotel
Music is monotonous and this video is rife with images that are clearly not from the 70s.
Yea, some are from the 60s but the places where still there in the 70s as we Galvestonians all know. Thanks for watching.
I worked at JoJo's as a dishwasher in 1978 😊
1984..tc thrillers beat the cobras
All those shots of Galves Mall are REDICULOUS.. There are far far far better thing to show !!!
Yea, I spent so much time there as a teen in the 70s I had to do it.
Man what a non rhythmic drum beat
omg theres an alfies fish n chips!!!
wow i just looked up jojo's and there isn't hardly any info on why they closed down!!!
They might have sustained too much damage by one of the frequent hurricanes that have come through and the owners decided to not rebuild or for economic reasons, that happens a lot along the gulf coast.