Skyline Club - a little bit of nearby history

I stumbled across a Facebook page called "Traces of Texas" the other day. A fellow Austinite posts historical Texana pictures and stories on a regular basis and if you are fascinated by that sort of thing, like I am, you may want to follow that link to his page and "like" it so that you can see all of his posts.

The author of this page used to have a blog, as well, but he hasn't posted anything in a couple of years. However, one of his old posts mentioned the Skyline Club, and that resonated with me.

When we moved to Austin the Skyline Club was alive and well, located on the corner of Braker and North Lamar, just 2 miles from our house. It was a low-slung, run-down accumulation of structures that didn't look like much, but it sure could draw a crowd. - on "10 Cent Beer Night"  the  dirt parking lot couldn't hold all the cars and people would park all along North Lamar for miles (Braker did not continue  east of that intersection at the time).

The reason for the crowds was that everybody who was anybody in the country and western world played the Skyline; Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, of course Willy Nelson, Ray Price, Marty Robbins and a bunch of folks from the Grand Ol' Opry. My friend Elvis even performed there in 1955.

When all this started - in 1947 - the Skyline Club was miles past the Austin City Limits, on what was then known as the Dallas Highway. The Skyline stayed in business until 1977, when the owner's declining health precipitated a sale and a name change to Soap Creek Saloon. Under that name it hung on for a few more years and even embraced Rock and Punk music, but in the '80s it closed for good. Today a CVS Pharmacy stands on that corner.

There's a bit more history that really stands out. In December, 1952, Hank Williams played a show at the Skyline, in a manner of speaking. He was so into pain killers and the bottle at that time that he only performed one of three scheduled sets. He went back to Montgomery to recuperate for a couple of weeks and died of heart failure in the back seat of his Cadillac on New Year's Day, en-route to a gig in Canton, Ohio. His short set at the Skyline was his last.

Like Hank Williams, Johnny Horton's last ever appearance was also a show at the Skyline Club, on November 4, 1960.  He was killed later that night driving to Shreveport in a head on collision with a truck driven by a drunk driver. In another little twist of the story, Johnny was married at the time to Hank Williams' widow.

I thought about the Skyline Club the other day while I was waiting for a prescription at that CVS. I wondered if, late at night, one might hear faint music on that spot? Or the sounds of boots scootin' on a wooden dance floor? Just a thought.