Another anniversary to note: 40 years ago this week, the "Chicken Ranch" in LaGrange was exposed by Action 13's Marvin Zindler on tv station KTRK in Houston. For newscomers, it was a house of ill-repute in the small Texas town you might know from a ZZTop song or perhaps from the award winning musical tune...."Texas Has a Whorehouse In It".
It strikes me on so many levels. I grew up 30 miles away and knew some of the patrons. Locals didn't like that tv man from Houston messing with an institution. I caught some flak when I ended up working with Marvin 3 years later. And it was a mark of pride for Hallettsville, when the movie based on the award-winning musical was filmed there. Marvin shared a lot of insights with me over the course of our 30 year friendship...amazingly, even talking to me about the Chicken Ranch the day before he died...but that's another story.