Respect earned
Astros, the arts
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I worked at the Houston Chamber of Commerce. Marvin Hurley was head of the Chamber; Charles Lansden headed Cultural Affairs. I mention this because the Astros’ win is being smiled upon with grateful appreciation by Houston business and arts people of that period.
At that time, the Chamber was trying to get the nation to see Houston as a city equal to the old, large cities of America. Where we were weakest was in the arts. Through tireless efforts of some illustrious Houstonians (Robert Herring, Lawrence Marcus, Bob Sakowitz, Ima Hogg, Ben Love, Gus Wortham, Ben Woodson, Dominique de Menil, and many more) the symphony, grand opera, theaters and art museums were strengthened to what they are today.
With the willingness to contribute whatever sums were needed, Houston attracted some of the world’s top talent to fulfill that objective. As I recall, Sir John Barbirolli of the London Philharmonic became conductor of the Houston Symphony; Guy Philippe de Montebello came from Paris to head the Museum of Fine Arts; Sebastian Adler was hired to head the newly built Contemporary Arts Museum; David Gockley came from NYC’s Metropolitan Opera to manage Houston’s Grand Opera, etc. Money was raised to build Jones Hall, Alley Theater, Rothko Chapel, Wortham Hall, and others. The newspapers hired leading art critics from other cites to move to Houston and write for the Chronicle and Post.
Sadly, money, buildings and art critics were not enough to raise the nation’s recognition of Houston to equivalency level with New York, Chicago and Los Angeles as was hoped. The city suffered slights from the traditional arts communities as they still viewed Houston as a second-rate cultural town. We who worked on these matters learned that such respect from the nation and the art world would take years.
Although the World Series victory is in sports and not the arts, it still helps in finally achieving the goal of those people mentioned above. On behalf of them, I offer thanks to the Astros’ management and players. In beating two of the most storied baseball teams — New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers — Houston gains respect from all Americans as one of our nation’s great cities and what it has to offer its citizens — including the arts. David R. Bickel, Emmitsburg, Md.