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13 SERVER August 14, 1981 A Journal of Free Voices 75 The Second Best Little Whorehouse In Texas By A. R. Babe Schwartz Galveston This is not really a story about a house of ill repute “for working girls.” It’s more of a tale about 25 years in a place where everybody hustles in different ways. One does not always get to know all the others in the Biblical sense, but one certainly learns about them in every other way. The Texas Capitol, built for habitation’ by giants, has always been oc w…% cupied by some giants and some pygmies. The giants who roam those grand chambers and halls are stars on stage. Like all stars, they are surrounded by groupies, and as is true for all groupies, the wish of the star is instantly met by individual groupies or by the whole group. There are the young groupies, and then there are the old ones, lobbyists of one brand name or another. I was a young groupie and later a star, and now I’m an old groupie. It that soothed the savage beast during the day, and at night it was country music. The members loved every minute of it. We could even work and Photo by Keith Dannemiller Sen. Babe Schwartz during 1979 session. “grade the silk” at the same time. \(Secretaries used to be permitted at Article on Texas Monthly a Factor? Houston City Editor Is Fired Houston After 19 months as editor of Houston City magazine, Tom Curtis has been fired. That much is certain. The tale that therein lies, however, may go on lying therein for some further time, although much that may have to do with the firing is public. Curtis has put out a good and serious city magazine. The first suspicion that must leap to one’s mind is that it has been too serious, for example, naming Houston’s worst corporate and public polluters, listing salaries of local corporate executives among others, exposing the sources of Houston’s cancer-causing air pollution, investigating the high cancer rate among workers at Dow Chemical in Freeport, calling for billboard control in the city, viewing askance the oil companies’ proposed superport off Galveston, and running down the Houston Chronicle as mediocre. Sarah Scott, a friend of Curtis’ and an attorney for progressive causes, believes Curtis is the best thing that has happened to progressive journalism in Houston and that this is why he has been cashiered despite the financial success of the magazine, which is reportedly just now turning into the black. Houston City is a property of Ray Hunt of the H. L. Hunt billionaire clan. The corporate owner is Hunt’s Southwest Media Corp., which publishes Houston City, D, Texas Homes, and the national Sport Magazine. Hunt’s man in the company is the president, Wick Allison. Ray Hunt himself is said to be a Republican, but not as hard-core a one as Reaganites prefer. The son of H. L. Hunt and his secretary, Ray Hunt is also the executor of the late billionaire’s estate. Curtis, burned, has been cautious about what he says. When KTRH called him about his being canned he said, “There are two kinds of editors at Houston City, those who have been fired and those who are going to be. I’m both . . . I suppose it’s an illustration of the Golden