Off Course Caddie

[STUPID BOB]

Leo Teel is a legend. Talk around here has it that Willie took Leo's voice and made money with it. I know it's true.

Leo is an old timer. Even Elvis passed through his life on occasion. Leo liked it when Elvis left the building. It got quieter.

Dolly writes him about mundane things and George Jones invited him to his wedding. George kicked him out when Leo called him Dewey. George hated Dewey. It was ok with Leo. He hated weddings.

Leo had the best dance band around Big D in the 50's, and 60's. When local hero and pro golfer Don January asked him to bring his band to his new aquisition (now the Lakewood Theater), Leo gathered his hired guns around, told them about the gig, and hinted it was a problem.

He said, "Don's gone round the dogleg, fella's. He's gone and put good money into a room and it's takin' him off the fairway. We need to help him remember who he is. Here's what we're gonna do . . ."

Don opened the place with great fanfare. Lots of putters at the door. Drivers laid across the seats in droves. That was a spectacle in itself.

Golfing illuminaries were there with their wives and all the local duffers that managed a brother-in-law invitation hung about. Talk centered on pins and ranges and soon drifted to the realization that there were no "paying customers" there.

Leo had done his work well. He was close to all the media station honchos back then. He had convinced over twenty of them to lose ad copy for live spots, keep pre-recorded spots "lost in the mail," and if pressed, do the spots at four in the morning. He even managed to keep the news out of two editions of the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald. All in the name of golf he told them. They bought it.

Leo and his boys played there just three times before Don sold it. Last time I heard anything about Don, he was driving away in a new Cadi with a huge check he'd just won as the winner of the Senior Masters.

I wonder about Leo. One of the greatest living links to the golden age of recording was really just an off course caddie. The only Master off course caddie I ever met.

[Lightning Rod]

My uncle Don was our family hero. When I was about twelve, he knocked a six iron shot on a three par into the hole in the Buick Open and won the hole in one prize: $50,000 and a new Buick. That was big money in those days and a revelation that boggles the working class mind, to make sixty thousand bucks in less than six seconds. Better than the minimum wage.

My grandfather helped design and build the Lakewood Country Club golf course. Then, during the depression, he kept food on his family's table by being, as he put it, just a little better than his opponents on the greens.

When Don was growing up, my grandfather had a roofing company. Don was required to hand in his practice round scorecards every day to my grandfather. If he didn't do well, there would be a pair of overalls on his bed the next morning and he would have to spend the day mopping hot asphalt on a roof instead of playing golf.

I had no idea that Leo had crossed paths with my uncle. I remember when we recorded 'Ross for Boss' in Leo's studio. The old man is a joy. Besides, he's one of the only people I know who I can call an old man. His idea of haute cuisine is Denny's.

[Doreen Peri]

You told me on the phone the other day that you are not a writer, StupidBob.

I beg to differ.

You are a fine writer, skilled in the craft.

[STUPID BOB]

You told me on the phone the other day that you are not a writer, StupidBob.

I beg to differ.

You are a fine writer, skilled in the craft.

AIN"T NOT . . . but thank you anyhoo

[jimboloco]

That's quite a story.
Friend helps golfer lose his shirt in a nightclub venture so he will stick to his true destiny as a golfer!
WOW!
You are stretching my stone sober mind
(Junior left his ice fortress with the stash
for a pretty lady's company)

[STUPID BOB]

Don lose his shirt? No way. He sold it for a profit. And I believe LR will bear me out here when I submit that Don made a lot more money on the course and because he was a golfer, than off. The club did do well after the fact. Don just had a change of heart and went back to what he loved with a new perspective.

[jimboloco]

i'l;l go back to what i love too
slacking.

[gandhithegr8]

Leo Teel is a legend. Talk around here has it that Willie took Leo's voice and made money with it. I know it's true.

Leo is an old timer. Even Elvis passed through his life on occasion. Leo liked it when Elvis left the building. It got quieter.

Dolly writes him about mundane things and George Jones invited him to his wedding. George kicked him out when Leo called him Dewey. George hated Dewey. It was ok with Leo. He hated weddings.

Leo had the best dance band around Big D in the 50's, and 60's. When local hero and pro golfer Don January asked him to bring his band to his new aquisition (now the Lakewood Theater), Leo gathered his hired guns around, told them about the gig, and hinted it was a problem.

He said, "Don's gone round the dogleg, fella's. He's gone and put good money into a room and it's takin' him off the fairway. We need to help him remember who he is. Here's what we're gonna do . . ."

Don opened the place with great fanfare. Lots of putters at the door. Drivers laid across the seats in droves. That was a spectacle in itself.

Golfing illuminaries were there with their wives and all the local duffers that managed a brother-in-law invitation hung about. Talk centered on pins and ranges and soon drifted to the realization that there were no "paying customers" there.

Leo had done his work well. He was close to all the media station honchos back then. He had convinced over twenty of them to lose ad copy for live spots, keep pre-recorded spots "lost in the mail," and if pressed, do the spots at four in the morning. He even managed to keep the news out of two editions of the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald. All in the name of golf he told them. They bought it.

Leo and his boys played there just three times before Don sold it. Last time I heard anything about Don, he was driving away in a new Cadi with a huge check he'd just won as the winner of the Senior Masters.

I wonder about Leo. One of the greatest living links to the golden age of recording was really just an off course caddie. The only Master off course caddie I ever met.

Very interesting story. Incredible irony that Leo's grandson ended up as a caddie on the PGA and LPGA Tours. He's not any longer, but spent plenty of time out there.

And even more ironic, spent his bachelor party last Fall at Lakewood Theatre to see Social Distortion...his favorite band.

[Lightning Rod]

welcome to Studio Eight, gandhithegr8

are you a fellow Dallasite?

I've played at the Balcony Club (which is part of the Lakewood Theater many times)

Tell us about yourself.

[gandhithegr8]

welcome to Studio Eight, gandhithegr8

are you a fellow Dallasite?

I've played at the Balcony Club (which is part of the Lakewood Theater many times)

Tell us about yourself.

I apologize for taking a year to respond. I was doing some research on my grandfather again and ran across this.

Mr. Teel is my grandfather. I did caddie for five years on the mens and womens tours. My grandfather still lives in Grand Prairie at the same house...he's 84 and still considers Denny's the cat's meow. I have no music background so I really don't know what the golden age of recording was all about and why it was important...but I know that it was.

Regards.

[Lightning Rod]

gandhi,

I spoke to your grandfather on the phone a few weeks ago. I recorded a couple of tunes in his studio about twenty years ago and we have been friends ever since. Leo is a gem.