ED BERNET'S LEVEE SINGERS TO PERFORM TUESDAY,
AUGUST 28TH AT THE POCKET SANDWICH THEATER
BY DALLAS REALTOR BILL CHERRY
THAT'S OLD ED ON THE BANJO Circa 1965
Although he didn't know it until about a year ago, Dallas' Ed Bernet and I have been close friends for more than 40 years.
Just like Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant, the old Chaparral Club way up on top of one of Dallas' skyscrapers and Texas-OU Weekend, the Levee, a Dixieland joint on Mockingbird, was every bit as important to the city's nightlife.
Ed, a former SMU football player, and later a Pittsburg Steeler, headed the seriously popular Levee Dixieland Seven that for years played most nights at the Levee, a club he built and owned, and always to a packed house.
As a student at the University of North Texas, I quickly learned it was THE place to take a date if you really wanted to make a hit. So I admit that is the basis of our 40 year friendship, and my prayers of thanksgiving for the many times I was able to fall in love for the night with a cute Denton or SMU co-ed.
Ed and his group, now known as the Levee Singers, will perform, banjos and all, this coming Tuesday at a place on Mockingbird near the Central Expressway called the Pocket Sandwich Theater. The address is 5400 Mockingbird.
Those who want to see how Dallas nightlife was in the ‘60s as well as those like me who want to step back in time for an evening, will cheer the performance of Ed Bernet and his Levee Singers.
I'll be the one patting his foot and otherwise making a fool of himself. My wife, Patty, will be the one in the restroom dying from embarrassment. She refuses to consider that she was one of them I took to the Levee when I was courting her the first time some 40 years ago. Back then she thought my behavior was cute.
Times and things change, sometimes for the better.
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