Gilley’s Collectibles – Odds ‘n Ends

Posted by gilleysmuseum.com on March 24, 2012 · 8 Comments 

I’m calling these items “Odds ‘n Ends” because they don’t fit into any particular category of typical vintage Gilley’s Pasadena, TX items but are just as cool and collectible as anything else.

Added to our collection in April of 2014 is this sexy lace Gilley’s garter. It’s red and white lace with a white ribbon with the classic red Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas logo printed on it, and it’s in incredible condition for its age. Here’s a picture.

Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas red and white lace garter.

A new addition to our collection as of February, 2014 is this hard to find Gilley’s Beer can transistor radio. It’s the same size as a standard straight steel beer can and designed to look just like one, including the same label as printed on the Gilley’s straight steel beer can, only printed on paper glued to a plastic case. There is an on-off/volume wheel on one side and a station tuning wheel on the other. Both wheels look the same. The speaker is under the grill top. This radio uses one 9 volt battery that goes in through the bottom. Here is a picture of the front of the Gilley’s beer radio.

Vintage Gilley’s Beer can RADIO

Here’s a picture of the side, showing the tuning wheel.

Vintage Gilley’s Beer Can RADIO – Side

 

New to the GilleysMuseum.com collection as of January, 2014, this item might surprise you. It would be easy to assume that a “joint” like Gilley’s served drinks that didn’t go much beyond inexpensive beers, but you’d be wrong, and this beautiful black leather drink menu cover with three pages of high end exotic brands proves it.

It measures nearly 10″ tall by nearly 7″ wide, with a black felt interior, and includes one page of wines and champagne, one page of fancy mixed drinks, and one page of high end liquors, including names like Patron, Courvoisier VSOP, Dewar’s, Glenlivet, etc., etc.

Here is the front cover showing Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas in gold print on shiny, black leather.

Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas black leather drink menu binder.

Here’s a picture of the first page, the wine and champagne menu.

Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas wine and champagne menu.

A new addition as of November of 2013 is the vintage original Gilley’s wood and leather boot jack. Measuring almost 12″ by about 4 1/2″ wide and made of 3/4″ thick wood with leather trim, this is a great tool for removing tight fitting cowboy boots. They originally sold for $5 at Gilley’s club in the 1980’s and are very hard to find today. Here is the one in our GilleysMuseum.com collection.

Original Gilley’s club wood and leather boot jack.

Next is the very hard to find vintage original Gilley’s bar mirror. It measures 21 x 15 inches, including the all wood frame. These rarely become available, especially in good condition, since they are fairly fragile and sold for $30 back in the mid 1980’s. That was a lot of money back then, so I would imagine they didn’t sell quite as easily as an $8 buckle.

If you look closely you can see the musical notes above the “i” and below the “e” in Gilley’s and PASADENA, TEXAS, USA under Gilley’s, and Mickey’s signature below his face in the center. To the left is the famous Gilley’s sign and Gator riding the mechanical bull and to the right is a cowboy about to hit the punching bag, and then a can of Gilley’s Beer.

1980’s Gilley’s Bar Mirror

This extremely hard to find piece is a large nylon umbrella featuring the Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas logo on alternate white panels. It measures about 49 inches from point to opposite point and looks like it was designed to be used on a golf cart or possibly at the beach. The pole is chrome plated, separates into two parts, and is about 6 feet long when fully attached. It comes in a clear plastic bag and is in near new/perfect condition. Here are some pictures.

Side view of our Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas red and white umbrella.

Here is a close up of one of the four Gilley’s logo panels.

Here is a close up of the logo panel on our Gilley’s umbrella.

And finally, here is a view of the top of the umbrella.

Top view of Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas umbrella.

Here is a vintage Gilley’s vinyl stadium seat cushion/pad. It measures 13 1/2 inches square and sold in the mid 1980’s for $7 each. It’s pretty hard to find one that isn’t cracked or faded so we’re very happy to have one that is as close to mint condition as you can expect for something over 25 years old. Notice the folded over handle at the top for easy carrying.

Below is the front view with “Let’s Rodeo” and a drawing of a cowboy riding the mechanical bull above the Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas logo.

Vintage Gilley’s vinyl stadium seat cushion. Front view.

The back side of the cushion repeats a smaller Gilley’s logo and outline of the state of Texas as pictured below.

Back side of original Gilley’s stadium cushion.

Another rare piece in our collection is a bright orange Gilley’s frisbee with the Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas “The World’s Largest Night Club” logo inside the outline of the state of Texas, in white print. This frisbee measures 9 1/2 inches in diameter and sold for $3 in the mid 1980’s. It never saw much use as there is barely a mark on it.

Vintage Gilley’s Pasadena, TX orange frisbee.

Continuing with the vinyl/plastic theme, we are very happy to have this rare set of vintage Gilley’s Salt & Pepper shakers. They are a creme/tan color (not nearly as light as the flash makes them appear) with the red Gilley’s logo inside the state of Texas outline with Pasadena, Texas underneath. At the bottom you can see a small transparent white rubber/plastic stopper for the re-fill hole. The shakers measure 3 inches tall by almost 3 1/2 inches wide by 1 3/8 inches thick.

Vintage Gilley’s plastic Salt & Pepper Shakers.

Our last plastic item is our collection of Gilley’s shopping bags. There are 3 different styles that we are aware of, and all of them are pictured below.

The first bag features a curved top with a round carry hole, the name Mickey Gilley on top with a picture of Mickey Gilley wearing a cowboy hat and a mention of the Fan Club below.  This bag measures 16 inches wide by 19 inches to the top of the handle.

Gilley’s shopping bag with curved top & Mickey in hat – Fan Club side.

On the opposite side of this version of the Gilley’s shopping bag is the Gilley’s logo above the same picture of Mickey Gilley but without the reference to the Fan Club. And as you can barely see in the picture it has an accordion fold at the bottom.

Gilley’s curved handle shopping bag, w/o Fan Club promo.

Our second version of the Gilley’s shopping bag is made of extra-heavy (2-ply) plastic and has a straight cut top with the handle cut 3-sided in the center of the top so you can slip your fingers through both sides. It measures 14 3/4 inches wide by 19 inches tall, and again has the accordion fold at the bottom for maximum capacity.

This bag also features the Mickey Gilley Fan Club but has a picture of Mickey Gilley without his cowboy hat.

Straight cut Gilley’s shopping bag with Mickey Gilley Fan Club promo.

The other side of this bag promotes Gilley’s Club with the same picture of Mickey Gilley without his cowboy hat.

Gilley’s Club Shopping Bag with Mickey Gilley pictured without his hat.

Our third version of the Gilley’s shopping bag is very similar to the one above but is slightly smaller at 14 1/5 inches wide by 17 3/4 inches tall and features both Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee in a joint picture and promotion of their fan clubs.

Mickey Gilley & Johnny Lee Fan Club promo on Gilley’s Club Shopping Bag.

On the reverse side of this vintage Gilley’s shopping bag is the famous Gilley’s logo above a picture of the entrance to the original Gilley’s Club in Pasadena, Texas.

Gilley’s Club and Fan Clubs Shopping Bag – Club side.

I wouldn’t even want to venture a guess as to how many people carried everything from buckles and shirts to ashtrays and other assorted Gilley’s merchandise home in bags just like these. The question is, did many people keep the bag or just the contents. Hmmm.

Moving on from plastic to paper, here is another collection of Gilley’s merchandise/memorabilia from the old Pasadena, Texas days.

Talk about something that shouldn’t have survived all these years, here is our paper Gilley’s Club & Johnny Lee’s Club fan. As you can see in the picture below, it is very fragile. With the fan being made of heavy paper and the handle made of very thin, light-weight wood, it’s a miracle this thing hasn’t either been eaten by moths and termites or been bent or broken somehow. Not only that, but being that the club didn’t have air conditioning you can only imagine how hot it got in there during the Texas summers and how much it would have been used, not to mention getting soaked with spilled beer. It’s the only one we’ve seen in our years of searching for Gilley’s memorabilia.

It measures 8 3/4 inches across the fan by 8 1/4 from top to bottom of the fan. The handle is 9 inches tall, 1 1/4 inches wide at it’s widest point, and extends 5 inches below the paper fan. This side features the old Gilley’s Club logo. We’re not sure, but our guess is this piece dates from the late 1970’s to early 1980’s.

Gilley’s Club Paper Fan.

The reverse side of the fan features the Johnny Lee’s Club information. As you probably already know, Johnny Lee’s Club was owned and managed by Sherwood Cryer and Mickey Gilley so there was a lot of c0-promotion and marketing between the two clubs. That’s why you see so many items, especially shot glasses, with both clubs mentioned on them. Below is the Johnny Lee’s Club side of the fan.

Reverse of Gilley’s Club paper fan showing Johnny Lee’s Club.

Never missing a chance to promote his client Mickey Gilley and Gilley’s Club, here’s another piece of merchandise created by Sherwood Cryer. It’s a deck of standard playing cards with the Gilley’s logo at the bottom in red and an autographed picture of Mickey Gilley in his gray jacket and black hat on the back of every card.

Cowboys like to play poker, so what better than to have them looking at Gilley’s and Mickey Gilley the entire night while they’re playing! It’s sheer marketing genius. Here’s what the box looks like. It comes with part of the box cut out so you can see the cards inside.

Deck of Gilley’s/Mickey Gilley playing cards.

Whenever you have music, you have music books. Here are two versions of The Mickey Gilley Songbook. They are both 9 inches by 12 inches with the same glossy picture of Mickey Gilley on the front.

The first version is for Piano/Vocal/Guitar and has 29 songs on 96 pages. There is both words and music, with some nice pictures scattered throughout. It was published in 1982. Here is the cover picture on the GilleysMuseum.com copy.

The Mickey Gilley Songbook for Piano/Vocal/Guitar

The second version is The Mickey Gilley Songbook For Organs, Pianos & Electronic Keyboards. Also published in 1982, it contains 29 songs on 76 pages. There are no pictures other than the cover pages. Here is what our copy looks like.

The Mickey Gilley Songbook For Organs, Pianos & Electronic Keyboards

Finally, we have Mickey Gilley’s Texas Cook Book – Mouth-waterin’, Rib-Ticklin’ Recipes from America’s Favorite Urban Cowboy! (Hey, that’s what the cover says. Really!)

This book is a 7 by 10 inch paperback published in 1984 with 155 pages of recipes covering everything from Squaw Soup to Gilley’s Chili Con Carne to Gilley’s Country Pie.  Below is a picture of the GilleysMuseum.com copy.

Mickey Gilley’s Texas Cook Book

One of our newer additions in October, 2012 is this Mickey Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas Wild Bull Chili apron. Perfect for all you cowboy chili lovers. It came from a Gilley’s employee who worked there back in the day and measures about 17 1/2 inches across and 27 1/2 inches from the top of the shoulder to the bottom hem. I don’t know if these were for employees only or if they were sold to the public. They aren’t in the Gilley’s catalogs and it’s the only one I’ve seen in my years of looking for Gilley’s merchandise and collectibles. Here’s a picture.

Gilley’s Pasadena, TX Wild Bull Chili Apron – Blue

That’s about it for today. I gotta go play some country music and kick back. Thanks for readin’ and please leave any questions or comments below.

April 2013 New Addition:

We just acquired a very interesting and unusual piece that I had to share with you all. It’s a chalk ware statue of Mickey Gilley standing in front of a piano. It stands about 10 1/2″ tall and 5 inches wide. As you can see, it says “Mickey Gilley”  on the piano to each side of his legs. Here’s a front view of this statue by artist Harry Wright.

Mickey Gilley chalk ware statue from 1982.

From the side view you can see the piano is an upright style.

Mickey Gilley chalk ware statue side view.

As you can see from the picture below, the back of the piano has maker’s marks stating this is “Collector Classic Series A No. (blank)” and below that it says “© 1982 Harry Wright.”

Mickey Gilley chalk ware statue from the back.

If anyone has any further info on this piece, or the works of Harry Wright in general, please leave a comment below. We’d love to know more about it’s history and rarity.

Thanks.

Bubba

Advertisement

Filed under Collecting, Country Bars, Country music collectibles, Gilley's memorabilia, Johnny Lee, Mickey Gilley, Mickey Gilley's Music Books, Movie memorabilia, Urban Cowboy collectibles, Urban Cowboy memorabilia · Tagged with beer collectibles, beer memorabilia, country bars, country music, country music clubs, Gilley's, Gilley's apron, Gilley's Beer, Gilley's collectibles, Gilley's memorabilia, Gilley's Wild Bull Chili, Johnny Lee, memorabilia, Mickey Gilley, Pasadena, tesa, TX, Urban Cowboy