I was 21 and had talked my way into an interview with the college newspaper because I had earned some stripes at a few hundred rock concerts — and I was savvy enough to dress up a little with a corduroy blazer for the interview (even though the boss was another college student).
Somehow, I was given the job as an entertainment/features writer.
A few weeks later it was Christmas break, and I left Texas Tech for the holidays, and went to the snowy farmland of The Texas Panhandle. “How could I keep my newfound journalism energy flowing? What “story idea” would interest the college students when classes resumed in the Spring?”
On my way to Vega, I passed The Cadillac Ranch. I had passed the road trip sculpture a thousand times before. This trip detoured my direction in life.
For those who have not spray painted this roadside masterpiece, it is 10 vintage Cadillacs, buried nose down in a wheat field purportedly at the same angle as the sides of The Great Pyramid. A group from California — The Ant Farm (predating the TV show of the same name by 50 years) — conspired with an Amarillo millionaire named Stanley Marsh 3 to create the piece. (See the Cadillac Ranch montage flashing in the banner of this Website … )
“That’s it!”
“How about I interview Stanley Marsh?,” I said, so many years ago.
I called him up — or at least, I talked to a very nice personal assistant … Melba, I believe it was.
“Sure … when would you like to interview Mr. Marsh?”
I think I said right away. I knew I was on to something. SM3 (by the way, it is pronounced “Stanley Marsh three,” not “the third”) had already been featured in travel books (Roger Kuralt), news magazines, art magazines, newspapers, TV coverage, etc., etc. SM3 loved being the center of attention, and he did not disappoint.
So, I interviewed him in his office and took lots of photos of the stuffed tattooed pig, the giant cardboard dinosaurs in one wing of the floor, a wall of tv screens (he owned an ABC affiliate), the llamas on his ranch … Basically, I turned on the tape recorder, and he unloaded with quote after quote of colorful, artsy, Texas-politcs laced anecdotes.
My new editor, Ronnie, liked the idea and back in Lubbock, dedicated an entire page to the story. When the piece ran, it was so weird. I walked into a huge lecture hall with theater seating at school and looked down. Hundreds of students in the room all had The University Daily open, reading about SM3. It wasn’t me … it was the fascinating subject matter. What a great feeling … to see firsthand that people read something you wrote. Soon after, I changed my major from advertising to journalism.
A few months later, Texas Tech entered the Stanley Marsh feature in a national journalism contest, and it won a William Randolph Hearst Award … pretty much “The Heisman” of college journalism.
It wasn’t me … it was SM3. And SM3 was happy for me. When he learned of the award, he sent to me a really nice, succinct letter. Succinct — not short — because he had Melba type it on a piece of letterhead that was the size of a small poster, and the typewriter or printer made huge letters on the page. SM3 apparently had signed the letter, holding three colored markers at once … making the letter and his signature a very cool piece of art. It is framed and hanging on the wall at the PingWi-Fi.com world headquarters today.
So, yesterday I was greatly saddened by the news that Stanley Marsh 3 had passed. Even greater is my sadness from the horrible news that has tarnished the millionaire’s name for the last few years. Google, if you want to know more. It is my hope that all of the allegations are untrue, and that it is just a case of people coming out of the woodworks to cash in on an ailing, bizarre, eccentric millionaire. I am not saying that is the case. I am saying that is my hope. I am sure I don’t know.
Because SM3, as zany as he was, was nothing less than generous, professional, above board and helpful when I hit him up for an interview on more than one occasion.
When I was fresh out of journalism school, he agreed to a second interview so that I could sell the story as a freelancer, trying to survive as I searched for a permanent writing position. That story was purchased by The Harte Hanks newspaper group and it — along with some photos I shot of Stanley at the Cadillacs — was featured on the cover of the Texas Weekly insert in many of the newspapers around the state. Ha … Stanley showed up on location for the shoot wearing a big straw hat and a leather buckskin jacket with long leather fringe dangling … jeans and cowboy boots. For the pics, he posed in front of the Cadillacs with a stalk of young green wheat sprouting from his lips … in front of the Cadillacs which someone had painted bright red, top to bottom. With his hat in his hand, I focused on the dent in his forehead … where, he said, a mule kicked him. (I would include some of the dozens of photographs in this blog, but they were all shot with color slide film, pre-dating digital photography. I should scan them …)
He (or maybe Melba) even sent to me a nice wedding gift a year later, when I was working at my first real journalism job … a daily newspaper. I still have the gift – a set of cutlery, with bright red handles … not unlike the color of the Cadillacs that day.
So, over the years, I have watched with sadness, as stories have painted a very negative view of this Texas mad hatter, as he has been called. I have driven by his ranch home — Toad Hall — numerous times to look for more projects … like the Volkswagen ranchette … the neon sculpture, The Amarillo Ramp … and the painted wall on the old Tascosa Highway. The wall is about 12 feet tall and was constructed to circumnavigate the top one-fifth of a sizable mesa on ranch land … and a French artist painted the wall — “The Floating Mesa” to mimic the color of the sky on an overcast day. If the atmospheric conditions are just right, the wall visually separates the top of the mesa from the bottom … and it appears as if the top of the mountain is floating in the air. Fun! Google all of this, for sure.
Years later — and of course I blogged about this — a local farmer paid homage to the Cadillac Ranch and created a combine farm … burying numerous wheat/corn harvesters in the ground. (Imitation, the most sincere form of flattery …) When I launched my first road trip blog — The Wi-Fi Guy — Stanley gave me permission to hold a press conference at The Cadillac Ranch … a couple of TV stations and the newspaper covered the event. (San Francisco International Airport hosted the press conference for launching this blog …)
Oh the shenanigans …
A few years ago, I just popped in at the millionaire’s office to see what was up. I missed him but visited with some of the young artists who were “working” … creating art while on the payroll. Yes I grabbed some new t-shirts. (My original Cadillac Ranch t-shirt drew more comments in Italy, than any t-shirt I wore on that trip …)
On that visit to the office, the young artists also gave me a handful of stickers. One proudly adorns the clip board I carry with me everywhere on The Dirty Gig. It is road-sign yellow, in the diamond shape of a traffic sign and it has this tongue-in-cheek traffic warning: “Road Goes On Forever.” How perfect for a travel writer …
I would be remiss if I did not mention SM3 has posted seemingly authentic traffic signs all over Amarillo with even more bizarre traffic messages, literary references, cliches and just weird utterings. Every time I visit Amarillo, I drive around and look for more of the signs. They are bountiful. I think my favorite … over by South Washington I think, posts this important traffic message: “Buddy, Got A Smoke?” So fun … such nice surprises from a city that is otherwise pretty much just known for its 72-ounce steak eating contest … and a cover version song that George Strait borrowed for a hit. FYI … I have also spotted one of the faux traffic signs in tiny Adrian, Texas and also one in a tiny town an hour southeast of Fort Worth … planted in the flower bed of a former SM3 employee.
Over the years, most of my friends realized my fascination with SM3. Yesterday friends and family sent to me links to the story of Stanley succumbing to the stroke/Alzheimer’s complications that had rendered him unable to communicate and confined to a wheelchair.
Because of my fascination, my mother collected bits and pieces — the positive things — about Stanley Marsh 3. She sent to me postcards from the 1970s, featuring the Cadillacs right after they were driven to their final resting place. She snatched up for me from a garage sale a travel book that featured The Cadillac Ranch among the most interesting travel icons all over the United States.
And, as if to give me a final gift, after she too passed from Alzheimer’s complications, in some of her papers, I found a very interesting document. It was a print out of court proceedings/affidavits from a celebrated, bizarre court case — featuring Stanley Marsh 3 and one of the other oldest, richest families in Amarillo. (I remember the case made the pages of Austin’s beloved Texas Monthly magazine.) SM3 was charged with unlawful imprisonment — or something like that — for locking up another millionaire’s son in a chicken coop. I think this was settled out of court. Not sure … Google it. Anywho … that document was in my mother’s files. I have it … and if interested … here is the pdf – (click on link, then select the download button):
During the most sad trip to Amarillo … the week of my mother’s funeral, I made a wrong turn near downtown Amarillo as I was just driving around and reminiscing. I spotted one of SM3’s signs … as if a gift to cheer me up on such a sad day … although eerie. OH the irony. The sign, on a street where I had never been before … on that day of days proclaimed: “We hear what dead people say.”
I remember many of the things he told me in our first meeting. I asked him if he was upset that people covered The Cadillac Ranch in graffiti. While he didn’t encourage it, he didn’t seem to mind. He compared The Cadillac Ranch to carving a jack-o-lantern or chiseling an ice sculpture. He said some pieces were never intended to last forever, but for one moment … they were perfect. I think of him like that. In his heyday, he was on top of the world. He was making waves in the art world all over the globe. Today … if you stop at The Cadillac Ranch, you would find a few locals, but also backpackers from Germany, bus tours from The Netherlands, art pilgrims from LA, “taggers” from Chicago, punks from London … enjoying the creativity and leaving their mark on this monument of monuments to the road trip. Perhaps my favorite … when all the Cadillacs were painted red … someone wrote, in large spray-paint printed letters, one letter per Cadillac, the name of a punkish band … M-E-A-T-P-U-P-P-E-T (s).
I also hope that despite all the negative stories — fact or fiction — that someone realizes that SM3 was an art pioneer and leaves a very positive, creative legacy for Amarillo … known all over the world and even immortalized in song by Bruce Springsteen. (Stanley and I discussed that too …) I hope that someone today paints The Cadillac Ranch black in mourning and in tribute … just as the Cadillac rancher did when one of the Ant Farm group died years ago.
Know what I sayin?
