Category: San Antonio River

Ghosts with Halloween howling rights in Brackenridge Park

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Above: Do Laszlo Ujhazy (1795-1870) and his baying vizsla hounds haunt Brackenridge Park to avenge the brutal 1899 murder of his daughter, Helen Madarasz?

Tired of recycling the same old San Antonio ghost stories? Time to pay attention to a few of the many spirits probably haunting the banks of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park. Any resemblances to real persons, actual dead people, referenced in this post are absolutely intentional.

Continue reading “Ghosts with Halloween howling rights in Brackenridge Park” →

Diving down rabbit holes: Fledgling 19-teens’ silent film industry proved distracting

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Above: “Boy Playwright Shows Talent,” San Antonio Express, July 6, 1913, UNT Libraries, The Portal to Texas History

Seeking the feel of an era when trying to write historic fiction requires time-consuming research, but distracting detours are so seductive and somewhat justified as snippets gleaned slip into the pages you type.

Take Oliver Perry Wilson Bailey (1897-1978), tagged with an ambitious-sounding name. The 1910 Census, when he was but a lad of 12, recorded him as a professional rabbit-raiser living on South Alamo Street, now part of Hemisfair, in San Antonio. By 1913, he was an accomplished screen writer. Yes, the son of a reporter of the San Antonio Express already had sold screenplays to three different companies.

Continue reading “Diving down rabbit holes: Fledgling 19-teens’ silent film industry proved distracting” →

Brackenridge Park: A ghost gives chase to his daughter’s murderers

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

On nights when the moon is full, sometimes the distant sound of a horn disturbs the sleep of those in homes perched on bluffs above the Olmos Basin. Not a truck horn from the highway nearby, but the horn of the hunt.

It’s followed by the frantic baying of hounds heading toward Brackenridge Park, where their continued howling awakens some in River Road. Those who peer out their windows report seeing a blur of Vizla hounds racing through the underbrush followed by a lone horseback rider, the tails of his formal coat flapping in the wind.

Continue reading “Brackenridge Park: A ghost gives chase to his daughter’s murderers” →