Hondo Crouch (aka “The Grand Imagineer”)
I‘m not sure why so many people are looking for “The Grand Imagineer” lately, but their search engines end up pointing to my old Failure to Launch post. (Who would have guessed that Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey, Texas, and sailing would have anything in common?) As a result of all these hits, I realized my links for the sailboat itself no longer work.
If someone is looking for the story behind the name of the sailboat in “Failure to Launch,” Internet Archive still has it up at http://web.archive.org/web/20070204110432/http://www.grandimagineer.com/boat.html.
But in summary, “The Grand Imagineer” got its name from a poem about a man named Hondo Crouch, aka “The Grand Imagineer.” And in case even *that* website goes a-missing, as so many things on the Internet end up doing, I repost the poem below:
His Heart Was So Full Of
Mischief
The moon made its slow poke circle
From
the Highland Mall to the Capitol Dome
May scientists forgive me my
reference points
But I spent the evening home
Whilst the
powdery Saturday caravan
Showered and wound up downtown
Yet
the moon took a dim view of romance
Because of all the clouds
I
sat there in my dark garden
Like a messenger out of work
While
my neighbors played country music
The kind that doesn’t hurt
The
moon kept shining and hiding
Like a love against the law
So I
closed my eyes in sequence
And I sang to what I saw
Texas
swing out of your saddles
Abilene pick up your cards
Houston
blink up from your blueprints
Dallas stop smiling so hard
One
of your cowboys is missing
By the name of Hondo Crouch
His
heart was so full of mischief
It grinned open and slipped out
From
raising sheep and eyebrows
To singing asleep with beer
He was the
Sunday mayor of Luckenbach
And the Grand Imagineer
He
held conversations looking sideways
Tugging his mustache toy
His
remarks always seemed like secrets
Kept between gray haired boys
Heck,
he was a talking treasure
Though his tongue stayed in his cheek
He
spread a blanket of stories over Texas
So other storytellers could
sleep
by Charles John Quarto
|
Who was Hondo
Crouch?
Excerpt about Hondo
Crouch
“He was the “Clown Prince of Luckenbach,” and entertainer of star quality who
refused for years to make money from his comic gifts. He [was a] rancher. A philosopher. A
poet. A music man and inspiration for the hit song “Let’s go to Luckenbach,
Texas.” Hondo Crouch was a Texas folk hero.
“Before he died in 1976, Hondo helped stage at Luckenbach a series of zany happenings –
from all-female chili cook-offs to Great World’s Fairs — that became so popular the tiny
town almost got trampled out of existence. But there was more Hondo than spectacular
spoofs.
“He had a gift for seeing past facades and into the true nature of the human comedy –
and tragedy — that we all live inside our hearts. His style ranged from lighthearted
teasing to barbed satire, from pratfalls and pranks to rueful reflection.”
Excerpt from http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/hondo.htm |
References:
1. Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/index.php)
2. Internet Archive (http://web.archive.org/web/20070204110432/http://www.grandimagineer.com/boat.html)
3. http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/hondo.htm
