CACTUS PRYOR – BROADCASTER – AUSTIN, TX

100th Anniversary Countdown Paramount Theatre Continued!

Cactus Pryor, a much beloved icon of radio and television broadcasting in Austin for decades, was a fan and friend to the Paramount and me. He invited me to be on his half hour radio show for KLBJ AM on innumerable occasions to promote Broadway plays and musicals, fund raising campaigns, music and comedy concerts and season ticket sales and to keep the public updated on the status of the restoration effort.

He once said to me, on air, “John, you are the only guest I’ve ever had who can be introduced as ‘We have on our show John Bernardoni’…and 30 minutes later, without stopping to breathe, ‘You’ve been listening to John Bernardoni'”. Thanks a million for helping us to talk to Austin. You were a riot!!! Thermostrockimortimer!

Bobbie Crenshaw, who was the leading force in raising and giving monies to rebuild and restore the opera boxes at the Paramount, dedicated one of the boxes to Cactus! I don’t know if that ever manifested in anything tangible i.e. plaque, tickets but I doubt it. Too many administrations over too many decades for the continuity of this sort of thing to be carried on, in spirit and indeed!