Blasterz missed Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas (we were there when Tom Cruise was a student -- REALLY), but we have spotted McConaughey several times on the sidelines of Longhorn football games.
Although Blasterz already knew McConaughey was from Uvalde, it was still a kick to see his plaque on the Uvalde Arts Walk of Fame along the east side of the Grand Opera House downtown -- and we learned that he is not the only famous movie star from Uvalde. :)
These plaques are interesting because they show the homes that the actors grew up in when they lived in Uvalde, as well as referencing their contributions to arts and entertainment. Blasters learned that Dana Andrews, a big movie star in the studio system of the 1940s, was from Uvalde -- and so was Roy Rogers' wife, Dale Evans. The Palominos are a local Grammy-winning Norteno-music band.
The Grand Opera House is located at the corner of E. North St. and N. Getty Ave., one block north of the US 90 in downtown Uvalde.
From Texas Highways: (
visit link)
"Unexpected Uvalde
By Rob McCorkle
When Alan decided After 44 years to retire and sell Rexall Drug in downtown Uvalde to a drugstore chain, he received a commitment from the new owner to keep the old-fashioned soda fountain open for two years. Five years later, the 79-year-old former owner of Uvalde’s oldest retail establishment and his coffee-drinking buddies still straddle stools at the iconic counter each morning in a city that clings tenaciously to tradition. And, like some scene out of a black-and-white movie, the old-timers’ cups of joe cost just 46 cents.
Though its population is pushing 16,000 and the city lies only 83 miles west of bustling San Antonio, Uvalde retains a strong sense of community born of agrarian and bicultural roots. Nonetheless, the small southwest Texas community exudes a progressive, can-do spirit.
For tourists, Uvalde offers a low-key opportunity to visit museums featuring history, art, aviation, and the city’s influential residents; to shop and dine at distinctly local establishments; and to gear up for the wide range of outdoor recreation opportunities in the surrounding Hill Country river region and brush country territory.
Founded in 1855 as Encina, the town became a county seat a year later and took its present name from Spanish governor Juan de Ugalde, whose troops defeated a band of Apaches in a nearby canyon in 1790. Almost a century later, the growing frontier town became a key shipping point on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. The town remains a regional hub; one of Uvalde’s nicknames—the Crossroads of America—is inspired by the local nexus of US Highways 83 and 90, two of the longest highways in the United States.
Today, vegetable farming, ranching, hunting, and nature tourism power Uvalde’s economic engines. More recently, oil and gas development in the Eagle Ford Shale to the south has helped fill city motels and restaurants, generating additional revenue. Driving through Uvalde on US 90 (Main Street), visitors encounter the $5.6-million El Progreso Memorial Library (which moved into a new, privately funded building in 2004), a recently opened Convention Center, and a new Uvalde County Fairplex, which houses the county jail, meeting facilities, and a rodeo arena.
Uvalde is the birthplace of an impressive number of notable characters. They include actors Dana Andrews and Matthew McConaughey, movie queen Dale Evans, and the homegrown, Grammy Award-winning norteño band Los Palominos. Visitors can read about the celebrities on plaques mounted on the exterior wall of the Janey Slaughter Briscoe Grand Opera House, a downtown landmark.
Step inside the Romanesque-style building’s visitor center to view a timeline of the city’s history in photos and exhibits. Learn about such Wild West-era Uvaldeans as bandit-turned-deputy sheriff John King Fisher and lawman Pat Garrett, who killed Billy the Kid in New Mexico in 1881. The Newton brothers, the early-20th-Century bank robbers profiled in the 1998 film The Newton Boys, were also from Uvalde. . . ."