Brownwood, Know what time it is ? It's State Fair of Texas Time where "everybody" is welcome !
Posted on Tue, Sep. 26, 2006
By John Austin
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
It can't be too long until the State Fair of Texas opens when Big Tex has hit the Midway in Dallas.
The talking cowboy began life as a Santa Claus statue that didn't wave, speak or move its head.
State Fair President and future Dallas Mayor R.L. Thornton paid $750 for the figure in 1951 and had it converted into a cowboy.
Thanks to some cosmetic surgery, an improved 3-ton steel armature and regular wardrobe updates, the biggest Texan should be looking good when the fair begins with a parade Friday.
ALL ABOUT BIG TEX
Date of birth: 1949
Place of birth: Kerens
Original name: Kris Kringle
Voice: Bill Bragg, right, is the cowboy's seventh voice.
Started talking: 1953 (speaks English and occasionally some Spanish)
Moved for the first time: 2000
Height: 52 feet
Weight: 6,000 pounds
Boots: Size 70 Ariats, 7 feet 7 inches tall.
Clothing: The shirt has a 100-inch neck. The fly on his jeans is 56 inches long. His gigantic Dickies jeans and cowboy shirt, right, are made in Fort Worth.
Hat: 75-gallon, 5 feet tall
Distinguished relatives:
Tex Randall, a 47-foot-tall concrete cowboy who has lived in Canyon since 1959. He doesn't talk or move.
FRIENDS
Other state fairs' mascots:
Wisconsin: a piece of pastry named Cravin' D. Cream Puff
Iowa: a 6-foot-tall blue ribbon named Fairfield and a "girlish purple" grand champion ribbon named Rosetta
Minnesota: a gopher named Fairchild
SOURCES: State Fair of Texas, yesterdayusa.com and roadsideamerica.com (Big Randall)
source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/15610841.htm
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