A New Magazine: Longhorn from Austin, Texas

I don't usually get excited about storage units. Most of the time you drive an hour, pay too much, and come home with a box of water-damaged Penthouse and a sense of quiet disappointment. But every now and then you open a unit and the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

The Round Rock unit belonged to the estate of Wayne "Buck" Callahan, who died last year at 84. Buck was a former rodeo promoter and used car dealer who, in 1973, decided that what Texas needed was its own men's magazine. He called it Longhorn, and for twelve years he published it out of a rented office on South Congress Avenue in Austin.

What We Found

The storage unit contained a nearly complete run of Longhorn Magazine—sixty-seven issues from January 1973 through the final issue in 1985. Print runs, negatives, layout boards, advertiser contracts, model releases, and Buck's handwritten notes about everything from ad rates to which honky-tonks owed him money.

This is the third complete archive we've recovered, after the Whitfield estate (Hardwood) and the Costa Mesa storage find (Sunstroke). Each one tells a different story about a different part of the country, and Longhorn might be the most fun of the three.

The First Issue

Vol. 1, No. 1 (January/February 1973) is now online. It's a strong debut—Buck clearly spent money on the first issue to make an impression, and it shows.

The cover girl is Jolene Whitaker from Bastrop, Texas. Buck found her at the Travis County pageant, where she'd won the talent portion by singing "Stand By Your Man." She's forty years old in these photos, which tells you something about Buck's taste—he wasn't chasing teenagers. Jolene has the kind of beauty that comes from spending your whole life outdoors, and she looks completely at ease in front of the camera. She gets the cover, a seven-page spread, and the centerfold.

Rosa Delgado from Marfa is the second feature—shot in a barn with golden afternoon light that would make a professional photographer jealous. Buck was apparently a better photographer than he had any right to be. Tammy Jo Briggs from Waco rounds out the pictorials with a shorter set shot in a honky-tonk. And there's a one-page rodeo queen feature that feels like it was added at the last minute because Buck needed one more page of content.

Buck's Voice

What makes Longhorn special is Buck Callahan's voice. His publisher's column—"Straight Shootin' with Buck"—reads like a guy sitting across from you at a bar, three beers in, telling you why he started a magazine. He's funny, he's self-aware, and he's unapologetically Texan. "What you'll find in these pages is Texas. Real Texas. Not the Dallas TV version and not the dime-store cowboy stuff."

The letters page ("The Corral") is fictional in this first issue—Buck admits he doesn't have any reader letters yet, so he runs model application letters instead. One is from a Plano housewife who is scandalized and threatens to write her state representative. Buck's response is perfect: "Mrs. Krupke, I appreciate you writing to all those fine folks. That's more publicity than my ad budget could ever buy."

The Articles

Two features this issue. "Texas Muscle" is a comparison of the 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and the Chevy Chevelle SS, road-tested on back roads between Austin and Fredericksburg. The writer is clearly a Ford man but gives the Chevy its due. "The Best Honky-Tonks from Lubbock to Laredo" is a bar guide that covers seven joints across the state, each described with enough detail to make you want to get in your truck and drive there. Several of the bars mentioned are still open.

The Ads

The advertising tells the Texas story better than anything else. Lone Star Beer gets the inside front cover—a beautiful full-page ad with the bottle photo we've come to associate with the brand. Big Earl's Ford Country in Austin gets a full page pushing the 1973 F-100. There's Weber's Western Wear, Texas Farm & Ranch Supply, and an assortment of smaller ads for gun shops, boot stores, and one optimistic bail bondsman in San Antonio.

Condition

This copy is in excellent condition—stored flat in a climate-controlled unit for nearly fifty years. The cover has minor handling wear but the interior is clean, the centerfold is intact, and the staples aren't rusted. Better condition than most magazines half its age.

What's Next

I'm starting the scan of Vol. 1, No. 2 (March/April 1973). With sixty-seven issues to work through, this is going to keep me busy for a while. But if the rest of the run is as good as this first issue, it'll be worth every hour.

— Glenn