We were disappointed to learn today that the sign from Gilley's, the famous Pasadena honky-tonk, didn't sell on eBay. By the time the auction ended, 48 people had bid on the 16-by-30-foot sign, but the top bid of $10,600 didn't meet the seller's reserve. Promises of media coverage and the potential of $500,000 a year in tourist revenue weren't even enough to entice a deep-pocketed buyer.
Houstonist knows as well as anyone that money doesn't grow on trees (we did buy one of those money trees once, but it didn't work like we thought it would), so we were pleased to find a variety of more affordable items on eBay that appeal to our Urban Cowboy sensibilities:
• a Gilley's ashtray
• a trio of Gilley's beer cans
• a rather cool Gilley's illuminated clock
• and the actual entrance to Gilley's, which was used for several years as the roof of a feed barn in East Texas.
As for Mickey Gilley, the singer who built the honky-tonk empire, his time these days is divided between Gilley's nightclub in Dallas and the Mickey Gilley Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He's not for sale on eBay — yet.
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