Dirty Jack's

Tim went by his full name at Dirty Jack’s Theater… The full Irishness of it. He had dark hair and a close-cropped beard, and wore round wire-framed glasses. He played guitar and tenor banjo, singing Celtic songs and oozing Irishness. But to the guys in the band he was Tim, a young, soft-spoken, rather shy fellow. In our nightly dinner show at the Chuck Wagon Restaurant next to the theater, Tim adopted a charming Irish brogue and sang ballads of love and honor. He was very good. One night Tim seemed quite distracted, opening his set by announcing, “They’ve bombed Belfast again!” and charging ahead into some kind of Irish protest song. Word came down after the show that politics were strictly prohibited in the content of the entertainment at Dirty Jack’s. I am unaware if Belfast suffered more bombings that summer, but we heard no more about it from the stage. It seems every band member had something he got teased for… Something we ragged on each other about that was embarrassing or goofy...

The band at Dirty Jack’s in 1976 had a horn section, the first I’d ever worked with. I had never been one of those rock ‘n roll bigots who sniffed at horn sections, but brass did not fit into my Led Zeppelin-to-Waylon Jennings musical worldview. I thought the bands Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire sounded cool, in a Playboy Club sort of way. Well, I had never been within a thousand miles of a Playboy Club, but I imagined their bands had horns. Sean played trumpet. He was way before his time because he grew that little clump of whiskers right below his lower lip that is now popularly worn by most musicians and is known as a soul patch. I think he adopted it from Doc Severinson. Even I have one now. Sean was very dedicated to his craft, practicing a lot more than any of the other musicians in the band. I could often hear him working his scales in a room upstairs over the lobby of the theater. Sean was a music student at the University of Idaho. He must have been a person of exceptional pa...

This is a scan of a review in the local Jackson Hole paper of one of the original productions done at Dirty Jack's theater, "The Ultimate Gunfighter." The show was written by Kathy Stainbrook, I'm sure aided ably by the ad lib brilliance of Tom DeWester, David Turner, Rhonda Willford, and the rest. This show was done after I left Dirty Jack's in 1979. Click on the article for a bigger image. Then hover over the lower right corner of the image to enlarge even more. [Image courtesy of Rhonda Willford Eberst]

Here's another great picture of Dirty Jack's theater. I think this was taken before I came on the scene in 1976. Click on the picture for a bigger image . [Image courtesy of Rhonda Willford Eberst]

Mike Willford , the key grip, best-boy gaffer, whatever ya wanna call him... He was the hardest working guy in the whole theater, and he was about 15 years old. This is a recent photo of him and his sister Rhonda, who worked in the box office when I was at Dirty Jack's Theater, and later she was on stage as a performer. Good people...

I just had a very nice email conversation with Rhonda Eberst. Rhonda was a young high school girl who worked in the box office of Dirty Jack's Theater back when I was a performer there. I remember her pretty well. As soon as she told me she was Mike Willford's sister the memory flashed back. She was a cutie back then. [Note: Still is. - Rick] Rhonda tells me she has an old poster showing the cast of the 1976 show and lots of other DJ's pictures and stuff. I *begged* her to make copies or scans and send them to me, and she has kindly agreed. Soon I will have everything posted to the blog. I am so excited. Since I have the Y chromosome I didn't keep any photos or memorabilia from those days, and I'm sure that seeing all the faces again will bring back a flood of old memories. One of the best things about this blog is hooking up with old friends from Jackson Hole and Dirty Jack's Theater. I've gotten emails from Kathy Stainbrook, Rocky Quarles, Tom DeWester, a...