THE PAGES - Donna Marie b/w Wind (Eagle 1005/1006, Don Tan 0001)
At a time when church groups across the country were boycotting rock n' roll and burning Little Richard and Elvis records there was a group of Abilene Christian College boys- and I would guess them all to have been members of the staunchly conservative churches of Christ- creating just a slight bit of racket themselves. They weren't wild rock n' rollers ala Jerry Lee Lewis (who destroyed a piano while on an Abilene tour stop in the 50s) or the legendary Blue Caps. Not even close. But a group of kids from Abilene Christian cuttin' records with a beat and entertaining dancers was every bit as rebellious as Jerry Lee's piano pounding escapades. Maybe even a tad bit more so.
First some background... Abilene Christian University has a long history of affiliating with the 'unaffiliated' Churches of Christ. While not as liberal as Pepperdine nor as conservative as York College in Nebraska, ACU is the best known school affiliated with the non-denominational Church of Christ, uh... denomination. When you go to ACU you accept curfews and no co-mingling with the opposite sex in dorm rooms. It means no dancing and no drinking and avoiding places where those things happen. When I attended from '92 to '97 you could still get called in and even fined for missing too many days of chapel (hello slide and glide). There's also the whole avoidance of musical instruments within worship which is such a huge part of the identity of the C of C. I can't even imagine a group of kids coming from a 1950s church background and attending ACC actually playing and recording rock n' roll. A singing group sure... but that rock n' roll music?
Had you traveled the Abilene Christian College campus in the 1950s you might have bumped into any number of vocal groups. Perhaps you would have heard them rehearsing in the music building. Or in the halls and stairwells of Mabee dorm. Some groups were more professional than others having the opportunity to perform for different civic functions in the Key City and surrounding area as well as campus related gatherings like club socials (Drink Milk!) with repertoires that included long popular standards, current pop hits, and classic hymns- acapella, of course. Some acts, like the Highlanders, were sponsored by the ACC student activities group and would take periodic, short tours through Texas or to Kansas or Oklahoma as school ambassadors.
The Pages came together in the fall of 1956 and were different than most other ACC groups as they also included instrumentation. Group members included vocalists Hal McGlothlin, David Pullias, Phil Smith, and Billy Lyon (of the previously mentioned Highlanders), guitarists Charles McLeod and Reford Schmitton, and Edwin George on sax and "bass fiddle". By early 1957 the group had managed enough local clout to be called on to back local rockabilly Gene Morris on his first trip in to a studio. Gene had hooked up with Slim Willet in 1955 and had been steadily gaining popularity through his appearances on Slim Willet's weekly television show on KRBC. Though Gene himself doesn't recall the exact circumstances of the Pages meeting, I don't think it would be all that surprising to find that the union was brought on by Edmoral owner Willet after he had featured the Pages on his Wednesday night tv show or met the group at a local Abilene event.
In April of of 1957 Edmoral 1012 by Gene Morris with the Pages featuring "I've Got a Love" and "Lovin' Honey" was released. While the Elvis-y ballad "I've Got A
Love" was the side that got the push it is the frantic flip that is most often associated with Morris today, much to Gene's dismay. "Lovin' Honey" kicks off with stinging, amped up guitar before an almost snarling Gene follows it up with "I've Gotta Bop". The two minutes that follow are a steady mess of brushes snapped against a snare, ringing guitar, and "whop whop"'s from the Pages... quite possibly the wildest thing heard on Abilene radio that year. Slim Willet must have worked the record fast because no sooner had the Edmoral waxing hit record racks than Billboard was announcing Morris to be one of the latest members of the RCA-Victor family. Gene was soon whisked away to Nashville for a session where he re-recorded both sides of the Edmoral 45 for a release on ViK in August. Though billed as Gene Morris with the Pages again, David Morris says that it is not the Abilene Pages on the ViK single. Our Pages would have been spread out all over Texas at the time of the summer recording session.The group managed to stay busy through the fall of 1957 and well into 1958. A February 1958 article in the Abilene Christian College Optimist mentioned performances across the state including a spot on Fort Worth television. The Pages also had a chance to play at the swankiest spot in the whole of Abilene: the Paradise Room in the newly opened Sands Hotel. The Sands complex greeted east bound car travelers on their approach to Abilene and must surely have been the biggest eye grabber to hit the horizon since El Paso or Lubbock. I'm not so sure what the libatious status of the Paradise was, but gotta figure drinks and dancing were usually part on the nightly agenda. As a result I don't guess the Paradise was advertising too many college nights for the students from Abilene's three Christian Colleges.
In early 1958 the Pages were invited to Dallas for a recording session with Chuck Edwards of Eagle Records. The masters were quickly shipped to Monarch in LA.
Released in the Spring of 1958, Eagle 1005 featured two compositions from Pages guitarist Charles McLeod (misspelled on the record label). The record's a-side "Donna Marie" kicks in almost note-for-note like a tamer take on Gene Morris' "Lovin' Honey" with the vocals at times mirroring the "whop whop"'s of the earlier song. There's no record of who played guitar on "Lovin' Honey" and Gene doesn't recall who it might have been, but perhaps it was Charles McLeod himself. The b-side was a dirgey, atmospheric slowie titled "Wind".
Chuck Edwards worked to get the attention of major labels like Imperial and Dot, only to turn down offers in hopes of something bigger for the group.
By the fall semester the book had pretty much closed on 
the Pages. A story from the October 3, 1958 issue of the Optimist mentions Billy Lyons and Phil Smith having moved to New Mexico and Houston respectively. Hal McGlothlin was preparing to join the military. Edwin George's name was absent from the article altogeher, leaving only Pullias and guitarists McLeod and Schmittou on campus. And yet the article was also touting a new release from the group. Perhaps a reference to the odd reissue of "Donna Marie" and "Wind" on the Don Tan label out of San Antonio, custom-pressed by Wildcat. No hit there either.
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Many, many thanks to David Morris. I've been communicating with David in regards to his father Gene Morris for short spell now. It was David who first turned me on to the Pages and their connection to my alma mater- Abilene Christian. David went digging about in the back issues of Optimist in the Brown Library to find the information about the Pages. Since then those issues have come online as a part of the excellent UNT sponsored Portal To Texas History site (HERE). Through that the UNT portal I was able to find both the February 28 and October 3 issues of the 1958 Optimist and the the photo of the Crew Cuts performing at Abilene's Sands Hotel. A million thanks David... I'll have a story up on his dad Gene Morris shortly. And thanks to Joe Specht of Abilene... Joe knows Slim Willet inside and out and corrected a mistake I had made regarding which night of the week Slim's television show ran.
If you are/were a Page or are the child or grandchild of a Page drop me line please! Would love to see pictures of this combo if such a thing were to exist.
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