Issue 3 / EDITORIAL: At Pleasure Pier

I took these photos with my mom (The Magazine Photographer) and brother (a film maker) in Galveston, TX. Armed with our iPhone, light reflector, and bag of snacks we set off for the place that I grew up visiting. If you’re not familiar, Galveston is a beach town on the Gulf of Mexico 45 minutes south of Houston. On the surface, Galveston may appear like a commercialized tourist spot devoid of any culture or glamor, but that is far from the truth.

Galveston has one of the most interesting histories of any American town, and that history evokes the long lost glamor of the past. A time when everybody dressed to the nines. It reminds me a lot of a place that Ginger from Casino would hang out in, which is why I chose the 80s blonde and leather bomb shell looks for this shoot.

Beginning in the 1900s, Galveston was an oasis of illegal gambling run by the Sicilian mob. The linchpin of illegal gambling establishments was the Balinese Room which opened in 1942. Some regular patrons were Howard Hughes and all of the oil barons of Texas. Performances at the club were what gave this place its icon status–Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, and George Burns to name just a few. Galveston is one of those places that you have to look beneath the surface to see its beauty, and once you do there lies a bottomless treasure trove of fascinating history.