The Casket held weekend teen dances from June to November, 1967. The Casket had been the Rialto Theatre, which was built in 1938 on Water Street in Kerrville, Texas. Around 1957 it stopped showing movies, and for the next ten years was used for infrequent events like bingo games.

On June 7, 1967, the Kerrville Mountain Sun gave an introduction to the club by Edith Jennings:

Several young people with the assistance of the Kerrville Jaycees are renovating the building for use as a dance hall. The exterior has been painted a shocking wild pinkish-purple, and inside the theatre, the old seats have been stacked in the rear or lined against the walls. The theatre renamed “The Casket” has an ideal location for teenage dances and the added effects of the somewhat sloping floor (not too steep for dancing) and the murals, contributed by artist Ben Gebhardt, make it a place where teenagers feel they can really have a “blast!”

Friday, two weeks ago, the kick-off dance was held, another on Tuesday when a nationally famous band performed with the “Chapter 16” group… admission $1.25 stag and $2.50 drag. Dance times are eight to midnight…

A June 25, 1967 profile of the club by Frank Stevenson headlined “Teenagers ‘Rock’ In Jaycee Project’ is worth quoting in detail:

As you arrive at the door, you pay your money and your hand is stamped, apparently by a stamp which makes no mark. Then, when you pass through the lobby into where the band is playing, an area which appears to be a theatre with the seats removed, the place on your hand where you were stamped does indeed bear a mark, a mark which glows slightly.

Many other things are glowing too, and they are glowing a great deal more than slightly. Your clothes glow if they are the right color, as well as specks of lint unnoticed before, and the strange designs on the wall. Radium watch dials go crazy, glowing ten times brighter than they have ever shown before. And meanwhile the rock ‘n’ roll band plays on and the teenagers all around you dance and appear to be generally enjoying themselves…

The Casket, so named as a result of the contest held to rename the Rialto building, is the final product in the Jaycees project which began in May with a dance held at the National Guard Armory in co-operation with San Antonio radio station KTSA [Jim Jones & the Chaunteys according to the Daily Times on April 30, 1967]…

… the average attendance at the Casket dances runs more than 300, and has been up to 410 at one of the dances.

Working through Devine attorney Brock Huffman, who runs an establishment similar to the Casket called the Shaft in Devine, and who acts as agent for the Kerrville Jaycees, is contracting bands, the Jaycees are able to provide music by rock ‘n’ roll bands such as the Playboys of Edinburg and the Chayns.

Serving as emcee for the dances is Bruce Hathaway, KTSA disc jockey, who gives out free albums during the dances, and occasionally passes out even bigger prizes, such as the free tickets to the Jefferson Airplane performance in San Antonio several weeks ago…

Jim DeSha and Joe Schmerber … head up the operation…

What [parents] will find is a large number of teenagers having the right kind of fun in a wholesome atmosphere. The only thing to watch out for are the occasional strobe light shows, which although harmless, make walking difficult during the shows.

Some legendary Texas bands played the Casket in those five months.

Three members of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators came from Kerrville, but the band didn’t play any live shows in Kerrville to my knowledge, until a partial reunion in 1977.

Below is a list of show advertisements I have found from the Daily Times and the Mountain Sun:

1967:

Friday, June 9 – Chayns

Friday, June 16 – The Other Side

Saturday, June 17 – Jim Jones & the Chaunteys

Friday, June 23 – Zakary Thaks and Back Row Majority

Friday, July 7 – Translucent Umbrellas

Friday, July 14 – The Bourbons

Friday, July 21 – The Jumping Jades

Friday, July 28 – The Spiedels

Friday, August 4 – The Chayns

Friday, August 11 – The Jades

Friday, August 18 – Neal Ford and the Fanatics

Friday, August 25 – The Visions of Light

Friday, September 1 – The Laughing Kings (The Laughing Kind?)

Saturday, September 9 – The Grim Reaper

Saturday, September 16 – The Outcasts

Saturday, September 23 – Translucent Umbrellas

Saturday, September 30 – The Chayns

Saturday, October 7 – The Absentees

Saturday, October 14 – The Extremes

Saturday, October 21 – Wink Kelso & the Kaleidoscopes

Saturday, October 28 – The Spiedels

Saturday, November 4 – The Proof (formerly The Outcasts)

Saturday, November 11 – The South Canadian Overflow

Saturday, November 18 – Madison Review

An article in the San Antonio Express and News on December 16, 1967 mentioned Billy Joe Royal would be playing the Casket as well as the Shaft in Devine, but I don’t believe the concert occurred.

The Casket was used for one further show, on August 1, 1969 with the Union Jacks (“Notre Dame Youth Dance … Music by ‘Untion Jacks’ from San Antonio”), a band I’m not familiar with.

The Casket name may have been appropriate for the club. Joe Herring wrote in a 2018 post on the Rialto, “We neighborhood children found a way to get inside the place and explore; it was dark and spooky in there.”

The Rialto Theatre was torn down in 1974 and the space is still empty as of 2020.

The Arcadia Theatre in Kerrville also hosted some live music in the ’60s, such as two local groups with Max Range: the Traditions, the Penetrators, and the Rel-Yea’s.

In July, 1969, Jim DeSha organized a live show at Louise Hays Park with two bands, the Green Fog and Blue Cherry, according to the Kerrville Daily Times on July 3, 1969.

Does anyone have photos of the Casket or the Rialto at that time, or of any bands that played Kerrville during the mid-late ’60s?