Day Trips

The Orange Show sits on a quiet, residential Houston street, a monument to art in a sea of people and buildings. This is more than a collection of an industrial society's discarded parts that have been welded together, painted bright colors, and arranged in a maze of cement passages. This is fun art. Art you can climb on, laugh at, think about, and enjoy.

During the late 1940s and 1950s, Jeff McKissack delivered the mail in downtown Houston. He often picked up discarded items from trash bins and construction sites. In 1956, McKissack was issued a building permit for a beauty parlor on the lot next to his house. Some time later he added to the bottom of the permit the words, "Beauty parlors going out of style - have better idea - The Orange Show."

McKissack dreamed of a little amusement/health park where visitors would have fun and learn about nutrition and the orange. Over a 25-year period, he built a maze-like monument to his favorite fruit, good health, and hard work. When the park opened in May 1979, he expected hundreds of thousands of visitors to pack the residential lot east of down-town. The Orange Show Foundation kept the show open after McKissack's death the following January.

From the street, the Orange Show looks like a backyard patio project on steroids. Metal umbrellas sprout like large flowers from the top of the building, which is surrounded by a white cement fence decorated with colorful tiles; wrought iron railings lead in all directions.

The inside of the Orange Show presents an equal attack on the visual senses. Standing behind the factory, made of pipes and canisters assembled to explain how oranges work in the body, the young tour guide tells us about McKissack, collects our dollar (children under 12 are admitted free), then leaves us alone to explore the narrow passages. He had chores to attend to.

The Orange Show may look like a random placement of strange objects, but McKissack placed everything in a certain order to illustrate a point about nutrition, hard work, or oranges. Sometimes it's a little difficult to understand what McKissack meant by a sculpture even after he explained it, said Susanne Theis, one of the foundation's three staff members.

McKissack grew up in Gainesville, Georgia, earned a college degree, and went to work at a Wall Street bank until the Depression. Back in Georgia, he bought fruit in Atlanta and sold it in surrounding small towns until he learned welding during World War II. He worked for the Post Office from the 1940s until his retirement in the 1960s. The Orange Show is his personal history museum.

Marilyn Oshman, of the sporting goods family, met Jeff before he died. As a collector with an appreciation for self-taught artists, Oshman made the Show a personal project. In 15 years, the foundation has grown to offer art classes for children, including a low-rider bicycle workshop.

Houston is "eccentric central," says Theis. The foundation has documented four other important folk art sites in Houston: The Flower Man, The Beer Can House, The Fan Man, and The Eagle's Nest. Floresville, southeast of San Antonio, has an important yard art site. The foundation has one project in South Austin, The Cathedral. The Orange Show is the foundation's only project which is not still a private residence.

The Art Car Parade, held during Houston's International Festival the last week of every April, is the foundation's greatest effort to promote folk art. Last year, over 250 artists drove their art down the city streets. Some cars traveled from Oregon and California to be in the parade. The foundation also hosts lectures and tours of unique art sites. The next Eyeopener Tour, August 5, focuses on eccentric collections.

The Orange Show is open weekends and holidays from noon-5pm and weekdays from 9am-1pm (between Memorial Day and Labor Day). Admission is $1 for adults and free for children 12 and under. The Orange Show is one block off the frontage road of I-45 South at the Telephone Road exit. Call 713/926-6368 for directions or more information.

Coming up...

Frontier Days has moved to Old Settlers Park east of Round Rock on US79 for a weekend of fun, July 7-8. 512/255-2501.

Spring Ho Festival in Lampasas brings the carnival, street music, and horse shows to town, July 7-9. 512/556-5301.

The Great Texas Balloon Race in Longview attracts pilots from around the country to Gregg County Airport for races and a fair, July 14-16. 903/237-4000. - Gerald E. McLeod