Category: Random News

In May of 1962, my father Jerry White purchased a 1956 Mercedes Benz 300SL sports coupe, colloquially known as the Gullwing due to the manner in which the doors opened, being hinged at the top and opening up.

Dad was a certified car guy all his life. He started working in the family business, a tire shop in Beaumont, when he was only eleven years old (which he inflicted upon my brother David and me as well). He was a member of NASCAR in his twenties. He worked in the pits at the Inidianapolis 500 as an alignment technician for Bear Automotive. He drove a Corvette. But he loved Mercedes Benz.

The DuPont Company had purchased a Gullwing specifically to study the engine (the ’55 Gullwing was the first car to have fuel injection). They removed the engine, did extensive testing, and when they were done put it back…so the body was pracitcally new. A buddy of my dad’s was an engineer with DuPont, and the spring of 1962 he let him know they were going to be selling the Gullwing as surplus. My dad put in a bid of $4,105.05 (I’ve forgotten the significance of that amount, but it comes to $43,605.28 today, according the CPI calculator at BLS), and ended up winning the auction.

Bill of Sale form Du Pont to my dad for his Gull Wing
Bill of Sale form Du Pont to my dad for his Gull Wing
Page from Bax’s Scrapbook: “Jerry White + Bride: Mercedes 300SL”

That car became his pride and joy. Another friend of his, the radio personality and author Gordon Baxter, took pictures of Dad with it and saved it in his scrapbook at “Jerry White + Bride”. But the next year Dad had an actual bride, our mother Norma. Dad said he knew she was the one because she was the only one who could enter and exit the Gullwing elegantly.

In 1968, I was a year old, and David was on the way, and a two-seater sports coupe with no A/C was not very practical for a family of four in Southeast Texas, so Dad sold his beloved 300 SL to an oil man in Oklahoma for $5,000, thinking he had done pretty well to have made a profit on the vehicle after having it for six years. Fast forward to 1983, and Dad saw ‘his’ Gullwing in an auction catalog (he knew it was his becuase he remembered the serial number). The minimum bid: $250,000 (with inflation, $806,017.59). But trying to find one today for under a million is a fool’s errand: Sotheby’s just sold a 1956 for $2 million.

When I win the lottery, one of the extravagant purchases I’m going to make is to buy Dad’s Gullwing.

UPDATE: I just made the acquaintance of Rudi Koniczek, probably the foremost expert on Gullwings. He was graciously able to provide the following information for me:

  • Chassis: 198.040.6500153
  • Engine: 198.980.6500155
  • Body: 198.040.6500149
  • Color: DB190 Graphite Gray
  • Upholstery: Natural Leather
  • Mfg. Date: 21 June 1956
  • Originally sold to: E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Delaware
  • Owner 2: Jerry C White, Beaumont, Texas
  • Owner 3: William Howell, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I am honored to be the newly-elected president of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston. I want to state my gratitude for the leadership of our immediate past president, Steve McCary, who remains on the board and will chair the production committee.

Members of the board thought I should introduce myself, so – if you want to know who I am – read on.

My love of Gilbert & Sullivan came about through my father, Jerry, who bought a cassette of G&S “greatest hits” after watching the movie Chariots of Fire, in which the music of G&S figures quite prominently. We played that tape endlessly on family road trips and learned all the songs by heart. The next year, Beaumont Civic Opera decided to perform H.M.S. Pinafore and my entire family – my father, my mother Norma, my brother David, and myself – all sang in the chorus. I’ve been hooked ever since.

I joined the Society in 1990 when I became a chorister for Yeoman of the Guard. In the ensuing third of a century I have sung in the chorus, understudied, performed lead roles, created the Society’s first website, worked in the box office, cleaned the warehouse, served on the board, organized sing-alongs, and bicycled from Houston to Chicago to fundraise for the Society. Through the Society I have made life-long friends and met the love of my life, Anne née Curran…herself a lifetime Houston G&S member, being the daughter of former Society performer Diana Linder and step-daughter of our long-time conductor Robert Linder.

I have also performed G&S roles at the Hot Springs Music Festival and with the Young Artists program at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, and was the éminence grise of the Rice Light Opera Society, where I also was a performer, director (both stage and technical), and producer. I have appeared as a soloist and member of the ensemble with many churches, synagogues, and other groups in Houston, including the Bach Society and Cantare, and was executive director of Opera Vista, a recipient of The Houston Press’s Mastermind Award, where I staged world premiers of several operas.

When I’m not involved in a performance, you can find me working as a freelance IT consultant, driving our daughter Kate to rehearsals, or cycling on back roads around Houston.

I look forward to continuing our mission of bringing first-rate productions of these wonderful operas to Houston audiences, and I thank you all for your continued support as we build on the success of the past seventy-two years.

Joe Carl White
President
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston

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In May a group called the Mises Caucus took over the Libertarian National Committee. The public pronouncements that then began emanating from that body via the @LPNational Twitter handle showed that they were going to be messaging in a non-libertarian manner, so I called the national office told them to cancel my monthly donation.

A few days later, I received an email from Angela McArdle, the current chair of the LNC, asking for a time to call and introduce herself. I agreed, and on June 20th we spoke for about half an hour. I asked her why she had reached out to me, and she said because I called in to National. She said that she is going to try to reach out to everyone that calls or emails about cancelling donations. I told her that what I saw happen in the Republican Party before I left them years ago I was seeing happening in the LP now: when your messaging is such that bigots feel welcome, that is what you get as members of the party. She said she would relay my concerns to the communications department.

The messaging that has followed shows either she did not relay my concerns, or that they were ignored. If anything, the messaging has grown even more odious. Add to that the messaging coming from individual officers, and the rot in the LNC appears to be total.

Further, they have charged my credit card again after I explicitly told them to cancel. I do not know if this is an example of incompetence or fraud, but neither explanation is a good sign.

I know many who have left the national party because of this takeover, and many more who, like me, are redirecting their support from national and instead supporting initiatives like the Libertarian Policy Institute in addition to state and local parties and candidates that are truly striving for liberty in our lifetime.

I still believe that coercion is wrong, that people prosper when they are free, and that the ideals of the Libertarian Party are worth fighting for; the current Libertarian National Committee, based upon their messaging, does not.

After missing the last two years, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston is overjoyed to announce that we will be returning this summer to celebrate our 70th anniversary with a production of HMS Pinafore at the Hobby Center, July 23-21. This is also the farewell performance for stage director and featured performer Alistair Donkin, who has been appearing with us for 40 years. To commemorate this milestone, long-serving musical director (and my father-in-law) Robert Linder will be returning to conduct. Yours Truly will be playing the role of Dick Deadeye. Tickets go on sale June 1, but if you become a patron you can secure prime seats now!

Hope to see you in July!

Houston G&S poster for 2022 HMS Pinafore