When tourists visit Archer City, Texas, says onetime Archer County judge Gary Beesinger, they inevitably arrive with one particular objective: “They come for Larry.”
Larry is, of course, native son and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Larry McMurtry, who’s had many of his 30-plus novels adapted to television and screen and has earned some 26 Academy Award nominations in the process. Originally a bookman by trade, McMurtry still maintains his Booked Up store in Archer City (despite having famously sold off much of his collection in 2012).
The first of McMurtry’s own books to bring Hollywood calling, The Last Picture Show (1971), shot many of its scenes in Archer City, and McMurtry’s hometown hasn’t been the same since. A sequel, Texasville (1990), was filmed there almost two decades later.
“In whatever role I’ve served in Archer City,” Beesinger said, “there are people who just show up and look around. They want to see the bookstore, Larry’s house, the Royal Theater — or just walk around.”
An Archer City resident since third grade, Beesinger has served the community in a variety of roles, including county judge from 2007 to 2014, probate officer and producer of the Texas Opry in the revitalized Royal Theater – the setting of the movie title (although true film aficionados know that many of the interior picture-show scenes were shot at the now-demolished Wes-Tex down the road in Olney).
Beesinger knows firsthand the impact of The Last Picture Show on his city.
In 1970, as an Archer City High incoming senior, Beesinger got wind of a movie that was filming in his hometown. He signed up to be an extra. Within a few days a production assistant from The Last Picture Show called and told him when to show up at his school’s gym.
“I was one of the pissants,” Beesinger says, recalling that long-ago day with a chuckle. “There’s a scene in the movie where some of the boys are running laps in the gym, and the coach says, ‘Pick it up, you pissants.’ I was in that scene.”
Left Larry McMurtry in his Booked Up store. Right A still from The Last Picture Show featuring Cybill Shepherd.
When the gym filming was finished, Beesinger was allowed to watch the graduation scene in the high school auditorium and witness stars Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Timothy Bottoms through all of their takes.
“I played basketball with Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms between scenes,” Beesinger says. “They weren’t that much older than me.” (In 1970, Bridges was 20 and Bottoms was 19.)
According to Sam Welch, Archer City’s current economic development director, who also oversees Visit Archer City, “Every week 10 to 15 people show up just because of Larry. That’s how many people come in asking about the movies, the bookstore, his house.”
It’s not difficult for curious literary and movie fans to spot McMurtry’s Archer City home, though in recent years the author has spent most of his time in Tucson, Ariz. The distinctive two-story brick structure situated along the main highway once housed the Archer City Country Club and was featured in a 2000 issue ofArchitectural Digest.
“I tell them they can drive by the house,” says Welch. “And I tell them that they can still visit the bookstore.”
Booked Up originated in March 1971 on a corner in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Georgetown, Va. McMurtry operated it there for 22 years, selling a general mix of fine and scholarly books. He eventually opened additional stores in Houston, Dallas and Tucson. Rising rents, however, drove McMurtry to eventually consolidate all of his bookselling operations in Archer City, where Booked Up’s five storefronts transformed the city into a veritable booktown.
In recent years, Archer City has seen a revitalization, much of it driven by McMurtry’s literary cachet.
The Royal Theater reopened in 2000 as a performing arts venue, and the renovated Spur Hotel (with its slogan of “Down the Road from Ordinary”), according to its website, “plays host year-round to book enthusiasts browsing Larry McMurtry’s book store, guests of the famous Royal Theater, various workshops and retreats, hunters from all over the country, as well as the businessman or family looking for a small town stop in their travel plans.”
If they come for Larry, these days there’s even more to stay for.
