Sept. 8, 2011 - Galveston was the first real Texas city in the way the U.S. and the rest of the world thought of cities in the decade before the Civil War. It seemed to exist on its own, as would befit a city that is also an island. All roads eventually lead to the sea, and Galveston is the end of that road, exposed as it is to the Gulf of Mexico and all that it may bring. It was always a favorite of pirates, especially Jean Laffite who made the island his home for a while when it was called Campeachy and the Karankawa were still around.
For a city that endured the worst natural disaster in U.S. history in 1900 -- and was hit hard again by Hurricane Ike in 2008 -- Galveston has also had something of a charmed life during some of the most trying times in state and American history.
Galveston has always been an outlier, a city on the edge and a city that made and lived by its own rules. It was Las Vegas before there was a Las Vegas. It was where you went for a good time, even in the worst of times. No city recovered from the Civil War as quickly as Galveston and the city prospered greatly during Prohibition with hardly a nod to the Great Depression. Somewhere in there, around the time of Prohibition, people started calling it the Free State of Galveston.
The city had always been reasonably tolerant of gambling and prostitution, but Prohibition opened up new avenues of enterprise. "Galveston was like Chicago in that there was already a good supply of gangsters, impatient for lawmakers to think up new crimes to which they could address their unique talents," Gary Cartwright noted in "Galveston: A History of the Island." "Prohibition was a jackpot waiting to pay up."
Ships from Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas started showing up offshore with boatloads of booze, which was generally brought ashore by small powerboats. The smugglers had miles of deserted coastline to use, and they did.
Two rival gangs, the Beach Gang and the Downtown Gang, divided the city between them. The Downtown Gang was headed by high roller Jack Nounes, who had another character, Dutch Voight as a partner.
Headquarters for the Free State of Galveston was the Balinese Ballroom, which brothers Sam and Rose Maceo renovated in 1942, and turned into the swankiest nightspot on the coast. Some of the top names in the entertainment field performed there, including Peggy Lee, Jimmy Dorsey and Phil Harris. It was also a favorite getaway for Texas oilmen like Diamond Jim West and Jack Josey.
The Balinese was a private club in the way that a lot of clubs in Texas were "private" in order to get around the state's onerous liquor laws. A modest donation usually served as membership dues. The Balinese was situated along a 200-foot pier with a T-head at the end, way out in the Gulf, where the gambling took place.
This design served the Maceos well whenever a raid was staged. By the time the Texas Rangers made their way down the pier to the high-class gambling den, the slot machines had been folded into the walls and the crap tables morphed into backgammon and bridge tables. The band would usually play "The Eyes of Texas" to welcome the Rangers.
That such arrangements were tolerated -- even sanctioned -- in Galveston was made clear when long-time Galveston County sheriff Frank Biaggne, testifying to a state investigative committee, said he had never raided the Balinese because it was a private club and he was not a member. This struck everybody except the people in the Free State of Galveston as ludicrous, hilarious, or both.
With the exception of the occasional token raid, business went on as usual at the Balinese, partly because of Sam Maceo's deftness with public relations. "When anybody needed anything, Sam was their man," Cartwright wrote. "He sent orphans to college and kept widows from being evictedHe gave generously to the building fund at the First Methodist Church, and headed a committee to fight pollution in Galveston Bay."
The times eventually turned against the Balinese. By the 1950s, the state was not so willing to take a wink and nod approach to the Free State of Galveston and, with considerable difficulty, finally succeeded in closing the club down. The death of Sam Maceo in 1951 was considered by most to be the beginning of the end for the Free State of Galveston.
Actually, that came in September of 2008, when Hurricane Ike destroyed the structure and the pier that had housed the Balinese Club. Sadly, that's how most of Galveston's oldest home and buildings have been lost over the years.
