Alama back door joke (1958, 1959)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

FWIW: I was encouraged that Newspaperarchive just added the San Antonio
Express-News from 1958-1961, so I looked for the Alamo "back door" quote and
found other 1958 and 1959 cites. This rules out Maury Maverick's 1960 quip to  JFK
as the source.
...
...
27 February 1958, Ada (OK) <i>Weekly News,</i>, "Strayed from  the Herd..by
the Old Sourdough," pg. 4, col. 4:
If there had been a back door to the Alamo, would there be a  Texas?
...
3 July 1958, Pasadena (CA) <i>Independent</i>, pg. 9, col.  5:
George Murphy passed this one on to me -- about the cowboy extra from
Oklahoma who took all he could from the Texas cowpoke bragging about his home  state
on the set of a western movie and finally cracked: "G'wan, if they'd had a
back door to the Alamo there never woulda been a place called Texas!"
...
3 March 1959, Ada (OK) <i>Evening News</i>, pg. 2, col.  5:
<i>State to Find Out</i>
<i>About "Back Door"</i>
<i>To Texas' Alamo</i>

AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) -- Oklahoma legislators wanting to know exactly what
happened at the Alamo will find out -- from the Texas House of  Representatives.

Rep. C. W. Pearcy Jr. of Temple introduced a resolution on the Texas floor
Monday calling for the information to be passed on to Oklahoma  legislators.

The Texas resolution said that a member of the Oklahoma Legislature  had
stated "if there had been a back door to the Alamo there wouldn't be a Texas
today."

Pearcy pointed out in his resolution that there was, indeed, a back door to
the historic fortress, scene of a major engagement between Texans and Mexicans
 in 1836.

And in barbed reference to the door -- which historians aren't too certain
about -- the resolution states the one man to use it during the bitter fight
was  a one-time "resident of the Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma."

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