Chickening Out

Any visitors to the Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas, who thought it was a competitor of Colonel Sanders would have been in for a surprise. Known as "the best little whorehouse in Texas," and celebrated under that title in a current Broadway musical hit, the Chicken Ranch did a brisk business until a Houston television station broadcast an "expose" about it five years ago. That shamed the state authorities into shutting it down. Last September a shrewd lawyer moved the Chicken Ranch, virtually intact, to Dallas, where it became a sort of disco restaurant serving Spanish chicken, Mexican chicken, Swiss chicken and so on. Unfortunately for him, the Chicken Ranch's customers were not really interested in those dishes, and four months later the place closed down for good.

Last week, however, sentimental Texans had a chance to bid on all the gaudy furnishings. "It's part of Texas history," exulted Dallas Housewife Rena Winfield, who came away with two bar stools supported by pairs of shapely legs. A bag of brass tokens, embossed with the motto "Good for all night," went for $30. David Grayson, a rancher from southern Texas, paid $65 for the outhouse, which he planned to re-establish back home "just for nostalgia." One of the most curious objects of all was a chest of drawers with money slots labeled Thelma, Velma, Miss Lilli, etc. The triumphant new owner, who paid $30 for it, identified herself as Geneva Hooker.

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