Tina Turner’s Basketburger

June 6, 2023 By Andrew Barbano Leave a Comment

Life was pretty good in the America of March 24, 1962. JFK and Jackie were in the White House. Soviet missiles in Cuba had not been discovered. Unions were strong, the post-war middle class prospered, inflation was zilch and the country's inherent racism was breaking down.

Music played a major role. Elvis Presley, who grew up listening to soul radio in Mississippi, sang black songs to white audiences.

Ray Charles’ album "Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music", featuring several Hank Williams compositions arranged for full orchestra, topped the charts.

The biggest thing in the United States on that Saturday evening was the welterweight championship rematch between champion Benny "Kid" Paret of Cuba and the man he had dethroned less than six months earlier, American Emile Griffith from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

However, the fight was only the second biggest thing in my hometown. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue was booked a couple miles from my house.

When I was growing up, west Fresno was about as multi-ethnic as a town could get. Neighborhoods still had fading nationalistic nicknames: Germantown, Italiantown, Armeniantown, Portuguesetown, Russiantown, Chinatown.

There were no such labels for the substantial black and Latino populations. Didn't much matter by the 1950s as ethnic lines had blurred.

In 1955, Regal Petroleum bought the corner of Fresno and "B" Streets, next door to my families’ properties. My dad's garage, the Barbano Motor Company, was across the street.

Half of the Regal station's building housed an office and merchandise showroom. (Back then, petroleum marketers gave away lots of customer freebies.)

My parents cut a deal to open a restaurant in the other half, the Regal Drive-In. The carhop experiment soon fizzled but Mary's food became quite popular. The first jumbo hamburgers were priced at a whopping 17 cents, a price which skyrocketed to 19 cents by 1959.

My family's vacant lot between the diner and our houses was paved as a parking lot.

That 1962 Saturday night started as usual with my dad, my brother and me watching the Gillette Safety Razor Company Fight of the Week on ABC from New York's Madison Square Garden.

About the third round, the urgent call came from mom who had been shutting the cafe down for the evening.

"Get over here!" she shouted across the asphalt. We had a phone but Italian mothers need no amplification if their kids are within 100 yards.

My brother and I scurried to the cafe which was filling up with very well-dressed people, a fashion rarity for a blue collar diner.

"Who are you?" my brother asked a guy perched at the counter.

"I’m Jesus Christ," came his flip response to the 14 year-old kid. Perhaps the dude felt that the Ike & Tina Revue could save Fresno by making rock ‘n’ roll a religious experience.

The touring company was probably running late and happened upon Mary's place.

The cafe could seat about two dozen with a shoe horn. The Regal was as packed as any weekday lunch hour.

I quickly informed our guests that Ike and Tina were quite popular in the central valley, even with Italian teenagers. Back then, rock stations played lots of "crossover" — rhythm & blues, country, folk and novelty music. I wish things were that inclusive today. We need it.

West Fresno was a true American melting pot. A mostly R&B record store opened half a block from our house. A Nation of Islam temple followed. St. Alphonsus Catholic Church and school were six blocks away. The two grocery stores in our ‘hood were operated by Italian- and Chinese-Americans. Members from the nearby union hall were regulars at Mary's diner.

According to Tina Turner's recent voluminous New York Times obituary, she and her then-husband didn't hit it big until the latter 1960s when the Rolling Stones hired them as their opening act.

Not necessarily. "I’m Blue" (aka "The Gong-Gong Song") by The Ikettes was number 20 on the Cash Box magazine top 100 on March 24, the date they played Fresno — the night the band and the Ikettes interrupted the welterweight championship on "B" Street.

My brother furiously formed burger patties by hand while my mom cooked. (Everything at Mary's place was made from scratch, just like home.)

I called my brother Larry in California and asked if he could remember what they ordered. "Almost all basketburgers," he replied.

A basketburger was just that, a plastic basket about 10 inches long containing a jumbo burger and fries on white paper.

My bro fortunately recalled the price: 37 cents each. The Ike & Tina Revue, dressed for the White House, ate great food cheap at the Barbano place.

Adjusted for inflation, 37 cents in 1962 equals the buying power of $3.73 in 2023. I defy you to find a big burger and fries for $3.73 ANYWHERE today!

I had my hopes up and asked a well-appointed musician if Ike and Tina were coming. Alas, they had dinner elsewhere. I got the impression they did not usually dine with the band.

Shortly, a well-dressed man came bustling in and announced "it's over, he knocked Paret out." There went my hopes of seeing the end of a fight which lives today in infamy. Paret never regained consciousness and died 10 days later. He had become tangled in the mushy ring ropes while Griffith pummeled him before the referee could stop it.

Reforms resulted. A loose rope had whacked the back of Paret's head. As a result, boxing rings now have four sturdier ropes instead of three.

Last month, the New York Metropolitan Opera premiered "Champion," a production about Griffith, who died in 2013.

Tina Turner, of course, went on to worldwide superstardom, including many dates in Reno. The girl from Nutbush, Tennessee, sang her song "Nutbush City Limits" in her Lawlor Events Center concert on May 20, 1997. The Nutbush has become the unofficial national dance of Australia where they hold an annual contest to break the "world" record for mass nutbushing. Generations of grade school teachers have taught their students the Nutbush.

Tina was good at impressing kids. I know. I was one.

Godspeed, Ms. Turner, and please look up my mom. She has your basketburger ready.

Stay safe, get vaxxed and pray for those cruelly afflicted by the cruelly small minds on this small planet.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

Andrew Quarantino Barbáno is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail [email protected]

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Barbwire by Barbano