The Aviatrix Club
Amarillo, Texas

An online historical retrospective

Carlton Scales, Orchestra Leader

Excerpt from "The Route 66 Cookbook" by Marion Clark and Michael Wallis

In the late 1930's, Earl Hooper and his brothers built a small drive-in on pasture land across from English Airfield on Amarillo Boulevard. Earl named the cafe the Aviatrix and designed a long cement ramp out front. His waitresses skated up and down the ramp, serving "Chicken on the Wing" to patrons in their cars. The oblong plates were heavy pewter and spoons extending on each side made the dishes actually look like an airplane. There was room for sixty to seventy customers inside for those who preferred tables.

 In 1939 Carlton Scales and his mother, Iweta, bought the cafe and turned the Aviatrix into a Texas Panhandle showplace. Enlarged to seat six hundred, it became the most elaborate ballroom and supper club in the Texas Panhandle. The Aviatrix served banquets, wedding parties, conventions, and visiting dignitaries until it closed for good on August 5, 1989. Scales organized a five-piece orchestra soon after the showplace opened and he continued to delight dancers through the mid-60s. Big band celebrities were regulars at the Aviatrix. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Harry James, the Dorsey brothers, and Spike Jones all took their turn at the microphone. "It was a family dance hall," Scales said. "We had couples from the air base as well as whole families who would come out to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary."

The Aviatrix was a family affair for the Scales, too. "My aunt, my mother's sister, was the oldest hat-check girl in the country. She was still checking hats and coats every Saturday night at the age of ninety-eight. She would dance anytime she was asked, but usually dozed off after ten p.m. and then awakened so customers could retrieve their hats and coats”, Scales said. In 1952, the Aviatrix burned to the ground but was completely rebuilt. In the 1970’s Scales switched to country-western music to keep up with popular trends. Through the years, thousands of Amarillo Air Base personnel and Panhandle residents made this Route 66 classic a Texas favorite.

Performances at the Aviatrix:
•Louis Armstong and Velma Middleton
•Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey  - April 26, 1955
•Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
•Spike Jones
•Harry James -  July 24, 1953
•Jack Teagarden
•Ralph Flanagan and his orchestra
•Les Brown: December 4, 1955
•Woody Herman: September 9, 1952 & March 27, 1955
•Stan Kenton - NBC broadcast "Live": March 3, 1953
•Willie Nelson
•Sam and Dave
•Charlie Phillips and the "Sugartimers" for many years until it closed