"The wide theatrical release of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in the United States was on October 11, 1974. It premiered in Austin, Texas on October 1st, 1974, before its wider release."
On a stormy night in late November 1973, I’d packed my VW van and headed to ‘Big D’ - Dallas, Texas, hoping to find more acting gigs. New maneuvers. After filming ‘Headcheese’ wrapped, I’d sold my motorcycle and purchased a second-hand VW bus. Dallas is about 150 miles East of Austin. I’d arranged through friends to stay with their friends and look for an apartment. It was me and my stuff, all my worldly goods.
Cut to a year later, early November 1974, I was living in Dallas and working at a popular bar on Greenville Avenue in Old Town Village called “HP Cassidy’s". The club was owned by the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Craig Morton and some of his buddies. I’d met my three roommates at my first gig at a restaurant also in Old Town Village, Daddy’s Money, and soon left for the new happening spot, HP Cassidy’s, around the corner. From its grand opening, HP’s was always crowded, with lines down the sidewalk, a good hour to two hour wait was common in its first year. We worked hard and had a lot of fun! One particular night in late October ’74, when I’d just arrived for my shift, it was just getting started. My section upstairs in the mezzanine would soon be full to the max, and it never stopped the entire night. Closing time 2 PM. Keeping up was all we could do.I went downstairs to the bar to order my drinks with the bartender, Mike. “Hey, Mike, two scotch and sodas and one Tom Collins, please.” Almost before I got my order out, Mike asked me, “Hey, Teri, didn’t you tell me a while back that you were in some horror movie back in Austin?” Confused, as I had my mind on getting my drinks out, I replied, "Huh?" You could see the mezzanine from the downstairs bar station and I saw more tables filling up. Plus, I’d not thought about filming ‘Headcheese’ very much since we’d wrapped filming 14 months earlier.
I then remembered I must have mentioned it to him during our many chats at work. Over the 35 years since filming, I rarely told any one about my playing 'Pam' in the film that put Texas film and horror on the map. The previously oppressed genre began to take on a new life of its own around the world.
I replied, “Oh, yeah, right, I did.” Mike then told me that it was out, that he’d seen trailers showing on TV and that I was in all of them, running and screaming. That didn’t make any sense to me. “No, it couldn’t be me, I was the second girl, not the lead. You must have seen the other chick, Marilyn. She played the lead…” Mike interrupted me, “Teri, it was YOU! You’re in the whole thing.” Geez, I thought, that’s amazing. I still didn’t believe it though, until the next day when to my shock, there I was running from Leatherface. I’ll be damned, this is incredible, I thought to myself.
"There are moments in life when you can't believe what's happening is really true. Pinch yourself, you may find out it is." - Pam - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
We saw it was showing at a theater near some friends who lived in Tomball, a tiny town north of Houston. One of my roomies and I were soon in my VW bus headed to Tomball to see what was then called, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” for my first time. It felt surreal. I’ll tell you that story next time.
