Queen Theater coughs up wallet lost in World War II
For 65 years, a wallet belonging to a Brazos County native and World War II veteran sat hidden, unnoticed and long forgotten somewhere inside The Queen Theater in Downtown Bryan.
Much to his surprise, the item and all its contents were returned last week to the 85-year-old owner who now lives in Groesbeck.
"It's been so long ago that I certainly don't remember losing it," Robin Tolson said in a telephone interview Sunday. "I'm sure I missed it at the time, but I lived."
The wallet was discovered by a crew member working on renovations at the theater. He recognized the last name on some of the documents inside and passed it on to Tolson's great-nephew, who then gave it to his father -- Charles Gandy. He delivered it to Tolson a few days ago.
Tolson -- who was born in Meadow Springs and graduated from high school in College Station -- estimates that he lost the wallet sometime in 1946 after returning from England where he served nearly a year as a B-24 tail-gunner for the U.S. Army Air Force.
"Looking at the remnants of the billfold, I must have lost it sometime after I got home from the Army during WW II," he said. "I hadn't been out very long. I still had Army passes and all that."
Along with the passes to leave his post, Tolson said his wallet contained his Social Security card, a registration card, an American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars card, immunization records and three photos -- one of his mother, another of his aunt and the third of his first wife, along with her brother.
"There was no money, of course," Tolson joked.
Going through the wallet "started a chain of recollections of that era and time," Tolson said.
It wasn't uncommon for him to take dates to The Queen, although getting to the theater was an outing of its own, he said.
"This was wartime and transportation wasn't too plentiful," he said.
He'd have to ride his bike from south College Station to a bus that shuttled people to and from downtown Bryan for a dime each way, Tolson recalled.
A lot of the movies he watched had a cowboy and Indian theme, he said.
"I recall seeing some pretty decent shows," said the former teacher and schools superintendent who received his doctorate from Texas A&M. "I had to pay 50 cents to see Gone with the Wind."
Today, members of the Downtown Bryan Association are working to restore the theater and hope to have it open in 2014 in time for its 100th anniversary.
Ben Hardeman, a member of Downtown Bryan Association and head of Save the Queen, said Tolson wasn't the only one who left personal items behind.
Another construction worker recently found items from a wallet, but the owner has yet to be discovered.
The Social Security card and a registration card found display the name William Robert Bogan Jr., of Granger.
Alongside the documents, four photos were found -- two are of the man Hardeman assumes is Bogan posing with a woman, and a third of the couple and their friend. The fourth picture is a woman's portrait.
