Suite 8F Group

The Suite 8F Group, also referred to as the 8F Crowd, was a network of politically active businessmen in Texas from the 1930s into the 1960s.[1] "Suite 8F" refers to Herman Brown's Suite at the Lamar Hotel (demolished) in Houston. Herman Brown, one of the co-founders of the construction firm Brown and Root, made his primary home in Austin until 1948. With the company headquarters in Houston, Brown typically traveled from Austin once per week, then stayed at his room at the Lamar for a few days. Yet other members of his family stayed there as well. In addition, Gus Wortham, another member of the group, lived in the room next door, 7F.[2] Jesse H. Jones, the developer and owner of the Lamar Hotel, lived on its top floor and was also a member of the group.[3]

Herman Brown, and his brother, George R. Brown, used their suite in the Lamar Hotel as a social, business, and political club. They planned and discussed events as varied as hunting and racing, pipelines and steel plants, and philanthropy and political candidates. James A. Elkins, a Houston lawyer and banker, wielded great influence and gained a reputation as a deal maker. For example, one friend credited Elkins for facilitating the sale of local radio station. Sometimes the group formed a consensus around a political candidate, then supported him as a group. For example, the group backed Oscar Holcombe, Sam Rayburn, and the first two campaigns of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for President of the United States.[2]

According to Texas Monthly, the 8F Crowd had gained "unequaled influence in state and national government" after the end World War II when George R. Brown, Gus Wortham, and Charles Francis of Vinson & Elkins founded Texas Eastern.[1] The group was reported to exercise leverage over Big Oil.[1] The 8F Crowd had connections to various media outlets including the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, television station KPRC, and radio stations KPRC and KTRK-TV.[1]

Membership

The core group, or the persons who were active for the longest time, were James Abercrombie, Herman and George R. Brown, James Elkins, William and Oveta Culp Hobby, Robert E. "Bob" Smith, and Gus Wortham. Jesse H. Jones served as the group's "godfather," sometimes hosting meetings upstairs in his penthouse apartment.[3]

Other individuals are reported to have been members to the Suite 8F Group:

Suite 8F helped to coordinate the political activities of other right-wing politicians and businessmen based in the South; these included Robert B. Anderson, president of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Treasury; Robert Kerr of Kerr-McGee Oil Industries; Billie Sol Estes, an entrepreneur in the cotton industry; Glenn McCarthy of McCarthy Oil and Gas Company; Earl E. T. Smith, of U.S. Sugar Corporation; Fred Korth, Continental National Bank and Navy Secretary; Ross Sterling of Humble Oil; Texas oil magnates Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison, Sr., H. L. Hunt of Placid Oil; Eugene B. Germany (Mustang Oil Company), David Harold Byrd, chairman of Byrd Oil Corporation; Lawrence D. Bell, of Bell Helicopter; William D. Pawley (business interests in Cuba), Senators George Smathers, Richard Russell, James Eastland, Benjamin Everett Jordan; and lobbyists Fred Black and Bobby Baker, also affiliated with the Serve-U Corporation.

References
  1. Hurt III, Harry (April 1976). "The Most Powerful Texans". Texas Monthly. Austin, Texas: Mediarex Communications Corporation. 4 (4): 73. ISSN 0148-7736. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  2. Marguerite Johnston (1991). Houston: The Unknown City, 1836—1946. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. p. 385-386.
  3. Pratt, Joseph (2004). "8F and Many More: Business and Civic Leadership in Modern Houston" (PDF). Houston History. 1 (2). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  4. Eric Berger (14 September 2013). "A worthy endeavor: How Albert Thomas won Houston NASA's flagship center". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  • Dan Briody, The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money
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