Gilley's is a bar/honky tonk founded in 1971 by country singer Mickey Gilley in Pasadena, Texas. It was the central location in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy. It was a huge building with a corrugated steel roof that housed multiple bars and mechanical bulls. Connected to the club was a... Read More
Gilley's is a bar/honky tonk founded in 1971 by country singer Mickey Gilley in Pasadena, Texas. It was the central location in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.
It was a huge building with a corrugated steel roof that housed multiple bars and mechanical bulls. Connected to the club was a small rodeo arena that would also host both bicycle and motorcycle motocross races on Friday and Saturday nights.
Gilley's ceased operations after a falling out between Gilley and Cryer. In 1989, a fire, attributed to arson, gutted the interior. The rodeo arena and some livestock stalls were the only structures still standing until 2006, when it was demolished by the Pasadena Independent School District, its current owner. Only the old sound recording studio remains, on Spencer Highway.
On October 2, 2003, Gilley's was reopened at a new location in Dallas-Fort Worth. The new club features a 26,000-square-foot main show room and the original mechanical bull, El Toro, featured in the movie Urban Cowboy. See Less
