The Man with Nine Terms

On a hot summer day in 1920, Oscar Holcombe was cooling off at a soda fountain in Houston's old Scanlan Building. He ridiculed the idea that he should run for mayor. He explained to a friend that he was happy and prosperous as a building contractor. But he ran anyway, defeated the city attorney, the vice president of the Houston Post and a county commissioner who was considered the shoo-in candidate. He did it by "shaking hands with everybody in town . . . up one side of the street and down the other."

Last week, 28 years and eight terms later, Holcombe was still at it. Houston overwhelmingly swept him into office for his ninth term.

Throwing a Switch. From his first official act in 1921, when he pressed all 15 buzzers on his desk just to see what would happen (15 department heads streamed into his office), Holcombe's political career has never been dull. He lost four mayoralty campaigns, but was always voted back into office after Houston got a good taste of someone else.

In 1922, after he refused to fire three Catholics from his administration, he was opposed by the 10,000 members of Sam Houston Klan No. 1. The Klan started a campaign of vilification, denouncing him as a chronic drinker and gambler. A Baptist, Holcombe demanded that the Baptist Ministers' Association try him on the charges at a public hearing. Although nine of the 13 ministers on the "jury" were Klansmen, they cleared him after a one-day "trial" held at the Rice Hotel a week before election. He won the election. Three campaigns later, however, he was defeated. One reason: he swung an umbrella at the publisher of a Houston newspaper who had threateningly brandished a letter-opener during a heated argument. "You just can't explain that sort of thing to the people," said Holcombe.

In 1932, Holcombe bounced back into office. He was elected during a municipal crisis: the city treasury had run dry. The light company had turned off the street lights and municipal employees were not paid. Holcombe was elected on his pledge to tidy up the city books. Part of his inauguration ceremony was the throwing of a main switch to turn on the street lights again. Houston was soon out of the red.

Barreling Along. Holcombe, now 59, has given Houston more than flamboyant campaigns. He has given it good, efficient government. Recently, during a barroom debate about their mayor, one Houstonian acidly denounced Holcombe. "Yeah," answered a man with a long memory, "but how do you like those mayors who come in between?"

Raw and rollicking Houston is still barreling along on its "hundred-year boom." It has 700,000 people (almost five times the number it had when Holcombe first took office), a $500 million chemical industry, and oil, cattle, cotton and wheat businesses totaling $750 million. It also has more than 100 resident multimillionaires. By 1980, it might, according to Lloyd's of London, bulge with 3,000,000 people. Construction this year will total a skyscraping $500 million. Downtown property is selling for $2,000 a front inch.

Apparently Houston needs and likes and can keep its businessman-showman mayor. "I ought to quit," Holcombe said after last week's election. "I'm at my highest peak ever. You can't stay there, but I don't think there's much chance of my quitting. I love this job."

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