Flashback : Dallas

Ad from front page of Dallas’ Southern Mercury newspaper, June 5, 1890

by Paula Bosse

Below are a bunch of things I’ve come across over the past few months that I found interesting or amusing but had no place to put them. So here they are, in an end-of-the-year collection of Dallas-related … stuff. Enjoy!

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“Hunting has always been one of the chief sports of Texas. While buffaloes were once plentiful at certain seasons farther toward West Texas, I have known but one to be killed in Dallas County, which was on Mountain Creek during the Civil War, when game of all kinds became much more plentiful than it had ever been, partly on account of the scarcity of ammunition. Turkeys and deer abounded and were the chief articles of food for the settlers.” Memories of Thomas Park, son of Curtis Park, an early Dallas settler. (DMN, June 22, 1924)

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“City Councilmen were the first night police squad in Dallas, each taking turns to see that law and order prevailed, according to the minutes of the council of Feb. 21, 1867. John Neely Bryan was an alderman and took his turn on the night patrol in this second year after the Civil War.” (DMN, Oct. 1, 1935)

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“[An] important highway was old Kaufman Road, which eventually became Elm Street, and finally Dallas’ theater district. Another was Kent’s Ferry Road, which led past the site of today’s State Fairgrounds where there was once a swamp called Buzzard Springs. […] The early roads through Dallas led through lands of abundant game. A mile-wide salt-lick that began at Forest Avenue made the deer that gathered in the late afternoon easy marks for hunters.” (DMN, Oct. 2, 1960)

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Advertisement AND a public service announcement. (Dallas Herald, Aug. 12, 1883)

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A. Harris ad. If it’s good enough for Anthony Trollope…. (1885)

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“You will never regret making an investment in Oak Cliff.” Advertisement for the Next Big Thing, looming just across the river. (1887)

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Advertisement … or item from the police blotter.  (1892)

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“The first motion pictures were shown in Dallas in February, 1897. An exhibition of Edison’s newest invention, the Vitascope, revealed a series of shorts — scenes of a Mexican duel, a hanging, a lynching, a fire rescue and Niagara Falls in action. A few weeks later The News noted editorially that Miss Frances Willard and other leaders in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were conducting a crusade against the worst excesses of the new invention.” (DMN, Oct. 2, 1935)

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Dallas Morning News ad — share the wealth.  (1904)

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The Inflation Calculator tells me that 10 bucks in 1906 would be the equivalent of $255 today (!!). Don’t mess with Belo. (1906)

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“Get off facing ahead.” (1907)

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Open all night! (1910)

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The Fair Park Horse Show Arena. I’m not sure I’ve seen this before. (Texas Trade Review, 1917 — click for larger image)

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The Wee Saint Andrews Miniature Golf Course — America’s largest miniature golf course. (Kind of like “jumbo shrimp.”) (1942)

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Slim-pickings in the job pool during WWII — education requirements for “temporary policemen” in 1944: must have completed grade school. (1944)

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“Give yourself a holiday.” (1948)

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“Current[ly] at Sky Club through Thursday night is Evelyn West, the divestmenteuse. To us her widely publicized $50,000 treasure chest is a big bust — for her prancings about the floor are vulgar and embarrassing. Even her midget partner, Esky, turns up red-cheeked.” Back when strippers (and their “midget partners”) were reviewed in the newspaper. (DMN, June 13, 1950)

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“And a gypsy ‘palm woman’ made work during the day. A South Dallas woman had retained the gypsy at $5 a week to remove a witch from her sewing machine. Left the machine with  the ‘palm woman.’ Is no longer bothered by either a witch or a sewing machine. The palm woman is missing. Evidently dematerialized herself and the sewing machine, too.” From a regular feature in The Dallas Morning News by Lorrie Brooks called “Last 24 Hours in Dallas” — kind of a humorous police blotter. I don’t know who you were, Lorrie, but I love reading your columns! (DMN, Feb. 9, 1951)

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Hair stylists don’t have names like “Mr. Don” anymore. Pity. (1952)

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“The numerous lanterns on our streets at night, borne by pedestrians picking their way through the slough, look like fire-flys in a marsh.” One of my favorite, lyrical descriptions of early Dallas. (Dallas Herald, Feb. 18, 1877)

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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.