Tomorrow’s Weather at Live Oak & Elm — 1955-ish
by Paula Bosse
The weather, brought to you by Coke… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
This photo (which is a little blurry, but the blurriness gives it a kind of dreamy softness) shows the one-time five-point intersection of Ervay, Live Oak (seen above at the left), and Elm (on the right, looking east). On the corner of this busy and confusing intersection, a large sign provided a public service by showing tomorrow’s weather forecast (…whilst subtly encouraging onlookers to hie themselves to the closest Coca-Cola-dispensary). During the day, the sign looked mildly interesting, but at NIGHT…! At night, this sign transformed downtown’s entertainment district into our very own mini Times Square. Here’s what it looked like at night (it’s a giant image — click it!).
photo by Squire Haskins, 1953
And here it is from another angle, about 1948:
Wow!
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Sources & Notes
I found the top photo on eBay a few months ago. The amateur photo was stamped “Feb. 1956” when the photo was developed, but looking at the clothes people are wearing, one would assume it was taken earlier — probably the previous year.
The first nighttime photo is by Squire Haskins, taken in January, 1953. See my original post — “Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953” — here. This post includes a map showing Live Oak when it used to intersect with Elm and Ervay.
The second nighttime photo is ca. 1948, probably from the Dallas Public Library. See the notes in this post.
All pictures larger when clicked.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
[…] See this same view during the DAY in the post “Tomorrow’s Weather at Live Oak & Elm — 1955-ish,” here. […]
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Always enjoy your posts! Your mention of that part of Downtown feeling like Times Square reminded me of Oak Lawn during the 70s. The Esquire Theater, Phil’s, Lucas B&B and many more all had great neon signs. Remember the big stiletto shoe and cat eye glasses?? Any way to find pictures of that? In color?
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Thanks, Craig. The only color photo I have of Oak Lawn at night (sadly without the Esquire in it), is this screenshot from Larry Buchanan’s movie “Mars Needs Women,” shot around Dallas in 1966: https://flashbackdallas.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/1-mars-oak-lawn.jpg (The original post this comes from is here:
https://flashbackdallas.com/2014/05/16/mars-needs-women-dallas-locations/)
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[…] I think present-day downtown Dallas looks really great at night. But it pales in comparison to what downtown Dallas — especially Elm Street — used to look like at night. It was bursting with lights and signs and people. The scene above shows Elm Street looking east from Ervay around 1948. The Coca-Cola weather-forecast sign at the left is one of my favorite by-gone downtown landmarks (other photos of the sign can be seen here and here). […]
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[…] I’ve gotten this intersection from almost every angle. See other photos of this crossroads here and […]
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