Flashback : Dallas

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Love Field, 4/20/69 (Jones Film Collection, SMU)

by Paula Bosse

One of the advantages of living in a major American city is that all the biggest entertainers visit at one time or another. Let’s take three of the biggest entertainers of 1969: Jimi Hendrix, Glen Campbell, and Tiny Tim. All were huge, and all came to Dallas. And, luckily for us, they were captured on film in interviews by reporters from WFAA-Channel 8. 

For me, without question, the most exciting interview was the one with Jimi Hendrix, who, standing on the tarmac of Love Field with bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding on April 20, 1969 (yes, 4/20…), gives a great, relaxed interview to a very lucky Channel 8 reporter, Doug Terry. (I love the look on Terry’s face throughout the interview.) Watch it here:

A few screenshots (click to see slideshow):

April 20, 1969, WFAA-Ch. 8 News (Jones Film Collection, SMU)

4/20/24 UPDATE: After several years of trying to contact the reporter, Doug Terry, I finally heard from him! Here are a few paragraphs from his email to me (used with his permission), with some interesting tidbits about how some of these interviews were conducted:

I was still a college student most of the time I worked at WFAA. I handed in my resignation after covering the north Texas pop festival in that same year. [Watch one of Doug’s Texas International Pop Festival reports from Lewisville here.] Your comment about being in a large city and its advantages was something that I did not fully grasp until years later. The access was wonderful, I saw Hendrix at least three times, on one occasion being in the dressing room with a camera when he warmed up for a show (that footage is nowhere to be found).

There are two aspects to mention about that interview. First, I was a weekend reporter and late night news anchor at Ch. 8 and I assigned myself to go interview him. In those days, one could call up the airlines when a notable person was coming in and they would give the flight number and arrival time. Amazing. Most of the people at the station at that time probably had no idea who Jimi was and wouldn’t have cared if they did know.

The other interesting point is the work of the photographer. Ordinarily, we did over the shoulder interviews, the camera to the back and side of the reporter. The fact that this was shot from the side made all the difference. As a shooter, he was not otherwise outstanding but this interview would be much less interesting if it had been shot in the traditional line-up sort of way. The two bandmates goofing around was distracting but great.

Thank you, Doug! I love this interview — I’m so glad you assigned yourself to the duty!

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Jimi Hendrix appeared at least 4 times in Dallas:

• Feb. 16, 1968: Fair Park Music Hall
• Aug. 3, 1968: Moody Coliseum, SMU
• April 20, 1969: Memorial Auditorium (where he was headed after the Ch. 8 interview)
• June 5, 1970: Memorial Auditorium

July 28, 1968

Two surprising errors (grammatical and factual) appear in a Neiman-Marcus tie-in ad (of sorts) which states that Jimi would be at Memorial Auditorium, rather than Moody Coliseum. Despite the error, it’s cool that Neiman’s was expanding its cultural horizons to include someone like Jimi Hendrix in one of its ads (which was featuring teen fashions, but still). N-M has always had its finger on the pulse of current fashions — and Jimi Hendrix was certainly fashionable.

July 31, 1968 (ad detail)

April 20, 1969

June 5, 1970 — poster via

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Glen Campbell was in town for several days in June, 1969. He arrived at Love Field on June 15 and was met by a “high-spirited throng” of teenage admirers. He was here to promote the release of the movie True Grit (in which he appeared with John Wayne), as well as to perform at Memorial Auditorium on June 19, 1969.

June 19, 1969

He was actually in Dallas the previous year, in March, 1968, to perform at the State Fair Music Hall with Bobbie Gentry. An interview with the pair begins at 3:57:

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And Tiny Tim was in Dallas on June 17, 1969 to appear at a book-signing at the downtown Sanger-Harris department store. The signing was a bit more sedate than his previous visit to Dallas when he caused something of a riot on January 23, 1969 while making an appearance at the Melody Shop in NorthPark. I’m not sure what sort of crowd the Melody Shop thought they’d get for their little “autograph party,” but it’s safe to say they did not expect 5,000 over-excited teenagers. The news report the next day was peppered with words like “pandemonium,” “swarm,” “mob scene,” and “human wall.” (Read about that bizarre event here). His drawing power continued the next year when Tiny made his Dallas performing debut at … of all places … Abe Weinstein’s Colony Club, one of the city’s top “burlesque” houses. He was booked for an incredible 9-night run (!) in September, 1970. It was a major success. Dallas apparently loved Tiny Tim. And, of course, years later, Bucks Burnett’s Edstock and Burnett’s tiny Tiny Tim museum continued the Big D/Tiny Tim lovefest.

June 17, 1969

WFAA-Ch. 8 interview (screenshot)

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Sources & Notes

Video is from the WFAA Newsfilm  Collection, held at the Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University; screenshots are from those clips. Any requests to license these clips (or any of the other thousands at SMU!) should be directed to curator Jeremy Spracklen.

4/20/24 UPDATE: Passages from former Channel 8 reporter Doug Terry are from an email to me on April 16, 2024, reprinted with his permission.

Hit the Dallas Morning News archives to find a little pre-Music Hall interview with Jimi Hendrix conducted by “YouthBeat Editor” Marge Pettyjohn: “A Real Experience” (DMN, Feb. 25, 1968). Her interview with Tiny Tim (“Magical Mystery Tour: On Meeting Tiny Tim,” DMN, Jan. 25, 1969) is also worth checking out, as is the Jean Kelly article “5,000 Kids Mob Tiny Tim” (DMN, Jan. 24, 1969).

While you’re in the archives, look for the interview with Glen Campbell at Love Field amidst the frenzied teenage girls: “High-Spirited Throng — Fans Mob Glen Campbell at Airport” by Maryln Schwartz (DMN, June 17, 1969).

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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.