Bright Lights, Big City — ca. 1948
by Paula Bosse
“Forget all your troubles, forget all your cares…”
by Paula Bosse
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).
I wouldn’t really encourage anyone to click the link to see what this part of Elm Street looks like today, but if you must, it’s here.
Whenever I imagine times in Dallas history that I’d like to time-travel to, for some reason I always wish I could walk around downtown Dallas in the 1940s. It must have been quite something to have seen this pulsating view in person.
Elm Street, 1948 directory (click to see larger image)
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Sources & Notes
I’m unsure of the source of this photo, but there is one almost identical to it in the collection of the Dallas Public Library, but the library’s copy is over-exposed and dated 1930 (it is titled “[Intersection of Elm, N. Ervay, and Live Oak streets]” and has the call number PA82-00324).
This photo was taken sometime between the end of 1947 and very early 1949. Mangel’s department store opened in its brand new building at 1700 Elm in September, 1947, and the Artificial Flower Shop (… “the artificial flower shop”?) lost its lease in early 1949. I can’t make out the lettering on the “Welcome” banners along the street, but there was a large hardware convention in Dallas in January, 1948.
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Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
I am pretty sure that in the center of the star under welcome it says fair and I think those are blurry Mexican flags hanging above each side of Elm. If that is correct then the photo was taken during the State Fair in 1947. See this Dallas Morning News article: http://bit.ly/35UlzYQ
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I think you’re right. Thanks!
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When I was a kid in the mid 1950s we’d ride the bus from Highland Park to downtown Dallas on Saturdays, and go to the Deep “Elem” pawn shops and the Majestic Theatre. Also the Whittle Music Company. I bought my first classical guitar there. You’ll never guess what I got at Rocky’s Pawn Shop… A switch blade! (David Hinkley went there much later.) In those days Elm Street looked pretty much like your 1940s photos. I have a lot of great memories packed into what Elm Street used to be.
Paula, I saw a photo of you on one of your posts. I could see a lot of Dick in your face. Sawnie, Mimi, Dick, and the Aldredge Book Store are among my fondest memories.
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Thanks, Chris!
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Paula, this 1948 view of Elm Street reminds me to ask, have you ever seen any photos of Elm Street on Halloween when it was closed off for pedestrians to walk in their costumes? I can remember doing it perhaps 1946 and recall that it was quite crowded. We would start about Ervay where Live Oak ended. I lived on Live Oak.
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No, I’ve never seen photos of that — but I’d love to! I wrote about something similar in the ’30s: https://flashbackdallas.com/2014/10/31/halloween/
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Thanks for the link! I noticed that the “masses” were eliminated by 1949.
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This picture I ran across by accident and I am glad I did, my ex-wife’s great grandfather was named Joe Joyce and ran that Joyce Jewelry store. They never really knew were it was so I have shared this with them. Thank you for posting these, I wish Dallas was Dallas again.
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[…] The second nighttime photo is ca. 1948, probably from the Dallas Public Library. See the notes in this post. […]
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[…] First, the photo above, which contains almost everything I wish I could have seen in downtown Dallas — sadly, I never got to see any of it! This is downtown Dallas at its liveliest and big-city-est. This is Elm Street around 1948, looking east from Ervay. So much flashing neon. And that wonderful Coca-Cola sign which provided weather forecasts. From the January post “Bright Lights, Big City — ca. 1948.” […]
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