Flashback : Dallas

Ali in Big D

by Paula Bosse

Time for another batch of images I’ve come across recently which belong in posts I’ve already written. Like the photo above and the two below, which show Muhammad Ali in Dallas on March 26, 1967, at an appearance at a mosque across from Booker T. Washington High School, during which he signed copies of an Islamic newspaper for the throngs of fans who showed up. I was very excited to see these photos pop up on eBay a short time after I had written about this Easter Sunday appearance. They have been added to the 2023 Flashback Dallas post “Muhammad Ali Visits Graham’s Barber Shop — ca. 1967.” (Source: photos by Bob W. Smith, found on eBay)

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It’s probably because I’m so familiar with the Lower Greenville area, but I really love this aerial photo by Squire Haskins, taken in Feb. 1950, showing the Hockaday campus at Greenville and Belmont (Greenville is the street running horizontally at the bottom of the photo. I’ve added it to the 2016 post that keeps getting longer and longer, “Belmont & Greenville: From Caruth Farmland to Hub of Lower Greenville.” (Source: Squire Haskins photo, from the Squire Haskins Photography Inc. Collection, UTA Libraries, Special Collections)

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Yeah, I’ve had my fair share of delicious Stoneleigh Burgers and cherry cokes at the Stoneleigh P. Here’s a great photo showing it in the ’70s, in the building originally built in 1923 (it burned down in 1980). I’ve added this photo to a 2019 post I really enjoyed writing, “Stoneleigh Pharmacy/Stoneleigh P.” (Source: Dallas Municipal Archives Facebook page; from the Historic Preservation Office collection)

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I’m fascinated with the telegraph. I’ve added this 1904 telegraph-school class photo (with a woman!) to the 2014 post “Start Your Brilliant Career at Dallas Telegraph College — c. 1900.” (Source: eBay)

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Lake Cliff, man. Wow. I’ve added the two postcards below to the extravaganza of cool postcards collected in the 2019 post “Beautiful Lake Cliff — ca. 1906.” (Source: eBay)

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On a hot day in May 2017, I went downtown to watch the restoration by the fabulous Julie Richey of the beautiful tile mosaic on the exterior of the St. Jude Chapel on Main Street (I absolutely LOVED writing about this in “Mosaic Restoration at Downtown’s St. Jude Chapel”) — I was aware of the mosaic only because I had written the post “The Saint Jude Chapel Mosaic by Gyorgy Kepes — 1968” a few weeks earlier. I’ve added the postcard below to that latter post from 2017. (Source: eBay)

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Pre-fab housing was a big deal in Dallas after (and during) WW2, because of a severe housing shortage. I’ve added the ad below to the 2014 post “World War II ‘Victory Huts’ at Parkland.” (Source: 1944 Southwestern Medical School yearbook)

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The Rose Room on Hall Street. Fantastic. This photo has been added to the 2017 post “1710 Hall: The Rose Room/The Empire Room/The Ascot Room — 1942-1975.” (Source: eBay)

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This screenshot from news footage about the removal of the contents of the Oak Lawn National Bank (3110 Oak Lawn Avenue) is interesting to me because it shows the Italian Villa restaurant across the street at 3211 Oak Lawn (currently occupied by Green Papaya and its neighbors). The odd brick… um… structure things have always seemed weird to me, but there they are. I’ve added this screenshot to another one of those posts that is probably just WAY TOO LONG, but I’m cramming it into 2018’s “Sam Ventura’s Italian Village, Oak Lawn.” (Source: WBAP-TV news footage shot on Jan. 23, 1955, from the KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, UNT Libraries Special Collections, via the Portal to Texas History)

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A few blocks away on Oak Lawn was Whittle’s, mecca for band kids. I’ve added this to 2017’s “The Whittle Music Building — ca. 1956” (the first part is about the original downtown location before the move to Oak Lawn in 1965 — scroll to the bottom of the post to see a few photos of the Oak Lawn location). (Source: I failed to note where I came across the ad)

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And lastly, I keep stumbling across weird, obscure stuff that I wrote about years ago — like the story about a 1963 police raid on the East Dallas home of a cafe-owning bookie named George Bartlett. He got a black eye during a scuffle with vice cops as he tried to flush betting cards down the toilet. The worst day of his life was captured for posterity by WBAP-Channel 5 news cameras, showing the down-and-out cafe man, still in his pajamas, being handcuffed in his bedroom. I originally came across the story when I was writing about a fire on Knox Street which damaged several businesses, including his cafe — that photo is featured in the 2016 post “Knox Street Fire — 1961.” I’ve added this screenshot in the part about poor George. (Source: KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, UNT Libraries Special Collections, via the Portal to Texas History)

You can watch the short, silent video here — and you can read the explanatory news script, which the TV anchor would have read as the film ran, here (otherwise, you’ll have no idea why you’re seeing loaves of bread…).

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Sources & Notes

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