Flashback : Dallas

A Miscellany: History, Ads, Pop Culture
November 23, 2023

Colony Club Billboard in Beautiful Kodachrome — Early 1960s

kodachrome_elm-ervay-live-oak_chris-colt_colony-club-billboard_ebay_WATERMARKDowntown Dallas has it all…

by Paula Bosse

This. Is. A. Fantastic. Photo.

If only for the great, great, great Colony Club (“the best of the undressed”) billboard featuring Chris Colt (“the girl with the 45s”).

See this same view of the (one-time) intersection of Elm, Ervay, and Live Oak here and here. (The dazzling animated neon Coca-Cola sign was once where Chris Colt is showing off her 45s.)

I almost never post images with watermarks, but this photo is pretty spectacular. Look around the watermark!

I don’t know the seller of this color slide. I have no affiliation with the person. I get no cut in any sale. But I want someone reading this to BUY IT! Let’s keep this with someone who loves Dallas history! (And if you DO buy it and would like to send me a digital copy… well, I wouldn’t say no!) See this slide currently on eBay HERE. (HURRY!)

To see a naughty photo of Chris Colt, you can click on an antique collectors’ website here.

colony-club_ad_chris-colt_112262Colony Club ad, Nov. 22, 1962

And below is a photo of Colony Club owner Abe Weinstein in his younger years counting his moolah.

abe-weinstein_abe-and-pappys_djhs-facebookphoto: Dallas Jewish Historical Society

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Sources & Notes

Top image is from a color slide in a current eBay listing here. (Seller’s title: “Original Slide Dallas St Scene Colony Club Coca Cola Billboards Southland Life.”) There is no date, but Golden Steer Barbecue opened at 1713 Live Oak sometime in 1961.

Abe Weinstein photo — from his days as the co-owner of Abe’s and Pappy’s — is from the Facebook page of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society.

kodachrome_elm-ervay-live-oak_chris-colt_colony-club-billboard_ebay_WATERMARK_sm

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Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

7 Comments
November 23, 2023

An Elegant Thanksgiving Dinner at the Windsor Hotel — 1877

grand-windsor_directory_1878_ad

by Paula Bosse

Behold, a feast of yesteryear (and this is just the game and fish dishes):

thanksgiving_dallas-herald_112577Dallas Herald, Nov. 25, 1877

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AN ELEGANT DINNER

The champion dinner of the season will be served at the Windsor to-day. Colonel Whitla is anticipating Thanksgiving day in this dinner, but he tells us that he will not forget the occasion, which will be remembered in a suitable manner at his hotel. The bill of fare to-day is the most elaborate one yet presented to the patrons of the Windsor. 

The manager took time by the forelock and made his orders by telegraph for the particular edibles for the occasion. Last night we were shown a bill of fare for the dinner, by Mr L. J. Faessler, chief cook of the hotel. We have neither time nor space to mention the same entire, but can say that among the game and fish appears green sea turtle, black and red groupper and the sheep’s head, venison, antelope, quail, wild turkey, jack rabbit, opossum, oysters on shell, deviled crabs, and red-headed and canvas-backed ducks, etc.

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Hava a Happy (Possom-Free) Thanksgiving!

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Sources & Notes

Top ad for the Grand-Windsor Hotel from the 1878 Dallas directory. Originally two hotels (the Le Grande Hotel and the Windsor Hotel), they were joined by a little “sky-bridge” over Austin Street when they merged. See the Grand-Windsor on the 1885 Sanborn map here. (The room rates of $2-$3 back then would be the equivalent of about $60-$90, if you trust inflation calculators.)

Article is from the Nov. 25, 1877 edition of the Dallas Daily Herald, via the Portal to Texas History.

More Flashback Dallas posts on Thanksgiving can be found here;

thanksgiving-card

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Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

4 Comments