Flashback : Dallas

by Paula Bosse

The internet at the end of each year is usually crammed full of year-end lists. Like this one! Here is the first of three for Flashback Dallas. Today, my favorite images from this year’s posts, including photos, postcards, and a cartoon. My favorite is at the top, and the rest are listed chronologically, as they appeared throughout the year. Click the title to see the original post. Click the images to see them much larger.

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Above, a sweet postcard which shows two children and their pets in City Park. I don’t come across a lot of photos like this. I really love it. From “Daily Flashbacks.” (Source: DeGolyer Library, SMU).

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Below, a serene postcard showing Exall Lake in Highland Park. From “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #22.” (Source: eBay)

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Also from “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #22,” a great photo by the great R. C. Hickman, showing two teenage couples on the dance floor at the Empire Club on Hall Street in 1956. (Source: R. C. Hickman Photographic Archive, Briscoe Center, University of Texas Libraries)

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This somewhat unusual photo — taken almost in the street — shows the 1300 block of Main Street in 1927. I’m not sure why I like this so much, except that I really feel the traffic! From “More Flashback.” (Source: eBay)

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I have always had a weird fascination for anything involving a conveyor belt. And, for some reason, I also love seeing incredibly clean factories! So how could I not like this photo of the brand-new (1964) Coca-Cola bottling plant near Love Field? From “On the Line at Coca-Cola — 1964.” (Source: Photo by John Rogers, from UNT Libraries Special Collections)

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I love this photo of Dallas’ hometown hero Ernie Banks and his wife Mollye visiting Big D in 1955. From “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #23.” (Source: John Leslie Patton Jr. Papers, Dallas Historical Society)

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I swear most of my childhood in the family car was spent hurtling around this cloverleaf, fearing for my very life. I really miss it! From “The Cloverleaf.” (Source: TxDOT)

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There are so many weird and wonderful photos of the goings-on at the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration in Fair Park. The one below was one I had never seen before: a kitschy little restaurant called The Chuck Wagon, with a covered-wagon theme. From “Zephyr, Meet Ox Cart — 1936.” (Source: Texas Centennial Exposition Collection, Dallas Historical Society)

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I absolutely love this dreamy-feeling postcard. The Melrose Hotel pool was teeny. From “Poolside Patrons.” (Source: eBay)

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Photos of people waiting at train stations and bus stations are always interesting (I don’t really get that excited about people waiting in airports…). There is so much to look at in this great photo — and I zoom in on lots of details of it in “Labor Day Weekend, 1952 (Redux).” (Source: Photo by Denny Hayes, Hayes Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

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Also by Denny Hayes is this spectacularly BRIGHT photo of Elm Street, from “The Bright Lights of Big D — 1951.” (Source: Hayes Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

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Another almost other-worldly, dreamlike postcard, is this one, featuring the Fair Park lagoon at the Texas Centennial. From “Over on Patreon….” (Source: eBay)

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I love every single thing about this photograph. From “Tooling Around Munger Place — ca. 1913.” (Source: eBay)

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One of the most exciting things for me to come across is something like this cartoon. When it was published in The Dallas Journal in 1935, it was simply a drawing of something that was probably humdrum and familiar to everyone who lived in a big city. But I had never heard of a “curve-greaser” and had never even considered that this was something that people did. …Or something that needed doing. I loved learning about this! If you want to know more, check out “A Unique Profession: The Curve Greaser — 1935.” (Source: Drawing by Aubrey Streater, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

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I have stepped beyond the Dallas city limits for this one (but have remained inside the county…), but I really, really love this shot of West Main Street in Mesquite. It’s actually a detail of a larger image, but the man leaning against the wall of the Gulf station gets lost in the original photo — which you can see in “Downtown Mesquite — 1925.” (Source: Photo by Frank Rogers, Frank Rogers Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

I look forward to discovering more new (or at least new-to-me) and exciting images in 2025!

Still ahead before 2024 peters out: my personal favorite posts and the most popular posts of the year. Check back!

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Sources & Notes

Year-End “best of” lists from 2024 are here.

See all Flashback Dallas “Year-End” lists — past and present — here.

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Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.