Happy “7-Eleven Day,” Y’all!
by Paula Bosse
Hope you roosters and owls got your free Slurpees today!
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Ad from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas
A Miscellany: History, Ads, Pop Culture
Category: Modern Ads
July 7, 2014
“See Dallas Through Linz Glasses!” — 1929
by Paula Bosse
What a great ad from 1929!
The huge annual convention of the Rotarians was underway in Dallas at this time — 10,000 people were flooding the city from around the world, and all the larger businesses had specially-branded advertisements aimed at the pool of potential new customers.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved
June 25, 2014
Stevens Park Estates: “The Ideal Place for Your Home” — 1930
You deserve “maximum enjoyment”
by Paula Bosse
Do you dream of a home of your own? Then go and see the beautiful scenic Stevens Park Estates. “The Ideal Place for Your Home.” There you will find the ideal place for your “dream home.” A beautiful 146-acre park — 18 holes of golf — modern fan-shaped lots — broad sweeping boulevards — in fact, everything to make you realize the maximum enjoyment out of your home.
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Sources & Notes
Ad from 1930.
History of Oak Cliff’s Stevens Park Estates can be found here and here.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
June 19, 2014
Keep Oak Cliff Kinky — 1923
by Paula Bosse
I’m not sure what more I can offer, except to say that in today’s money — with inflation taken into account — that little $3 bondage device for a child’s thumb would run you a cool 40 bucks in 2014. (Updated: in 2024, make that $55!)
I picture Mrs. J. C. Thompson assembling the inventory herself, at the kitchen table in her little frame house on Melba Street in Oak Cliff, the Victrola playing in the other room, having a chirpy one-sided conversation with the imaginary “Dr. Thompson.” I wonder if she sold any?
To quote the Messrs. Python: “Guaranteed to break the ice at parties!”
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Sources & Notes
Ad from The Dallas Morning News, Nov. 18, 1923. I’m not sure there was a follow-up.
Whither Mrs. J. C. Thompson, OC entrepreneur?
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
June 12, 2014
Cokesbury Book Store — 1959
“For a summer of pleasure, grab a good book.”
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
June 7, 2014
Irby-Mayes Ad With a Cameo by the Merc — 1948
Landmark alert!
by Paula Bosse
An ad with the famous local building making a cameo.
It’s called PLATEAU
…the wonder fabric by Pacific Mills
that’s so perfect for our Texas weather. Suits of
[redacted??] look like regular weight worsted
…yet can be worn most every month of the year.
A new shipment exclusive at Irby-Mayes.
I love this 1948 ad. Irby-Mayes was located — where else? — in the Mercantile Bank Building!
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
May 28, 2014
The Statler Hilton: Dallas Has It All … Again
by Paula Bosse
It’s alive!
The old Statler Hilton looks like it might finally be renovated! Read about the exciting plans here.
Click picture for larger image.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
May 27, 2014
Neiman-Marcus Celebrates the Texas Centennial with “Cactus Colors” and Cattlebrands Burned Into Rawhide Belts — 1936
by Paula Bosse
Texans celebrate history with — what else? — fashion! Below, text from a Neiman-Marcus ad which appeared on the eve of the huge Texas Centennial celebrations in 1936.
Five days before the Centennial finds Neiman-Marcus keyed for last-minute demands … both in selections and service … Spectator clothes and accessories in cactus colors (see current Vogue), and Artcraft stockings, thin as a web, in Texas range colors … Cool snowy crepe dresses for the afternoon and printed chiffon jacket dresses for Centennial sightseeing … Cottons gifted with importance … Crownless roof hats and trailing garden party dresses … Cattlebrands burned on a rawhide belt that girdles a crisp white watching dress. All in the best of taste and at a happy range of prices.
And then I looked for the Vogue ads mentioned and … wow! I’ve had a vintage advertising blog for several years, and I’ve seen a lot of ads … but these may be my favorites! All as a tie-in to the Texas Centennial, celebrated in Dallas in 1936, spear-headed by Stanley Marcus himself. Thanks, Mr. Stanley!
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Color ads from Vogue, June 1936. I found them on Etsy from this seller (the ads have, apparently, been sold). I would LOVE to see these with the watermarks removed, and I’d also love to know what became of the original artwork and who “N. de Molas” was. I love Texas kitsch and I love fashion illustration from this period, and this is fantastic! Click color pictures for much larger images! And read that copy, man.
If you want to wander around a whole bunch of vintage advertising, my Retro Adverto blog is here, but it has been sadly neglected since my immersion into this blog!
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
May 19, 2014
The Britling Cafeteria Serves Those Who Serve Themselves
Britling Cafeteria’s rear entrance on Jackson St., 1920s
by Paula Bosse
A few weeks ago, I was zooming in on a view of the Dallas skyline when I saw an interesting restaurant sign: the Britling Cafeteria. After a little research, I learned that Britling Cafeterias are something of a cultural institution in Birmingham and Memphis (Elvis’ mother worked the coffee urn station in Memphis, and if that isn’t the sign of a Southern institution, I don’t know what is). Here in Texas, though … I’d never heard of it. It claimed to be the first cafeteria chain in the South, having begun in Birmingham in 1917 (and named for a character in, of all things, an H. G. Wells story). When the Dallas location opened at the end of 1922, it was only the sixth restaurant in the chain, joining others in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Memphis.
The Britling Cafeteria was at 1316 Commerce (“Right in the Heart of Things”), between Field and Akard. There were two entrances, one on Commerce and one on Jackson (seen in the photo above). It sounds pretty nice for a cafeteria — it was lavishly decorated in black and gold, lined with mirrors, filled with flowers, and it had a mezzanine and a raised platform for a live orchestra to provide background music. It had a seating capacity of 450, with an expected daily capacity of 3,000. We’re not talkin’ Luby’s here. Quick “Southern home-cooking” had arrived in Dallas, and it seems to have remained an active advertiser until the ads suddenly stopped in 1926. I hope Dallas enjoyed it while it had it.
Below is the interior of the Atlanta location, from about the same time as the Dallas location. Cafeterias were a whole lot nicer back then.
The first non-institutional cafeteria I can find mentioned in The Dallas Morning News was the one in the basement of the Praetorian Building (“Cleanliness, courteous, tipless”) in 1912, but the cafeteria “concept” must have still been fairly new to Dallas as the Britling advertisements that appeared in the week before the grand opening felt it necessary to explain how the system worked. “You’ll wait on yourself — and do it gladly.”
1922 (click to read)
But first, stop by for a “Day of Courtesy” preview — flowers for the ladies!
1922
1923
Below, a sample of some of the Southern home-cooking on the menu as well as the warning that there WILL be live music as “a charming quintet of young Dallas women play, sing and whistle (!) here twice daily.”
1926
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Sources & Notes
Photo is a detail from a larger view of the city from the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, seen in an earlier post here. The block in which the cafeteria was located is now 2 AT&T Plaza.
Postcard of the interior of the Atlanta Britling Cafeteria from somewhere on the internet.
More can be found in the DMN article “Britling Cafeteria Will Open” (Nov. 26, 1922), with details on the chain and specifics on the Dallas location, here.
Great short history on the cafeteria that every self-respecting citizen of Alabama and Tennessee is apparently familiar with can be found here.
An amusing first-hand account of a Texan (J. J. Taylor) visiting a newfangled cafeteria in San Francisco appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Aug. 25, 1912 and can be read here.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
April 29, 2014
Liquor Doctors Prescribe “Beer by the Case — All You Want”
by Paula Bosse
If you have an interest in the Dallas of yesterday, you’ve probably seen the great color film footage shot in downtown in 1939, presented to us by Robert Wilonsky of The Dallas Morning News (link below). One of my favorite things from that wonderful footage is a neon sign for a business called Liquor Doctors, with “Good & Bad Liquors” below it. That would be good enough on its own, but it’s even better as seen in the film, because the “Good” and the “Bad” flash back and forth. Great.
Liquor Doctors (what a great name) seems to have started in late 1937 and eventually had at least three locations: 509 Jackson St., Commerce & Houston, and Cedar Springs & Harwood. Info is limited on these stores — I found a classified ad looking for “salesladies” for the Jackson St. store (“must be over 21”) and a report of a hold-up at the Commerce St. location (the manager was forced, at gun point, to turn over $41.86 from the cash register). Not that interesting. Until I found this tidbit from the great-granddaughter of the owner, describing the utterly ridiculous (and thoroughly entertaining) operating procedure of the Cedar Springs location in the June 2010 issue of Texas Monthly (see link at bottom of post):
Later he opened another Liquor Doctors on Cedar Springs that offered curbside service. The employees, dressed as doctors and nurses, would stroll out to the cars and dispense “medicine” six days a week.
Depending on your threshold for silliness, this is either clever or hokey. (I vote “clever.”)
For some reason the owner changed the name of the business (but why?!), and the next incarnation was simply his name, “Bob Ablin” (where, thankfully, you could still get “good and bad liquors”). I think he might have sold the liquor businesses and opened a soda fountain on Cedar Springs, a venture that lasted until January of 1948.
Below is an ad placed during a WWII whiskey shortage. There was a strict limit of one bottle per person. But beer? Until the cows came home. Bob sounds like a fun guy.
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Sources & Notes
Screen capture of the Liquor Doctors flashing neon sign from the really wonderful 1939 film footage purchased from Ebay by Robert Wilonsky (of The Dallas Morning News) and several others who joined together to share a cool slice of the city’s history with us. Watch the video and read Wilonsky’s Dallas Morning News article from April 23, 2014, here.
Quote about the Cedar Springs costumed curb service from the essay “Old Testament” — about growing up Jewish in Dallas — by Megan Giller-Dupe, Bob’s great-granddaughter. You can find the essay in Texas Monthly (June 2010), here. It includes a nice photo of Bob.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 