Food | Flashback : Dallas

February 27, 2024

Salih’s, Preston Center: 1953-1977

1968, Preston Center (W. T. White yearbook)

by Paula Bosse

If you’re reading this, chances are pretty good that you have fond memories of Salih’s Barbecue in Preston Center (or its later incarnation in Addison as “Solly’s”). I have to admit, I had never heard of Salih’s until I started this blog in 2014 (I completely forgot to note the landmark of 10 full years of Flashback Dallas a couple of weeks ago!). But, from what I’ve read, this was an incredibly popular place, and people still rhapsodize about the BBQ, the po’ boys, the fries, the cole slaw, and the potato salad.

So, I’ve read all these memories… but I can find no good photos of the place! There’s the cropped shot of the exterior above and a lot of not-very-helpful shots which appeared in high school yearbooks over the years, taken inside — but they don’t actually show the restaurant! And I understand there was quite a mural in there. I’d love to see a photo of that! Do YOU have any photos of Salih’s in Preston Center? Exterior? Interior? Mural? Please send me whatever images you have. I really want to see them!

Salih’s Barbecue was opened by George and Jack Salih on March 20, 1953. The brothers had previously owned a small drive-in and later worked in or managed locations of Lobello’s in Lakewood (2005 Abrams) and Casa Linda (328 Casa Linda Plaza) — either before, during, or after these locations became “Fred’s” BBQ stands (owned by Fred Bell, founder of Kip’s).

That first business, Salih’s Drive-In, was located across from Fair Park at 912 S. Haskell — it opened around 1945. Read George Salih’s memories of serving the “circus people” there in a Feb. 11, 1987 article from the Farmers Branch Times here.

salihs-drive-in_haskell_DMN_081849 Aug. 18, 1949

After a few years of working for the Lobello family, George and Jack opened their own place at 8309 Westchester, in Preston Center, not far from the original Lobello’s on Northwest Highway. Eventually, Jack moved to East Texas and opened another barbecue place (the Angus Inn in Longview), and George ran the Dallas restaurant. (Click ad to see a larger image.)

March 20, 1953 — opening day

An article in the Dallas Morning News describes the new Dallas restaurant thusly:

The restaurant features unique styling in both interior and exterior design. Relief murals decorate the walls inside, while small wooden shutters afford a rustic flavor. The exterior incorporates Roman brick construction, with tall red columns decorated with glass paneling added as a decorative feature. (DMN, March 20, 1953)

It also notes that the Salih brothers were the restaurant’s chefs.

I mentioned this Park Cities landmark in a recent Patreon post, and a kind member described the mural (designed, I believe, by artist Frank J. Boerder):

It was a 3-dimensional cut-out depiction of a cowboy scene, back-lit by a set of red-orange lamps. It ran the length of the south wall of the interior. When you looked at it the scene was in black, back-lit by the lamps. Very striking for a BBQ place. (Plus, the food was very, very good.)

Salih’s is described in the ad above as “a dining area which provides an inviting atmosphere with ultramodern ranch-style design.” I would really like to see this!

Salih’s left Preston Center around 1977, leaving for the then-sparsely populated wilderness of Addison. The restaurant’s name was changed to “Solly’s” (which was either a new name for a new location, a guide for new customers on how to pronounce the Lebanese name, or a sad concession to deal with possible Middle Eastern biases). Solly’s closed in 2004.

Below are a lot of ads that appeared in the yearbooks of Highland Park High School and W. T. White High School. I was hoping to see more of the interior but, instead, got lots of photos of kids in paper hats (which I still enjoy!). So here they are!

salihs_smu-campus_081656 SMU Daily Campus, 1956
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salihs_HPHS_1960-yrbk HPHS, 1960
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salihs_HPHS_1961-yrbk HPHS, 1961
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salihs_HPHS_1962-yrbk HPHS, 1962
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salihs_HPHS_1963-yrbk HPHS, 1963
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salihs_HPHS_1964-yearbook HPHS, 1964
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salihs_w-t-white_1966-yearbook WTW, 1966
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salihs_HPHS_1967-yrbk HPHS, 1967
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Part of the mural over their heads?

salihs_w-t-white_1967-yrbk WTW, 1967
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salihs_HPHS_1968-yearbook HPHS, 1968
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salihs_HPHS_1969-yrbk HPHS, 1969
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More of the carved mural?

salihs_w-t-white_1969-yrbk WTW, 1969
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salihs_HPHS_1970-yrbk HPHS, 1970
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salihs_HPHS_1971-yrbk HPHS, 1971
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salihs_HPHS_1972-yrbk HPHS, 1972
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salihs_HPHS_1973-yrbk HPHS, 1973
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salihs_HPHS_1974-yrbk HPHS, 1974
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salihs_HPHS_1975-yrbk HPHS, 1975
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salihs_HPHS_1976-yrbk HPHS, 1976
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And, the last one, from 1977 — could that be a another very, very dark part of the mural at the right?

salihs_HPHS_1977-yrbk HPHS, 1977

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Sources and Notes

All sources as noted.

Read the obituary of George Salih here. Read a longer, more colorful obituary in the Dallas Morning News archives (“George Salih — Operated Barbecue Restaurant in Dallas” by Joe Simnacher, DMN, Aug. 14, 2009).

Jack Salih died in Gilmer in Jan. 1991.

10 Comments

November 23, 2023

An Elegant Thanksgiving Dinner at the Windsor Hotel — 1877

by Paula Bosse

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

Dallas Herald, Nov. 25, 1877

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.

Hava a Happy (Possom-Free) Thanksgiving!

***

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

4 Comments

November 20, 2023

Jack Walton’s Hot Barbecue

Restaurant No. 1, Haskell & San Jacinto…

by Paula Bosse

Arden Lee “Jack” Walton was born in Panola County (on his World War I registration card, he listed his home as Fairplay, Texas, which a town name I’m certainly glad to know exists). After the war, he moved to Dallas and opened his first restaurant — Walton’s Place — around 1925 or 1926. By the 1930s, he seems to have settled on barbecue as his primary specialty and had several of his self-named restaurants/drive-ins around town, branching out to Fort Worth in the early ’40s.

The photo above, from about 1946, is probably Walton’s first location, at Haskell and San Jacinto in Old East Dallas. The two photos below — showing a man working on the neon sign — were taken at the same time. (The photographer, James Bell, was a Dallas native back in town visiting — he took tons of unusual photos, often focusing on trucks, buses, cars, juke boxes, and various coin-operated machines. I’m sure he liked the look of the truck. They’re definitely amateur photos, but they’re great.)

The photo that crops up on places all over El Internet (the photo below) is one which has a variety of conflicting information attached to it, including photographer, date, and location. As far as I can tell, I think the photo was taken by Arthur Rothstein in Fort Worth, in the very early ’40s (the FW location, at 1900 E. Lancaster, opened around 1940). I think most of the locations had a similar design. (See a typical menu here.)

Here’s another photo (location unknown):

from the book Smokelore

Walton was very successful in his toasted sandwich endeavors (he also made some savvy real estate deals). When he died, he was described as “the barbecue baron of Dallas.”

…When he died. Jack Walton died on Feb. 19, 1960, at the age of 62. He was visiting one of his restaurants, at Tom Field Circle and Hwy. 183. The manager — Jack’s brother-in-law — had been drinking on the job, and Jack fired him on the spot. So the brother-in-law shot him, telling the police later that Walton “started fussing at me and told me to get out.” He shot him at close range, so inebriated that only two of the shots hit their target. He was DOA at Baylor. (Read the AP wire story here.)

At least one of Walton’s restaurants was taken over by the Semos family — the Haskell location lasted under non-Walton management for quite a while.

When I saw this matchbook cover several years ago, I was quite taken with the phrase “toasted chicken loaf.” What was a “chicken loaf”? I have to say, it didn’t sound that appetizing.

Chicken loaf was (apparently) a very popular food in days gone by, similar to meat loaf (it was made with chopped, shredded, or minced chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs/rice/some sort of cereal, etc., with the addition of hard-boiled eggs and/or pimentos and/or peas and/or whatever else was lying around). There are lots of ads in newspapers beginning around 1900 showing it as a “potted” meat, sold in cans alongside Underwood Deviled Ham and Vienna sausages, etc. I can understand this as a cost-saving meal during the Depression, but it was also very popular in restaurants (several local restaurants advertised that they sold entire take-out “loafs”), and it was a favorite of many as a Sunday dinner (or as a way to use leftover chicken in the pre- and post-casserole days). By the ’40s, recipes started adding the dreaded gelatin (“Jellied Chicken Loaf”). Um, yes. There was also … wait for it … MOCK chicken loaf! I’m not sure what that was, but it probably got people through WWII and food-rationing.

While searching for “chicken loaf” info in the Dallas Morning News archives, I saw a few delicacies listed in grocery ads which one might be hard pressed to find on the shelves of one’s local supermarket today: oyster loaf, liver loaf, and deviled tongue — all sold in cans. There was also a New Year’s Eve recipe in there for “Hot Sardine Canapes,” with toast “cut in fancy shapes.”

FYI.

***

Sources & Notes

First three photos were taken by James Bell in about 1946; they are from the James H. Bell Collection, Dallas Historical Society — they can be accessed here, here, and here. (I have straightened and cropped the photos.)

The photo which is probably by Arthur Rothstein is from the Traces of Texas Facebook page.

Menu detail art is from Worthpoint; matchbook scans from eBay.

jack-waltons-barbecue_bell-collection_DHS_ca-1946_1_sm

5 Comments

September 4, 2023

Aunt Stelle’s Sno Cone

aunt-stelles_sign_google An Oak Cliff oasis…

by Paula Bosse

This has been a brutally hot summer. The kind of summer when a snow cone would really hit the spot at just about any sweltering hour of the day. One place that was famous for its snow cones (they were described as being like “fine snow”) was Aunt Stelle’s Sno Cone, at 2002 W. Clarendon (at Marlborough) in Oak Cliff. Established by Estelle Williams in 1962, the little stand was hugely popular until it officially closed in 2018. Her snow cones were flying out of there every summer season for more than 55 years! To generations of customers. Not many businesses can boast that kind of longevity and patron loyalty. (One of those loyal patrons was Oak Cliff homeboy Stevie Ray Vaughan.)

Having not grown up in Oak Cliff, I wasn’t familiar with Aunt Stelle’s until I saw the photos below which appeared as ads in editions of the Sunset High School yearbook. You can see Estelle in the window. She looks exactly like the kind of person I’d want serving me a delicious, refreshing, messy treat.

aunt-stelle_sunset-high-school-yrbk_1967-det

Speaking of the treats, check out that menu board! I understand the “Beatle” tasted like a grape SweeTart, the “Zorro” tasted like licorice (and it was black!), the “Pink Lady” tasted like vanilla ice cream, and the “Popeye”… I really wanted it to be green and taste like spinach, but apparently it tasted like gumballs (what a missed opportunity!).

1967 Sunset High School yearbook

1967 Sunset yearbook

1968 Sunset yearbook

1969 Sunset yearbook

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Sources & Notes

Top image of the Aunt Stelle’s sign is from Google — the photographer is listed simply as “Scott.”

A great story about Aunt Stelle’s can be found in the Dallas Morning News archives in the story “Sno Days: Aunt Stelle’s Has Been Keeping Oak Cliff Cool for 40 Seasons” by Dave Tarrant (DMN, June 22, 2001).

Consider supporting me on Patreon! Five bucks a month gets you daily morsels of Dallas history!

4 Comments

February 13, 2023

Tex-Mex in a Can (with Bonus Chili-Burger Recipe) — 1953/1954

cuellar-recipe-bk_ebay_det

by Paula Bosse

So the other day I was browsing through eBay, hoping to find something Dallas-related that I’d never seen before. And a Cuellar’s (“QUAY-YAR”) recipe pamphlet popped up. And it is fantástico! I remember El Chico frozen dinners, but I don’t remember El Chico canned foods, and that appears to be what the Cuellar family of Dallas started off with when they decided to branch off from their expanding Tex-Mex restaurant dynasty. The canned foods first appeared in late 1949 or early 1950 under the “El Chico” brand, and just as it was really starting to take off nationally, the company was forced to rename the line “Cuellar’s” in 1953 because of a copyright lawsuit; in 1954, after a year of court appeals, they were allowed to go back to using “El Chico.” (Read more about this manufacturing business in my previous post, “El Chico Foods/Cuellar Foods.”) Initially, the company produced only canned goods. Including, yes, tortillas in a can. TORTILLAS. IN. A. CAN. It appears this circular tin originally came with a dreaded key to open it, like Spam and canned hams. So if you wanted some tortillas, you really had to put the work in (and make sure you were current with your tetanus shots).

In addition to the tortillas (which I assume were flour tortillas, but I’m not entirely sure about this), the line of El Chico canned Tex-Mex foods included staples such as chili con carne (with beans and without), tamales (wrapped in corn shucks), enchiladas, beans (fried and not), enchilada sauce, tamale sauce, hot sauce, green chiles, jalapeños, menudo, “taco filler,” taco sauce, Mexican-style spaghetti (!), something called enchimales, and Mexican-style rice (I have never heard of cooked rice in a can). And, I’m sure, many more products. One newspaper ad touted the fact that you could concoct a full meal for a family of 6 using only 5 El Chico canned foods for $1.85 (which, somewhat shockingly, is the equivalent today of about $22.00).

El Chico canned food ad, April 1951

But back to that recipe pamphlet I stumbled across on eBay, which would be from 1953/1954, the period when El Chico was forced to use the “Cuellar’s” name for their canned foods. The recipes are interesting — not only were these dishes unfamiliar and “exotic” to most people in the U.S. at the time (meaning that El Chico felt the need to inform readers that “‘tacos’ in Spanish means ‘sandwiches'” and that quesadillas were “cheese turnovers”), but the recipes also have occasional odd little flourishes which seem unusual and may indicate restaurant hacks or traditional preparation tips I am unaware of (guacamole salad calling for a teaspoon of butter, for example). You’ve got recipes for alarming dishes such as “Tongue a la Cuellar” (first ingredient: “one large or two small tongues”). not-alarming-but-unusual dishes such as scrambled eggs made with a can of chili and hominy, as well as the more mundane dishes like tacos (in which the cook is instructed to use toothpicks to keep the tortilla “closed” during deep frying).

But my very favorite recipe is something so spectacular that I can’t believe this hasn’t made its way to the State Fair of Texas food tents. Seriously, if any of you SFOT food vendors or maverick entrepreneurs decide to develop this dish, please remember you learned about it from me as you rake in the cash!

Okay. Take a deep breath, because this is just GREAT.

“CUELLAR CHILI-BURGER — WITH CHEESE”

Place a can of Cuellar Chili con Carne in refrigerator overnight.
Remove both ends of can and push chili con carne out
Using sharp knife slice chili into approximately 1/4” slices
Dip slices in regular pancake batter and fry in deep fat
Have buns ready with slices of cheese melted on same
Place fried patty, along with diced onion, on buns and serve — will make from 8 to 10 chili-burgers

Wow! It’s a chili-burger without a burger. How does this even work? Granted, this was back in the day when canned chili was very, very fatty — I remember opening cans of (delicious) Wolf Brand chili as a kid and marveling at the orange congealed grease (come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I probably used the open-can-at-both-ends-to-push-it-out technique, a la jellied cranberry sauce, and it retained its can-shape in a saucepan until heated). But wouldn’t these slices just disintegrate while deep frying, even if they were really cold (frozen even) and really congealed? My brother has suggested it might work along the lines of a Baked Alaska, in which the ice cream inside the dessert doesn’t melt as it bakes. Regardless. The joy I’ve gotten from reading this recipe and envisioning a bizarro dish made from deep-fried slices of canned chili dipped in pancake batter makes up for the fact that I will never attempt to make it (molten, melting “chili patties” on a hamburger bun would not only be unbelievably messy to eat but perhaps physically painful as well). But I fully endorse and applaud the concept of the Cuellar Chili-Burger — it’s brilliant! “Fair food” ahead of its time. Thank you, Cuellar test kitchen! (Dear readers: PLEASE MAKE THIS AND SEND ME PHOTOS!)

CUELLAR’S
REAL MEXICAN FOOD MADE BY A REAL MEXICAN FAMILY

For authentic Mexican Foods you should select only the Cuellar label. The emblem of the “Sombrero” and the “Smiling Mexican” will always be your assurance of the very finest of ingredients, blended for flavor-association and pleasing, invigorating taste treats that are invariably thrilling. So different! So exotic! So wonderfully blended that you will make Cuellar Foods a regular eating habit in your own home — and a new and exciting experience for your guests.

Cuellar Foods, Inc.
Dallas, Texas

1951

el-chico_logo

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Sources & Notes

Most images in this post are from the recently ended eBay sale, here (scroll down).

This pamphlet inspired my previous post, “El Chico Foods/Cuellar Foods,” which contains a history of El Chico’s food manufacturing business.

cuellar-recipe-bk_ebay_det_sm

9 Comments

February 12, 2023

El Chico Foods/Cuellar Foods

enchimales_canned_introduced-1968_portal_det El Chico’s Enchimales with Gravy, ca. 1968

by Paula Bosse

I give you the “Enchimale,” a product introduced under the El Chico label in 1968. A news release described the delicacy thusly: “Wedding bells are ringing at El Chico for the marriage of the enchilada and the tamale, and the new product is called the Enchimale. […] This food is in the shape of a tamale, filled with fresh meat, with a mild enchilada sauce over it” (Dallas Morning News, Oct. 31, 1968). (So… a tamale?) I gather this was a short-lived product. (See the “Sources & Notes” section at the bottom of this page for an unusual and unrelated — I hope — recipe for enchimales which appeared in a newspaper in Spokane, Washington in 1950.)

This photo caught my eye while I was looking into the history of El Chico’s manufactured foods. Especially their canned foods, which I was unaware of. I’m not surprised they existed — I remember their frozen food line — I just have no memories of canned foods from El Chico.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You’ve probably heard the story of Mama Cuellar and the Cuellar brothers and their El Chico empire (if not, a good article is here). As far as their Dallas restaurants, the Cuellar brothers opened their first El Chico restaurant in 1940 at 3514 Oak Lawn (next door-ish to Lucas B & B, which opened in Oak Lawn in 1953). This location closed in either 1954 or 1955.

El Chico No. 1, Oak Lawn, via D Magazine

El Chico No. 1, Oak Lawn, via Portal to Texas History

Six years later, they opened their second location in Lakewood at 2031 Abrams.

El Chico No. 2, Lakewood, via Portal to Texas History

Their third Dallas location opened near the Inwood Theater in 1949 at 5526 Lovers Lane.

el-chico_inwood-village_1953_inwood-village-website El Chico No. 5, via Inwood Village website

When that location opened, the family was operating 11 restaurants in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Kansas. Things were good in Cuellar-land.

At the end of 1949, the Cuellars decided to begin manufacturing canned food products, with the aim to sell Tex-Mex staples nationally under the label “El Chico Foods.” The new factory was located at 162 Leslie St., in the then-pretty-new Trinity Industrial District. (They later moved waaaaaaaaaaay up north, to 1925 Valley View Lane.)

El Chico Canning Co., 162 Leslie St., Dallas

El Chico canned foods began to show up in DFW grocery stores in March 1950. Make way for canned chili, enchiladas, tamales (in corn husks), enchilada sauce, and hot sauce.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mar. 17, 1950

Soon to follow were other foods, including the mystifying canned tortillas — thanks to the photo below, I now know that it was possible to buy tortillas in a can, which was opened with a key. Just like Spam, or a canned ham. (Not sure what the “El Chico Show” was, but apparently it was broadcast on Channel 5 — at least in October 1950.)

October 1950, via Portal to Texas History

Business boomed! After only 9 months, production tripled. After 2 years El Chico canned foods were in more than 30 states.

But in March 1953, the Cuellar family was sued in federal court for copyright infringement by a man named Benito Collada who owned a well-known nightclub in Greenwich Village called “El Chico,” a name he copyrighted in 1931. He demanded that the Cuellars change the name of their restaurants and their canned foods. The judge handed down an unusual verdict in which both sides were able to claim partial victory (or partial loss): the Cuellars were allowed to keep “El Chico” as the name of their restaurants, but they had to bid adios to the name on their canned foods.

The company regrouped and rebranded. The name of their Tex-Mex products became “Cuellar’s,” and the label even came with a pronunciation guide: “QUAY-YAR.”

cuellar-chili

Apparently, sales dropped. Steeply. The Cuellars fought their way through the appeals process, determined to retain the “El Chico” name on their manufactured foods, and, in September 1954 they won the right to once again sell canned foods under the El Chico brand.

el-chico_canned-tamales_label_smithsonian

Sales really increased when they added frozen dinners to their line — their factory on Leslie Street installed a huge freezing system — they were able to freeze 6,000 frozen dinners at a time in 90 minutes.

el-chico_frozen_smithsonian via Smithsonian Institution

via Smithsonian Institution

Along with the typical frozen dinners you’d expect, El Chico also sold frozen tortillas. In the photo above, there is a box of frozen tortillas in the shopping cart and in the freezer case. As I recall, I think I liked the frozen Mexican dinners as a kid, but frozen tortillas and tortillas in a can sound equally unappealing.

The frozen dinners ultimately took over the manufacturing side of Cuellar foods, and at some point, the canned products eventually faded away. As I said, I remember the frozen dinners, but I don’t remember the canned foods at all. But I find them so interesting that that they are going to get their very own post — check out that post here.

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Sources & Notes

Top (cropped) image is from the Frank Cuellar Sr. Collection, University of North Texas Special Libraries Collection, Portal of Texas History, and can be found here (the full collection may be browsed here).

Several images in this post are from the Smithsonian Institution’s “Guide to the El Chico Restaurants Collection.”

Read a good history of the Cuellar empire in “The Family Who Sold Tex-Mex to America” by Nancy Nichols, D Magazine (Nov. 2013).

So. “enchimales.” I did a quick search on the word and found mentions back to 1934 for a cafe selling something with this name in Shreveport. For all I know, this is a traditional Mexican dish which I’ve just never heard of. BUT, I wonder whether any actual Mexican-related dish would bear any resemblance to the enchimales recipe devised by Mrs. Vincent Katzenberger of Garfield, Washington which appeared in Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper? It was the 14th-place (!) winner in the “Meltin’ Pot” international cooking competition. Here’s a short synopsis of Mrs. Katzenberger’s dish, which is made like enchiladas: in a tortilla, place a filling of onions, cheddar cheese, and a can of olives (all of which has been passed through a meat grinder) — on top of that filling, plop one canned tamale; roll up this filled tortilla and place it in a baking dish; repeat a dozen or so times; cover everything with tamale sauce; bake; when done, serve on a lettuce leaf and top with sprinkles of Parmesan cheese. The recipe is here. If you make this, please let me know how it came out.

enchimales_canned_introduced-1968_portal_det_sm

11 Comments

July 27, 2021

Pleasant Grove Eat Spots, including El Charo and the Vel-Mar — 1950s & 1960s

Vel-Mar, 8516 Lake June Rd., 1959

by Paula Bosse

Here are a whole bunch of ads for Pleasant Grove dining establishments, most with photos, thanks to the intrepid advertising staff of the yearbooks of H. Grady Spruce High School and W. W. Samuell High School. (Most ads are larger when clicked.)

You gotta start with Dairy Queen. I’m not sure how many DQs were in the Pleasant Grove area, but here are a couple.

Benson Dairy Queen, 1238 S. Buckner Blvd.

1958

1966

1967

Wicker’s Dairy Queen, 7636 South Loop 12.

1967

Gene’s Hitching Post, 223 Pleasant Grove Center. “Good barbecue is no accident.”

1964

Piedmont Drive-In & Steak House, 6855 Scyene Rd.

1959

Underwood’s Bar-B-Q, 7828 Lake June Rd. Odell Chism, manager.

1967

A & W, 623 S. Buckner.

1967

Apache Drive-In, 316 South St. Augustine. “Around the Bend to the Apache Den.” (The Spruce High School mascot was the Apache.)

1967

1968

El Charo, 263 Pleasant Grove Shopping Center. The owner of this Mexican restaurant in the first ad (from 1958) is Mona Parish, whose husband Carl “Jake” Parish had died the previous year. From 1959, the owner was Marion Martinez, whose son, Mariano, went on to great acclaim with his own restaurant where he invented the frozen margarita (based on his father’s margarita recipe). The younger Martinez almost certainly worked at this Pleasant Grove restaurant.

1958

1959

1962

1964

Plano Star-Courier, Nov. 1, 1962

I have to admit, I’d never heard of the Vel-Mar drive-in, located at 8516 Lake June Rd., but I understand it was something of a Pleasant Grove fixture during the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and into the ’80s. According to a newspaper article which chronicled the history of the Vel-Mar and its then-recent sale by Robert Schweder to James and Sharon Harris (“Drive-In Shrine Alive and Well” by Steve Blow, Dallas Morning News, June 15, 1980), the small chain of root-beer-stand drive-ins was founded by three couples — including a Velma and a Marie (the third, Thelma, wasn’t lucky enough to get her name into the business name). Eventually, the Pleasant Grove location was the last remaining Vel-Mar.

Vel-Mar tidbits:

It always closed for the winter, from October to March.
Other than its root beer, it was known for its “Dixie Burger” which was a loose-meat sandwich.
It was a Pleasant Grove high school hangout, and it had special drinks for students of Spruce and Samuell: a blue and red drink was called “The Sprucette” (also “Spruce Juice”), and a blue drink was called “The Spartini” (for the Samuell Spartans).

1957

1959

1960

1966

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Sources & Notes

All ads from the yearbooks of H. Grady Spruce High School and W. W. Samuell High School (unless otherwise noted).

More on Pleasant Grove can be found in the Flashback Dallas post “Life in The Grove: Pleasant Grove — 1954-1956,” with material gleaned from Pleasant Grove High School yearbooks.

vel-mar_samuell-high-school_1959-yrbk_det_sm

10 Comments

December 23, 2020

‘Tis the Season For a Hot Dr Pepper

“Serve piping hot…” (1963)

by Paula Bosse

I don’t think I’ve ever had hot Dr Pepper. I remember seeing commercials for it on television as a kid, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a social setting where it was offered. It always sounded like an odd thing to do with a soft drink. Years ago I was on a tour of the bottling plant in Dublin (…need I say “Dublin, Texas“?), and the guide said that this winter drink (which is always served with a slice of lemon) isn’t the same these days unless you drink Dr Pepper sweetened with real sugar — heated-up corn syrup apparently ruins the flavor.

Here are a few nostalgic advertisements to prove to the whippersnappers that this used to be a thing. The first two ads I could find mentioning this seasonal delicacy (the brainchild of a marketing wiz who might well have worked here in Dallas, home of DP’s HQ) are these two, from January and February, 1959 (click to see larger images):

Jan. 30, 1959

Feb. 6, 1959

The “new idea” was definitely being marketed nationally by at least 1963. I don’t know how popular it was, but they even manufactured special cups to drink it from. And, “for those who want something special, try the Boomer” — hot Dr Pepper with a dash of rum.

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

There are a few vintage commercials online. Here is one starring Dick Clark, featuring the snowman above.

(Am I the only one disturbed by seeing a pot of boiling Dr Pepper?)

There are a couple of others, in lesser image quality: watch them on YouTube here and here.

There you have it. Consider leaving a Boomer out for Santa. It’s chilly out there. Cheers!

***

Sources & Notes

Top ad (1963) is from Flickr, here.

The rest are from various places, but many were found here.

More Flashback Dallas Christmas posts can be found here.

More Dr Pepper-related posts can be found here.

dr-pepper_hot_ad_1966_det_sm

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October 31, 2017

Halloween Party? Don’t Forget the Dr Pepper! — 1947

“‘Twill add zest to your buffet foods…”

by Paula Bosse

(While searching for a Halloween advertisement, I unexpectedly came across reports of a federal grand jury case brought against Dallas-based Dr Pepper for violating strict wartime sugar-rationing. Scroll down to read about the legal case.)

Happy Halloween! Might I propose an eye-catching party suggestion? The “Frosty-Pepper Pumpkin”! Hollow out a pumpkin, fill it with cracked ice, and load it up with bottles of Dr Pepper. Voilà!

The text of the ad, from the fall of 1947:

EASILY DUPLICATE THIS “frosty-Pepper” PUMPKIN!

Smart, original; more decorative and eye appealing than a bowl of giant ‘mums. Fashion this “Frosty-Pepper” Pumpkin and serve as photo shows. Pre-chill bottles and bury deep in cracked ice. Dr. Pepper! So keen, so cold, so sparklingly alive! A smart lift for active people. ‘Twill add zest to your buffet foods … add laurels to your “rep” as a clever hostess. Keep plenty in your home refrigerator … for party hospitality … for good cheer and a quick lift, at 10, 2 and 4 o’clock, or anytime you’re hungry, thirsty or tired.

NOTE: Dr Pepper availability in a few markets has been delayed by continuing shortages. These will be opened by new, franchised Dr. Pepper bottling plants as rapidly as supplies will permit.

HANDY CARRY HOME CARTONS
Carry Dr Pepper home from the stores
“sixes,” “twelves” and “twenty-fours.”

“DARTS FOR DOUGH”
NEW TIME: Thursday Night, ABC Network
9:30 EST, 8:30 CST, 7:30 MST, 6:30 PST

Drink Dr. Pepper
GOOD FOR LIFE!

DRINK A BITE TO EAT at 10, 2 and 4 o’clock

***

Sources & Notes

Ad found on Flickr, here.

“Darts for Dough”? I had to look that up. It was a radio game show involving quizzes and dart-throwing, created by Orval Anderson and Bert Mitchell at WFAA radio. It debuted in the summer of 1943 as a strictly local program, but it’s popularity was such that it moved to Hollywood in August, 1944 and — still run by the WFAA creators — it began to be broadcast “coast to coast” for several years, moving to television by 1950. It was originally developed in Dallas as a sponsorship vehicle for Dallas-based Dr Pepper and was frequently advertised as “Darts for Dough — The Dr Pepper Show.”

1947 was a big year for Dr Pepper — that was the year their beautiful (and sorely missed) plant opened at Mockingbird and Greenville.

1947 was also a noteworthy year for the company, because of a large federal grand jury indictment which charged several corporations and individuals — including Dr Pepper and some of its bottlers and employees — with sugar-rationing violations (these “irregularities” appear to have begun in the last months of World War II, when wartime food rationing was still serious business). Black-market sugar! A district representative of Dr Pepper was assessed a small fine, but charges of conspiring to violate sugar-rationing regulations which were brought against the DP parent-company were ultimately dismissed, a ruling which angered Federal Judge Alfred P. Murrah, who seems to have been extremely unhappy about the dismissals, as can be read in his blistering statement below.

AP story, via Waco News-Tribune, July 30, 1947

Two of the individuals charged in the case — New Mexico residents — received prison sentences in what was described as “the largest black market sugar operation on record,” involving over a million pounds of sugar.

This “Happy Halloween!” post took a bit of an unexpected dark detour. Let’s cleanse our palate with something happier: another party idea with Dr Pepper and a hollowed-out pumpkin (found on eBay).

More Halloween posts from Flashback Dallas can be found here.

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September 29, 2017

Film Footage: “The State Fair of Texas in the 1960s”

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_men-in-suits_ice-cream Everyone likes ice cream…. (G. William Jones Collection, SMU)

by Paula Bosse

Thanks to Twitter, I discovered this cool video of film clips of the State Fair of Texas, shot throughout the 1960s, courtesy of SMU’s WFAA Newsfilm Collection/G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, put together by Moving Image Curator Jeremy Spracklen. There are 15 or so clips, some in black and white, some in color, some silent, some with sound. This compilation runs about 24 minutes. Watch it. You’ll enjoy it — especially the montage of fair food at the end! (Make sure you watch in fullscreen.)

Here are a few screengrabs I took, to give you an idea of the content (images are much cleaner in the video!).

Getting ready for the fair.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_midway

Fair Park entrance.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_entrance

Crowd, baby, binoculars.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_crowd

Neuhoff hot dog stand.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_neuhoff-hot-dogs

The monorail (with a cameo by Big Tex).

$sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_monorail_big-tex$

I don’ t know who this guy is, but he’s in several shots and I love him! Here he is losing out to the woman who correctly guessed his weight.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_guess-your-weight

Kids eating … Pink Things! “Made famous at Six Flags.”

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_kids_pink-thing

Aqua Net and Moët. (I have to say, I’ve never seen champagne at the fair, but perhaps those are circles I don’t travel in.)

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_aqua-net-and-moet

Everyone needs a corny dog fix.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_corny-dog_girl

Everyone.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_corny-dog

Have a groovy time at this year’s State Fair of Texas!

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_groovy-poster

***

Sources & Notes

Film clips from Southern Methodist University’s WFAA Newsfilm Collection/G. William Jones Film and Video Collection; the video has been edited by SMU’s Moving Image Curator, Jeremy Spracklen. The direct link to the video on Vimeo is here.

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