Now that the book is out, Fleming has participated in a Dallas Public Library video interview, conducted by the person who helped him through his pre-publication research process, Caitlyn Jones. I’m not really a sports person, but I have to say, I really enjoyed this interview. It’s always entertaining to listen to someone who is really, really enthusiastic about a topic. Caitlyn did a great job for her first interview, and Fleming tells her how much one particular piece of information — which she stumbled across weeks after their initial email communication — helped shape part of the story he was wanting to tell about what is, quite frankly, a pretty weird story about what must be Dallas’ least successful professional sports team ever (as Wikipedia has it: “…the Texans are officially recognized as the last NFL team to permanently cease operations and not be included in the lineage of any current franchise”).
So as you’re waiting for the turkey to finish or waiting for the Cowboy game to start, check out this 55-minute interview on YouTube. And if you missed my 2016 post on the Texans, mosey on over to “The 1952 Dallas Texans: Definitely NOT America’s Team.”
*
**
Because of all the research Caitlyn did looking for photos of and information about the Dallas Texans, she became our “staff expert” on the team and even put together this great display, which was exhibited for several weeks on the 7th floor of the downtown Central Library. Thank you, Caitlyn!
*
I’m posting this on Thanksgiving. It turns out the only game the Texans ever won was an upset victory over the Chicago Bears in 1952 on Thanksgiving Day. A miracle! I hope you have as good a Thanksgiving today as the Texans players, coaches, and owners had in 1952!
A few days ago, the Dallas Public Library posted a version of the mural below on its social media accounts. The title of the mural is “Gathering Pecans” by Dallas artist Otis Dozier. It was painted in 1941 as a New Deal federally commissioned work to hang in the Arlington Post Office (it now hangs in the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth). I love this mural — not only because I’m a fan of Dozier’s work, but also because it captures something that was once a common practice for families: going to a public place like a park (or as seen in the mural, somewhere along the side of the road) and picking up pecans.
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
When I was a child, my mother used to take me and my brother to White Rock Lake Park (or occasionally to Reverchon Park) to gather pecans. It was fun. Like a really easy Easter egg hunt with really small eggs. The 1952 photo at the top predates my own time hunting for fallen pecans, but I swear, that could be me, bundled up in a coat and scarf, having fun with my family on a crisp, sunny day.
We’d pick up the nuts (so. many. pecans…) and drop them into a paper sack. Then we’d take them home and lay sheets of newspaper on the dining room table, and the whole family — including my father and aunt — would spend an afternoon cracking pecans and picking out the “meat” with special nutcracking instruments. Next stop: a delicious dessert. I absolutely loved all of this.
I asked my (much younger) co-workers if they ever did this — went to a park to gather pecans. There were a couple of vague “…maybe?…” responses, but most had never heard of such a thing. How sad!
If your family doesn’t do this, consider it. It’s one of my favorite fall memories. And you’ll get an almost-free pecan pie out of it!
Just remember: picking up fallen pecans from the ground in a public park is okay (I think), but shaking branches or disturbing trees to make pecans fall is NOT allowed (and might also lead to a fine). Here are some boys sitting next to a sign that says “Please! Threshing Prohibited.” See those long sticks they’ve got? When that photographer leaves, they’re going to be “threshing.”
Don’t do it! Please! Hunt on the ground.
And don’t wander onto private property unless you have permission. Don’t be like Dinks McClain! He might have been acquitted, but he had to go through a lot of nut-based hassle to be a free man again!
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec. 11, 1907
*
Poaching nuts from private property is not the only thing to beware of. If you browse through the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram online archives using the search term “pecan gatherers” or “gathering pecans” or “hunting pecans,” etc., you will see an absolutely eye-popping number of articles about severe injuries and death (!) suffered by people just innocently out looking for some pecans. Lots of people fell out of trees (STAY ON THE GROUND!!), lots of people were shot (in a variety of scenarios), someone drowned, I think (…interesting), and snakes were everywhere. Avoid all these things. And don’t trespass. Don’t be a Dinks McClain. Stay on the ground, stay on public land, and stay away from errant bullets and snakes.
**
Lastly, here’s a 1926 newspaper article (all sub-headlines included!) all about this vanishing tradition:
GYPSY CALL OF THE FALL WOODS HEARD BY DALLAS MOTORISTS
Autumn Leaves and Pecans on Dallas Roads Are Popular
Autumn Tang Brings Forth Many Drivers
Roads Near Dallas Are Crowded on Week-End Afternoons
Seek Fall Leaves
Decorations and Pecans Are Gathered to Take Home
Autumn has failed to chill the ardor of Dallas motorists. On the contrary, they are attracted by the briskness of a fall afternoon drive and by the flaming beauty of autumn leaves or the promise of pecans on and under wayside trees.
Now that the early nights prevent the after-dinner twilight rides of the late summer, Dallasites are saving their drives for week-end and holiday afternoons. On Saturday and especially on Sunday afternoons thousands of local motorists are driving on country roads near Dallas or through the more woodsy of the parks and city addresses to view the beauty of the changing autumn. Others go with the practical motive of finding pecans, and many of these are rewarded.
Roads Are Near
On Saturday afternoon the more popular roads leading from Dallas are crowded with automobiles. No matter in what part of Dallas the motorist lives, he can find a thoroughfare near his home, leading to woods colored by the approach of winter. White Rock Lake, South Beckley avenue, the Holmes street road, Stevens Park, Reverchon Park, Oak Lawn Park, Turtle Creek Boulevard, the Maple avenue road and the Lemmon avenue road are some of the favored drives. On them the motorist will find autumn beauty in profusion.
Many Dallas hostesses are using the gorgeously colored fall leaves as decorations. Even when the motorists are not planning to entertain at home, many take back bunches of the leaves to bring some of the fall color into living and dining-rooms.
Perhaps the most popular fall tree is the sumac, whose scarlet stands out against the darker red and the brown of other leaves. Seen from the roadside, the brilliant leaves have provided an irresistible attraction to stop and gather some to many automobilists. Ash, oak and darker leaves also make their gypsy calls from the woods.
Find Pecans
Pecans as well as decorative leaves are found in many directions from Dallas. Those motorists fortunate enough to have friends with a farm or estate along a water course are making the most of their friendships, while others are forced to rely upon finding trees on unposted land or by the roadside. Most of the pecan hunters are rewarded with enough of the nuts to crack and pick out on the ride back, though fee are able to get a supply sufficient to last through the late fall evenings by the fire.
The brisk coolness of the autumn week-end afternoon, made golden by a pleasant ineffectual sun, not only has not discouraged Dallas automobilists, but the tang of the fall has brought out many who took only short drives during the summer. (Dallas Morning News, Nov. 7, 1926)
***
Sources & Notes
The top photo was taken in November 1952 and is from the Hayes Collection, Dallas History & Archives, Dallas Public Library (PA76-1/11502.2). The description accompanying the photograph: “Hunting pecans at the north end of White Rock Lake are B. B. Rakestraw of Tyler, left, and J. T. White of 7322 Benning. The crisp Fall weather was bringing pecan meat lovers out throughout the city. High winds helped solve the problem of getting nuts.”
The second photograph was taken October 16, 1953 and is also from the Hayes Collection (PA76-1/16051.1). The description of this photo: “Tommy and Danny Wheeler waiting for pecans to fall.”
“Gathering Pecans” is a post-office mural by Otis Dozier (1941); the image reproduced here is from the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas — more info is here.
Watch this short film from the Amon Carter Museum on the mural’s relocation and restoration:
*
Pecan tree trivia: in an Oct. 15, 1950 DMN article (“Plenty of Pecans Await Searchers at Dallas Parks”), it is noted that, in 1950, there were approximately 20,000 pecan trees in Dallas parks — half of them were in White Rock Lake Park.
4500 block and/or 5800 block of Lovers and/or W. Lovers Lane
by Paula Bosse
The photo above is a detail from an ad for some of the businesses along the Miracle Mile (Lovers Lane, between about Douglas and what is now the toll road). The caption is: “The fabulous Miracle Mile looking west toward Douglas Ave.” (Surely this is a view to the east?) The same view today can be seen on Google Street View here. The ad appeared in a March 1954 magazine. At that time, the photographer would have been standing in front of Roscoe White’s Easy Way restaurant (5806 W. Lovers Lane). Here’s the ad (click to see a larger image):
*
Shop on the MIRACLE MILE! On Lovers Lane from Douglas Ave. to Cotton Belt Railroad tracks PLENTY OF PARKING!!! The following merchants invite you to shop with them:
Beef ‘N Bun No. 1, 4500 Lovers Lane Bernard’s Carpets, 4445 Lovers Lane The Book Shelf, 4354 Lovers Lane Choice Cleaners, 4530 Lovers Lane Ernstrom’s Record Shop, 4356 Lovers Lane Florentine Shop, 4437 Lovers Lane Guildcraft Furniture Studio, 4433 Lovers Lane Hodges Photographer, 4514 Lovers Lane House of Carpets, 4408 Lovers Lane House of Lamps, 5812 W. Lovers Lane Jean & Morry’s, 4437 Lovers Lane Margie’s Dress Shop, 4508 Lovers Lane Miracle Mile Pharmacy, 4400 Lovers Lane Miracle Mile Stationers, 4506 Lovers Lane New York Bakery & Delicatessen, 4412 Lovers Lane Park Cities Hardware & Paint Co., 4338 Lovers Lane Party Bazaar & Gift Shop, 4439 Lovers Lane Peek’s Auto and Appliance Store, 4365 Lovers Lane Rae Ann Shop, 4417 Lovers Lane Seidel’s Boys’ and Girls’ Apparel, 4504 Lovers Lane Squire — The Man’s Shop, 4441 Lovers Lane Stone’s Buster Brown Shoe Store, 4449 Lovers Lane
Every day is shopping day on the Miracle Mile Open Thursday night — open Thursday night — open Thursday night
**
So. Lovers Lane. What’s the deal, Lovers? Your numbering system is insane. For instance, in the photo above, Choice Cleaners (second business on the left) is at 4530 Lovers Lane. It is directly opposite House of Lamps, which is, inexplicably, at 5812 West Lovers Lane. Not only are the block numbers nowhere near the same, the numbers of addresses on both sides of the street are even. There are businesses on both sides of the street, but that block has no odd-numbered addresses. …But only until you pass Beck’s Fried Chicken at 5820 West Lovers (you can see it on the photo at the far right, next door to AAA Liquor at 5814 W. Lovers Lane). Once you cross Lomo Alto, heading east, the numbering suddenly starts at 4455 Lovers Lane (Brady’s Texaco Service Station). West Lovers Lane is no more. You’ve just lost West Lovers Lane and 14 blocks. You might be in the Twilight Zone. I’m pretty sure the whole University Park-thing is the reason, but, oh my god. My brain melts down every time I try to make sense of this! Imagine not knowing your way around this part of town and seeing this confusing collection of signs after getting off the toll road:
For future reference, here is some even more confusing guidance, from the 1953 city directory. “WEST LOVERS LANE”:
PLAIN OL’ “LOVERS LANE”:
“EAST LOVERS LANE”:
Good luck keeping track of that. There will be a quiz. You might need a slide rule, a compass, and a bottle of aspirin.
***
Sources & Notes
Ad is from the March 1954 issue of Town North magazine, a publication by and for super-boosters of the Park-Cities-and-Preston-Hollow area, which they were trying to get people to call “Town North.” It makes about as much sense as Lovers Lane’s numbering system, but it’s a cool magazine that lasted a few years and can be found in the Periodicals Collection of the Dallas History and Archives at the Dallas Public Library.
More on The Miracle Mile (with a handy map, if you’ve ever wondered what its “official” boundaries are) can be found in this Flashback Dallas post: “Stacy’s Lounge on The Miracle Mile — 1950.”
SPORTATORIUM, Cadiz and Industrial Blvd. Harley Sadler In Person And His Company of 100 Stage Players Present UNCLE TOM’S CABIN And Vaudeville, Musical Floor Show, Refreshments
…What?!
The ticket is undated, but “vaudeville” had mostly faded by the 1930s. The original (octagonal!) Sportatorium was built in 1935 and opened as a premiere sporting venue for wrestling (and boxing) in December 1935.
The new sports bowl, under construction at Cadiz and Industrial, will have its official opening Monday night, December 9, when Promoter Bert Willoughby will offer the biggest wrestling program ever staged in Texas, if present plans go through as outlined. This 10,000-seating capacity structure, built as the home of wrestling, will also entertain many other events, such as boxing, basketball, indoor circuses, style shows [!], conventions and gatherings of all kinds. (Dallas Morning News, Dec. 1, 1935)
Sounds huge. But it’s really hard to keep those seats full — especially on nights when wrestling is not scheduled. By the end of April, there were already plans to do something about one of their biggest problems.
“We feel,” declared [manager W. T.] Cox, “that this concern is too big and that there is too much money already invested to have five or six dark nights a week, so we are going to make it possible for everyone, with anything to show, to bring it to our place, whether it be a political gathering, religious services or merchants’ and manufacturers’ exhibits. The policy of the house will be to encourage and promote sports, but it will be available to all.” (DMN, Apr. 20, 1936)
Sportatorium management came up with the idea of presenting a massive show on non-wrestling nights. They gave Harley Sadler — a longtime traveling Texas showman (and later a politician) — a long-term engagement in which he basically crammed as much “show” into one evening as was humanly possible. A stage was built, and many of those 10,000 seats were removed in order that patrons could sit at tables to enjoy the relentless, non-stop entertainment. Sadler’s company consisted of 100 players. 100!
So what could a Sportatorium visitor expect on one of these Harley Sadler nights? Brace yourself:
The Sadler players will offer two complete plays each evening — an original four-act [play], “The Siege of the Alamo” — and a three-act modern comedy farce, “This Thing Called Love.” In addition to those two complete plays, he will offer vaudeville acts, a band, novelty numbers, and 32 singing waitresses […]. The show will start at 8:30 and run for 8 hours, for those who care to stay that long. (DMN, July 8, 1936)
EIGHT HOURS! And, there were 3 different shows produced weekly. That’s a lot of entertainment. Perhaps too much entertainment. But ladies got in free.
July 12, 1936
I’m not sure how long this “residency” lasted, but however long it was, I assume all involved — performers and spectators alike — were exhausted afterward.
***
Sources & Notes
Source of the top photo of the Sportatorium is unknown, but I came across it on the wrestling website World Class Memories. (this Sportatorium page is a great read). (If you know the source of this photo, please let me know.)
Sportatorium ticket was found on eBay (still there, as I write this).
Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Roger Staubach appeared in a series of ads — and did personal appearances around the country — for the Carrier air conditioning company. Many of the ads featured Staubach’s family — and what a stroke of luck, because, as the ad below proclaims, “Everyone in my family loves air conditioning.” Sing it, Roger!
1979
I came across an interesting piece of trivia about Roger Staubach’s time as a Carrier spokesman: if he was unable to appear in person, he could still be at your local trade show, in his Cowboys uniform, telling you how much his family loved air conditioning. In January 1978, the Cowboys were fresh off a Super Bowl win, and it would have been expected that world champions might have other things to do, but a week or two after the Cowboys defeated the Broncos in Super Bowl XII, Roger was at the National Association of Home Builders convention in Dallas hawking A/C. …Sort of.
The Carrier Air Conditioning exhibit featured a “telequin” of Roger Staubach, a mannequin with Staubach’s face projected onto the face, giving the general effect that the Cowboy quarterback was standing there in uniform, giving the Carrier sales pitch. Staubach is Carrier’s national spokesman. Steve Millheiser, a Carrier salesman, said response to the exhibit had been excellent. “The Roger thing has been great,” he added. (Dallas Morning News, Jan. 26, 1978)
I couldn’t find much about “telequins,” except that there were apparently other celebrities who had a model of themselves made by Telequin-A.V.M., Inc., a company that specialized in “animated, talking mannequins.” I’m sure it was odd watching a mannequin with Roger Staubach’s animated face professing its love for A/C. …The ’70s, man. Weird times.
*
1979
1978
Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton, 1977
***
Sources & Notes
All ads from eBay.
Roger Staubach did a ton of TV commercials — a lot are on YouTube. He declined to do ads for underwear, beer or sugary cereals
Imagine what coulda been… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
First off, apologies for the image quality of this advertisement. It’s from eBay (“He’s from Barcelona…”).
I thought it was an interesting ad, because I never knew that Bruce Springsteen played the Sportatorium, Dallas’ legendary wrestling mecca and off-and-on home to the Big D Jamboree. How had I never heard about this? (This was a show put together by local promoter Gene McCoslin, who had a long history with Willie Nelson.)
1974 was pretty early for Bruce to play in Dallas. He was starting to gain notice nationally, but he wasn’t a star yet. The tickets to the Sportatorium show were $4.50 in advance/$6.00 at the door (roughly $30 and $40 in today’s inflation-adjusted money). As it turns out, the show was canceled, because — hold onto yourselves — only 28 advance tickets had sold. …TWENTY-EIGHT.
That show was scheduled for November 10, 1974. A few months earlier — in June 1974 — Bruce was, for some inexplicable reason, booked as the opening act for… Maria Muldaur (“Midnight at the Oasis”). That show was scheduled at the UTA campus in Arlington. The Dallas Morning News reported that Bruce was a last-minute no-show, claiming a bout with the flu, but, apparently, he was unhappy with the small turnout and just didn’t go on. (Trouper Maria, having lost her opening act, performed for nearly 2 hours, and got rave reviews.)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 9, 1974
Springsteen’s first actual performance on a Dallas stage appears to have been sometime in the same year as those two ill-fated non-gigs: 1974. Freelance rock critic Kim Martin-Pierce remembered it: “He always had a troubled history here. [He was booked to play at the old Mother Blues nightclub, but] he sold so poorly at Mother Blues that they moved him over to Gertie’s on Lemmon Avenue. He didn’t draw well at all there either, but he gave the greatest performance I’ve ever heard in a small club.” (DMN, “Springsteen Finally Shows Big D Who’s Boss” by John Anders, Nov. 30, 1984, after Bruce’s two sold-out shows at Reunion Arena)
Sorry, Bruce, for the cold shoulder! I think Dallas eventually came around. But you missed out. Playing the Sportatorium would have been really, really cool. And those 28 people would still be talking about the most amazing show they had ever seen.
***
Sources & Notes
Top ad from the Dallas underground newspaper Iconoclast, Nov.8-15, 1974; found on eBay in April 2024.
This post appeared previously in a slightly different form on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page.
Lulu Roman — known for her appearances on the TV show Hee Haw and her numerous gospel recordings — died last week (on April 23, 2025). She was a Dallas native and a graduate of Samuell High School. A summary of her life and career can be found in the Hollywood Reporter obituary and her Wikipedia entry.
She graduated from W. W. Samuell High School in 1964 (her name back then was Louise Hable), and five years later, she became an original member of the cast of Hee Haw. In 1971, her Oak Lawn apartment (2627 Douglas) was raided by seven narcotics agents, who seized 5.5 pounds of marijuana and small amounts of LSD and hashish. She was booked for drug possession, and this effectively ended her connection with Hee Haw (she later found religion, gave up drugs, and was welcomed back to the show when she was clean — you can see her talk about her new-found “high” to a Channel 8 reporter in 1973 on YouTube here). (The photo at the top is from one of Lulu’s appearances in court in 1971.)
She then went on to a successful career as a gospel singer. RIP, Lulu.
1963 Samuell yearbook, Junior class photo
Performing a “Calypso Christmas carol”:
1963 Samuell yearbook
1964 Samuell yearbook, Senior class photo
With classmate David Henderson, in costume for a theatrical production.
1964 Samuell yearbook
Detail of a photo of members of the Thespians Club:
1964 Samuell yearbook
Hitting the big-time, on Hee Haw:
***
Sources & Notes
Top image is a screenshot from Channel 8 news footage of Lulu’s drug possession trial in Dallas on Sept. 3, 1971, from the WFAA Collection, G. William Jones Collection, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University.
School photos from the 1963 and 1964 Samuell High School yearbooks.
Color photo of some of the Hee Haw cast members (Gordie Tapp, Junior Samples, Grandpa Jones, and Lulu Roman), from The Tennessean; black-and-white photo from Alamy.
This is an interesting photo from an ad for J. M. Tuttle Jr. Real Estate/Tuttle Development Company. Jack Tuttle was one of the most prominent developers of Lake Highlands, near White Rock Lake, east of Buckner Blvd. Tuttle began buying land in this far-flung, undeveloped area around 1939 and eventually owned pretty much everything in the area, including Lake Highlands Village, a shopping area a mere stone’s throw from White Rock Lake and not far from Casa Linda. The map below (from another Tuttle ad) shows where much of Tuttle’s property was at the time, including LHV, which was (and still is) at 720 N. Buckner Blvd. It looks a lot different now, but it’s interesting to see how it started out.
Here is the text that accompanied the photo in the ad from 1951:
Lake Highlands Village
Distinctively individual design plus surrounding natural beauty makes the Lake Highlands Estates an ideal homesite for the discriminating home-owner. And you will like the convenience of your own shopping center in the Lake Highlands Village, just minutes from downtown Dallas and seconds from cool White Rock Lake.
1952
***
Sources & Notes
Photo and map are from ads that appeared in Dallas magazine in Feb. 1951 and Feb. 1952.
Back in 2016, I wrote “Thanksgiving, 1891: The First Turkey-Day Football Game in Dallas.” (I highly recommend checking out that post — I loved writing it, and there are a lot of unexpectedly interesting things in it — if you’re not a football fan, don’t worry! The “loaded muff” thing is the best weird historical tidbit you may read all day.)
By 1893, I guess the holiday football game (or “foot ball” game) had already become a tradition in Dallas. That year, the Nov. 30th Thanksgiving match-up was between the University of Texas team and the Dallas Foot Ball Club. You can read all the details of the game in a Dallas Morning News article from Dec. 1, 1893 (thankfully, sports writing evolved!). (Spoiler: The headline is “And Dallas Lost It.” UT emerged victorious, with an 18-16 win.)
UT had a chant:
Hoo-ray!
Below, the somewhat rudimentary DMN illustrations that accompanied the very wordy coverage of the Nov. 30, 1893 gridiron battle.
A rush through the center:
Blocked:
A good catch:
*
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is filled with good food, family and friends, and a non-demoralizing football game.
***
Sources & Notes
First two images from the cover of a scrapbook from the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas.
Line drawings from The Dallas Morning News, Dec. 1, 1893.
Read other Flashback Dallas posts on Thanksgiving in Dallas here.
Flashback : Dallas 