Neighborhoods | Flashback : Dallas

February 20, 2024

Deep Ellum: Life Along Central Track

The heart of Deep Ellum… (Dallas Public Library photo)

by Paula Bosse

One of my happiest Flashback Dallas research deep-dives resulted in the post “The Gypsy Tea Room, Central Avenue, and The Darensbourg Brothers.” It was prompted by a photo I had seen for years but had never really known what it showed. I loved writing that, and I’m so happy that it is a perennially popular post. Here is that original photo, below, which shows people walking along the row of barber shops, cafes, pool rooms, domino parlors, taverns, and other businesses:

Dallas Public Library photo

The view is to the south — Elm Street is in the distance, where that building juts out to the left. The street about the same distance away to the north (behind the photographer) was Pacific. Someone walking out of the Gypsy Tea Room would have been facing the old train depot. Between the depot and the block of businesses were railroad tracks (not in frequent use in the 1930s, the time of these photos) — the unpaved road that ran alongside the tracks was Central Avenue (when North Central Expressway was built years later, it closely followed the path of these railroad tracks). This general area was considered the heart of Deep Ellum and was filled with Black-owned retail establishments and was a gathering place for social activities and entertainment.

A while back, I came across two other photos, which I recognized as being “companion” photos to the “Gypsy Tea Room” one — the one at the very top of this post, and the one below.

Dallas Public Library photo

The photo immediately above shows the Roosevelt Cafe, which was at 201 N. Central, and the North Pole Domino Parlor (a partial window sign is seen at the right), at 207 Central. A train is passing. This photo and the photo at the very top both show partial signs for Black Dallas beer. (All images are larger when clicked.)

For a better idea of where these photos were taken, see the map below (it shows a detail from a 1921 map — about 15 years before these photos were taken). (See the larger, full Sanborn map here.)

central-ave_1921-sanborn_sheet-17_det 1921 Sanborn map (det) showing where photos were taken

These are just great, great photos. There aren’t enough photographs like this which capture everyday life in Dallas’ minority communities. Deep Ellum was a thriving Black area at the time. Read a contemporary description of the good things and the bad things going on in this vibrant neighborhood in a (mostly uncondescending) chapter in the WPA Guide to Dallas, “Deep Ellum: Harlem in Miniature.”

What about “Black Dallas Beer”? I haven’t found a lot about it, but it apparently began as a Dallas-brewed beer in the 1930s but was later brewed elsewhere. (A mention of its Schepps Beer affiliation is here.)

1937, via Taverntrove.com

U.S. Patent Office bulletin, Sept. 8, 1936

“Don’t be a sissy! Drink Black Dallas Beer — Made Without Sugar.”

Waco Times-Herald, May 22, 1937

A “Famous Black Dallas Malt Liquor” popped up a few decades later — at that point, there was no connection to Dallas, except for the name and the fantastic label boasting the Dallas skyline. “Smooth as Evening Dusk.”

eBay

***

Sources & Notes

The top Dallas Public Library photo — “[African American men walking and sitting along North Central Avenue in downtown Dallas in the early 1930’s]” — is from the Saxon Collection, Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division of the Dallas Public Library; its call number is PA85-16/4.

The second photo — “Gypsy Tea Room Cafe located in Deep Ellum” — is from the WPA Dallas Guide & History Collection of the Dallas Public Library — its call number is PA85-16/22.

The third photo — “[African American men seated on benches and standing outside of the Roosevelt Cafe in downtown Dallas in the 1930’s]” — is from the Saxon Collection, Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division of the Dallas Public Library; its call number is PA85-16/5.

Much more info on this Deep Ellum block can be found in the previously linked post from 2015, “The Gypsy Tea Room, Central Avenue, and The Darensbourg Brothers.”

See my other Flashback Dallas posts on Deep Ellum here.

4 Comments

February 12, 2024

The Higginbotham-Pearlstone Building

Higginbotham-Pearlstone Building, 1978

by Paula Bosse

In a previous post, “The South End ‘Reservation’ Red-Light District — ca. 1907” (which, amazingly, has generated so much traffic, that, in one month, it has gotten almost 4 times as many views as the most popular post of last year got all YEAR…), I mentioned that the reason I stumbled across the main photo from that post was because I was searching for a photo of the Hobson Electric Co. in the West End (the photo was originally described as showing the West End, but it actually showed the other side of downtown). So why was I looking for something which, let’s be honest, doesn’t sound all that exciting? The Hobson Electric Co.? Because an anonymous reader asked recently in comments of a post from 2019 — “Caterpillars On the Job at Ross and Market — 1922” — what businesses had been in the building at 1701 N. Market in the West End, known as the Higginbotham-Pearlstone Building. And here, anonymous question-asker, is what I found.

But before any building at all was there, what was there? (See the “Sources & Notes” section at the bottom of the page to see this location on six Sanborn maps from 1885 to 1921.) Before any building sat on the northwest corner of N. Market and Ross Avenue (originally Carondelet), it was a wagon yard/camp yard — a place where people coming to the city could stable their horses and stay the night. As seen on the 1899 Sanborn map, it was near the MKT freight and passenger depots. By 1905, that block was the site of a lumber yard.

In 1910, the Hobson Electric Co. (“for everything pertaining to electric light and telephone plants, largest supply house in the Southwest”) opened their new building at the northwest corner of Market and Ross (they were formerly in what is now the 700 block of Commerce). The new building was described thusly:

The above new building of the Hobson Electric Company, located near Market street and Ross avenue, Dallas, is an example of modern construction which secures a low insurance rate. The front is 100 feet, depth 200 feet. There are three stories with a total floor space of 60,000 square feet. The foundation is of concrete, the walls of light colored brick 18 inches thick; the interior is of mill construction of unusually heavy and special type, the floorboards being five inches in thickness. The general construction is of the best available at this date. The building is heated by the hot water system, electrically lighted and equipped with the automatic sprinkler system for fire protection. (Dallas Morning News, April 16, 1910)

1911 city directory

In January 1913, Charles W. Hobson changed the name of his company to the Southwest General Electric Co., (Hobson was the Southwest manager of General Electric/G.E.), as can be seen in this photo of the building from 1922:

Detail of a 1922 ad for Caterpillar tractors

In October 1923, the Moroney Hardware Co. (est. 1875) moved in. “You will find everything here that a modern, progressive wholesale hardware house should carry. Shipping everywhere in the large Dallas trade territory” (ad, Sept. 23, 1923).

DMN, Oct. 14, 1923

DMN, Nov. 23, 1925

50th anniversary ad detail, Nov. 23, 1925

In February 1926, the Moroney company (having just celebrated its 50th anniversary) announced the sale of the pioneering Dallas business (as well as its building) to R. W. Higginbotham and Hyman Pearlstone — the new wholesale company would be called the Higginbotham-Pearlstone Hardware Co.

ca. 1954

Higginbotham-Pearlstone lasted until about 1977, when they vacated the building (but their name remained on it). The photo at the top of this post shows the building in 1978, as does the photo below — at that time, it (or part of it) became home to a factory-outlet clothing store. Below, a slightly different view, looking north on Market from Pacific.

1978

It continues to be an important landmark in the Historic West End, and it still looks great — see the building on Google Street View, here.

***

Sources & Notes

The top photo, from 1978, is from the collection of the Texas Historical Commission, via the Portal to Texas History.

The 1954 Higginbotham-Pearlstone photo is from eBay.

The second photo (which I have cropped slightly), from 1978, is also from the Texas Historical Commission — it was taken in March 1978 by Danny Hardy. It is part of a nomination form for “National Register of Historic Places” designation — the whole 90-page application can be viewed as a PDF, here (this photo is on p. 50). There are lots of great photos of West End buildings from 1978 in this!

Other sources as noted.

See Sanborn maps which include this block (northwest corner of N. Market and Carondolet) in 1885, 1888, 1892, 1899, 1905, and — the “modern” block which, finally, is home to our building — in 1921.

higginbotham-pearlstone_1978_portal_sm

16 Comments

January 23, 2024

The Three Witches of Stemmons Tower

Convening…

by Paula Bosse

I have to admit, I had never heard of “the Stemmons witches” until a few years ago. They seem to have made quite the impression on teenagers of the ’60s and ’70s (and ’80s?), who would frequently take uninitiated fellow teens to visit the mysterious/sinister cloaked figures, after having told them elaborate scary stories about the figures that stood solemnly and forebodingly on the grounds of the 4-building Stemmons Towers complex.

I gather they could be seen from the freeway, and I can understand how they’d look pretty creepy, especially at night, from a distance (and up close). What a perfect teenage ritual for kids with cars: wait until dark, then take your friends to the Towers, pumping them full of spooky urban legends on the drive over, then watch their faces as you introduce them to witches 1-3. If there were night watchmen on overnight duty at Stemmons Towers, they must have had their hands full.

The reminiscences I’ve read all say the three figures disappeared at some point (late ’80s or early ’90s?) — and no one seems to know what happened to them. Do YOU know what happened to them? Where are they today?

The three figures are by artist Pedro Coronel, a Mexican sculptor and painter aligned with Rufino Tamayo — he was influenced by Diego Rivera and worked with Constantine Brancusi. He often used onyx and sandstone (from the photo, it looks like the “witches” were made of a black stone). The name of this work was “Hooded Figures.” From The Dallas Morning News:

These strange figures are permanent sidewalk superintendents at the new Stemmons Tower North, fourth and final building being erected in the complex on Stemmons Freeway. The three stone “Hooded Figures,” by sculptor Pedro Coronel, are among several works on the Towers’ landscaped plaza. (DMN, July 31, 1966)

(“Stemmons witches” has a much better ring to it than “sidewalk superintendents.”)

Read memories of teenage visits to these “witches” on the Dallas Historical Society “Phorum,” here.

Where have these “Figuras Encapuchadas” scurried off to?

***

Sources & Notes

Thank you SO MUCH to Fred Goodwin, who sent me this photo. He says he came across it years ago somewhere on the internet and does not know the original source. Thank you, Fred!

I’ve seen only one other photo of this work by Coronel — it accompanies the caption quoted above, in The Dallas Morning News (July 31, 1966, p. 1C). Sadly, it’s not a good scan.

A story by Steve Brown appeared in the DMN on Dec. 14, 2023, reporting that the four towers are to be converted to a residential community (“Dallas’ Landmark Stemmons Towers Sell for Conversion to Apartments”). Um, okay.

See a cool night-time photo of Stemmons Tower #1 in the 2018 Flashback Dallas post “Stemmons Tower, Downtown Skyline — 1963.”

stemmons_three-witches_hooded-figures_pedro-coronel_sm

15 Comments

December 28, 2023

Some-Context Channel 8 Screenshots: 1971

WFAA Collection/Jones Film Collection/SMU

by Paula Bosse

I have been working as part of a 3-person team (led by Jeremy Spracklen and Scott Martin) on the WFAA archive of news film, housed in the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection at the Hamon Arts Library at SMU. I have been working on 1970 and 1971, going through daily footage shot for Channel 8 News. I get a bit bogged down by all the sports and car crashes, but at this point, I am so all-consumed by these two specific years that I feel I would do well on Jeopardy if the categories were things like “Minor League DFW Hockey Teams of the Early ’70s,” “Internecine Squabbles of the Dallas City Council, the Dallas School Board, and the Dallas County Commissioners Court,” and “So What’s the Deal with the Sharpstown Scandal?” My 2023 has been spent immersed in 1971, where the chaos of the implementation of court-ordered school busing, the huge securities fraud scandal that involved some very powerful Texas politicians (Sharpstown), and the battle between Craig Morton and Roger Staubach to become the Cowboys’ #1 quarterback were some of the stories that dominated the headlines. And, lordy, there were some pretty exotic hairstyles, fashions, and interior design trends hammering away relentlessly throughout this post-hippie (it might really still have been current-hippie), pre-disco period.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from this 1971 DFW-centric news footage from the WFAA archives. Links to the pertinent clips on YouTube are included at the end of the descriptions. These clips are rarely the full reports that would have been seen on the nightly news — they are often just silent footage or B-roll, without any identification of people or clues as to where they were filmed or even why they were newsworthy. It’s (mostly) a lot of fun to dig through and watch the unfolding of history from more than 50 years in the future.

Above, from JUNE 1971

One of my favorite human-interest stories from the past year (meaning 1971!) was the profile of one of the few “lady mailmen” in Dallas at the time. She’s utterly, utterly charming, has a supportive and interesting husband and family, and loves her job. The Channel 8 cameraman shows her as she sorts her mail in the Beverly Hills Station post office in Oak Cliff and follows her as she walks along her route on West Davis. The only problem with this 7 minutes of interesting footage is that the woman is never identified. I dove in, really wanting to identify her. I thought I had cracked the mystery of her identity, only to find myself at a dead end again. If only her children could see this wonderful profile of their mother. If you know who this woman is, please let me know, and we’ll add her name to the YouTube description and try to track down any family members. I would LOVE her children to be able to see this.

The “lady mailman” is interviewed here (this first bit is in three short segments, totaling 4 minutes); a later clip shows her on her route, here (about 3 minutes). The old post office building still stands at 509 N. Barnett.

JANUARY 1971

So, yeah, fashion and interior design trends were pretty… in-your-face in 1971. In the three screenshots below, you’ll see some retina-abusing images of with-it decor. The first features the always beautiful Phyllis George, the Denton native who was in the midst of her Miss America reign. In this clip, she has come back home to DFW for an appearance at an event in which a room designed with her in mind is unveiled (by decorators C. John Megna and William Farrington). She is wearing a dress designed by Carlo Bitetto specifically for her to wear IN THAT ROOM (!). You don’t often see sparkles and plaid cheek-by-jowl.

The clip with the super-color-saturated room and its battling patterns is here.

FEBRUARY 25, 1971

Before Lion Country Safari, Mesquite had World of Animals, a drive-thru safari park. World of Animals had a wild-animal veterinarian who visited regularly from California: Dr. Martin Dinnes. Below, Dinnes is seen providing dental care to popular attraction Harold the Chimp. This is not really something I expected to see, but there you are. (Dinnes was later engaged to actress and wildlife preservation activist Tippi Hedren for several years.)

The clips of Dinnes being interviewed and preparing Harold for a tooth extraction (and I grimaced a bit, because the camera keeps rolling during the procedure, so be warned!) are here and here. (The last clip has a shot of Harold’s hand, which, understandably, appears to be gripping the chair.) That is one well-behaved, chill chimp!

MAY 18, 1971

In 1971, there was an ongoing battle between old quarterback Craig Morton and NKOTB Roger Staubach over who would be named the team’s official starting QB. Coach Tom Landry worked for months with a two-quarterback system, alternating them from game to game — he was fine with this, but everyone else hated it. Below are screenshots of Morton and Staubach at the Cowboys practice field. I know virtually nothing about sports training, but this, um, extremely low-tech gadget struck me as weird. And funny. I mean, okay, it was 1971, but surely there was something more technologically advanced than this? It’s a football on a string, tied to a post. And maybe there’s a spring or something in there. This must have been effective. Rog looks like he’s straining. I don’t know. But I love it.

See Craig in an interview with Verne Lundquist from May 18, 1971 about his elbow and shoulder injuries here, and then using the football-on-a-string thing (and then training with Staubach) here; and see Roger interviewed on the same day about really, really wanting to be the starting QB here, and then he hits the string thing here before working out with Morton in what must have been a fairly tense period of both of their careers.

JUNE 1971

Medical examiners used to be on the news a lot. One who popped up frequently was Tarrant County M.E. Dr. Feliks Gwozdz. I was amused more than I should have been when I saw the skull-and-crossbones coffee mug on his desk. I hope it said “World’s Greatest Coroner!” on the back.

The silent footage of Dr. Gwozdz at his desk is here.

JULY 14, 1971

Back in 1971 there was what seemed like the threat of a union strike every 10 minutes. I enjoyed the footage of a bunch of Southwestern Bell employees who look like they were probably a lot of fun to hang out with. Their t-shirts read “Ma Bell Is a Cheap Mother,” which is just great.

Strike footage is here (about 2½ minutes) and here.

JULY 1971

One of the top stories of 1971 was the endless furor set off by court-mandated school busing in attempts to desegregate schools. It was a mess. The man seen below is attorney Bill Brice, a leader of one of the many anti-busing groups. …Surely the cameraman noticed the monkey.

Man with monkey can be seen here.

AUGUST 29, 1971

When the Dallas School Board and Supt. Nolan Estes weren’t pulling their hair out over desegregation, they tackled other issues. One of which was so overshadowed by anti-busing demonstrations that it barely got any play, but I find it really interesting. It concerned Crozier Tech High School downtown. At the end of the 1970-71 school year, the landmark school was closed, and there was lots of discussion on what the DISD should do with the building/land, which they owned (2218 Bryan). This press conference was supposed to be about Estes’ vision of a 40-story school-office complex, which he suggested be built on the land — the first 10 floors would be for school use, and the top 30 floors would be leased to businesses as office space, with leases, theoretically, paying for construction and maintenance of the building. The building was never built (and thankfully, old Tech still stands). School board president John Plath Green and Supt. Estes sit in front of an architectural drawing of the envisioned DISD skyscraper. Too bad no one wanted to talk about it.

Footage from the press conference where reporters only want to ask about busing, is here.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1971

The Sharpstown Scandal was a bigger story than busing, but, even though political scandals are juicy, it just didn’t get everyday people mobilizing, marching in the streets, and shouting each other down in public forums the way busing did. But it was a massive story, and several political careers bit the dust because of it. The sprawling and confusing securities-fraud scandal mostly involved drab politicians and business executives. But one part of it involved, bizarrely, six celebrated — if not beloved — NASA astronauts and an insurance company pension fund.

In this Channel 8 footage, you can see something you don’t see every day: five NASA astronauts walking together down the street (a sixth one was nearby, on his own). James Lovell, Pete Conrad, Fred Haise, Ken Mattingly, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean were in Dallas on Sept. 23, 1971 to testify as witnesses before a federal grand jury that was investigating the activities surrounding the Sharpstown Scandal. These are screenshots of the five (minus Lovell), carrying briefcases through grubby downtown Dallas, and of Lovell on his own, exiting the Federal Court House. When I first watched this footage, it just seemed really odd: five internationally (galactically!) famous astronauts — heroes! — walking together down the street, without any kind of security or entourage. If you were a NASA freak (and there were a lot back then, at the height of the Apollo-Gemini programs) and you just happened to have walked past this group, your head would have exploded.

See Lovell exiting the sterile- and dystopian-looking courthouse on his own (that woman he holds the door open for has no idea who he is), and the others walking somewhat playfully down the street here (I love this footage!); a confusing wrap-up of the day’s events is here.

OCTOBER 14, 1971

In footage from the State Fair of Texas, I was really taken by this building, which I swore I had never seen. It was the home of the “lost children” center during the fair, in the Dallas police HQ in Fair Park. It looks different to me now, but it’s still there, near the Aquarium. It looked better in 1971!

Lots of footage of crying children and harried parents, here and here.

OCTOBER 1971

This young dandy is named John Ott (I’m not 100% sure about the spelling). He was a real estate developer in Euless. He couldn’t have been more on top of the 1971 fashion wave. Represent, Euless!

It’s a story about replanting trees (with, admittedly, interesting footage of trees being uprooted and replanted). Here and here.

OCTOBER 31, 1971

In the screenshots below, Channel 8 reporter Judi Hanna (who had recently debuted an unfortunate hairdo) interviews Dallas City Councilman Garry Weber about City Council things. I don’t know where this was filmed, but I only hope it wasn’t his home. It’s hard to focus on what anyone is saying, because of the tidal wave of stuff coming at you. (Ironically, he was being interviewed about sponsoring a change to the city charter in order to crack down on the “visual pollution” of unenforced sign ordinances.) I was so overwhelmed by this vista, that I somehow assumed I was seeing cupid-studded wallpaper. But no. Check out the second screenshot, which also includes a peek at the room’s drapes. I can’t tell where the wallpaper ends and the drapes begin.

Appropriately shown on Halloween night, clips from this report are here (followed by footage of signs-galore along Lemmon Avenue) and here.

OCTOBER 1971

Lastly, a shot of Mingus, Texas, a small West Texas town near Thurber. I just love this image. I think I found the location — here’s what it looks like now.

Why was the tiny town of MIngus being featured on a Dallas news report? The Greater Mingus-Thurber Metropolitan Area was in the news because it was the location of a commune of the controversial Children of God (i.e. “cult”). Actually, the “Children” were in the process of being evicted by the landowner, who, interestingly, was a TV preacher in Los Angeles (I guess even TV evangelists have a breaking point). Members of this group splintered, and a few moved to Big D for a while, where they continued to be newsworthy until they moved elsewhere.

The shot of Mingus is from one of the many clips contained in this Oct. 7 package, here (it is specifically at the 1:08 mark). Below that is a shot from a week later, after some of the self-described “Jesus Freaks” had landed in Dallas — a group member is seen walking through Exposition Park to their new HQ, at 639½ Exposition — it and other CoG footage from Oct. 14, 1971 is here (this specific shot is seen at the 17:18 mark). (If you are considering a documentary on the Children of God, there’s lots of footage for you in the WFAA archives at SMU.)

AUGUST 1971

This is a bonus.

As I worked my way through 1971, there was one truly amazing story. It involved the kidnapping of a toddler in Fort Worth. On Aug. 25, 1971, 21-month-old Melissa Suzanne Highsmith disappeared. Her 22-year-old mother, Alta, had hired a new babysitter, who was supposed to watch her for the day while Alta was at work. The babysitter picked Melissa up in the morning as planned, but she never returned the child. The babysitter and Melissa disappeared without a trace. There were no leads in the case for years. …And YEARS.

In 2022, the Highsmith family learned of an online DNA match, which would indicate they had found Melissa. Eventually, it was determined that a 50-something-year-old woman named “Melanie” was actually the long-missing Melissa. The woman who kidnapped her raised her as her own daughter, and Melissa never suspected she wasn’t the woman’s child (although she says she never felt really “connected” to her).

Melissa (she now uses “Melissa” again) was reunited with her family at the end of 2022. One report I read said that she grew up only 10 minutes from the Fort Worth apartment her mother lived in. Despite the Highsmith family’s 51 years of loss, grief, worry, and suffering, there has ultimately been a happy ending!

In the screenshot below from an Aug. 26, 1971 Channel 8 story, Alta Highsmith shows a photo of her missing daughter to the camera. The report is here.

If you managed to get all the way through this, you deserve an award! This might be the longest thing I’ve written all year! I’m more than ready for my 1971 Jeopardy challenge (Dallas edition)!

***

Sources & Notes

All screenshots are from news film in the WFAA Collection, held by the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection, Hamon Arts Library, SMU. Clips are posted regularly from this Channel 8 collection on YouTube, here.

My previous collection of WFAA screenshots can be found in the post “No-Context Channel 8 Screenshots: 1970-1971.”

lady mailman june 1971 WFAA_sm

8 Comments

December 18, 2023

“This Month In Dallas” — Aug./Sept. 1962: The Clubs

Club Dallas, Browder Street

by Paula Bosse

Downtown Dallas was a cool place for entertainment and dining in the early 1960s, from high-class clubs and lounges to famous and infamous strip joints (some of which were higher-class than others). A few months ago on eBay, someone scanned a bunch of pages of a magazine called This Month in Dallas (“Where to Go, What to Do”), which seems to have been aimed at the conventioneer or out-of-town visitor. (I’ve never heard of this publication, but I would LOVE to see more!)

this-month-in-dallas_aug-sept-1962_cover_ebay

As far as image quality, I’m at the mercy of the person doing the scanning, but here are several of the ads featured in the eBay listing. All appeared in the Aug./Sept. 1962 issue of This Month in Dallas. (At the top, a detail from an ad for Club Dallas — the full ad is below.)

Let’s just do them alphabetically.

ARAGON BALLROOM, 1011 S. Industrial Blvd. (now S. Riverfront). Featuring the Aragon Red Jackets Western Swing Band, the “Over 30” Club Dance, and Chuck Arlington and His Orchestra.

CAROUSEL CLUB (or “New” Carousel Club), 1312½ Commerce, at Field. Jack Ruby, proprietor. “Dallas’ Newest and Most Intimate Burlesque Nite Club.” This ad (the first of several) features stripper Peggy Steele, “America’s Suzie Wong.”

More CAROUSEL. “Dallas’ only burlesque nite club with a continuous girl and comedy show. No stopping, 9:00 PM ’til 2:00 AM.” “America’s Suzie Wong” is back, now spelled Peggy Steel. MC’d by comic Wally Weston.

More CAROUSEL. Here’s Mili Perele, “the Little French Miss.”

More CAROUSEL. Heck, let’s throw in another Peggy Steel/e mention.

More CAROUSEL (Jack’s advertising budget was impressive). Tammi True, then in the midst of a pinching brouhaha.

Pat Morgan’s CLUB DALLAS, 206½ Browder (just south of Commerce). I love this ad, but I’m not familiar with the establishment or Mr. Morgan. Looks like it opened in the summer of 1962 (“Owner Pat Morgan has eliminated the semi-nude waitresses and aims for the family trade” — Dallas Morning News, July 27, 1962), changed its name in September 1962 to simply “Pat Morgan’s,” and finally closed in February 1963. I bet he rued the day he dumped those semi-nude waitresses….

CLUB VEGAS, 3505 Oak Lawn. Yes, there was swinging nightlife beyond downtown. Club Vegas was famously owned by Jack Ruby’s sister, Eva Rubenstein. This club booked a lot of Black and Hispanic bands (for mixed audiences), including Joe Johnson and Trini Lopez. (I’ve been meaning to write about this place for the past 10 years!)

CLUB VILLAGE / ITALIAN VILLAGE RESTAURANT, 3211 Oak Lawn. Another happening place in Oak Lawn. I wrote and wrote and wrote about Sam Ventura’s Italian Village here.

COLONY CLUB, 1322½ Commerce. Abe Weinstein, proprietor. The “high-class” strip joint. Also featured acts like Deacon & Co., King and Queen of the Limbo.

More COLONY CLUB. An unnamed exotic.

GUTHREY’S CLUB, 214 Corinth, at Industrial (now Riverfront). Very popular back in the day. “Girls! Girls! Girls! Set-ups, beer, wine.” This ad features Dave Martin’s Tom Toms (James McCleeng, Glenn Keener, Gene Summers — vocalist, Charlie Mendian, Melvin Robinson, and Dave Martin).

THE SPOT, 4906 Military Parkway. This ad features Joe Wilson & The Sabers.

THE SPOT, the “other” location, 10635 Harry Hines. House band The Spotters.

THEATER LOUNGE, 1326 Jackson, at Akard. Barney Weinstein, proprietor. “Glamour Girls Galore.”

TOWN PUMP, 5021 Lovers Lane. “Dallas’ Original and Largest ‘Sing Along’ Piano Bar.” That is one scary sentence.

***

Sources & Notes

All ads from the Aug./Sept. 1962 issue of This Month in Dallas.

club-dallas_this-month-in-dallas_aug-sept-1962_ebay_det_sm

4 Comments

December 4, 2023

Oak Cliff Schools — 1916

Oak Cliff High School

by Paula Bosse

Here are a few photos and drawings of Oak Cliff schools from the 1916 inaugural yearbook of OAK CLIFF HIGH SCHOOL, seen above, which opened in 1915 at 9th & Beckley (it was later renamed Adamson High School). The previous school — the Oak Cliff Central School/Central High School (10th & St. George) — is seen below, obscured by trees. Most of the students in the new school would have also attended the old school.

JOHN H. REAGAN SCHOOL, 9th & Llewellyn — built in 1905. The caption to this photo is: “Nine temporary rooms nestled behind this mother building.” (I wrote about this school previously in the post “John H. Reagan Elementary, Oak Cliff’s ‘West End School’ — 1905.”)

JAMES BOWIE SCHOOL, Lancaster & 7th — built in 1907.

The photo of Bowie below appeared in The Dallas Morning News in November 1915.

JAMES STEPHEN HOGG SCHOOL, 1135 Ballard — built in 1911.

Below, a photo of the new school, as it appeared in The Dallas Morning News in September 1911.

(NEW) WINNETKA SCHOOL, S. Edgefield & Ruxton (later Page) — built in 1916 (under construction when the 1916 OCHS yearbook was published).

Back to Oak Cliff High School. When the school opened in 1915, its first principal was William Hardin Adamson. He was principal for 19 years. Soon after his death in 1935, the school was renamed in his honor. He had been an educator in the state of Texas for 50 years and was apparently very popular with students.

UPDATED: Thanks to the person who commented below to identify the old Oak Cliff High School. Here are a few “candid” photos from this 1916 yearbook which show the old school as well as the new one under construction.

Goodbye, old school — hello, new school.

***

Sources & Notes

All images (except the two Dallas Morning News photos) are from the 1915-1916 edition of The Oak, the yearbook of Oak Cliff High School. (Incidentally, if you are an Ancestry subscriber and are unable to find this yearbook, it’s because it is listed there as being “South Oak Cliff High School.” A lot of the OCHS yearbooks are mislabeled as SOC.)

More info on the history of this school can be found on p. 43 of Education in Dallas: Ninety-Two Years of History, 1874-1966 by Walter J. E. Schiebel.

8 Comments

November 26, 2023

Jerry Bywaters: A Quick Trip to Farmers Branch

Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, SMU

by Paula Bosse

One of the joys of being a fan of an artist is discovering works you’ve never seen before. And here are two, both by a favorite of mine, Dallas artist Jerry Bywaters — and both are watercolors of the very nearby Farmers Branch. Bywaters must have been quite taken with the picturesque little depot there, because it snuck into at least two of his paintings. The one above is untitled, and the one below is “Farmers Branch In the Early Days.”

I can’t find dates for either of these, but the top work appears to have debuted at an exhibition at the Lawrence Art Galleries in November 1937 (it is mentioned in a review of the show by Frances Folsom in The Dallas Morning News — “Exhibition of Art Works by Jerry Bywaters Opening,” DMN, Oct. 31, 1937).

The depot is still standing — it was restored and relocated to the Farmers Branch Historical Park in 1985. Read a great history of the depot here.

The photo below is from the City of Farmers Branch site. Who wouldn’t want to spend a day with those girls?

I think I need to explore Farmers Branch.

***

Sources & Notes

Top painting (“Untitled [Farmers Branch Train Depot]”) is an undated watercolor by Jerry Bywaters, from the Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, SMU Libraries — more info on this can be found at the SMU site here.

The second painting, “Farmers Branch In the Early Days,” is an undated watercolor by Jerry Bywaters; it was sold by Heritage Auctions in 2010. (A notation on the back of this framed piece indicates that it once belonged to the legendary Judge Sarah T. Hughes, or it was purchased by her to give to a very lucky friend.)

The photo of bobbed flappers loitering around the depot is from the City of Farmers Branch website, here.

Other Flashback Dallas posts with (very different) examples of Jerry Bywaters’ art:

A version of this post originally appeared on my Patreon page.

bywaters-jerry_untitled_farmers-branch-depot_bywaters-collection_smu_nd_sm

3 Comments

November 23, 2023

Colony Club Billboard in Beautiful Kodachrome — Early 1960s

Downtown 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, Nov. 22, 1962

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

photo: Dallas Jewish Historical Society

***

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

7 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

Category: Neighborhoods

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