by Paula Bosse
Earl’s Continental Buffet Announces the Opening of
Dallas’ First Shuffleboard Parlor
Serving Buffet Lunches and Sandwiches in Our Taproom
Also Announcing the Opening of
Dallas’ Finest Chili Parlor and Barbecue Bar
Serving Straight Chili — Chili with Spaghetti –
Chili with Beans — Chili with Tamales
Open Evenings, 1515 Commerce
This place has EVERYTHING!
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
RADIO STATION KRLD
This beautiful building houses KRLD’s new super-power 50,000 watt transmitter. In the background you see a part of the massive 475-foot towers used in broadcasting KRLD programs. The transmitter is located between Dallas and Garland. You are invited to keep your dial on 1040. KRLD is the home station of the Stamps Quartet.
Such a beautiful art deco building! And, I believe, it’s still in use. My favorite aside about the early days of KRLD was that when it began broadcasting — from a small room in the Adolphus Hotel in 1926 — the station was on the air for only six hours a day, “except on Wednesdays when the station closed down to make repairs and recharge the batteries.” Also, according to the KRLD website, the station was “the first radio station in the world to sell commercials.” Of course it was — leave it to Dallas to invent the radio ad.
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For a history of KRLD and a photo of what the transmitter looks like today, see here.
For an aerial view of the transmitter in 1949, see here (from the Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University).
Photo from Souvenir Album, 2nd Annual All-Night Broadcast, KRLD–Dallas: July 1-2, 1939 (Dallas, Stamps-Baxter Music & Ptg. Co., Dallas, 1939). This was a souvenir program of a gospel extravaganza held at the Cotton Bowl, with the Stamps Quartet as headliners, broadcast live on KRLD. The frenzied text describes the sudden downpour that threatened the show and the ensuing mad scramble to figure out what to do, with repeated, panicky refrains of “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!” (…The show went on.) (Click picture for much larger image.)
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
LADIES’ and GENTS’ CHILE PARLOR — 318 Main
I beg to call the attention of the public to the medicinal qualities of J. Delgado’s celebrated Chile con Carne. I can safely recommend it as a preventative of chills and fever, and sure cure for fresh colds. Chile is not only a wholesome food but is a blood purifier. Prepared for family orders. J. DELGADO, 318 Main.
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Chili-barking, nineteenth-century-style. From an 1893 issue of the Dallas Times Herald, which, at that time, appears to have been in need of a more careful typesetter.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
My family had two favorite neighborhood restaurants: Kirby’s Charcoal Steakhouse on Lower Greenville for birthdays and special occasions, and Roscoe White’s Corral on Mockingbird for every other occasion. Conveniently, both were only a short walk from our house. When I came across this ad, I was surprised to see that the Corral had started out as a drive-in, with car-hops. My memories of the place are from the 1970s after it had been rebuilt. in the same block, in a new-ish shopping strip (about where Premiere Video is now), facing the old Dr Pepper plant. It had a diner-like, fairly utilitarian decor, with a slightly fancier banquet room at the back. There was an attached (very dark) bar with a separate entrance. I remember the gleaming cigarette machine. Roscoe must have loved the place, because he was there all the time.
My mother and I always had the chicken-fried steak and a salad with blue cheese dressing. My father and brother tended to go for the still-bubbling cheese enchiladas on a hot metal dish, swimming in a healthy amount of grease (my father’s favorite part). I swear we always had the same waitress — I can’t remember her name, but it was one of those perfect names for a waitress. “Maxine” maybe? (I think my parents had both been customers since their days at SMU in the ’50s, and for all I know, she had been there back then and had been serving them for over twenty years.)
When the Corral closed in the late-’70s or early-’80s, my family was distraught. Loyal patrons that we were, we began making the trek through the Park Cities to Roscoe’s other restaurant, The Easy Way, over on Lovers Lane, by the toll road — the atmosphere was different (it was darker, for one thing), but the food was EXACTLY THE SAME! And, as I recall, even our regular waitress was there — she had also made the move across town. It was almost as if nothing had changed. …Almost.
I loved the Corral My family had so many nice times there. And I miss it. I especially miss that wonderful chicken-fried steak, the yardstick by which I continue to judge all others.
Roscoe White died in 1995 and was remembered in D Magazine:
He moved around, but Roscoe White always had a place for Dallas to eat. He opened his first restaurant in 1939, the Kings Way Grill on Knox and Travis streets. It had an upstairs casino, and the beer was stored in the icehouse next door. Later he opened the Corral on Mockingbird Lane, a drive-in that became a haven for SMU law students. White also owned the Easy Way Grill on Lovers Lane and then Roscoe’s Easy Way on Lemmon Avenue. He died of a stroke at 88.
Thanks for all the great meals, Roscoe!
Roscoe White at the Easy Way (D Magazine, Oct. 1985)
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An early ad from 1947. Fried chicken gizzards, only 55 cents — “It’s a Pleasure”!
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A couple of help-wanted ads for waitresses and a “lady cashier” (Dallas Morning News, 1948). I can only hope that Roscoe’s car-hops were referred to as “White Girls.”
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There had been a fire in the summer of 1950 that caused $4,500 worth of damage, the reason, I’m assuming, for the redecoration and re-opening. I’m not sure when the Corral moved into the location I was familiar with, but by mid-1969, ads were appearing with the new address of 5422 Mockingbird.
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A matchbook from the Easy Way Grill, sadly, with the wrong address on it! The Easy Way was at 5806 Lovers Lane, part of the Miracle Mile, where Dr. Delphinium is now.
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A 1951 ad for the Kings Way Grill and Easy Way Grill.
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The top ad touting “SMU’s Favorite Drive-In” is from a 1951 SMU-Rice football game souvenir program.
A fond farewell to the Easy Way — “It’s Hard To Say Goodbye to The Easy Way Cafe” — from D Magazine is here. (Above photo of Roscoe accompanied the print article.)
Red matchbook covers from Flickr.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
“7 miles from Downtown Dallas” — choppers welcome
by Paula Bosse
What does a man who ambushed and killed Bonnie and Clyde do once he’s retired from law enforcement? He opens a motor lodge, of course!
I was initially drawn to this image because of an unexplained lifelong fascination with Howard Johnson’s restaurants (I think I was only ever in one — the one on Mockingbird at Central, where my father introduced me to the inexplicable root beer float). But the interesting thing about this postcard is not the HoJo’s, it’s the motel next door, Hinton’s Motor Lodge, an establishment that was in business from 1955 to 1970, in Irving, very near to where Texas Stadium would be built in 1971 (Loop 12 at Hwy. 183). Why would a motor lodge be interesting? Because the owner was Ted Hinton (1904-1977), the former Dallas County Deputy Sheriff who was one of the six men who tracked down, ambushed, and killed Bonnie and Clyde in 1934. (Hinton was recruited for the posse because he would be able to identify both of them: he had known Clyde Barrow growing up, and he had apparently had a crush on Bonnie Parker in the days when she was working as a waitress and he was working for the post office.)
After killing two of the most notorious celebrity outlaws of all-time, it must have been hard to know where to turn next. He retired from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department in 1941 and, as he was a pilot, he trained flyers for the US Army Air Corps during WWII. The fact that Hinton was a pilot MUST explain the inclusion of a “heliport” (!) in the list of motel amenities, alongside Beauty Rest mattresses, a swimming pool, and a playground for the kids.
I’m sure that, on occasion, Hinton ate next door at Howard Johnson’s. But I bet none of the other patrons had any idea that the guy sipping coffee in the next booth was one of the men who gunned down Bonnie and Clyde in a hail of gunfire that even Sam Peckinpah might have considered “a bit much.”
“Dallas” magazine, June 1954 (via Reddit)
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An interesting short video about Ted Hinton’s connections to Bonnie and Clyde in his youth is recounted here by Hinton’s son “Boots.”
And a newsreel featuring film footage of the aftermath of the ambush — and apparently shot by Hinton himself with a 16mm movie camera loaned to him by a Dallas Times Herald photographer — can be seen here.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
The kindly gentleman in the bow-tie will look after your five-year-old when you send her to the convenience store for bread and milk.
I’m assuming this is one of the first national ads for Dallas company 7-Eleven as it expanded and expanded and expanded beyond Dallas and the South. How quaint.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
Sometimes a noisy, bustling metropolis really hits the spot, but there are times I long to have completely empty streets all to myself. Which is one reason I love this serene and peaceful (or perhaps “post-apocalyptic,” depending on your half-full/half-empty world-view) scene of Dallas, totally deserted save for a partial view of a single car in the distance. The brand new “triple underpass” was unveiled in 1936, the year Dallas was obsessed with showing off what a fantastically modern city it was to the throngs of visitors flooding in for the Texas Centennial celebrations. G.B. Dealey himself rode the first car through the underpass. Perhaps that’s his little car heading up Main Street.
Above, the “Business District, from the West.” Note the absence of Dealey Plaza, which wouldn’t be completed until 1941 and not officially named “Dealey Plaza” until 1946. …After that, the place wasn’t thought about in any especially significant way until 1963.
“The Gateway to Dallas, Texas,” with beautiful Dealey Plaza now set in place, one day to become the most-visited historic site in the city. Despite its grim connection to the assassination, every time I drive through that underpass I always get a little thrill. Almost 80 years after it became a landmark, the triple underpass is still a remarkably cool piece of Dallas architecture and engineering.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas, presents a landscape of Hills, Vales, Lakes and Vistas, the whole forming a panorama of beauty. Apart from its natural attractions, Oak Cliff has been laid off to meet the demand of an existing necessity for the rapidly increasing population of Dallas.
This beautiful suburb, overlooking the city, half a mile from the court house, and just across the river, has been magnificently improved at great cost, with Lakes, Parks, Paved Streets, Water Works, School Buildings and an Elevated Railway which is built to this suburb from the Court House square.
With these pre-requisites, its attractive situation, great elevation, pure and abundant water supply, it offers superior advantages as a beautiful, agreeable, healthful and picturesque site for residences, while the grounds between the foot-hills and river are admirably adapted for factory sites by reason of the never-failing and abundant supply of water and railroad facilities.
Mr. Marsalis, the president of the Oak Cliff Co., deserves credit for his successful management of the many advancements of Oak Cliff and its people.
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Oak Cliff incorporated in 1890, boasting a population of 2,470, and the PR department of the Oak Cliff Co. was on promotional overdrive, running this ad many times over the course of the year. More on the history of one of Dallas’ most “beautiful, agreeable, healthful and picturesque” suburbs can be found here.
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From the front page of the June 5, 1890 edition of the Southern Mercury, a weekly newspaper printed in Dallas.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
Wonderful old postcard, looking east, probably from the courthouse. Main Street is on the left, Commerce on the right. I’m not sure of the date, but I’m guessing somewhere around the turn of the century. Click the picture for a very large image, and just wander around the place.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
For all your square-dancin’ needs.
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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 