Flashback : Dallas

December 13, 2020

Take a Greyhound to the Texas Centennial — 1936

“Dallas, please…”

by Paula Bosse

Thanks to the promoters of the Texas Centennial, advertisements placed in national publications in 1936 showed Dallas to be quite the desirable destination. The Centennial — the World’s-Fair-that-wasn’t-quite-a-World’s Fair — made Dallas the place to be in 1936. This ad for Greyhound Lines (a company which, incidentally, is now headquartered in Dallas) need only show a fab deco poster on a wall for people to want to jump on a bus and head to Big D.

The full ad is below. Nary a mention of “Dallas.” (Click to see a larger image.)

***

Sources & Notes

Ad from Hollywood magazine, May, 1936.

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2 Comments

December 6, 2020

St. Mark’s Campus — 1960s

St. Mark’s chapel at dusk, 1961

by Paula Bosse

A few photos of St. Mark’s School of Texas campus buildings and history from various editions of Marksmen, the school’s yearbook.

Above the exterior of the chapel beneath a full moon. Below, the interior of the chapel (click for larger images).

1965

A photo spread from the 1963 yearbook, commemorating 30 years as an institution (see the St. Mark’s timeline here).

1963

1964

Decorated for Christmas:

1964

1967

1968

1961

1962

1963

***

Sources & Notes

All images from various editions of Marksmen, the St. Mark’s yearbook.

More St. Mark’s-related Flashback Dallas posts can be found here.

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3 Comments

December 6, 2020

St. Mark’s, Aerial Views — 1960s

Rendering of the campus by architect Hal M. Moseley, from the 1960 yearbook

by Paula Bosse

St. Mark’s School of Texas, the prep school for boys in North Dallas (10600 Preston Road, south of Royal Lane), has been one of the city’s finest educational institutions for decades. It opened in 1950 after the merging of the Cathedral School for Boys and the Texas Country Day School, both of which traced their roots to the legendary Terrill School, founded in 1906 (see the St. Mark’s timeline on the school’s website here).

Below are a few aerial photos of the ever-expanding campus from the 1960s. (Above is a drawing of the grounds by architect Hal M. Moseley from the endpapers of the 1960 Marksmen, the St. Mark’s yearbook.)

The campus in 1964 (click to see larger image):

1964

In 1965, plans had been drawn for expansion and renovation. Five of the existing structures would be renovated, and a new gymnasium and “individual study center” (including a 50,000-volume library) would be constructed:

1965

Two photos from 1966, with the caption “before the building of the new library and study center”:

1966

And a rather haphazard editing of mismatched endpaper photos from 1968:

1968

***

Sources & Notes

All images are from various editions of Marksmen, the St. Mark’s yearbook.

More about St. Mark’s School of Texas can be found at Wikipedia, here.

Other St. Mark’s-related Flashback Dallas posts can be found here.

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November 30, 2020

Victor’s Lounge — 1913 Commerce

Victor’s-sponsored bowling team

by Paula Bosse

My posting has been a bit erratic recently. My brother and I have been clearing out my late aunt’s home. It’s one of those inevitable tasks that no one wants to have to do, but as sad as it’s been, it’s also been comforting to see glimpses of my aunt’s life that I had only vaguely heard about — or had never heard about. Going through her photos, I see what a full life she had, how much she traveled, and that she had decades-old friendships.

One of the places she talked about with great fondness was, of all things, a bar: Victor’s Lounge, which was at 1913 Commerce Street, directly across from the Statler Hilton. The Dallas Morning News described it as “a favorite with the downtown office crowd.” My aunt worked for an insurance company in the Mercantile Building, and nearby Victor’s was the place where she and her co-workers gathered after work (and, I think, for lunch). She even participated in a ladies’ bowling league on a team sponsored by her favorite hang-out. The photo at the top shows the team of fun-looking women (my aunt Bettye Jo is on the far right). She still had the crisply-ironed shirt in her closet!

Victor’s was opened by Victor Ballas (who later opened the Purple Orchid a block away at 2016 Commerce). Born in New York, Ballas arrived in Dallas as a child, went to Forest Avenue High School, and had several businesses, one liltingly called “Ballas of Dallas.” My aunt said he always looked after his customers, especially the single women when they were being aggressively hit on by male patrons. Ballas died on Christmas Day, 1971 of a heart attack — he was only 53.

Victor’s opened as a cocktail bar in 1957 or 1958 with a regular piano player (for many years it was Tony Rizzo), but ads indicate that it became more of a restaurant than a bar in the 1960s.

1959

The Commerce Street location closed in 1971 — it was replaced at the end of that year by the Wild West Saloon, another cocktail bar (but one which included topless entertainment).

I heard so much about Victor’s over the years from my aunt that when I recently stumbled across odd shots of the place in random film footage I was pretty excited.

I wish we could have gotten a drink there together, Bettye Jo. And maybe hit the lanes at your favorite alley and bowled a few frames.

1962 (click to see larger image)

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo and photo of bowling shirt from the collection of Paula Bosse.

The three color images are screenshots from films in the G. William Jones Film Collection, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University. The first is from the WFAA NewsFilm Collection, the second and third from a promotional film for The Dallas Morning News; all are from the 1960s.

Map is a detail from a 1962 map featured in the Flashback Dallas post “Map of Downtown Dallas, For the Curious Conventioneer — 1962.”

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6 Comments

November 26, 2020

From the Vault: Thanksgiving Celebrations in 19th-Century Dallas

Turkeys crossing the road in Millsap, TX (photo: Paula Bosse)

by Paula Bosse

Another Thanksgiving has arrived. I’ve been busy this Thanksgiving season working with my brother to clear out my late aunt’s home as we prepare to sell it (she died in April of COVID-19, one of many, many reasons this year has been such a difficult one), and, as a result, my updating of this blog has been a little sparse lately. So today’s post will be a look back at Thanksgiving posts from the past.

Flashback Dallas posts tagged “Thanksgiving” are here.

The individual posts are:

“Encouraging Dallasites to Observe Thanksgiving — 1874.” It took a while to persuade Southerners (and Texans) that Thanksgiving was not an abolitionist plot.
“Thanksgiving in Dallas — 1883.” Notes on the day’s activities, culminating in a picnic at Eagle Ford.
“Thanksgiving, 1891 — The First Turkey-Day Football Game in Dallas.“ Dallas vs. Fort Worth. I really enjoyed writing this one — if, like me, sports stuff leaves you cold, there are a lot of ads and interesting non-sporty tidbits to keep you entertained.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. If your celebrations this year aren’t as festive and as full of family and friends as usual, just know that things will (hopefully!) be better next year.

This year I’m thankful that I had my aunt Bettye Jo in my life for as many years as I did. And for everyone else who has lost a loved one in this awful year or suffered hardships they couldn’t have imagined last Thanksgiving: we’ll get through this.

***

Sources & Notes

Photo of turkeys crossing the road was taken by me on a drive through Millsap, Texas (Parker County) in October, 2012.

4 Comments

November 22, 2020

Kennedy Memorial and the County Courthouses — Early 1970s

by Paula Bosse

A view of the new John F. Kennedy Memorial, the not-new Old Red Courthouse, and the not-old-but-not-really-new “new” County Courthouse, in a postcard photo by Bob Glander.

The text on the back of the postcard reads:

The old and the new County Courthouses with the Kennedy Memorial. The new Courthouse was dedicated Feb. 4, 1966 and the Kennedy Memorial June 24, 1970, Dallas, Texas. Photo by Bob Glander.”

See the same view — from Main and Market — today, via Google Street View, here.

***

Sources & Notes

Postcard found somewhere online.

Previous Flashback Dallas posts with images to compare imagined and actual views of the “Courthouse Complex”:

November 10, 2020

Ads from St. Mark’s Yearbooks — 1960s

Wall’s Delicatessen, Preston Royal, 1968

by Paula Bosse

I love ads. Here are several from various editions of the Marksmen, the yearbook of St. Mark’s School of Texas, a North Dallas landmark. Above, another North Dallas landmark, Wall’s Delicatessen in the Preston-Royal shopping center. The full ad is below (all images are larger when clicked).

1968

The Pit Club, at the Bronco Bowl.

1965

Jack in the Box, 3545 Forest Lane (west of Marsh).

1965

ICEE — “Get a glob of your favorite flavor.” (The ICEE/Slurpee machine was a Dallas product, courtesy of the John E. Mitchell Company, which I wrote about in 4 separate posts — the main one is here, with links to the 3 posts about its WWII munitions work linked in the first sentence.)

1966

Reynolds Penland, Preston Center.

1966

The Dallas Music House, Preston Royal.

1968

While we’re at it, Melody Shop — 4 locations, none of which is NorthPark (yet).

1965

Speaking of NorthPark, looks what’s coming. “Soon.”

1965

Another mall, way across town, Big Town, “a city of shops.”

1968

A change of pace: a city of medical institutes, the Leland Fikes Research Center (including what is now Carter BloodCare), on Harry Hines Blvd. (color photo is here). (A history of the former Wadley blood center can be found in this 1984 article from D Magazine.)

1966

The Torch, 3620 W. Davis.

1965

Dominique, 7713 Inwood Road.

1965

Preston State Bank (formerly the Highland Park State Bank), 8111 Preston Road. Their “Presteen” checking accounts were for high school and college students.

1965

Vick’s Steakhouse — “House of D’lish Foods” — Northlake Center (E. Northwest Highway and Ferndale, Lake Highlands). (According to a full-page newspaper ad from 1963 — which you can see here — the steakhouse was actually part of “Vick’s Northlake Dining Center” which was comprised of the steakhouse, Vick’s Northlake Cafeteria, and Vick’s Northlake Club, the latter being a private club which charged $10 a month, the equivalent of more than $75 in today’s money!)

1965

Zuider Zee, 5427 Denton Drive.

1965

Beard Plumbing Co., “installers of larger mechanical work,” 510 W. Davis. (I thought the fountain pictured might be the one in One Main Place, but that fountain (which, incidentally, was designed by the same man who designed the fountain at Lincoln Center in New York, J. S. Hamel) — did not make its appearance until the end of 1968.)

1965

UPDATE: Found an earlier ad in the St. Mark’s yearbook identifying the fountain as being in the Dallas Trade Mart:

John Niland’s Kings of Bar-B-Que, 5423 W. Lovers Lane — one of many Dallas restaurants owned by current or former Dallas Cowboys.

1968

Fox & Jacobs Construction Co., 12020 Denton Drive. I’ve heard of Fox & Jacobs houses all my life but didn’t realize until a few years ago that it was a Dallas company and not a national one. A history of F & J can be read in a 1978 D Magazine article here.

1965

Lucas B & B, 3520 Oak Lawn — the granddaddy of the 24-hour diner.

1965

Neiman-Marcus — “There’s only one way a St. Mark’s man can go… up!”

1965

Pandemonium, 2621 McKinney Avenue. “There is only one way for a St. Mark’s man to go… groovy!”

1968

***

Sources & Notes

Ads are from the 1965, 1966, and 1968 editions of the St. Mark’s School of Texas yearbook, Marksmen.

See other St. Mark’s-related Flashback Dallas posts here.

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8 Comments

November 3, 2020

VOTE!

Watching returns on Elm St. (photo: Dallas Public Library)

by Paula Bosse

Today is Election Day! If you haven’t already gotten out to vote, today is your last chance. Do it!

One of my favorite “discoveries” I’ve stumbled across since doing this blog is learning how Dallasites (and other Americans across the country) once got continuously-updated news of election returns: crowds gathered to watch results which were projected onto the side of a building. The photo above shows people in the early 1920s standing in front of the Dallas Times Herald building (the one with the pillars, at 1305 Elm) watching returns projected from the newspaper offices onto a building across the street. Before TV and radio and 24-hour news coverage, this was the way many large cities kept their citizens informed on election night.

Read more about that interesting slice of history in the Flashback Dallas post “How Dallas Used To Get Election Returns.”

Also of Election Day interest, check out these posts:

“‘A Woman Knows Real Live News When She Sees It’ — 1915,” about woman’s suffrage in Dallas (women were not allowed to vote in Texas until 1919).
“Voting Day,” which has inspiring photos of young people voting.

Happy voting!

October 29, 2020

World War I Cadets, Commerce Street — 1918

Standing at attention in the 2100 block of Commerce

by Paula Bosse

Great photo by John J. Johnson showing high school cadets standing in formation in the 2100 block of Commerce Street — the view is to the west (the Adolphus Hotel can be seen all the way at the end of the street, on the right). Here are a couple of zoomed-in details (click to see larger images).

The official Records of the U.S. War Department description of this photo:

The buildings in the foreground are, amazingly, still standing — over a hundred years later (a rarity for downtown Dallas buildings). See the same view today on Google here.

The Ajax Rubber Co. building the cadets are standing in front of is the “Waters” building (2117 Commerce), which has been very nicely restored by the East Quarter people:

Google Street View, Feb. 2020

Below, a clipping from the 1917 Dallas directory, showing the businesses on Commerce between Pearl and Preston (now Cesar Chavez):

Two years after this photo was taken — in 1920 — the Magnolia gas station (better known as the KLIF building) was built on the spot the cadets were looking at. See that building in the post “Magnolia Gas Station No. 110 — 1920.”

***

Sources & Notes

This photo, titled “Dallas High School Cadets,” was taken by Dallas photographer John J. Johnson (usually seen as Jno. J. Johnson) on June 11, 1918. It is from the American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs 1917-1918, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs 1860-1952, National Archives — more info on this photo can be found on the National Archives site here.

Other Flashback Dallas posts on World War I can be found here.

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2 Comments

October 25, 2020

Highland Park High School: Photos from the 1964 Yearbook

HPHS senior cyclists after school…

by Paula Bosse

A few random of photos of extra-curricular activities featured in the 1964 Highlander, the yearbook of Highland Park High School.

Above, the caption in the yearbook reads: “Senior cyclists Gay Crowell, Carol Webster, and Margaret Paxson prepare to pedal home.”

Below, “ROTC cadets salute the inspecting officers at the annual federal inspection.”

Below, “Ralph Cousins gives Donna Guest and Rick Sable a doubting look as Eloise Hancock tells of her adventures on the Midway during High School Day at the State Fair.”

Below, “Maintaining an international atmosphere, French teacher Neil Jarrett leaves his Volkswagen in the teachers’ parking lot.”

“Early morning finds girls repairing damage caused by gusty March winds.”

Below, a before-and-after photo featuring a student with the amazing name of “Kitten Quick” (!): “Vice-President Joe Tom Wood, Treasurer Kitten Quick, Sponsor Mrs. Rita Palm, Secretary Susie Urquhart, and President Lewis McMahon resist the temptation to play in the snow-filled schoolyard…”

“…but finally succumb to testing the depth of Dallas’ record snowfall.”

And, lastly, a huge snowman! “‘Seniors ’64’ marks the 14-foot snowman, built during Dallas’s record 7-inch snow.” (A record 7.4 inches of snow fell on Dallas in January, 1964.)

***

Sources & Notes

All images from the 1964 Highlander, the yearbook of Highland Park High School.

Other Flashback Dallas posts featuring items from HPHS yearbooks can be found here.

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