by Paula Bosse
My aunt Bettye Jo died last week of COVID-19. She was fun and funny, always generous, and always supportive. I loved her, and I’ll miss her.
She attended Our Lady of Good Counsel for a year or two and always spoke about that time with fondness. I wrote about the school in the 2017 post “Our Lady of Good Counsel, Oak Cliff — 1901-1961.”
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
Texlite. If you’re a lover of all-things-Dallas, you should know that name. Texlite made many, many, many, many, MANY enamel, electric, and neon signs, including, most famously, the rotating Flying Red Horse — Pegasus — which arrived in Dallas in 1934 to sit atop the city’s tallest building, the Magnolia Petroleum Building, serving as a beacon, a landmark, and as a sort of city mascot.
Texlite’s roots went back to 1879 when Italian immigrant Peter Samuel Borich (1849-1932) arrived in Dallas. His obituary noted that he was a graduate of the Royal Italian Naval School and that he served in the Italian Merchant Marine before he arrived in Dallas, where he established the Borich Sign Co. A very early location of his shop is said to have been on the current site of the Magnolia Building (and Pegasus), on Sycamore Street (now Akard). (See the post “19th-Century Sign-Painting and Real-Estating” for more about this location.) He appears to have been the go-to sign-painter for decades and was a very successful businessman.
The Borich company eventually branched out (and eventually became Texlite, a separate entitity) to become a pioneer in electric and neon signs: in 1926 Texlite built and sold the first neon sign west of the Mississippi, in St. Louis (their first neon sign in Dallas was a sign for the Zinke shoe repair store (1809 Main) which depicted an animated hammer tapping on a shoe heel).
The Borich sign company focused on painted or printed signs while Texlite handled the electric signs. P. S. Borich retired in the 1920s and moved to Los Angeles after the death of his wife. The last time the Borich company name appeared in the Dallas directory was 1930 (when it looks like it became United Advertising Corporation of Texas, owned by Harold H. Wineburgh, who was also a Texlite partner/owner).
During World War II, Texlite, like many manufacturers, jumped into war-production work, making airplane and ship parts; during the Korean War they made bomber fuselages.
I don’t know when Texlite went out of business (or was acquired and merged into another company). As successful as Texlite was (and it was incredibly successful), what more important achievement could it have had than to have been the maker of our iconic Pegasus?
*
Here are a few random images from the Borich/Texlite history. First, a great ad from 1949, when Pegasus was a fresh 15-year-old. “It’s Time For a Spring Sign Cleaning.” (Click to see a larger image.)
1949 ad
And another ad, this one with a wonderful photo, from 1954.
1954 ad, via Flickr
In 1949 Texlite built a huge new factory in an industrial area near Love Field, at 3305 Manor Way. Below is the architectural rendering. The caption: “New home of Texlite, Inc. is being completed at 3305 Manor Way at a total of $1,000,000. The new, two-story plant, providing 114,000 square feet of factory and office space, will provide facilities for trebling Texlite’s output. Grayson Gill is the architect, and O’Rourke Construction Company are the general contractors.” (Dallas magazine, Feb. 1949)
Below, the previous factory, located at 2900 Factory Street, also near Love Field:
I assume this 1940 sign was made by Texlite. Below are a couple of details, showing playful hints of Pegasus.
via Mecum Auctions
I wondered where Factory Street was — here it is on a 1952 map — it looks like it was absorbed into a growing Love Field.
1952 Mapsco
One of Texlite’s many theater clients was the Palace Theatre for whom they designed and installed a new electric sign in January, 1929 (at which time, by the way, the theater’s name was “officially” changed — however briefly — to the Greater Palace; the theater was renovated and enlarged, with a new emphasis on the Elm Street entrance rather than the entrance on Pacific).
Jan., 1929
Going back a couple of years, with the separate companies sharing ad space in the 1927 city directory:
1927 Dallas directory
And a photo of the Texlite building circa 1930:
Dallas Public Library
The first ad I found which had both the “Borich” and “Texlite” names together was this one from 1923 for the Cloud-George Co., a women’s clothing boutique (1705 Elm) run by the somewhat notorious Miss A. B. Cloud.
Sept., 1923
The company occupied several locations over the years — the location in 1902 can be seen here, at the right, looking west on Pacific (from the Flashback Dallas post “Views from a Passing Train — 1902”).
1902, via Free Library of Philadelphia
Dallas directory, 1902
P. S. Borich’s sign-painting wasn’t restricted only to businesses — he was also regularly retained by the city to paint street signs.
Dallas Herald, Aug. 6, 1886
And, below, the earliest ad I could find — from 1879, the year Borich arrived in Dallas. (Thanks to this ad, I can now add “calsomining” to my vocabulary.)
Norton’s Union Intelligencer, Nov. 1, 1879
**
Here’s an interesting little bonus: a Pegasus “mini-me” in Billings, Montana, created with help from the Pegasus experts in Dallas (click for larger image).
Billings Gazette, May 22, 1955
***
Top image is a detail from a 1949 ad found in the Feb., 1949 issue of Dallas, the magazine published by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
Photo showing the exterior of the Texlite building circa 1930 is from the collection of the Dallas Public Library, Call Number PA87-1/19-59-36.
Check out another Texlite sign which I wrote about in the Flashback Dallas post “Neon Refreshment: The Giant Dr Pepper Sign.”
I’m always excited to see places I write about show up in old film footage. Watch a short (20-second) silent clip of Texlite workers striking in June, 1951 at the 3305 Manor Way location in WBAP-Channel 5 footage here (the workers were on strike in a wage dispute — more info is in the news script here); film and script from the KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, University of North Texas, via the Portal to Texas History.
The company made tons of signs and exteriors for movie theaters around the country, including the Lakewood Theater (whose sign was recently re-neonized!).
Thank you, Signor Borich!
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Springtime in Dallas…
by Paula Bosse
I just realized I haven’t seen the azaleas this year. I don’t really hear about people doing it anymore, but when I was a kid, my mother always made a point every Spring to drive us around Highland Park, Exall Lake, and Turtle Creek to see the beautiful azaleas, which were in bloom everywhere you looked.
Local lore has it that the first big splash azaleas made in Dallas were in the early 1930s when Joe Lambert, Jr. (of the still-going-strong, 100-plus-year-old legendary Lambert’s Landscape Co.) imported 100 or more plants from Shreveport to Dallas — to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter W. Lechner in the 6900 block of Lakewood Boulevard. Azaleas apparently don’t grow well in Dallas soil unless you know what you’re doing, and Lambert knew what he was doing, because his azaleas thrived in Lakewood, and they were a huge hit with people who would drive from miles away to look at the exotic blooms.
That success led to numerous calls from residents of Highland Park, which, in turn, led to lots and lots of landscaping work for the Lambert family — so much so that they moved their business from Shreveport to Dallas.
Of particular note was the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Penn at the corner of Preston and Armstrong where azalea bushes were planted terrace-like to prevent soil erosion on the part of their property which sloped down to the banks of Turtle Creek. One newspaper report said there were more than 500 azalea bushes on the Penn estate. It caused a sensation — the plants began to pop up all around Turtle Creek, and people flocked to Highland Park to see them.
In a 1971 newspaper article it was estimated there were 50,000 azaleas in Dallas parks. I have no idea what the number is these days, but for two weeks every year, it is an absolute pleasure to drive around Highland Park and Oak Lawn — and every other part of town where azaleas bloom — and to enjoy Dallas’ brief, very pretty springtime.
**
A Channel 5 news story from 1979 (which you can watch here) says that azaleas was first brought to Dallas by the La Reunion settlers, which would have been in the 1850s. The earliest mention I could find was in an 1886 ad in The Dallas Morning News — there were several other ads before the turn of the century offering the exotic “imported” plants for sale.
March, 1886
In the 1950s there was an explosion of interest in people heading to Lakeside Drive every spring in order to commune with nature and gaze lovingly at the profusion of azaleas. I mean, lordy, read this breathless ode to the azalea in this detail of a Neiman-Marcus ad. (These little essays by “Wales” appeared regularly in N-M ads — I always suspected they were written by Stanley Marcus, but “Wales” was apparently Warren Leslie, a Neiman’s executive and spokesperson who later wrote the controversial book Dallas Public and Private.) (Click for larger image.)
March, 1953
And here’s evidence of the bumper-to-bumper traffic along Lakeside Drive and the mass of humanity armed with cameras converging on the banks of Turtle Creek in (silent) footage from Channel 8, shot on April 10, 1960 (it seems almost criminal, though, that the film is in black and white!) — the pertinent clip begins at the :43 mark. (From the WFAA Newsfilm Collection, G. William Jones Collection, Hamon Library, SMU.)
*
Here’s a Lambert’s ad, from 1963:
April, 1963
Another WFAA clip, this one from 1972, which shows azaleas in COLOR — not in Highland Park, but in downtown Dallas during the 3rd annual Azalea Festival:
*
Here’s a postcard view:
And here’s a photo I took a couple of years ago of my favorite searingly hot-pink variety (seen here before the peak of the blooming period — note the still bloomless bush to the right):
Sorry I missed you, azaleas. Next year, for sure.
***
Top photo is from the cover of Southwestern Bell’s 1968 Dallas phone book.
Bottom photo by Paula Bosse, taken March 29, 2018.
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Wearing the *dress* boots… (photo: John Dominis, © Time, Inc.)
by Paula Bosse
This is the most Texans-going-to-the-theater photo I’ve ever seen.
And this is the most Texans-selling-minks ad I’ve ever seen:
***
Photo by John Dominis, taken in October, 1951 on assignment for Life magazine, ©Time, Inc.; more info is here.
Neiman-Marcus ad is also from October, 1951.
“Take Back Your Mink” is a song from “Guys and Dolls” (hear it here), the musical that played during the 1951 State Fair of Texas, starring Pamela Britton, Allan Jones, Jeanne Ball, and Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome.… (photo by John Rogers, via the Portal to Texas History)
by Paula Bosse
When it opened in 1959, the Southland Center (the Southland Life Building and the Sheraton Dallas hotel) boasted the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It was obviously a huge, multi-million-dollar construction project, but it was also a very costly decor project in which no expense was spared on the interior design of the buildings. An admirable amount of attention was paid to artistic elements such as site-specific commissioned artwork, and input from artists and designers was welcomed. It was an interior decorator’s dream job in which absolutely everything was NEW and modern. I love this period of design. Here are a few photos from the new Southland Center which I could look at all day.
I love all the glass and the sharp, crisp lines of the furniture. (All photos are by John Rogers — see the link below each photo to go to its Portal to Texas History page where you can zoom in and see details more clearly.)
This is a fantastic shot — you can see a couple of the commissioned artworks. At the left, extending from the ceiling of the second-floor lobby of the Sheraton to the ground floor is a “stamobile” kinetic sculpture titled “Totem” by Richard Filipowski. In the background at the top center of the photo, above the registration desk, is a Venetian-glass-and-broken-marble mural by Lumen Martin Winter.
Speaking of art, another commissioned work can be seen in this detail of a photo: at the back, barely seen, is “Texas Sunburst,” a glass-tile mosaic mural by Gyorgy Kepes with additional work by Robert Preusser, located on the second-floor lounge concourse. Kepes designed the vibrant tile mosaic on the St. Jude Chapel downtown (the recent restoration of which I wrote about here), and he was also a contributor another wonderful mid-century architectural landmark in Dallas, Temple Emanu-El. (I spotted a brief glimpse of a bit of this Sheraton mural in color in a WFAA clip from June, 1974 in a story about, of all things, an ESP convention.)
Here’s a jewelry kiosk, which is sort of Deco-futuristic — like something you’d see in a 1930s movie set on a spaceship. (Is that the “rocket” of the Republic Bank Building seen outside the window at the right? It was practically right next door, as seen in this photo.)
This shows a couple of ground-level retail shops, with more wonderful floor-to-ceiling glass “walls” (the glass-cleaning must have been an ongoing nightmare!). If you needed a stuffed tiger toy, a game of Risk, paint brushes, or stationery… this shop was made for you. (In the background is the entrance to the Minute Chef, an informal restaurant which also featured original artwork by Gyorgy Kepes.)
And, lastly, a shot of the neighboring Southland Center towers, high above everything else on the edge of downtown.
***
All photos are by John Rogers, from the John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Collection, provided to the Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Special Collections, University of North Texas; see all 25 of Rogers’ photos of the Southland Center, taken in 1959/1960, here.
See a list of the permanent art as well as exhibited art at the Southland Life Building/Sheraton Dallas in the scanned 1959 catalog “Made in Texas by Texans.”
See photos of the Southland Center under construction in the Flashback Dallas post “On Top of the World: The Southland Center.”
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Saloons and cigars… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Above, Lamar Street, looking south from Pacific Avenue; a notation on the back of the photo reads “about 1902.” The intersection straight ahead is Elm Street, then a jog, before it continues south to Main and Commerce. (See what this view looks like today, here.)
The business seen at the left (northeast corner of Elm and Lamar) is P. P. Martinez (the popular cigar retailer, wholesaler, and, I think, manufacturer, whom I hope to write about someday); the business at the right (northwest corner of Elm and Lamar) is Sam Freshman, a liquor wholesaler (his store entrance was on Elm, and his saloon entrance was on Lamar). Across Elm (southeast corner,) at the left, is E. M. Kahn, men’s clothiers (“Kahn” rhymes with “can”). Sanger Bros. was at the southwest corner and is either obscured or not clearly visible. The old Dallas Morning News building can be seen further south, on the right, at the northwest corner of Commerce and Lamar.
A look at the 1902 Dallas directory shows these types of businesses with Lamar addresses, between Pacific and Elm:
4-Saloons
3-Restaurants
3-Barbers (one of which had a want-ad for a “good lady barber”)
1-Newsstand
1-Tailor
1-Shoemaker
A busy little block.
See this intersection in 1905 Sanborn maps here and here.
*
Below is a photo showing Elm Street looking east, with Sam Freshman’s store seen at the left and E. M. Kahn & Co. at the right (this postcard is postmarked 1909):
***
Top photo — “[Looking South on Lamar at Pacific; E.M. Kahn & Company is Visible at Southeast Corner of Elm and Lamar]” — is from the George A. McAfee Photographs collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more info is here. (Farris Rookstool III sent an enhanced image, here. Thanks, Farris!)
Second image is a postcard (found on eBay) from the Flashback Dallas post “Elm Street — 1909.”
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Wooden, red… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Just a few miscellaneous photos from the days of the Interurban, the electric railway which ran through Dallas from 1908 to 1948.
The photograph above has the following written on the back: “The Texas Electric has a whole flock of fast interurbans. Most are steel and painted blue. This older wooden car is red and was used on the Dallas-Denison run. Dallas, Tex.”
Below, “Evolution of Transportation,” a postcard featuring “Miniature Interurban Exhibit, Showing a Model Suburban Home and the Splendid Service Between Dallas, Fort Worth and Cleburne.”
via eBay
An Interurban mishap:
via eBay
A couple of pleasant waiting-shelters, circa 1925:
Another stop, with a sign (“ALL INTERURBAN CARS STOP ON SIGNAL”):
via Lynne’s Lens Flickr photostream
And the Interurban Terminal, downtown, ca. 1925 (located at 1500 Jackson St. at Browder, still standing, converted to residences):
***
Top photo found on eBay. “Robert M. Hanft, Brainerd, Minn.” is printed on the back. Hanft (1914-2004) was a rail enthusiast and photographer — his obituary is here.
The Texas Interurban route connected with Dallas in 1908 and continued for 40 years until being discontinued in 1948. More at the Handbook of Texas here, and at Wikipedia here; a look at the stops can be seen in an illustration here.
Check out these two Interurban pamphlets with lots of great photographs, scanned in their entirety by UNT’s Portal to Texas History:
More Flashback Dallas posts on the Interurban can be found here.
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
A blinding celebration of the Texas Centennial…
by Paula Bosse
Time again for a round-up of photos and various images I’ve come across recently and have added to old posts.
First, a photo I was really excited to stumble across — one I’ve never seen (above): a view of the blindingly bright bank of searchlights set up as part of the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration at Fair Park — this photo shows the lights (which were multi-colored and visible for at least 20 miles away) as seen from downtown Dallas. This is a fantastic photo, and one can understand why many visitors to the spectacular no-expense-spared Centennial cited the lights as the most impressive thing on display. I’ve added this photo (and the postcard image below) to a post all about electricity and the Pan-American Exposition (the extravaganza held the year following the Centennial, which used many of the same features): “Albert Einstein ‘Threw the Switch’ in New Jersey to Open the Pan-American Exposition in Dallas — 1937” (a post which features several other images of this amazing fan-shaped array of lights set up behind the Hall of State, as seen from the Esplanade and as seen from White Rock Lake). (Source of top photo, “New skyline at night, at Dallas, Texas,” from the GE Photo Collection, Museum of Innovation and Science — more information on this photo is here; color image found on eBay)
*
This postcard of the Lake Cliff amusement park’s cafe and “circle swing” have been added to “Beautiful Lake Cliff — ca. 1906.” (Source: eBay)
*
This photo of the Knepfly Building (Main and Poydras) has been added to the post “Labor Day Parade — 1911,” replacing a less interesting view of this building (in the post, I recount a story of young men jumping from the third floor to escape a fire — one of them survived, even though he landed on his feet!). (Source: DeGolyer Library, SMU)
*
This 1908 photograph of a group of students standing outside the Dallas Telegraph College building has been added to the post “Start Your Brilliant Career at Dallas Telegraph College — c. 1900.” (Source: George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU)
*
This circa-1920 photo (sadly, not the greatest resolution) shows road construction to straighten Maple Avenue (which immediately followed construction of the MKT bridge); that and a more recent view of the same spot have been added to the post “The Gill Well.” (Sources: Dallas Public Library, I think, and Google Street View, 2014)
*
This 1963 photo of a billboard which instructed motorists which frequency WFAA was at that moment broadcasting on (it varied, depending on the time of day…) has been added to the post “WFAA & WBAP’s Unusual Broadcasting Alliance,” one of my favorite weird bits of trivia in Dallas radio history. (Source: Broadcasting magazine, April 22, 1963)
*
This super-blurry screenshot shows the hopping nightlife which was once a staple of the two blocks immediately south of the Adolphus Hotel on South Akard. Those two blocks were really interesting and a mecca for bars, seedy and otherwise. It’s been added to the post “Gene’s Music Bar, The Lasso Bar, and The Zoo Bar.” (Source: WFAA-Channel 8 coverage of the… um… boisterous activity downtown during the 1969 Texas-OU weekend, as seen at the 6:16 and 9:13 marks in the video here; from the WFAA Newsfilm Collection, G. William Jones Collection, Hamon Arts Library, SMU)
*
Another screenshot (watermarked, sadly) is this one, which show the wife of Santa Fe Railroad president Fred G. Gurley christening the new Texas Chief streamliner at Union Station — the train made its inaugural Dallas-to-Chicago run on Dec. 5, 1955. The reason I chose this screenshot (which I’m adding, along with the YouTube video below to the continually popular post “White Rock Station”) is because Mrs. Gurley is christening the engine with a bottle of — no, not champagne… — water from White Rock Lake. (Source: Huntley Film Archives, YouTube)
Check out the very short color film this comes from below, with footage of the new station along Jupiter Road near Kingsley, and ceremonies at Union Station (or for those who always write in to correct me, “Union Terminal“) — there might be some shots from ceremonies at Denton. The shot of the train passing in front of the Dallas skyline is pretty cool.
*
And, lastly, a 1963 photo of George Senator, a man often referred to as Jack Ruby’s roommate, but it seems he was more a sort of good-natured sponger, who was frequently out of money and frequently out of a job — Ruby helped him out with cash and let him stay at his apartment. I’m adding this photo (which has been cropped and flipped) to the post “Newly Discovered Footage of Jack Ruby — 1960,” in which a man who may be Senator is seen in B-roll film footage shot by Channel 8, showing Ruby standing in a crowd at a musical performance on Elm Street at Ervay. (Source: Photo titled “George Senator at Dallas police station at time of Jack Ruby arrest,” Nov. 24, 1963, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, UTA)
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
City Park’s lovely little “Iola” bridge paved the way (…as it were) for concrete to become the favored material in the construction of the city’s bridges, usurping wood. Built in 1905, “Iola” was the first such concrete structure in Dallas (or possibly the second…) — its legacy lives on in the Oak Cliff/Houston Street viaduct, which, when built, was the longest concrete bridge in the world. Read more about “Iola” (find out where the name came from) in the 2015 Flashback Dallas post “Iola Bridge.”
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
by Paula Bosse
In Dallas’ early days, Commerce Street was once considered so far off the beaten path that major businesses did not build there. By 1925, though, the intersection of Commerce and Akard streets boasted three Dallas showplaces: the Adolphus Hotel (still standing), the Magnolia Building (still standing), and the Baker Hotel (not still standing). (Before that, it was the Adolphus, the Magnolia, and Busch’s other hotel, the swanky Oriental.)
Ever noticed that the corner “turret” of the Adolphus looks like a traditional German beer stein? An ode to the source of namesake Adolphus Busch’s wealth? I certainly hope so!
***
Top image is from a pack of postcards, found on eBay.
Detail of the Adolphus is from the Flashback Dallas post “Dallas in ‘The Western Architect,’ 1914: The Adolphus Hotel.”
*
Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 