Flashback : Dallas

January 7, 2018

The United States Coffee & Tea Co. — 1911

Coffee, coffee, everywhere, at Elm & Akard… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Above, a photo from a 1911 ad for the United States Coffee and Tea Company, importers and roasters. The text of the ad:

The above photograph shows a recent importation of the finest green coffees grown. Weight 40.000 pounds — just forty days supply.

A tril will convince you that our fresh Coffees are superior — Five delivery wagons covering the entire city each day insures prompt service.

UNITED STATES COFFEE AND TEA COMPANY

Corner Elm and Akard Streets – Phone Main 703

The company seems to have been founded about 1908 by George W. Wilson and a very young Henry Seeligson. (Click article to see a larger image.)

Greater Dallas Illustrated, 1908

According to a 1912 ad (which rather breathlessly promised: “WE ROAST COFFEE EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY”), the company was the “largest retail dealers in Coffee, Tea, Spices and Butter in the Southwest.”

1912

The photo at the top shows their building at the northeast corner of Elm and Akard; a few years later they moved down Elm to the northwest corner of Elm and Ervay, just a couple of doors east of the Palace Theater (you can see part of their building behind a photo of the Wilson Building here) — this location was once threatened by a fire which broke out in the bakery owned by Frank A. Carreud:

Dallas Morning News, July 3, 1922

There was a surprising amount of coffee-roasting going on in Dallas in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1922 the big boys were trying to organize a coffee spot market in Galveston, port to Brazilian coffee and West Indies spices.

DMN, Sept. 2, 1922

1922 Dallas directory

The company was bought by H. L. Hunt’s HLH Parade Co. in 1961; Hunt sold it to the Texas Wholesale Grocery Corp. in 1963 when it appears to have ceased operations under the U. S. Coffee and Tea name. Here’s a photo of a company van sometime before then:

And now I have an intense desire for a cup of coffee.

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo from an ad which appeared in a Terrell School yearbook.

Bottom photo from the City of Dallas Historic Preservation Flickr collection, here — the undated photo was taken by the city’s staff photographer.

Sources of other images/clippings as noted.

6 Comments

January 3, 2018

The Adolphus By Moonlight

Nighttime in Big D… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

When the beautiful Adolphus Hotel opened in 1912, it was the tallest building in Dallas — in other words, it was the building nearest to the moon.

Remarkably, it, the people, and the horses, looked just the same in the daylight!

Daytime in Big D…

“Postcard magic” is magic, indeed. It’s all about judicious addition and subtraction.

***

Sources & Notes

Both postcards were found lounging in forgotten corners of the internet. The cards were issued before 1914. Both are larger when clicked

Leave a comment

January 1, 2018

The Bird’s-Eye View of Dallas by Herman Brosius — 1872

Detail of H. Brosius’ view of Dallas, 1872… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

This lithographed map, drawn by Herman Brosius (1851-1917), shows a bird’s-eye view of Dallas in 1872, when it was teetering on the brink of the explosive growth which came with the arrival of the railroads, and it is one of my favorite maps of the city. Every little detail (including the one above, showing Mrs. Cockrell’s famed Commerce Street toll bridge spanning the Trinity), is cool. I’ve referred to this map when reading about events of this period, and it helps to get an idea of the logistics of the city. (Wikimedia Commons has a really, really large image of this map (7,674 × 5,590 pixels, 11.85 MB!) which can be viewed (and downloaded) here; the file was scanned from a lithograph belonging to The Dallas Historical Society.)

The full view

The drawing was, apparently, pretty accurate (if somewhat idealized). According to a short editorial comment in the Dec. 28, 1872 edition of The Dallas Herald:

[The view by Mr. Brosius] shows every house in the corporation limits, together with every street, so accurately drawn that any one acquainted at all with the city can recognize any building.

Which is pretty amazing. Milwaukee native Brosius (who was only 21 years old when this map was drawn) specialized in these views; after completing one, he (or an agent) would canvass a city seeking “subscribers” in order to gather enough money to print an edition of high-quality lithographs. (An article in a Wisconsin newspaper in 1882 stated that the subscribers for the Eau Claire, Wisconsin view paid $2.50 each, about $60.00 in today’s money.) The Herald editorial exhorted Dallasites to subscribe — not only was Brosius’ work aesthetically pleasing, but “[t]he ‘view’ will be one of the best advertisements that our city could send abroad to induce persons to locate among us.”

The subscribers came through, and I’m pretty sure that most who have pored over this map — as I certainly have — have been delighted and enthralled.

There are helpful references at the bottom of the map which identify buildings.

Dallas Herald, Dec. 28, 1872 (click to see larger image)

***

Sources & Notes

“A Bird’s Eye View of the City of Dallas, Texas” (1872) by H. Brosius has been scanned at a very high resolution and is free to view and download at Wikimedia Commons, here (click on the map to see a much larger image). This historic bird’s-eye view is from the collection of The Dallas Historical Society.

The “Bird’s-Eye View of Dallas” article is from The Dallas Herald, Dec. 28, 1872. Read the article as it appeared on the page of the scanned newspaper at UNT’s Portal to Texas History website, here.

Read about Herman Brosius — with more information about his view of Dallas — in an Amon Carter Museum article, here; the museum has a fantastic full site devoted to “Texas Bird’s-Eye Views” — with views of 60 Texas cities (SIXTY!!) — here (click “Browse” at the top of the page).

All images are larger when clicked.

3 Comments

December 31, 2017

Year-End List! Most Popular Posts of 2017

Sunset High School, you’re #1…

by Paula Bosse

Another year is in the Flashback Dallas rearview mirror. Adios, 2017. I’m still pleasantly surprised that the blog continues to attract new readers and that I have yet to get bored filling up these virtual pages with slices of Dallas history, both big and small, important and trivial. It’s fun for me — I hope it’s fun for you!

So. End-of-year “best of” lists… I don’t know… you either love ’em or loathe ’em. Personally, I like them, but then again, the compilers of these lists usually do. I’ve already listed my personal favorite photos and my own favorite posts of this year, and now it’s time for the most popular (new) posts of 2017 (the top post of the year is actually one from 2014 — it’s at the end of this list). To see the full post, click on the title; to see a larger image, click on the picture.

1. S UNSET HIGH SCHOOL ON FILM — 1970

You Oak Cliffites are a proud people! Whenever I write something about Oak Cliff, it always gets tons of hits, and this OC post was far and away the most popular new Flashback Dallas post of 2017. It was about a quirky and charming Super-8 film shot in and around Sunset High School by student James Dunlap in 1970 and digitized by the collaborative efforts of the University of North Texas Libraries and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Click those links in the post to view the two-part film on the UNT website.

2. REMEMBER THE ALAMO! — IN PLANO, BEHIND THE TARGET

How have I managed to live all my life in what we grimacingly call “the Metroplex” without ever knowing about the Alamo replica in Plano? Well I know about it now.

3. THE WIDE OPEN SPACES NORTHEAST OF CENTRAL AND LOVERS — 1957

Another fantastic aerial photograph by Squire Haskins, from the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. 60 years ago there was virtually nothing north of Lovers Lane or east of Greenville Avenue. Louanns, the legendary nightspot, was way out in the country, and the little community of Vickery (around Greenville and Park Lane) seemed a lot farther away back then.

4. THE WHITE ROCK LAKE DISTRICT: “WHERE LIFE IS WORTH LIVING!” — 1926

A 1926 real estate ad featuring a rather idyllic rendering of a beautiful view of the lake from the terrace of an exquisitely landscaped estate. This ad touts the new East Dallas developments of Gastonwood, Country Club Estates, West Lake Park, Forest Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Parks Estates, Munger Place Heights, Pasadena, Camp Estates, Hughes Estates, and Temple Place.

5. WYNNEWOOD

Several photos of Angus Wynne, Jr.’s Oak Cliff development, including aerial views, apartments, houses, the Wynnewood Theater, and the shopping village.

6. ZANG & BECKLEY

Oak Cliff again! I love this photo. When it opened in 1900, Zang Boulevard was the only direct road between Dallas and Oak Cliff.

7. HISTORIC NEON: THE SUPER-COOL SIGEL’S SIGN

The word “iconic” is tediously overused these days, but if this sign isn’t iconic, I don’t know what is. I wrote about the sign, its creator (Marvin Sigel), and its restoration. If you’re near Greenville and Lovers and the sun is going down (or has already gone down), you MUST drive by and watch those neon bubbles dance!

8. SHOPPING AT SEARS IN CASA VIEW

People in Casa View really love their shopping center! It’s always surprising to learn that people have very fond childhood memories of Sears stores — I certainly do. My Sears store was on Ross at Greenville, but reading comments about various other Sears stores always makes me nostalgic.

9. JIMI HENDRIX, GLEN CAMPBELL, TINY TIM — IN DALLAS (…SEPARATELY), 1969

These three recently unearthed Channel 8 News film clips in which three of the most popular entertainers of the day were interviewed on camera, is pretty cool. Glen Campbell and Tiny Time are all well and good, but it’s all about Jimi Hendrix! It’s been several months since I first watched that footage of him standing on the tarmac at Love Field giving a happy, laid-back interview, and it’s as exciting watching it now as it was then. Thank you, SMU, for your ongoing digitization of these really great WFAA clips!

10. THE NEIMAN-MARCUS SHOE SALON — 1965

You know it’s a classy joint when there are no more than 10 pairs of shoes on display. As I say in the post, I never pegged myself as a fan of lime-green upholstery until I saw this photograph.

And the most popular Flashback Dallas post OF ALL TIME (which means back to 2014)? It is the post that racks up HUGE numbers every Christmas: the giant Santa perched on top of the car dealership (“THE WORLD’S LARGEST SANTA & THE CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY — 1953”). This year I updated it to add WBAP-TV news footage of the immediate aftermath of the tragedy that happened at Giant Santa’s feet. I posted the update less than two weeks ago, and it quickly became the most-viewed post of the entire year. So not only is it the most popular Flashback Dallas post ever, this 3-year-old post was also the most popular post of this year. The thousands upon thousands of people who have read it have had something weird (and fairly horrifying) to talk about over the family holiday table! I know I have!

***

Sources & Notes

2017 was another year filled with fun and interesting and odd Dallas-related things. There’s more ahead in 2018! Thank you for reading!

See all three 2017 “Best Of Flashback Dallas” lists here.

See all Flashback Dallas Year-End lists — past and present — here.

Leave a comment

December 30, 2017

Year-End List! My Favorite Posts of 2017

A Gill Well pagoda in Highland Park…

by Paula Bosse

Another year of Dallas-history immersion comes to a close — that can only mean that it’s time for the all-but-inevitable making-of-lists. I enjoyed writing all the Flashback Dallas posts that appeared in 2017, but these are the ones I had the most fun researching and writing. Those who think history is dull don’t dive in far enough! (To see the original full-length posts, click the titles; click the pictures to see larger images.)

1. THE GILL WELL

Every once in a while, the words “Gill Well” would creep into Dallas history articles I’d read, but whenever I tried to find out more information on this once-very-well-known source of hot “medicinal” mineral water near Reverchon Park, I found almost nothing (even though we were “this close” to having our own Hot Springs-like resort in Oak Lawn). So I decided to write something myself and see if I could find any historic photos. I write most Flashback Dallas posts fairly quickly, but this one took ages to research and write. But it was fun. And now I know the who, what, when, where, why, and how of Dallas’ famed Gill Well and its legendary foul-smelling tonic water (which I’m glad I never had to drink).

2. “ENEMY ALIENS” AND THE WWII INTERNMENT CAMP AT SEAGOVILLE

I had no idea there was a Japanese internment camp in Dallas County during World War II. This was really fascinating (and depressing) to learn about.

3. NEWLY DISCOVERED FOOTAGE OF JACK RUBY — 1960

This is fantastic — and weird — and prosaic. Footage of Jack Ruby combing his hair (yes, combing his hair…) on a crowded Elm Street sidewalk during a Christmas parade came to light almost accidentally via an SMU social-media post. It’s all very cool, and I had a lot of fun trying to determine where the footage had been shot and what was going on. (There’s also a spy camera involved….)

4. 1710 HALL: THE ROSE ROOM / THE EMPIRE ROOM / THE ASCOT ROOM — 1942-1975

I love reading about Dallas’ rich music history, and this “North Dallas” club hosted huge names in jazz, swing, and R&B.

5. MOSAIC RESTORATION AT DOWNTOWN’S ST. JUDE CHAPEL

I went downtown to watch the progress of Julie Richey’s painstaking restoration of the giant mosaic (made from over 800,000 glass tiles) which has graced the exterior of the little chapel on Main Street since 1968. And I took a lot of photos. It was a great day.

6. THE MOSQUITO BAR

I had never heard the term “mosquito bar” until I saw a painting of one by John Singer Sargent. Life would have been miserable without this essential household item.

7. BISHOP COLLEGE — 1969

The 1961 arrival of Bishop College — founded in Marshall, Texas in 1881 — was an important chapter in Dallas’ history. And its 1969 yearbook was filled with some of my favorite photos of the past year!

8. MIMI PAYNE ALDREDGE McKNIGHT

Mimi was a family friend who was instrumental in my father’s career. She passed away this year, and I wrote about a tiny portion of her very interesting life.

9. WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN — 1886

W. W. Cole’s Circus … I can’t even. The troupe’s advertising mastermind was never at a loss for adjectives and superlatives.

10. TINY TIM MOBBED AT THE MELODY SHOP — 1969

Ukulele-strumming Tiny Tim was set upon by a “human wall” of 5,000 teenage fans at NorthPark. Who knew?

11. HISTORIC NEON: THE SUPER-COOL SIGEL’S SIGN

Who doesn’t love this sign? I wrote about the sign and its creator, Marvin Sigel (whom I was told enjoyed this post!).

12. TWELVE PROMINENT BLACK BAPTIST CHURCHES — 1967

I will always love looking at pictures of old buildings. And most of these are still standing.

13. THE PRAETORIAN BUILDING AND ITS 19th-CENTURY NEIGHBORS

Yeah, it’s kind of picture-after-picture of the same couple of blocks over the years. Even though the Praetorian has been erased from the skyline, a couple of those other older-than-you-realize Main Street buildings have managed to hang on by the skin of their teeth.

14. DOWNTOWN DALLAS, LAST WEEK

I should get out and take photos more often. This was so much fun.

15. STATE FAIR OF TEXAS MIDWAY — 2017

Photos taken while wandering around Fair Park during this year’s State Fair of Texas.

Not a bad year (…Flashback Dallas-wise at least). I look forward to learning about all sorts of new things in 2018. Thanks for reading! Onwards!

***

Sources & Notes

See all three 2017 “Best Of Flashback Dallas” lists here.

See all Flashback Dallas Year-End lists — past and present — here.

5 Comments

December 29, 2017

Year-End List! My Favorite Images Posted in 2017

Love Field was never cooler… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Another year is ending — time for lists! This is the first of three year-end “favorites” lists — this one contains favorite photos and artworks posted over the past year. To see the post they originally appeared in, click the title of the post, and to see a larger image of the picture, click the picture. They’re in no particular order, although, the one above is my favorite of 2017.

***

The image above is not a photograph but a video screen-capture of newly unearthed WFAA-Channel 8 news footage of Jimi Hendrix and The Experience, on the Love Field tarmac, being interviewed by a charmingly agog Channel 8 reporter. This short interview is one of the coolest things I’ve seen all year. Watch the video — it’s in the post “Jimi Hendrix, Glen Campbell, Tiny Tim — In Dallas (…Separately), 1969.”

Above, the Whittle Music Co. building, 1108 Elm Street, around 1956. It was built in 1892 and originally housed the A. Harris department store (until 1914). Whittle’s occupied this beautiful building from 1941 until 1965, when it moved to Oak Lawn. The building was bulldozed soon afterwards in order to begin construction of One Main Place. Read more about all of this at the post “The Whittle Music Building — ca. 1956.”

This is actually a detail of a larger 1953 photo by Squire Haskins (seen here), showing the intersection of Main and Stone Place, looking northeast. The building on the left is still standing and is one of the oldest buildings downtown. See more at the post “The Praetorian Building and Its 19th-Century Neighbors.”

I love this photo from the George W. Cook Collection at SMU’s DeGolyer Library. More at “The Dallas Clippers: Early Dallas Baseball.”

One of my favorite still-standing buildings in Oak Cliff. More about it can be found in the post “West Jefferson and Tyler — 1913.”

Fantastic lithograph by Dallas artist Ed Bearden — this view from Stemmons looks a lot different now. More info in the post “‘Dallas Skyline: Late Afternoon From Stemmons Freeway’ by Ed Bearden — 1959.”

This photo was one of the most-shared photos I posted this year — it kind of surprised me, but it’s a great photo of “The Baker Hotel.”

I love this. “The Neiman-Marcus Shoe Salon — 1965.”

Campus security at “Bishop College — 1969.” Fantastic.

You’ve got to post the occasional photos of the alma maters. I love this photo of Lakewood-area schools J. L. Long and Woodrow Wilson, mainly, I think, because of the surprising sight of White Rock Lake in the background. See the present-day shot, submitted by a drone-owning reader at “Long and Woodrow From Above — 1965.”

Speaking of familiar sights seen from unusual perspectives, I can’t get over how much I’m fascinated by this postcard of the JFK memorial in its earliest days. From the post “Aerial View of the JFK Memorial — 1970.”

This is without a doubt my favorite Dallas art discovery of the year! “‘Dallas/The Big D’ by William E. Bond — ca. 1962.”

Had to make this one small so it wouldn’t overwhelm the page. Click it1 Lots of info on all the buildings seen in this photo is in the post “The ‘Akard Street Canyon’ — ca. 1962.”

Okay, so this is Fort Worth, but, hey — close enough! Let the cuteness-overload wash over you as you look at adorable animals big and small in the post “Cowtown Extra: Fort Worth Zookeeper Ham Hittson and His Forest Park Friends.”

The more I see of Ed Bearden’s work, the more I love it. Here he captures George Dahl’s always-cool mid-century-modern sleekness. “The WFAA Studios, Designed by George Dahl, Rendered by Ed Bearden — 1961.”

This postcard view of the Adolphus block at night is one of my all-time favorite photos of downtown Dallas. It would be nothing without that heart-palpitatingly wonderful Walgreens neon at the corner of Commerce and Akard. More at “Nighttime on Commerce Street — 1957.”

The image-quality of this newspaper photo leaves a lot to be desired, but this is the photo that most excited me this year. I spent an incredible amount of time researching the Gill Well, and I was really surprised by how few photos I could find. Finding this 1907 photo of the Gill Well Bath House was pretty damn thrilling. Thank you, Clogenson! From the post “The Gill Well.”

I actually took a few photos myself, and there are a couple I really love — like this one which captures five of Dallas’s most recognizable buildings in one shot. Architecture-a-rama. It is from the post “Downtown Dallas, Last Week,” which also includes the photo below — a view of the Wilson Building you might not have seen before.

And lastly, two more of my own photos, taken at the St. Jude Chapel, which is filled with mosaics. The one above shows a detail of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the one below shows a detail of St. Martin de Porres (mice!). More at “Mosaic Restoration at Downtown’s St. Jude Chapel.”

***

Sources & Notes

It’s been a visually-satisfying year!

See all three 2017 “Best Of Flashback Dallas” lists here.

See all Flashback Dallas Year-End lists — past and present — here.

3 Comments

December 28, 2017

Orphaned Factoids: Year-End Grab Bag, 2017

With a name like “Wigton’s…”

by Paula Bosse

Time for another year-end collection of miscellaneous bits and pieces that don’t really belong anywhere, so I’m compiling them here in a weird collection of stuff. Enjoy! (Most clippings and photos are larger when clicked.)

Above, Wigton’s Sandwich Shop, owned by Charles J. Wigton. It looks like it was located near the dreaded East Grand-Gaston-Garland Road intersection. I found one listing in the 1932 city directory for this little “soft drink stand” which also served as the residence of Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Wigton. The address was simply “south side of Gaston Ave., 3 lots east of East Grand Ave.” (Found on Flickr.) And somehow there’s a second photo of this place out there — the one below was found on eBay.

Dallas Herald, 1880

You know, you just don’t see colors like “scared mouse,” “subdued moonshine,” and “sunset in Egypt” anymore. Pity. (Ad for A. A. Pearson’s millinery house.)

Dallas Herald, 1859

“All those who are indebted to me for dancing lessons, MUST POSITIVELY SETTLE UP. I mean what I say.” Do not mess with dancemaster Howard. (I’m actually a little shocked someone was offering dancing lessons in Dallas, which, in 1859, was podunker than podunk.)

1969 Dallas directory

This is the only photo I’ve been able to find of Debonair Danceland (what a great, great name for a club). Depending on whether you were a regular, the adjectives generally used to describe the legendary dancehall are either “notorious” or “beloved.” It opened in 1967 and closed in 1995. As Bill Minutaglio wrote in The Dallas Morning News, it was “one of Dallas’ last rough-hewn links to the brawny honky-tonk highway” (DMN, July 25, 1995). It certainly had a colorful life. For starters there was a “suspicious” double bombing that ripped the place apart in 1968 (I don’t know if the photo in the ad above shows the place pre- or post-blast). There was a lot of … um … “activity” that went on at Debonair Danceland over the years which kept police-beat reporters busy. It was also apparently quite popular with bored housewives who tippled away their afternoons. (See a not-very-clear-but-at-least-larger grainy image of the photo in the ad here.)

1940 Hillcrest High School yearbook

“Home-killed beef” is the best-killed beef.

1930 Dallas directory

1929

1941

The Chas. F. Weiland Undertaking Co. was one of the city’s top funeral homes. They really promoted the fact that they had a “licensed lady embalmer” — I suppose some people preferred to have their mothers and other dearly beloveds tended to by a woman.

Galveston News, 1894

Beware the head cheese. …Always.

Dallas Herald, 1874

Maybe even go cold turkey and completely ditch the head cheese for a diet consisting solely of “a salad of herbs.”

Houston Telegraph, 1856

“The Dallas Herald is out of paper. It comes to us this week printed on wrapping paper. It is rather hard to read….”

Dallas Herald, 1880

I’m sure there is an interesting and most likely embarrassing story behind the implementation of this new police regulation.

Dallas Herald, 1877

This sounds wonderful.

1900 Dallas directory

Go to the M. O. Robertson, the expert horseshoer who will not fail to give satisfaction. Because all those others? They’re gonna fail. Not “if” but “when.”

1890 Dallas directory

The sensation generated by seeing an ad with the words “oyster” and “ice cream” next to each other — cheek-by-jowl, as it were — is not a pleasant one.

1927

Who knew? Ukulele-mania was alive and well in Big D in the ’20s.

1972 ad (detail)

A little tidbit on the history of commercial fashion illustration in Dallas, from a Sanger’s ad celebrating the company’s Centennial.

1948

Another Sanger’s ad. This one with a, let’s say “more populist” example of the store’s fashion-illustration chops.

Dallas Herald, 1887

“WANTED—A good gentle well disposed cat to use in taking pictures. Apply to J. H. Webster, High Priced Photographer, 803 Elm or 804 Main streets.”

Okay, I’m a sucker. I love cats, and I love self-proclaimed “high-priced photographers.” Ergo, I must love this ad. I do. Seems like a good time to share a couple of 19th-century photographs of cats.

1860s, via SMU

1890s, via SMU

***

Sources & Notes

Dallas Herald clippings are from the Texas Digital Newspaper collection provided by UNT to the Portal to Texas History; you can peruse many scanned issues of The Dallas Herald (not to be confused with the later Dallas Times Herald) here.

“Cat Posed with Mexican Serape” is a cased ambrotype from the Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more details on this photo can be found here. The article “Everyone Loves the Cat!” can be read on the SMU CUL blog “Off the Shelf,” here.

“Baby Seated with Cat” is also from the Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU; more info on the photo is here.

Want more? See other “Orphaned Factoid” lists here.

Most images are larger when clicked. Click away!

11 Comments

December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas! — 2017

by Paula Bosse

Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings! I hope this holiday season has been a happy one. Christmastime in Dallas is not complete without a pilgrimage to the giant Pecan Tree in Highland Park. It is 152 years old this year! Read about its history, see some historic photos of it through the years, and watch a short documentary from KERA in my 2015 post “Celebrate the Pecan Tree’s 150th Christmas” here.

Eat too much, drink too much, and stay warm and toasty!

***

Sources & Notes

Photo from Pinterest, via Robert J. Sadler., a mystery writer who sets many of his novels in and around Dallas.

Leave a comment

December 23, 2017

From El Chico and the Cuellar Family: Feliz Navidad!

xmas_el-chico_cook-collection_degolyer_SMU

by Paula Bosse

…y Prospero Año Nuevo!

xmas_el-chico_cook-collection_degolyer_SMU_2

***

Sources & Notes

Images from a matchbook cover in the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more on the item can be found on the SMU site here.

A couple of super-folksy El Chico commercials can be watched here.

Leave a comment

December 22, 2017

From the Vault: A Christmas Miracle — Spidey Saves Dallas

by Paula Bosse

You didn’t know Spider-Man saved our Christmas 30-some-odd years ago? Read how in the Flashback Dallas post from 2015, “Spider-Man: Christmas in Dallas! (1983),” here.

Thanks, Spidey!

Leave a comment

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Sources & Notes

Share this:

Share this: