Flashback : Dallas

October 12, 2016

Wilson & Co., Their Clydesdales, and the Dallas Jaycees’ Safety Committee — 1951

Giant horses at the ready… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

I came across this undated photo a couple of years ago on eBay, and it took a little bit of digging to come up with just what was going on here.

The Wilson & Co. meat packing and processing business began in Chicago in 1916 and quickly became one of the nation’s largest meatpackers, right up there with Armour and Swift. It expanded across the country, and one of its plants was in Dallas — in Unit 3 of the Santa Fe complex of buildings, located on Wood Street, between Field and what is now Griffin. (This building was later known as the Ingram Freezer Building and was demolished in 1988.) The Wilson company was acquired by Dallas-based LTV in 1967, and was later “spun off” from LTV in 1981

The Wilson company had owned a prize-winning “six-horse hitch” of Clydesdale horses since 1917, and they were sent around the country to promote the company and its line of processed meats. Not only were the horses prize-winners at livestock shows, they were also incredibly popular with the public. (They had made a huge splash at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, and it seems Budweiser took note of the promotional possibilities of the impressive animals, as the Anheuser-Busch Co. ended up buying the original team from Wilson that same year. So there were at least two competing Clydesdale teams clomping along the downtown streets of America, through at least the late ’60s.)

The photo above was taken when Wilson & Co.’s horse celebs visited Dallas in May, 1951. During their time in Big D they paraded through downtown at noontime and entertained workers on lunch breaks; at night they bunked in temporary stables in the service department of a Pacific Avenue car dealership. The photo at the top shows a public service event in which the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce promoted traffic safety in conjunction with the visiting horses. In the photo, the Wilson company employees (who have somehow managed to block the view of several thousand pounds of horseflesh and the huge 1890s wagon behind them) look happy during their little photo-op break from work. And in the background, we see the Adolphus Hotel (…built by the man behind Budweiser beer…), the Magnolia Building, and the Baker Hotel.

All this kind of makes me want a ham sandwich and a bottle of beer….

via Amazon

May, 1951

Wood Street, Dallas city directory, 1953

1952 Mapsco

Below, a postcard advertising the appearance of the Wilson “Champion Six-Horse Team” at the 1936 Texas Centennial:

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Sources & Notes

Photo found on eBay in 2014; on the back is the stamp of photographer Denny Hayes.

Texas Centennial postcard from eBay.

See an unimpeded view of the famous six-horse team of Clydesdales (each of which weighed, on average, two thousand pounds) in a 1954 Cedar Rapids Gazette photo, here.

A couple of interesting tidbits about the Wilson company and about the horses:

Thomas E. Wilson, the founder of the meatpacking company also founded Wilson Sporting Goods
As a celebratory nod to the end of Prohibition, the famed Budweiser Clydesdales were purchased from Wilson in 1933 — this was Wilson’s original team from 1917. (Clydesdale horses generally live for 20-25 years.)

Pictures and clippings are larger when clicked.

3 Comments

October 10, 2016

Marvin’s Drug Store, Main and Akard

Looking north up Akard from Main… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

This postcard shows a bustling downtown at the intersection of Main and Akard (the view straight ahead is North Akard). Marvin’s Drug Store, on the northwest corner, was at 1415 Main, and the Palace Drug Store, on the southwest corner, was at 1414 Main. The Palace Drug Store moved to this location in December of 1909, and I’d guess the original photo used here was taken around 1910. See what this view looks like today here.

I love colorized postcards from this period, but sometimes draining them of their color gives a more realistic view of the scene (but doing this can also add a weird surreal flavor when you begin to notice evidence of the artist’s heavy hand — check out the two creepy Edvard Munch-like blank-faced pedestrians at the far right). (Click for larger image.)

The building housing Marvin’s Drug Store was originally known as the Rowan Building, seen below in 1899 — its distinctive cupola was unceremoniously cropped from the postcard view.

In this photo you can see “Rowan” on the cupola:

This attractive building was torn down in order to build the taller Marvin Building, which was originally intended to be 24 stories but was later downgraded to 16 stories, then to 10, then to 4 (but with plans to add more at a later date). When the new building opened in 1927, the namesake drugstore was retained as its ground-floor anchor tenant. This new structure was known as the Marvin Building until 1931 when the Gulf States Life Insurance Company purchased it and it became known as the Gulf States Building (coincidentally, ol’ Z. E. “Zeke” Marvin not only owned the Marvin Building and the Marvin Drug Company, but he was also the former president and CEO of the Gulf States Insurance Company). A Lang & Witchell-designed six-story addition was built in 1935. This 16-story building is still standing and has been converted into residential loft space.

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Sources & Notes

The postcard at the top is from the incredible Flickr collection of Christian Spencer Anderson (aka “Coltera”), here.

The 1899 photo of the Rowan Building is a detail from a 1939 ad for the National City Bank of New York.

The sepia-toned photo is from eBay.

The color photo of the Gulf States Building is from the Chamberlin Roofing and Waterproofing site, here. (See that photo REALLY big here.)

Click pictures to see larger images.

4 Comments

October 6, 2016

“Teen-Age Downbeat”

WBAP’s “Teen-Age Downbeat,” 1959 (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

“Teen-Age Downbeat” — Fort Worth’s answer to “American Bandstand” — debuted on WBAP-TV in January, 1958 — in COLOR. It featured teens from the Dallas-Fort Worth area (…or maybe I should say from the Fort Worth-Dallas area…) who would play and dance to their favorite records. The host was WBAP broadcaster Tom Mullarkey (seen above at the left, wearing the red vest). The show was quite popular and lasted as best I can tell, from January, 1958 until July, 1961 (the last mention in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was July 1, 1961). I’m guessing those kids danced to a lot of Fabian.

FWST, Jan. 5, 1958

“Sponsor” trade magazine, Aug. 8, 1960

North Texas State College’s Lab Band with director Gene Hall

FWST, Feb. 26, 1961

“Broadcasting” trade magazine, May 18, 1959

“Toys For Tots” campaign, Christmas 1958

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Sources & Notes

The color photo (which appeared in a full-page WBAP ad in the trade magazine Broadcasting) shows non-teen Tom Mullarkey watching over the dancers from Arlington Heights High School, as the Polytechnic High School Stage Band plays some happenin’ tunes. (I do see two Dallas high school pennants in the photo: Crozier Tech and Sunset.)

The photo showing director Gene Hall with the North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas) Laboratory Band was found at UNT’s Portal to Texas History site, here. The photo is not dated, but a blurb in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentioned that Hall and the band were to appear on “Teen-Age Downbeat” on Feb. 5, 1959.

Photo of the “Toys For Tots” campaign, featuring a sexy Santa’s helper, Tom Mularkey, and a Marine Corps (Reserve?) officer was found on the Instagram feed of @fortworthhistorical.

19 Comments

October 5, 2016

Zooming In on the State Fair: The Midway, the Cotton Bowl, and the Octopus — ca. 1950

Another visit to the fair… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

When I see old photos of the State Fair, I always look at the people. Let’s take a closer look at this great photo by Squire Haskins, taken around 1950. (See a BIG scan of this photo at the UTA website, here.)

Here are a few magnified details from Haskins’ photo (all are much larger when clicked):

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Top photo by Squire Haskins, from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, Special Collections, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries; more information can be accessed here. (Other photos from this collection which were taken around the State Fair Midway at about this time were taken in October, 1950 — this one is not dated, but it seems likely it was taken at the same time.)

See other photos I’ve zoomed in on here.

Click pictures for larger images!

7 Comments

October 3, 2016

NOW HEAR THIS: THE BELL TELEPHONE “LOUD SPEAKER” IS AT THE FAIR! — 1921

You might want to step back a few thousand feet… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

When was the last time you wondered about the history of the public address system? If you’re like me, the answer to that is probably “never.”

The photo above shows the new technical innovation from the army of Bell Systems engineers that was going to be demonstrated at the 1921 State Fair of Texas: the “Loud Speaker.” The ad (always click images and clippings for larger images):

Dallas Morning News, Oct. 8, 1921

BELL TELEPHONE LOUD SPEAKER
A feature of the STATE FAIR will be the free exhibition of the latest advance in the art of telephony.
By means of this instrument a child’s voice may be heard a quarter of a mile.
A violin, a phonograph record, or a vocal solo may be heard practically all over the Fair Park.
It is a novelty never before shown in the Southwest and has been exhibited only a few times in the United States.
This Feature Alone Is Worth a Trip to the Fair.
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company

My technical expertise is pretty much non-existent, but, basically, this was the introduction of the public address system as developed by Bell Telephone, using their cutting-edge transmitters and amplifying equipment (the articles below contain more information).

An earlier version of this particular set-up had debuted the previous year at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. (Imagine attending a large, noisy political convention with speakers whose voices weren’t amplified.) It had also been used for President Harding’s inauguration speech at the beginning of 1921, a first.

Coleman Democrat Voice, Oct. 7, 1921

This was before the days of mainstream radio — Dallas’ first commercial broadcasting station, WFAA, didn’t go on the air until June, 1922. The loudspeaker system used at the fair in 1921 allowed entertainment acts and World Series play-by-play to be played loudly overhead, for most of the fairgoers to hear (which sounds a little annoying to me, but it was newfangled novelty and people were quite taken with it).

DMN, Oct. 11, 1921

DMN, Oct. 12, 1921

It also came in handy to make announcements and to page parents of lost children.

DMN, Oct. 15, 1921

The amplification at public events was enthusiastically received and much appreciated, but the real end Bell was working toward was the ability to transmit and broadcast live events happening long distances away (and also to transmit recorded music without any substantial loss of sonic quality — radio, here we come!).

DMN, Oct. 16, 1921

In fact, the equipment exhibited at the fair was the same equipment used less than a month later when President Harding presented his Armistice Day address to the nation. Not only was his voice amplified to the large crowd listening to him at Arlington National Cemetery, it was also transmitted and then broadcast through “loud speakers” to crowds in New York and San Francisco — another first.

Tulsa Daily World, Dec. 11, 1921

And Texas got to experience this new technology earlier than most others in the country. Little did those Bell engineers realize in 1921 that 30-some-odd years later the booming voice of a gigantic cowboy could be heard greeting visitors all over Fair Park.

A few clippings about the vaunted “loud speaker” before it made its way to the State Fair:

Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 23, 1921

Winnipeg Tribune, March 8, 1921

DMN (from wire reports), Oct. 5, 1921

And an article on the exciting prospects of what lay ahead:

Tulsa Daily World, Dec. 11, 1921

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Sources of clippings as noted.

Click for larger images!

October 1, 2016

Adamson High School People and Places, Part 2 — 1960s

Have plaid, will dance — 1966… (click for larger images)

by Paula Bosse

Check out these random photos of Adamson High School and its students, mostly from the 1966 yearbook. (Click for larger images.)

1961

Go Leopards!

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See the companion post (which shows advertisements from 1960s editions of the W. H. Adamson High School yearbook) here.

8 Comments

October 1, 2016

Adamson High School People and Places, Part 1 — 1960s

The super-groovy Magnificent Seven of 1967

by Paula Bosse

Here are a whole bunch of 1960s ads from Adamson High School’s yearbooks. Go Leopards! (Click to see larger images.)

Above, a group of guys took out an ad for themselves in their 1967 senior yearbook:

Oscar Kirby Burrell, Jr.
James Clinton Newell
Michael Randolph Pullen
Stephen Sanders Maris
Leonard Gregory Milke
George Hardy Ellis
James Heath Clary

Thumbs up for creativity, guys!

Below, churches, lotsa churches, including:

Cliff Temple Baptist Church (from the 1961 yearbook)
First Church of the Nazarene (1961)
Galilean Baptist Church (1961)
Grace Temple Baptist Church (1961)
Polk Street Baptist Church (1964)
Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church (1966)
Western Heights Church of Christ (1966)
Grace Temple Baptist Church (1967)

And then you’ve got your garages and gas stations, including:

O. B. Goodman’s Gulf Service Center (1967)
Herbie Dodd Wynnewood Texaco (1965)
Navarro Custom Automotive (for all your hot rod needs) (1966)

And Safety Brake Service over the years: 1961, 1964, 1965.

One must eat:

The Old South (1961)
Speedy Chick No. 4 (1965)
Inky’s Charcoal Burger (1966)
Woody’s Pancake House (1965)
Big Daddy’s Grill (1966)
Goff’s Hamburgers (don’t forget Mrs. Goff’s Ice Cream) (1966, 1967)

And then everything else:

U.S. Congressman Joe Pool (1967)
Colbert’s (women’s clothing) (1967)
Raven’s Pharmacy (1966)
John Hiegel’s One Hour Martinizing (1966)
King’s Book Store (1966)
Ketchum & Killum Sporting Goods (you read that right) (1965)
Crosswinds Apartments (1965)
Dougherty’s Pharmacy (1964)
Doris Wood Bridal & Party Service (1966)
Bronco Bowl (…RIP…) (1966)

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Sources & Notes

Ads from the 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967 W. H. Adamson High School yearbooks.

See the companion post (which shows the school and students — mostly from 1966), here.

6 Comments

September 30, 2016

The State Fair of Texas: “A Son-of-a-Gun in ’51” — 1951

by Paula Bosse

In honor of opening day of the 2016 State Fair of Texas, a poster from the 1951 fair. Proto-Big Tex imagery was being used well before the giant cowboy’s debut the following year (see, that hand thing is going on even back then…).

Welcome back, SFOT!

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Poster found on Pinterest.

September 27, 2016

The Kids of State-Thomas

George W. Cook Collection, SMU

by Paula Bosse

More great photos from the George W. Cook Collection at SMU’s DeGolyer Library! Click photos to see larger images.

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Sources & Notes

All photos from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University. Additional information for each photo can be found for photo 1 here; photo 2 here; photo 3 here; photo 4 here; photo 5 here; and photo 6 here.

The State-Thomas area (also known in the past as Freedman’s Town and North Dallas) was once a vibrant African-American neighborhood which has now become swallowed up by “Uptown.” A short history can be found here (scroll down to “Freedman’s Town”).

Other State-Thomas-related photos can be found in these Flashback Dallas posts:

“The Allen Street Taxi Company,” here
“The Dunbar Branch: Dallas’ First Library for the African-American Community, 1931-1959,” here

Photos are big. Click them!

2 Comments

September 23, 2016

Big Tex’s Hands

1948 State Fair ad: “Hey, Texans!”

by Paula Bosse

I stumbled across a State Fair of Texas ad a couple of days ago — a detail of which is above — and it made me wonder if it contained the precursor to our beloved Big Tex (whose annual hoisting-up occurred today). The ad is from 1948, four years before Big Tex’s debut at the 1952 State Fair. When I saw it I was immediately reminded of Big Tex and exclaimed to myself, “THAT’S what he should have been doing with his hands!”

I’ve always wondered exactly what Big Tex is supposed to be doing with his hands. It’s a sort of vague “welcoming” gesture, I guess, but I can remember when I had to draw Big Tex in school that I was confused by that right hand. Was he waving? Was it an Indian “How!” greeting sign? It didn’t really look like either of those, and it really irked me (I was an easily-irked child). And, actually, it has continued to bother me all these years! (I am an easily-irked adult.)

From early sketches, it seems that the right hand was intended to have the thumb hooked through a vest. Jack Bridges, Big Tex’s creator, wanted Tex to symbolize the larger-than-life Texan who wasn’t above indulging in good-humored bragging and tall-tale-telling, and that personality comes through in the sketch and the Big Tex illustration used in the 1952 ads, below.

$big-tex-drawing_legend-of-big-tex$

$big-tex-ink_legend-of-big-tex$
via The Legend of Big Tex

By the time Tex debuted, however, the vest seemed to have been discarded (as best I can tell from old photos), but the position of the right hand remained in that weird position (probably just to torment me as a child having to draw him in school).

A hovering, winking head, via KERA

Speaking of that very first version of Big Tex, in 1952 he had one eye shut, in the middle of a wink. He also had a long nose and wore a huge hat referred to in newspaper articles as a “sombrero.” In a 1983 interview, Jack Bridges said that in later years SFOT officials “made us open his eyes to make a ‘pretty boy’ outta him.” The wink was gone, the brim of the hat was made smaller, and his ears were moved forward. Even though Tex began to “talk” the next year, Bridges said, “I liked him better myself like he was — rugged and more or less caricature.”

The drawing of the man in the ad at the top probably has nothing to do with Big Tex, but dang if it ain’t pretty close! And the position of both hands makes sense!

Here’s the full 1948 ad from the top:

1948

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Sources & Notes

You can listen to a short (13-minute) interview done with Jack Bridges in 1983 as part of a Dallas Public Library oral history project, here. One of my favorite tidbits is Bridges remembering that vandals once painted a “big brown moustache” on the resting, disembodied head of Tex one year. He said that the head and the hat were kept in the Centennial Building when the fair wasn’t in progress, and the rest of Tex was kept in storage in various places around Fair Park. He said it was like making sure the president and vice-president never traveled together — if something happened to part of Big Tex, at least the whole of Big Tex wasn’t affected. (91-year-old Jack Bridges died in 2001; thankfully he didn’t have to witness the fiery … “incident” … of 2012.)

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