Flashback : Dallas

January 23, 2016

Tomorrow’s Weather at Live Oak & Elm — 1955-ish

The weather, brought to you by Coke…

by Paula Bosse

This photo (which is a little blurry, but the blurriness gives it a kind of dreamy softness) shows the one-time five-point intersection of Ervay, Live Oak (seen above at the left), and Elm (on the right, looking east). On the corner of this busy and confusing intersection, a large sign provided a public service by showing tomorrow’s weather forecast (…whilst subtly encouraging onlookers to hie themselves to the closest Coca-Cola-dispensary). During the day, the sign looked mildly interesting, but at NIGHT…! At night, this sign transformed downtown’s entertainment district into our very own mini Times Square. Here’s what it looked like at night (it’s a giant image — click it!).

1953, Squire Haskins, UTA

And here it is from another angle, about 1948:

And, hold on to yourself: from 1939, in color! (Screenshot of a 1939 film, shot in Dallas, in color. Watch the sign’s flashing, dancing neon in action on YouTube here.)

1939

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Sources & Notes

I found the top photo on eBay a few months ago. The amateur photo was stamped “Feb. 1956” when the photo was developed, but looking at the clothes people are wearing, one would assume it was taken earlier — probably the previous year.

The first nighttime photo is by Squire Haskins, taken in January, 1953. See my original post — “Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953” — here. This post includes a map showing Live Oak when it used to intersect with Elm and Ervay.

The second nighttime photo is ca. 1948, probably from the Dallas Public Library. See the notes in this post.

All pictures larger when clicked.

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January 21, 2016

The Washington Theater — Dallas’ First Movie Palace

The Washington, 1615 Elm

by Paula Bosse

The outrageously ornate Washington Theater was built in 1912 by W. D. Nevills (1872-1945), a man who had been running cheap little store-front nickelodeons in Dallas for several years. Three of his most popular were The Nickelodeon, The Candy, and The Palace (not to be confused with any later theaters in Dallas called the “Palace”).

Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1912-1914

His Nickelodeon on Main Street can be seen in the lower center of this detail from a larger 1909 parade photo.

Nevills must have raked in a lot of nickels, because when his Washington Theater opened at 1615 Elm Street, it was the most spectacular motion picture “photoplay house” in Dallas. Nevills spared no expense for the theater’s furnishings and facade.

Dallas Morning News, Nov. 17, 1912 (click to read)

What might seem a little gaudy now, was probably still gaudy back then, but it was a fresh, NEW gaudy! And 600 Dallasites could all watch a movie at the same time. 600! Unheard of!

The Washington opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1912. Complete with “Human Pipe Organ.”

DMN, Nov. 27, 1912

The Washington was the king of the roost for only a short while, though — until young whippersnappers like the Queen began to steal its thunder. 600 seats? Pfft! It was a thousand or nothing now. The theater began to lose its luster and look more old and hulking than young and exciting, and after riding out its very long lease, the Washington Theater closed on July 1, 1927.

This little classified showed up a couple of weeks later, and it must have been a melancholy Nevills who had to write it up.

DMN, July 13, 1927

The theater continued to be used for a while — mostly for evangelical meetings or events. I’m not sure exactly when the building was demolished, but a report of the building’s being sold and plans for its razing appeared in The Dallas Morning News in October, 1927.

Let’s look at a couple of details from that top photo. The Washington was built without a marquee, but the outside of the building was studded with an eyeball-popping TWO THOUSAND LIGHTS! Imagine what that must have looked like — in 1912! Here’s an extreme close-up of the theater’s facade — look at all those bulbs!

And, below (was one of these men W. D. Nevills?):

Another shot, this one showing how one worked without a typical illuminated marquee — you just string a banner up (the needle is hitting a solid “8.5” on the visual clutter scale here):

1914 via CorbisImages

Here it is, ablaze at night:

In an ad from 1914:

Photo from October 1916:

And in “color” from a picture postcard:

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Sources & Notes

Top photo from Cinema Treasures; to read a history of the Washington Theater from Cinema Treasures (and to see another photo), see here. (Photo’s original source appears to be the Dallas Historical Society.)

The photo of the theater with the Mary Pickford banner is ©Schenectady Museum; Hall of Electrical History Foundation/CORBIS; more info is here. (The movie “Behind the Scenes” was released in 1914.)

Photo of the theater at night is from Dallas Rediscovered by William L. McDonald — source: Dallas Historical Society archives.

The ad is from the 1914 Dallas Building Code.

Photo with the marquee showing “The Common Law” is from Oct. 1916, but the photo didn’t appear in the trade magazine Theatre Exhibitors Herald and Motography until June 1919.

The color postcard is from eBay.

Read about the closing of the Washington in an article available in the Dallas Morning News archives: “Washington Theater, Earliest Dallas ‘Movie Palace,’ Shows Last Close-Up After 15 Years” (DMN, July 4, 1927).

The Washington Theater must have been W. D. Nevills greatest achievement. It’s interesting to note that “Operator Washington Theater” appears on his death certificate. Nevills died in 1945, eighteen years after the theater closed.

For other Flashback Dallas posts on this era of movie theaters, see the following:

“Three of Dallas’ Earliest ‘Photoplay Houses’ — 1906-1913,” here
“Movie Houses Serving Black Dallas — 1919-1922,” here

21 Comments

January 21, 2016

A Bird’s-Eye View Over the Washington Theater

As the crow flies…

by Paula Bosse

This wonderful photo shows an aerial view looking northeasterly over the top of the Washington Theater, Dallas’ first ornate movie palace. It was located between N. Akard and N. Ervay, at 1615 Elm Street — now the site of Thanksgiving Tower. I think the street at the top right edge of the photo is Live Oak, which used to come all the way through to Elm. I love this photo.

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Sources & Notes

Photo from Lost Dallas by Mark Doty (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2012).

Bird’s-eye view today-ish (with 1615 Elm marked):

Bing Maps

The Washington Theater was in business at 1615 Elm from 1912 to 1927. More on the Washington in the Flashback Dallas post “The Washington Theater — Dallas’ First Movie Palace,” here.

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January 20, 2016

The Texas Theatre and Its Venetian-Inspired Decor

A little bit of Venice in the O.C. (note organ at edge of stage)

by Paula Bosse

The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff — which opened in April, 1931 — was the first movie theater in Dallas built expressly to show movies with sound. It was also the largest “suburban” theater in the Dallas area — only downtown’s first-run Majestic and Palace theaters were larger. Below are photos of the theater’s “Venetian-style” interior, from the trade journal Motion Picture Herald.

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Sources & Notes

Photos from Motion Picture Herald, July 2, 1932. For the full article, see the very large scan of page 1 here, and page 2 here.

The Texas Theatre is still alive — its website’s history page is here.

My previous post, “The Texas Theatre — 1932” (which shows the theater’s exterior at the time this article was published), is here.

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January 19, 2016

Dallas: “Amusement Capital of the Southwest” — 1946

Something for everybody! (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Post-war Dallas had it all, man: our unparalleled night life included swanky hotel nightclubs where the beautiful people sipped champagne and danced to the music of tuxedoed big bands, “quieter but none-the-less entertaining taverns on the outskirts of the city” where the less beautiful people drank beer and danced to the non-stop music coming from jukeboxes, “unusual” restaurants (“where there is no music to dull the solid enjoyment of well-seasoned viands served with sparkling wines of appropriate vintage”), theatrical presentations, movies, movies, movies, and outdoor sports and recreation, including baseball at Rebel Stadium. Something for everybody!

(click for larger image)

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Photo collage and text from “So This Is Dallas,” edited by Mrs. E. F. Anderson (Dallas: The Welcome Wagon, ca. 1946); photographs by Parker-Griffith.

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January 18, 2016

From the Vault: Dr. King in DFW

Dr. King and friends at Love Field, 1959

by Paula Bosse

Martin Luther King, Jr. made a quick stop in Dallas and Fort Worth on October 22, 1959. See the post “MLK in DFW — 1959” from last year, here.

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January 17, 2016

The Volunteer Fire Department’s Early Days

Pumping water from an underground cistern (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Dallas was constantly catching on fire in its early days. According to this very informative advertisement, Alex Sanger was one of the Dallas businessmen responsible for organizing the city’s first volunteer fire department. Interestingly, the Sanger Bros. department store also had a volunteer fire department which not only protected the store, but also served as a special unit of the Dallas Volunteer Fire Brigade.

The drawing above and the text below are from a 1936 Sanger Bros. advertisement. (Click to see larger images.)

1936

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January 16, 2016

The Hilton Hotel, Main & Harwood

The Hilton, Main & Harwood, 1930 (click for much larger image)

by Paula Bosse

When Conrad Hilton built the Lang and Witchell-designed Hilton Hotel in Dallas in 1925, it was the first hotel he had built from the ground up. It’s been through several name changes over the years (its White Plaza Hotel incarnation was its longest), and, remarkably (for Dallas), the building still stands — it is now Hotel Indigo

Above, a photo from 1930, with so much going on, it’s worth zooming in to see some of the details. All images are pretty big when clicked.

The left side of the photo shows Main Street looking west.

I’m not sure what’s going on with the man at the curb — construction? Street cleaning? And I’ve looked and looked at that small tower-like thing on the corner but can’t figure out what it is. (UPDATE: Ha! Thanks to a helpful comment below, I now see that this “tower” which was confusing me so much is, not, in fact, an odd structure set on the sidewalk but is — of course! — a traffic light suspended above the street!) (UPDATE #2: I think another commenter was right when he said it is a uniformed telegram boy at a bicycle stand. I’ve never considered that telegram offices would have had bike stands — but of course they would!)

The right side shows Harwood looking north.

Here are the businesses listed in these blocks in 1930:

1930 Dallas directory

As a bonus, here’s a detail of another photo, showing the same intersection, around the same time, taken from the steps of the Municipal Building (then the city hall). The Drake’s Drug Store would be replaced by a Skillern’s in later years.

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Sources & Notes

Top photo from the Texas Historical Commission Historic Resources Survey Collection, via the Portal to Texas History, here.

The Wikipedia entry for Dallas’ first Hilton Hotel (not to be confused with the Statler-Hilton of the ’50s) is here.

The Hotel Indigo website is here.

All images larger when clicked.

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January 15, 2016

From the Vault: Cowboy Boots, Y’all!

The pride of Henrietta….

by Paula Bosse

I was pretty excited when I came across this box recently — my aunt had been using it to store Christmas decorations in. Don’t know what happened to the boots. I love vintage cowboy boots, and Olsen-Stelzer is something of a legend in Texas boot companies (and still going strong!). My mother’s side of the family has roots in the Henrietta area, so I’m sure my aunt bought a pair of boots 60-some-odd years ago while visiting relatives. Read more about this company (and see some cool ads) (…there IS a Dallas connection…) in my post from 2014, “Olsen-Stelzer Boot Saleslady — 1939,” here.

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January 14, 2016

D. B. Keiper, Cistern and Tank Builder

Ad from the 1884 Dallas directory

by Paula Bosse

For all your cistern and tank needs, D. B. Keiper’s your man.

Dallas Herald, June 18, 1881

Dallas Herald, Oct. 13, 1884

Dallas Herald, Dec. 4, 1884

Dallas Morning News, Sept. 15, 1886

DMN, Sept. 30, 1888

DMN, Dec. 13, 1891

***

Top ad from the 1884 Dallas directory.

I didn’t find out much about the Pennsylvania-born David Butz Keiper (1827-1895), except that he bought a lot of lumber, sold a lot of cisterns and tanks, and took out a huge number of newspaper ads over the years.

One wonders if he might have built and installed the underground cistern of the Rosenfield house I wrote about in “The Blue House of Browder,” which was built around 1885 — this “for sale” ad appeared in 1887, when Keiper seemed to be Dallas’ king of cisterns:

DMN, May 8, 1887

Keiper specialized in underground wooden cisterns (made from cypress lumber) to hold collected rainwater, but there were many different types of cisterns in use around Texas in the nineteenth century. Mark H. Denton wrote an interesting article, “Cisterns in Texas,” for Current Archeology in Texas (April 2011), with illustrations but with little on wooden cisterns; read Denton’s article here (scroll to bottom of p. 4 of the PDF).

Image too small? Click it!

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Flashback : Dallas

January 23, 2016

Tomorrow’s Weather at Live Oak & Elm — 1955-ish

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January 21, 2016

The Washington Theater — Dallas’ First Movie Palace

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January 21, 2016

A Bird’s-Eye View Over the Washington Theater

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January 20, 2016

The Texas Theatre and Its Venetian-Inspired Decor

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January 19, 2016

Dallas: “Amusement Capital of the Southwest” — 1946

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January 18, 2016

From the Vault: Dr. King in DFW

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January 17, 2016

The Volunteer Fire Department’s Early Days

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January 16, 2016

The Hilton Hotel, Main & Harwood

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January 15, 2016

From the Vault: Cowboy Boots, Y’all!

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January 14, 2016

D. B. Keiper, Cistern and Tank Builder

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