Flashback : Dallas

December 29, 2015

Year-End List! My Favorite Photos Posted in 2015

Need a cab? They’re waiting for your call… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Today I’m posting my favorite photos used in Flashback Dallas posts over the past year. I try to use photos and images that haven’t been seen very often, so I tend to go through a LOT of photos in search of cool and interesting little nuggets of forgotten Dallas history. I’ve seen a lot of photographs over the past year, but the ones listed below are the ones that, for whatever reason, resonated with me the most. To see a larger image of each photo, click it; to see the original post the photo came from (with its source), click the linked title.

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1. “The Allen Street Taxi Company.” Hands down, this photo (seen at the top of this post) is my favorite of the past year, found deep in the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection of SMU’s invaluable DeGolyer Library. The Cook Collection is an incredible collection of historical photographs made available online this year by SMU. I love this photo, and I feel I’ve looked at it for hours. There’s so much to see in it. Check out the original post (linked above) to view several magnified details of a photo that screams out for magnified details.

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2. “An Incredible View From Republic Tower 2 — 1968.” Photo looking down on the famed Republic “rocket,” taken by teenager Bill Parrish in 1968. (Thanks for allowing me to use your photos, Bill!)

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3. “The Continental Gin Company Complex — 1914.” Parts of this complex of buildings still stand and are recognizable today. (SMU’s Dallas Hall can be seen as a ghostly apparition in the distance.)

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4. “Back at the Ranch with Yves Saint Laurent — 1958.” I mean … it’s perfect! Wonder why YSL is posing with a Texas longhorn? Check out this post!

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5. “One of the Victims of the Great Trinity Flood: The T&P Railroad Trestle — 1908.”

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6. “Radio Broadcasting, 1922-Style” and “WFAA Radio’s ‘Altitudinous Antenna System'” — a two-fer: inside and outside Dallas’ first commercial radio station.

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7. “South Pearl, In the Shadow of Downtown — 1950s.”

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8. “Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953.” A chilly night in downtown Dallas. My favorite part of this photo is at the extreme left, under the Walgreen’s sign, where a woman passes under a streetlight as she heads home from work (see this magnified detail by clicking the link above).

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9. “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902.”

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10. “WWII-Era Elm Street … In COLOR — 1945.” Great photo, from Noah Jeppson. Seeing Dallas in this era IN COLOR is incredible!

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11. “George Cacas, The Terrill School’s Greek Ice Cream Man — 1916.” Just a couple of schoolboys buying ice cream from a Greek merchant in Old East Dallas.

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12. “The Dallas Skyline Seen From the Trinity Industrial District — 1950.” A view of the city not often seen.

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13. “The Vision in the ‘Miracle Window’ — 1931.” Another view one doesn’t come across often — this one showing a typical house in the African-American Freedman’s Town area of what was then known as “North Dallas.”

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14. “The Dallas Athletic Club Building — 1925-1981.” A view of the rooftop of the then-under construction Dallas Athletic Club. This photo appeared in a catalog for a manufacturer of construction materials, and I feel confident it hasn’t been seen since that catalog came out in 1924. Pretty cool!

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15. “Views From a Passing Train — 1902.” Pacific Avenue (which was once a railroad thoroughfare for the Texas & Pacific Railway) doesn’t get enough love. Here’s a photo taken by a traveling Philadelphia architect — probably from the back of his train — looking west on Pacific toward Bryan.

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And the runners-up — you always have to have runners-up!

“Nolan Ryan’s Celebratory Pancake Breakfast — 1972.” Taken in Dallas, but before he was a Texas Ranger.

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“The Republic Bank Building and Spain’s ‘Casa de Los Picos.'” One of the Republic Bank Building’s instantly recognizable exterior aluminum panels, seen in an ad for the Minnesota company that manufactured them. Another image that’s been tucked away for far too long! It’s really grainy, but I LOVE this photo!

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“St. Paul’s Sanitarium — 1910.” The ominous “mattress sterilization room” in what looks like St. Paul’s dungeon.

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“The Gypsy Tea Room, Central Avenue, and The Darensbourg Brothers.” A photo I used only a detail of (showing only Percy Darensbourg — at the right on banjo), but this is the full photo, showing Lee Collins’ band in Dallas in 1925 or 1926. Fantastic photo of musicians who would have played clubs in the South, including stops in Deep Ellum and North Dallas.

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“An Afternoon Outing with SMU Frat Boys & Their Dates — 1917.” And, lastly, my favorite face of the year (although Percy, above, is a close second!): a young, unidentified woman who looks sweet, smart, and kind, enjoying a day’s outing to Exall Lake in Highland Park.

She even has sweet, smart, and kind-looking feet!

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For all the “Year-End Best of 2015” lists, click here.

For the “Year-End Best of 2014” lists, click here.

1 Comment

December 28, 2015

Year-End List! My Favorite (Non-Photo) Images Posted in 2015

I feel a sudden yen for a mid-century cocktail….

by Paula Bosse

It’s the end of the year, the traditional time for lists! Today I’m posting a list of my top ten favorite images that I’ve posted over the past year — either art or postcards (my favorite photographs of the year will be posted tomorrow). For more info on the images — and to see the post they appeared in — click on the title of the post (sources are generally at the bottom). Most images are larger when clicked — some are quite a bit larger.

“The Dallas Skyline, Vibrant & Sophisticated — 1960” (above) — an idealized rendering of the downtown skyline, oddly missing Pegasus.

“‘Trailerville’ by Charles T. Bowling — 1940.”

DMA

“Winter Scene: The Belo Mansion & The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart — ca. 1902.”

“The Fine Black Land Is Around Dallas, Texas.”

“The State Fair of Texas: ‘This Is Where All My Money Has Gone.'”

“Love Field, The Super-Cool 1950s Era.” (Super-cool photos also in this post!)

“Main Street — ca. 1942.”

“‘Cemetery at Twilight’ by Frank Reaugh.”

“‘Along the Tracks’ in the Fair Park Area.” (Painting by Jerry Bywaters.)

“Texas Texas Texas Texas Texas Texas Texas — 1930” (Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook endpaper.)

Honorable Mention: Not specifically Dallas-related, but it IS Texas-related: “‘Used Books & Guns’ — 1967.” I’ve updated the post with a photo, which may or may not be the actual San Antonio bookstore which appeared as an illustration in a children’s book.

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For all the “Year-End Best of 2015” lists, click here.

For the “Year-End Best of 2014” lists, click here.

1 Comment

December 28, 2015

Year-End List! My Favorite Dallas Ads Posted in 2015

“This town ain’t big enough…”

by Paula Bosse

It’s the end of the year, the traditional time to make lists. Over the next few days I’ll be posting some of my favorite Flashbacky moments from 2015. First up, ads. I’ve really been remiss is posting ads this year for some reason. I love old ads (in fact, before this blog, I maintained an advertising blog for several years — Retro Adverto — I haven’t updated it since I began Flashback Dallas, but I hope to pick it back up some day).

Click ads for larger images. To see the original post these ads came from (which includes sources and no doubt pithy commentary), click the title of each ad.

And thanks for reading in 2015!

“‘They Shall Not Pass’ — Acme Screen Co. Ad (1924)” (seen above).

“You Know What They Say: Big Feet, Big Cigars — 1877.”

“‘When “Big D” Lights Up’ –Phelps Dodge Ad (1969).

“‘A Perfect Auto Tent’ — 1921.”

“The Interurban Parlor Car: Perusing the News in Comfy Chairs.”

Honorable Mention: “New Year, New Teeth — 1877.” This gets its own little category because the ad is slightly amusing, but the story behind the dentist who took this ad out is MUCH more interesting!

ad-dentist_1878-directory

ad-dentist_new-year-gift_dal-herald-123077

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For all the “Year-End Best of 2015” lists, click here.

For the “Year-End Best of 2014” lists, click here.

December 25, 2015

From the Vault: Beware the Giant Santa Claus…

“Ho, Ho … OH NO!!”

by Paula Bosse

From last year, the story of “The World’s Largest Santa Claus & The Christmas Tragedy — 1953” — read it here. (I’ve added a new photo.)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there in Flashback Dallas-land!

December 24, 2015

The Eisenlohr Family and Dallas’ First Christmas Tree — 1874

The Eisenlohr Market Drug Store, 1885 (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

According to the memories of Dallas artist E. G. Eisenlohr (1872-1961), his German-born parents brought the first decorated Christmas tree to Dallas in 1874 (or, according to a version of the story published a few years later, 1876). There had been Christmas trees in Dallas before this, but the Eisenlohrs’ tree may have been the first tree — or one of the first — to be brought inside and decorated with tinsel and ornaments.

According to E. G. Eisenlohr’s Christmas memories which appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Oct. 1, 1935:

The candles, holders and tinsel for that first Christmas tree in the village of Dallas in 1874 was ordered from the East. For days my mother baked cookies in the shapes of stars, ships, [and] boots [using] hand-carved molds, some more than 100 years old, that illustrated folk tales…. For days before Christmas Eve the children had been locked out of the room where Kris Kringle was decorating the tree and permitted to enter only after our parents played their Christmas concert and appeared at the window in answer to the cheers from the crowd in the streets. There may have been other trees in the village before we had ours but I have not heard of any and many persons said ours was the first here. I believe we had the first tinsel and glass decorations, for many persons told me later that their parents had told them of the decorated trees back in their old homes before they came to Texas.

The store, ca. 1875-1880 (via DeGolyer Library, SMU)

But what kind of tree was it? According to Kenneth Foree’s 1946 News article about the Eisenlohr tree, it was “a beautiful cedar tree (cut from an Akard and Young thicket by moonlight when the children were asleep” (DMN, Dec. 24, 1946).

Eisenlohr’s father, Rudolph F. Eisenlohr, owned the Market Drug Store (seen above), which was at the southwest corner of Main and Field (the current view of that corner can be seen here, via Google Street View, and the 1885 Sanborn map of that block can be found here.) The family lived upstairs. Imagine that first decorated tree — actually inside someone’s home! — lit with candles in one of those upper windows, attracting a crowd of people below who had never before seen such a sight in the little village of Dallas.

R. F. Eisenlohr (1846-1933)

The Dallas Herald, Feb. 18, 1877

eisenlohr_dallas-directory_1878
Dallas city directory, 1878

Norton’s Union Intelligencer, Oct. 23, 1883

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Sources & Notes

More on this tree can be found in these three Dallas Morning News articles:

“Christmas of ’74 Featured by First Yule Tree in City — Intended for Eisenlohr Children, but Served for All of Youngsters ” (DMN, Oct. 1, 1935)
“Happy Citizens of the Little Town of Dallas Saw Their First Glass and Tinsel Ornaments in 1876 on a Tree Which Glittered Through the Eisenlohrs’ Window Upstairs Over Their Drug Store” (…that is one crazy-long headline…) by Mattie Lou Frye (DMN, Dec. 18, 1932)
“First Tree” (crazy-short headline…) by Kenneth Foree (DMN, Dec. 24, 1946)

Photo of the Eisenlohr store found on eBay.

More on artist E. G. Eisenlohr here and here.

4 Comments

December 24, 2015

Celebrate the Pecan Tree’s 150th Christmas!

Our beautiful Pecan Tree! (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Ever since I realized that 2015 was the sesquicentennial for what may the world’s most famous pecan tree, I’d planned to do a nice post worthy of such an occasion. Except that, as usual, time seems to be slipping away from me, and I have time today to post only a few photos of one of my very favorite local landmarks.

The pecan tree — or, the Pecan Tree (it deserves to be capitalized) — is in Highland Park on Armstrong Parkway at Preston Road, and if you grew up in the Dallas area, driving past the huge tree decorated with lights is an annual Christmas ritual. I remember when I was going through my sullen teen years how I always rolled my eyes when my parents said we were going to go see the Pecan Tree — but when we got to the tree and saw it … it was just wonderful.

The tree began life in 1865 (!) as a sprout in the middle of a cornfield owned by the Coles, one of Dallas’ pioneer families. In October of that year, young Joe Cole, just returned from the Civil War, was working the field and discovered the little plant in a furrow, crushed under the wheels of his wagon. The story goes that Joe, still overwhelmed from the horrors of war, got out of his wagon and replanted the sprig, taking pains over the years to make sure it grew into a large healthy tree. And it did.

I discovered recently that the very first house I lived in was Joe’s old farmhouse, part of which, somehow, was still standing across from North Dallas High School into the 1980s. I’ve always felt a kinship with that tree, and it’s nice to know that my very first home was the home of the man responsible for the tree that has given so much pleasure to so many people. Thank you, Joe!

Below, a short, six-and-a-half-minute film about the history of the tree, produced by KERA: “Million Dollar Monarch,” directed by Rob Tranchin.

1909 (via DeGolyer Library, SMU)

pecan-tree_lee-hite
Photo by Lee Hite

UPDATE: Sadly, the Pecan Tree did not make it to its 154th Christmas. The Highland Park landmark was cut down in October, 2019, a victim of age and disease. The nearby “sister tree,” which was grafted from the older tree in the 1950s, has taken its place on center stage. Several articles on this sad development can be read on the Park Cities People website here.

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Sources & Notes

First two photos were reproduced as promotional postcards by the Park Cities Bank in the 1970s; thanks to the Lone Star Library Annex for allowing me to use these images. Source of other photos as noted.

Read about the tree on the Highland Park website, here.

More about the history of the tree can be found in a 1933 article from The Dallas Morning News, with memories from the then-92-year-old Joseph Cole: “Million-Dollar Tree of Dallas, Big Pecan Centering Parkway, Set Up by Hand of Man Now 92” (DMN, March 5, 1933).

A 2012 report on the aging tree can be found in a Dallas Morning News article by Melissa Repko, here.

This famed Pecan Tree was planted in the fall of 1865, which would make this its 150th anniversary. I haven’t seen any mention of this. I know the tree has been in bad shape at times throughout the years, but I’m pretty sure it’s still standing. I haven’t seen the tree this year, but it was still looking pretty impressive last year. Happy 150th, Pecan Tree!

Click photos for larger images.

9 Comments

December 24, 2015

“A Haven From the Usual Turmoil of Holiday Shopping”

ABS_xmas_haven_nd “A superlative selection…”

by Paula Bosse

Remember the quiet joy of shopping in bookstores? Remember bookstores? In celebration of the completion of this year’s Christmas shopping, I give you two ads from The Aldredge Book Store, where there’s “plenty of parking space […] and a pleasant Christmas spirit.”

ABS_xmas_1963 1963

No one is in a hurry. And we all try to see that you still have your Christmas spirit when you leave.

I practically grew up in this store, and I miss it.

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Sources & Notes

Both ads from the early 1960s. They appeared in the Sunday book sections of The Dallas Morning News and The Dallas Times Herald. (Remember when we had two newspapers? Remember when we had Sunday book sections?)

Previous posts on The Aldredge Book Store can be found here.

6 Comments

December 23, 2015

Christmastime in Lakewood — 1951

Mad tree-trimming fun ahead (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Above, Woodrow kids with a Christmas tree crammed into their convertible, taking a moment to wave at someone in the distance, probably a classmate coming out of Harrell’s Drug Store. Next stop, wholesome 1950s tree-trimming fun, complete with mugs of warm cocoa and Perry Como singing about Christmas on the radio.

If you’re familiar with Lakewood, it might take a second to get your bearings, but this was Abrams Road. It’s now the short stretch known as Abrams Parkway, directly across Abrams from the Lakewood Whole Foods — it basically serves as a parking lot for the businesses now occupying these buildings.

Here is a list of the businesses seen in this 1951 photo, along with what currently occupies those same buildings:

2015 Abrams: then, Abrams Road Cleaners; now, The Heights (formerly Legal Grounds)
2017 Abrams: then, Massey’s Beauty Salon & Barber Shop; now, part of Blow Hair Salon
2019 Abrams: then, Lakewood Shoe Service; now, Blow Hair Salon
2021 Abrams: then, Lakewood Recreation Club; now, Scalini’s Pizza & Pasta
2023 Abrams: then, Lakewood Sporting Goods; now, part of Curiosities
2025 Abrams (mostly out of frame): then, Teter Plumbing Co.; now, Curiosities (an emporium of eclectic antiques and overall super-cool stuff)

Just out of frame to the right, a couple of doors down, was the old El Chico restaurant, now Hollywood Feed.

A detail of a page from the 1952 Mapsco, which will be confusing to those who might not know about the weird “Abrams Bypass” that happened in the early ’80s (click for larger image).

Here’s what this strip looks like today (or recently, anyway — Legal Grounds is now The Heights):

Google Street View

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Photo from the 1952 Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook, The Crusader. Apologies for the quality — the photo appeared across two pages and was scanned at a pretty low resolution. It’s still pretty cool, though.

To see a magnified detail of the businesses on the left half of the photo, click here; for those on the right half, click here.

Since I don’t have access to a street directory showing this block’s info in 1951, here are the businesses that occupied that block per the 1948 and 1953 directories:

When in doubt, click pictures to see if they get bigger — they usually do!

5 Comments

December 22, 2015

Spider-Man: Christmas in Dallas! (1983)

xmas_spider-man_cover_sm

by Paula Bosse

Remember when news photographer Peter Parker was covering a charity ball in Dallas? You know, the one attended exclusively by millionaires from around the country who were raising money for orphans?

(click for larger image) via Sense of Right Alliance blog

And then the Kingpin showed up dressed as Santa Claus and held the wealthy crowd for ransom, but Peter Parker managed to slip away and — whoa! — hey, Spider-Man appeared, and he and the Kingpin duked it out for awhile until an inventor of an anti-gravity device stepped in to aid the Webbed Wonder, and together they sent the Kingpin packing as he floated away, presumably into outer space. And, with Evil thwarted, Peter Parker was able to fly back home to spend Christmas morning with his beloved Aunt May. I’m sure you remember that! It was in all the (evening) papers.

This exciting adventure was told in a special give-away supplement included in a 1983 edition of The Dallas Times Herald. In the panels I’ve seen, there isn’t anything overtly Dallas-y, but that’s probably because the comic book aficionados who have scanned various pages are more interested in Spider-Man than in Dallas.

There are local ads, though. Like this one for Morgan Boots. (Is it too much to ask for them to have slipped a couple of special custom-designed sticky-soled boots onto Spider-Man’s Spidey-feet? Come on, Stan Lee!)

(click for larger image)

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Sources & Notes

“Spider-Man: Christmas in Dallas!” (by Jim Salicrup, Alan Kupperburg, and Mike Esposito) was issued as an advertising supplement by The Dallas Times Herald in 1983. I haven’t found a scan of the full mini-comic book online, but several panels are here and here and here (the first two of these linked blogs have scans of several of the local ads).

Quite honestly, this looks like it could have been prepared for Anytown, USA (“Spider-Man: Christmas in [insert your city’s name here]”). I much preferred Captain Marvel’s visit to Dallas in the ’40s when there were Dallas-specific things EVERYWHERE: see my previous post “Captain Marvel Fights the Mole Men in Dallas — 1944” here.

Incidentally, tons of these are available on eBay right now — averaging about $5.00 each. Need one?

2 Comments

December 21, 2015

Merry Christmas From the Dallas Police Department’s Parking Enforcement Squad

Santa on Elm Street (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

I don’t know what the story is behind this photograph of Santa Claus riding on the back of a three-wheeled motorcycle (they were used by the Dallas Police Department to patrol downtown streets for parking violations). Maybe Santa’s sleigh has broken down and he’s thumbed a ride to get to a scheduled event at a department store. Let’s hope it wasn’t the result of said sleigh being parked in a No Parking zone and a rather too strenuous ticket dispute by Mr. Claus necessitating a visit to the station to discuss the situation further. (Look at the brick-paved street!)

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I’m not sure of the original source of this photo, but I want to thank reader Chris Walker for sending this to me. Thank you, Chris!

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