Remembering Dallas in the late 70s-80s (McKinney, Greenville: homes, neighborhoods)

[Paul Heckmann]

BTW - I'm assembling a massive database of greater Dallas nightclubs/bars. I now have folders on well over 400. Even have a couple from the mid 1800s.

A few months ago I decided to form a non-profit 501c3 to preserve this kind of stuff. If you have photos, pics of clubs, you in the clubs, items you wish to donate, please PM me.

IRS just gave me the full legal go ahead. "Memories Incorporated" is the 501c3. More to come later. Officially DBA as "Memories of Dallas".

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MemoriesofDallas/

If you're not on FB, you might want to join specifically for this site. No politics, no sales, no excessive cursing. Kinda the anti-me. 13,000 plus members since this past December

working out the kinks on the regular website. Probably a couple of months away.

Folks are working on nightclubs/bars, theaters, restaurants, etc. Each one has a kind of lead.

We just had our first MeetNGreet at Deep Ellum Art Co. More of those to come.

[Bobby Charles]

Bill Vehon owned an oyster, bar/nightclub, on Greenville Ave, in Dallas, back in the 60's. I had the band there for quite a while. If anyone remembers Bill, you know what a funny,(unknowingly), duck he was.

Bobby Charles

[Rakin]

The Original San Souci Club at Lemmon and Mockingbird. "The Night Club with a Twist"

From the late 70's for about 30 years was one of the better known Swinger Clubs known across the US.

[Paul Heckmann]

Ricksha on 5627 Dyer. About 68-70. Became 1912 Emporium 72-74. Then Meet Market around 75. Then renamed by same guy The Market. Not sure how long it lasted but later Popsicle Toes. And now Green Elephant.

Based on Ads I've been researching. Never heard of Ricksha before but turns out it was a pretty cool club

[turf3]

Originally Posted by Bobby Charles

Bill Vehon owned an oyster, bar/nightclub, on Greenville Ave, in Dallas, back in the 60's. I had the band there for quite a while. If anyone remembers Bill, you know what a funny,(unknowingly), duck he was.

Bobby Charles

I worked down the street for a while and occasionally we would run out of change and have to get some from other businesses on the strip. I remember Mr. Vehon was pretty crusty. But Vehon's provided the shells for all the parking lots in that strip - so the owners NEVER did any paving repairs, just put more shells down. I darn near lost my small car in some holes a couple times in between refillings with oyster shells.

Those were the days before everything was so corporate and cleaned-up. Remember Mr. Chicken down the street with the two Cadillacs with chicken heads and tails? How about the Kriz Bar (less said, the better)? Chief's Lock Shop. Bowley and Wilson's. What was the name of the nightclub right along there where Karen Bella played all the time? Was that the same place where Bowley and Wilson ended up a little later, or were they two different places? Wasn't Milo Butterfingers in that strip too? I guess about the only businesses remaining from those days are the Parkit Markit down at University, and Desperados'.

Yep, that's my old stomping grounds from my misspent youth.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by Paul Heckmann

Ricksha on 5627 Dyer. About 68-70. Became 1912 Emporium 72-74. Then Meet Market around 75. Then renamed by same guy The Market. Not sure how long it lasted but later Popsicle Toes. And now Green Elephant.

Based on Ads I've been researching. Never heard of Ricksha before but turns out it was a pretty cool club

Wow, I didn't know Popsicle Toes was ever anything before it was Popsicle Toes. You do know what that refers to, right? The Michael Franks song? Now there was a guy who was huge for a while and disappeared.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by RJ312

This is really cool! In the time that I've been in Dallas, Lower Greenville has basically been a 2nd rate grungy kind of scene. When I first got here in this early part of this decade, Uptown was the place to be for nightlife mating options. Over the last 3 years or so, Uptown has changed for the worse and I don't think it is as much as the place to be anymore to meet singles at night. I think the scene is more fragmented now since Uptown declined.

I don't see Lower Greenville returning to what's described here.

Back in the 1970s, Lower Greenville suddenly became hot because proto-yuppies and aging hippies started buying up the old houses on the M streets and rehabbing them. Lower G. was a kind of ratty area with a couple of slightly nicer establishments (and the Granada when it was a really nice theater), so the bars etc. became popular with people who weren't into showing off but just wanted a quiet place to have a drink. For a few years there, my friends and I would "discover" a place (that had been there for 40 years) and start drinking there, and we would have it to ourselves and the old regular customers, till the SMU fratboys would discover it and ruin it, then we would have to scope out another old style place till the process would repeat it. At the same time Upper Greenville was all-disco, all the time.

I don't suppose anyone but me remembers this but the Observer - back when they ran interesting articles and weren't just a giant advertisement for bars - did a tongue-not-completely-in-cheek article comparing Upper Greenville against Lower Greenville; basically silk shirts, Trans Ams, cocaine, and chest-hair medallions, versus VW Microbuses, Ford pickups, weed, and old blue jeans.

And who remembers the "One Way - No Way" campaign? Probably the first time in Dallas that neighborhood activism worked to stop the Far North Dallas developers from getting their way. The weird "Matilda Bridge" overpass is the only remnant of the attempt to turn the whole lower Greenville area into a thoroughfare for the suburbanites to traverse as fast as possible and to he!! with the effects on the neighborhood. I hope this bit of history doesn't get forgotten and then the project resurrected. Look at what happened to Lakewood Shopping Center when they built (over neighborhood objections) the weird "Abrams bypass" that was done to solve a nonexistent problem.

[Paul Heckmann]

Originally Posted by turf3

Wow, I didn't know Popsicle Toes was ever anything before it was Popsicle Toes. You do know what that refers to, right? The Michael Franks song? Now there was a guy who was huge for a while and disappeared.

Its pretty wild stuff. And one block away Don Merediths Reverie, later Soul Train, then Bowley and Wilsons and Fannie Annes. Same location

I'm having a blast figuring this stuff out!

[SingingKG]

Does anyone remember a place called Madcap Molly's? I think it was a grand old-style theatre converted into a huge disco, with the floor cascading down to the stage where dancers were spotlighted. The balcony seats up and around were also lit up with dancers. I think it was at the very end of disco (1980 maybe) and didn't last long, but WOW!, what a place!

The Beggar and Bell Ringer were my homes-away-from home. It was super-handy to visit the free Happy Hour buffet at the Bell Ringer, and at the Beggar my best friend and I could all-we-could-drink on Thursday nights for $3, plus quarters to get on a pool table and watch a couple of *******s get whooped by a couple of girls. I actually did printing for both bars, flyers and business cards, for a few years as well. Many, many happy memories . . .

In the early '80s Greenville Road began to grow in popularity. Anybody remember the Dancing Frogs sign?

[valgunn]

I was a high schooler at HP (go Scots!) in the mid-80’s. So much is now a blur... Snuffer’s, Rocky Horror at the Village, Kuby’s, The Prophet Bar.