In 1930 Paul and Thomas Braniff founded Braniff Airways, Inc. The two petitioned the US Postal Service for a Chicago-Dallas airmail route in 1935, making Braniff Airways the first company to hold that route, and allowing them to eventually grow into a major airline company. Braniff assisted in World War II, grew their passenger business,… Read more »
The Dallas Opera has been a major part of Dallas’ climate of culture and sophistication since it’s opening performance in 1957. The early reputation of the Dallas Opera was surely boosted by the presence of world-renowned opera singer Maria Callas, in that first performance. Maria Callas is still considered one of the greatest sopranos of… Read more »
Charley Pride, the famed country singer, died this past weekend, December 12, 2020, just after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association. This KXAS story from 1982 shares an overview of Pride’s beginnings in country music, the fame he achieved, and his thoughts on being a Black country musician. Before his career… Read more »
The world’s first powdered soft drink was created and produced in Fort Worth, TX. Paul Hollis invented Poly Pop in 1922, years before Kool-Aid would come on the market. These photos from the NBC 5/KXAS Photography Collection show Paul Hollis and workers at his company headquarters in Fort Worth, TX. Hollis invented the drink mix… Read more »
Audie Murphy was born near Kingston, Texas in 1924 and enrolled in the military on his eighteenth birthday in 1942. During his lifetime he received every medal of valor which the United States can bestow, appeared in 45 motion pictures (acting in a starring role in 39 of them), and wrote a best-selling book which… Read more »
Archival footage from the NBC 5/KXAS Television News Archive was recently featured prominently in several television productions. These uses of archival news footage highlight the diverse and creative uses for footage, as well as the significance of preserving historical footage for future use. In November 2017, Sundance TV aired a two-part documentary series on the… Read more »
The “Year in Review” compilation is a tradition of many news organizations, created as a way to look back on the top stories of the previous year. The earliest “Year in Review” in the WBAP/KXAS archives was compiled from 16mm footage recorded throughout the year 1952. The “Year in Review” compilations present some challenges to… Read more »
It’s France’s la Fête nationale (“national holiday,” otherwise known as “Bastille Day” to English speakers) and in celebration of our nation’s longtime ally, we’re sharing two scripts that document when Dallas and the eastern-central French city of Dijon became sister cities in October 1957. Notice the news anchor’s pronunciation notes handwritten in pencil on the script…. Read more »
On this day in 1917 the United States Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany, thereby officially entering World War I. There are no longer any living veterans of WWI, however, in 1957 reporters with WBAP attended a VFW convention in Dallas where they met L.J. Smith, a 66 year old WWI veteran who was… Read more »
Today we reflect on the struggle for women’s rights as we observe International Women’s Day. We’ve chosen two items from the NBC 5/KXAS archive that reflect women’s history in the DFW region. First, it might be hard to believe but women were not intentionally called for full-time jury service in the city of Dallas until September 5, 1955. A… Read more »
