[Disclaimer: Contains graphic news footage and written details some may find disturbing] May 22, 1953. In his palatial residence in the exclusive Park Hill neighborhood of Fort Worth, 61-year-old oilman William P. Clark is found with a rifle by his side and a bullet in the head. He had been dead for three days. While… Read more »
November 6, 1954. It’s college football season, and New Haven is roaring. The Yale Bowl is packed with 73,600 fans — over twice the attendance of any home game of the season — as the Bulldogs face off against the Army Cadets. Towering over the throngs of spectators and sportsmen is the press box filled… Read more »
Pat Kirkwood. Gambler. Stock car racer. Businessman. Beatnik Beelzebub. The great and powerful Ozymandian charlatan of chivalry and charm. Lord of the underworld weirdos from hipsters to gangsters with connections to anyone from Gene Autry to Amon G. Carter, George Carlin to Jack Ruby. A man of controversy and public service, admired and reviled by… Read more »
Deeply engrained in both rock ‘n’ roll lore and Texas culture is a wiry, bespectacled good ol’ boy from Lubbock that would inspire Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Eric Clapton among many other ‘rock god’ contenders, and remain an iconic staple in American popular culture. Despite his tragically brief life, Charles Hardin… Read more »
After the blood-soaked horrors of World War I, men, to say the least, were not alright on a spiritual or existential level. This could explain why a bunch of Dallas men got tired of swapping traumatic war stories and decided they needed to inject a little frivolity into their male-bonding. With fabulous hats. Thus, April… Read more »
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 »
