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Off The Record

By D Magazine |

●Acting Fort Worth City Manager Morris Matsonhas apparently been successful in his behind-the-scenesmaneuvers to make his position permanent. Matson isnot an official candidate forthe job and claims publiclythat he does not want it. Inprivate, however, Matson isworking overtime to win the$48,000-a-year position. Hehas apparently become confident enough of his chancesto tell one assistant city manager that he’d better start looking for another job. If Matson gets the post it will be because he has cut a deal withMayor Hugh Parmer, whocontrols the majority factionof the city council.



Jean and Monique Bit, who run the Chablis restaurant in the Quadrangle, are looking for a new location for the restaurant. Increased competition from the thriving McKinney Avenue restaurant scene, more accessible to tourists and conventioneers than the maze-like Quadrangle, inspires the move. Chablis, tucked in the middle of the shopping center, is often the only place open at night there. The Bits will continue to run the Crêp-erie in the Quadrangle, and the Quadrangle management is looking for a new chef and manager to keep Chablis open. Does the Bits’ departure spell trouble for the Quadrangle, which has many unleased spaces? “I don’t know,” says one tenant, “but I’ve noticed the Muzak here has been playing the theme from Exodus a lot lately.”



●A Chablis neighbor (andcompetitor), Calluaud, hasbeen looking for somewhat larger facilities than itssmall frame house on Fair-mount. Latest report is thatthe Calluauds will build anew restaurant in the blocknorth of Routh on McKinneyAvenue. McKinney continues to boom.

●Some people just don’tlike to take credit. One ofthem is Dallas warehouseand office baron John Stem-mons. While nearly everyone else in the real estate development business mortgages his buildings, Stem-mons” Industrial PropertiesCorporation is still paying allcash. “John just doesn’t believe in paying those high interest rates,” says an associate.



●Among the ranks of assistant managers at the new Hyatt Regency Dallas is John Pritzker, who isn’t just another assistant manager incharge of such and such. Themain difference betweenPritzker and the Hyatt’s other assistant managers is thathis family owns 35 percent ofthe Hyatt Corporation, operator of the Hyatt RegencyDallas and 52 other hotels.The Pritzkers are currentlytrying to buy the other 65percent of the company for $77 million.

●Dallasphoto, the newphotography monthly, hasbeen purchased by Rex Jobe, president of the Color Place,for an undisclosed sum. Jobe made the deal after the magazine’s first issue, when the original backers apparently ran out of money.



●Although the DallasCowboys will find themselveson national television ninetimes this season – morethan any other NFL team -they won’t make an extranickel out of the broadcasts.The league contract with thethree major television networks, worth approximately $600 million over four years,stipulates equal division ofrevenues among the 28 teams,regardless of number of appearances. That means about$5 million per year for eachteam.



●Newspaper editorial writers are notorious for beingout of touch with the world.Perhaps that’s why the editors of this area’s three major dailies are so proud of theway the candidates they endorsed fared in the primaries.The Dallas Morning Newsendorsed 28 winners, 9 losers and 8 candidates whomade the runoffs. Secondbest was the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with a 24-6-7 record, followed by theDallas Times Herald, with25-12-5. Herald and Star-Telegram executives are feeling cocky about picking theDemocratic governor’s race,which the News blew.



●Fort Worth’s CharlesTandy shouldn’t have anytrouble making it from onepayday to the next. ForbesMagazine says Tandy is the11th highest paid executiveamong America’s top 500public corporations. Tandy’s1977 salary and fringe benefits totalled $816,000, a niftyraise above his 1976 wagesof $688,000. Tandy falls behind the chairmen of Ford(4th), General Motors (5th)and ABC (7th). However heoutdraws some rather impressive chairmen – IBM(12th), Mobil (18th) and Exxon (19th). Tandy easily outdistanced Dallas’ top paid executive, Dresser Industries’ John James, at $606,000 a paltry 46th on the Forbes list.



●Oak Lawn restaurateur Gene Street (Dixie House, The Black-eyed Pea, etc.) continues to build a mini-conglomerate: Now the 36-year-old businessman has leased the old Samuel Hart Galleries at the corner of St. Paul and McKinney (across from El Taxco Cafe) to create a steak-and-lobster restaurant a la New York City’s “’The Palm.” Tentative name: The Argyle Cafe or The Plum. Tentative completion date: September.

●Whispers among staff members of the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald tell a story of an apparent behind-the-scenes salary war for the services of Times Herald sports superstar Blackie Sherrod. Sources say that the News tried to buy Sherrod away from the Herald for wages in the $40,000 range; the Herald countered with money in the range of $60,000 and a car, which apparently doubled his salary. The high bidder won.

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