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SINGERS & ZINGERS

Test your knowledge of Dallas show biz
By Tom Peeler |

In 1897, Henry Putz opened the first moving picture theater in Dallas in a room over a drugstore at Main and Lamar, using a bed sheet for a screen. Few could be expected to remember this milestone in Dallas entertainment history, so we’re going to give you that one, but how about the first live television broadcast from a local station? And who was the Dallas stripper who choreographed Jack Ruby, All American Boy at the Dallas Theater Center? What Dallas disco sold more mixed drinks than any other establishment in Texas in the mid-Seventies?

There’s something for everyone in this mind-boggling challenge to the student of Dallas entertainment, from the opening of the Majestic Theater to the all-time top grossing summer musical of 1980. We’ve got Top 40 radio and civic opera, Bob Wills and Boz Skaggs, Linda Darnell and Webster Webfoot. So try your luck on the nobodies who became famous and the famous who became nobodies.

1. From the basement of the Cliff Towers Building in Oak Cliff, radio magnate Gordon McLendon once controlled an empire of 400 affiliated stations to which he broadcast simulated renditions of big-league baseball games. Who was the sound technician who tapped a pencil on a baseball bat suspended from the ceiling to imitate the sound of a bat striking a ball?

A. Wes Wise

B. Blackie Sherrod

C. Craig LaTaste

D. Eddie Chiles



2. Most Dallasites have gagged at one time or another over the innocuous lyrics from a 1956 Broadway musical referring to us as “Big D, little a, double 1-a-s.” What* was the infamous musical?

A. Damn Yankees

B. The Most Happy Fellow

C. Wonderful Town

D. Texas Li’l Darlin’



3. Who was the Dallas stripper who choreographed and played in Jack Ruby, All American Boy at the Dallas Theater Center?

A. Shanda Leer

B. Chastity Fox

C. Babette Bardot

D. Chris Colt and her 45s



4. In one of Charles Meeker’s few gambles that failed to pay off, who was cast as Sky Masterson in the Dallas Summer Musical’s production of Guys and Dolls?

A. Tex Ritter

B. Fats Domino

C. Johnnie Ray

D. E.J. Holub



5. To promote a new deejay, radio station KLIF once planted overturned junk cars at strategic locations around the city. What message was taped to their undersides?

A. I’m wiped out overCharlie and Harrigan.

B. Turn over in the morning, and turn on to Jimmy Rabbitt.

C. I flipped over RickeyWare.

D. The Weird Beard cracksme up.



6. Band leader Jimmy Joy never failed to bring the crowd in the Baker Hotel’s Peacock Terrace Ballroom to its feet by performing what remarkable act?

A. Imitating the great ElmoTanner whistling Heartaches, on a clarinet.

B. Playing two clarinets atthe same time.

C. Singing all four verses ofTexas, Our Texas, frommemory.

D. Doing the Swim on thewindow ledge.



7. What critically acclaimed film director once designed sets for the Dallas Civic Opera?

A. Franco Zefferelli

B. Ingmar Bergman

C. Francis Ford Coppola

D. Mike Nichols



8. Maria Callas delivered a stirring and memorable performance in the Dallas Civic Opera’s Medea in 1958, in spite of what nerve-shattering event on the eve of her performance?

A. The maitre d’ at OldWarsaw would not admither because she waswearing leotards.

B. She received a wire fromRudolph Bing telling herthat she had been firedby the MetropolitanOpera.

C. She was nabbed in aspeed trap in Melissa,Texas, on her way fromChicago.

D. She spent the night in theAdolphus Hotel on theeve of the Texas-Oklahoma football game.



9. A 10th-grade dropout from South Oak Cliff High School became an errand boy at KLIF and then a Hollywood record producer while he was still a teen-ager. Who is the Dallas phenom who’s now a multimillionaire?

A. Snuff Garrett

B. Stevie Wonder

C. Herb Alpert

D. Artie Glen



10. What country/western luminary got his start on Pappy Hal Horton’s Cornbread Matinee on radio station KRLD in the Forties?

A. Hank Snow

B. Hank Thompson

C. Hank Williams

D. Tex Williams

11. Which of these lovely ladies was once cocaptain of the Sunset High School Pep Squad?

A. Greer Garson

B. Linda Darnell

C. Anne Baxter

D. Judy Canova



12. What was the last movie to play the Majestic Theater?

A. The Last Picture Show

B. The Last Stage to Tucson

C. I Want to Live

D. Live and Let Die



13. Who was the renowned coloratura soprano who made her American debut in the Dallas Civic Opera’s performance of La Sonnambula in 1960?

A. Marilyn Home

B. Joan Sutherland

C. Renata Tebaldi

D. Judy Jordan



14. What was the first movie shown at the Esquire Theater?

A. The Old Man and theSea

B. Sea of Grass

C. Doctor at Sea

D. A Man for All Seasons



15. Who was the unknown comic who played in Rio Rita during the 1947 season of the Starlight Operettas?

A. Jackie Gleason

B. Milton Berle

C. Danny Thomas

D. Clay Smothers



16. In 1933, a young lady named Clara Lou won a beauty contest on the stage of the Palace Theater, which catapulted her into a career as a movie star, where she became known as the “Oomph Girl.” What was her stage name?

A. Mary Martin

B. Betty Grable

C. Ann Sheridan

D. Esther Williams



17. Which is not a part of Preston Jones’ Texas Trilogy?

A. Lu Ann Hampton Laver-ty Oberlander

B. A Place on theMagdalena Flats

C. The Oldest LivingGraduate

D. The Last Meeting of theKnights of the WhiteMagnolia



18. Who was the Tin Man in the 1952 Summer Musical version of The Wizard of Oz?

A. Jack Haley

B. Buddy Ebsen

C. Bruce Alger

D. O.L. Nelms



19. Fort Worth lass got her start by winning a Charleston contest at the Baker Hotel. Who was she?

A. Ginger Rogers

B. Eleanor Powell

C. Babe Didrickson

D. Dagmar



20. fixture around the Dallas Theater Center as a promising actor during the late Sixties has since done quite well. Who is he?

A. Edward Herrmann.

B. Alan Alda.

C. Dustin Hoffman

D. Jack Evans



21. Paul Baker of the Dallas Theater Center severed ties with Baylor University during the early Sixties when the university canceled a school production of Long Day’s Journey into Night because it offended a visiting Sunday school class.

A. True

B. False



22. Bette Midler made her professional debut in Breck Wall’s Bottoms Up Review at the Adolphus Hotel.

A. True

B. False



23. Herbie Kaye’s band music at the Baker Hotel in the early Thirties was broadcast live by radio stations all over the Midwest. Who was the sultry songstress who looked better than she sounded?

A. Hedy Lamarr

B. Rita Hayworth

C. Dorothy Lamour

D. Marie McDonald



24. As a teen-ager, Cecil Travis Martin sang Pistol Packin’ Mamma in Dallas beer joints for nickels and dimes. After changing his name, he progressed from the Grapevine Opry to the Gong Show and then became Country and Western Entertainer of the Year in Great Britain. What is Martin’s stage name?

A. Johnny Paycheck

B. Roy Orbison

C. Boxcar Willie

D. Sonny James



25. In 1977, when KLIF announced that $2,000 in cash would be dropped from a helicopter at Cobb Stadium to hail the arrival of a new deejay, 18 officers from the anti-riot tactical unit had to be called to control the frenzied mob.

A. True

B. False



26. Jayne Mansfield, while attending SMU, hosted KRLD’s Music ’til Dawn, Dallas’ first midnight-till-daylight music program.

A. True

B. False



27. As was the case everywhere, the top TV show in the Dallas/Fort Worth market in 1953 was I Love Lucy. What was second?

A. Dragnet

B. Burns and Allen

C. Our Miss Brooks

D. Webster Webfoot



28. In the mid-Sixties, the most popular local talk show was Comment, whose guests included Richard Nixon, Judge Sarah T. Hughes and The Three Stooges. All but one of the following was a program regular. Who was it?

A. Eddie Barker

B. Jim Underwood

C. Bill Ceverha

D. Hugh Lampman



29. The first show to play Jack Ruby’s Silver Spur when it opened on South Ervay in 1948 was Yvette Dare, an Oriental dancer with a shrieking parrot.

A. True

B. False



30. In 1961, Channel 8 station manager Mike Shapiro decided that a dramatic offering on ABC was not suitable for viewing and jerked it off the air. Whose stirring performance as a psychotic killer in the drama prompted Shapiro’s action?

A. George Gobel

B. Percy Kilbride

C. Fabian

D. Julius LaRosa



31. When Bill Canfield hosted Channel 11 ’s Slam Bang Theater, it was must viewing for the after-school crowd. What name did Canfield go by on the show?

A. Officer Friendly

B. Smilin’ Ed

C. Captain Video

D. Icky Twerp



32. What was the name of the 6,500-pound killer whale at Seven Seas Amusement Park?

A. Norca

B. Newtka

C. Norma

D. Nick



33. Ted Cassidy, once a Dallas TV announcer, had his most memorable movie scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which he was kicked in the groin by Paul Newman.

A. True

B. False



34. Chem Terry, a Dallas radio and TV personality for years, once wrestled at the Sportatorium where he was known as The Zebra Kid.

A. True

B. False



35. Before the days of the electronic Scoreboard, fans of the Dallas Eagles baseball team were entertained by Miss Inez on the organ. What was the team’s theme song?

A. Under the Double Eagle

B. The High and the Mighty

C. Be Kind to Your Web-footed Friends

D. Born Free



36. What was the first live telecast from a Dallas/Fort Worth area TV station?

A. The 1948 Cotton Bowlgame between SMU andPenn State

B. President Harry S.Truman getting off thetrain in Fort Worth

C. Personality Puzzle, withBob Stanford

D. Cradle Club



37. Who tutored Dallas Symphony Orchestra conductor Antal Dorati when Dorati was living in Budapest?

A. Bela Bartók

B. Bela Lugosi

C. Efran Kurtz

D. Efram Zimbalist



38. Who was the performer on WFAA’s Early Birds show who became a star of Western thrillers?

A. Roy Rogers

B. Dale Evans

C. Gabby Hayes

D. Trigger



39. An actor accustomed to playing lead roles in Margo Jones’ Theater-in-the Round became a popular character actor in Hollywood. Who was he?

A. Jack Warden

B. Karl Maiden

C. Walter Brennan

D. Eli Wallach



40. The first full-length American color moving picture appeared at the Palace Theater in 1935. What was it?

A. Trail of the LonesomePine

B. Heidi

C. Becky Sharp

D. Snow White and theSeven Dwarfs



41. The leading nightclub in Dallas in the early Fifties was Pappy’s Showland on Fort Worth Avenue. When Carl “Pappy” Dolsen fired a young singer from Oklahoma, the saxophone player quit, too, to become her agent, and eventually, he suc-cessfully promoted her career. Who was the singer?

A. Patti Page

B. Joni James

C. Jo Stafford

D. Giselle McKenzie



42. While in high school in Dallas, Dorothy Malone was captain of the girls’ basketball team.

A. True

B. False



43. What was the first movie shown on local television?

A. The Scarlet Pimpernel

B. How Green Was MyValley

C. Riders of the Purple Sage

D. The Blue Angel



44. When the Majestic Theater opened in 1921, there was a fully equipped nursery in the lower lobby where children were fed milk and crackers and then tucked into bed. What was another popular feature of “Majestic-land”?

A. A 12,000-gallon aquarium

B. A petting zoo

C. A miniature-golf course

D. A live baby elephant



45. In 1970, Bill Moyer, manager of the Ridgewood Theater in Garland, announced that in the future the theater would show only R-rated movies. Why?

A. Children weren’t buyingenough tickets.

B. Parents weren’t givingchildren enough to spendat the snack bar.

C. Children were demolishing the theater.

D. There weren’t any moviesbeing made that weren’trated R.



46. Who cut the ribbon to open KBTV, Dallas’ first TV station?

A. Alben Barkley

B. Coke Stevenson

C. Wallace Savage

D. Lyndon Johnson



47. In the 1962 Summer Musicals performance of Carousel, there was an unscheduled occurrence during John Raitt’s death scene as Billy Bigelow. What was it?

A. Raitt was stepped on by a clumsy dancer.

B. A child came out of theaudience and whackedRaitt in the stomach toprove that he wasn’tdead.

C. Raitt suffered an attackof asthma.

D. Raitt jumped and fledwhen he mistook a policesiren for a fire alarm.



48. What was the Tennessee Williams play that made its debut during Margo Jones’ Theater ’47 season?

A. The Glass Menagerie

B. Orpheus Descending

C. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

D. Summer and Smoke



49. With a take of $481,739, a 1980 production was and is the top grossing Dallas Summer Musical of ail time. What was it?

A. A Chorus Line

B. Camelot

C. Sugar Babies

D. Brigadoon



50. The Dallas Motion Picture Classification Board rated Paper Moon as “not suitable” for viewers under 16 years of age because of the fact that in the movie, 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal said a dirty word.

A. True

B. False



51. What was the popular disco at European Crossroads in the mid-Seventies that sold more mixed drinks than any other establishment in Texas?

A. Ichabod’s

B. Madcap Molly’s

C. Phantasmagoria

D. The #3 Lift



52. One of the most popular vocalists who ever appeared in Dallas was Vicki Britton, who had her own nightclub by the time she was 25 years old. Who was the leader of her backup band?

A. Ricky Rock

B. Rolando Roll

C. Milo Bump

D. Gordon Grind



53. A stainless steel and chrome-plated private club on LBJ Freeway was featured in the movie Logan’s Run. The club took Dallas by storm in the mid-Seventies and then disintegrated. What was it called?

A. H.P. Cassidy’s

B. Incredible Charlie’s

C. Emerald City

D. Oz



54. At the Cabana Hotel on Stemmons Freeway, the cocktail waitresses were called Greek goddesses, and they dressed accordingly. Which of the Cabana’s Greek goddesses later became a sex goddess?

A. Diana Dors

B. Claudia Cardinale

C. Raquel Welch

D. Chantal Westerman



55. In the early Fifties, the Theater Lounge used a young stripper named Juanita Slusher as a shill to stir up excitement on Amateur Night. What stage name did she later adopt?

A. Tiki Tyme, the TexasTime Bomb

B. Lili St. Cyr

C. Evelyn West and her$50,000 treasure chest

D. Candy Barr



56. Who was the actress, often typecast as a gun moll, who was once named Miss Dallas in a beauty contest?

A. Claire Trevor

B. Joan Blondell

C. Shelley Winters

D. Myrna Loy



57. What was the top grossing movie of all time at the Majestic Theater?

A. Gone with the Wind

B. My Fair Lady

C. Ben Hur

D. Thunderball



58. In the mid-Sixties, The Sound of Music at the In-wood Theater broke all Dallas endurance records by playing for a year and a half. What was the first movie in Dallas to play for more than a year?

A. Birth of a Nation

B. Cinerama Holiday

C. Seven Wonders of theWorld

D. Around the World in 80Days



59. At the 1980 Texas World Music Festival in the Cotton Bowl, 300 people attempting to storm the fence were dispersed by police with tear-gas grenades.

A. True

B. False



60. Who was the folksy humorist with the highly-rated talk show on WRR in the mid Seventies?

A. Euell Gibbons

B. Charles Kuralt

C. John Henry Faulk

D. Dolph Briscoe



61. During the Seventies, a progressive-country singer wore a costume that made him look like a cross between the Lone Ranger and Darth Vader. The singer was married on the stage of the Electric Ballroom here and later set up a booth at the Traders Village Flea Market in Grand Prairie, in an effort to sell his bus, rhinestone suits, boots and guitar. Who was this mysterious rhinestone cowboy?

A. B.W. Stevenson

B. Charlie Daniels

C. David Allan Coe

D. Rusty Weir



62. Ray Wylie Hubbard, author of the national anthem of progressive country, Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother, attended Adamson High School in Oak Cliff. He started out as simply Ray Hubbard, but later added his middle name because people were confusing him with a local lake.

A. True

B. False



63. B.J. Thomas, author of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, filed bankruptcy in a Dallas federal court in 1976.

A. True

B. False



64. What was the name of the nation’s first Christian nightclub, which was located in Dallas at the corner of Oak Lawn and Hall?

A. Billy G’s

B. The King’s Village

C. J. Alfred’s

D. Amazing Grace’s Bar andGrill



65. What innovative attraction was announced by The Beggar in the Seventies?

A. Wet T-shirt night

B. Mud wrestling

C. Best-bottom contests

D. Touch dancing



66. Bubbles Cash, the visual sensation who caused fans to miss much of the 1967 season when she strolled up and down the aisles of Dallas Cowboys football games, is the niece of country singer Johnny Cash.

A. True

B. False



67. Peggy Sears, of radio station KBOX’s “Peck ’n’ Peggy” show, was once named Miss Friendship in the Miss Teen-age America pageant.

A. True

B. False



68. What was the name of the popular club on Mockingbird Lane that featured “Las Vegas-type” entertainment?

A. Losers

B. Weepers

C. Finders

D. Keepers



69. Everyone knows about Southfork, but there was a magnificent mansion with huge white pillars used as the Ewing house on the TV pilot of Dallas that made Southfork look like a tract house. Which of Doak Walker’s ex-Detroit Lions teammates owned the grand manor?

A. Bobby Layne

B. Yale Lary

C. Cloyce Box

D. Pat Summerall



70. What two Dallas Cowboys were part owners of the ill-fated Pearl Street Warehouse?

A. George Andrie and BobLilly

B. Pat Toomay and PeteGent

C. Ralph Neely and LanceRentzel

D. Don Meredith and BobHayes



71. At the 1976 USA Film Festival, Tom Adams, the fastest tongue in the West, was featured in a film short in which he recited the books of the Bible, the U.S. presidents, the states and their capitals, and the alphabet from “z” to “a”, all in less than a minute.

A. True

B. False



72. Steve Miller, who formed a rock group in Dallas as a teen-ager, has since sold 13 million pop-rock albums.

A. True

B. False



73. WRR-AM in Dallas was the first station west of the Mississippi River.

A. True

B. False



74. Boz Scaggs was an All-Conference soccer player at St. Mark’s School in Dallas.

A. True

B. False



75. Dallasite Trini Lopez, who made the big time with his recording of If I Had a Hammer, was given his first guitar by Les Paul.

A. True

B. False



76. Jim Lowe, known to thousands of Dallas teen-age rock ’n’ roll fans as the Cool Fool when he was a WRR deejay during the Fifties, is now the voice of Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas.

A. True

B. False



77. This young genius was founder of the Dallas Civic Opera.

A. David Merrick

B. Paul Baker

C. Larry Kelly

D. James Bond



78. Michael Murphy, who became a pop-rock legend with his recordings of Geronimo’s Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy,lettered in debate at Adamson High School.

A. True

B. False



79. Lee Segall, who made a bundle producing the Dr. I.Q. radio show, opened an innovative radio station in Dallas in the late Forties with the call letters KIXL. Segall’s gimmick was to soothe the listeners rather than bombard them with lyrics about honky-tonk angels and back-street affairs. All but one of the following were station policies. Which one wasn’t?

A. No female announcers.

B. Listeners wanting newsshould read the newspapers.

C. No depressing wordssuch as “heart attack” or”tuberculosis.”

D. No piccolo music.



80. Which of these was not one of the first three drive-in movies in Dallas?

A. Northwest Highway

B. Chalk Hill

C. Hi-Vue

D. Buckner Boulevard



81. Not all of KLIF’s promotional stunts lived up to their promises. After weeks of buildup, it was finally announced that in the Cash for Words Contest, anyone sending in $125,000 would receive 25 words or less. What was KLIF’s “biggest prize ever?”

A. A barge on White Rock

Lake

B. A traffic jam on NorthCentral Expressway

C. A mountain in WestTexas

D. British Honduras



82. In the Fifties, KLIF had a deejay who was once a vocalist with Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra. Every now and then, he would blurt out old lyrics such as “I will gather stars out of the blue.” The kids thought he was square. Who was he?

A. Snooky Lanson

B. Skinny Ennis

C. Kenny Sargent

D. Avery Mays



83. When the Century Room opened in 1936 in the Adolphus Hotel, the price for dinner, champagne and a show was $5. What was the first act to play the room?

A. Phil Harris

B. Harriet Hilliard

C. Joe E. Lewis

D. The Light CrustDoughboys



84. What was the main afternoon attraction on Channel 8 during its first year on the air?

A. Bowling from Hap Morse Lanes

B. The Frito Kid

C. Church league softballfrom Samuell Park

D. A test pattern



85. In one of the early performances in Margo Jones’ Thea-ter-in-the-Round, a cat became terrified when it saw it was surrounded and clawed the actress who was carrying it, causing the actress to discard the cat and fall into the lap of a spectator in the first row.

A. True

B. False



86. In 1956, a brigade of Hollywood actors hit town to campaign for Eisenhower. All but one of the following was in the entourage. Which one wasn’t?

A. George Murphy

B. Ward Bond

C. Irene Dunne

D. Ronald Reagan



1. A

2. B

3. B

4. C

5. C

6. B

7. A

8. B

9. A

10. B

11. B

12. D

13. B

14. B

15. A

16. C

17. B

18. B

19. A

20. A

21. A

22. B

23. C

24. C

25. A

26. B

27. A

28. D

29. A

30. C

31. D

32. B

33. A

34. B

35. A

36. B

37. A

38. B

39. A

40. C

41. A

42. A

43. A

44. B

45. C

46. A

47. B

48. D

49. A

50. A

51. D

52. C

53. D

54. C

55. D

56. B

57. D

58. B

59. A

60. C

61. C

62. A

63. A

64. B

65. C

66. B

67. A

68. A

69. C

70. C

71. A

72. A

73. A

74. A

75. B

76. A

77. D

78. A

79. D

80. C

81. C

82. C

83. A

84. D

85. A

86. D

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