Low Moments In Dallas Bar History

1977 –It was the pinnacle of the disco era and oil shieks were chic. Thus the ideal stage was set for a snap-pily attired man with an exotic Middle Eastern accent to initiate his own command performance dance contest at elan. Spirited young entries danced their little hearts out and the sheik rewarded the winners with checks of $1 million for the winners and $500, 000 for various runners-up. The checks, they discovered, were worthless.

1978 –An agitated young man sip-ping away his anxieties at the Lakewood Yacht Club threw a glass at a patron, missed, and broke a window. The next day, the guy’s father approached bar owner Tom Stephenson, inquiring what it might cost to have the criminal mischief charges dropped. “All right, the window cost $35, the cocktail glass was worth $110 and I’ll need about $200 for general inconvenience, ” Stephenson said. “And that’ll be $72 for the bar stool I smashed over his goddam head. “

1979 -Gene Street, who would later make a fortune in the grits and gravy industry, was the proprietor of J. Alfred’s, an Oak Lawn dive that catered to sundry lowlifes. When Street attempted to lower the volume on the juke box one night, a hulking biker belted him with a beer mug. “Everybody out!” shouted Street. “I’m closing this place for good. ” Which he did, replacing J. Alfred’s with Dallas’s very first fern bar, The Wine Press.

1980 –After two generations of showcasing the likes of Ernest Tubb and Little Jimmy Dickens, the Longhorn Ballroom was host to the Sex Pistols, who spat blood into the audience. The audience, which was used to something a little more down home, responded by pelting the punk group with bottles, chairs, and assorted debris.

1983 -Tango on Lower Greenville was packed to hear Joe “King” Carrasco perform. Just as the King was stirring the crowd into a feverish frenzy, a free-spirited reveler heaved a tear gas grenade into the audience. Panic ensued, with gasping music lovers diving for the nearest exits, which included windows.

1984 –Dallas Cowboys tackle Jim Cooper slipped on the dance floor at Confetti’s and fractured an ankle.

1985 -Dick’s Last Resort was loudly celebrating its grand opening when a cat burglar lurking in the attic took a wrong step and came crashing down through the ceiling.

1985 –A well-lubed Dallas financier was ejected from the chi-chi Rio Room. Angry, he jumped behind the wheel of his new car and roared out of the parking lot. But he didn’t quite negotiate the turn onto Travis Street, and thus drove his dream machine into a thirty-foot-deep excavation across the street.

1986 –A surprise drug raid at the all-too-hip Starck Club netted a strange assembly of patrons sporting purple mohawks and wearing transparent zoot suits. And what was known as the XTC era in Dallas came to a close.