DURING THE 1980S SLUMP, AFTER an angry outburst at City Hall or reports of lower DISD test scores, tongues would wag over the dreaded Atlanta Attack Film. Our Sunbelt rivals, so the story went, had compiled a fiendish propaganda film detailing Dallas’ economic and social woes and were (gasp!) showing it to corporations looking to expand or relocate.
As with our own Lady of the Lake, nobody had ever seen The Film, but they knew a friend whose brother worked at United Peach Pits in Atlanta, and besaid that… Now, the rhubarb over the TAG magnet school and the John Wiley Price “coconut” flap have given new life to the Atlanta rumors. Frankly, Scarlett, we shouldn’t give a damn-but we do, so we set out to find the truth.
Rick Douglas, Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce president, recalled rumors that The Film featured council members Al Lipscomb and Diane Ragsdale throwing chairs. But Douglas, despite his contacts, has never been able to confirm that Atlanta villains actually rolled The Film. Same story with a former member of the Atlanta camp, now with the Dallas International Sports Commission: heard of it, yes; seen it, no. Ditto real estate brokers who often deal with corporate relocations, including Harold Ginsburg, who did the recent Quaker State deal. None had seen a dog-and-pony show sullving our reputation. Finally, we grilled Jim Babcock, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s good-news disseminator.
He filed The Film among urban myths, “Let me assure you,” he said. “We don’t bad-mouth Dallas. We just point out the obvious comparisons-our airport and yours, business and living costs, stuff like that. There’s no slam video.”
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