A publication that’s about 90 years old gives a wonderful glimpse into Oak Cliff’s proud self-promotion at the time. This booklet, Oak Cliff: A City Within a City, has the tagline “Stop and Shop — Buy it from your neighbors!”
It was intended to show that Oak Cliff, by then a well-established neighborhood annexed to the City of Dallas in 1903, was its own self-contained community, full of friendly, neighborhood businesses. Each ad in the book is accompanied by a photograph. Though the publication is undated, the photo of the famed Cliff Queen movie theater features movies released in 1929.
Here are some of our favorite advertisements from the vintage book.
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- BARRETT’S CLEANERS (E. B. Tipton, prop.), 607 E. Jefferson [The building is still standing.] “We clean everything but a guilty conscience.”
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- CLIFF QUEEN THEATRE (L. L. Dunbar, proprietor), 616 E. Jefferson. On the marquee: “South Sea Rose,” starring Charles Bickford and Lenore Ulric, from 1929. Talking pictures — “clean entertainment” for the whole family.
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- BOOKLET COVER Oak Cliff: A City Within a City, has the tagline “Stop and Shop — Buy it from your neighbors!”
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- OAK CLIFF PHARMACY, various locations. “Candy, soda, cigars, sick-room supplies.”
