| Larry Powell: No aliens, but LBJ did howl in '67 12/25/2000 By / The Dallas Morning News No doubt this Christmas morning, some merry readers turned first thing to our annual presentation of Paul Crume's angel column.
In honor of Christmas and Mr. Crume's legendary "Big D" column, here's what your dime got you in the Monday, Dec. 25, 1967, edition of The Dallas Morning News.
•FRONT-PAGE NEWS – President Lyndon Johnson, returning from a round-the-world trip, said he'd asked Pope Paul to intercede with the North Vietnamese to gain humane living conditions for American prisoners of war. A Christmas truce in Southeast Asia was repeatedly interrupted. ... In Dallas, quarterback Don Meredith and the Dallas Cowboys won the NFL Eastern Conference title by beating the Cleveland Browns, 52-14, in the Cotton Bowl. ... Dallas City Council member Sibyl Hamilton complained that Cowboys owner Clint Murchison was showing a "terrible lack of concern for the city of Dallas" by planning to move the Cowboys to a new stadium in Irving. ... At the bottom of the page, near a headline reading "Red Chinese Set Off Low-Yield Atomic Test," was Mr. Crume's angel column.
•LOCAL NEWS – Ginger Rogers, in Dallas to star in Hello, Dolly at Fair Park Music Hall, complained, "Girls are trying to wear miniskirts up to their navels." ... The Dallas Committee for a Peaceful Solution to Vietnam planned a Christmas Day vigil in Dealey Plaza.
•COMMERCIAL BREAK – Merry Christmas ads were placed by Dreyfuss & Son, Skillern's Drug Stores, Titche's Department Store, Gibson's Discount Centers, WFAA radio and several other companies that are no longer around. ... Sears' album sale: The Doors' Strange Days and Elvis' Clambake cost $2.66 each. ... Jobs: Dallas Transit System bus drivers could make $6,500 a year; female sewing machine operators could make $2 per hour. ... Cars: new 1968 Chevrolet Impala sport coupe, $2,398; a low-mileage '68 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, $2,590. ... For sale: in Farmers Branch, a four-bedroom executive home with fallout shelter for $31,500; one-acre home sites at Northwest Highway and Inwood Road for $20,000. Also for sale, a five-bedroom home in the 4300 block of Fairfax Avenue. That Highland Park price? $54,500.
•THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT – On TV that night, I Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Monkees (guest-starring as a kid who was blasé about Christmas – Butch Patrick, formerly Eddie of The Munsters). ... At the movies: Opening at NorthPark I, The Graduate; in its ninth week at NorthPark II, Gone With the Wind; at the Park Forest, Dean Martin as hip spy Matt Helm in The Ambushers and at the Majestic, Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. ... Tropicana Restaurant's Christmas buffet cost $1.95. ... At Soul City, 4714 Greenville Ave.: Ike and Tina Turner.
•STRANGE AT CHRISTMAS – In a Borup, Denmark, fallout shelter, a group of Danes futilely awaited a Christmas Eve message from "Orthon, the supreme cosmic being," who they believed would speak through taxi driver Knud Wieking. ... As LBJ was distributing gifts at the White House family Christmas party, he shook a package with bells on it. Yuki the dog got excited and began to howl, so LBJ howled right along with her. When the president of the United States howls with a dog at Christmas, it is truly a reason for angels to stir. Merry Christmas.
Larry Powell can be reached at 214-977-8487; P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265; fax 214-977-8319 or at
|
