| Larry Powell: As JFK took over, Dallas saw tunnels, vertical takeoffs ahead 01/22/2001 By Larry Powell / The Dallas Morning News Let's retreat 40 years to the afterglow of a new beginning.
Today we review The Dallas Morning News of Sunday, Jan. 22, 1961.
• FRONT PAGE NEWS – There was no e-mail, so President John F. Kennedy wired a note to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that Americans were ready to work with all who were dedicated to a "peaceful and more fruitful life for all of mankind." ... During the TV broadcast of Friday's inauguration, cameras caught Kennedy, a PT boat captain in the Pacific in World War II, and former President Dwight Eisenhower, in deep conversation. "About what?" reporters asked. About D-Day, when the Eisenhower-directed Allied forces landed in Normandy. ... The new administration considered reopening relations with Cuba.
• THE FUTURE? – The vision of Dallas' future by the Master Plan Committee included suggestions for pedestrian ways, a Union Station transit complex for buses, trains and vertical takeoff planes, and an underground tunnel system.
• COMMERCIAL BREAK – Titche's sold Stratolounger recliners for $79. ... No grocery ads, but that week A&P priced 2 pounds of navel oranges at 29 cents and a pound of Oreos at 39 cents. ... Cars: At Hine Pontiac, for $599 down and $68.05 a month, you could buy both a 1961 wide-track Catalina and a '61 Tempest in the "economy package." A '61 VW Bug cost $1,669.99; a new '60 Chevrolet Corvair cost $1,445. ... Jobs: a pharmacist, $450 a month; a clerk-typist, $225 a month. ... For sale: Three-bedroom Country Club Homes in Casa View, under $13,750; three-bedroom Debonair Homes in Richardson, $13,950. Also for sale, a two-story, five-bedroom brick home with elevator and basement. That price for "one of Highland Park's well-known senior residences"? $65,000.
• THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT – In Juarez, Mexico, actress Marilyn Monroe filed for divorce to end her 4-year-old marriage to playwright Arthur Miller. She reportedly was getting reacquainted with her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. ... In Dallas, it was revealed that 7-year-old Ginny Tiu, "the diminutive Chinese piano prodigy" who had appeared on dozens of "major television programs," would headline the annual Southwest Sports & Vacation Show in April. (Aside: Ms. Tiu now lives and plays piano in Honolulu – she is also the sister-in-law of Hawaii's governor, reports Honolulu Star Bulletin columnist Ben Wood. He says the three Tiu sisters perform a "knockout version" of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.") ... On TV: Candid Camera and G.E. Theater starring Ronald Reagan in the comedy The Devil You Say. ... At the movies: John Wayne's The Alamo was in its fourth month at the Capri, Doris Day starred in Midnight Lace at the Arcadia and Connie Francis was in Where the Boys Are at the Majestic. ... The Dallas Cowboys signed a 5-foot-31/8-inch tall receiver, Cleveland "Pussyfoot" Jones.
• THE INAUGURAL – Rep. H.R. Gross, R-Iowa, criticized the Defense Department for providing a uniformed military driver for the producers of the inaugural celebration: singer Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack buddy, actor Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law. ... Dallasites who saw JFK's speech (including the famous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country") thought it was nice. But at Oak Cliff's Jefferson Davis Beauty Salon, receptionist Dorothy Nims said of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, "We think she could use a hairdresser."
Larry Powell can be reached at 214-977-8487; P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265; fax 214-977-8319; and at .
|
