The Bagdad Supper Club was a theater and entertainment venue located on north side of what then was

U.S. Route 80 U.S. Route 80 or U.S. Highway 80 (US 80) is a major east–west United States Numbered Highway in the Southern United States, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the r ...

, but now is

Texas State Highway 180 State Highway 180 (SH 180) is a highway that runs through Tarrant County and Dallas County in Texas (USA) between Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, running east to Loop 12 in Dallas. From Loop 12 in Dallas to Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, Stat ...

, east of

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in Dallas, Tarrant, and Ellis counties of Texas, in the United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It had a population of 175,396 according to the 2010 census, making it th ...

, at the corner of Bagdad Road and Main Street. It opened Thanksgiving Day 1928, eleven months before the

Great Crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

of 1929. It was an opulent palatial facility that offered dining, dancing, and music. The venue was featured in the 1947 comedy ''

Juke Joint Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United States. A juke joint ...

,'' starring

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", " I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a Ne ...

. J. Wiley Day was the inaugural managing director. The club was constructed by the Bagdad Enterprises, Inc., a Texas corporation, controlled by Eastern capital. The corporation was a subsidiary of a large Eastern company that confined itself to various theatrical lines. The architect was W. Scott Dunne (1886–1937), a well-known designer of theaters in Texas.

Facilities

The building was a

Moorish style Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...

, two-story building, clad in pinkish gray

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

. The exterior had rounded

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

s, influenced by old buildings of the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct o ...

. It was distinctively oriental in all of its features. The building was built on . The building was set back three hundred feet from the road and featured a horseshoe driveway to the main entry. There was a walkway leading to the entry with a large fountain in the center. When the club opened, it had a parking lot for over three hundred automobiles. The interior featured a stage, dance floor, dining rooms, and lounging rooms. The dance floor was billed as the largest in the Southwest. The main dining room had a seating capacity of 450.

Club managers and lessees

; Managers * 1929–1931: J. Wiley Day * 1931: Jimmy Martin * 1933: Hal Wortin * 1946–1948: Ross Pastory ''(né'' Roscoe Joseph Pastory; 1916–1990) took over the club May 1946"No Booking Problem for Singing Pastory," by Philip Wuntch, ''

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...

'', November 8, 1970, Sec. C, pg. 2 ; Operators * 1935: R.S. Sims and D.H. Taylor ; Lessees * 1931: Louis Estes * 1949–1950: Lillian May Teague ''(née'' Helmston; 1901–1984) and her daughter, Marian Louise Teague (born 1929); and Robert Preston Bridges – Marian and Robert were later married

Changes in use

Frank H. Newton, MD (1887–1977), and wife, Cosette Faust Newton, PhD (1889–1975), who at one time was Dean of Women as

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , pr ...

, acquired the club in 1945 and closed it in 1950. In September that year, All American News (Emanuel M. Glucksman, manager), a commercial film concern based in Chicago, leased the building as its southwest headquarters and used it for film and TV — commercial short subjects and trailers. They billed it as the largest sound stage east of Los Angeles. In 1953, the Newtons began renovating the facility as an art center, "bringing in a lifetime of art treasures from around the world." The Newton’s designed rooms devoted to the countries from whence their art objects were acquired.

Destroyed by fire

The building burned to the ground on April 19, 1953 in what was called "the most spectacular fire in western Dallas County." Artwork valued at about $1 million (at that time) was lost in the fire, which included 45 paintings of the Hungarian artist Armand Grotz, a

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

and a

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

. Other valuable contents included furniture, Oriental furnishings — especially Japanese and Chinese — many tapestries, drapes, and scores of rugs termed priceless as they were made by hand. The Newtons sold the 14-acre lot in 1956 for $125,000."Old Bagdad Club Site For Sale at $235,000," ''

'', May 20, 1956, section 4, pg. 2

Notable performers

Phil Phillips John Philip Baptiste (March 14, 1926 – March 14, 2020), known as Phil Phillips, was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1959 song, " Sea of Love". Biography Baptiste was encouraged to pursue a career as a singer after a scho ...

and His 14 Californians (1929) * Smith–MacDowell Orchestra (1929) * Alvin Wahl and His Bagdad Colored Orchestra (1930) * Vincent (Jelly) Parrino (1997–1990) and His Orchestra (1933) * Gus Heilig and His Orchestra (1933 & 1934) *

Isham Jones Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. Career Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, United States, to a musical and mining family. His father, Richard Isham Jone ...

(1935) *

Ben Bernie Benjamin Anzelwitz, known professionally as Ben Bernie (May 30, 1891 – October 23, 1943),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. ...

(1935) * Jack Little (1935) * Lou Harris and His Orchestra (1935) * Ike Silver (1936) *

Glen Gray Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.'' The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. B ...

and His Casa Loma Band (1945) * Durwood Cline and His Orchestra (1945) * Charlie Carl and His Orchestra (1948) * Dude Ranch Buckaroos (1948) *

Earle Spencer Robert Earle Spencer (born 26 June 1925 Welborn, Kansas – 19 September 1973 Fillmore, Utah) was an American trombonist and leader of a progressive swing big band bearing his name — Earle Spencer and His Orchestra. He formed the band in 1946 ...

and His Orchestra (1948) * Chet Bundy (1949) * Morrey Brennan and His Brennan–Aires (1950)

References