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Bamboo Room, Dallas, TX (bar) |
Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
|  Posted: 2009-08-17 11:46 am Permalink
Name:Bamboo Room
Type:bar
Street:10108 Harry Hines Blvd.
City:Dallas
State:TX
Zip:75220
country:USA
Phone:FL 2-8441
Status:defunct
Description:
The Bamboo Room was formerly located in the Tower Hotel Courts complex, a 108 (later published as 180)-room hotel/motel in Dallas, Texas originally built by J.D. and Ann Blanton around 1940. Although the exact opening date of the hotel and Bamboo Room is not clear, the first Bamboo Room was large enough to accommodate bands such as the Joe Reichman Orchestra, which was featured in Dallas through the 1940s. In 1959 the Hotel expanded to include the new Tower Center, including a new or remodeled Bamboo Room nightclub seating 300 and described as "The enchantment of the South Seas reflected in island murals sets a gay atmosphere for the newest club for North Dallas at the Tower Center on Harry Hines." The Bamboo Room nightclub and lounge apparently survived through multiple owners in the early 1970s before the subsequent demolition of the entire hotel complex. The only ephemera presently known to document the lounge portion of the Bamboo Room is a matchbook, probably dating to the 1950s, which features a line drawing of a long, galley-style booth seating area decorated with palm trees. One photograph of the Bamboo Room nightclub was published by the Dallas Morning News shortly after the new Tower Center opened in May of 1959 (also see below). In keeping with fashionable 'tropical clubs' of the late 1930s and 1940s, the Bamboo Room appears to have included a modest blend of exotic decor in the mode of its contemporary, if more upscale competition, the Adolphus Hotel's Hawaiian Century Room in downtown Dallas.
[ This Message was edited by: Grand Kahu 2009-08-19 11:17 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Grand Kahu 2009-08-19 11:33 ]
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years)
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-08-17 12:02 pm Permalink
A few images relating to the Bamboo Room and the Tower Hotel Courts:
A matchbook, circa 1950s, showing the 'The Famous Bamboo Room' as part of the "The Riviera of the South' Tower Hotel:
A postcard of the Tower Hotel Courts, circa 1960. The Bamboo Room is in the building to the far left:
A remnant at the site of the Tower Hotel Courts:
The likely foundation of the Bamboo Room lounge as seen today (note the traces of long, galley-style room configuration; to the right is the larger 'club" area of the Bamboo Room):
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Grand Kahu
Tied by my Mai Tai...
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years)
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-08-19 11:17 am Permalink
To date, the only known published image of the Bamboo Room nightclub (1959).
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Grand Kahu
Tied by my Mai Tai...
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3925
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-10-14 11:42 am Permalink
Here are some close ups of the oversized matchbook.
And a postcard from the Bamboo Room.
DC
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abstractiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 582
From: Lodi, CA
| Posted: 2012-10-14 4:22 pm Permalink
Nice work DC!
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2012-10-15 09:15 am Permalink
Nice stuff, indeed! That postcard looks like it could have very well been the placemat design, too.
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