Bamboo Room, Dallas, TX (bar)

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.

[ Edited by: Grand Kahu 2009-08-19 11:17 ]

[ Edited by: Grand Kahu 2009-08-19 11:33 ]

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):

To date, the only known published image of the Bamboo Room nightclub (1959).

Here are some close ups of the oversized matchbook.

And a postcard from the Bamboo Room.

DC

Nice work DC!

Nice stuff, indeed! That postcard looks like it could have very well been the placemat design, too.

From a sheet of uncut matchbook covers, up on eBay:

Swizzle sticks from the Tower Hotel Courts.