The
Fabulous
Eldorado Ballroom
Built with creativity to preserve the history
in Houston, Texas 3rd Ward
The
Houston’s Eldorado Ballroom reigned as one of Texas finest
showplaces for live black performances of Blues, Jazz, R&B
and occasionally Zydeco and pop. The Eldorado was built in 1933
by African American businesswoman and philanthropist Anna Dupree
(1891 – 1977), who had already achieved significant success
as a beauty-shop operator before marrying Clarence Dupree in
1914. Together they established the Eldorado Ballroom to provide
an upscale venue for black social clubs and general entertainment.
The building itself became a symbol of community pride, the
3rd Ward’s most prestigious focal point, especially for
musicians.
Like
the more famous ballrooms in New York, the Eldorado billed itself
as the “Home of the Happy-Feet”, signifying not only
its reputation for lively musical entertainment but also its
large, and reportedly often, crowded dance floor. Among the
house orchestras that worked there, providing instrumental backing
for locally produced floor shows as well as for touring artists,
were ED Golden, Milton Larkins, I.H. “Ike” Smalley,
Arnette Cobbs, Pluma Davis, and Conrad Johnson. As it’s
heydays as a venue for major touring acts from the post-war
years through the early 1960’s, the Eldorado regularly
headlined nationally known artist Such as Ray Charles, Bill
Doggett, Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones), Etta James, Jimmy Reed,
Big Joe Turner, and T-Bone Walker.
Several
Houston musicians received valuable professional experience
playing in Eldorado Ballroom bands. Many of them subsequently
became famous bandleaders and recording artists. Noteworthy
examples include saxophonist and vocalist Eddie Vinson, saxophonist
Don Wilkerson, and trumpeter Calvin Owens. In the mid-twentieth
century many black musically inclined artists attended the weekly
talent show at the Eldorado, giving them a chance to perform
in front of a large crowd, in which help launch their careers
in the industry. Among those who reportedly launched their career
were Peppermint Harris, Harrison Nelson, Johnny (Guitar) Watson,
and Joe (Guitar) Hughes.
It was in the 1970’s that the Third Ward started to decline
due to negative economic for black owned businesses in the community
and desegregation, the Eldorado was impacted just as many others
in the Wards in Houston.
During
the last quarter of the twentieth century the Eldorado building
located across from historic Emancipation Park on the southwest
quadrant of the intersection of Elgin and Dowling St., was home
to various small businesses and subdivided space for lease,
and then in December 1999 the massive structure (along with
the seventeen lot block on which the Eldorado sits) was acquired
by Third-Ward based Project Row Houses, a non-profit Arts and
Community Service Organization formed to restore the facility
as a special performance venue, archive, and meeting site that
will preserve the legacy of the Eldorado Ballroom.
On
May 17, 2003, the venue reopened once again to host its first
major event in more than thirty years. This fundraising gala,
called Howling for Dowling, raised more than $75,000 for ongoing
renovations, since that opening, the Eldorado Ballroom has hosted
concert events featuring Jazz, Blues, Zydeco and other genres,
and Project Row Houses has continued to collect oral histories,
old photographs, and other research resources in the effort
to compile an archive for the facility. In 2011 the Eldorado
Ballroom received the Texas Historical Marker.
