This Week in Texas Music History, a classic Dallas venue ends as it began, showcasing local talent.
Episodes written by Jason Mellard, Alan Schaefer, and Avery Armstrong
The Dallas Bronco Bowl
Jason Mellard from the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University
On August 16, 2003, the Bronco Bowl in Dallas staged its final concert. The place had been through a number of ups and downs by the early twenty-first century. It first opened in 1961, when Dallas oilmen J. Curtis Sanford and Lamar Hunt envisioned a seventy-eight lane bowling complex as the headquarters for a televised national bowling league. The bowling would live on throughout the Bronco’s years—it’s in the name—but the early ambitions to incorporate indoor archery, slotcar racing, and miniature golf didn’t necessarily pan out. Music, though, would always find its place at the Bronco Bowl.
In 1963, the venue first opened a popular teen dance spot, the Pit Club. Disc jockey and television personality Ron Chapman emceed the dances played largely by the house band, Floyd Dakil’s Pitmen. The band even recorded a regional hit single, “Dance, Franny Dance,” on the Jetstar label.
As time went on, the musical mission of the Bronco Bowl expanded. The venue’s capacity grew to 3000 by the 1980s and hosted a who’s-who of high-profile touring artists: David Bowie, the Clash, Elvis Costello, Metallica, Public Enemy, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Oak Cliff’s own Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a little bit thrilling, a little bit weird for big acts to play alongside bowling lanes. Neil Young even pulled out of a show upon learning it was a bowling alley, but most artists rolled with it.
The Bronco Bowl sputtered into the 90s, changing ownership but finally closing after an August 2003 twelve-hour blowout concert with nineteen local bands, including Hagfish, the Deathray Davies, and, appropriately, Bowling for Soup. Developers razed the building to make way for a Home Depot shortly thereafter.
As Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree said at the time, ““You just know that 10 or 20 years from now, people are still going to be talking about it. . . There’s no place like it. There never will be again.”
Sources:
Cory Graves, “A Look Back at the Bronco Bowl’s Final Show,” https://www.centraltrack.com/the-last-ever-show-at-bronco-bowl-featured-an-insane-all-local-lineup/
David Okamoto, “Bye-Bye Bronco Bowl—A Commentary,” KERA News, August 29, 2003. https://www.keranews.org/archive/2003-08-29/bye-bye-bronco-bowl-a-commentary
John H. Slate in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.
Rachel Stone, “Backstory: The Mid-century Bowling Craze Birthed the Bronco Bowl,” Advocate Oak Cliff, October 31, 2017. https://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2017/10/backstory-mid-century-bowling-craze-birthed-bronco-bowl/
