John C. Fanning and the Annual Capitol Christmas Party

Story compiled by Javier R. Garcia from Brownsville Herald archives

(Brownsville Historical Association photo colorized by Javier R. Garcia)

On a cold rainy day on December 23, 1947, strings of colored Christmas lights stretched across E Levee St., candy canes decorated a light pole and an ebony Christmas tree stood on a platform in front of the marquee of the Capitol Theater.  The long line of kids numbering close to 1500 who received free tickets earlier that week stretched around the corner to the alley and perhaps back across the street.  Across the corner was a man and a rain slicked street wearing a raincoat with a large camera on a tripod.  It might have been the photographer from nearby Rogers Studio who snapped a photo and managed to get the attention of almost every brown faced kid anxiously waiting to get inside for the fun to begin.

It was the annual Christmas Party at the Capitol which originally began in 1930 with 100 children as guests its first year.  Thereafter kids were invited to receive gifts of fruit and candy by the Christmas tree in front of the theater and see a free matinee inside.  It was John C. Fanning who lead the parade while donning the Santa costume.

This news photo would have been after 1933 or 1938; depending on when marquee was changed.

Businessman Morris Edelstein had nice furniture giveaways in 1940!

Mr. Fanning played Santa for nine straight years until becoming ill in the early 1940s.  In 1941 he suffered a stroke and was in Mercy Hospital while a substitute Santa passed out gifts in front of the Capitol.

In 1943 Fanning was the honored guest of the Brownsville Fire Department which hosted the procession from the Central Fire Station on E Adams and 10^th to the Federal Building /Post Office.  Ol’ Saint. Nick rode a hook-and-ladder truck (instead of his sleigh) which was led by a motorcycle cop, local junior high school band and jeep carrying Mr. Fannin.  With his health declined he may not have been up to the task of donning the red suit this last night.  He had once been an avid fisherman and had photos of himself with fish he caught in the gulf on the wall in his office but after the stroke of ’41 he had sold the boat and his civic work had to be less arduous.  And then he suddenly he died the next night from heart failure at the age of 68. 

The heart attack struck him while he was walking past El Jardin Hotel to his home apartment on the upper level of the Capitol.  He had been under the close supervision of his doctor and traveled to San Antonio for treatment.  He felt he recovered and made leisurely travels to Kansas and later, Mexico City.  County Attorney Franklin Graham was at his side when tragedy struck and with the help of an unknown sailor and night watchman, the three helped Mr Fanning to his room.  A doctor was called and fire department dispatched to bring their “pulmotor” to revive Fanning back to health.  Mr. Fanning repeatedly assured his last companions on earth “I’ll be alright,” but twenty-five minutes after having his stroke he was gone.

With his wife Bertie they had raised two daughters who lived in Fort Worth and a son who lived in Lubbock and supposedly had a hat called the Fanning named after him by the Knox Hat Company.

John Cullen Fanning was born August 21, 1875 in Natchez, Mississippi but raised in Fort Worth, Texas and by the time he arrived in Brownsville in the early 1920s from Cisco and Mineral Wells (places near Dallas, Texas), he already had experience operating movie theaters beginning in San Angelo since 1911. 

He partnered with Ed Brady, President of the Delta Amusement Company of San Benito and its vice-president, Brown White to operate the Texas Theater in downtown Brownsville.  Paco Betancourt, who operated the Queen Theater, joined the three men and they became the “Brownsville Amusement Company” which incorporated the Capitol, Queen and Texas theaters in 1928.  The Dent Theater chain bought out Fanning’s partners while he retained his interest in the theater.  Dent sold to Publix and Publix sold to Interstate in 1932.

The Capitol opened on Valentine’s Day 1928 to much fanfare and had a capacity to seat 1,000 persons.  By 1938 Interstate Theater gave the Capitol a complete renovation.  Fanning stayed on as its manager. 

Our story begins in the early 1930's after the Great Depression left many people out of employment.  Civic organizations in Brownsville answered the call for charity around Christmastime.  Volunteers of America, Red Cross, American Legion’s Southpoint Chapter of Disabled American Veterans, local city churches and local fire department urged the more fortunate in Brownsville to contribute to these causes for disadvantaged children. 

December 22, 1933 Brownsville Herald announcement

The Capitol was also one of sixty theaters across the United States to host the Mickey Mouse Club Theater program for kids which began in 1930.  Fanning also conceived the St. Patrick’s celebration of 1931, the Fourth of July celebration of 1929 and Better Brownsville celebration of 1932.  He also organized the “Kid Parades” to celebrate the opening of the Port of Brownsville in 1936 and was a participating organizer of Charro Days in 1937 and yearly Easter egg hunts.

Each year Fanning erected a tall ebony tree in front of the theater which was decorated with the help of local store merchants, the Brownsville Fire Department and Junior Chamber of Commerce.  This tradition probably followed the one which had begun on the former James Wells property in front of the Federal Courthouse/ Post Office on E Elizabeth and 10^th St.  It was a giant 20-plus foot tree with a spreading 12 ft branch which lighted by the local electric company to honor the memory of W.B. Clint who was director of the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce for many years.  Christmas carols were broadcast down E Elizabeth St businesses over loud speakers and various groups appeared on the streets of Brownsville.  By the way, that property later became the Majestic Theater built by Interstate in 1949.

James Wells house on corner of E Elizabeth and 10th circa 1920.  There's no need to point out a large ebony tree for you to get the picture.

But the photo this story is about was taken three years after John Fanning died.  It was Interstate Theater who continued the tradition.  They ran ads with “Your theatre man – Jimmy McNeil says – Seasons Greetings to you all and suggests you -- Give Entertainment” by buying their coupons redeemable at any of their Rio Grande Valley Interstate Theaters.

The free matinee was “Philo Vance Returns,” a mystery film which seems like a lame choice for children but we'll assume they enjoyed the fun of having seen cartoons with free popcorn and candy.  What’s amazing is the absence of parents in the photo.  Where were they?  

Anyways, you get the picture.  It’s doubtful the Capitol tradition carried on much longer after Mr. Fanning’s demise.  Once the Star Drive-in was built in 1948, followed by the Majestic Theater and Charro Drive-in in 1949, the Capitol would last a few years into the late 1950s or early 1960s but its place as Brownsville’s main theater was long gone and as generations passed, the memory of John C. Fannin would fade away.

Here are a couple of more Brownsville Herald photos printed in memory to John Fanning.

2005

Legends and Myths from Nigger Bridge / Puente de los Negroes

by Javier R. Garcia

[Complete 1953 Chamber of Commerce of Map at end of article]

Back in 2006 when I was working for a local historical museum a person asked about a bridge called “Puente de Los Negroes” where it was rumored black soldiers had been hung after raiding the town of Brownsville around midnight August 13-14, 1906.  I was familiar with the story about 167 African-American soldiers who were discharged without honor by order of Theodore Roosevelt after it was assumed the soldiers were culpable of maintaining a conspiracy of silence following investigations into the matter which failed to uncover the persons involved in the shooting in which a bartender was killed and police lieutenant had to have an arm amputated, but I had never heard of any soldiers being lynched afterward.

A search of the Brownsville Herald archives yielded several references to the bridge such as this one:  “There is a historic marker after you cross Nigger Bridge Highway 77 before Oklahoma Filling Station identifies the site of Rancho Viejo as the home of Jose Sanvador de la Garza to whom was given the Espitu Santo Grant by the King of Spain in 1771.”  

The Barlow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed the marker on that spot in 1938.  The marker reads:  “’RANCH VIEJO’  Here Jose Salvador de la Garza built his ranch El Espiritu Santo in 1771 --  First European settlement in Cameron County  --  Erected by the State of Texas 1936”

Another historic error that creeps into this topic is the claim that the bridge was where General Taylor and his black troops were camped at the onset of the invasion of Mexico also known as The War with Mexico in 1846. 

One only has to go as far back as 1930 when searching Herald archives for references to the bridge.  Back then it was a landmark north of Brownsville.  Today there isn’t a trace of it to be found as it’s been absorbed as part of the “new” highway 77/83 or 69W if you prefer. Even I get confused.

Digitized online Brownsville Herald archives are missing years from the 1910's but we can safely assume the bridge got its name by 1904 after it was built by the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico railroad and was called “Puente de Los Negroes” by locals and “Nigger Bridge” by a few people using the common although mean-spirited term at the time.  Polite societal folks used the "Negro" term which wasn't offensive at the time.   We'll know the truth about how it got its name and it may come as a surprise but first let's continue with it's history.

Another time the bridge made headlines was after Mexican raiders burned the bridge at "Tandy Station" on October 18,1915. They had robbed the St.LB&M train nearby and shot a brazen army corporal.  Then they burned a trestle bridge to slow down their would be captors.

[Tandy Rd is north of Alton Gloor and also where old timer's have described as the bridge's location.  No date was on this postcard downloaded from Ebay.]

The bridge would have to be rebuilt of wood and it would be most likely done by working Mexicans.  A scarce population of African-Americans who lived in Brownsville would have worked for the St. Louis Brownsville & Mexico which later became the Missouri Pacific Railroad and other menial jobs they could find but as we know Mexican labor has always been cheap in carpentry and construction so it is unlikely black men would have rebuilt the bridge.  It was probably after 1915 that it got it's nick-name.

It would again be rebuilt in the 1920s when Cameron County Judge Oscar Dancy implemented a concrete system known as farm-to-market road system to make it easier for farmers out in the rural dirt road areas.  The bridge would also need to be widened for this project. 

[Photocopied from Historic Brownsville Museum archives taken during the construction of "Dancy's Sidewalks" because they were only one lane wide. - Watermarks included to preclude future errors of history being re-reported by future historians who post photos without facts]

There were several accidents or tragedies reported from this bridge between 1930 and 1948.  In 1930 a car collision occurred in which neither driver was injured near the “D.S. Harrison” home which is described as being near the spot the accident occurred.  In 1935 “People living near ‘Nigger Bridge’ heard the young woman’s cries for aid at about 3 a.m. and notified Chief Deputy Will Cabler who lives nearby.”  Will Cabler was again at the scene in 1937 after two brothers were involved in an altercation which left them with knife slashes on their arms.  An H-E-B truck trailer jackknifed on the spot in 1944 after striking the abutment.  He was passing a county mower who “raised the blade on his machine alongside the highway” which startled the truck driver and caused him to crash.  Then in 1948 four year-old Marcelo Alvarado drowned in the Resaca Del Rancho Viejo near the bridge.

One Bertram Combe was known as the “law south of Nigger Bridge” though the reason he earned that nick-name may be lost to history for now unless he was a judge.  The sports section of the Herald included a small commentary on sports called “Piluski’s Picks” which included sports tid-bits by “Prof. Picus Piluski” parenthetically described as “(Chief of the Pinkertons south of Nigger Bridge, assistant chief of the Pinkertons north of Nigger Bridge, and originator of the air-flow haircut).”  It’s most likely the same man with a different nickname and probably more commonly known as Judge “Buck” Combes.  He and his good ol’ boy pals Bill Kiekel, Bert Hinkley and Robin Pate performed a minstrel show (a show performed by white people in blackface) to benefit underprivileged children under the auspices of the Kiwanians of Brownsville in 1934.

Here's what "Buck, Bill, Bert and Robin" probably looked like.  It doesn't look funny today.

Perhaps the greatest headlines surrounding the bridge came in 1934 when Air Circus was arranged to benefit Boy Scouts.  The air-show included acrobatic plane stunt flying, races and parachute jumpers.  Motorcycle daredevil Louis Tackett raced his bike at 60 mpg through a wall of fire.  The event took place on a make-shift airfield “located on Brownsville – San Benito Highway Near Nigger Bridge.”

Big Spring Daily Herald clipping 2 June 1934

Brownsvile Herald clipping 18 March 1934

Nearby the first oil well in south Texas was drilled in 1915.  The project was mired with trouble which included a bandit raid on the camp working near the bridge.  Then again in 1923 near the same spot from a small dry salt lake more tests were done to search for oil.
 

Before we look at the prophetic piece of evidence found in the A.A. Champion papers at the Brownsville Historical Association archives we’ll take a quick look at the two individuals mentioned in the typewritten document.  One is Ralph Schmelling and the other is Ygnacio Dominguez.  Most historians remember Schmelling as a local local historian who claimed until his dying day that black soldiers were responsible for shooting up the town because of some off-handed remark made by a black soldier was suspicious enough to make all the soldiers guilty in his estimation.  Dominguez was the police officer who lost his arm in the 1906 raid and was interviewed by Schmelling in 1963.  Dominguez was well known for his role in the raid in which he lost an arm but he continued to work for the city many years after and he was also known as the bell ringer of Market Square at the time.  Here is the document:

After the late 1940’s it is possible the Brownsville Herald correctly referred to the Bridge at Resaca del Rancho Viejo but in a 1953 Chamber of Commerce “Points of Interest” map printed locally by Springman-King printers “Nigger Bridge” appears again as a tiny red dot north of Brownsville proper.  Like other historians who try to correct misrepresentations of the past, Schmelling knew one day we would be asking “What’s all this we’ve heard about a bridge called Puente de los Negroes where some blacks were lynched a long time ago?”  The answer is right here.

[Courtesy of Brownsville Historical Association]

Here's a map of the area today.  Be careful if you venture out on the highway to see for yourself.  

If evidence is found later that the course of Tandy Rd was altered in later years as north Brownsville developed it would add support to the theory that it once ran a straight line to where the description of the bridge's location was once upon a time.

UPDATE 8/8/2015 ~ Here's an aerial from 1962.  The bridge isn't visible at all.  That "orange slice" shaped isle surrounded by road mught be site of historical mentioned earlier and Tandy Rd is not unchanged so that scratches my previous hypothesis.  Thanks to Erick Randall Tripp for helping us close this article.

*FREE* Vintage Photo Exhibit June 4

We welcome Mel's Antiques as an added sponsor to the event which will feature vintage toys on display.  We also hope to be visited by a few cars from Brownsville Classic Car Club.

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