El Dorado Ballroom (Elgin & Dowling, southwest corner):
“The El Dorado was created in 1938 by a woman named Anna Dupree. Through the Forties and into the Fifties, the El Dorado was a major venue for touring artists — T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles. They also had talent shows. The talent shows were real popular. The first time Joe ‘Guitar’ Hughes ever played in public was at an El Dorado talent show. Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, most people don’t know he started out on piano. He played the talent show when he was a kid. They said they had to put telephone books on the piano bench so he could reach the keys. I think that for folks in the Third Ward, and all over black Houston, the El Dorado represented a place where you could dress up and have a high-class good time.”
This article appears in May 30 • 2003.