Wild blue yonder
Archival photos provide a flashback to a Houston from decades ago
Each week, we dig into Houston’s past through the archives of the Chronicle and contributors to tell the story of our city. You can find dozens of previous photos — like the ones seen here — at HoustonChronicle.com/ThrowbackThursday
A PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS DC-4,
the “Clipper Union,” is parked at the Houston Municipal Airport in 1950. Pan Am rolled out its nonstop service from Houston to Mexico City, where this plane was headed, this week in 1946. The airport from where this photo was taken is now the 1940 Air Terminal Museum.
DEC. 9, 1960
For years, downtown visitors were treated to this sight for blocks on Main Street during the holiday season. The view here is looking north from Texas Avenue. Downtown business firms and a city committee were largely responsible for making sure this busy section of Houston’s core got into the holiday spirit.
GULFGATE MALL, UNDATED
It’s possible this photo is from when the mall opened in 1956. Note the movie theater across Loop 610 has not been constructed yet; that went up in 1965.
JUNE 1978
U.S. Customs inspector Alan Dalberg takes custody of a cat that apparently jumped into a 20-foot-long container loaded in Taiwan with bicycles and shipped to Houston. The month’s journey included a stop in Japan, an ocean voyage to Los Angeles and a train ride to Houston. Pete Lang, manager of the Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co. terminal here, where the carton was unloaded, said employees plan to adopt the cat after it completes an obligatory stay at the city’s rabies control shelter and give it a name that means “courageous world traveler” in Japanese. The cat apparently survived by eating the cardboard cartons in its dark prison.