The City of the Hour

Back in 1910 the Dallas Chamber of Commerce held a competition looking for a new slogan to be used by the city. Over 600 people submitted slogans and the winner was "The City of the Hour". It was submitted by Samuel Rizzotto of Dallas, and he received $25 as the first prize.

A year later in 1911 city officials were pleased as punch when a New York City trade magazine called "Dry Goods" ran an article featuring "Dallas -- The City of the Hour", and on the first five pages, no less. J.R. Babcock, the city Secretary at the time, and author of the article, said, "This article appearing in such prominence is the kind of publicity we want to get before the Easterners. We want them to know that we have something besides sagebrush and cactus here."

This postcard probably dates from after 1916, when the Sydney Smith Memorial pictured was installed at Fair Park. The city sure got a lot of mileage from its $25 investment: "The City of the Hour" slogan was in use in varying degrees at least until the 1950s.