Edwin Tobolowsky
Both sides of Edwin Tobolowsky's family came from Europe, his father's side from the Russia-Poland area, immigrating in the 1880s and settling on Ashland near the shul, and his mother's side from the Baltic region, arriving through New York. Though both families carried the Tobolowsky name and lived within a block of each other, no known relationship was established. His paternal grandfather was a peddler with a horse and wagon. His father, Reuben, had four brothers who ran stores across Texas in towns such as Hubbard, Alvarado, and Plano, while another brother, Albert, was in the dress manufacturing business in Dallas. Edwin's mother was born in Dallas in 1890 and graduated from Cumberland Hill. Edwin himself was born on February 16, 1920, at 315 Holmes Street.
Edwin attended Colonial Hill Grammar School and Forest Avenue High School, graduating in 1937, where he was active in ROTC, the debating society, the Pan American Club, and the National Honor Society. He was confirmed at Temple Emanuel in 1935. He began college at the University of Texas in Austin, where he joined the fraternity Phi Sigma Delta, then finished his undergraduate work at SMU before entering its law school, graduating in 1943. Finding work difficult during wartime, he was recommended to attorney L.M. Rice and worked his way into a partnership. His practice focused largely on the motion picture industry and theater owners. After Rice died in a car accident in 1952, Edwin practiced with his close friend Henry Schlinger and other partners in firms based in the Tower Petroleum Building, Southland Center, the Crescent, and Cole Avenue.
In 1950 Edwin married Shirley Rich of Chicago, and together they raised two children, Mark, born in 1952, and Emily, born in 1955, both of whom became attorneys. He was active in Jewish community life, serving as president of Jewish Family Service, chief barker of the Variety Club of Dallas, and the third president of the Dallas Home for Jewish Aged after helping found Golden Acres. His legal career included arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court alongside Louis Nizer and chairing a multi-district antitrust panel involving motion picture studios. A devoted Dallas Cowboys fan with season tickets at Texas Stadium, Edwin cherished his family, crediting his wife Shirley as a dominant force in their community involvement, and took great pride in his children and grandchildren.
Full Transcript
My name is Norma Schlinger. Today is Tuesday, October the 18th, in the year 2005. I'm interviewing Edwin Tobolowsky for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society. I'm interviewing Edwin in his home, his and Shirley's home at the Shelton Apartment Hotel. And I'm going to ask Edwin to tell me about his family, and I will let him start off telling you about his grandparents. Both sides of my family, both my mother's side and my father's side, both came from Europe. My father's side of the family came from more of the Russia-Poland area and immigrated in the 1880s and settled on Ashland next to the Shul, which was Tipper Thizzle.
My mother's side came from the Baltic area and immigrated, I think, through New York. And they settled within a block of each other. Both of them had their name as Tawawaski. If there was a relationship, we were not aware of it. My father's father was a peddler. He had a wagon and a horse, and he stole things out of the wagon until his horse was hit by lightning. My father, Reuben Tabaloski, had four brothers. One of them had a store in Hubbard, Texas, and he was the fire chief in Hubbard and lived in the firehouse and was the only Jew who was in miles around, and the name of his store was Tabalakis.
He had another brother who lived in Alvarado who had a store and there was another brother who was a salesman who died very young but he lived further down on Holmes Street in South Dallas And one son, his brother, was born in Dallas, Texas. His name was Albert. And Albert was in the dress manufacturing business. It was called Daisy or Ladies House Dresses. And he employed a number of women who sold the house dresses, dresses and he sold them in this area out of the wholesale district in Dallas which was in Lower Commerce Street. There was one other brother. Ben. Ben? Ben, who had a store in what was?
Marshall. No, with Plano. And he lived in Dallas but had this store right on the square in Plano, and it existed for some length of time. And the brother that had a store in Alvarado had two daughters, both of whom were reared and lived in Fort Worth for many years. Albert was never married, although he had a number of young ladies who he was friendly with. one of whom accused him of breach of promise for not marrying her. Great story. I remember very well going downtown in the middle of the night and seeing the dress factory burned to the ground right on what is Austin, the corner of Austin and Comeroy Street.
I believe that from time to time he had various partners. There was a family by the name of Leaf I believe and they sold these dresses I think in those days they called them house dresses the the other brother was a salesperson and he had a family one of his daughters went to New York and became a rocket and she He was originally from the RKO Rockette Dance Group. During the war, we had a young man by the name of Kronheim over to take care of them during our holidays. And that's where he met the daughter who was a Rockette. And they were married and lived in Cleveland for many, many years.
Okay, Your Honor. there was a famous baseball player by the name of Trish Speaker, and he kept all of his cups and medals and so forth that he won on display in the store in Hubbard. The brother that lived in Alvarado had two daughters, lived in Fort Worth. Albert was, I think I'm repeating myself, Albert was not married, and Ben died very young, but there was another family of Tabaloski's that lived in East Texas that you will find in the cemeteries, either in Marshall or what was the name of the other little town there Lufkin Lufkin No Tyler No Mineola Huh Mineola? No. Where was the famous hotel over there?
Oh, Jefferson. Jefferson. Yeah. Jefferson. And they lived in Jefferson. And there's still some Tabalowski buried in that cemetery in Jefferson. and the family that lived in Fort Worth both married. One married Herman, which was an old Fort Worth family, and one married a refugee by the name of Wender. And both of their husbands have passed away, but the daughters still live in Fort Worth, although we don't see them very often. And the son that, I mean the brother that died, he had two sons, one named Dave, who was in the ladies ready to wear business, and one named Jack, who married a Fort Worth girl but had a store in Abilene.
And both of them died very young, but their families continue to live in Fort Worth and Dallas. The widow of Dave Tobolowsky lives in Fort Worth, and her name is Zelda Tobey. Some of our family changed their name from Tobolowsky to Tobey. I'm trying to remember what other family members spread from that one family of my father and his brothers. Maybe it'll come to me. Some of the Toby's spelled their name T-O-B-E-Y and some spelled it T-O-B-E-Y. You're right. Absolutely. As far as I know, on my mother's side, her father took castor oil every day so that he wouldn't be well and drafted into the Russian army until he could immigrate to the United States.
And his wife's name was Minnie, and they lived on Caroline Street, where my mother was born, and she graduated from Cumberland Hill. She had been born in 1890 in Dallas, and my father immigrated here in about 1876, I believe. Tell me how you related to Stephen Tabaloski, the actor, the younger generation. Yeah. In addition to our family of Tabaloski's, there was an A.B. Tabaloski who had ten children, eight boys and two girls. The two girls were both schoolteachers and librarians. The boys were, one was a tax lawyer, one was another lawyer in the Texas Bank Building, another was a doctor. And Hermine Tabaloski was... Hermine was married to Tabawasku, who had been the credit man at E.M.
Cannes, until that store closed and he had a little fabric shop in Snyder Plaza. He married Hermine Tabawasku. Hermine was a Salkowitz. Salkowitz. Right. And as you know, she was one of the first women graduates from the University of Texas Law School. she had a very fabulous career in standing up for women's rights. And Stephen Tabaloski, who is the actor, Stephen, who is the actor, would have been, or is a son of Paul, who was a doctor, and is another son that is a doctor in Fort Worth. Now, are these A.B. Tabaloski's grandchildren? No, that's a different Tabaloski. Well, he's not the son of Paul.
Yeah. That's what I'm talking, I guess I'm merging three generations. Paul is the same generation as Stephen So A had the ten children Was A related to your family Oh yeah A and uh my father father were cousins Cousins, okay. And, uh, they all lived right in the same area. And I remember my mother choosing A.B.'s wife of going shopping for the ten children in a truck so she could buy sufficient groceries to feed the family. All of whom had a very fine family tree in Dallas. Supposedly, they all, all of the boys, at one time or another, sold newspapers, the Dallas Morning News, on the corner of Commerce, and I guess it was, it wasn't accurate, but it was another street, and it was right across from old Sanger Brothers.
Speaking of Sanger Brothers, my father worked there as a young man, and he told me the story about the owner of Sanger Brothers, the oldest of all the Sangers, who was in charge of the Temple Emanuel Cemetery. And since my room, my father, had a good handwriting, He had to ride a horse out to the cemetery and take care of the books of Temple Emanuel Cemetery, where it's presently located. I don't think he ever rode a horse after that. Have I already talked about when I was born? Well, I think we're taping over it, so say it again. Okay, I was born on February 16, 1920.
at 315 Holm Street, as I understand it, on the kitchen table. I had two brothers. One died when he was only less than a year old during the flu epidemic My other brother Jack was three years older than me and we both went to Colonial Hill Grammar School. And the two closest friends that I had when we were at that grammar school Henry Schlager and Arthur Stern who lived right across the street from the school. I attended Forrest Avenue in 1934 and graduated in 1937. While I was at Forrest, I was in the ROTC as an officer. I was in the Standard Debating Society, the Pan American Club, the National Honor Society and almost everything else, and it was a wonderful experience because at that time, Forest Avenue did have a heavy population of Jewish children, and we were all very friendly.
And I bet you got a lot of Linz pins. Yeah, at Temple Emanuel, I got Linz pins. You know, I don't know whether anybody's ever mentioned about Temple Emanuel, but there There was an old gentleman who built a replica of Jerusalem in the basement of Temple of Manuel. I don't know how long it existed or how accurate it was, but it was very interesting. Do you remember that? Yeah, I sort of remember it, too. I'm trying to think of his name. It started with a W. Yeah. I don't think he was Jewish. I think he was the custodian there. Yeah, maybe so. At any rate, um...
When were you confirmed from Temple? Do you remember? I was confirmed in 1935. I came back from Camp Dallas for a weekend to be confirmed at Temple Emanuel. And in September of 1937, I started the University of Texas in Austin, I joined a Jewish fraternity by the name of Phi Sigma Delta. After two years at Texas I finished my undergraduate work at SMU and I entered law school in September 1941 at SMU and graduated in September 1943 and practiced law from that time on in Dallas. Who did you start your practice of law with? When I got out of law school, it was very difficult to find a job because most of the young lawyers had been drafted or had entered the service, and the older lawyers didn't have time to train a young lawyer.
However, I took a course in appellate procedure from a judge in law school, and he recommended me to L.M. Rice, who lists the McLeod Rice. We practiced in the Tower Petroleum Building. I went to work for him for exactly zero in all the business I could bring in. And in three years, we had a partnership, Rice and Tabaski, which existed until he was killed in an automobile accident in 1952, just about the time my poor wife was pregnant with Mark. And most of my practice was in the motion picture industry, particularly theater owners because that was Mr. Rice's primary clients. My brother Jack had a number of jobs during the service.
He was in the Signal Corps and lived in Cuba. maybe it's where they're holding the prisoners now and in Portland, Maine he was married to a nurse by the name of Josephine and they have four children or is it five? Four The most fortunate thing that ever happened to me in my lifetime was in the late spring of 1950, I met a wonderful girl from Chicago was visiting her sister in Dallas and we became very friendly and got engaged and I married a rich girl. Her name was Shirley Rich and she was from Chicago and we were married in October of 1950. And all the time I was under the impression that she was a rich girl but later found out that was really only her maiden name.
In 1952, we had a son named Mark, and Mark may be the only one in the family with three degrees. He got a degree from Northwestern and he got two degrees from George Washington in Washington, D.C., both a Master in Business and a law degree. And he presently is an assistant attorney general in Austin, and he has two children, two boys. In 1955, my daughter Emily was born, and she is presently an attorney in the city of Dallas and has practiced here since 19... for the last 25 years. We can't redo it all. Alright, start. In the 1950s, while I was trying to make a living as a lawyer and a new father, I became president of Jewish Family Service, and because of my law practice, I also became chief barker of the Variety Club of Dallas.
And later in 1950, when Golden Acres was opened, I helped found it along with Sheps and Khan and several other people, and I was the third president of Dallas Home for Jewish Aid. My law practice during all of that time was mostly in representing people in their business matters and motion picture owners In 1952 my law partner Mike Rice was killed in an automobile accident And at the time, my dear friend Henry Schlinger was working in the same building I am, and he was working for Gerald Leronti. And since I had a two-bay office, I called Henry and I said, we've got plenty of room up here, why don't you come up here and practice with me?
And at that time, Henry moved in with me, and we practiced off until his unfortunate death. Henry and I had a partner by the name of Grover Hart, Jr., who had been a judge, and we had another one named Carlisle Blalock. So we had a nice firm until Grover decided to practice representing the Presbyterian Hospital. And Blalock specialized in examination of title of oil and gas wells, as well as copyright infringement matters. Period. We later formed a firm with Jerry Prager and moved from Tower Petroleum Building to Southland Center for ten years. And after 10 years, we moved to the Crescent and practiced there until we left some 12 years later.
Well, as a matter of fact, you were the first occupants of the Crescent when it opened in Building 3. Is that important? I'll add it. Yeah. I just added it. Oh, all right. As a matter of fact, we were the first tenants in the Crescent. The reason I remember Jerry Prager, when he was looking at the space, they gave him a hard hat like all of the builders used to wear when they were building a building so we were there for a number of years a little balcony overlooking southeast Dallas which is now being built up with apartments all over. and from the present we moved to...
Moved over to Cole Avenue. Yeah, Cole Avenue. Cole, and that was during all this period, Jerry Prager and... Gerald Benson. Gerald Benson. were partners of our firm. Unfortunately, Gerald passed away, and for the last four or five years, I have not been active in the practice because of health reasons, but I still consult with, notably, I had the experience going to the Supreme Court representing theater owners of the city of Dallas. And my associate counsel was Louis Neiser, a very famous New York lawyer. We won the case in the Supreme Court. Later, I was chairman of the steering committee of a multi-district panel of antitrust cases.
of suing all of the motion picture studios. There were other interesting legal matters that we discussed, but I'll go back now to talk a little bit about what our family's interest was in following the religious holidays. As I recall, when we were growing up, We always had, we always went to services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And we always fasted on Yom Kippur We had most Jewish families I think we always had chicken on Sunday night and maybe vegetable soup although I preferred my mother chili What did you do for Passover? for Passover we didn't sweep the house to get all the hummus out but we did eat matzahs and of course I didn't eat too many of them because they made me constipated you're not the only one but we celebrated all of the Jewish holidays and had a lot of friends that celebrated with us My children, I think, continue to celebrate.
And my wife, Shirley, has been very active in the Jewish community, particularly as an officer and a committee person in Temple Emanuel. and she always assisted me or maybe was the dominant force really in many of the Jewish activities that we engaged in. There's nothing notably different in the way we celebrate the Jewish holidays than in anybody else but we always remember them and we always celebrate them and we still do. How would you describe the involvement of the Jewish community in the city of Dallas in general over the years? How would I what? How would you describe the involvement of the Jewish community in the city of Dallas over the years from your perspective, from 85 years of thinking about it?
Okay. You remember that one you wanted me? Yeah. Okay. From my early recollection until today, I always got the impression, which I think was correct, that even though there was not a great number of Jews, the Jewish families particularly contributed to the growth. and education of this city. Many of them have served in many offices and they're well recognized. I remember no serious anti-Semitic outbreaks against the Jewish families in the 85 years that I knew of it. But we've had teachers, we've had doctors, we've had lawyers, and other professionals throughout the city, and I think the Jewish families were, of course, at one time, the merchants of the city of Dallas.
You had Sanger Brothers, you had Teichgettingers, you had A. Harris, and, of course, you had Neiman Marcus. E.M. Cans, Dreyfus. Huh? E.M. Cans and Dreyfus. E.M. Cans and Dreyfus. and so that they brought to Dallas the same passions, the same products that you could get in New York, although I admit everybody likes to go to New York to buy the stuff there if they could. So looking at the overall growth of this community into this Metroplex, I think the Jews have made a very big contribution professionally and as educators and as leaders. We going to conclude this interview with Edwin by letting him tell you about the things that he some other things that he loves very much and those are sports and his grandchildren Hold on I was always interested in sports and for the last 25 to 30 years was a great Dallas Cowboy fan.
We had season tickets along with the Slingers and the Stearns at Texas Stadium. And we faithfully attended most all of the games unless it was snowing. In addition to that, I want to mention that my daughter, who has practiced law here for 25 years, is now running for a judgeship. My son is now head of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition section of the Attorney General's office in Austin. My son Mark has two children, Aaron and J.T. Poole. is the youngest one. He's a golfer. The oldest one entered college this year and is studying at A&M. And I want to say that I'm very proud of all the grandchildren, my children, and principally the most dominant thing in my life was a wonderful woman that I married, Charlie.
And let's mention that J.T. Kuhl's name is really James. Oh, J.T. Kuhl's name is really James Tobey. And he's a sports enthusiast like his grandpa. He's a sports enthusiast and is learning how to be a golfer. Okay, thank you, Edwin Tabaloski, for this wonderful interview for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society's Oral History Archives.