Evelyn Oppenheimer
Evelyn Oppenheimer was born in Dallas to Lewis and Gertrude Oppenheimer, who settled in the city right after their marriage in 1900. Her father, born in Germany and raised in Ohio and Illinois, had been a traveling salesman across the pioneering Southwest before choosing Dallas over Detroit as the place to open his business. Her mother came from Missouri, the American-born child of a grandfather from Mannheim, Germany, who had some rabbinical training, and a grandmother from Alsace-Lorraine. The family home stood on South Irby Street near the old City Park, in what was then the main Jewish residential area of South Dallas, and Evelyn recalled riding her pony through the woods toward Park Row as a child.
Raised in a completely Reformed and liberal household, Evelyn attended Sunday school at the Temple on Irby Street and later on South Boulevard, where she was confirmed by Rabbi Levi. She attended City Park School and Forest Avenue High School, where she was a cheerleader and part of an outstanding student body. Rather than follow her classmates to the University of Texas, she sought a different path, and after being turned away from Columbia by its quota system on Jewish students, her first deep experience of anti-Semitism, she attended the University of Chicago. There she graduated Phi Beta Kappa around 1929 or 1930 with a bachelor of philosophy degree, worked in newspaper book reviewing, and toured Europe.
Returning to Dallas as an only child to be near her parents, Evelyn built a groundbreaking career in professional oral book reviewing, insisting that reviews should inspire people to read rather than merely entertain. She gave public reviews at Sanger Brothers and then Titche-Goettinger, drawing crowds during the war years, and later launched what became the oldest radio book program in the United States. She taught reviewing at Texas Tech, the University of Texas, UCLA, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Dallas, and SMU, wrote several books including Texas in Color, Red River Dust, and a biography of Frank Tolbert, co-edited The Book of Dallas, and worked as a literary agent for Southwestern writers. A lifelong member of Temple Emanu-El, she credited her parents with instilling honesty, integrity, and a strong sense of values.
She recalled a Dallas in which the major stores, many owned by Jewish families, all closed for the High Holy Days.
Full Transcript
I'm Bernice Waldman, and I'm interviewing Evelyn Oppenheimer at her home at 7929 Meadow Park Drive in Dallas, Texas. This interview is part of a project of the Dallas Jewish Archive and the National Council of Jewish Women. Evelyn, how long have you been in Dallas? Bernice, I was born here. Oh, you were born here. I'm a native. My mother and father, Lewis and Gertrude Oppenheimer, came here right after they were married in 1900. and there was, my father settled here, they were from, my mother was from Missouri, and my father was from Ohio and Illinois. Actually, he was born in Germany, but had been brought over when he was an infant.
But they came here and they settled here and they had a child before me who did not live and then considerably later on after that I was born. Their home, when I was born they had built a home on South Irby Street which was not far from the old city park and of course that was where most people did live the residential area was out Irby Street to South Boulevard Forest Avenue out that way and that was the main residential area except for Let's see, it might have been Munger Place was first opened. Highland Park very slowly and considerably later, Oklahoma Highland Park. Now back to your parents coming to Dallas did they ever tell you why they came here My father chose Dallas to open his business here He had selected two cities to decide between and he certainly had foresight as to what those small cities at that time would become, because one of them was Detroit and the other was Dallas, and he chose Dallas to keep here.
He had traveled down through this section. He had been a traveling man for companies in Missouri, Joplin, Missouri, St. Joe, and also Kansas City. And he had traveled the Southwest when it was really a pioneering country in the 90s and the turn of the century. So, he came from, you say, from Missouri? My mother was in Missouri. Your mother was in Missouri, okay. And she came with your father? Of course. Okay. They had just been married. Now, were her parents from Europe, or were they born in the United States? No, my mother's parents were from, my grandfather on my mother's side was from Mannheim, Germany.
My grandmother was from Alsace-Lorraine. My grandfather also had had some rabbinical training. They came over to this country shortly after the Civil War. I was a mother, settled in Missouri, Kirksville, Missouri. So she was how many generations in America? My grandmother? No, your mother. Well, my mother was the second, was American-born first generation. Right, so she was first generation. Yes. Okay. My father's family came from Hessen-Darmstadt in Germany. Now, do you remember much about what Dallas was like when you were growing up? Of course I do. What about your neighborhood? I remember it very well. So the neighborhood let see across from us the old Morris Liebman family lived and up a few houses the Buell family the old Buell Lumber Company here.
Also, Dr. Aronson, Dr. Emil Aronson, whose son Howard also became later a doctor and so the neighborhood extended up to South Boulevard the old Simon Lynn's home was up there on one corner I recall and the Dreyfus family My home was there too. Park Row was really just pretty much woods. Really? Oh, yes. I can remember as a little kid, I had a pony, I'm glad to say, and my father had a horse. I grew up with horse and pony, and we used to ride horseback on Sunday mornings up Irvey Street. to Park Row and out in the woods there. And where did you go to school?
Forest Avenue High School. How about home entry? Oak Grove, it was called originally, and then City Park School, and then to Forest Avenue High School. Do you remember much about City Park? Oh, of course I do. It was a good school. We had good schools then. Any particular features? Oh, I remember several there, but not at the moment by name. I know we used to have lunch periods out in the park. I remember getting into a fight with one little girl one day over, of course, she stole the pickle out of my lunch basket. But, and of course there was a boy there that I thought was the most wonderful thing in the world for a short period of time.
But it was a good school. And of course Forrest Avenue High School was an outstanding high school in its faculty Anyone at Forest High that stands out for you Well, there were so many. Of course, all, I would say, all of the sons and daughters of the Jewish families, concentrated as they were in South Dallas at that time, all of them went. and of course many others too. There weren't a lot of high schools. There was Oak Cliff and there was Bryant and we used to have violent football rivalries of course. Who'd you go to the game? Oh, I was one of the cheerleaders. Who were you?
cheerleaders say so and very much interested in several members of the ROTC at Forest at that time there was some very very fine fellows there from families other than Jewish families Otis Dozier the artist was one of them the Estes brothers, oh my goodness there were so many. It was an outstanding group of students really. The Messina boys who later opened the Sámi restaurants were from all Forests Avenue. but the teachers were excellent the Latin teacher Ethel Masters taught me as much as anyone ever did later on at the University of Chicago old Edna Rowe who was a hellion really but a very fine teacher of English literature and a number of others was just an excellent excellent school and one was able if you did your job there, you were perfectly equipped to go on to any top quality college or university anywhere.
Well, we're going to get to university. I'd like to know something about Jewish life, the Jewish environment now. Did you go to Sunday school? Yes, I did. And I must say I was rather miserable. We won't claim this for anyone. Of course, it's perfectly all right. I'm sure there were a number of others. Where did you go? Well, at that time the temple, which I earliest remember, of course was on Irby Street. almost across the temple and the old Colombian club they were down there by the old home of Alex singer and so I began there at the temple on Irby Street and then of course finished up my Sunday schooling at the temple on South Boulevard when in Dr.
left which is time who confirmed me. So you confirmed. Did your parents go to services? Did they belong to the temple? Of course. Well, some people said... Yeah. No, my father joined immediately when he came here. He was not in any way a violent religious man at all. but of course he joined the temple and my mother was one of the early members of the, in fact I have some of their papers on that my mother was early on member of the Council of Jewish Women you mean the high holy days? Well, High Holy Days, you know, Semperatora, and any other... Not in any, shall I say, Orthodox fashion at all.
My parents were completely Reformed and completely liberal in their outlook Thank goodness I was brought up in an environment where I celebrated everybody holidays And it simply was a holiday. There was no, except for our own religious holidays, mainly the High Holy Days, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. About Passover? Of course, yes, Passover. Yes. Okay. Now, when you finished at Forest, you said a while ago you went to the U.S. to Chicago, how did you make that choice? I made it because I did not want everybody that I had been with all through high school, everybody was just going in mass down to the University of Texas.
And I really wanted something different. I wanted to be with new people. I didn't want to just go on being Forest Avenue High School through the University of Texas. And at first we had thought of one of the girls' colleges, Vassar or Wellesley. And I didn't want to do that because I preferred going to a co-educational institution. I didn't especially like the idea of just a girl's school. And I, even then, had the thinking and the feeling that I wanted to be in a university atmosphere. Originally, I planned to go to Columbia. and there I got my first shock. I had never really differentiated myself in my own thinking from anybody else except from a standpoint of class of decency and mind and culture and that kind of thing But when I learned that Columbia was restricted to the quota system and that my credentials, which were as good as they could be, I still wouldn't cut the cake there because the quota of Jewish students had been reached.
This was the first shock, really in-depth shock, of prejudice and anti-Semitism I'd ever felt in my life and at all places at a university of that standing and magnitude. Immediately, I made the switch to the University of Chicago, and it was one of the very finest things that could ever have happened. And it was a blessing in disguise, really, that I went to the University of Chicago because it was and is and always will be an outstanding university of the very finest in faculty and scholarship. and it was just the luckiest thing in the world that it was possible that I could study there and be under the men and women who were on that faculty.
And when I graduated there, that was just shortly after Robert Hutchins had come in as president. What year did you graduate? That was, I have to look at the diploma, it was either 29 or 30. And I graduated with, I'm glad to say, for my parents' sake, I was glad that it happened than for me because I was glad that I graduated with Phi Beta Kappa which of course was very meaningful to them and after all that had been made possible for me that was a gratification to me for them 1929, when they built... Oh yes, the crash. What was going on then? The crash.
The crash. the Depression and I saw them selling apples on the corners, the street corners. Of course people jumping out of the office building windows in Chicago financial district and all that. I stayed on in Chicago. Well I worked while I was at the university. I did book reviewing for one of the Chicago newspapers and then afterwards I went on with the newspaper work in book reviewing for another year after graduation, after getting my degree, which was a bachelor of philosophy degree, which is not much given down in this part of the country. and was also connected with a bookstore up there for a while.
And then being an only child, why, of course, I felt that I should come home. In the meantime, though, I had also had a quarter of a year on a European grand tour with a group. Now, had you made up your mind about a career choice while you were? Oh, there were so many things I wanted to do. I was so excited with everything that was open and possible in that marvelous atmosphere there. I wanted to go into archaeology, and I wanted to go into law. And I was advised, remember at that time, the faculties in the universities were not as open to women as they should have been.
And again, the quota system worked. In Chicago? No, not in Chicago. ... other universities and colleges, and the... One of my deans there spelled it out to me, how slim the chances would be for what I really wanted to try to amount to, and that if I went into law, I'd just be working in somebody's law office doing their briefs for them, that kind of thing. Anyway, and the same in archaeology at that time. Anyway, when I had been coming home on vacation, it was a very interesting thing because, of course, I had been reviewing on the Chicago papers for, well, all the time I was there.
and when I came home to Dallas on vacation, I was asked by the, I think it was the council, as a matter of fact, the Council of Jewish Women. I'd have to look that up and check on it. I was asked to give a book review. I thought that was the funniest thing I ever heard of. You've never heard of anyone doing a book review? Orally, not at all. and now this was in the 30s and I got it together what I thought it should be combining both a review and adapted into lecture entertainment form and gave it and I was very very interested in the reaction of the audience which was a huge audience at that particular time.
And they either violently liked it or they violently disliked it. And I was especially interested in the people who finally had the candor that they did dislike it to find out why. And I found out that it was because it wasn't what they were used to. And then I began investigating here and found that there was a good deal of so book reviewing being done This was a profession which did not as most things always have originate in the East and move westward. But this was something that had originated on the West Coast and was very slowly moving eastward and had come to Dallas, California.
And I went to hear some of these reviews and I was appalled because with the exception of one lady who had a very fine educational background, Mrs. Roscoe Bates, her name was. Otherwise, other than that, these things that were being given were nothing in the world but entertainments. They were nothing in the world but shows. They went through a book and they were storytelling as you would for a child and the result was nobody needed to read was left with a desire to read the book and of course that was absolutely appalling to me because if there's one thing a reviewer wants to do it is interest people in reading And so I got very interested in the possibilities of this, at the time, new profession.
And by sheer accident, as you can see, I got into it. And when I came back here to stay, I was not so much interested in staying with private clubs as to get to the public. and I went to the man who was the head of Sanger Brothers at that time because they had an auditorium. Mr. E.P. Simmons was his name, and he engaged me to begin giving book reviews there for the public, which I did with absolutely remarkable response. This was just leading into the war years I didn stay with Zangers long I went with Titech Gettinger Mr Milton Panders who was at the head of advertising at that time for what was Titech Gettinger And they had a much bigger auditorium.
It was their entire top floor. And it had a seating capacity of between 500 and 600, which they later enlarged to accommodate the crowds. and we began giving the programs there. I started out at what I thought was a reasonable thing to do once a month. It went to once a week during the war years of the 40s. It went to twice a week, sometimes at night, sometimes on Saturday afternoons in order to accommodate men as well as women. And people came in from all the surrounding area. They would come in and attend the book review. And I remember very well because I began with Gone With the Wind.
I guess I was the only reviewer in this part of the country at that time who said that it would be a classic. Anyway, people poured in, as I said, and they would come in, go to the review, have lunch or dinner or whatnot, shop, and return home. And it was quite a remarkable thing, the way it all evolved and happened. Then I got the idea that that wasn't reaching enough public because always my interest has been in getting to as many people as possible to promote reading. And that was when I got the idea of going on the air, going on radio, because the figures on radio can never be rated or known.
Every car wherever millions out on the highways the streets I wanted to reach the general public on as wide a scope as possible And of course that's when I went into radio. And now have the oldest, the oldest radio book program in the United States, some 35 years now on the air. Now, when you started at Sanger Road, do you remember what they paid you for book reviews? Not enough. That might be of interest. Well, of course, there's been a little explainer. I thought it would be of interest. Definitely not enough. Well, at the time, of course, it was okay. And I was getting started.
And let's face it, the dollar was the dollar then. And the Depression had some very fine and good effects, because people read, and they weren't running around and spending money on outside entertainment as much, and books were priced reasonably, instead of being out of all reason now in hardback. Fortunately, the paperback evolved. to pick up the slack. But it was a reading public, much more so. Not that we don't have a reading public, I don't mean that. But it was even bigger than, and in a different way, in a different way. Of course, we have more and more books coming out all the time, thousands and thousands and thousands, hundreds of which should never be published.
But in any event, that was the way it worked out, Bernice. So you've really never done anything that wasn't connected with books? Of course I got into other things that were related. I got into my own writing of books. I was asked to teach reviewing, professional oral reviewing, and prepare a text for it, which I did. I've taught at and to teach the course. A course in professional oral reviewing. The first one that I gave was out at Texas Tech, then the University of Texas in Austin, then UCLA, then by extension the University of Wisconsin, then the University of Dallas here, and then SMU. I don't think I've left anything out.
For the record, I was in your class now. I know. I know you were. That's why I was a little hesitant. You better come on in now and say how good, bad, or indifferent it was. She was just marvelous. She's being very gracious. But that's what happened. And then, again, by accident, I got into literary agenting because some 25 years ago, a West Texas writer had become disenchanted with some of the racketeering that goes on in the East and preferred working with someone closer to home. And so the agenting has developed, and there are several of handling quite a number of Southwestern writers. I never give out names of clients because it's an invasion of their privacy.
Other people try to get in touch with them. Of course, one of my outstanding authors is Aleith Kirkland, did the great historical novel out of Texas called Love is a Wild Assault, Robert and Harry Potter's story. And so I have continued with the agenting and still do, but I'm more interested in, and I always be interested in books I more interested right now in my own writing But some of the fine honors I would call them that have meant much to me just this year, 1987, the book publishers of Texas Association conferred their media award on me, which I'm very proud of because it was their recognition of what I've done for Texas writers and Texas books.
And my faith in what has evolved and what continues to emerge here in very, very excellent writing. Of course, there have been other things. I'm a member of Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, our North Texas Phi Beta Kappa Association, and so forth. As for the books which I've worked with and have written, the first one was a book called Texas in Color, which is part of the Profiles of America series. It's still in print and a very good overall, somewhat superficial as it had to be, yet a good overall coverage of the state. Then I did a book on true stories of the North Texas frontier when Clarksville was the main frontier town in North Texas long before Dallas was ever on the map.
That was called Red River Dust. And I mentioned the book on oral reviewing, oral book reviewing to stimulate reading. A book of considerable importance that I worked with as co-author and co-editor, The Book of Dallas which Doubleday published that was of great importance because of the men and the persons rather I should say because one was a woman who wrote the various chapters They were the persons who were most expert, authentic experts in their fields. And one of the chapters was done by Eric Johnson. Another was done by Walter Humann. Another on the mercantile history by Stanley Marcus. The real estate development chapter, which was done by Raymond Nasher.
The great chapter on the history of finance in Dallas, which was done by the late W.W. Overton, Jr. In religion, the chapter on the history of religion in Dallas by the late Rabbi Levi Levi Olin the chapter on sports history of sports by Blackie Sherrod the education chapter Dr. Bill priest of the community colleges the arts which were that chapter was covered by a woman Tony Beck chapter on politics by AC Green and the person who did the co-editing with me was Bill Porterfield and then I had a chapter in it too an epilogue which I call return of the natives being a native myself I guess that That about covers that, except to get up to what is really most recent this past year, the last year, 1986.
And I have two books come out which were of great interest to me, and I'm glad to say to a few others too. One was a biography of my very dear friend the late Frank Talbert the author and historian and of course famed Dallas News columnist Frank Talbert And that book was published under the title Frank Talbert of Texas the man and his work that was published by TCU Press and then of all things a children's book for Christmas called Tilly Comes to Texas and Tilly happens to be spelled T-I-L-L-I there's no E because it's an abbreviation of an Indian name and it's the story of a little blue spruce and the story begins up in British Columbia and comes down to Texas obviously But what is of most concern in it is what happens after Christmas.
What has really inspired me to do that was because I've always been so upset by going out after the holidays and seeing all these beautiful trees thrown out in the gutters and garbage cans and dumpsters and whatnot. and so I suppose that was one of the things that inspired this particular story of Till He Comes to Texas. Those are the most recent books. I am working on another book now, which I'm not ready to talk about yet, But it too will be about, that one will be about a completely overlooked pioneer here in Texas. Incredible how these things happen. But of course that's the fascination of history is that there's always so much more of it that is not known.
You know, somebody digs it out. You have done so much for the literary and cultural lifestyle. Have you ever found that being a woman, creating barriers, I know you could go into law because at the time you would have gone to law school, opportunities just weren't there for women. How about in the literary? Well, I'm sorry to say there are jealousies in all the arts. There are jealousies. I have encountered some difficulty. Not so much. I don't know whether it would be a matter. I hate to think of religious prejudice. I don't think along those lines. I know it exists and has to be recognized and handled.
I don't know that being a woman has been a great deterrent, though I'm sure there have been, in fact I'm very sure, There have been several men, quite a number of them, who have resented what one accomplishes. Now you've named the literary organizations that you've been active in. Have you had time to be part of any of the other civic or cultural activities in doubt? Not a lot. I simply haven't had time for it. And frankly, Bernice, I am not a joiner. I don like the politics that are present sooner or later in every type of organization and I stay out of politics Are you still a member of Temple May?
Oh, heavens, yes. Still a member? Always will be. Yeah. Yes. And still go to holidays? Of course. Yeah. I've always stood, let it be known, I don't wave flags, but I have always stood for what I am. And I can remember so well when, during the high holy days, every store in Dallas was closed. All the major stores, of course, at that time were owned and operated by the Jews. There was Sanger Brothers, there was Lynn's, there was E.M. Cann, there was Dreyfus. You just go up and down the list. Neiman Marcus. Neiman Marcus, of course, Teich Gettinger. and when the high holidays came I simply posted in the paper that the stores were closed for a religious holiday and it was fine and non-Jews had more respect for it for the situation of course later all those stores changed hands or owned otherwise or in corporate ownership or whatever And that's all, that's a bit of ancient history, I suppose.
Right. Now you mentioned earlier that your mother was an early member of the Council of Jewish Women. Yes. Was she very active? That would be an interesting thing. Oh, I don't think, not in any sense of being an officer or anything like that. She simply was a member and supported it and attended whatever was to be attended. I think it's interesting that she was one of the pioneer members and one of the co-sponsors of this art cart oral history project that comes to Jewish women, and I find that very interesting. Well, you have been so gracious, Evelyn, with your time, and I'm just fascinated with a lot of things.
Well, I think this is a very important project. Any project like this is important. Anything that preserves history anywhere in any region. because the past simply must be remembered. And more than that, it's interesting. That's what history is all about. That's right. I think it's fascinating. Are there any values that you got in the whole growing up with your parents that have helped you through the years Everything, I would say. Honesty, integrity, sense of values, perhaps most of all. A sense of discipline. but a sense of values of what really matters and what doesn't. And what did they do? What was most important about what really matters?
Oh, that's... They should have had ten children. It's a shame that parents as great as that only had one. Of course, there was a child before me. who did not live. But to place their primary value, sense of value, well, it would be on the family, on the home, and on a sense of honor and living honorably. Well, thank you so much, Evelyn, for being so generous with your time. And I wish you many, many fruitful years of all your good work. Thank you. Lots of good work. Thank you for me as well. You're all wonderful. It's been a joy to work with you.