Crystal Springs: Where the Music Flowed

In 2015 many readers of the Star-Telegram might have passed over the yellow-highlighted phrase in this article about the Fort Worth city council:

“Once the site of a dance hall” indeed.

Milton_Brown wikiEighty years ago that location—5336 White Settlement Road near the West Fork of the Trinity River four miles northwest of downtown—indeed was the site of a dance hall. There on a summer night one could have heard a fiddle, a banjo, a piano, the voice of Milton Brown (photo from Wikipedia), and a few hundred people trying to forget the Great Depression one two-step at a time. Many people even say the dance hall was the cradle of western swing music.

That was Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion.

The cradle of western swing had humble origins. In 1918 (the year Milton Brown’s family moved to Fort Worth from Stephenville), these five acres by the river were just “Papa” Sam Cunningham’s sand and gravel pit. Papa Sam was excavating sand and gravel for the Army’s nearby Camp Bowie when he discovered the springs. Crystal-clear water filled a hole as fast as he dug it.

milton brown 1920By 1920 Milton Brown was sixteen, and his family lived on Morton Street just off Burleson Avenue, now University Drive.

crystal 1923 majesticIn 1923 Milton performed in an amateur show at the Majestic Theater. (Roy McBride was Milton’s best friend.) Note that Star-Telegram artist Jay Plangman lectured.

Out at Papa Sam’s sand and gravel pit by the river, in 1925 (the year Brown graduated from Arlington Heights High School) Cunningham decided to turn a bother into a boon: He let the springs have their way. Their water turned a hole in the ground into a small lake for swimming. Then he built a concrete swimming pool (the springs kept it, too, filled). He added some picnic tables. He moved in a wooden building that had been a store at Camp Bowie and turned it into a dance pavilion. Nothing fancy: The pavilion had ceiling fans for summer and a coal-burning stove for winter. As business grew Cunningham added an open-air dance floor.

And he named his resort, appropriately, “Crystal Springs.”

Crystal Springs offered fishing (Papa Sam also sold minnows), swimming, dancing, and picnicking. Papa Sam stressed a family atmosphere. Children were welcome, even on the dance floor. Papa Sam tried to control drinking and fighting. His bouncer was his two hundred-pound son, Henry.

crystal 1925 orchestra wbapPapa Sam even formed an orchestra that performed on WBAP radio. Note also that Montgomery Ward, then housed in the old Chevy plant on West 7th Street, also had an orchestra, led by Frank Maco.

crystal 1930 good stringBut Crystal Springs struggled through its first five years. Then, in 1930 Cunningham hired a western string band whose members included Bob Wills and Milton Brown. That band would soon have divided loyalties after W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel hired the band to promote his Burrus Mills and its Light Crust Dough. The band became the Light Crust Doughboys and was sponsored on radio by Burrus Mills.

Milton Brown’s baby brother, Roy Lee, recalled in 2013, “Bob [Wills] and Milton and Herman [Arnspiger] were original members of the Doughboys. O’Daniel didn’t want the band just sitting around when they weren’t performing on the radio. So he gave them jobs at the mill. Milton was a salesman, Bob drove a truck, Herman worked on the loading dock. O’Daniel also didn’t like the Doughboys to play out at Crystal Springs.”

crystal springs brown scan 2That didn’t dissuade “Papa” Sam Cunningham. Author Gary Ginell, in Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing, wrote that Cunningham had printed a flyer promoting Crystal Springs and the Light Crust Doughboys:

Crystal Springs the place to play
Join us friends and help us stay . . .
Bring your friends and family here
Dough Boys Band you will like to cheer.

(Photo from Roy Lee Brown.)

Roy Lee Brown recalled that Milton left the Light Crust Doughboys in 1932 and formed his own band, the Musical Brownies. Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies played at Crystal Springs almost every week from 1932 to 1936.

Crystal Springs was part of the Brownies’ livelihood but also their musical laboratory. Brown continued to experiment with the band’s sound. In 1932 he added a piano to his “string band” when Fred Calhoun joined the band.

With Calhoun’s lively playing, the Brownies were a “string band” no more.

Roy Lee Brown, who joined the band in 1935, recalled: “Fred improvised. That’s what western swing is: improvisation. Just like jazz. Milton was the first to have a jazz piano, the first to have double fiddles, the first to use amplified instruments in a western swing band.”

crystal springs milton 1From about 1933, standing from left: Fred Calhoun, Cecil Brower, Jesse Ashlock, Wanna Coffman, Derwood Brown, Ocie Stockard. Sitting: Henry “Babe” Cunningham, Milton Brown, “Papa” Sam Cunningham. (Photo from Roy Lee Brown.)

But western swing did not easily find its niche. In the early 1930s many people considered western music to be “hillbilly music,” especially people in Fort Worth who wanted to distance Cowtown from its cow town past.

Eventually Crystal Springs caught on, even though in the 1930s it was located out in the country. To reach it, people walked, hitchhiked, and arrived on bicycles and in Cadillacs.

crystal springs milton bus 1 “Papa” Sam even added shuttle service. Son Henry would drive an old bus downtown to the streetcar line, pick up passengers, and carry them to the Springs for ten cents. The Brownies also used the bus for their tours. (Photo from Roy Lee Brown.)

crystal springs milton bus 2Posing at Crystal Springs with the band’s bus: Henry “Babe” Cunningham, “Papa” Sam Cunningham, Milton Brown, Derwood Brown, Jesse Ashlock, Ocie Stockard, and Wanna Coffman. (Photo from Roy Lee Brown.)

Soon, when Milton Brown and the Brownies played at Crystal Springs, as many as one thousand people filled the pavilion to dance to a sound that was evolving before their very ears: western swing. Bonnie and Clyde, despite being wanted by the law, would drive out to Crystal Springs to dance.

After the Brownies began broadcasting by radio from the Springs, Bonnie and Clyde also listened to broadcasts on the radio in their car. Musician J. B. Brinkley recalled in Ginell’s book: “Clyde Barrow had an old Ford which had a radio in it and they always listened  to Milton’s broadcast when they were in town. Clyde’s favorite tune was ‘My Mary’ and he’d call Crystal Springs and get Papa Sam on the phone and say, ‘Hey, Pop! Tell ol’ Milton to play “My Mary” and dedicate it to “you-know-who”!’ He’d never say who he was but Pop knew his voice. And Milton would go on the air and say, ‘OK, here is “My Mary” and we want to dedicate it to “you-know-who.”’”

Brinkley’s father was “Blackie” Brinkley, a bouncer at Crystal Springs in the early 1930s.
J. B. Brinkley recalled: “We didn’t have a car, but my daddy knew that all he had to do was walk down to the corner of University and Seventh Street and stand there and before long, somebody would drive by that he knew and say, ‘Hey, Blackie! You going to Crystal Springs? Well, get in!’ Well, one time, here comes Bonnie and Clyde. She was driving and he was on the passenger’s side with a machine gun on his lap. They were going real fast but they stopped when they saw my dad. They knew each other, see. So Bonnie slams on the brakes. SCREEEE! She leans out and says, ‘Hey, Blackie! You going to Crystal Springs?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ She says, ‘Well, we’re a little hot right now but you’re welcome to ride with us if you want to.’ Daddy looked in there, saw that machine gun, and just waved them on: ‘No, I think I’ll wait for somebody else. Thanks just the same, you go ahead.’”
Ginell writes: “The dance hall developed a reputation as being a rough place, especially when word got out that Bonnie and Clyde were regular dancers. There was always an abundance of fistfights at Crystal Springs but never a report of a killing.”

Roy Lee Brown recalled: “Nobody ever got killed, but once in a while somebody pulled a knife. People like Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, they were killers all right, but they never caused any trouble when they came out there. They just wanted to dance like everyone else. One reason there was never any real violence at Crystal Springs was Henry Cunningham, Papa Sam’s son. . . . Henry was called ‘Baby Henry’ or just ‘Babe.’ He was about six feet one or two and must have weighed about 250 pounds. . . . Papa Sam had Henry act as bouncer, and if a fight started, he’d jump right in. They had as many as four or five bouncers working there at one time. Henry wore a big .45 caliber pistol. He got a permit as a special deputy sheriff from the Tarrant County sheriff’s department and was allowed to carry a gun. He wore it on the outside of his trousers. It wasn’t concealed or anything. I never saw him pull it, but I’ll tell you one thing for sure: it was loaded.”

By 1934 the Brownies were perhaps the most popular western swing band in Texas. That year the band also began to record on the Bluebird label.

By 1935 Brown and his band were still playing at Crystal Springs on Saturdays but now recording for the Decca label. Brown’s star was rising in parallel with that of Bob Wills, who had formed the Texas Playboys band.

crystal 1935 bob willsWills and his Playboys continued to play at Crystal Springs.

crystal radio sched 11-27-35 dmnBy 1935 both the Musical Brownies and the Playboys were heard on radio stations WFAA and WBAP. Clip is from the November 27 Dallas Morning News.

crystal 1936 radio

By April 9, 1936 “good string music” was in the air everywhere. Papa Sam’s Crystal Springs Ramblers performed on radio station KTAT. Flour companies were popular sponsors of western bands: the Gladiola (milled by Edna Gladney‘s husband Sam) Gentlemen on WFAA and the Burrus Mills Light Crust Doughboys and Bewley‘s Chuck Wagon Gang on WBAP. Also on WBAP were Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies.

But four days later, about 3 a.m. on the night of April 13, 1936, Brown was driving on Jacksboro Highway after his band had performed at Crystal Springs. He was giving a ride home to a teenage girl who had slipped out of the house to go listen to Milton and his Brownies.

jacksboro avalon 1His 1936 Pontiac Silver Streak hit a telephone pole across from the Avalon Motor Court. Brown may have fallen asleep at the wheel. He had a history of narcolepsy.

milton brown wreck 1Passenger sixteen-year-old Katherine Prehoditch was killed. Note that the report refers to Jacksboro Highway as “Northwest Highway.”

milton brown radio listingThe show must go on: This listing appeared in the Star-Telegram radio schedule on April 16. And note that Ozzie Nelson and Orchestra closed the broadcast day at 11:30 p.m. on CBS.

milton brown wreck 2On April 18, 1936—eighty-six years ago today—Milton Brown died of his injuries.

brown grave Crystal Springs’s Milton Brown is buried in another springs: Smith Springs Cemetery outside Stephenville. He was thirty-two years old.

crystal 1937 juniorAfter Milton’s death, baby brother Roy Lee formed the Junior Brownies.

As for Milton’s original band, brother Derwood took over as bandleader. The band, now just the “Musical Brownies,” performed on KTAT and KRLD, but for many Crystal Springs patrons, Milton Brown was the Brownies, and the Brownies were a big part of Crystal Springs. When Milton died, part of Crystal Springs died, too. The Brownies disbanded in 1937. Patronage declined at Crystal Springs. Establishment of Tarrant Field (later Carswell Air Force Base) and adjacent Air Force Plant 4, operated by Consolidated Aircraft, in 1942 provided some new patrons into the 1950s. But eventually the pavilion was open only on Saturday nights.

crystal 1952 nightbclubBy 1952 the Ramblers still played, but now Crystal Springs was billed as a “night club.”

After “Papa” Sam Cunningham died in 1955, son Henry ran Crystal Springs and added a mobile home park.

crystal 1960 amlotteBy 1960 Crystal Springs was owned or at least operated by Mrs. Edna Amlotte. Sam’s son Henry ran the mobile home park.crystal 1960 chaney

In 1960 Crystal Springs still offered “western swing music at its best.” And Crystal Springs had plenty of competition from other ballrooms: Casino, Covered Wagon, Hi-Ho. (Or you could watch the World Series at Zuider Zee or hear Bo Diddley at Jack’s Place.)

crystal-wills-61In 1961 one of the legends of western swing was back at Crystal Springs thirty-one years after his first performance there.

crystal 1963 momsIn 1963 the ballroom was briefly “Mom’s Crystal Springs.” Note that elsewhere around town you could hear Sandy Sandifer, Bo Diddley, Ray Sharpe, and Bruce Channel at Casino Ballroom, the Drifters at the Skyliner on Jacksboro Highway, or Freddie King and Ray Sharpe at Club Linda Lou.

crystal 1963 chaney Later in 1963 the ballroom became Ray Chaney’s Stage Coach Inn.

The Stage Coach Inn closed out the year 1966 with Tommy Duncan, a founding member of the Texas Playboys.

The year 1967 dealt a double blow. Tommy Duncan died. And the Stage Coach Inn, originally “Crystal Springs,” the dance hall that had been born of water, was destroyed by fire.

(Trivia: One of the passenger cars of the Forest Park miniature train was named for Mary Helen Hames, a daughter of train concessionaire Bill Hames. She was married to Milton Brown, Brown pianist Fred “Papa” Calhoun, and Bob Wills.)

In 2011 the Texas legislature designated western swing as the “official state music of Texas.” Today many people consider Milton Brown to be the father of western swing (but “Bob Wills is still the king”).

As for Crystal Springs on the River, today it is a reality, and a historical marker there commemorates the dance hall that, many say, gave Texas that official state music.

A documentary film: The Birth & History of Western Swing (2021)

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28 Responses to Crystal Springs: Where the Music Flowed

  1. Sonya says:

    Thanks for the article. My grandfather Hank “Babe”Cunningham died of a heart attack shortly after the place burned down. The stories I heard from my father involved great dedication and work that went into Crystal Springs. I can only imagine the years of loss after the fire, then my father struggled. With his father’s death and sold everything (as I understood). Hank Cunningham Junior passed in 2018 so these memories are precious to hear.

  2. Henry Cunningham III says:

    My name is Henry Cunningham III and Papa Sam was my great great Grandfather. I have a lot of “Baby Henry” and “Junior’s” (my dad) stuff relating to Crystal Springs. Even a picture of Elvis with his arm around my dad during an impromtu visit to the Springs when he played in Fort Worth in 1955. Elvis got on stage that night and played Hound Dog and left as my dad told it. Anyways, thank you again for the wonderful article! Brings back memories of his stories about the Springs.

    • hometown says:

      The Crystal Springs story is a great part of Fort Worth history. And your photo of young Elvis is a priceless family memento. I’d love to add a scan of that photo to my blog post with photo credit to you.

  3. BILL GOODRICH says:

    This has been fantastic reading for me. My mother and I moved to Liberator Village in White Settlement in 1943, while my dad was in the USNavy in the Pacific. My mom worked at “Bomber” plant through 1950. I’m familiar with Crystal Springs Ballroom. Eventually moved to River Oaks.
    What a walk down memory lane for me.

  4. Donna D Johnson says:

    Thanks for sharing your Fort Worth information!

  5. Leticia says:

    In one paragraph 5653 White Settlement Road is given as the address for Crystal Springs Ballroom. In another paragraph it gives 5336 White Settlement Road as the address. Which is it or can you clarify for me please.

  6. Paula Cabluck Day says:

    I am interested in the Crystal Springs area, now that it is targeted for new development. Do you know for whom “Sam Calloway Road” is named … what I mean is … who was “Sam Calloway?” I am doing some research, hoping to find out. 107 Roberts Cutoff is owned by Edgar Callaway (spelling is different, I know) … and wonder if that is key … I’m still looking for info GREAT article here … thank you!

    • hometown says:

      Thanks, Paula. Sam Calloway in 1913 was county superintendent of schools, in 1917 assistant county attorney, in 1918 a special agent in the federal Department of Justice.
      But there also was a Sam Calloway Jr. Several Calloway place names in the Mid-Cities, including Calloway Lake and Calloway Cemetery.

  7. Abby Osvog says:

    Hi Mike,

    Wow, this is such great information! I’m the Marketing Director for The River District (formerly the Riverbend neighborhood of Fort Worth), which includes this Crystal Springs site. We are trying to document the story and history of this area, so I’d love to speak with you if you are open to it!

    Thanks,
    Abby

  8. Tim Marron says:

    Delbert McClinton used to play at the Crystal as
    well.
    Tim Marron

  9. Carl says:

    Thanx everyone for thepostings!

  10. Daniel Neal says:

    Crystal Springs brings back memories of living in the mobile park that had some very large pecan trees. My wife attended TCU majoring in ballet and I commuted to North Texas State Univ. in Denton. Our trailer was a Sundowner and it was our first home together from 74 to 76. I first heard about the popular dance pavilion from the park manager, but only discovered western swing music when my father died in June of 76. During the war years he had known Leon McAuliffe as they trained together as pilots at Corpus Christi and later Pensacola. They may have met up a few times in New Orleans where I was born in Nov. of ’44.

  11. Bob Stewart says:

    In the 1950’s I lived nearby. There were two large gravel pits in the area between White Settlement Road and Sam Calloway Road. The large concrete pool under the dance hall was still operating, and I sometimes went there in the summer. The water was always cool and clear from the spring. This was before the Trinity River was channelized for flood control.

  12. Michele says:

    The “springs” were filled in.

    Look at historical maps from the 1950’s-1980’s. You will see the progression of dancehall and springs, followed by dancehall, trailer park and springs to trailer park and springs, and finally just trailer park.
    My grandmother lived in the trailer park in the 70’s-80’s. There was most definitely a spring there and the address of 5336 is correct. It was located on the side of the river closest to Roberts Cut off.

  13. Dan Mustarde says:

    According to a writeup in Texas State Historical Association, the address was 5653 not 5336. If you look at 5653 on Google Maps, the water is still there – a lake on each side of White Settlement Rd – was that where people went swimming before they danced? In fact there’s a “Duck Crossing” sign. But all the ads state 5336 White Settlement Rd, a location with no water at present. Please check this out.

  14. Arnold Layton says:

    I am sure the date of the fire is wrong. Me and my wife went there on our wedding night January 20, 1967 .

    • hometown says:

      I think that date came from the Ginell book. I ran the S-T files for the fire in 1966 and 1967 and found no mention of the fire at all. But I found that Chaney was still on White Settlement Road in mid-1966 but was in the “new” Stagecoach Inn on East Belknap in April 1967. I will make the correction. Thanks.

  15. Larry Oneal says:

    If anyone has any photos of crystal springs or the brownies / I will buy them .

  16. S. Cribbs says:

    Wow!! I have lived most of my life just across White Settlement and down the street from where Crystal Springs was located and all I’ve even know was it was a trailer park until very recently! It’s very sad to think that now a place filled with such history will now soon be filled with uppity condos. I am saddened and a bit mad at myself for not knowing this information, attending the neighborhood meetings, and trying to put a stop to the urbanizing of such a historic spot.

  17. Billy Byrd says:

    Several years ago Roy Lee Brown and a mutual friend and I drove out to White Settlement to view the site of Crystal Springs. That was my first encounter with that site. Later I drove out again on my own and walked over the area and took several picture for my own interest. I though how great it would be to buy that site and make it into a historical preservation the the Music of Texas. Now Texas had made the Music the Official Music of Texas and now we stand at the door of making it the Historical place it should be. I will be the first to visit you when it is ready for visitors. If I can be of help in contacting Roy Lee’s family and friends for more information please do so. Roy Lee co-wrote a book of great history about Milton Brown and Western Swing…great reading.

  18. Henry cunningham iv says:

    I am one of the long lines of the cunninghams I am the 4th my grandpa told me all that was to tell about crystal springs, Bonnie and Clyde, he also told me he worked there with my great great uncle. My great great uncle played in one of the first country bands, they were also both Texas rangers deputies. There in both of those hall of fames. It’s just so interesting that my family made history.

    • hometown says:

      Your family indeed made history and helped “start something” that lives on. I have seen folks from all over the world Google “Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion.”

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