The Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1963:
E. M. (Eddie) Barr, Ex-Columnist, Dies
Edmond M. (Eddie) Barr, 58, Dallas police reporter during the 1920s and later a leading nightclub columnist here, died Friday in a Houston hospital after an illness of more than a year.
He served as a police reporter on the now defunct Dallas Dispatch during the 1920s and early '30s when prohibition days were in their heyday.
And later, as amusements editor of the Dispatch, he covered the gossip scene like a handmade vest.
During the past 20 years, as a Houston resident, Mr. Barr had served as general assignments reporter for the Houston Press and, in the last eight years, had been associated in the restaurant business.
His gossip column, "Rialto Ramblings," didn't miss much in the local theater world. A casino operator once wrote of Mr. Barr: "He pointed a mean lance, but was ever willing to observe a sort of Hoyle."
As a columnist, Mr. Barr wrote like he dressed - with a romantic flair, "a sort of gallantry that made him a gentleman without even trying to be one."
Even in his later years, he had a debonair look, with iron-gray hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.
As a police reporter in the 1920s and early '30's, Mr. Barr got to know Dallas and its every hidden corner. He was a "24-hour beat man" who rarely left the police station except to make raids and other "risky runs" with the police.
The son of an Italian sculptor, Mr. Barr moved to Texas about the age of six from his birthplace at Barre, Vt. His father carved several statues for courthouse squares throughout Texas.
He left Dallas in 1937 for a fling in publicity work in Hollywood, but soon returned to Texas and was engaged in the advertising field at San Antonio and Houston.
Barr figured in a widely publicized murder trial in Dallas in 1940, three years after he left Dallas, in which his first wife, Juanita, was tried for killing a woman who had boasted that she was Mrs. Barr's rival. Mrs. Barr was later freed upon appeal.
He worked for a time on the Houston Press before he entered the restaurant business.
His two brothers, Alex Barr and Francis Barr, managed several Dallas theaters, and the latter now serves as advertising director for Interstate Theaters, Inc. Other survivors include his mother, Mrs. Frank E. Barr, and a sister, Mrs. Edmea Vanderwall, both of Dallas.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Earthman Funeral Home in Houston.
**********************************************************
From the book "Characters and Plots in the Novels of Horace McCoy," by Robert L. Gale, AuthorHouse, 2013, page 7:
Bishop, Ed (No Pockets in a Shroud). He works as a police reporter for The Times-Gazette, is fired for befriending Dolan, who hires him for The Cosmopolite. Eddie and Myra cooperate with Dolan, warn him of the constant danger he's in, but cannot dissuade him from his fatal desire to write muckraking articles against Establishment figures.
John Thomas Sturak reports that Eddie Bishop is a "transparently fictional" portrait of "Eddie Barr, McCoy's long-time newspaper crony" in Dallas. (Sturak, 329)
**********************************************************
From the article "The Rowdy Days of the Dallas Dispatch," by Al Harting, published in D Magazine, August 1979:
'One of the most painful of my experiences as a reporter happened in the spring of 1941. Eddie Barr, the Dispatch's amusements editor, had become the city's best-loved and most-read columnist. His daily "Rialto Ramblings" was an entertaining mixture of gossip and showbiz trivia. His hangout was Antonio (Pop) DaMommio's spaghetti house on Bryan. Pop treated Eddie like a son. As a cub reporter, I revered Eddie.
On the evening of April 12, 1941, Eddie was at Pop's. His wife, Juanita, who was also Jack Proctor's sister-in-law, was paying a visit to the Swiss Avenue apartment of an attractive young girl named Blanche Woodall.
I was on the ambulance-riding beat when the call came in that Blanche Woodall had been shot. Riding to the scene, the driver informed me that Blanche was Eddie Barr's mistress. When the police arrived, Lieutenant "Pokey" Wright phoned Pop's and asked for Eddie. "Eddie," I heard him say, "Nita has killed Blanche." There was silence a moment, and when Pokey hung up he said, "Nita just went by Pop's, threw the pistol on Eddie's table, and told him what she'd done."
Juanita's trial was, of course, a sideshow. Spectators brought lunches and ate them while Juanita's lawyers, Maury Hughes and Ted Monroe, Dallas' early versions of Racehorse Haynes and Percy Foreman, played to the grandstand. Their defense was based on the premise that she had acted in a fit of uncontrollable, but understandable, rage at the woman who was breaking up her home.
According to Blanche's maid, Nita came unannounced to Blanche's apartment; the two women talked quietly and telephoned a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey. They decided to go out, and Blanche changed clothes and put on her make-up, then began helping Nita put on her make-up. While the cosmetic touch-up was in progress, Nita took the pistol from her purse and shot Blanche twice in the face.
On March 5, 1942, Juanita Barr was sentenced to a term of four years for murder without malice. She was freed on an appeal bond on March 11. The court of criminal appeals upheld the conviction, but an appellate court ruled for a new trial, which for some reason was never held. Eddie quit the Dispatch and moved to Houston, where, for a while, he managed a restaurant. Though he and Juanita were divorced, most who knew them think Eddie used the influence he had gained as one of Dallas' most popular men about town to keep her from prison.'
************************************************************************************
1930 Census - Occupation: Reporter, Industry: Daily Paper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1940 Census - Occupation: Amusement Editor, Industry: Newspaper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1950 Census - Occupation: Publicity Director, Industry: Publisher (Bellaire, Harris Co., Texas)
E. M. (Eddie) Barr, Ex-Columnist, Dies
Edmond M. (Eddie) Barr, 58, Dallas police reporter during the 1920s and later a leading nightclub columnist here, died Friday in a Houston hospital after an illness of more than a year.
He served as a police reporter on the now defunct Dallas Dispatch during the 1920s and early '30s when prohibition days were in their heyday.
And later, as amusements editor of the Dispatch, he covered the gossip scene like a handmade vest.
During the past 20 years, as a Houston resident, Mr. Barr had served as general assignments reporter for the Houston Press and, in the last eight years, had been associated in the restaurant business.
His gossip column, "Rialto Ramblings," didn't miss much in the local theater world. A casino operator once wrote of Mr. Barr: "He pointed a mean lance, but was ever willing to observe a sort of Hoyle."
As a columnist, Mr. Barr wrote like he dressed - with a romantic flair, "a sort of gallantry that made him a gentleman without even trying to be one."
Even in his later years, he had a debonair look, with iron-gray hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.
As a police reporter in the 1920s and early '30's, Mr. Barr got to know Dallas and its every hidden corner. He was a "24-hour beat man" who rarely left the police station except to make raids and other "risky runs" with the police.
The son of an Italian sculptor, Mr. Barr moved to Texas about the age of six from his birthplace at Barre, Vt. His father carved several statues for courthouse squares throughout Texas.
He left Dallas in 1937 for a fling in publicity work in Hollywood, but soon returned to Texas and was engaged in the advertising field at San Antonio and Houston.
Barr figured in a widely publicized murder trial in Dallas in 1940, three years after he left Dallas, in which his first wife, Juanita, was tried for killing a woman who had boasted that she was Mrs. Barr's rival. Mrs. Barr was later freed upon appeal.
He worked for a time on the Houston Press before he entered the restaurant business.
His two brothers, Alex Barr and Francis Barr, managed several Dallas theaters, and the latter now serves as advertising director for Interstate Theaters, Inc. Other survivors include his mother, Mrs. Frank E. Barr, and a sister, Mrs. Edmea Vanderwall, both of Dallas.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Earthman Funeral Home in Houston.
**********************************************************
From the book "Characters and Plots in the Novels of Horace McCoy," by Robert L. Gale, AuthorHouse, 2013, page 7:
Bishop, Ed (No Pockets in a Shroud). He works as a police reporter for The Times-Gazette, is fired for befriending Dolan, who hires him for The Cosmopolite. Eddie and Myra cooperate with Dolan, warn him of the constant danger he's in, but cannot dissuade him from his fatal desire to write muckraking articles against Establishment figures.
John Thomas Sturak reports that Eddie Bishop is a "transparently fictional" portrait of "Eddie Barr, McCoy's long-time newspaper crony" in Dallas. (Sturak, 329)
**********************************************************
From the article "The Rowdy Days of the Dallas Dispatch," by Al Harting, published in D Magazine, August 1979:
'One of the most painful of my experiences as a reporter happened in the spring of 1941. Eddie Barr, the Dispatch's amusements editor, had become the city's best-loved and most-read columnist. His daily "Rialto Ramblings" was an entertaining mixture of gossip and showbiz trivia. His hangout was Antonio (Pop) DaMommio's spaghetti house on Bryan. Pop treated Eddie like a son. As a cub reporter, I revered Eddie.
On the evening of April 12, 1941, Eddie was at Pop's. His wife, Juanita, who was also Jack Proctor's sister-in-law, was paying a visit to the Swiss Avenue apartment of an attractive young girl named Blanche Woodall.
I was on the ambulance-riding beat when the call came in that Blanche Woodall had been shot. Riding to the scene, the driver informed me that Blanche was Eddie Barr's mistress. When the police arrived, Lieutenant "Pokey" Wright phoned Pop's and asked for Eddie. "Eddie," I heard him say, "Nita has killed Blanche." There was silence a moment, and when Pokey hung up he said, "Nita just went by Pop's, threw the pistol on Eddie's table, and told him what she'd done."
Juanita's trial was, of course, a sideshow. Spectators brought lunches and ate them while Juanita's lawyers, Maury Hughes and Ted Monroe, Dallas' early versions of Racehorse Haynes and Percy Foreman, played to the grandstand. Their defense was based on the premise that she had acted in a fit of uncontrollable, but understandable, rage at the woman who was breaking up her home.
According to Blanche's maid, Nita came unannounced to Blanche's apartment; the two women talked quietly and telephoned a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey. They decided to go out, and Blanche changed clothes and put on her make-up, then began helping Nita put on her make-up. While the cosmetic touch-up was in progress, Nita took the pistol from her purse and shot Blanche twice in the face.
On March 5, 1942, Juanita Barr was sentenced to a term of four years for murder without malice. She was freed on an appeal bond on March 11. The court of criminal appeals upheld the conviction, but an appellate court ruled for a new trial, which for some reason was never held. Eddie quit the Dispatch and moved to Houston, where, for a while, he managed a restaurant. Though he and Juanita were divorced, most who knew them think Eddie used the influence he had gained as one of Dallas' most popular men about town to keep her from prison.'
************************************************************************************
1930 Census - Occupation: Reporter, Industry: Daily Paper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1940 Census - Occupation: Amusement Editor, Industry: Newspaper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1950 Census - Occupation: Publicity Director, Industry: Publisher (Bellaire, Harris Co., Texas)
The Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1963:
E. M. (Eddie) Barr, Ex-Columnist, Dies
Edmond M. (Eddie) Barr, 58, Dallas police reporter during the 1920s and later a leading nightclub columnist here, died Friday in a Houston hospital after an illness of more than a year.
He served as a police reporter on the now defunct Dallas Dispatch during the 1920s and early '30s when prohibition days were in their heyday.
And later, as amusements editor of the Dispatch, he covered the gossip scene like a handmade vest.
During the past 20 years, as a Houston resident, Mr. Barr had served as general assignments reporter for the Houston Press and, in the last eight years, had been associated in the restaurant business.
His gossip column, "Rialto Ramblings," didn't miss much in the local theater world. A casino operator once wrote of Mr. Barr: "He pointed a mean lance, but was ever willing to observe a sort of Hoyle."
As a columnist, Mr. Barr wrote like he dressed - with a romantic flair, "a sort of gallantry that made him a gentleman without even trying to be one."
Even in his later years, he had a debonair look, with iron-gray hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.
As a police reporter in the 1920s and early '30's, Mr. Barr got to know Dallas and its every hidden corner. He was a "24-hour beat man" who rarely left the police station except to make raids and other "risky runs" with the police.
The son of an Italian sculptor, Mr. Barr moved to Texas about the age of six from his birthplace at Barre, Vt. His father carved several statues for courthouse squares throughout Texas.
He left Dallas in 1937 for a fling in publicity work in Hollywood, but soon returned to Texas and was engaged in the advertising field at San Antonio and Houston.
Barr figured in a widely publicized murder trial in Dallas in 1940, three years after he left Dallas, in which his first wife, Juanita, was tried for killing a woman who had boasted that she was Mrs. Barr's rival. Mrs. Barr was later freed upon appeal.
He worked for a time on the Houston Press before he entered the restaurant business.
His two brothers, Alex Barr and Francis Barr, managed several Dallas theaters, and the latter now serves as advertising director for Interstate Theaters, Inc. Other survivors include his mother, Mrs. Frank E. Barr, and a sister, Mrs. Edmea Vanderwall, both of Dallas.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Earthman Funeral Home in Houston.
**********************************************************
From the book "Characters and Plots in the Novels of Horace McCoy," by Robert L. Gale, AuthorHouse, 2013, page 7:
Bishop, Ed (No Pockets in a Shroud). He works as a police reporter for The Times-Gazette, is fired for befriending Dolan, who hires him for The Cosmopolite. Eddie and Myra cooperate with Dolan, warn him of the constant danger he's in, but cannot dissuade him from his fatal desire to write muckraking articles against Establishment figures.
John Thomas Sturak reports that Eddie Bishop is a "transparently fictional" portrait of "Eddie Barr, McCoy's long-time newspaper crony" in Dallas. (Sturak, 329)
**********************************************************
From the article "The Rowdy Days of the Dallas Dispatch," by Al Harting, published in D Magazine, August 1979:
'One of the most painful of my experiences as a reporter happened in the spring of 1941. Eddie Barr, the Dispatch's amusements editor, had become the city's best-loved and most-read columnist. His daily "Rialto Ramblings" was an entertaining mixture of gossip and showbiz trivia. His hangout was Antonio (Pop) DaMommio's spaghetti house on Bryan. Pop treated Eddie like a son. As a cub reporter, I revered Eddie.
On the evening of April 12, 1941, Eddie was at Pop's. His wife, Juanita, who was also Jack Proctor's sister-in-law, was paying a visit to the Swiss Avenue apartment of an attractive young girl named Blanche Woodall.
I was on the ambulance-riding beat when the call came in that Blanche Woodall had been shot. Riding to the scene, the driver informed me that Blanche was Eddie Barr's mistress. When the police arrived, Lieutenant "Pokey" Wright phoned Pop's and asked for Eddie. "Eddie," I heard him say, "Nita has killed Blanche." There was silence a moment, and when Pokey hung up he said, "Nita just went by Pop's, threw the pistol on Eddie's table, and told him what she'd done."
Juanita's trial was, of course, a sideshow. Spectators brought lunches and ate them while Juanita's lawyers, Maury Hughes and Ted Monroe, Dallas' early versions of Racehorse Haynes and Percy Foreman, played to the grandstand. Their defense was based on the premise that she had acted in a fit of uncontrollable, but understandable, rage at the woman who was breaking up her home.
According to Blanche's maid, Nita came unannounced to Blanche's apartment; the two women talked quietly and telephoned a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey. They decided to go out, and Blanche changed clothes and put on her make-up, then began helping Nita put on her make-up. While the cosmetic touch-up was in progress, Nita took the pistol from her purse and shot Blanche twice in the face.
On March 5, 1942, Juanita Barr was sentenced to a term of four years for murder without malice. She was freed on an appeal bond on March 11. The court of criminal appeals upheld the conviction, but an appellate court ruled for a new trial, which for some reason was never held. Eddie quit the Dispatch and moved to Houston, where, for a while, he managed a restaurant. Though he and Juanita were divorced, most who knew them think Eddie used the influence he had gained as one of Dallas' most popular men about town to keep her from prison.'
************************************************************************************
1930 Census - Occupation: Reporter, Industry: Daily Paper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1940 Census - Occupation: Amusement Editor, Industry: Newspaper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1950 Census - Occupation: Publicity Director, Industry: Publisher (Bellaire, Harris Co., Texas)
E. M. (Eddie) Barr, Ex-Columnist, Dies
Edmond M. (Eddie) Barr, 58, Dallas police reporter during the 1920s and later a leading nightclub columnist here, died Friday in a Houston hospital after an illness of more than a year.
He served as a police reporter on the now defunct Dallas Dispatch during the 1920s and early '30s when prohibition days were in their heyday.
And later, as amusements editor of the Dispatch, he covered the gossip scene like a handmade vest.
During the past 20 years, as a Houston resident, Mr. Barr had served as general assignments reporter for the Houston Press and, in the last eight years, had been associated in the restaurant business.
His gossip column, "Rialto Ramblings," didn't miss much in the local theater world. A casino operator once wrote of Mr. Barr: "He pointed a mean lance, but was ever willing to observe a sort of Hoyle."
As a columnist, Mr. Barr wrote like he dressed - with a romantic flair, "a sort of gallantry that made him a gentleman without even trying to be one."
Even in his later years, he had a debonair look, with iron-gray hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.
As a police reporter in the 1920s and early '30's, Mr. Barr got to know Dallas and its every hidden corner. He was a "24-hour beat man" who rarely left the police station except to make raids and other "risky runs" with the police.
The son of an Italian sculptor, Mr. Barr moved to Texas about the age of six from his birthplace at Barre, Vt. His father carved several statues for courthouse squares throughout Texas.
He left Dallas in 1937 for a fling in publicity work in Hollywood, but soon returned to Texas and was engaged in the advertising field at San Antonio and Houston.
Barr figured in a widely publicized murder trial in Dallas in 1940, three years after he left Dallas, in which his first wife, Juanita, was tried for killing a woman who had boasted that she was Mrs. Barr's rival. Mrs. Barr was later freed upon appeal.
He worked for a time on the Houston Press before he entered the restaurant business.
His two brothers, Alex Barr and Francis Barr, managed several Dallas theaters, and the latter now serves as advertising director for Interstate Theaters, Inc. Other survivors include his mother, Mrs. Frank E. Barr, and a sister, Mrs. Edmea Vanderwall, both of Dallas.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Earthman Funeral Home in Houston.
**********************************************************
From the book "Characters and Plots in the Novels of Horace McCoy," by Robert L. Gale, AuthorHouse, 2013, page 7:
Bishop, Ed (No Pockets in a Shroud). He works as a police reporter for The Times-Gazette, is fired for befriending Dolan, who hires him for The Cosmopolite. Eddie and Myra cooperate with Dolan, warn him of the constant danger he's in, but cannot dissuade him from his fatal desire to write muckraking articles against Establishment figures.
John Thomas Sturak reports that Eddie Bishop is a "transparently fictional" portrait of "Eddie Barr, McCoy's long-time newspaper crony" in Dallas. (Sturak, 329)
**********************************************************
From the article "The Rowdy Days of the Dallas Dispatch," by Al Harting, published in D Magazine, August 1979:
'One of the most painful of my experiences as a reporter happened in the spring of 1941. Eddie Barr, the Dispatch's amusements editor, had become the city's best-loved and most-read columnist. His daily "Rialto Ramblings" was an entertaining mixture of gossip and showbiz trivia. His hangout was Antonio (Pop) DaMommio's spaghetti house on Bryan. Pop treated Eddie like a son. As a cub reporter, I revered Eddie.
On the evening of April 12, 1941, Eddie was at Pop's. His wife, Juanita, who was also Jack Proctor's sister-in-law, was paying a visit to the Swiss Avenue apartment of an attractive young girl named Blanche Woodall.
I was on the ambulance-riding beat when the call came in that Blanche Woodall had been shot. Riding to the scene, the driver informed me that Blanche was Eddie Barr's mistress. When the police arrived, Lieutenant "Pokey" Wright phoned Pop's and asked for Eddie. "Eddie," I heard him say, "Nita has killed Blanche." There was silence a moment, and when Pokey hung up he said, "Nita just went by Pop's, threw the pistol on Eddie's table, and told him what she'd done."
Juanita's trial was, of course, a sideshow. Spectators brought lunches and ate them while Juanita's lawyers, Maury Hughes and Ted Monroe, Dallas' early versions of Racehorse Haynes and Percy Foreman, played to the grandstand. Their defense was based on the premise that she had acted in a fit of uncontrollable, but understandable, rage at the woman who was breaking up her home.
According to Blanche's maid, Nita came unannounced to Blanche's apartment; the two women talked quietly and telephoned a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey. They decided to go out, and Blanche changed clothes and put on her make-up, then began helping Nita put on her make-up. While the cosmetic touch-up was in progress, Nita took the pistol from her purse and shot Blanche twice in the face.
On March 5, 1942, Juanita Barr was sentenced to a term of four years for murder without malice. She was freed on an appeal bond on March 11. The court of criminal appeals upheld the conviction, but an appellate court ruled for a new trial, which for some reason was never held. Eddie quit the Dispatch and moved to Houston, where, for a while, he managed a restaurant. Though he and Juanita were divorced, most who knew them think Eddie used the influence he had gained as one of Dallas' most popular men about town to keep her from prison.'
************************************************************************************
1930 Census - Occupation: Reporter, Industry: Daily Paper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1940 Census - Occupation: Amusement Editor, Industry: Newspaper (Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas)
1950 Census - Occupation: Publicity Director, Industry: Publisher (Bellaire, Harris Co., Texas)
Gravesite Details
Death certificate lists burial place as "Garden of Gethsemane" in Houston, which is now the Catholic section of Forest Park Cemetery. Cemetery said graves from original Garden of Gethsemane were moved there after floods, unable to give plot location.
Family Members
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