Outraged that DALLAS had been chosen as the center of celebrations in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Independance of Texas, Fort Worth civic leaders led by AMON CARTER, were determined to out-do anything their neighboring city might come up with. To that aim the New York showman BILLY ROSE was tapped to create a frontier-themed extravaganza and paid the unheard of sum of $1000.00 per day for the 100 days it took to mount.
The open area just east of the newly constructed WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL COMPLEX ( seen in the upper left of the photo above) was designated as the Frontier Centenial. This area bordered by Lancaster Avenue on the north and University Avenue on the east included the magnificent CASA MANANA ( in the lower left of the photo above) a 4200 seat open air nightclub which featured a 130 foot diameter revolving stage set within a 175 foot long lagoon of sparkling water. Three extravagant stage shows were presented nightly during the summer of 1936. The club was open from 6pm to 2am. The show was $1.00. A full meal was $1.50 with the top of the line mean featured at $2.00.
CASA MANANA lasted for 4 summer seasons from 1936 to 1939. The entire grounds were razed in early 1940.
I found these two photos of the area, on the left taken in 1952 and on the right a current satellite image. At the lower left of the photo on the left you can see where the original CASA MANANA stood, it's stage foundation and metal support structure still in place. The current CASA MANANA building designed by BUCKMINSTER FULLER and built by KAISER ALUMINUM in 1958 stands on the space just above the original location. The rectangular building to the south of the new Casa was the scenic and prop shop where I worked in the 1970's ( in fact I learned to drive the old theatre pickup truck, which was a stick shift, on the vacant lot right behind that building and over the exact spot where the original theatre had stood.) FARRINGTON FIELD on the right in both photos was built in 1939.
My friends Barry and Annie Cleveland published a very indepth article on the construction of the original CASA MANANA with many on site photos from the time
http://www.csun.edu/barrettc/documents/FortWorthForEntertainment-TDT.pdf
is the link if you want further information.
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