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2 businesses at this address since 1950

Longhorn Ballroom

216 Corinth St, Dallas, TX

Built for Bob Wills in 1950, briefly leased by Jack Ruby, and the room where the Sex Pistols played in 1978.

📅 1950–present🏛️ Music VenueStill here
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The story

Dallas millionaire O. L. Nelms built the ballroom at 216 Corinth Street in 1950 for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, and it opened as Bob Wills' Ranch House. Jack Ruby leased it in the early 1950s. Wikipedia says he eventually had a nervous breakdown and lost the lease, and credits him with hosting Nat King Cole, Count Basie and Ruth Brown.

Dewey Groom took it over and renamed it the Longhorn Ballroom. The dates differ by source: the Texas State Historical Association says 1958, Wikipedia says he bought the property in 1967. The room later hosted Loretta Lynn, B.B. King and Selena. The Sex Pistols played on January 10, 1978, and a thrown beer bottle broke Sid Vicious's nose. After bankruptcy it reopened March 30, 2023, and was listed on the National Register on February 1, 2024.

What's There Now

It reopened in 2023 as a live music venue and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

In 1957 a wall split the venue into the Guthrey Club and a larger ballroom.
2 Live Crew played in 1990 and the show ended in a crowd riot.
Raul and Rosalinda Ramirez owned it from October 1996 to February 2017.

Nearby history

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_Ballroomhttps://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/longhorn-ballroom