by Bob Chessey
One hundred years ago, before El Paso simply advertised and referred to itself as the “Sun City,” the municipality boasted the slogan, “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter.”
The phrase was suggested by Alex Duguid, a local newspaper typesetter, to Mayor Dudley who recognized the potential in the slogan. On November 24, 1924 the El Paso City Council voted to adopt the slogan and Mayor Dudley quickly ordered that the phrase be written on all official city stationary. Recognizing the advertising potential of the slogan the mayor wrote to the El Paso Chamber of Commerce urging the organization to pursue a copyright for the new slogan.i
The El Paso Herald endorsed the Council’s decision, “Slogans generally are too fantastic, or meaningless, or un-original. This one has none of those defects. It suggests the sunshine idea in a forceful, appealing way. Brief and informative, it combines wit and truth.”ii
El Paso printed their freshly minted climate braggadocio across posters, lapel pins, luggage labels, broadsheets, etc. Surprisingly, photo postcards, the favored tool of the era’s “travel influencers,” were not exploited.
However, El Paso did tap into one other opportunity to sing the city’s praises. The husband-and-wife owners of the Austin Music Shop, 205 Mills Street, Sylvia M. and H. W. Austin, set Duguid’s slogan to music; Sylvia composed the music; H. W. wrote the lyrics.iii
In 1977 Karl O. Wyler, who was president of the Tri-State Broadcasting Company, recalled that H. W. Austin “was in government service. Mrs. Austin used to play the piano in (the couple’s) music store near the downtown Post Office and at other places in town.”iv
Decades before the city embraced Marty Robbins’ gunfighter ballad “El Paso” as its theme song, on February 19, 1925 in the Chamber of Commerce building, Lindsay Stephens, baritone, accompanied on piano by Sylvia Austin, successfully auditioned “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” before Mayor Dudley and the City Council to be adopted as EL Paso’s official song.
To demonstrate the versatility of the composition, after Mr. Stephens finished singing Ms. Austin once again performed the song as a dance number to demonstrate that the piece would be accepted by local orchestra leaders.v
Mayor Dudley declared that the song could soon become popular number for dance floors, ‘It’s a lively jazz tune and the words are catchy, and it should be a big help in advertising the city.” Mrs. W. R. Brown, Chamber of Commerce member, musician, and pragmatist, who earlier had taken the position that the city officials needed to hear “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” before anointing the music the city’s official song, after listening to the performances enthused, “It’s tuneful and easy to sing, and would be a good way to spread El Paso’s slogan, ‘Where Sunshine Spends the Winter.’”vi
The lyrics to “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter”:
“At the gateway of the Nations,
Where the sky is blue and gold,
Where the sunshine loves to linger,
As the year is growing old.
Chorus
Where the sunshine spends the winter,
Where the gentle breezes blow,
Where mountains rise in splendor,
Against the sunset’s glow.
In the land of golden sunshine,
Where the sky is always blue,
Where sunshine spends the winter,
We’re waiting here for you
Where the sun beams in its splendor
When all other lands are drear,
And each night the brilliant moonlight
Shines through skies of silver clear.
Chorus”
Interestingly, the song “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” had predecessors. In 1918 the El Paso Herald opened a contest for an original song about the city that received approximately 100 entries, with “El Paso is Calling, Calling You,” selected as the “Official El Paso Herald Contest Song.” The lyrics were contributed by Burt Franklin Jenness and music by local orchestra leader Bert Beyerstedt “and his violin.” The musical composition was copyrighted by the Herald News Co.vii
The mawkish lyrics in the first stanza of “El Paso is Calling, Calling You” set the tone, “There’s a city down in Texas where the Rio Grande flows, and the password there is progress, it’s the only one that goes. In El Paso, it’s the motto she is bearing on her crest. She will thrill you and instill you with the spirit of the West. For there’s ozone in her mountains, there is wealth in her corrals, and a hearty Western welcome for the men who’ll be her pals.”viii The song’s awkward chorus namechecked a, “call to the West where her trail leads to the land of the best.”ix
Nonetheless, “El Paso is Calling, Calling You” became popular and performed throughout the city by orchestras, including Bert Beyerstedt’s, at dances and social events, in a local vaudeville theatre, as well as sung in the city’s schools. At the Modern Café, a popular restaurant for the era’s social set in the basement of the Mills Building, the lyrics were printed across the backside of the menus.x
Following the trajectory of many songs in vogue, “El Paso is Calling, Calling You” traveled the familiar arc of rising popularity then fading away.
In early October 1921 Mrs. Lucille Colby, 2107 Portland Avenue, wrote a song titled “El Paso” and submitted the sheet music to the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. The first verse and chorus:
“El Paso the gem of the border.
The Queen of the Lone Star state—
She lies in El Paso del Norte,
Down at the old mountain gate.
Her people are sturdy and noble,
They’ll give you the friendliest hand:
So come out some day to El Paso,
Down by the old Rio Grande.
Chorus:
El Paso, the beautiful city,
Where the sun throws its bright rays
Around
And kisses the crest of the mountains.
Just as the sun goeth down.”xi
Unlike the Austin’s melodic submission, there is no record to show that the Chamber of Commerce or the City Council endorsed or used Colby’s song.
The Austin’s “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” struck a chord that resonated with El Pasoans. A selection of public performances includes municipal band concerts; a luncheon at the Adclub and Chamber of Commerce; as well as by school children participating in an Austin P.T.A. meeting featuring a Civics Day theme.xii
Live performances were beamed into the airwaves. Karl Wyler recalled, “I remember (Mrs. Austin) performing the Sunshine song on the piano at the Five Points Radio Station KFXH.”xiii In 1926 Mrs. Sam Watkins was visiting Long Beach, California and sang the composition for a radio broadcast.xiv
During a stretch of particularly gloomy weather in January 1926 composer Sylvia Austin was on the blunt end of teasing, “I’ve been laughed at quite a bit lately for writing the song about ‘El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter. But I think that sunshine is coming back, it sure will stay. Even at that sunshine has been with us quite a bit, and if we want it to work for us, we can only expect it to want a vacation once in a while.”xv
Even without musical accompaniment El Pasoans exhibited enthusiastic pride in their hometown’s new slogan. Local businesses incorporated the new slogan into advertisements.xvi In early May 1925 Dr. J. M. Richmond of El Paso, accompanied by his wife and other physicians, was Europe bound to further his study, including research focused on the sunshine cure for tuberculosis. Dr. Richmond informed his hometown that he planned on enlightening Europeans of the city’s wintertime warmth by having the city’s boast printed on all their major luggage.xvii In January 1927 Hamilton Rayner opened his campaign for Corporation Court by expanding the phrase to, “El Paso-where sunshine spends the winter, and where we have moonshine all the time.”xviii
Despite Mayor Dudley’s foresight, a slogan cannot be copyrighted. As with the case of Austin, Texas’ unofficial plea in the 1990’s to “Keep Austin Weird,” a phrase which was eventually pilfered by cities such as Portland, Oregon, several locations across the southern sunbelt soon looted “Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” for their tourism marketing plan. At the very least San Antonio, Texas; the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas; Long Beach, California; as well as both Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona all promoted their cities to be “Where Sunshine Spends the Winter.”
In late February, 1932, in exasperation, El Paso surrendered “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” as the city’s slogan. E. H. Simons, El Paso Chamber of Commerce general manager, announced, “El Paso is not featuring the slogan in its booklets.”xix Instead, the Chamber pivoted to the mundane “In the Land of Sunshine and Better Living.” Simons explained that the reason for the change was that the slogan “Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” was not copyrighted and therefore had been appropriated by other cities.
There were concerns and rumors the actual reason was because San Antonio, Texas had promoted their city with the slogan prior to El Paso and that the “Sun City” was one of the offenders. Alex Duguid, who initially pitched the slogan, always insisted that he originated the phrase.xx
As far back as February 1926 El Paso was aware that San Antonio was using the same catch phrase for their city. That year Captain W. A. Simpson of the El Paso Police Department told the El Paso Herald, presumably after a recent visit, that “San Antonio is harping a slogan exactly the same as that which El Paso boasts-Where Sunshine Spends the Winter-and they are advertising by this slogan far and wide.”xxi The belief at the time that El Paso might have been the culprit was dismissed.
Despite the city and Chamber of Commerce dropping their endorsement, merchants continued using “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” in print advertising as late as 1938, when the largest department store in the city, the Popular Dry Goods Company, included the slogan in their newspaper advertisements welcoming visitors to that year’s winter “Sun Carnival.”xxii
The year 1977 found the “El Paso, Where Sunshine Spends the Winter” slogan hovering close to being granted a reprieve. Sonny Yates, executive director of the Sun Carnival that year, explored the idea of reviving both the slogan and song for the festivities, but ultimately decided against returning the slogan.xxiii
i “Where Sunshine Spends Winter,” El Paso Post, November 24, 1924, p. 1.
ii “Good Slogan,” El Paso Herald, November 25, 19244, p. 13.
iii Austin, H.W. (lyric), Austin, Sylvia M. (music), “EL PASO, WHERE SUNSHINE SPENDS THE WINTER,” Sheet Music, Published by Austin Music Shop, 1924.
iv Virginia Turner, “Sunshine Song,” El Paso Herald-Post, June 24, 1977, p. 15/B-1.
v “Mayor Passes On, Accepts Official Song For El Paso,” El Paso Herald, February 19, 1925, p.1; “Official Song for El Paso Is Adopted by City,” El Paso Times, February 20, 1925, p. 10; Nancy Hamilton, “E.P. has a lot to sing about,” El Paso Herald-Post, June 28, 1976, p. 13/B-1.
vi El Paso Herald, February 19, 192; “Ten Years Ago,” El Paso-Herald Post, February 19, 1935, p. 4.
vii El Paso Herald-Post, June 28, 1976; Virginia Turner, “Resident Finds Original Lyrics, Copy of ‘El Paso’ Contest Song,” El Paso Herald-Post, August 23, 1983, p. 5.
viii El Paso Herald-Post, August 23, 1983.
ix El Paso Herald-Post, June 28, 1976.
x Ibid.
xi “El Paso Woman Writes Song About This City,” El Paso Herald, October 6, 1921, p. 20.
xii “Sings at Luncheon,” El Paso Post (Final Edition), May 14, 1926, p.2; El Paso Herald,” July 28, 1925, p. 9; “Austin P.T.A. Gives Civics Day Program,” El Paso Times, November 10, 1926, p. 4.
xiii El Paso Herald-Post, June 24, 1977.
xiv “Broadcast ‘Sunshine,’” El Paso Post, August 21, 1926, p. 5.
xv El Paso Herald, January 27, 1926, p. 9.
xvi Sol Berg Advertisement, El Paso Times, February 21, 1926, p. 2.
xvii “Will Sing Sunshine Song To Europeans,” El Paso Herald, May 8, 1925, p. 12.
xviii “First Political Speech Made to Audience of 16,” El Paso Times, January 14, 1927, p. 8.
xix “E. P. Drops Slogan Other Cities Using,” El Paso Herald-Post, February 23, 1932, p. 5.
xx William I. Latham, “Good Morning, Sun Country,” El Paso Times, November 15, 1970, p. 6; Virginia Turner, “Robert’s Story,” El Paso Herald-Post, June 10, 1977, p. 25/C1.
xxi “Little Interviews and Letters to The Herald,” El Paso Herald, February 3, 1926, p. 11.
xxii Advertisement, El Paso Herald-Post, December 29, 1938, p. 9.
xxiii Turner, El Paso Herald-Post, June 24, 1977; Turner, El Paso Herald-Post, August 23, 1983.