In early March 1924 an announcement by the US government rattled and jarred the profit margins of the tourist centered Juarez bar trade. Fearing that El Pasoans with business debts, in lieu of paying their bills, chose to slap their money down on the rigged gambling tables in Juarez, led to the El Paso Chamber of Commerce lobbying the Federal Government for months to reduce the operational hours of the international bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez.
On March 7, 1924 the Treasury Department alerted the city that in several weeks the Santa Fe Street Port of Entry, which during that era was the sole bridge allowing legal entry into El Paso from Juarez, would change its closing hour from midnight to 9 PM (exceptions were carved out for physicians, as well as, if there was an out-of-control fire in Juarez, El Paso Fire Department personnel and equipment). However, the bridge on Stanton Street for entry into Juarez would continue operating all night, but strictly for southbound travelers.
On March 22nd a reporter questioned Shipley to learn how the upcoming reduction in bridge hours would impact his business. The seasoned barkeep replied that he would be initiating adjustments and, “make a stab at continuing to run his cabaret,” but conceded that to balance expenses he would be forced to let go of 50 of his workers, and, aware of the deep ripple effect of the early bridge closing on each side of the border, added, “I think one San Antonio Street apartment house in El Paso will be just about vacant when I let my employees out.”i
Shortly after 1 p. m., March 25, Acting Collector of Customs in El Paso W. W. Carpenter received orders from the Secretary of the Treasury that beginning on Friday, March 28, the Santa Fe Street bridge was to be closed to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic at 9 o’clock each night.ii
The final night of the bridge remaining open until midnight did not conjure the bacchanalian festivities that had been anticipated along Juarez’s famed street of saloons. Big Kid had a stronger turnout than usual for a weeknight, but the evening failed to match his average Saturday and Sunday night rush.iii
Prior to the Treasury Department’s order, the majority of the tourist bars in Juarez had been approximately eleven blocks from the Santa Fe Street Bridge, most clustered along 16th de Septiembre. Bookended by Avenida Lerdo on the east end and Avenida Juarez to the west, liquor stocked bars lined both sides of the street waiting for the trolley cars that traveled down the middle of the road to stop and deposit thirsty American customers primed for the pickings.
As if a spell cast by a hoary bearded sorcerer, the Treasury Department’s bridge hours decree transformed the northern end of Avenida Juarez into the prized location for bars catering to border jumping drinkers. The closer proximity to the Santa Fe Street Bridge, the sole bridge designated for entry back into El Paso, allowed customers to spend more time downing drinks before rushing to the bridge to join the crushing crowd inside the gates when the immigration officials yanked closed, chained, and securely locked the entry point.
If late, the procrastinator spent the night in Juarez.
Always scouting for a business angle, Shipley perceived the new bridge hours as a fresh opportunity and opened his next endeavor on the American side of the Rio Grande, a cabaret set in the center of downtown El Paso. On Saturday, March 29, 1924, in the basement of the Hotel Sheldon, Shipley assumed the management of the hotel’s cabaret. The nightclub was intended to be a refuge for El Pasoans who had to depart Juarez by 9 pm but were determined to extend their night of carousing, as well as catering to El Pasoans and out of towners who did not want, or were too scared, to visit Juarez. A cabaret based in downtown El Paso was not an original idea, Shipley’s Sheldon Cabaret would be competing against an already established rival, the Modern Café located in the basement of the Mill’s Building.iv The day before the new venue’s opening Shipley stated, “We will conduct a first class, high class place each night from 8:30 to 12, six evening a week,” Shipley boasted before qualifying that, “There will be no dancing on Sundays.”v
The Sheldon Cabaret allowed Shipley to redirect his Juarez Cabaret customers to carry on dining and dancing at a different Big Kid business on the El Paso side of the border. Nonetheless, perhaps due to the absence of alcohol sales, or the competition from the Modern Café being too stiff, and/or no dancing on Sundays, the Sheldon Cabaret proved to be a short-lived experiment.
In early 1926 Shipley closed Big Kid’s Palace Café to renovate and remodel the restaurant’s kitchen. On March 12, 1926 a newspaper advertisement informed readers that the Café was re-opened and prepared to serve “(Kansas City) steaks, chops, Mexican dishes and everything the market affords, also the best of cold lunches.” The following day Shipley ran a photo ad highlighting the restaurant’s staff, “A Trained Corps of ‘Chef’s’ and Waiters.” The promotion assured customers that the improved café served, “THE BEST Food in the Southwest,” emphasized little to no waiting time, “Seating Capacity, 1,000 People,” provided “Plenty of Room for Dancing,” with “Good Dance Music,” a “LARGE AUTO PARK,” and lured everyone on the Christian Sabbath with a $1 “Special Sunday Dinner”.vi
By June of 1926 the tourist hospitality businesses in Juarez began voicing fears about the possibility of Prohibition ending or being amended, especially if light wines and beer became legalized, and how those potential changes threatened the Juarez saloon businesses. Harry Shipley was pragmatic and predicted that the result would be a noticeable “slump” in booking conventions and the tourist industry in El Paso, “It is hard to say what the effect would be. The man who stops off for beer would go on thru (El Paso/Juarez).” But expressed optimism because, “Juarez might continue to be a good saloon town because Texas has state-wide prohibition. That would have to be knocked out before beer and wine could be sold in El Paso.”vii
1927 frequently kept “Big Kid” in the public eye. At the beginning of the year the attention was a series of local human-interest stories on his personal life, beginning with the veteran barman’s physical size and girth. Because of his height and build, a reporter speculated that Big Kid’s intimidating physical stature was the key, for more than 23 years, to the bar owner’s ability to quell escalating violent or threatening altercations in his saloons. Despite the fact that Big Kid was never described as “athletic,” his weight and frame were intimidating. The thought of one blow from Shipley’s meaty hands, backed by the bulk of his weight, would be the equivalent of being smacked with a thick, frozen steak, and would have deterred many a potentially rowdy patron.
However, Mrs. Shipley disagreed, instead crediting her husband’s “smile of 36 white teeth and his unflinching good nature”viii as the obvious explanation for his capacity to maintain the peace.
Nonetheless, two months later in a separate newspaper article, the Big Kid agreed that his bulk was pivotal for his success in suppressing any rough housing in his bars. Always the staunch booster of her husband’s innate gentleness, Mrs. Shipley deflected, “But children aren’t a bit afraid of his size. You’d expect them to be, wouldn’t you? They seem to take to him naturally.”ix
Both articles drew attention to Shipley’s inability simply to walk into a clothing store and purchase any new item of clothing, shirt, coat, pants, or a hat, off the store’s shelves. Shipley’s clothes, including his hats, required custom fitting and tailoring. The ordeal of buying clothes was emphasized after a citywide contest in March of that year deemed Shipley the heftiest man in El Paso. Despite his weight of 332 pounds, the Big Kid professed that breakfast was the single meal each day that he had the time to eat. However, that mere meal consisted of T-bone steak, waffles, and coffee. The saloon keeper and restauranteur confessed that he believed he was “lucky” to set aside the time even for him to sit down and consume that one meal.x Nevertheless, as his cabaret was equipped with a large restaurant, it is difficult not to believe that the “Big Kid” would be slipping into the kitchen, undoubtedly for “quality assurance,” to snatch a “nibble” now and then throughout the day.
The human-interest article allowed another insight into Harry Shipley’s life, music. In addition to the constant music playing in his restaurant, Harry was inundated in the daily din and cacophony of tables being set with clacking plates and silverware only noisily to be cleared again after meals, hundreds of customers simultaneously talking over meals, the voices of drunken patrons rising louder with each drink, plus a daily barrage of questions by employees and customers. It is reflexive to assume that when Big Kid was at home and away from the hustle and bustle of his cabaret and saloon, the exhausted barman would crave the solace of silence.
Surprisingly, after Shipley hung up his apron at work and stepped across the threshold into his home, he would unwind by firing up his two phonographs and, by alternating discs on each machine, constantly listen to music from his record collection late into the night. And his record collection was formidable, Shipley possessed over 900 discs. In addition to having owned the Edison Record and Phonograph business in 1901, which likely contributed towards his collection’s foundation, the Big Kid had begun purchasing phonograph records since the shellac discs had first breached the market. The majority of his records were sentimental songs, but the expansive collection ranged from jazz, the classics, and included all the latest hits. The El Paso Herald claimed Shipley was responsible for “the largest order of canned music in El Paso.”xi
When Mrs. Shipley was asked about her neighbors’ tolerance for the persistent music, she was not sure if the nearby residents were amiable because of the player’s soft phonograph needles, the variety of songs played, or that her neighbors were simply good natured, but added, “I can understand how they would become very weary of the noise, though I don’t mind it myself and Mr. Shipley and the children like it.”xii Or, perhaps, it was the big guy’s smile of “36 white teeth”.
Not all the press attention on Harry Shipley consisted of light human-interest articles; fire once again put Shipley’s livelihood at risk. On Sunday, October 16, 1927 a fire broke out in the Rialto Gardens behind Big Kid’s Cabaret. The El Paso Fire Department rushed to the building at 7:15 pm, the blaze roared 75 feet into the air and could be seen from across El Paso. By the time the firemen crossed the border and arrived at the inferno the entire structure was enflamed, all the firemen could do was prevent the conflagration from spreading across the entire saloon section of 16th de Septiembre street. Shipley stated that the losses were approximately $6000 ($104,160 in 2022).xiii
Big Kid rebounded and continued operating. The following August, Shipley reminded customers that parking in the rear of Big Kid’s Palace was free. “There is absolutely no charge, and there will be no tipping. We will furnish ample protection, and there is room for 1,000 cars.”xiv Later that month an additional draw was promoted, the club added a daily comical bull fight, performed twice, at 4:30 and 8:00. A second enticement to the evening was dancer Joan’s Tibbett performing the “shimmy,” as well as kicking up her heels with the dance that had overtaken The Charleston, “the black bottom.”xv
The press were not the only ones taking note of Shipley’s financial success. On the night of Sunday, October 8, 1928 a burglar broke into the Big Kid’s home, 2518 Montana Avenue, by smashing a bathroom window and crawling through the frame. The thief’s haul included six silk dresses, a fur coat, and, perplexingly, several of Shipley’s extra-large suits.xvi
In mid-October of 1929, Big Kid was embroiled in a labor dispute with the Juarez bartenders’ union, the disagreement a dark omen portending Shipley’s future in the following years. The union’s position was that unless Shipley fired Simon de la Garza, who had been accused by a co-worker of stealing, terminated, and then rehired by management, the union was threatening to call a strike.xvii
On Friday, October 25, 1929, one day after Black Thursday, the infamous date that kick started the collapse of the US Stock Market and set off the Great Depression, Shipley coincidently informed Juarez authorities that in approximately fifteen days he would be closing his Cabaret. The barkeep cited several reasons for his decision, “because threats of employees of the place to strike have destroyed the business of the cabaret;”xviii and that his location among the string of bars on 16th de Septiembre, which once dominated the tourist saloon business, was now losing customers to the newest tourist bars along Avenida Juarez that had opened closer to the International Bridge. The final reason was personal, Big Kid preferred operating his saloon over the Cabaret, the saloon would remain open.
A contributing issue not mentioned by Shipley was the realization that the Palace Cabaret, once the grandest along the Mexican border, had its crown usurped by a new and larger Juarez venue, the Green Lantern, nestled next to the Santa Fe Street Bridge.xix
The confluence of the Great Depression’s onset, problems with Labor Unions, competition from the Green Lantern, and the impending repeal of Prohibition hovering on the horizon, forced Big Kid’s Palace Cabaret into a death spiral.
After the Wall Street panic in October had initiated the global Great Depression, an equal leveler of financial insecurity, the public’s disposable income that had been directed toward dining out, conventions, entertainment, vacations, etc. diminished.
The Roaring 20’s were struck mute.
Unlike the turmoil brought about by Prohibition, Juarez was not exempt from the instability and consequences wrought by the global financial downturn. In the Juarez tourist bar industry, each side of the employment divide, both owners and employees, became worried as they watched the city’s income from tourism rapidly diminish. Employees feared for their livelihoods and families; owners for their overhead, including making a payroll, as well as their own family’s livelihoods. An additional stressor playing out in Juarez’s Depression era business environment was the historical tendency of “foreigners” becoming the scapegoats when an economy is sinking and jobs are difficult to attain or keep. When the Depression’s depredations on the Juarez tourist trade became apparent, American bar owners became “foreigners.”
During the following year Shipley navigated through these headwinds while attempting to keep his business profitable. On New Year’s Eve the Chihuahua labor arbitration board handed down a decision, delivered by the Juarez Bartenders’ Union, directing Shipley to either rehire eleven former employees who had gone on strike, or, pay each of those workers three months’ salary; the total cost would have been $6110 ($113,639 in 2023). Shipley dismissed the decision informing the board curtly that he had closed his cabaret and had no need for that many employees.xx Two days later Shipley hedged his denial that The Palace Cabaret had closed, “The café never has been closed. The cabaret was closed for a short time but is now open to Juarez guests.”xxi However, the day after that announcement was released it was reported that the labor difficulties had been resolved and the cabaret would continue operating.xxii
Handling personnel matters was not the only issue requiring more of Shipley’s time and energy; because there were fewer visitors to Juarez it became essential that he continue attracting customers to fill his large music hall. In January, instead of his standard promotion of an evening with a range of entertainment, the Big Kid booked and advertised a “Big Time GIRLIE SHOW.”xxiii
For months, Shipley was able to successfully negotiate labor disputes. The pressure applied on Shipley by the Juarez labor unions was not limited to the bartenders and waitstaff, musicians were also upset. By 1930 musicians in Juarez were feeling very vulnerable, there were fewer jobs, competition with bands from outside the city, and venues substituting recorded music for live performances. With those uncertainties in play, it was not well received when Shipley, hoping the booking would draw a large audience, negotiated a contract, as he had before, with an orchestra from the US.
When the Mexican government learned of the orchestra’s engagement it stepped in and ruled that the Palace had to hire Mexican musicians. The decision placed Shipley in a financial bind, because there was a signed contract, whether they performed in Juarez or not, the American orchestra still had to be paid.xxiv It was another financially crippling blow as his business was struggling to stay afloat.
By the beginning of August, Shipley had succumbed to a ploy used by several of the Juarez tourist bars to lure customers through their doors; the Palace Bar began selling nickel beer.xxv Two weeks later, with debts totaling more than $10,000 ($185,988 in 2023), a Juarez creditors’ committee ruled that there was to be an inventory of the Palace Cabaret contents after which the business was to be sold, with the proceeds to be distributed among Shipley’s various creditors.
In the spring of 1931, two years into the Great Depression, the building that once had housed Big Kid’s Palace Cabaret and Bar was leased by Andy Bray and Lee Ross, who renamed the establishment the Bagdad Café. The Middle Eastern themed café could accommodate 3,000 people and had an Arabian décor centered around a large tent in the interior with smaller tent like booths ringing the venue’s sides.xxvi
As the Great Depression ground on, owning a cabaret in Juarez not situated near the international bridge was the equivalent of owning a boat. Generally speaking, the two best days are the one when you purchase your new acquisition, followed by the preeminent day when you sell the boat to another starry-eyed buyer.
Approximately a month and a half after assuming the cabaret, Bray and Ross had unloaded the Bagdad to Mort S. Silver and Antonio Martino. Silver had been manager of the Big Kid’s Palace, and Martino was the owner of a brothel, Popular Cabaret, on the notorious Calle Ugarte. In El Paso and Juarez, Calle Ugarte, known for its whore houses and “cribs,” rough dive bars, and opium dens, was shunned as the “Calle del Diablo” (“Street of the Devil”).
Mimicking the previous owners attempt to revitalize the venue, Silver and Martino spent $22,000 on remodeling the building, including the installation of a stage, orchestra pit, and private booths; plus, an additional $10,000 on decorating; changed the name of the cabaret to The Gold Palace; and set the opening date for June 13, 1931. Nonetheless, The Gold Palace was too ambitious an undertaking for any owners to withstand both the repeal of Prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression. The Gold Palace soon hoisted the white flag and permanently closed its doors.
In the end, the finale for the structure that once had housed Big Kid’s Palace Bar and Cabaret’s was not determined by either real estate agents or speculators in nightclubs or casinos. By mid-1935 the building had burned to the ground.xxvii
After the collapse of the Palace Cabaret, Harry Shipley continued running a saloon but had downsized and relocated the bar to its original and smaller location in the Sauer Building, directly across from the Juarez Custom House on 16th de Septiembre; this struggling incarnation remained open until early summer 1932.xxviii Unfortunately, due to the Great Depression, the customer base could not sustain the business. Harry Shipley, who once had owned and operated the largest and most profitable saloon in Juarez, shut the front entrance, turned the key, and locked his barroom’s doors for the final time, terminating the “Big Kid” brand in both Juarez and El Paso.
No reference could be found if, or how much, Shipley had invested in the stock market, though with his documented history of seeking profitable investments, it is probable that he had purchased shares from Wall Street. Regardless, by January 1933 the Big Kid was despondent. Everything Harry Shipley had invested in and built over the previous decades had collapsed.
The businessman spent months moping at his home, telling a reporter, “If I don’t do something pretty soon I’ll go crazy.”xxix All that remained of his multiple business ventures was the “Big Kid” brand, and he appears to have been skeptical to attach it to a new enterprise in the uncertain economic period, “I have a chance to run a small Juarez bar, with the first month’s rent paid. But I don’t know if I could draw the customers—things are not like they used to be.”xxx Attempting to put a positive spin on his situation, Harry acknowledged that the Depression had delivered one health benefit, he no longer drank as much beer. The Big Kid felt grateful that his prodigious and iconic paunch was dropping weight.
The marriage of Shipley’s daughter Annette, during the following summer, was one pleasant distraction. His oldest child had been living in Los Angeles, California, for the previous two years, had become engaged to Charles B. Moore, with the couple sealing their vows on Saturday, June 10, 1933.xxxi
On December 5,1933, the Volstead Act was terminated and Prohibition in the United States was over. However, due to the economic depression, Shipley still was unable to secure a job and his dwindling savings were approaching the vanishing point. A larger concern for his family was the noticeable decline in the Big Kid’s health. Shipley was frequently becoming ill and the medical bouts had wrought a toll on his body obvious to everyone, a drastic weight drop from 325 to 200 pounds. His inability to provide an income would have placed an additional level of stress on the proud businessman’s health.
In November of 1934 Shipley, with his savings almost drained, was offered and accepted a position from Harry Mitchell, his previous Juarez competitor. The job returned the “Big Kid” to saloon work at the Rathskeller, a restaurant (possibly a beer garden) located on the grounds of Mitchell’s Brewery; xxxii a beer company that Mitchell and partners had opened in El Paso to capitalize on the repeal of Prohibition.
On April 10, 1935, twenty-four years after filing his claim for $1008.50 in reparations from the damages to his bar during the first Battle for Juarez, the “Special Mexican Claims Commission” ruled on Harry N. Shipley’s plea and awarded him $200; however, “after application of Section 4 of the Act,” the total was reduced to $114 ($2,576.88 in 2023).xxxiii The amount, though a lesser sum than sought, would have been extremely helpful to the Shipley family at that time and the restitution was possibly wired to him shortly after the ruling.
Nevertheless, Harry Mitchell’s support, and the ruling on the 1911 saloon damages, are misleading. Shipley’s fortune was far from taking a turn for the better.
The evening of Wednesday, May 22, 1935, Shipley had a reason to visit Juarez and when, because of his recent health problems, was asked how he was feeling, the Big Kid replied, “I’m feeling all right and enjoying life.”xxxiv Harry’s health was far from being well. The following day Shipley fell suddenly ill and at 12:15 p.m. was rushed to emergency surgery. The operation failed to save his life. Harry Nelson Shipley was pronounced dead Friday, May 24, 1935, at 2:30 p.m. at the City-County Hospital.xxxv Shipley’s death certificate lists his causes of death as bronchial pneumonia and intestinal obstruction. The “Big Kid” was 59 years old.xxxvi
A eulogy written by H. S. Hunter, and published in the El Paso Times, encapsulates the feelings of the community who had adopted and embraced Big Kid, his mother, and sister; witnessed Harry Shipley’s multiple careers; and grieved at a favorite son’s passing:
“Many an El Pasoan will give a regretful thought for the passing of ‘Big Kid,’ who died yesterday. He had his ups and downs; had wealth and the biggest bar and dancehall on the border. That was ‘The Big Kid’s’ place in Juarez. He went broke, was completely out of things a long time, suffered grave illness, shrank physically until he no longer was the ‘big kid but a thinnish old man. Lately, he had been happy in his work in Harry Mitchell’s Rathskeller at the brewery. He did a good turn for many a needly person in his time. He was a good fellow when he had it. And even when he didn’t have it.
“Of all the millions of dollars that have been made in Juarez resorts, you could name on the fingers of one hand all the Americans who ever got out with anything. And you wouldn’t have to possess more than about three fingers, at that. And the ‘Big Kid’ was not one of the three.”xxxvii
At 2 pm, Monday, May 27, 1935, funeral services were held for the “Big Kid” at the Peak-Hagedon Mortuary Chapel. The pall bearers shouldering his casket reflected the three vocations most representative of Shipley; bartenders A. B. Alexander and Ike Levy; firefighters Dave Sullivan and Captain F. H. Malone; and, representing the El Paso Electric Company, Fred Briers and Oscar Johnson. Floral arrangements sent by friends, neighbors, and business associates filled the chapel.xxxviii
In January, 1936 Harry’s widow Ruth was hired as an enumerator for the US Department of Commerce’s census of El Paso businesses. Later that year Ruth secured a sales position at the J. C. Penny store in downtown El Paso, retiring from the company in 1960. xxxix
Ruth Shipley died on January 8, 1968. The Big Kid’s widow and devoted advocate was 74 years old.
Harry Nelson and Ruth Shipley are buried, side by side, in the family plot on the south end of El Paso’s historic Concordia Cemetery. The final resting place for Isadore Shipley sits on the opposite end of the family plot.
i “Saloons See Gain;’ Cabarets Cut Expense,” El Paso Post, March 22, 1924, p. 1; POST WRITER SAYS 9 P. M. CLOSING PROVES SUCCESS, El Paso Post, March 19, 1924, p.2.
ii “ORDERS RECEIVED TO CLOSE BRIDGES AT 9 P. M. FRIDAY,” El Paso Times, March 26, 1924, p. 10
iii “Dull Night in Juarez Resorts On Eve Before Bridges Close,” El Paso Post, March 28, 1924, p. 1.
iv ’BIG KID’ TO OPEN SHELDON CABARET FOR WEEK DAY PLAY,” El Paso Times, March 29, 1924, p. 6; “SMALL CROWDS FAIL TO PROVE BRIDGE EFFECT,” El Paso Post, March 29, 1924, p. 3
v El Paso Times, March 29, 1924
vi “Renovated,” El Paso Times, March 12, 1926, p. 6; advertisement, El Paso Times, March 13, 1926, p. 6.
vii “NEW DISTILLERY IN JUAREZ,” El Paso Post, June 12, 1926, p. 1.
viii “BIG KID” HAS MUCH TROUBLE IN SECURING RIGHT SIZED HAT,” El Paso Herald, February 19, 1927, p. 15.
ix “IT’S A Gift,” El Paso Herald, April 5, 1927, p. 10
x El Paso Herald, April 5, 1927.
xi Plenty Music,” El Paso Herald, May 19, 1927, p. 12.
xii Ibid.
xiii “Firebug Hunted After Sixth Of Mysterious Fires,” El Paso Herald, October 17, 1927, p. 1.
xiv “Juarez Café Now Has Free Parking,” El Paso Times, August 1, 1928, p. 3.
xv El Paso Times, August 1, 1928; Advertisement, El Paso Herald, August 23, 1928, Special Rodeo Section, p. 11.
xvi “Burglars Loot “Big Kid’s Home,” El Paso Herald, October 8, 1928, p. 11.
xvii “Big Kids’ Helpers Threaten Strike,” El Paso Times, October 18, 1929, p. 10; “Threaten Strike,” El Paso Herald, October 18, 1929, p. 14.
xviii “Big Kid’s Cabaret Will Close Doors,” El Paso Times, October 26, 1929, p. 4; “Big Kid’s Cabaret Will Close Doors,” El Paso Times, October 26, 1929, p. 4.
xix El Paso Evening Post, October 25, 1929.
xx “Rules Shipley Must Take Back Employes,” El Paso Herald, December 31, 1929, p. 3; “Denies Café Closed,” El Paso Herald, January 2, 1930, p. 6.
xxi El Paso Herald, January 2, 1930.
xxii “Big Kid Will Remain Open,” El Paso Evening Post, January 3, 1930, p. 3.
xxiii Advertisement, El Paso Times, January 11, 1930, p. 7.
xxiv “Pallbearers Named For ‘Big Kid’ Rites,” El Paso Times, May 27, 1935, p. 12; “Border Mourns Death Of Colorful ‘Big Kid,’” El Paso World News, May 25, 1935.
xxv “More Bars Sell Beer at Nickel,” El Paso Evening Post, August 4, 1930, p. 10.
xxvi Advertisement, El Paso Times, March 28, 1931, pp. 4-5.
xxvii “Shipley Burial Rites Pending,” El Paso Herald-Post, May 25, 1935, p. 12.
xxviii “Big Kid Is in Juarez Across From Custom House,” El Paso Herald Post, June 20, 1931, p. 9; “Big Kid Is in Juarez Across From Custom House,” El Paso Herald Post, January 2, 1932, p. 6.
xxix El Paso Herald-Post, January 25, 1933.
xxx Ibid.
xxxi “’Big Kid’s’ Daughter Weds in California,” El Paso Herald-Post, June 14, 1933, p. 6.
xxxii El Paso Times, November 23, 1934; “Death Ends Colorful Career Of ‘Big Kid,’ Saloon Keeper, El Paso Times, May 25, 1935, p. 9; H. S. Hunter, “AROUND HERE,” El Paso Times, May 25, 1935; El Paso World News, May 25, 1935.
xxxiii “Special Mexican Claims Commission,” Report to the Secretary of State with Decisions Showing the Reasons for Allowance or Disallowance of the Claims, p. 463.
xxxiv “Week News in Review, Local,” El Paso World News, May 26, 1935, p. 4.
xxxv El Paso Times, May 25, 1935.
xxxvi Harry Nelson Shipley’s Death Certificate.
xxxvii H. S. Hunter, El Paso Times, May 25, 1935.
xxxviii El Paso Times, May 27, 1935; “Funeral Services Today For Shipley,” El Paso Herald-Post, May 27, 1935, p. 9; “Cards Of Thanks,” El Paso Times, May 31, 1935, p. 10.
xxxix “Take Business Census,” El Paso Times, January, 10, 1936, p. 2; “Mrs. Shipley Funeral Thursday,” El Paso Times, January 11, 1968, p. 7; “Mrs. Ruth Shipley Services Announced,” El Paso Herald-Post, January 10, 1968, p. A-2.