Hello, Dallas!

Ever since November 1963, Dallas has been analyzed, accused, denigrated and jumped upon. But last week a graceful woman with a positive air stood on the stage of the city's huge Music Hall and sang

Well, hello, Dallas!

It's so nice to be back home where I belong . . .

It was Mary Martin, playing the lead in the road company of Hello, Dolly!, where her light soprano makes for a more dainty Dolly than the blonde baritone of Broadway's Carol Channing. Fresh from having set house records in Minneapolis, Kansas City and New Orleans, Mary had been welcomed at Dallas' Love Field by a larger crowd than had come out to see Hubert Humphrey five hours earlier. Among the 3,720 on opening night was Billie Jones, 68, Mary's Negro nurse back in Weatherford, who had seen her at the Music Hall in Annie Get Your Gun in 1947. At that performance, Billie had sat in a folding chair in the side balcony of a then segregated house. This time she was sitting proudly in black dress, matching hat, and pearls, seventh-row center.

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