Texasware Texas Ware Dallasware Melmac Tech Giant of It's Day Plastics Mfg Co

 

A look inside a boxed set of Texasware Melamine Dinnerware from a set I had.

Gary Joy wrote me on February 14, 2015 saying, "My grandfather started Plastics Mfg. Co. in Dallas in the late 40s - my father ran the company until his death in 83. For many years it was the largest manufacturer of melamine dinnerware in the world, as well as the only plastic dinnerware sold at Neiman-Marcus! I worked in the outlet store while in college in the early 70s ..."

As I was reviewing his correspondence I never thought for a minute that they meaning the PMC molding company could have been the largest manufacturer in the world of melamine dinnerware back in their day, but this sure explains why there is so much of it.  If we compared this company to the "Big Tech Giants of Today" the only thing we could say is Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.  

On one of my first podcasts I talk about the beginning of Melmac brand, and soon that manufacturers like PMC got wise and made their own powders/molding resins and what essentially happened is you had molders selling melamine dishes not having to buy the powders from American Cyanamid. 

Small attentions to detail in the design of packaging, and brochures involved were often overlooked by the unboxing process, but these things took time to design. 

So essentially the giant PMC company had a huge army of employees doing this :

Making Powders

Design Concepts of Dinnerware

(this part would be mold making I wonder if they did?)

Molding Dishes

Designing Boxes and Packaging Materials, Pamphlets and Store Signs

Quality Control

Marketing and Distribution

A start to finish conglomerate if you will.  Even if they did not have a machine shop to make their own molds, then still they cut out so many middlemen by doing the marketing, molding, and distribution themselves.   

Design and placement was key.

Kudos!

Imagine the accomplishment back then of getting your plastic dishes into Neiman Marcus! Competing with mid century modern ceramic and china designers like Eva Ziesal, Bauer's Art Pottery, Homer Laughlin and even the ceramic designs of Russel Wright.  If that high end department store housed only Texas Ware melamine that is saying something. 

Others have written me about their "seconds" factory store which was right down / across the street.  It seems they had so many they had to open a store for it.  Not to mention millions of pieces of Texasware and Dallasware are still in existence today. 

Do you love Texasware or Dallasware? 

See my post on Texas Ware Factory Tour Here. 

listen to my vintage podcast here.

find out more

Texas Ware Employee Story by Derrel Lyon

Texas Ware bowl by That Retro Chick on Etsy.

This story was left to me on one of my articles. I share it with you now and have made only minor typographical changes. It's stories like these that give good happy vibes on Texasware history.  Thank you to Derrel Lyon for sharing!

"My Story by Derrel Lyon"

I worked in the molding department at Plastics Mfg. Company (makers of TexasWare) from 1972-1980. My dad Bill Lyon worked there starting in 1946 at the Trunk Avenue  plant and ended up working there as a quality control supervisor until 1980 at the Westmoreland Rd. location. 

It was sometime in the late 1950s when the new plant was built on S. Westmoreland in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas. The compound finishing (melamine raw material) building was added in the 1960s. 

As a quality control supervisor, my dad was the one who looked over the rejected, pre-molded, melamine pills to be ground together to be used for the speckle ware mixing bowls. (like the one above) , 

Some were solid color, but most were whatever he selected of several colors of rejected melamine material put into a grinder and reprocessed into pills to be molded. As a molder, I occasionally was assigned to work the steam heated, compression hydraulic press that molded the mixing bowls. Since the melamine pills for the mixing bowls were made from rejected materials, about a fifth of the bowls that were molded had big bubbled places where the plastic "popcorned" .These bowls were totally rejected on the spot, by knocking out the bottom of the bowl on the corner of the metal work table, and then thrown into a bin.

Editor Note: OMG. Imagine all these imperfect lost melmac bowls !

Dallas Ware was the heavier, more commercial use products ( mixing bowls, lunch trays etc.), while Texas Ware was the lighter weight home dishware.   

Dallas Ware made a whole slew of industrial products for schools and cafeterias. These trays are from MizRed Etsy shop.

The dinner plates with the varied designs were made in two steps. Eight (hockey puck shaped) melamine pills were heated in a (very early version) microwave oven, then each pill was placed in the center of double stacked molds. The press closed with a huge, powerful, hydraulic scissor jack. 

After closed the dishes cured in the mold for about a minute. When it opened, silk screened overlays (with the designs printed on them) were placed on top of each dish plate, and the mold closed again for about 30 seconds.

The dishes were then removed from the mold using compressed air. The excess plastic (flashing) around the edges was knocked off, and at the end of the shift the stacked dishes were carted to the finishing room to grind and buff the edges. My brother worked in that department! 

I know some machines and molds were already being shipped to Mexico by the early 1980s which was the beginning of the end for Plastic Mfg Company.

Thank you so much Derrel Lyon!

You can find TexasWare on Etsy, see some sellers below who sell TexasWare, search their shop or click on the photo to go to Etsy to find some texasware!

The Allure of Texas Ware Melmac : an Ira Mency Reflection on Plastics Manufacturing Company thanks to Google Earth

The Allure of Texas Ware Melmac.....

Little Ira Mency mixing cookie dough with her mother circa 1979.

Yep, that's a rare photo of my childhood, with a putrid 60ish kitchen.  However, the focus here is the spatter ware Texas Ware "garbage bowl." In 1979 my very young Italian mother was trying to teach me how to cook some type of bread .  Far be it for me to actually learn (I ended up marrying a chef!).  In a time before "health department guidelines" my best memory is squishing the dough in between my fingers and mushing it in the several sizes of Texas Ware mottled melamine bowls.  (Perhaps this fueled my desire to eventually become an artist, I don't know.)  Texas Ware, (and Dallas Ware) melamine is found everywhere still to this day, from the second hand shops to the estate sales.  

A photo from  a Texas Ware "garbage bowl for sale" courtesy of  SusanAntique on Etsy.

Enter the "garbage bowl" as donned by Rachael Ray.  A collector of original Texas Ware melmac herself, she released her own line of made-in-china mixing bowls.  Not only do these bowl serve as use in the kitchen for picking up your snippets and peels and eggshells but ironically were originally called "garbage" or "end of day" by the factory and employees themselves.  Quite possibly because they incorporated leftover "pucks of melamine" or "powders" that were leftover from other jobs or wouldn't be used.  Frequently the most devine in design comes by accidentally on purpose.  Ray's replica's blew out of stores went to back order, like this one, sold out at QVC:

The "fake" Texas Ware lookalike as released by Rachael Ray, on QVC, still pretty in design.

Back to PMC (Plastics Manufacturing Company) of Dallas.  This huge conglomerate manufactured Texas Ware and original Dallas Ware* (*now manufactured by Carlisle Company) ranging from packaged dinnerware sets to cafeteria trays was last located at 2700 S Westmoreland Rd in Dallas, TX 75233, (below)  Images courtesy of Google/Driving Directions.  CLICK HERE TO USE THIS TOOL.

Let's zoom in to what I think is Texas Ware, corner of Hansboro and Westmoreland reveals a 2700 block sign:  (Courtesy of :  GOOGLE MAPS )

This image from Google Earth: Corner of Westmoreland and Hansboro Street.

 

Sneak around back and notice what looks like a "grain feed".  
Was this for melamine pellets?

I interviewed someone (Paul Rothstein) for my Russel Wright research as he was owner of a Canadian Plastics Company, and he told me that Texas Ware was THE BIG BOY of melamine.  He told me, "They had even found a way to manufacture their own melamine powders, making their production costs go down.  Additionally they had a "seconds" thrift store across from them, where they sold the factory imperfections or unsold stock. "  From the view above, (Hansboro Road) you can walk down a little further thanks to GOOGLE EARTH and see what appears to be smokestacks in the distance which would be located further up on Westmoreland.  Everything I find says they started in 1946.

Ariel View HERE of corner of Westmoreland and Glenfield.  
Time to make the plastics?

I also went to the end of the large conglomerate on Westmoreland, and went down Glenfield,

Now, granted, I don't know if that is or was Texas Ware, but in my dreams it the below update says so... and I certainly would appreciate any information you have.  Granted, I was really confused because earlier on there was a different address from m.  Enter Everyday Art Quarterly from 1946, and through the mid fifties, just as y research this ad from Life Magazine 1956 gave an address of 825 Trunk Avenue in Dallas Texas.  Could this have been just a sales office, or possibly the headquarters prior to the Westmorland address? Here's an ariel view of the place as it stands now leaves it hard to tell.    A quick search of the Dallas Historical Society gave me no information, oddly. 

 

Update: According to the reader below, his comments give us a great story of when he worked at Texas Ware. 

He says: 

 

In about 1967, when I was in high school, I had a summer job at Plastics Manufacturing Company. The pictures you have are in fact the plant where I worked.

As I recall, the dry plastic pellets would be used to fill a small mould which would be compressed into a "brick", maybe about 2" square by 1 1/2" thick. These would be weighed on an over/under scale to check them for proper weight. The bricks would be stacked in containers and sent to the moulding department.

Here, there were large, heated presses. When the press would open, you would place a brick in the center of the plate mould and the hot press would close and mould the plate. When it opened, if the plate was to have a design, the operator would place what looked like a piece of wax paper with the design on it on the plate and the press would close again and melt it into the surface of the plate. From here, the plate would get the flash ground off the edges, inspected and packed.

I've always been fascinated by manufacturing processes so this was very interesting to me. Although this was only a summer job, I can't say it was a great experience. The air was thick with plastic dust and at night I would go home with nose bleeds. I never saw anyone with a respirator. Thank goodness there is no way you could run a plant today with these conditions. I always wondered if the plant was shut down because of environmental concerns. The plant is pretty much in the middle of a residential area and has been vacant since PMC left it.

Thank you whoever you are, I wish you would contact me so I can interview you.

Unconfirmed Rumor:  Someone told me that Texas Ware was sold to Worthington Plastics in 1966era but I have been unable to confirm that information when in fact there is evidence that Texas Ware was still being produced thru the 70's....so I am wondering was this a situation where Worthtington secretly bought them out (as many companies do to keep afloat) and kept the Plastics Manufacturing Name and the Texas Ware lines and no one knew?

Trunk Avenue Location If you want to navigate this map 

yourself, GO HERE, courtesy of Google Maps!

COOL TEXAS WARE LINKS: 

 

• Here is an article about Texas Ware that goes onto give excerpts of Texas Ware memories (Not sure if I believe that the broken dishes were busted up and remolded -- as I thought thermoset plastics like "melamine" cannot done that, but who am I to say.  Sure would like to see one of those plastic chunk bowls!

  • Here are all my posts on Texas Ware on this website..

• Here is a great article on How to Identify your Texas Ware...  by Tera Crain.  Though she does warn of Dallas Ware being made by Carlisle Company now, I want to reiterate that originally it was made by PMC.  So, do check out your backstamps to see if yours is "authentic PMC!"

Time for shopping!  Enjoy!

Vintage Texasware ORANGE cof... Bluebernicevin... $12.40	Retro Texas Ware Melmac Conf... bigfishlilpond $40.00	Peachy Picnic Texas Ware Set... SpooningShop $28.00
ONE Texas Ware Stacking Lunc... thewildplum $7.00	Texas Ware Fork and Spoon Pa... bythewayside $15.00	8 Texas Ware Dessert Bowls FoundAlchemy $7.95
Vintage Texas Ware nesting b... FunkyAttic $15.00	Vintage Texas Ware Confetti ... StoneSchoolVin... $20.00	Set of 10 Texas Ware PMC Tea... modapple $40.00
Vintage Texasware Melmac Dis... RomanceWriter $12.00	Rare Pink Texas Ware bowl se... RetroChalet $22.00	1954 Print Ad Texas Ware Dis... retrovisions $10.00
Texas Ware Serving Bowl Set ... vintagebitsand... $24.00	2 Melmac Texas Ware Bowls - ... VintageHillbil... $8.00	Vintage Green Confetti Bowl ... susantique $39.95

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