8 June 5 -11, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents A Dallas Love Story How two readers found romance and marriage in the pages of the Observer. BY JORDAN MADDOX T he trenches of the Dallas dat- ing scene run deep, but in the age of dating apps, it might be time to reject modernity and embrace tradition. And if the success of a couple of our readers is any indication, maybe personal ads are the way to go. In April, a Dallas Observer member reached out to us following a round of emails we sent thanking members for their continued support. “Thanks for your email,” the mes- sage began. “FYI – I met my husband through a Dallas Observer personal ad 32 years ago! Way before internet dat- ing. Regards, Nancy.” For years, the Observer had a per- sonal ad section where people could put a short dating profile in print is- sues, and interested suitors would re- spond. At first, interested parties would send letters, but eventually the system was replaced with voicemails. Was it to keep up with the times? Yes. Was it also to stop people from sending strangers odd things in the mail? Maybe. Either way, this was one of the dating op- tions of the time that has since been re- placed by the likes of Tinder and Hinge. “I still have a copy of the ad which was listed in the Singles section under ‘Female Looking for Male’,” she wrote. Getting Personal W hen Nancy Latner took out a personal ad in the Observer in 1993, she wanted to attract a suc- cessful man looking for a serious relation- ship. She was 37, had a successful career, and did not want to waste her time dating unserious men. Her friends told her to be careful. After all, you never know who might actually re- spond to your ad. Latner didn’t think a personal ad was much different than meeting a stranger at a bar. Regardless of where you meet someone, you never really know who they actually are until you get to know them, right? At least with a personal ad, she could filter through a list of viable candidates. It was more effi- cient. She wasn’t one for going out to bars in hopes of meeting someone, anyway. That crowd didn’t often include men she was in- terested in, and she knew what kind of man she was after. She thought it would be fun to create a themed ad — an employer in search of an employee. She titled it “Executive Search” and wrote the ad to sound like a job listing in hopes of emphasizing that she was looking for a successful, professional man. It read: “Selectively seeking intelligent, cultured, single white male, 35-45, 6’+. Benefits: Breakfasts in bed, moonlit jacuzzi, passion- ate kisses, surprises, laughter. Dress code: Preppy, great hair, devilish smile. Travel re- quired: Romantic country inns, Caribbean beaches, European adventure. Smoke free environment. Employer: Sophisticated, cur- vaceous, 5’10”, Fortune 100 (though this was a typo and should have been ‘Fortune 500’), legs, green eyes, smile.” She ran the ad for a few weeks, and inter- ested men left her messages, which she used to listen and decide who she actually wanted to go out with. Overall, Latner received 22 messages from suitors, and she narrowed it down to 13 who stood out from the pack the most. Lucky number 13 was nearly a missed connection. It was the last day for Latner to pick up messages, and she nearly didn’t check them. How many people could have left a message for her on the last day? In the end, she decided to, and was met with a lovely voice and a friendly message from a man named John. She called him back to set up a date, and they arranged to meet on Sunday, May 16, at 5 p.m. at Baby Routh – a former Dallas res- taurant owned by chef Stephan Pyles. Hope- fully, the bar would be empty before the dinner rush. “What celebrity do you look like?” Latner asked over the phone. She needed to know how to recognize him. All she knew was that he had a nice voice, his name was John, and he seemed to fit the requirements in her ad. After all, a personal ad isn’t much more than a blind date. “Richard Chamberlain,” he answered. Luckily for her, not only was it easy to spot the tall, blonde-haired John McLellan in a crowd, but there was no crowd to find him in. He was the only one at the bar that evening. “Oh, he’s very handsome,” she thought, walking up to the bar. He wasn’t lying about his celebrity loo- kalike, and bonus points: he wasn’t lying about being over 6 feet tall. As a 5-foot-10- inch woman, Latner knew well the disap- pointment from men lying about their height. McLellan was pleasantly surprised, too. His date claimed that she was a “sophisti- cated, curvaceous” woman with “legs, green eyes” and a Fortune 500 career, but that sounds too good to be true, right? Drinks turned into dinner, and “the rest is history, as they say,” Latner wrote. The two even got to have that “European adventure” Latner required in her ad, among many in- ternational adventures. “I joined him on numerous business trips, including to London, Geneva, Hong Kong, Beijing and Edinburgh,” she told us. After years of partnership, McLellan pro- posed to Latner on New Year’s Eve of 1999, just minutes before the start of the new mil- lennium. “People started to clap,” Latner wrote. “And the wait staff came out, banging pots [and] pans in celebration of New Year’s a few minutes early, we think, because they heard the clapping for us.” In 2001, they were married and honey- mooned in Nevis, an island in the Caribbean. Of course, this checked off another require- ment from the ad: “Caribbean beaches.” In the same year, they bought a house in Pres- ton Hollow, where they still reside today. Thank you to Nancy and John for shar- ing their story with us. We’re touched that local journalism and the Observer have made such a lasting impact on your life. Do you have a Dallas Observer love con- nection? Share it with us for a chance to be featured: [email protected]. ▼ FILM LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION A LOOK AT THE 2025 OAK CLIFF FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING. BY LISA LAMAN J une is on the horizon, which means the annual Oak Cliff Film Festival is just around the corner. This pillar of the DFW cinema scene was first founded in 2012 and has since helped to make Dallas a film destination that houses an amalgam of genres, ranging from classic films to buzzy new indie releases dominat- ing the film festival circuit. The 2025 iteration, which runs from June 26-29, will spread across various Oak Cliff exhibition centers for a deft showcase of cinema’s endless versatility as an art form. This year, the festival is taking aim at the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) plaguing the modern film industry. Specifically, the horrors of generative AI have loomed large over art as corporations threaten to remove the human element from movies, TV shows and other forms of artistic expression. Thus, the Oak Cliff Film Festival’s 2025 theme is “Real Movies for Real Human People.” According to the festival’s website, “The films themselves encourage a real, honest, self-excavation of the human ex- perience.” Of course, that statement is punctuated by images featuring stiff man- nequins and a Twizzler-chomping skele- ton watching movies and manning a concession stand. The festival just released its 2025 lineup, so we’ve put together a primer on what to expect. Besides, wouldn’t you rather spend your summer watching something off-kilter, albeit engaging, rather than succumbing to the disappointment of an algorithm’s unin- spired streaming suggestion? The festival opens on June 26 with pro- ductions like Sesame Street-adjacent docu- mentary Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon and the horror film OBEX, both of which will screen in the different Texas Theatre auditoriums. Starting June 27, festival screenings will expand to other locations, such as the Bishop Arts Theater Center. Showings lined up for day 2 of the festival include a series of Texas Student Shorts, a special ode to 1940s experimental filmmaker Maya Deren and fresh indie films like Lockjaw. As has been the case in years past, Satur- day is the marquee of the festival, with events stretching from the morning to late into the night. Among the June 28 screen- ings are Marc Maron’s documentary Are We Good? (which is making its Dallas pre- miere after a SXSW debut in March), Coro- ner to the Stars, and Natchez, which will ▼ Culture Courtesy Nancy Latner Wanderlust was a must – Nancy Latner’s 1993 personal ad in the Observer required that her partner enjoy traveling to Caribbean beaches. This month marked exactly 32 years since John and Nancy met through the pages of our paper. Courtesy Nancy Latner
