Dancing Frogs in Dallas.

Tango Frogs of Daddy-O

Dallas, Texas

According to artist Bob "Daddy-O" Wade, the Tango Frogs -- so named because they originally stood on the roof of the Tango nightclub in Dallas -- were inspired by a set of similar real frogs, shellacked in Mexico and brought to Bob by a friend who had earlier brought him a stuffed Mexican iguana that had inspired Bob's Lone Star Iguana.

The nightclub closed in 1984 and the six original frogs were moved to the roof of "Carl's Corner," a truck stop north of Hillsboro owned by Carl Cornelius and his buddy Willie Nelson. Then the truck stop burned, but the frogs somehow survived. Carl sold three of the frogs, which are now in Nashville, while the other three remained with the truck stop when it reopened in 2008. The frogs stood outside as a photo op, but the Great Recession forced he truck stop out of business. Then Carl hauled the three frogs across the highway, where they stood in his yard overlooking I-35 along with a 20-foot-tall wooden nickel -- another wayward Bob Wade creation.

Meanwhile, back in Dallas, the spot formerly occupied by the Tango nightclub had become a taco restaurant. Its owner, a fan of Daddy-O, bought the three frogs in Carl's yard and, in June 2014, on the 30th anniversary of their removal, brought them back to the rooftop where they first appeared in 1983. It was, said Bob, "a real happy ending" -- and then in early 2020, the taco restaurant closed. But the restaurant owners wanted to keep the frogs in the neighborhood, so they donated the frogs to a business around the corner, which placed them on its roof in late 2020.