Have you noticed the Tango Frogs on a mural in Trader Joe’s? 

The real Tango Frogs sat atop the Tango Club at 1827 Greenville Avenue in the early 1980s. The six ten-foot tall amphibians were the pollywog of renowned Dallas artist, Bob Wade. But the Dallas Sign Control Board of Adjustments said the frogs weren’t art, they were signage, and that they violated the city sign code.  

The battle pursued at Dallas City Hall. Sue Graze, curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, sided with Wade, testifying that the frogs were not run-of-the-mill signs—they were art. After all, Wade had art in the DMFA, the Pompidou Museum in Paris, the Groningen Museum in Groningen, Holland and the Angora Studio in Maastricht, Holland. However, in 1984, the control board of five members won the war, and the army of frogs was scheduled to be removed from the Lower Greenville skyline.

Wade went back to court, and this time he won! Unfortunately, the frogs may have been hoppin', but not so the nightclub. The Tango Club closed in 1985. The frogs were sent to Carl’s Corner, Willie Nelson’s old hangout.

But now they’re back on Lower Greenville! The new Trader Joe’s seems to have an eye for art. The frogs appear in one of the colorful murals decorating the walls of the new grocery store.