Louise Bland at Tulsa TV Memories

"Spotlight" on Louise Bland

Louise Bland hosted her own daily talk show, "Spotlight", on KTUL in the early 60s, and later produced a weekly show on KOTV. She also covered the Democratic and Republican conventions as special events reporter. She has written a book, Art of Charm.
"Spotlight" is listed on this 1961 TV schedule. At 12:15 pm, she and Jack Morris news were opposite Betty Boyd and George Tomek news on KOTV, and Oralee Attaway on "2 About Town".
In GB 182 are pictures of Louise with an Acoma Indian chief and two Shawnee dancers who appeared on her show. She also mentioned there that she learned to dance at the Lew Miller Dance Studio (Mike Miller's dad).
Responding to a GroupBlog 285 item about Anita Bryant, Louise said:
"A lot of people were in Anita's life to help get her started. I was there as the fashion coordinator, who called upon designers over the USA to provide her wardrobe. Full page photos of her were mentioned by the AP as being the most outstanding in Atlantic City. A little feather in "T" town's hat."

Anita Bryant on Louise Bland's set.
Louise, 4/19/2009: "Anita on the TV set with me prior to broadcast on KTUL in the early 60's.
She was practicing the song as we were getting the TV set organized for 'air-time'."

Louise Bland and Lawrence Welk
Louise, 4/19/2009: "Lawrence Welk wanted me to sing with his orchestra one night.
One song only! What an honor!"

(via email, 4/19/2009) Louise Bland said of Lawrence Welk:

Years long after this occasion, I saw his band getting off a plane, as I was catching one directly across from them. Lawrence, saw me, and that was it. We walked toward each other as if there'd been no time lapse. He was a great soul! He was loved and respected by all.

Note: Lawrence said the best thing to happen was leaving the network and going on his own. Sometimes when doors close, it the best for a career, he said. Of course he was talking about the network dropping his contract!

Webmaster: I hadn't realized that Louise was also a singer. I asked her about it:

(via email, 4/19/2009) Louise Bland responded:

I started out in Austin, Texas with KTBC TV, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson's station. Had a show called: "Steady Date" produced by an agency out of Houston. Did many singing jingles in that day, such as "What a burger" ---Shopping centers or whatever was needed.

The lady who wrote the jingles was Ray Florence. She's the one who pushed me into television. At that time, I did records for songwriters to be sent to recording companies. Anything I could do to make money for school. Anyway, that's the way I received my start in the field of broadcast.

In Tulsa, I was the singer for a band who broadcast over KOME every Saturday night. It wasn't a field I tried to break into, since TV hosting was my favorite. Lawrence Welk heard me sing on my show. I used to sing pretty often since I had a piano player on the show for that purpose. It was part of the format. Oh, gee. I even did the soft shoe a time or two. It wasn't boring, that's for sure.

(from Guestbook 181) Randall White said:

I haven't stumbled through the full site, but was remembering the Treasure Hunt that KTUL did at one point in the late '50s or early '60s. It had people crawling all over Lookout Mountain with shovels. I remember that a guest celebrity that day was Nick Adams (TV's Johnny Yuma in "The Rebel"). I was star struck.

Nick Adams and Louise Bland at the KTUL Treasure Hunt, circa 1960

(from Guestbook 122) Louise Bland said:

Just reading something Hurst Swiggart had written sometime ago about KTUL (below). He mentioned the big promotion we had on Lookout Mountain called the "Treasure Hunt" - I thought it only appropriate for some of you to know more than the production side. This promotion was for a superstar, Nick Adams who starred on ABC - a show called "The Rebel". He dressed the part.

Louis Armstrong Nick Adams was a big star, with a good personality. Little Rebel caps were handed out to children in the downtown area for a parade prior to our Treasure Hunt on the Mountain. Nick riding his fabulous horse opened the parade and the rest of our KTUL talent followed behind him. After the parade, Nick Adams and I opened the "Treasure Hunt" and appeared on television for the next two or three hours. It's the "Treasure Hunt" - The interviews lasted forever, it seemed to me. We finished in time to get dressed for a dinner the station was giving for Nick Adams.

I generally worked with the director Vic Bastian and Tim Penland, and my hero Al Clauser - Roy Pickett, was forever loyal and always there when we'd interview superstars like John Wayne, Jeff Chandler, Louie Armstrong, etc. He'd edit the film and have it ready for Vic Bastian the following day. It was a fast "rock 'n roll" kind of show with upbeat jazz bands on when we didn't have a superstar. It was always fun. Vic would borrow props from a display house to suit the interview. We had fun! No wonder we won National Awards for best show in the Southwest and others. I've often wondered why ABC didn't get at least one "soap" like "As the World Turns" - to have that advantage, in my day would have been too perfect.

(from Guestbook 5) Hurst Swiggart said:

Channel 8 was owned by John Griffin of Griffin Grocery and Jimmy Leake, so the grocery put prize certificates in Griffin Coffee cans and buried hundreds of them all over Lookout Mountain...the people came in droves to seek their treasure.