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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 160 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
The jocks talked into two microphones. To make their voice go 'round the room they would separate the mics and move their heads side-to-side, mic to mic, as they talked.
Their moniker at that time was "Quadraphonic Ninety-Seven-And-A-Half".
Tom Hufford (Huffy the Clown) lived across the street from me when I was
kid and his dad had a garage full of electronics, always something new. He
was a ham operator and was into all kinds of electronics. He even had a video
camera and recorder at home - and that was about 1965! He was a nice guy,
letting me come over and use his equipment to repair my gear when it went
south.
My teenage bedroom nor dorm looked like the page link here - but remember when kids used to build speakers? There was some place downtown on Third by KOTV and the Bell Cafe that sold speaker cabinet kits or enclosures for do-it-yourselfers. Anyone remember this? It was by a place that sold Catholic school uniforms in one of those weird parts of Third West of Peoria...
It's sad to note that ABC newsman Jack Smith died Wednesday. He was the son
of Howard K. Smith and a Nam vet. He was wounded there too. Ted Koppel did
a nice tribute to him and his dad - "...both thoroughbreds...". Jack Smith
sounded so much like his dad - it was uncanny. I am reminded of Noel Blanc
stepping into his late dad's (Mel Blanc) shoes at Warner Brothers as the
voice of all the Warners cartoon characters - though having heard Noel Blanc
at a NASCAR event - he sounds less in normal conversation like his dad than
Jack Smith sounded liked a younger Howard K...
Ibid on all the electronic stores - you all have named the suppliers of most of the TV station suppliers back then! The TDC deck my friend has was made by Bell & Howell to compete with Wollensak - big and heavy duty.
Guys coming back from 'Nam brought Sony decks but Roberts/Akai was the most
popular in PX's, I am told. I saw my first portable reel-to-reel Akai video
camera way back when KPRC fed back video of, I think, the Huntsville prison
riot to Houston using the then-unknown MCI microwave network.
Radio Inc. was definitely the place to go for hard-to-find parts. S &
S was great, too. But although it's a bit of a joke today, but in the '60's
I could get parts very quickly without going downtown at the Radio Shack
at 27th and Harvard. I believe the place in the tin building on Sheridan
was Lafayette Radio Electronics. From
time to time I could get needed radio tubes there as well. Also, the RCA
parts depot at 42nd and Sheridan (I believe) was great for getting those
honest-to-gosh RCA tubes. Man! Those were the days, huh?
As a matter of fact, I also have a Roberts and an Akai that don't work. But, what the hell, I don't either.
I found a view of a 70s teenager's bedroom full of electronic gear. Mine never reached this density, but I still use the pictured Kenwood amp and Pioneer turntable (purchased from "try it, you'll like it...SEVCO", downstairs at Southroads Mall), and I used to have the TEAC tape deck and Realistic amp.
Hurricanes, Pokes and Sooners have mentioned TTM on their respective forums lately. Some of the talk relates to OKC TV; interesting links were given, such as: Dan D. Dynamo, aka Danny Williams, who announced "Championship Wrestling", seen in Tulsa in the 60s and 70s.
Of course, Foreman Scotty got his start
on Tulsa TV.
Hopefully, I'll be there sometime this summer right after I make a pit stop at Freddie's hamburger joint! Thanks!
Dave
There was another radio store near the Coliseum location but I don't remember the name of it. There was still another radio parts house on Sheridan in a metal building near the airport...don't remember the name of that one either. Radio Ink was the place with the good stuff.
As for electronics and audio, it was "Burstein-Applebee", close to 41st& Sheridan. I still have a "Wollensak" (3M) reel to reel from there that I still use as well as one of the first digital calculators from TI. How about S & S Radio?
How about I quit?...
You can see a bit of the Plaza 3 on the new KOTV 1978 in review page.
Anyway...I'm thinking there was an OTASCO at one end, a Humpty Dumpty, and TG&Y at the other end...or was that strip mall further south on Garnett? I seem to recall that TG&Y becoming a thrift shop. I thought it was Cherokee Village, but I may be getting it confused with another strip mall. I know one of the malls later added a bar called "The Stage Door". I also recall what started out as a "Top Dog" restaurant which changed owners about every three weeks for several years in front of one of those 2 malls on Garnett.
The one with OTASCO is probably Sheridan Village at Admiral & Sheridan. Its stores are listed in Guestbook 84 here and with a photo, here. Cherokee Village was at 21st & Garnett. The Wagon Wheel center at Admiral & Garnett had a Safeway, T.G. & Y., Daylight Donuts...
"Then there was the non-enclosed mall at 51st and Memorial, catty-corner to the cemetary, whose name I can't recall, which had the disco at the height (?) of that fad...." Isn't that the Fontana? Am I wrong?
You're right, but did the cemetary really have a disco? Disco wasn't dead, then.
Added this info to the Gift Shop.
In case you didn't know, the trio that started T.G.& Y. resided in
Oklahoma.
Yes, it's a true story.
And I enjoyed seeing and interviewing "Joan Rivers" on Thursday. OK, this
time it was a female impersonator: Frank Marino, star of LA CAGE. Funny
guy!
"After the colored egg rumor was disproved, my good friend Mike Rudolph (his family owned the motorcycle shop on 21st Street just East of Lewis around the corner from Cy Tuma's home) and I flew model airplanes where the medical center is now." I meant and should have said 15th Street. Tuma's home had a screen door that had his name on it....don't see that type of personalized screen door anymore.
Corrected it below.
When I was a kid, we all thought TG&Y stood for "Toys, Games and Yoyos". We used to frequent the one on Garnett Road, back before the '74 storms tore up the Cherokee(?) shopping center.
I suspect "TG&Y" was probably a lot easier on the promotion budget than
"Thomlinson, Gosselin & Young".
Good one...I used it previously in Gary Chew's interview.
Per some info I dug up on the Internet, the TG&Y logo was the initials of the three founders of the company, Thomlinson, Gosselin & Young (no relation).
Quite the imaginative trio, weren't they? LOL.
Besides Morris in Cairo, other notable voices from the 50/60s era in the
same category included Andres Meisels in Tel Aviv, Richard Blystone in London
(a terrific old-time reporter and writer who was, like yours truly, a CNN
original), and, of course Jay Barbree from Cape Canaveral/Kennedy/Canaveral.
I've been pleased to see Barbree pop up on MSNBC in recent years, presumably
still as spry as Gaby.
Gaby had a long piece on doctors leaving the Phillipines to take nursing jobs in the US because they pay better and on the general medical careworker flight from the Phillipines to the US - again for better pay and security for families. Now - where is "Morris Ghindi, Cairo" - I wonder....
Viet Village or one of several Arlington, VA Viet restaurants may often turn
up a sighting of another old guy based in NYC - you know him as Andy Rooney
- who likes Viet restaurants in THIS town (DC) when here. And that's another
thing....
In the mid 50's I lived just East of Monte Cassino on 22nd Street so I was at Utica Square quite a bit and around Easter time every year I used to go into TG&Y and buy baby chickens that had been dyed different colors....somehow, I had it in my early teenage mind that they would grow up and lay eggs the same color as their feathers! After the colored egg rumor was disproved, my good friend Mike Rudolph (his family owned the motorcycle shop on 15st Street just East of Lewis around the corner from Cy Tuma's home) and I flew model airplanes where the medical center is now. My first job was at the grocery store which is still there, don't remember the name of it now and it probably has changed owner anyway. The Christian Science Bookstore used to be a hobbyshop I hung around at also. The 24 hour drugstore was across 21st Street...don't remember the name now.
Oh....I remember my grandmother asking what kind of store TOGO&YO was.....I
reluctantly informed her that was pronounced TG&Y.....she thought the
'periods' (dots) after each letter in TG&Y were 'ohs'.....hehe...well,
the dots were pretty large so what did she know anyways....we all got a good
laugh.
We are sitting here today on a major video conference and Tulsa's own wacky Dr. Gene Scott is a signal up on an adjacent transponder (AMC 3 - C band 20) 24/7 - so he is our refence for folks tuning dishes till we "are hot" on channel 19. Does anyone know how Dr. Scott funded buying a satellite transponder - for like forever? Does anyone in Tulsa go to his church - wherever it is? We are never sure if he is still alive or just a video image beaming out to the world. Today he is in riverboat gambler attire and smoking a "see-gar" with somebody rolling in an out of time shot off VHS of folks applauding him from other events. Quickly call him at 800-338-3030 (as we used to say for Pastor Pack on KTUL).
Later note from Mike: I stand corrected - Dr. Gene Scott is only put
up on the satellite in Tulsa! He lives in L.A.
I am sure that Amazon.com has a lot of his work.
By the way, thanks to everyone who places his or her Amazon.com orders through this site. I get a small credit (at no extra charge to you) when you place an order after having arrived at Amazon via any link (like the TTM Gift Shop) on this site.
When I moved to T-Town in '76, the TG&Y was still at Utica Square, I think, though I remember observing it as an incongruity in that becoming upscale deal. Utica was sort of the analogue to KC's Country Club Plaza, the "first shopping center" outside downtown. Woodland Hills was very new and waaay out in the country at 71st & Memorial. Bought tires for the Volare at Sears there, maybe the first radials I ever bought. Dillard's was the other anchor store, and there was a lot of empty smaller retail space in the midst of the mall. Go towards the river through the empty fields on 71st and there was the cool McCartney's grocery. Great selection, but prices a little stiffer than the Safeway at 61st and Sheridan, which also had a TG&Y, as I recall, next to the Methodist Church. Then there was the non-enclosed mall at 51st and Memorial, catty-corner to the cemetary, whose name I can't recall, which had the disco at the height (?) of that fad. Bent an elbow in there a couple of times with Broo.
And what about Vickers gas stations?
What was the something Garden on the East side? I ate there several times with Demi Rosenthal and folks way back when.
Bought a silver fish keychain at a jewelers there as a galpal gift one Xmas.
If I was there with Leslie MacDonald we always ran into one of the nuns who
had taught her at Monte Cassino.
Come, my students, and sit at the feet of an old man who doesn't always remember what day it is, and learn well today's marketing lesson. When Utica was built in the 50's, Whittier Square and Crystal City and Northland were about it outside of downtown, but Utica soon became "the" destination shopping area. Not only was there a T.G. & Y, but there was a bowling alley--Utica Bowl, and of course, the Medical Center, which not only provided rent income, but was very convenient for St. John's, and provided some assured extra traffic. This as well as other stores that I have probably forgotten over the years. Clarke's, Renberg's, Brown-Dunkin, Miss Jackson's, Wolf's-Petty's, a cafeteria the name of which I can never remember, and others. Interesting mix for the 50's consumer. And, of course, free parking. Acres of it. At the door. Store mix--getting the right kind of retailer in at a rent the store is willing to pay, which in turn fits with the marketing plan for the customer profile, has always fascinated me, and Utica has defintely been revamped as far as its marketing plan goes over the year, but the savvy of the Helmerichs is what has kept Utica Square alive and viable, and able to compete with the larger "southern" centers. Remember, the Tulsa 50's customer beat a different drum, and the drumbeat has definitely changed over the years since 1952. Mr. Sam was just getting Wally World off the ground in Bentonville, and enclosed malls were something that was just being discussed as a new conecpt.
Thanks again, and LawwwwwwwwwwZeeeeeee! - Lorne
You are welcome.
I only saw Jan and Dean once and that was at the Tulsa State Fair a few years ago. Coincidently, I just watched the bio movie about the two on TV a couple of days ago.
It has history, photos, audio clips (some which are 30 minute segments) and other interesting information. Being the history buff that I am, I thought I'd pass this link along. What stations carried this radio show in Tulsa? Does anyone know?
Wow, quite a site! That Monitor "Beacon" sound is unforgettable. The book above (available from Amazon.com by clicking on the image) is by Dennis Hart, creator of the web site.
It seems Fox 23 has thrown the first punch. They aired a severe weather special last night, "When Every Second Counts". In addition to their live radar "Live Precision Doppler", which was erected last spring near 66th Street North and Lewis, they have acquired something called "Vortex Storm Tracker". This enables 5 regional Nexrad radars to be shown LIVE at once. In reality, this technology is likely delayed by about a minute or so. KJRH, KOTV and KTUL are currently conducting live severe weather shows in various Green Country towns. I haven't heard of any of the three debuting new technology this year.
Looks like a good chance of severe weather Saturday night, we'll see it all
then!
A recent thread about Wal-Mart, pro and con, was transplanted to an item in the Business & Commerce forum at TulsaNow.org. It was too heated and far afield for this site, but anyone wishing to continue the discussion has an excellent place to do so. We recently lost two pillars of the Tulsa music scene: bluesman Flash Terry and singer Debbie Campbell. George Shriver remembered hiring Debbie in 1968 as part of the group, "The Kandy Kanes," in an evocative piece. We were also sad to learn of the recent passing of Roy Byram, a technician at KOTV in the early 70s and a contributor to this site.
We saw a KELi "Cash for Kids Club" card from the 60s. There was a Sasha
Foo sighting. An article was printed in the Tulsa World this week about Carl
Bartholomew, Don Woods and Lee Woodward. I can get a copy to you (through
3/31) if you missed it.
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