I got caught...the cops just yelled at me and let me go though. They did a wonderful job restoring the place.

It so happens I ventured inside the OKC version of the Continental on Monday. Not recommended; it is a pigeon roost and looks like a crack house.

It was pretty dark inside, so I just peered in from the lobby; there were no seats, and I couldn't see a screen.

Tim Schmitz took a bunch of photos outside and inside a couple of weeks ago; here they are: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (Inside: 13 14 15) 16 17 18 19 20. #17 shows the United Founders Tower, similar-looking to the University Club Tower.

  Courtesy of Wes Horton

I dined once at a similar joint in Atlanta where the costumed waiters insulted the customers called, I think, Mother Tucker's.

As Sir Erick the Epicurean says, none of it holds a candle to a Nelson's Chicken-Fry.

One thing I remember from the drivers' ed gore films were that they were all from the Ohio Highway patrol. To this day, I avoid driving in Ohio. The loss of blood just isn't worth it!

Thanks for the memories!

And Dan, I've been planning an OKC TV site for a couple of years now, but time is the enemy!

Mr. Rauchwerger responded:

I was involved with Superior Call Centers and tried to guide that company in the right direction. Mr. Greg Nelson was the owner. His interests outside that business caused the company great difficulties. The company eventually folded.

I did not help any authorities arrest him. I do not sell new cars in Spring Valley. I am now a professional speaker.

Yep - we Tulsans were shocked to learn that night that Claude Hill was hit crossing traffic in Vegas so long ago during an NAB Convention. like previously posted - I think Claude sold ITA transmitters besides other gear.

Sorry I don't remember your publication - but if you still have any copies or covers - send a scan or 2 to our webmeister to post here!

I was reading your memories of Okie radio and saw a mention of the Okie who was killed at the NAB Convention. His name was Claude Hill (I think). I can look it up if you would like. Yes he had a broadcast supply company in Claremore. I knew him personally. In fact, I had dinner with him just before he was killed. He was a real nice guy. Very laid back and quiet.

At the time I was publishing "Broadcasters Information Dissemination" and he advertised in it.. You may ( or may not ) remember it. I was going to close it down, when a guy offered to buy it from me. I said O.K., and he ran it. He only published 3-4 editions and then let it go by the wayside. I still think it was a good publication. I kept getting subscription requests for about 10 years after it stopped publishing. I just was not a salesman, and couldn't make any money with. It ended up costing me about $40,000.

Molly Murphy's here in Oklahoma City closed about 1996 or 1997. I do believe that it could never recover from the expose that KFOR did on them, and I honestly think they didn't deserve it anyway. KFOR used to do some rather awful "behind-the-scenes reports" like that. Degrading almost. I remember that the man (possibly the owner) who Anthony Foster tried talked to was arrested for asault (as he tried to punch the cameraman). That same man filed a lawsuit against KFOR, which was later dismissed.

I only ate once at Molly Murphy's but it was a wonderful, and yes, unique experience. I don't really remember the food though. The group I was with were seated in a tree (yes, inside a tree). We were served by a Minnie Mouse/Snow White waitress (I have pictures laying around somewhere). I don't remember anything about the bathroom though. And yes, there was that old car...a 50's era (I'm too young for that sorry) red convertible...maybe a Caddy or T-bird...it was a salad bar...there were commericals on TV to the tune of "Oh What a Night" with people clapping around it. Those were freaky...even freakier than the old Boomerang Grill commercials (don't take me back please).

Right before it closed, Molly Murphy's had a late-night show once week at 1 A.M. (maybe it was Saturday night) of some sort on KOKH or KOCB...I don't remember much about it except it was geared towards college goers.

I could go on and on and on about a lot of things...Oklahoma City TV history (I'd love to see more talk about it...KWTV is turning 50 this year), journalism (my major)...and meteorology (my future major), but I'll end it here for now.

G'night,

~Dan Murphy

To ya'all planning any East Coast jaunts - starting Wed. thru Sun. and again the July 4th week - Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife is on the Mall here. Celebrating Scotland, Appalachia nad I forget what else this year...(it's DARK on Mon./Tues. of each week...)..

Also if you are Easterly bound - you should be Quebec-bound - the world class Montreal JazzFest is about to start for 2 weeks' run up there.

Ya'all should be turistas this year!!!!!

Doubtless like many others, I remember Doc Hull with affection (but I can't recall his program's name: "Sleepwalker's Serenade?" "Milkman's Matinee?" "The Doc's In?").

Hull's final years may have had torment, but his earlier accomplishments were many and enduring; I for one salute his memory.

It was displayed for all the Berryhill junior high and high school kids in a special assembly when I was in seventh or eighth grade (about 1968-1969).

I don't recall Cher being in the film, though (I always respected her for that). Like most anti-drug films during those days, marijuana usage was always depicted in some terrifying way or another. What the makers didn't realize was that kids LIKE horror films. We all thought the scary parts were cool.

As I recall it, the film ended with a beautiful woman driving at high speed down a two-lane highway in an open convertible. High on "deadly marijuana," she suddenly stood up on the driver's seat, the car still whizzing down the road at high speeds. Then, as she held on to the top of the windshield, her car was struck by a train!

That darn marijuana! We never knew it attracted trains.

Actually Rep. Bono IS still with us! Only it's Sonny's wife Mary. ;-)

Are you any relation to former L.A. top DJ Dave Hull ("The Hullabalooer")? Hull now works here at KWXY-Palm Springs.

This would have been around '72. I remember a scene where they are talking about how marijuana can make you halluncinate and they show someone who's supposed to be stoned and they look in the mirror and see a hideous monster as their reflection.

Am I remembering that correctly? Or was this a Nixon campaign film we were seeing?

A benefit will also be held with procedes going to the Alzheimer foundation in the name of his life long friend and guitarist Benny Garcia. The date is Sunday July 27 1pm @ the Shrine Temple in OKC. More info as I get it!

There is a boom of “ephemeral” education films from the 1950s-1970s available on DVD, Subjects range from etiquette films to drug scare movies and gory traffic safety films. When I was in public school in Oklahoma, primarily in Pawhuska from 1967-1974, we usually watched science films or social science films (showing how people in third world countries lived in the 1950s) with the occasional “our friend, asbestos“ -type of movies. I‘ve heard reports of the most notorious traffic safety films featuring documentary footage of dismembered corpses, like RED ASPHALT and BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY, were shown in the Tulsa public school system (and who could forget "Signal 30"...webmaster).

I remember seeing anti-smoking films from time to time, one when I was in second grade with lung graphics that made the whole class yell and make vomiting noises in disgust every time one came on screen; it was like a primordial version of ROCKY HORROR.

The reason I starting thinking about this was because I finally found an article on the ONLY anti-drug film I EVER saw before the midnight movie circuit turned REEFER MADNESS and the rest of the genre into ironic stoner camp; MARIJUANA narrated by a gold-lame’ pajama-wearing Sonny Bono. I have never met anyone who remembers this bizarre, psychedelic, anti-drug classic.

If memory serves me correctly, this film was first shown on a Sunday night as a "special" on KOTV with a huge hype for a couple of weeks on the station and in ads in the papers (I’m sure there was a news tie-in somewhere that week). It seems like there was a warning before the film (and mixed into the hype) that it contained footage that could make some people sick to their stomachs. Please correct me if I‘m wrong - in retrospect, that seems like rather bizarre ballyhoo even for KOTV the late 1960s. I remember making a joke at the time that Sonny’s get-up was turning my stomach.

Here’s the link to a very entertaining and detailed article of the film from Wave Magazine:

http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=22906

I remember seeing it a few years later in class in Pawhuska elementary. I was the only person who had seen it before, and I was excited. The teacher kept getting onto everyone for exclaiming “COOOL!” at the hallucinations. The film sparked a lot of debate on the playground; it split the class down the middle as to who wanted to smoke pot and who would never smoke pot. Looking back at how the drug market exploded in the 1970s, I can’t help but wonder if the film accidentally expanded the minds of the “dazed and confused” generation.

Aside from that, the only other anti-drug films I remember seeing were the occasional weird exploitation films that KTEW would throw up on the Saturday or Sunday late movies, like THE LOVE-INS, starring James MacArthur, American. Here’s a link to a description of the film on the James MacArthur Fan Club site:

http://teresafogarty.com/JMac/loveins/loveins.htm (Hey, this movie features Joe Pyne, plus Susan Oliver of Star Trek's 1st pilot, "The Cage", are in this, too!...webmaster)

Does anyone remember seeing films from the 1950s showing dressing dos and don’ts - (Greeks vs. the greasers)? Or the effects of LSD from the late 1960s? Or obscenely graphic traffic footage in the early 1960s?

Ironically. the reason I had trouble finding any information is because I had to wade through the many articles and links on the web that theorize Rep. Bono might still be with us if he had used medical marijuana instead of the twenty perscription pills he was taking per day for back pain. Personally, I don't think Sonny should have been skiing on any drugs.

Once worked at the famed Celebrity Club and it was non-stop fun. Yes, I did meet many a T-town celeb including King Lionel's second, Mr. LW (always a fun person in a good mood), Johnny Martin (charming, the perfect gentleman and the best tipper), S. Carl Mark - KAKC owner (preferred the Petro Club and often made suggestions from their menu, very quiet and shy otherwise), and a long list of others.

Is St Michael's Alley still there?? We used to get orders at the CC for their banana frappes. And what happened to Mike S - CC club owner?

Thank you so much for the pleasant trip back into my happy Tulsa days.

You're welcome, and yes, St. Michael's Alley is still at 31st & Harvard.

By the way some of the best burgers and fixin's in T-Town in the 60's and 70's could be found at the Burger House on West Edison. Tommy Alexander was the owner and retired to Florida some years back, I believe. Their chili cheeseburger and onion rings were to die for. My girlfriend at the time worked there so I had an inside track on good eating. Don't know if it is still in operation or not, but I have yet to find anything comparable.

Will keep all of you updated on the fires in Arizona if there is some interest.

Stay tuned as we continue to restore this 75 year old theatre.

Tried to get Sapulpa's favorite son, Guy Atchley, out in Tucson today. To see if his house was affected by this fire disaster out there. No word.

A kudo for KWGS and Johnny Appleseed's publicized ride.

Last night at a gab-drinkfest, somebody said that CNN's Blitzer deserved praise for skilled ad-libbing in recent coverage of Arabs-Israelis; that caused somebody else to say, true, but the Wolfman is no Peter Jennings; somebody else said, true, but Jennings is no H. V. Kaltenborn (whose CBS stateside coverage of the Munich crisis in 1938, and his ability to simultaneously translate Hitler's über-German ravings into English brought him 50,000 fan letters); that caused somebody else to say, true, but Kaltenborn's gutteral upper class accent made him less popular later than Agronsky or Morgan Beatty or Richard C. Harkness, all former NBC stars who, he claimed, were insufficiently mourned; that caused somebody else to say, true---but who's the best in Tulsa these days?

He then said that at a book signing recently which featured David Halberstam talk turned in a while to the general belief that Heartland book interviewers are a sorry lot who never know their stuff; Halberstam abruptly spoke up that he knew an exception, a guy named Rich Fisher at the PBS station in Tulsa (actually KWGS FM 89.5, an NPR station; Rich's show is StudioTulsa...webmaster); that caused the woman who had earlier praised Blitzer to say, true, that she had been in Tulsa three months ago and that, yes, after listening to most of the radio stations and seeing all of the local TV news anchors she was sold on Fisher, the smartest in town, the best.

She also raved about East 71st Street and Riverside Drive, saying that the newly planted trees certainly improve the city's visual appeal, but that the view gets almost tainted by too many signs acknowledging contributors---sweet though they are. The night ended with her wondering why generosity dislikes anonymity.

Am coming back in at 2 am to feed US Harry Potter video to Germany tonight...see, Harry Potter gives me another half day of work! I be an indirect beneficiary!

There are 3 bookstores open at nearby DuPont Circle here in D.C. at 12:01am - nope I ain't shoppin' for one in the rain tonight....

Ethel's is in a white building with an outdoor weekend flea market next door. The restaurant's sign is a kind of hand-written black scribble right on the side of the building. I live only a mile from the place but haven't been inside it in about 15 years. Don't know if it's still open.

The last home of Robbie's was West 61st Street and South 33rd West Avenue. I haven't a clue about the other BBQ place just across the tracks, although I know the building you're talking about.

To change the subject...does anyone remember Bill's "T" Records at Admiral Place and Harvard?

Is it time to rename this thread, "Tulsa TV Dinner Memories"?

But don't forget Bob Losure's lunchroom-away-from-home, Brownie's Root Beer. When last there a few years back - the help is still a bizarre Christian/Aryan/ex-con/gay group. So ignore the help - enjoy the burgers!

Re Robbie's BBQ in West Tulsey - will always remember them giving us bodacious amounts of hot ('n spicy) veggies with every sandwich.

But asking Sonny and others - what was the BBQ joint near Crystal City? It was in a small white frame building just across the tracks on 33rd West Ave. on the way to "Tincherville".

And what was the great BBQ joint over near Sand Springs (HWY 97?) that served BBQ on white paper on trays? BBQ Baloney was the lowest priced item for us poor TV folks.

Knotty Pine was for us when well-off. I am sure KTUL's/KOED's Leon Holland is still going to the Sand Springs branch!

Re Carl's Coney-Islander in Crystal City - got my worst case of food poisoning in my long life there the day Don Lundy's son, Matt was born. Circa 1972. This was many years ago but I was covering for Don on directing the 7 am Chick Show and was so sick I was bent over the switcher less than 16 hours after imbibing the 3-Way Chili Special. Jonathon Jeffries finished punching the show for me and Big John Heatley convinced that I needed to get to the Hillcrest ER fast. John took me there and made sure I was okay - and I will forever be grateful to him for this!

Wow!

What festivites are planned for guestbook 200??

At the rate they are going, probably fireworks on this 4th of July.

I do remember the "irrepressible" Gordon MacLendon saying on at least one of his Liberty Broadcasting System baseball broadcasts involving the Oakland Athletics: "There are a lot of athletic supporters in the stands."

For example, today I nursed a Nelson's chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, fried okra, and cornbread.

Now that's a meal to be proud of!

Dickie's diversified later, adding Rex Chicken to the menu. He sold the restaurants to someone else and they became The Hungry Pelican, before closing altogether.

Arthur Treacher's had a location on the southeast corner of Bartlett Square in the early 80's. That location is now Ike's Chili.

Another Knotty Pine location was along 71st Street east of Sheridan. It was a few blocks east of McCartney Foods, near where Weber's is today.

On North Peoria there was a Sandy's Hamburger place just across the street from McLain High School. They had good fish filet sandwiches, better than McDonalds.

Guestbook 137 is now archived and available for your perusal.