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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 182 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
After the story, current sports director Mike Ziegenhorn was at the news set, standing next to former sports director Chris Lincoln, who proceeded to tease the upcoming sports segment. After the commercial, he did the complete sports report, and was great. During sports, he tossed to Becky Dixon herself, who did a story on a local female golfer. I don't think any other KTUL alum took part in tonight's newscast, but they did announce the winner of the Gusty drawing they gave away during the news. I think the 10 o'clock news repeats at 1:35am, if anyone sees this in time and wants to set their VCR or TiVo.
He also has motels, coffee shops and signage of the past.
That is a good one.
If you've got a great idea for a subject, please email it to the above address.
Thanks, Alison.
Here's the THS website: http://www.tulsahistory.org/learn/videos.htm My brother came across this website on early videotape technology: http://www.sssm.com/editing/museum/
Of course, we had the Tulsa Oilers, but their logo doesn't look that way in their uniforms of 1939-40.
Many thanks for the "Java Christmas Card" link on the main site page. There are several nice comments regarding the Hawk Dairy store that used to be at 11th and Lewis. I had some really great times there as a young lad. I know the comments would have made Granddad quite pleased. Thanks again for your enjoyable site.
You are welcome, Si.
Did you ever hear of the cartoonist who did "Little Chief?." He was for real, carried his "bow" to parties like mine.
That would be Brummett Echohawk. Rodney Echohawk told us about him in Guestbook 96.
 Louise Bland with Wolf Robe, an Acoma Pueblo Indian from New Mexico
 Lamont and Lance Laird danced on Louise's show
To those of KWGS Subterrania daze - "The Cream" is having a re-union concert in London next week. I thought Ginger Baker was dead - nope. Former KOTV/KTUL engineer, Stewart Odell, is off to see it in London and I will try to get a word outta him on his return.
Henry Lile was steady, dependable, friendly and very professinal. Glen Raines was a superb professional. Jim Tinkler was a smart-ass but good stringer and a real hustler. Pat O'Dell was a great photographer for whom I put in a well-deserved good word to be hired. (Pat was a shortstop on the TU baseball team when I was a pitcher in 1960) I'm glad he got the job and although I don't see him on a fairly regular basis as I used to, it's good to know he and Ron Hagler are still doing great things for the "blood shot eye" network. Nobody mentioned Gene Jackson who was the resident film processor and also photographer at KOTV in the early '60's. Gene, like a lot of others I'm sure, has gone on to that Great Dry Box in the Sky. By the way, most of us also shot film back then. When Roger Sharp took me to Chicago as his photographer for the GOP Convention in 1960, our equipment one evening caused quite a fuss on the Convention floor. The battery pack that powered the camera started to boil over, fume and smoke. I guess by today's standards, we could have been a couple of terrorists whose scheme went awry.
I mentioned parenthetically on the 1971 Mazeppa interview page that Lord Byron wrote a poem called "Mazeppa", and that Tchaikovsky's opera was based on Pushkin's poem "Poltava," which depicted Mazeppa in both his political and romantic exploits.
I was and am well aware of Henry Lile's contributions ("a legend in his own time") but I was speaking of a time slightly before the one you refer to--just after the arrival of Roger Sharp (1959), and not at all of the "golden period" of KOTV photographers, of which I am somewhat aware though working out of town at the time. Perhaps George Tomek will clarify this for you. But your eagerness to defend fellow employees against any and all criticism speaks well for you as an administrator.
The Forum was actually a pretty nice little mall. It had an enclosed mall area and several shops. The only ones I can remember at the moment besides Looboyle and the theater are a Chinese restaurant (China Doll?) and a neat little magic store. I met many interesting people through that job including many members of the projectionists labor union (a union of motion picture machine operators and theatrical stage employees).
Jim, do you remember the Oelenberger family? We used to attend your dad's church when we were small. My dad who spoke several languages, spent many hours talking to your dad on our front porch. I'm so happy to see you and know you're posting on TTM. Next comes Mike Miller, who was a blessing to KTUL. His dad owned the famous "Lew Miller" dance studio, where everyone including me learned to dance. You both brought a smile to my face this morning. I'm happy to see you.
Here is Louise's new page on this site.
Henry Lile was the premier free-lancer in Tulsa at the time, and he only worked for KOTV, where I was news director. He was a Rainbow Bread deliveryman, and thus was up at all hours of the night and early morning. He also was a private pilot and owned his own airplane, which we used often to cover stories outside of Tulsa. Nobody, including Henry Lile, ran rings around the KOTV cameramen - Pat O'Dell, Ron Hagler and Glenn Raines. And no stringer was ever paid more money than a staffer. Pat O'Dell left KOTV in the 60s to become a CBS News cameraman. He is still on staff based in Dallas. Ron Hagler is his soundman. Both were in the camera truck leading the Inaugural Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this year.
Jim's TTM page.
He always seemed to be shooting for a TV station AND the World. I think he slept with the police monitors going. He and Henry Lile were competitors with Henry shooting for KOTV. When I was at KVOO-TV, Tinkler shot most of our stringer film. As I recall, News Director Austin Schneider didn't particularly like Tinkler, but bought his film, nonetheless. Wish I could remember more.
Here is Mike Miller on the Channel 2 election set, circa 1964.
That was Shopper's Fair in the Casa Bonita shopping center (to see the logo, scroll down a little on the Oom-A-Gog page). Jubilee City was on the north side of Admiral between Sheridan and Memorial. It's now Super-T Bingo.
As a youngster and a teen, I remember Tulsa being KMart heavy during trips here. Growing up in OKC, the closest KMart was in Shawnee. If I'm not mistaken, there are now just 2 KMart locations in Tulsa proper (and always plenty of good parking available when I go to one). Short side note since I'm already off-topic... KTSO 94.1 has changed formats...again. They are now playing a decent mix of 60's 70's and 80's music. Probably the only station in town where you can go from Roundabout by Yes to Roll With It by Steve Winwood. It's actually good listening.
Didn't we have a FedMart for while in Tulsa? Remember GulfMart? When they opened the first Target by the Fairgrounds - we figured Sears was their "Target" in that location. I still have a "soft vinvl" suitcase somewhere that I bought for $18 - made in the USA - in the 70's and bought at the "new" Target. The b&w TV bought at Sears around the same time - sadly did not last 5 years - a fine USA-assembled Whirlpool set!
Does anyone remember the Woolco stores? Those were great.
Okay Tulsans - help me! How many Looboyle locations were in Tulsa? 11th and Xanthus, SouthRoads Mall - downstairs, something way out east on 21st - but I think weren't there 4 or 5 stores in its hey day? This should be a lot easier than namin' all the OTASCO locations in Tulsey.
JIM TINKLER was a free-lance photographer in Tulsa in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He ran rings around KOTV, KTUL and KVOO-TV photographers for overnight coverage of big events. The late KOTV manager George Stevens is said to have remarked, half-seriously, that he paid Tinkler (at footage use and film replacement) more money than he paid the photographers then on the KOTV news staff. Eventually, staff photographers "shaped up" and Tinkler moved on to the Tulsa World's photography staff. About that time I left for Texas and Louisiana and I lost track. Any recollections would be appreciated.
We also did some TRUST HOUSE inserts that aired in 34's late night weekend movies. Jim and his wife were okay and though we had been told that "Snakeman and Voodoo Woman" were a pain to work with.
I remember "Gran'pa John's Bargain Barn" like it was yesterday! They had, as you said, a hodge-podge of EVERYTHING. My grandmother was living with us at the time and I remember her going there to get these HUGE crocks to make pickles in. She also bought a crock dash butter churn. Mom used to go there to get ALL of her cast iron cookware. I think they carried the "Lodge" brand of cast iron. To a kid of 6 or 7, Gran'pa Johns was an absolute delight! Just walking around LOOKING at all the stuff was overwhelming. It was like looking at a direct hit on commissary bargain basement! The site that Gran'pas was at later became home to "Mud Dobbers" ceramics and is now some sort of other type of business. I don't know why Gran'pa John went out of business, but I sure wish there were still a store like his today! Speaking of Sapulpa memories...anyone remember the old Gibson's Discount store that was on South Main where the Vo-Tech is now? I'm not sure if they closed up before or after Wal-Mart came to town, but I DO remember going with my dad to their "Going Out of Business" sale. I think my folks bought most (if not all) of my school supplies at Gibson's when I was in 1st and 2nd grade.
I'm with Greg Leslie when it comes to Nora Owens. All the people you're talking about are ones I worked with in some way. Nora was a real money maker as an account executive with one of the big agencies. Pat Shockey was a personal friend, she owned a small modeling agency and commentated fashion shows once in a while. She was never much in television. Steve Shockey learned his technique at Channel 4, called WKY-TV in that day. He hung around the top directors, one being Bob Rodkey. By the way, Steve is working at the moment with the old production company formally owned by Tom Krotel, who died of cancer not many months ago. He was one of the best with fashion, but never learned the computer, necessary in production. He refused and was a rebel. I'll start my own production company and do it the way he told his friends and did exactly that, calling it "Red Mountain." Careful about calling our 15 minute programs (fillers) you technical guys have your own language, but a 15 minute program was and still is the most common opening for local shows. We refer to fillers as 2 or 3 minutes on things like "How to cook a turkey."
...I -did- do plenty of Bob Mills (The Workin' Man's Friend -- Come See Us) Furniture, Smicklas Chevrolet, Taco Mayo and Pull-A-Part spots for Nora and Howard. Funny, earlier tonight my wife and I were reminiscing about the "good old days" at KTVY, running camera on high-contrast art cards stapled to a big movable board called "the titanic", and rolling out yards and yards of seamless paper to shoot Anthony's clothing spots. Nothing virtual in those days...
Jim, your comment led me to this case at FindLaw.com that pretty well lays out the business history of early movie theaters in Tulsa.
Another filler, was some show trying to be syndicated by an OKC ad agency. It had Nora Owens - then the current spokesperson for "Scott's Liquid Gold". Either KTVY did it or KTVT in Dallas did. Maybe Greg Leslie will remember. We only ran these filler shows when KTUL was near "sold-out" in advertising space. Maybe it was a trade-out for the Scott's ad account...I think OKC fixture Pat Schocke tried doing something too. Her son, Steve, had a video production biz for a while in OKC. We never ran cartoons as movie fillers but a couple late late nights when movies were mis-timed - we snuck one in before sign-off, because going to a commercial break and cold to sign-off never made any sense to our young minds. We logged it of course and no one in Traffic ever noticed! As I recall 8 ran 1 movie Friday night and for a while 2 movies on Saturday nights...Our KTUL movies still were 10x better than what KOTV ran (Thank YOU! Bob Hower!!) or the cruddy CBS Late Night Movie mixed with Kojak and Hawaii 5-0 re-runs weeknights.
Mike Ransom, I'm in total awe with the history you've added to the photos of such actors as Jeff Chandler, Tex Ritter and others. It's so much fun to click and read these interesting stories. I especially enjoyed the one about Johnny Weissmuller, the original Tarzan. When I get caught up, I'll send others if you have room. Until then - Thank you, for giving the Louise Bland show its page in Tulsa TV Memories.
You are welcome. Thanks for sharing your remembrances, and please write more about your experiences and your show whenever you feel like it, Louise.
Does anyone remember anything else on the Pennington's menu besides the black bottom pie? I remember the menu was large, but no other food comes to mind to me or anyone else I've talked to. They must have sold other food. Help!?! Does anyone besides me remember Grandpa John's variety store on the edge of Tulsa heading towards Sapulpa? I know they closed in the 70s sometime and I can't remember specifically what they sold. Seems like a hodge-podge of everything. Can anyone tell me how the Delman was named? My husband's name is Delman and he never heard of the word other than his own name and was surprised to hear it being a theater also. Any one remember Marathon candy bars? I'd love to see a wrapper, had one stashed away in a scrap book for years. Wrapper, that is, not candy bar. What happened to the "How did you find TTM?" line?
That question got dropped over time, but any reader may answer it if she wishes.
Good work, all who voted online for the Twin.
If you are not familiar with Jamie, he is a Tulsan who has played drums with Clapton, Bob Seger, Leon, and Peter Frampton to name a few. He mentions an upcoming film and album on his site called "Mad Dogs & Okies". His site is JamieOldaker.com.
In the late 70s, Jamie regularly played here in a jazz-oriented band called "Essence" with Faulkner Evans on piano, Tommy Lokey on trumpet and Dean DeMerritt on bass.
I also notice that someone mentioned KRMG-FM. When did KRMG acquire an FM transmitter? I wasn't aware of it when I was there in 1956 and 1957. I knew only of KTUL and KAKC as the only commercial stations that also had an FM transmitter. They carried identical programming. When I was at KAKC we always gave both AM and FM call letters during station breaks, but never at KTUL. We were never aware of FM until sometime someone would say, "It's time to sign off on FM." In the 3 and 1/2 years I was there, I never did this. These broadcasters only kept the FM side around for the day sometime in the future when there would be some FM receivers in town. KWGS was like broadcasting in a sealed closet.
Frank, I amended that comment about John Doremus to include his start at KOME.
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