I arrived in Tulsa too late for the downtown movie palaces, but too early for the modern stadium-seating super-megaplex 200 screen giants.

Two moviegoing experiences stick out in my mind from my Tulsey years...Star Wars at Southroads Cinema, and Rocky (Yo, Adrian! No Roman numeral) at a theatre I can't remember along the I-44 service road between Yale and Memorial, not far from Evans Furniture, if memory serves, which it increasingly doesn't.

Growing up in New Orleans, I can testify that John Kennedy Toole's amusing descriptions of both neighborhood movie houses and downtown movie palaces and their denizens in "A Confederacy of Dunces" have the ring of verisimilitude.

As for 71st and Mingo, I think that was about where the paved roads ended a-way back then. I know I got ribbed for being "way out in the boonies" of 51st and Memorial.

That must be the Continental Theatre you are referring to.

Perhaps the remnant of the old airport that Steve Dallas referred to was either Brown Airport or Commercial Airport.

My dad used his GI bill after the war to take flying lessons at these two places.

However, if I remember correctly, one or both of them didn't have a concrete runway at that time.

I believe it is Brown.

To answer some of Mike's questions:

Why is it there? They needed LOTS of parking.

What is it part of? I think there's a hotel and some restaurants over there with it.

Is it in a 100-year floodplain? Probably. Of course, that section of 71st street has been growing steadily eastward over time. Just west of the highway is Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy and other pricey places.

Why is the IMAX there?

What is a part of?

Ain't that in the middle of a "100 year flood" flood plain?

Got any 900 foot Jesus movies there??? I date myself....

Duh - where IS the IMAX theater in Tulsey???

At the intersection of Mingo Valley (169) and 71st Street.

Does anyone have a picture of the old Cimarron Ballroom? It was at the corner where the city bus station now stands. I had many a good time from l950-52. Thanks in advance for any info or pictures you might have and be able to send.

I should be able to lay hands on some pictures from exactly your era this week. Leon McAuliffe is in some of them.

Don, you are right, of course. Delman was across the street from the present Albertson's. Just wanted to see if anyone was awake out there.

I've always thought Tommy was a BIGGIE! We all know that a lot of guys are in the national market that are not that good but a lot of great talents opt not to deal with the hassle. Rumor has it that Lee Woodward could have moved into the "big time" but Lionel insisted that he remain in T-Town to aid in ruling the Magic Kingdom.

My Massad's story: A car was for sale outside of the store. I walked in to ask about it. Standing right out in the open, in front of a full-length mirror, I saw a saleslady helping a customer change into one of the outfits.

The young customer was more undressed than dressed. She blushed, the saleslady acted as if nothing was unusual and said she would be with me in a moment. I said I'd be back and quickly left.

I never went back to check about the car or for any other reason, but I have wondered if the store was sans dressing room or what the deal was.

P.S. Yes, I know my Massad's story sounds made up and that's probably why I have never told it anywhere or to anyone before. It is a bit too strange.

Mike, you're correct on all three of your comments. Lanna Thai, IMAX of any sort and Tommy Crook. I have had the pleasure over the last thirty years of sitting in with Tommy for an audience of one and an audience of thousands. It does not matter to Tommy. I have always found him ready to jam at whatever AM or PM. He is an incredible guitarist and is also well informed. People have asked me if I knew why he didn't go to the "bigs" and I guess the answer is he is living La Vida Dolce right here.

And now this; Can we get up a lottery and have a prize for the winner of this TV question?

How much "Visine" do the Weather Channel anchors use a day?

Dean Lewis started all this!

Another unsolicited weekend entertainment report...dined at Lanna Thai last night. As usual, the dishes were tasty and fresh.

Not only was the food great, but so was the music, provided by Tulsa guitarist Tommy Crook and singer Kathy Wolfe. This duo could best be likened to Karen Carpenter backed by Chet Atkins...which may sound incongruous, but the net effect is very congruous.

I once saw Tommy Crook at the Sunset Grill with jazz great Herb Ellis, and Tommy didn't suffer in the least by comparison. He seemed to grab chords out of thin air, creating multiple moving voices. I'll bet Herb was mightily impressed, too.

The plan for this evening is some 3-D at the still-new art deco Cinemark IMAX Theatre. I can't think of an IMAX film that wasn't worth seeing.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

For Lowell Burch: If that's the Albertson's on the northeast corner of 15th & Lewis you're referring to, the Delman used to be on the northwest corner.

The new Tractor video will be shown on CMT tonight 11pm and GAC at 11:30. Tomorrow it will be on GAC at 2:30, on Sunday 7:30 am and 7:30 pm, and again on Monday at 9 pm.

The video was shot here on location with local musicians and a few big names, too. Watch for my Dad's red and white Ford Skyliner and his '49 Merc.

Since Massad's is a hot topic I am tempted to tell of my one brief, chance encounter with the place, but I guess I'll save that for another time. It was a bit weird, I can tell you that.

You whet our interest.

This latest discussion of Tulsa's past brought to mind my last visit there. I went with my father to visit a friend in south Tulsa and as we drove down a stretch of Urbana Drive, he pointed out how unusually wide it is. He then explained that it was originally the runway of a long-vanished airport he used during his piloting days. I thought others here who remember this airport (I'm too young.) might enjoy reminiscing about it.

Jack Frank did a segment about that on his Channel 2 show, "Oklahoma Memories". The 60s-era Holliday Hills shopping center adjacent to it is soon to be razed in favor of the new KingsPointe Village.

Tulsa changes - I think Mike Ransom or Tom Roberts told me the center of Tulsa (by population and $$) is now 31st and Harvard - so I guess that makes Downtown "far NW"?

Hard to think of the Delman area as a suburb. Neighborhoods in Tulsa seem to be disappearing with more mall-ification. Sad - I love all those little sections between 31st and 3rd streets from Harvard west to Peoria....

Seems to me the center would be even farther southeast than 31st & Harvard.

The Delman was considered almost suburban in the forties. It qualified as a top class theater, however: it had air conditioning. For the generations that lived after air conditioning became standard everywhere in Tulsa, the fact of a Tulsa summer without it must be inconceivable.

Massad's was run by a fine Tulsa family and one of the daughters, Lillie, was a classmate of mine at Central. She is a lovely woman who is now Mrs. Glen Solomon and still resides in Tulsa.

When I was a kid in the early 60s I remember going to the Delman to see all the Disney films. I have very vivid memories of seeing "101 Dalmations" there. I also remember sitting in the balcony and watching "Music Man". The last time I was there was to see the long-unseen (at the time) Marx Bros. film "Animal Crackers" in 1975. During the Music Man screening I became curious about a door on the west side of the balcony and opened it, flooding the entire theater with sunlight. I got a stern talking to from the manager, a crusty old guy wearing a Walter Winchell-like fedora and smoking a cigar.

I once got banged on the shoulder with a flashlight wielded by a crusty usher at the Delman, who didn't like me sitting high on the folding seat in the upright position. Very stern bunch, it seems. The picture was Disney's "Moon Pilot", a Cub Scout outing. I believe Mazeppa showed all the Marx Brothers movies during his run.

It seems like there was a very tiny shop at the west end of the Massads/Delman complex...a florist or hat blocker?

I think we called it Mass-Eds.

Longtime Tulsan Leslie McDonald Pepper told me many many years ago - it was just a women's shop. She used to buy hankies there for her Grannie or old lady aunties when she was a kid.

Boy did that shop change!

Was there another business in the Delman, too?

Regarding the balcony - for years I never knew that they had one!

Didn't Massad's move a few block down 15th right by OZ? I went there once with a buddy of mine who was there getting some kind of saucy outfit for his wife (supposedly). As we were the only men in there, we were both a bit sheepish. A very attractive sales woman came over to help us and wanted to know his wife's bust size. Since he didn't have the numbers, she motioned to her own bosom and asked if she was bigger or smaller in comparison. Man, those Don Knotts movies never prepared me for this!

I can remember when Massad's was at 15th and Lewis because it seemed like there were a lot of fender benders happening in front of their window. And when they became Frederick's later on, I believe the wrecks increased with the intensity of the wardrobe. Not your typical long-john and bloomers sort of store.

FYI: I have been informed that the Brady Nights portion of Mayfest has been cancelled, so Steve and I won't be playing. I apologize for the misinformation and wish to thank Mike for posting the Phantom gig at the front page.
Lawzee.

Well, shucks, I was looking forward to hearing the Snap-On Voles.

Help me!

What was the womens wear shop next to the Delman Theatre at 15th and Lewis that later became like a Frederick's of Hollywood-type lingerie and swimsuit shop? Often had kinky stuff in the windows - by Tulsey standards....

Did any of you ever sit in the balcony at the Delman? Seems like it was always closed...I like Walgreens but wish the Delman still stood there!

Not that I shopped there (maybe window-shopped), but it was Massad's

With Earth Day just around the corner - leave us not forget Mike Flynn's "Pollution Tulsa" beat on KOTV back in the '70's. Good idea. Need more of it -still- on TeeVee stations.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that many of the postings sent to this fine page are mostly concerned with "clever" entries for the "how did you find TTM."

Hey, I once changed that question to a pull-down menu with a limited selection of possible answers, but the people spoke and said it had to go back to the way it was.

Just read the comments about Pam Van Dyke's belly dancing show (in Guestbook 75...webmaster). I was one of the camera operators for that show... it was an hour long and the combination of the tranquil music, Pam's smooth, calming voice and the limitations of the subject (as far as innovative camera moves) made it tough to stay awake. Directed by Bill Van Burkleo, with lighting by Edwin Fincher and sound by Leon Rollerson. Probably the brainchild of Hurst Swiggart.

Just heard that Jack Hobson's mother had passed.

Jack worked at 8, 6 and 23 in Tulsa before going to work for American Airlines computer division - now part of EDS.

You can send condolences to jack.hobson@yahoo.com.

If the "Alley Cast" was the night KOTV had to run on generator power and a small one at that - I remember seeing that show and a picture in the paper the next day.

Dick Schaan, the late and beloved Wayne Johnson and John Gurkowski all talked about it when I was there a couple of years later - amazing that all that was powered WAS. Wasn't that a WWII surplus genny? (the cast SHOULD have been sponsored by Oklahoma Army Surplus!)

Nothing like being on location at the station!

I seem to remember that one election night, we "borrowed" the KOTV church microwave, which, as I recall, didn't have audio operational. For this, we ordered up an equalized line from the telephone company, as did the church. I don't think the "bread truck" ever moved from its spot in the parking lot during my three-year tenure, except perhaps to go out to the Fair.

On the subject of baseball, we have a Class-A Carolina league team, the Potomac Cannons, about a half-hour's drive from chez moi. I've taken a couple of kids for general admission seats, all of us ate, got goodies (peanuts, cotton candy, a beer for me) and parked the car, and had change left over from a twenty.

Not the greatest baseball ever played, but you don't feel bad leaving before the seventh inning stretch because the kid's worn out. Opponents occasionally include the Durham Bulls.

To answer Roy Byram's question about "The Alley Cast"; I do remember doing the news from the alley and I think the Webmeister might have a shot of that? (here it is...webmaster) I have a photo of it. Myself, Clayton and Gary Griffith. I also remember that I drew a rendition of "Gusty" whizzing. This to keep the crew amused during this travail.

John Hillis remembered Mike Flynn's "Easy Country" shows, and yes I did appear on at least one show which Mike sent me a VHS copy of a couple or three years ago. It was a Christmas show. It was very difficult to get any quality sound back in those days and even worse when you heard it back on your home TV. So, pre-recorded music beds really helped.

Saw the old video cruiser a few days ago and it brought back a lot of memories. We used that thing every Sunday to do the live Church telecasts. We even took it out to do "on the spot" reports from campaign headquarters of the govenor's race when David Hall bought his way into, OOPS!! make that was elected to the state's highest office!

There were also the memories of keeping the darn thing running. However, it did provide us with the ability to do the news during the year of the great power blackout. Lee Woodward, can you remember doing the weather report from outside that day?? With Clayton V. and Gary? Chan Allen was in a whirl, and loving it.

I really miss those days.

Is the Mayo Hotel still there? My dad was first assistant Chef there for two years.

The Mayo is still there physically, but has been unoccupied for a number of years. Is this where your dad worked?

Since moving to Dallas, I've become a big Rangers fan. I was there when Nolan Ryan got his 7th No-Hitter. The rise in the Ballpark in Arlington's prices has been pretty dramatic. When the park opened in '94, the most expensive seat you could get was right behind the Ranger's dugout. It was $14, and as of this year it is now $50. I guess they have to get AROD's 25 million in the bank.

Comparing ballpark prices to Tulsey.

2 weeks ago I went to the Baltimore O's vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays game.

Comp seats from Sony on the box level at Camden Yards - $32.00 each had we paid. Everyone else was at the NAB Convention Vegas I guess.

No live organist - canned music that night, but they have a gazillion Sony monitors everywhere besides a beaut on the scoreboard.

They have at-seat service on beverages/food - a guy with a PDA device walks around. He takes your order and seat number - with your cash (they are working on credit cards soon) and magically 3-5 minutes later your food is delivered.

Yes we had 1 pass by the cotton candy man and one by the paid programs man.

I went inside the enclosed food court on on the box level - we were outside. If it rains - all retreat to here or if cold outside. Very good hot dogs $3.75, very good burgers $4.75, soda $3.00 for a small commemorative cup but if you are designated driver either $1 a cup or free. Peanuts $3 a bag.

Cost us $8 to park 4-5 blocks away in a security patrolled lot - no shuttle to this lot.

That ain't that bad.....Tain't Tulsey prices but....

The NAB Code of Good Practice died a gummint-inflicted death when the courts ruled that its restrictions on commercial time and products (such as Preparation H) were a violation of the antitrust laws.

Given some of the ads we hear on radio today, that delicate copy in the Prep H ads of 20 years ago sounds positively innocuous. The curses of freedom, I guess.

I remember when I showed up for work at KOTV in '76, they were in the midst of taping a Mike Flynn Easy Country show. It was an hour long, sold-out, locally produced prime-time entertainment show. Mike, Sandy, and guests would sing along to pre-recorded audio tracks. (Sort of an early karaoke.) Mike was not a bad singer, but was no threat to Roy Clark. I don't ever recollect that they got Lee to sing on one of those shows, but it would have been good had someone thought in those terms.

I would bet that Mike and/or Bill Southard kept tapes of those shows., which were done in Studio A (the big studio) where a couple of living room style sets were put together for the "Easy Country" shows.

That was a genre of program that was a rarity then, and is unheard-of now, a victim of changing tastes, increased competition, and the culture of television management today versus then.

It'd be interesting to see if an inexpensively produced entertainment show featuring local talent would draw better than UPN fare on one of the Clear Channel UHF's in Tulsa. Paging Ike Horn......

Last Saturday, we took in "Spy Kids" at the Admiral Twin drive-in. The screen is a good bit brighter this year after some needed repairs. There is nothing like having a Sam Adams while watching a good movie on a spring night in Tulsa.

On a roll, I visited Driller Park Sunday afternoon. Listened on KAKC 1300 ("La Z"), now a Spanish station most of the time. The new scoreboard features a 300 square foot video screen. A new Bose sound system has been added. A misting system will offer fans a break from the summer heat in the picnic areas and concession stands. The Polish Dogs are "dam' fine", as Agent Cooper might say. Here is the Tulsa Driller web site.

KOTV in the late '70's - we did fishin' shows for Stunkard-Phipps, some news shows - "30 Minutes" a Tulsa-fied monthly version of news stories ala 60 Minutes, and several "Easy Country" shows.

Mike Flynn hosted "Easy Country" often with his late wife appearing with musical guests and performances - with Bill Southard directing. This was a show Bill cared a lot about. Not bad shows for as little a budget 6 gave them to do all with.

Often wonder if any of these survived on tape?

Mike Flynn has hosted his syndicated radio program, The Folk Sampler, for many years. There is a good article about Mike's life and career on his site. The Folk Sampler can be heard in Tulsa on KWGS 89.5 FM, Sunday 9-10 pm.

Was asked by e-mail - why was I working with Alan Greenspan today?

Doing a closed circuit satellite feed to Bond Market executives at a conference at the Greenbrier in WV via satellite. Sounds - from the breakfast speakers - that these guys party hearty. First speaker a little hung over...He did tell us that Greenspan could have been a great jazz musician - but it was Charlie Parker's time.

No market tips, a nice guy but he now travels with 3 armed Secret Service agents.

We may have riots here with the economic summit. Joy - I have to come in to work Saturday......

Alas the NAB Code is gone!

Here at GoodLife TV (cable) they have been known to run 10-12 minutes of movies interspersed with 15 min. of commercials! We have 3 5:00 commercials that run only in movies - Sharper Image and 2 beauty creme outfits.

Years ago in code/more stingent FCC enforcement times, we could run a break back-to-back with a 2:00 commercial break if we put a movie bumper in for :05-:10, saying "we will return to (whatever) after these messages" but our breaks never ran more than 4-5 minutes in a movie.

Several years ago when time compression was bigger - saw "How the West Was Won" on WTBS. Had seen it originally in a theatre - was 3 or 4 hours long. TBS cut it a bit - but time compressed so badly down to 2 1/2 hours with breaks every 8 minutes as I recall. Was like watching a cartoon on the action sequences!

To Mike Miller:

Research was done a few years ago that showed the tolerable level of commercials that can be played back to back before the ole' "tune-out" happens. People are apparently OK with longer, but fewer, stopsets per hour.

Stations are playing fewer stopsets, usually 2 per hour, instead of the 6 or more per hour (fewer commercials per stopset, sometimes only 2 spots) that was the norm way back when. I notice the long stopsets occur more during syndicated morning talk shows. Thank God for NPR!

I notice that television is picking up this habit too. Not that long ago, TV commercial breaks were limited to 2:00 each as fewer TV stations made commercial time a scarce commodity.

Whatever happened to the NAB "Seal Of Good Practice"?

It must have been swallowed by the "Killer Whale of Big Bux".....no, Don Lundy had the answer in Guestbook 20.

Started bringing the old Guestbooks (1-40 so far) in line with newer ones style-wise, and in the process, performing radical exclamation point-ectomy on my own early comments. It wore me out seeing those "!" of mine all over the place.

Happened to catch Bob Losure on "Six in the Morning". He is MCing a benefit for Tulsa area March of Dimes Saturday, 4/28 at Curly's - The East End Experience (Elgin and Brady). The Red Dirt Rangers will be the headliners.

To answer Mike Miller's question about the reason for the length and quantity of commercials: greed and deregulation.

Up here in D.C. I hear radio stations play five or six minutes of commercials without any breaks. When I worked in Tulsa radio, we had strict rules against running back-to-back commercials. We were supposed to insert time, temperature or even something creative to separate spots. ESPN Radio ran spots for even longer periods during the NFL Draft last weekend.

On KTUL Radio we would never run a Ford and GM spot back-to-back, nor American and United Airlines commercials. However, today such programming is not unusual. Even worse, WTEM, the sports talk radio station, runs a five minute commercial block at the top of the hour.

Personally, I can’t take five minutes of uninterrupted commercials on radio. Do any of you TTM fans have any words of wisdom on why it’s acceptable these days?

Maybe we've been conditioned by TV to accept more commercials...?

Enjoyed the Scooter Segraves interview and audio clip (also see the KAKC page here for Scooter info...webmaster). It reminded me of the time I was driving down South Harvard about 1970 with a non-too hip buddy o'mine and we were listening to KAKC. We kept hearing all of these great songs and between each song we heard Scott's voice saying, "This is Scooter B. Segraves".

Commenting on the great music, my buddy said, "I really like Scooter B. Segraves. He's a good musician."

I was confused for a moment by his comment until I realized that my friend thought Scooter B. Segraves was the artist doing all of the music. He did not realize he was the DJ. We had a good laugh over that one, at least I did.

There is a good interview with former KAKC DJ Scott "Scooter B." Segraves on Rockin' John Henry's site.

I know a lot of current and former voice talents browse this site and was wondering if any remember who started the practice of giving synthetic names to Disk Jockeys and why? It was the "Old Scotsman" Gordon MacLendon of Dallas Radio fame.

He was very innovative and very tight. He invented formula Radio. He started "Top Ten" lists of favorite music (his stations' favorites.) The name thing came about when certain D.J.'s became quite popular and demanded raises. Gordon solved this problem by giving (and owning) a phony name to the D.J. such as "Sonny Storm". In this way, if the talent became too expensive, he cut him loose and ran in another sound-alike. A great money saver but to my way of thinking...not a real smart move. At that time however, it didn't seem to matter because his station was so dominant (late 40's-early 50's).

MacLendon was a real character and a great voice talent in his own right. If there's a book about him, it would be a great read.

Jim Ruddle told a good MacLendon story at the bottom of The Sports Page.

After I did a couple of newscasts on KVOO for Central High Day in 1945, Allen Page, then KVOO program director, took an interest in me and in my tendency to have a "lazy tongue" in the pronunciation of the letter "L." He gave me a few "tongue-twisters," of which I remember only "Low-level bombers over the Lingayen beachhead," which apparently was in the 10 p.m. news, and "Lester laconically led Leola through the labyrinth of his life." We had an appointment for April 12, and for those of you who don't remember, that was the day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt suddenly died. Page was very busy rescheduling things, and we never did get back together. He eventually became general manager of a station in Enid.

I neglected to mention yesterday the cartoon published shortly after Pearl Harbor in the New Yorker Magazine showing a fashionable suburban housewife, about fifty, puffing on a cigar to the obvious horror of her lady friends, saying, "Don't you think Raymond Gram Swing is just great?" So the man had an audience despite the claims he was too scholarly for the masses. White Owl sales proved he wasn't.

Archived Guestbook 77, in which:

An announcer for Mutual Broadcasting System, Raymond Gram Swing, was just mentioned. Tongue-twisters, Morse code, and FCC broadcast and ham licenses were discussed in association with the broader topic of how some readers got into broadcasting.

Tulsa musician Mike Naifeh was remembered, including a hilarious story involving a drunken heckler. We learned that OKC's HoHo had a little dog named Jeannie. We heard a good story about a call-in radio contest. Channel 2's Junior Stane was the subject of another funny story. The Tractors' new album has some Tulsa TV connections.

Thanks to an unnamed former KOTV employee, we saw the 60s-era KOTV VideoCruiser, inside and out.

Lee Woodward recorded the song, "One Morning in May", now available on RealAudio for the discerning ear of the TTM listener. Lee is an amazing singer, as you will find out first-hand.

We heard from a regular TTM reader about her surviving an attack by convicted Oklahoma bomber Rex Brinlee. The NBC show "Run for Your Life" was recalled as was Lafayette Radio Electronics once again (both by the webmaster).

During this Guestbook, we received a video tape from John Hillis with an entire 1977 KOTV newscast and highlights from 1978. More to come from that tape.

Don't touch that dial!