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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 212 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
Even though he's my age, and I didn't really know much about him until I read his new book, I also got to speak with Dan Piraro, the cartoonist of Bizarro, He grew up in Tulsa and is Bringing his Bizarro Baloney Show to The Nightingale Theater, which is a surreal one man show and talk, on the 22nd. In our upcoming issue I will have a piece on Jim Blanchard, who is also from Oklahoma. Blanchard is best known for working on HATE! comics with Peter Bagge. He just released an art book, "Beasts and Priests." I'm also down for an interview with Gary Panter, another underground Okie artist, who has just released a new book, "Jimbo's Inferno." Panter is probably best known for his designs on Pee-Wee's Playhouse (for which he won an Emmy) and three Frank Zappa covers from the late-seventies; "Sleep Dirt," "Studio Tan," and "Orchestral Favorites," Back on the heroes side, I am also set to interview Victor Moscoso, the San Francisco artist who is famous for his concert posters and being a Zap Comics artist. I always credit Andy Warhol, Peter Max, and Moscoso for making me pick up a paint brush. Obviously, I'm still digging up the underground connection to Oklahoma. Oklahoma may be the buckle on the bible belt, but it has a proud backlash tradition in the underground.
You must be referring to the old T.L. Osborn property. See the pics at the bottom of the linked page.
Susan said she is one of the favorite teachers. I wonder if she still uses the Magic Mirror to check in on the kids at home?
The back of the head has an inscription of N.F. HARRIS 11-67. It is made of a heavy plaster and painted to resemble bronze. In searching the internet, someone suggested this might be the Dick West who once appeared in the sign-off of KTUL's daily broadcast. Should you happen to be familiar with such, please let me know. I would certainly appreciate any feedback. Thank you so much.
It certainly looks like him, and Hulbert is near Ft. Gibson, where he retired. Since Dick was himself an artist and teacher, N.F. Harris might be one of his students.
I guess I can take the tin foil off the windows now. Don't forget to watch Lawrence Welk on Sunday afternoons.
I was thinking, just recently, about my show on KWGS called 'Impulse.' At that time I was also working at KTOW in Sand Springs and getting around without a car or even a scooter. On my way to do 'Impulse' I had hitchhiked to mid 11th Street at airtime, and called from a payphone. The engineer on duty, Scotty Comstock, told me this was unacceptable but I asked him to pull up music records anyway and my show by phone patch went something like this: "We're at 11th and Utica, roughly, watching limited traffic go by. Oh, there's the bus I was waiting for to get to the studio on time. Oh well. It's a pleasant night in Tulsa and I have a clear view of a rising moon. Here is Willie Mitchell, 2075." "That work OK Scotty?" I asked. "Yeah, he said, but you shouldn't be doing this. You are required to be here." "OK," I said. "Log it as a remote." While I have the tablet, can anyone do anything about the hum on Channel 11 in Tulsa? 120hz, likely a bad capacitor in an audio amp. It has been there too long now. Thanks, Dino
Dino and Candace, welcome.
I worked at KRMG during the late 70s...I think 76-78? My shift started at 3:30pm and I did traffic reports, followed by newscasts until midnight. I remember Ed Brocksmith saying "we have this great broad in the traffic". Johnny Martin was the greatest. Later I was promoted to midday! Bob Stevens and I did the noon news where I was known to say almost anything that would enter my head...somewhat dangerous at that time. When I would take over in the morning, John Erling was finishing his show and we would have a brief interchange (on air). This was during Nixon's book writing year and John asked me if I knew where you could find Nixon's book...I said I don't know, maybe in the fiction section. Boy, did we get letters and phone calls over that. A very interesting time to be in radio...
Ed Brocksmith says he doesn't remember saying that! (GB 259)
I have a new job. I am learning new technology and ingesting film library material at the National Geographic in DC for the test of a VideoBank Media Asset Management system. "I get paid to watch TV" - no - I really get paid to transfer archival and program material as best as possible to MPEG 1, MPEG 2, and uncompressed HD storage. This is just a 6 mo. gig, but I am happy to be working AND at "the Geo"! Had 2 days of bugs and dead mice to troll thru then WONDERFUL polar bear, walrus and Beluga whale raw material. Aw, nature!
Longtime KFOR (WKY-TV, KTVY) investigative reporter Brad Edwards suffered a brain aneurysm this week. He had been in the hospital suffering from endocarditis (heart infection). The infection is responsible for the aneurysm. He is currently in a coma and on a ventilator, and KFOR reports that his condition is "very grave". I don't know Brad personally, but I did watch him growing up, and I certainly hope that is able to recover.
p.s. To Jeff H. Maybe that concentration camp thing made old Joe a bit cranky!
I'm not sure if he was on a Tulsa channel or an OKC channel (It's been so long ago). I remember that he kept his hands in his pockets all the while he was giving the weather report and was teased by his co-workers. On one program, someone had sewn up his pockets. He later was offered a job on the east or west coast and shortly after his arrival he was shot to death. Like I said, it was so long ago that I'm not sure of the facts. But for the life of me, I cannot remember his name! If you could come up with some info I would really appreciate it.
Maybe you need "Ponch" as your spokesman.
Does anyone know where I can get a copy of either the KAKC Top 50 Or the KELI Top 40? I need the copies for June 1, 1966. Contact me at my email address.
I was looking through my scrapbook and came upon my page of "competition" and found a business card of the Bachelors and "The Rogues" with Terry Burcham, Randy Ess, I.J. Ganem and Mike Fischer. It's great to see the notes about T.V. Dance Party and realize that all the great memories are not forgotten or just floating around in the heads of a few of us that it meant so much to.
Did I miss the second round testing of TPS bean chowder? I think that was around end of February. Inquiring minds want to know. The "I whipped Walls" promo reminded me of some other local ads. Do you remember? Super Cool John Mount...The competition just keeps chipping away. John Mount is sitting on a large block of ice. And my favorite is "Chick Don't Care" as someone takes a ball bat to a windshield. Classics indeed.
Speaking of Tulsa car dealerships, here is a related item. When I was 12, I thought it highly amusing to sign the Milner Pontiac sales rep as "Hal E. Tosis" (a character of George Carlin's in the 1960s).
 
I remember seeing one on eBay. Walls is depicted with a black eye, and maybe a missing tooth. The best strategy I know is to set up an automatic periodic search on eBay. But maybe someone reading this site has one for sale.
Words by David Batterson, music (and performed) by Mark Giles (both former Tulsans and proud of it).
Article in the Whittier Daily News.
John Hillis and Erick... I do believe you gentlemen are correct about the Tulsa hostage-taking. In fact, my "older" neurons are starting to "fire" too and I think you're both right... it was McCartney's at 71st & Sheridan not Albertsons... though I do think it turned into an Albertsons later? And, "yes" John... I think you're right on target when you mention the microwave signal not being able to reach the studios for a "live" shot..because of the hills... so that's why I believe each channel had the same tape. I believe they used the "one" tape shot by the police officer... everyone got a copy and put it on air! Anyway... I remember years later seeing a "re-enactment" of this incident on one of those network crime shows. Valerie Shaw was the young reporter/DJ I mentioned earlier who was kidnapped from townwest and murdered. She was at one time an intern at Channel 2 with me. Thanks to everyone for jogging my memory... Now, on to happier thoughts!
Steve Bagsby, who is that guy singing on your new Talahina Hula CD? He's got an authentic Western Swing voice.
The plane landed safely at 6:30 pm.
I remember watching our black and white TV the evening that the Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. During the broadcast, the local news station broke in with a news story about a elderly lady being killed at the liquor store two blocks from our home at the McLain Shopping Center. My father was a Tulsa Police officer at the time and I remember him telling us later that the lady who worked there had sprayed the robber with mace and or pepper spray and he had made the statement to the police that it just made him mad and that was why he killed her and drug her back to the store room to try and hide her. The last time that I was out north, I noticed that little store front is still a liquor store today.
I've already passed the book on to a friend here in Sacramento who's eminently qualified to resonate with the life of the broadcast newsman up to his butt in politics most of the time. My Sacramento friend, up until recently, has covered politics a long time at the California Capital, downtown. He says, "ultimately, everyone comes to Sacramento." So he has face-to-face familiarity with many of the biggest names in politics that go back to Jesse Unruh and before. My congratulations to Mike for his commitment to write an extended work. My attention span only allows me to put down 10 to 12 paragraphs about a film, then I have to take a nap. I even have to listen to Beethoven symphonies one movement at a time. But I think I read Mike's book in about four sittings, which is pretty good for a slow reader. Don't stop now, Mike! Maybe some crime fiction. First sentence could be: "I was on the day watch at Third and Frankfort when a call came in that..."
In any case, I always thought that the supermarket hostage situation did occur at McCartney's at 71st and Sheridan (now Southern Agriculture). I don't know much about that event, other than what I have heard about it here. I do recall hearing somewhere that the gunman asked for a TV camera crew to tape him giving a rant, and this was allowed to him. Does anyone know any more?
Now to Dan Rather. My wife Mary has never been impressed by celebrities. She just kind of shrugs when she meets one. When I worked at WTTG-TV, Channel 5 in DC, Bob Schieffer had been working there with me but had moved on to CBS News. (BTW, in his last book, Schieffer wrote that he replaced Bob Gregory, but I recall Gregory being replaced with another deep throat, Barry Sarafin. Anyway, Schieffer invited us to a party at his home and Dan Rather was there. Rather was a White House correspondent at the time and still genuflected before the anchor desk of Walter Cronkite. Anyway, when Mary met Rather, she kind of melted. He impressed her a lot! Of course, we were all a bit more dashing in 1969. Connie Chung was also there. But she still looks pretty good today, although MSNBC may need to rework "Weekends with Maury and Connie." Which reminds me, I hope she whipped Maury's ass.
It's a perfect evening out here...the sun has set behind the ridge, the sky is cloudless gradients from periwinkle to royal blue, there's a sliver of a crescent moon, "Casablanca" is on TCM, ("of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..." just went by, along with the oft-misquoted, "you played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it.") So why am I typing that my memory of the late 70s supermarket hostage event was the McCartney's on 71st around Yale, rather than an Albertson's? Or were they then still Skaggs-Albertsons, the tongue-twisting union of Salt Lake City based Skaggs Drug Stores and Boise grocer Albertson's? Anyway, that's what the old neurons say, though they ain't nearly as reliable as they once were. I seem to remember that the South Tulsa hills blocked feeble attempts to get a microwave shot in. Well, that little exertion wore my rememberer all out, and the Nazis are closing in on Rick and Ilsa, so back to the best movie Jack Warner ever greenlighted.
Mike's book will reside next to my Bob Schieffer bio, Howard K Smith bio, Oil in Oklahoma (thank you, Bob Gregory, for getting this in print!), Tulsa Historical Society, and Guy Atchley ("Now for the Good News") books! BTW - Mike Miller, I have not read your anecdote about when your wife met Dan Rather for the first time. You need to tell us here about it!
That's a pretty good start for a sensational crime. Actually, Kennamer wound up being convicted of first degree manslaughter, rather than murder, primarily, one supposes, because Gorrell was shot with his own gun, in his own car, about where Roy Clark bought that mansion, on Forest, I believe. Kennamer was an odd duck who had either been kicked out of, or had run away from, several schools. At his trial, Dr. Karl Menninger, of the famous clinic, testified that he was probably unable to tell right from wrong, but the insanity defense didn't sell. Kennamer had been telling people for weeks that he was going to kill Gorrell for plotting to kidnap a girl named Virginia Wilcox, whose father, H.C. Wilcox, was one of Tulsa's oil tycoons. That there was such a plot was pretty much rejected as being nothing more than Kennamer's delusion. Kennamer was sentenced to 25 years at McAlester, but during World War Two he was allowed to join the army and was later reported to have died in the South Pacific. Some doubted it, but some people doubt anything. A footnote: When a Mrs. O.L. Harman was called to testify as a witness about Kennamer, she refused, saying she and her family had been threatened with death. Her daughter, she said, had pleaded with her not to go on the stand. Mrs. Harman declined to respond to an attorney's questions and called him a liar, in open court. She was adjudged to be in contempt, fined $250, and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Her daughter later became the manager, then part owner of KOTV--none other than Helen Alvarez.
Read several posts about the man who used to own Sevco down on Peoria and have to mention this also. Dad took me in there one Saturday morning and Joe Pierre was waiting on us, showing us stereo receivers, when all of a sudden Mr. Pierre leaned over and spit on one of the receivers and started wiping it off, telling us that spit was one of the best cleaners ever invented, lol. Imagine doing that these days in front of a prospective customer looking at a thousand-dollar stereo unit, lol. Thanks for the Tulsa memories, it's been a great place to grow up and live.
Read the straight story of the Creager Finger Incident from eyewitness Gary Chew in Guestbook 183.
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May 01 2006 at
15:37:43