To Danny Meyers, regarding Ray’s Café, I grew up on Ray’s food, especially the chicken fried steak and hamburgers. (It was only a block and a half away from my father’s dance studio.) The diner probably had the world’s most efficient waitress in Gladys. The café continued for years after owner Ray Miller died. His widow, Margaret ran it. The entire staff remained in place for well over twenty years. It’s now been closed for a very long time. Too bad!

For some reason, I remember the Rubiot on the west side of Lewis, closest to the River. Going south, I’d take a right into the parking lot. But, hell, those were my drinking days.

I have mentioned this previously: the undisputed best all-around search engine, Google, has a Toolbar available for download. Once installed, it becomes an integral part of your Internet Explorer browser (it is removable, too).

TTM already has a good search engine that will get you to the pages you seek, but archived Guestbook pages are pretty big to look through once you get there. With the the Google Toolbar, you can easily create your own on-the-fly buttons that let you search within a page.

Just type "Lionel" in the Google box, and voila! You now have a Lionel button. You can then find every mention of the King on any page you land on.

The same thing can be accomplished by going to "Edit/Find" on your browser, but you have to type in your word every time you search within a page. With the Toolbar, the button persists until you want to change it, making for a much more efficient search experience.

The price is right: free.

Does anyone remember a situation that occurred while Sam was at KTFO where he worked at the 51st and Yale Arby's for a day? I think it had something to do with the fact that Arby's blocked off part of the parking lot. Motorists were entering the Arby's parking lot from a side street and driving through it to the adjacent strip shopping center. After they blocked it off, the other merchants put a sign on the barricade stating "Arby's put this barricade here". I think Sam went into an on-air rant about it and that led to his one day stint.

Yes, Jim's is still in business. Wasn't Van's Hamburgers near Admiral and Harvard? Elliott's BBQ became Texas Tamales (great), which then moved down to the Brady district.

7/14/2007: I found this image on eBay awhile back.

8/30/2007: And this image at the library.

Sam's political tirades were not worth wasting sleep over. Sorry but too many people out there were doing it and doing it better. One other thing, he wasted a great resource - his callers! Looking disgusted and hanging up on one once in awhile would have been cute - but all of the time? The rubes that called in to his show were hilarious! He should have kept them on the line and kidded them along a little. It would have made for great entertainment. He took them all too serious. Still, I would trade 90% of what is on TV for another show like Sam's.

Lee, the first funny title that pops into my head is that old bluegrass standard, "Don't Run Though the Screendoor, Honey. You'll Strain Yourself." (rimshot)

At some point, as the show was gaining popularity, it expanded to a full hour. It was about this time that Sam began promoting Gary Shore's weather forecasts on channel 2. In fact, he would be keeping an eye on Channel 2's news broadcast and as the weather was being introduced, he would stop the program, and in a long exaggerated endorsement, encourage viewers to switch to 2 to get Gary's forecast.

After the show went to KOTV, it lost some of its appeal to me. Part of what I liked was how cheaply the show was produced. This made it seem more honest. I also enjoyed its short stay on KLOT-25, when I could pick up the signal. After Gary Shore left Channel 2, he even appeared nightly on this incarnation of the show (which lasted roughly 3 weeks).

Also, I may have overstated the bookings when I said every weekend as Sonny's own group held the fort most of the time. I'm sorry I can't remember all his side men. I know Kenny Quinn was one, John Rigney was another. Both of these fellows still play in Tulsa. One or two other fellows would alternate sometimes. I recall a bass player from the Philharmonic was also there sometimes.

Anyway, a great venue.

Since Sonny Gray was mentioned earlier and his "Rubiot" jazz club, let me light the way. Sonny built the "Rubiot" (on So. Lewis between 61st & 71st) from scratch to be solely for the purpose of presenting jazz in the best light. He had all the big names, from Teddy Wilson, Joe Williams. Every weekend was a headliner. I remember hooking up one afternoon with vibraphonist Gary Burton at the old Trade Winds pool, exchanging bizarre song titles.

Two of his I remember were; "What's that in your pool..Algae?" and "Take my love and shove it up your heart!" I only remember one of mine; "Come on Baby, let's get this straight!" Sorry!

Sonny also promoted up and coming talent. One of these was a female singer named Annette Sanders. One of the best I have ever heard. Trust me! I heard she had a deal with Decca. She was here many times and even did a concert at T.U. which was a gas. I later learned that she went back to New York to a boyfriend musician who was an addict. He was kind enough to take her down with him. Just like River Phoenix, a great career move.

Sonny's club was undone by the staff who gave a new meaning to "profit sharing." If a human form of termites existed, they worked there and sadly a great club died. The only "chops" saved were Sonny's. The rest went out the back door.

National jazz names playing at a Tulsa exclusively-jazz club...wish I could have been in on that. Was the Rubiot that building on the east side of Lewis that is now a restaurant with an uphill drive into the parking lot? Or is the original structure still there?

Hope those were real ads and not some dream I have remembered all these years.

If so, then I had the same one.

Sometime around 1977, give or take a year, Sam was anchoring the evening news, and was about to get canned when the owner, Robert Brown, decided to clean house and create a new image, news set and personnel. I was brought in as news director and managed to talk Brown into allowing Sam stay on doing weekends. He was not a happy camper, however.

"You're on with Sam Jones” must have proved an interesting title for his Tulsa show. Sam was always “on.” When you had a conversation with him, it was like he was on stage, performing. I don’t know if this was a 24-7 act or whether he changed a little after moving to Tulsa. I managed to catch his TV show one night with Sonny Gray and he seemed the same, old Sam. Of course, he was “on” while “on” television.

I’ve never run across anyone quite like Sam Jones. I enjoyed being in his audience, both on and off the air.

The name of the restaurant when it first opened was the Iron Horse. I think it changed names later.

It might be the location of the old Seismograph Service Corporation...I'll be in that area this afternoon and will try to take a look (later: oops, I forgot).

I went there only once, likely when I moved here in 1973 or shortly thereafter. I remember that when you ate there and you were a kid, you received with your meal a token that could be redeemed for ice cream in the back of the car. The restaurant closed and the car is long gone, but the sign was an old watering tank for the old steam locomotives and I believe it's still there.

To add to the obscurity here I think the TV ads featured Gailard Sartain. The location again is east of 169 by about 2 blocks and west of the old Village theater on Admiral.

Yes, I remember eating there...wasn't it called The Depot? See Charles' entry two up from here for a better answer.

I was looking up some information on "UHF" and came across your site. When I saw that you had a section on Channel 2, I was interested to see if there were any pictures/information on my grandfather someplace there. He was General Manager of KTEW in the late 70s and possibly early 80s. I don't really know the exact timeframe. His name is Bill Ritchie.

Nothing yet, but with his name out here, there could be soon.

I did ask him if he was going to be going back on the air anytime soon and he told me something about how there were a few legal obstacles in the way. No mention of an on-air argument with Sonny Gray.

Don't know if that helps anyone with this, but for the record, I miss the guy too. His program was a good one, that's for sure.

I've lived in Tulsa now and then since those days, and have a couple of kids and five grandchildren living there now.

Does anybody remember the name of the drive-in restaurant on 11th street where we hung out?

How about the Big Ten Ballroom?

Could that drive-in be Bishop's? See it at the Retro Tulsa Internet Museum.

I lived in Tulsa at the time and recall the local TV stations freaking out over impending flooding in the Riverside area which never happened, while just 50 miles to the north my childhood home of Bartlesville was literally cut in half for a time by the Caney River. I think B-ville finally made the news a day or so later. :-)

This is my first post and I must say this site is going in my WWW Hall Of Fame. So many memories and so well-documented. Thanks for all the hard work.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Came across the name Susan Silver whilst browsing previous guestbooks for a name Mike Bruchas reminded me of (legal stipulations prevent me from saying any more). I presume this is the same Susan Silver who was the Student Association Academic Affairs Chairperson at TU College the same year I ran the Social Affairs Council. Lovely lady, think I went out with her once...anyway, just wondering if anyone who's still listening remembers the concert I produced in the Great Hall at Westby Center featuring Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.

Without going into specifics, let's just say this bird would never have flown in our politically correct millenium. It caused something of a ruckus on campus the following Monday. IN retrospect, I probably shouldn't have booked Kinky Friedman for Parents Weekend. I heard from J. Paschal Twyman's office, the Association of Black Collegians, the Newman society. I don't think there was anyone who wasn't offended.

But what I remember most of that day was a chat I had with one of Kinky's sidemen, a guy named Billy Swan (he sang "I Can Help" a few years later.) He asked me to pass his best wishes on to Billy Parker; I did so - Mr. Parker was delighted to hear from him.

Just curious if anyone remembers this show.

Wish I did. I've read several of Kinky's detective novels, starring himself and the puppet head keychain with parachute. Some of Kinky's equal offense crowd-pleasers: "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns in the Bed", "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" and "The Ballad of Charles Whitman". Lyrics available on Kinky's site.

Susan Silver can be seen on News page 1.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but there will be a KTUL 50th anniversary special on the 10 o'clock news tonight (Monday). I've been seeing commercials for it over the weekend. Lots of old clips, and lots of 8's The Place.

Larry - you need to leave us more of a timeline of where you have been!

My friend, Fran Panzo - most recently here at BET on Jazz worked with Larry at ESPN many moons ago...

A good deal, except that some folks got a little greedy. Then Charlie O, like all good things, passed into the history books at Channel 41.

With a VHS copy, I could get it out here in RealVideo.

I watched that show when I was in high school, and I was wondering what he was doing these days. Any word on him? Why was he fired? I heard he had an argument with Sonny Gray on air, but I don't know how substantiated that is...

I grew up in Pawhuska watching all the Tulsa channels. I go to school in Norman, but I periodically check out the Tulsa World. Today I noticed a name I hadn't thought of in ages - Clayton Vaughn. So many memories...

The website is great. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

I hadn't heard about a disagreement on-air. The cancellation was likely due to economics. The station probably could make more money with network programming. Too bad...I like local programming like Sam's show (obviously).

We haven't heard what Sam is up to these days. Anyone know?

I left ESPN in 1990 and have been in Los Angeles since then. I am, currently working at KLAC-AM as host of the Laker Radio broadcasts and I handle the play by play on TV and radio for the WNBA Champion, Los Angeles Sparks.

I found some great stuff on the site. Great names and memories from the past.

Welcome, Larry.

According to additional Internet searches, Sonny was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2001 and a Resolution listed the club as the "Rubiot." Hope I didn’t confuse you as much as I confused myself!

Thanks for the correction...your note has it both ways, so future internet searches will be more likely to find it. Here's the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam for completeness and for background on the significance of the name. It's also fascinating...I was ignorant of it, all but the title until today.

One further correction: Sonny's ex-partner is Suzan Gray with a "Z".

As for Bing, the guy revolutionized singing in America, and was an innovator in many ways. I mentioned one of his records to a fiftyish fellow I know who said: "Oh he was that old guy who used to do those Christmas shows."

For years, Crosby's birthdate was given as 1904, but was eventually corrected to 1903.

Here is an excellent interview with Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, on Bing's major contributions to jazz and popular music. There are several early recordings in RealAudio at the bottom of the article. Bing was a wild man in his youth; he and Louis Armstrong smoked reefer together!

I recently read a good thriller set in 1958 about the tense days before America's first successful satellite launch: Code To Zero by Ken Follett.

Nice pic of cameraman Sartain.

Bowl-A-Rama was on Sheridan, north of where I-244 is now, and near the current OETA building. The structure is still there as a warehouse, I believe. It was across the street from a grocery store, Jitney Jungle, disussed here in Guestbook 101.

Yeah, Der Bingle is gone but had he been here with B. Hope - imagine what a celebration...Too bad Matt Bunyan at StarShip can't do his Bong Crisby Xmas radio spots any more...

Have you oldsters noticed Jay Barbree at NBC is doing NASA reports on NBC? A voice from my youth and he is still on air...someone did a story on the late Jules Bergman of ABC not long ago - I think Barbree and Bergman were contemporaries....

I am re-cutting older History Channel shows for breaks fot ORBIT TV's feed to the Mideast. I forgot Bob Brown voiced several of these shows. I cut down the Cheryl Ladd "Biography" show and he was the narrator. Also did Candice Bergen but CBS' Anthony Mason did that v.o.

So is "Susan" by The Buckinghams the song that uses Charles Ives' "Central Park After Dark?"

Thanks to you and Deric for the kind words.

The place later housed several restaurants.

Does anyone remember an odd company called Charlie-O or Charley-O's that would install a carbonated water tap in your kitchen and give you a variety of syrups that you could mix for soda? It was a home fountain drink service in the early 80's. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I do remember it, and Charlie O is apparently still a going concern in OKC. You can see and read about Charles O. Gordon (also noted for creating "Dr. Enuf") at Soda Traderz. Interestingly, he had a hand in the Mountain Dew story on the same site.

Here is TTM's Pop bottles page.

"Wasn't there an anti-smoking ad that used an instrumental version of the "Song of the Nairobi Trio (Solfeggio)" from the ERNIE KOVACS SHOW? I remember hearing that music on a PSA (I think) back in the late 60s/early 1970s."

It just came to me...Wilhelm might be referring to a classic TV ad for Colt 45 Malt Liquor. The tune is very similar; listen for yourself.

In the ad, while a bullfight is in progress, a very calm individual is enjoying a Colt 45 at a little table directly in the ring. At one point, the bull upends the table and its occupant, but this doesn't ruffle the drinker, since he doesn't spill any of his beverage.

All this and more in the just-archived Guestbook 130.