First, Enrico Caruso did sing at the Brady Theater and also may have performed privately for Waite Phillips and friends in the auditorium at Philbrook. Many did!

Enrico sang through the Opera L'Elisir d'Amore even though suffering a hemorrhage. That was in 1920. He died a year later in Naples Italy from abscesses of the lungs.

Secondly, the stage of the Brady does slant a few degrees from back to front as a lot of theaters do.

Third, the Clark Gable-Barbara Stanwyck movie "To Please a Lady" is now called something else? (no, it's still under that title...webmaster) But I do know that the big car racing scenes were shot in my home town of Arlington Texas at the Arlington Downs race track. This was a fabulous horse racing facility whose horse barns were far better than most houses in Arlington. A huge complex that was owned by the Wagner family. It sat idle after Texas voted to abolish paramutual betting.

One of the camera cars they used there was a 1932 Ford hot rod that had been chopped and channeled and caused all us young turks to swoon at its Edelbrock heads and four carbs. We also marveled at a racer with four rear drive wheels which was quick in the straights but had trouble cornering.

Alas, the whole place was torn down and now houses industry and some of Six Flags over Texas.

By the way, I was the announcer for two years when Dick Colvin promoted the most successful race program ever at the Fairgrounds. When the sprint cars paid a visit one summer, my color man was Johnny Rutherford. One of the drivers in that event was Mario Andretti. No wings!

One of the big complaints for years about the "Old Lady On Brady" was the stage, and the dressing rooms, or lack thereof, and the fact that the railroad ran so close to the theatre, and the noise drowned out the productions, and.. and .. and....

In its day, it was a grand replacement for the theatre that was on 2nd Street, though.

There are stories that have been published and told for years about roller skating acts that wound up in the orchestra pit because the stage was so uneven, and I guess short as far as performing room goes.

If you want another urban legend to mull over, Mr. Gilcrease is still taking care of the grounds, tending the flowers, and making sure that things are as they should be as Gilcrease Museum. There are several people around the Tulsa area that have seen him in the house he used to live in on the grounds, and working around the flower beds, and walking the museum at night.

But then, I guess that is the difference between ownership and just performing in a theatre for eternity.

Yes, that is interesting and begs the question: is the Brady's own website wrong as to when he appeared there? I can't imagine anywhere else he could have appeared in Tulsa in 1920. Can anyone see him singing at the Tulsa State Fair?

So, the legend lives, even as Caruso doesn't......

I did a bit of research even briefer than 5 minutes, and discovered that in September 1920, Caruso embarked on a tour which included Tulsa. (http://www.geopaix.com/caruso/caruso4.html) so that would bring the legend back to life. But, glancing through this page, one can see that he was ill even before embarking on this tour. And, when you read all about what was wrong with him, it certainly doesn't sound like anything resulting from a cold. They did some kind of surgery on him to remove a rib, or something. No one knew what he really died from. So, it sounds to me like the legend is probably not true, after all.

According to the Brady's own website, Caruso appeared there around 1917. (I can't be more precise because it notes that the place was built in 1914 and that he appeared there "almost three years after it opened" or words to that effect.)

According to numerous Caruso websites, he died in 1921, at least four years after he appeared here. That's a hell of a cold in anyone's book.

Your research would seem to put that legend to bed, as it were.

This circuit included Dallas, Houston, Ok. City, Kansas City, and Wichita. It provided racing almost every night for the drivers, and provided as high quality of cars, drivers and racing as could be found in the entire country. Some of the drivers who starred here went on to race at Indianapolis.

Mickey Rooney also starred in a midget racing film, "The Big Wheel." An interesting sidelight of that movie was what happened afterward. The final race was a duel of Rooney with a character named Bill Holland at the Indy 500. The real Bill Holland had won the race previously. There were many close-ups of both Rooney and "Holland" during the final stages of the race, which "Holland" finally won.

After the movie was released, Bill Holland sued the movie company, saying that the actor in the movie playing "Bill Holland" was much less attractive than the real Bill, who was quite handsome, thereby holding him up to scorn and laughter.

Bill Holland won his case.

As an aside, my grandfather was always there, too, being a huge racing fan. He was formerly a mechanic for the "John Zink Special" Indy car (driven by ?) and they were the winners in, I think 1956. Grandpa has a plaque which says: "Member of the winning team, Memorial Day 500-mile race, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Found out recently that the NASCAR Grand National Division (what is now the Winston Cup Series) had one race on the dirt track there in the early 50s. If I'm not mistaken, Lee Petty (patriarch of the Petty family) was the winner.

I remember years ago (mid-80s maybe) there was talk of building a NASCAR-caliber speedway in Oklahoma. This was about the same time talk began of building a speedway in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Obviously those plans never materialized, and they probably never will with speedways in both DFW and Kansas City.

My father, who booked theatrical productions (in addition to operating the dance studio,) used to talk about how many of his dancers complained that the stage floor might cause them to lose their balance and tumble into the orchestra pit.

I guess he is yearning for better days.

Lloyd Thaxton?! Cowabunga!

Here's an article about the man: http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing031303.htm

I first stumbled onto Lloyd Thaxton as a singer with his song "Image Of A Surfer." It was available on the old PEBBLES bootleg(?) series on vinyl. The rock historian and guitarist for Patti Smith and Jim Carroll, Lenny Kaye, put the NUGGETS garage punk compilation together in the late 1960s (with songs like "Dirty Water," "Psychotic Reaction," et. al.) The compilation was expanded into a 12 LP series by Rhino in the 1980s (now on CD) and the idea was ripped on by PEBBLES. Thaxton's song appears on the surf disc, which is apparently still available in a shorter format (the original albums had about 7 songs per side if I remember correctly):

http://www.borderlinebooks.com/us6070s/fuzz.html

I should note that the surf LP was the best in the series, which did its best to find songs that Rhino didn't release on their surf compilations. I was playing it one day and my mother heard the Thaxton tune, it turned out she was a fan from way back. I don't know if it was syndicated, but his show played in Los Angeles in the late-1950s/early-1960.

It was on opposite "Where the Action Is" in the afternoons on Tulsa TV, and I'm pretty sure it was a national show, but I've never seen anything anywhere on the show, who he was, or whatever happened to heem. I remember him being kinda funny.

See a Lloyd Thaxton clip (well, really more of a slide show) at Local Legends (L.A.), one of the few sister sites to TTM. Here is his official web site. I remember him as being pretty funny, too.

Another old gaffer reports. Before the stock car invasion, Tulsa had midget auto racing at the Fairgrounds. Offenhausers and Fords roared around the dirt track while the fans roared in the stands.The fad started in California and was quickly picked up in Tulsa.I even think there was a Clark Gable movie about midget racing, but my brain may be shorting out.

I also recall an Indy-type race, with a red Riley Special as one of the star cars.

Mazeppa did a "Dialing for Dullards" bit which can be seen on Volume 3 of the Lost Tapes of Mazeppa.

And since we're talking civic improvements, I want some "Sipes"-type cartoon theatres installed in all the big stores. That way me and my grandkids have something to do while the rest of the family fights over food, clothing, etc.

I haven’t chimed in on the concept of the much needed Tulsa arena (or whatever they are calling the future mega stadium). I assigned a story on it a couple of months ago and when it came back I had more questions than answers. The writer did her work, but after reading the quotes from the person she interviewed (the person the Mayor’s office sent her to) I refused to run the piece. I didn’t want the magazine’s name to be associated with the story (and we see the obvious need for a “secular” arena). I asked the writer why she didn’t ask the tough questions, and she said she did, but the interviewee became hostile every time she did so. Call it a gut instinct, but it was one of those stories that comes in and red flags go up all over the office.

I don’t want to discourage anyone who is legitimately attempting to do something for the area, but some of the current plans seem very pie-in-the-sky.

http://www.arthritis.org/Communities/Chapters/EventShow.asp?idEvent=14164&EventType=E&idchap=44

I know it's a hot topic, and may not have much of a place in this forum, but I'll give it a go. I was reminded last week of what Tulsa is missing out on by not having a viable arena.

I attended the Fleetwood Mac concert in OKC at the Ford Center. An excellent show, and everyone sitting around me was from somewhere other than OKC. The people behind us were also from Tulsa, on one side of us were a couple from Wichita, and on the other side was a family of 4 from Little Rock.

I'm not saying that Fleetwood Mac would have passed up OKC in favor of Tulsa, but I am saying that a state of the art arena would attract a much more select core of artists. All of which would attract a regional group of people. All of which would sleep in our hotels, rent our cars, and eat in our restaurants. Yes, sales taxes suck. I admit it. But it's a one cent sales tax. And we have to spend money to make our local economy grow. Something to think about. And yes, I'm aware that there are other things that need to be improved, but our economy is in such a state that I think it's important to do what we can to improve the economy as quickly as possible.

The preceding was not necessarily a political message, but just the thoughts of a Tulsan who is interested in seeing this city progress into the future, not seeing this city stuck with outdated facilities that attract no one. This message is also not necessarily endorsed by the site, or our webmaster (who is free to edit this entry as he sees fit).

See a movie clip of a 7Up ad featuring Mazeppa's 7Up Gizzer Blinkie at retromedia.tv. On the same page is the long-running public service annnouncement (PSA) with Iron Eyes Cody, the Indian who shed a tear over pollution. I think Tulsans occasionally confuse him with our own Dick West, who signed off Channel 8 every night with the Lord's Prayer in Indian sign language.

About Ziegfields...seem to remember that Tina Turner was the opening act...story at the time was that the facility was not really ready for the opening...the stage floor was not quite complete...Tina's shoes continually stuck to the "damp" stage...had some trouble with her signature dance moves...truth or Tulsa legend?

Thanks for the great website...

Also anyone remember the grocery store McCartneys?

This is as bad as running down that rumor that Caruso died because he went out to see the oil fields when he was in Tulsa (he actually died many years later in Europe, and there is still debate over what illness killed him).

One place that came up several times was the Der Wienerschnitzel Hot Dogs. So I did a search. They still exist, only one in OK in Del City. Most are in the western states.

With the Tulsa viewers I get at my website Racing From The Past, I believe I will put a link to this site. A lot of my viewers are from the Tulsa area, beings I have a lot of photos from racing from the past in the Tulsa area.

Maybe you viewers have memories of the Tulsa Speedway at the fairgrounds you can share? Maybe you might have programs photos or other things of interest?

In the 70's 5,000+ fans jamed the grandstands. It was the best racing in the midwest. I made many trips there from Hutchinson, KS on Saturdays.

As for TV memories. If I remember right one of the TV stations done a 1/2 hour show about the goings on at Tulsa Speedway in the 70's.

Warren Vincent
Racing From The Past

A photo from Warren's site can be seen in the new article about Bill's T Records by Wilhelm Murg.

I really miss Tulsa! There's something special about 'home' where you know where everything is and what used to be there, too. My Tulsa roots go way back, too. My parents were natives, as were several of my grandparents. One special thing about Tulsa for me is the Mayo Hotel. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all worked there - possibly at the same time (late '50s, probably) Mom worked the front desk (she saw Elvis at the Mayo), Grandma was an elevator operator, and Great-grandma was a maid. I also had my senior prom (East Central HS) in the crystal ballroom in 1980, which, I believe, was just before it closed. I used to work in the Oneok Plaza building downtown, and I would often gaze wistfully at the Mayo, wondering if the latest renovation effort would go anywhere.

After my grandma died in 1986, two of the pieces of furniture my wife and I took from her basement was a mirrored dresser and a chest of drawers which supposedly came out of the Mayo. We used them for several years but finally sold them.

Since the web site is primarily about TV and radio, I'll ask a question. I used to work at Telex Computer Products at 41st and Sheridan (Another Tulsa memory!) with a real nice guy named Don Lloyd. He said he had been an engineer or something at KTUL for years. Seemed to know everyone there. I couldn't find his name on this web site. Does anyone remember him? (or he could possibly be lurking here)

Anyway, thanks for the great web site!

I used to hang out at the Incognito. Some of my buddies played down there on a regular basis and I would go down to hear them. I remember very little because it has been so long but it was a popular spot.

Bonsoir, monsieur.

It was Perry's Cardinal store in the 60s; I remember it well since my grandmother lived a couple of blocks west of Lewis on Haskell then.

As noted previously, the Circle Theater is making a comeback as the Circle Cinema.

In the 50’s when the Hawk parlor was doing gangbuster business, they had a dish on the menu and a promotion surrounding it called a “Pig Dinner.” It was a banana split on steroids, a mountain of ice cream and fruit. If you cleaned your dish you got a lapel pin that said, “I Ate A Hawk’s Pig Dinner.” When you amassed the requisite number of pins (I can’t remember whether it was three or 10) you got a free pig dinner. I think I might have gotten one free Pig Dinner before I blew up.

Business took me to the old Hawk Dairy Building at 11th and Lewis this last week to pick up some fixtures from the current occupant. The owner and I got to talking about where the Hawks' parlor was, and he pointed across the drive-way, and sure enough, the foundation is still there.

If memory serves me right, and most of the time it doesn't, wasn't there an old Jitney Jungle/Warehouse Market location at 6th and Lewis or right around there that was torn down a few years ago? Maybe about where Perry's now sits?

The Right Hand of Our King is correct in his assumption that the Hilton Room and Chisholm's are both in the Holiday Inn at the I-44 and Yale intersection, or the old Hilton if you will.

I attended a Christmas party in the old Chisholm's room, and kept thinking I had been there before. Took awhile to connect, but the room is defintely there.

I would say, "All Hail the King", but in this part of the country, you have to be specific as to whether it is King Lionel, Elvis, or Bob Wills.

And wasn't Chisholm's called "The Winner's Circle" in the early 80s, a holdover from the disco era?

Someone asked about "The Cog?" Actually it was called "The Incognito" and I think was at 10th and Denver? Anyway, it was a THE place for awhile, You could get a drink and get hustled etc. I think the owner of Wheatley Pumps owned it?

Gotta go now and have lunch with Gary Chew, or should I say Chew with Chew?

I never went there, but could it have been the Cognito Inn?

You and I were probably there the same night: my husband's birthday (July 19) in 1981, we dressed up and took a limo to dinner and to see the Pointer Sisters (the limo waited outside, you understand).

So that's whose limo it was! Bayouth...that's it. He now heads a company, International Events, in L.A. The link sketches his career before, during and after Ziegfield's.

I'm pretty sure it was Ziegfield's, but I'm experiencing a mental block on the name of the entrepreneur who owned the club. It's Jon...what? Seems like there were other folks with this same last name appearing in the society column.

With the City Fathers making noises about wanting more money for a new Events Center downtown, and bemoaning the fact that the good acts are going to the Ford Center in OKC instead of coming to Tulsa, I happened to remember the club at 71st and Sheridan that was bringing in big name acts in the late 70's and early 80's, and served an excellent dinner as well for a pretty decent price.

I only made it out there once or twice, but does anyone remember the name of the club? It was only around for about 18 months or so.

That would be Ziegfield's...I saw the Pointer Sisters there when they were riding high on "Slow Hand".

The Italian place that was referred to was Peppe's Villa Capri, run by Joe Shefo. Joe had the first place in the basement or on the first floor of the hotel at 13th and Main, the one that was recently refurbished by Coury Properties, and I'll be darned if I can think of the name of it at the moment. He also had a place in the strip center on the SE Corner at 61st and Sheridan.

The one in the hotel downtown was the better of the two for decor, I think. The one at 61st and Sheridan was 70's shag with lots and lots of red, but Joe knew how to put a personal touch on the atmosphere, and would often come out and serenade my bride and I on his accordian if he was on the premises, and knew almost everyone of his customers. Oh, yeah, the food was good, too. He put his kitchen staff through drills and gave them all sorts of hoops to jump through, and they did it well.

Johnny Martin's selling abilities kept both places well-filled with customers for several years, but alas, the highest mortality in retail, outside of men's clothing shops, is restaurants; and after years of working weird hours and getting caught in the oil bust of the 80's, as well as having some health problems, Joe decided to pack it in.

He did tell me one time that he thought he might have overdone the 61st and Sheridan decor a little, and made the comment that it was too bad that the May Rooms were out of business, because the decor would be a natural for that type of business if he ever decided to close that restaurant.

The May Rooms (a long-time "institution" in Tulsa) were discussed in Guestbook 115 and Guestbook 116.

Shreveport Sports

Okla. City Indians

Ft. Worth Cats

Beaumont Exporters

Dallas Texans

Tulsa Oilers

Houston Buffs

San Antonio Missions

Some cities have grown so much that they have major league teams. Pre-war Houston wasn't much larger than Tulsa. Now it has twice as many people as the whole state of Oklahoma. Other towns still have minor league teams, and Beaumont is basically lost in the mist.

They later moved out to South Lewis, but must have gone out of business while I was up here in DC.

Here is a member card for the Chianti Club in the Inn, contributed by the late Jim Back. We still miss hearing from him.

The dining room had "birds" hanging from the ceiling as I remember. Does anyone remember this place? Is it still in business? My parents swore by it and that late night radio fella was always talking the place up - KVOO or KRMG one of the two, big band style music. Cheers on the pages of cool memories, enjoyed the flashbacks.

No doubt that late night big band fella was Johnny Martin.