August 04 2008 at 21:37:27
Name: Dave
Topic: More on Skip
Comments: Skip Caray's work on Oiler broadcasts -- while Harry was on the air doing Cardinal games during the days of the Oiler-Cardinal affiliation -- is mentioned in a long and interesting obit in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Here's the key excerpt:

---------

Born Aug. 12, 1939, in St. Louis, where his father was the voice of the baseball Cardinals, Skip Caray knew from childhood that he wanted to go into broadcasting. His father often took him to spring training and on summer road trips, and as a kid he was on a first-name basis with Cardinals players, including the great Stan Musial. By junior high school, he was on the air, doing high-school sports reports on the powerful radio station, KMOX, that carried Cardinals games.

His first job after earning a journalism degree from the University of Missouri was calling the games of the Tulsa Oilers minor-league baseball team. The station didn't send him to road games, so Caray would recreate the action on the air from pitch-by-pitch details provided by a Western Union ticker tape.

To simulate the sound of bat meeting ball, he'd tap a piece of balsa wood with a pencil. He came to Atlanta in 1964, two years before the Braves, to call Crackers games from old Ponce de Leon Park. He returned in 1968 to call the games of the city's new NBA franchise, the Hawks, who like Caray moved here from St. Louis.

"I've just kind of grabbed on to the people of Atlanta, and they've made me feel at home," Caray said in 2000.

August 04 2008 at 19:17:25
Name: Mike Miller
Topic: Skip Caray
Comments: An AP story out of Atlanta reports that Skip Caray, voice of the Atlanta Braves for 33 years died in his sleep Sunday at the age of 68. Skip was part of a family of baseball broadcasters that included his father, Harry Caray. Harry was doing Cardinal baseball which we carried when I worked at KTUL Radio in the late 50s. Harry, of course, later called the Chicago Cubs games.

After I went to work for KVOO Radio/TV (Channel 2), I recall Skip doing some baseball ticker recreations upstairs at the radio studios. Also hanging around the station and attracting a bit more attention in the early 60s was Pepper Martin, an Oklahoma native, who played third base and the outfield for the St. Louis Cardinals. Pepper, known as "The Wild Horse of the Osage," was a member of the legendary "Gas House Gang." As I recall, Pepper, a baseball Hall of Fame player, was doing color with Skip.

Stacy Richardson noted in email:

"Caray's baseball broadcasting career began in 1963 with the Tulsa Oilers."

Pepper Martin was an Oiler broadcaster and coach in the early 1960s. Here is his Sour Dough Biscuit recipe.

August 04 2008 at 17:56:46
Name: Mitch Gray
Topic: Sabre
Email: North of You
Comments: So Mr. Webmaster, since you worked in the Bunker, you might know a gal by the name of Dusty Gray.

She's my mother. She started there when they still used..Ugh!..keypunch cards. I visited the bunker a few times in my youth and always wanted to smuggle a magnet inside to wreak some havoc. But alas... 'twas just a thought.

August 04 2008 at 07:33:11
Name: Webmaster
Topic: U.N.C.L.E., SAGE, & SABRE: Tulsa connections
Comments:

Neal Adams, a colleague and Tulsa Central High grad, worked on NORAD's SAGE realtime computer system in the late 1960s. SAGE was designed to track enemy bombers in the Cold War era.

When he showed me some photos of SAGE, I thought I recognized it from UNCLE HQ's "Computer Alley" in the fourth season of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." (Was UNCLE HQ in Tulsa? An analysis.)

Sure enough, surplus sections of the system were seen in "Lost In Space", "The Time Tunnel", "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and many other shows. Here is a site with screenshots from them: The AN/FSQ-7 on TV and in the Movies.

The SABRE computer system (located in Tulsa since the early 70s) was based on the SAGE concepts developed by IBM, MIT and the RAND Corporation. When SABRE first came online in 1960, it ran on an IBM 7090 computer, which essentially was a solid-state version of the vacuum tube-based AN/FSQ-7.

I worked in SABRE's underground bunker in Tulsa ("the hole") myself for nine years. Getting to my desk every day was a lot like the opening of "Get Smart".

One of the architects of SAGE (and all modern computers) was the colorful and brilliant mathematician, John von Neumann. A consultant to the RAND Corporation with an aggressive stance on the nascent Cold War and confined to a wheelchair later in life, he may have been one of Kubrick's models for Dr. Strangelove (along with Herman Kahn, Wernher von Braun, and Edward Teller).

August 03 2008 at 22:35:41
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: THIS WEEKEND?
Comments: Is everyone on vacation, or are you all in "Summer Reruns"?

BTW, the BLUE WHALE in Catoosa on old Rt. 66, has popped up in several of my Yahoo camera groups this week. One would think IT was THE premiere attraction in Green Country, if not the whole state. Of course the photogs posting were from the UK, East and West Coasts.

July 31 2008 at 02:30:48
Name: Singe
Topic: FYI
Comments: QuikTrip is going to hold a free music festival to celebrate the corporation's 50th anniversary.

The event will be held at River Parks West on Saturday, September 20.

Headliners Leon Russell and Hanson will be two of the nine bands to take part in the festival.

The Bands-

Leon Russell-Stage 1 @ 6:00pm
Hanson-Stage 1 @ 7:50pm
Uche and the Crash-Stage 2 @ 12:00pm
Little Chair-Stage 1 @ 12:50pm
Crooked X-Stage 2 @ 1:40pm
Rattle and Hum-Stage 1 @ 2:30pm
Mid Life Crisis-Stage 2 @ 3:20pm
South 40-Stage 1 @ 4:10pm
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey-Stage 2 @ 5:00pm

Free tickets will be available from all Tulsa area QuikTrip stores beginning September 2nd. Guests will be required to have a ticket to enter.

July 30 2008 at 13:26:26
Name: Mike (money spending fool) Bruchas
Topic: TTM Amazon shop / Link
Comments: Okay - I just bought the Chicago Horror Show Hosts and the companion Chicago Kids Shows books by Ted Okuda thru the TTM store.

I also bought "Two Men with The Blues" CD with Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. But yoicks! This album is available as a music download OR an LP! I guess LP's are comin' back!

I was led to ChicagoTelevision.com, a great little site on Chicago TV in the early years.

July 30 2008 at 12:21:00
Name: Lurker for Years
Topic: Svengoolie
Comments: Hey!...I Like Svengoolie. I wish my wife did. She doesn't like "Stooge-a-Palooza" either; but then, she's a girl. She was out of Tulsa/the country during most of "Mazeppa" too, and rarely gets my references to the show.

I found an entire book devoted to this topic: Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows: From Shock Theatre to Svengoolie.

Of course, Tulsa had its own version of Shock Theatre in the late 1950s, starring Bob Mills and Leon Meier as Igor and Hornstaff. Occasionally standing in for Leon was Lee Woodward.

More about Svengoolie at E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts.

July 29 2008 at 22:42:26
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Svengoolie
Comments: Chicago's WCIU-TV now as a new horror movie show at 9pm on Saturdays with really old corny flicks. Svengoolie seems to be made up with black shoe polish around his eyes, mouth and a cheap Alice Cooper wig. Sheesh, in Chicago?

Svengoolie (Wikipedia link) has a venerable history in Chicago. Wish we were so fortunate as to have a Tulsa horror host today!

July 28 2008 at 20:14:32
Name: The Delegate from New York
Topic: Belatedly recognized from the chair
Comments: Ms. Chairman, the Delegate from New York would like to nominate, as best birthday on 25 July, our Webmaster!

[Thunderous applause in the hall.]

July 27 2008 at 22:26:16
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Matt Bunyan
Comments: Matt and I were yakking tonight. He says when he came to Tulsa in the late 60s and "discovered" Jamil's, a steak dinner was $4.95 there, then it went up $5.95.

We must be geezervating again, but it IS amazing how food prices have gone up. He said diners like Margie's and Bell's had entrees or specials at about $1 for lunch or breakfast. We both felt REALLY old. Then again, coneys were like 65 cents each when we were at 8.

Correction by Matt to me: his Dad worked for the Milwaukee Road railroad, not Gulf, Mobile and Ohio. We both wish that AMTRAK had a route in and thru Tulsey to somewhere!

July 27 2008 at 17:42:06
Name: Clan LeMoine
Topic: Hear Hear!!!
Email: ok_lemoineatyahoo.com
Comments: A belated but hearty Happy Birthday to you, Mike! Thanks for TTM and all you do, good sir!

July 27 2008 at 15:38:06
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Mike Ransom
Comments: Forgot that his BirfDay was on the 25th!

Hosanna and Happy Natal Day to OUR FOUNDER of TTM!

July 26 2008 at 23:01:08
Name: Mitch Gray
Topic: Vinyl funny
Comments: Don't forget Johnny Standley's "It's In The Book" or Happy Lewis' "Dregnet". Didn't Cosby do the "Noah" bit? Noah....How long can you tread water?

July 26 2008 at 22:42:49
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Jonathan Winters
Comments: We are really dating ourselves here! He was also part of Steve Allen's bunch of wackies! He actually at one time had a nervous breakdown and stopped performing. If you mention him and 20 years later Rodney Dangerfield, you have to add in Bob Newhart (Button-Down Mind!) AND Joan Rivers back when she actually was funny! All on vinyl, ditto Dr. Bill Cosby after I Spy!

July 26 2008 at 13:37:35
Name: Frank Morrow
Topic: comic records
Email: frank.morrow@cox.net
Comments: Regarding comic albums, anyone ever heard of a guy named Winters?

July 26 2008 at 10:31:29
Name: Sonny Hollingshead
Topic: It's On Again
Email: sonnyho1955atyour basic yahoodotcom
Comments: Casa Bonita, anyone? (Tulsa World article)

July 26 2008 at 01:44:19
Name: Gonzo Gary
Topic: The Firesign Theater
Email: Northern California
Comments: Reacting to Rick's rap on the Firesign Theater: If I recall correctly, I have buried somewhere in a closet a great old Columbia LP by this great comedy ensemble called, "We're All Bozos on this Bus."

One bit on the album has the guys as high school students. The name of the school is, "Commie Martyr's High."

Very hip and zany.
............

July 26 2008 at 00:27:26
Name: Rick Brashear
Topic: Comedy albums
Comments: A couple of years ago I found a company in Florida that sells Firesign Theater's "Everything You Know Is Wrong" album, but on CD. I had looked for it for years and it was the only one of their albums not listed as being in production in any form. I remember the night I first heard it and that was when it came out. I do have a couple of their other albums on vinyl. Those guys had so many side lines going on you might have to play the part back to be sure you really heard what you think you heard. "Nick Danger: Third Eye" is a classic.

July 25 2008 at 23:29:02
Name: Terri
Topic: Comedy Albums
Comments: It's hard to beat the home-spun humor of "The Wit and Wisdom of Andy Griffith", for vinyl-induced laughs. "What It Was, Was Football" is perhaps one of the funniest album cuts I've ever heard.

July 25 2008 at 14:34:25
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Gary Gunter / Comedy Records / TV technology
Comments: Former 70s KOTV weekend producer/reporter Gary Gunter is now news director and anchor at KFBB-TV in Great Falls, MT. They also have another station in Helena. As small a market as it is, they are ready for digital TV. Gary is having deja vu; the Montana state fair opens for 5 days and his station has a major commitment out there... gee, just like Tulsa at State Fair time.
---
Firesign Theatre and the King Biscuit Power Hour and KTBA all caused a neural burp in me. Remember when WE had "appointment listening" to listen to weekly FM radio shows in the 70s/80s? Duh, we all tuned in whatever station had Kasey Kasem till a few years back on weekends. I take that from the now 30+ year old term "appointment viewing". Created by research and ad folks to rationalize why we needed video recorders at home. It meant that
a.) you made time to see your weekly TV faves on the initial broadcast or later,
b) you recorded shows on your Betamax/VHS deck to see later because your were working or doing other things.

Of course you needed to be able to set the TIMER on your Betamax/VHS to start and stop the deck, and even then, 1/3 of the time, your deck "would not kick in". How many of you as kids and adults would stare at the decks to see if they really "kicked in" on time or got frustrated and manually recorded stuff? How many of you knew folks who tried to edit stuff on the fly in non-editing home decks or manually paused the decks during commercials "to save tape"?

I had friends with "rules" - this sounds so much like my folks - who ALWAYS set the VHS timer so it recorded 2-5 minutes before and after a show "in case something went wrong and they did not want to miss THEIR program". And still, they often watched the show LIVE and simul-recorded it. Guess there was logic in that.

Half the time they set the machine to record in SLP mode and used a 60 min. tape. So the video often looked like it was played back thru a screen door screen to my eyes. It's like the folks shooting birthday or wedding videos with early home cameras. They paid so much for the camera, they went cheap on using good tape or recording all at full SP standard speed for the best look.

Many of you may have "folks", parents or relatives (but not you!) who either recorded over a single tape repeatedly down thru the oxide and wrapped around the machines heads in tatters or have a collection of 30 year old recorded off-air shows in a basement or garage awaiting time when they can be "re-viewed".

Packrat syndrome is occuring on the latter and often folks find now, the tape deteriorated and nada is there. They have been creating storage space for "an archive" that is no more. Those of us busy transfering old videos to DVD recorders for the future are just starting on this practice of "archiving". And I have friends saving "master" VHS tapes and the new DVDs "just in case".

Then again, you probably know folks who have completely filled up their TiVo hard drives - saving stuff "to view later". Then there are folks looking for ways to archive off the TiVo too "for later viewing". Hey, they paid for the TiVo, they "own" what they record, right? Tell that to a copyright lawyer.
---
Wonder if any of the Gen X/Y comedic wannabes would have ever tried the recorded disk world? Or CD world? I know many are on YouTube.

Thanks to Brer Ransom for fixing my Spencer Brooks post to make it FOSTER Brooks. Another "senior moment" by me.

July 25 2008 at 10:13:12
Name: DolfanBob
Topic: Comedy LPs
Email: MiamiPhin@yahoo.com
Comments: My friend brings up a few of my later favorite comedy greats. I had Carlin's Class Clown and C&C Los Cochinos, Wedding Album and Big Bambu. Back then those were just as popular as buying the latest top 40 CD. I remember KAKC playing Sister Mary Elephant in their top 10 rotation. The last comedy CD I bought was Bill Engvall Dorkfish. That I think is his best one and it does not have so much of his here's your sign stuff (not that there's anything wrong with that) back at ya Bo.

July 24 2008 at 22:08:56
Name: David Bagsby
Topic: Comedy LPs
Email: deeceebeeaytsunflowerddotcoom
Comments: I did indeed transliterate those two guys. It's been over 35 years since I heard Jerry Clower but this thread can't be complete without mentioning Firesign Theatre.

July 24 2008 at 21:59:34
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Busey / "At The Movies"
Comments: Saw GARY BUSEY on the SMOKING GUN criminals video show on Tru TV tonight. He looks bad and sounds bad. He musta needed the money; Tru TV just ain't Court TV no more.

"AT THE MOVIES" goes away from TV, kinda. What started as "SNEAK PREVIEWS" here in the early 80's or so on WTTW ( then later on PBS) with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. It was later syndicated by King World and is now owned by Disney. Remember when Johnny Carson had Siskel & Ebert on all the time on THE TONIGHT SHOW? I think he really helped make them nationally known as TV movie critics. I forget who carried it in Tulsa; Ch. 4 carried it way back when in OKC.

You know that Gene Siskel died of cancer and Roger had several co-hosts till Richard Roeper came on board. Roger is in remission from cancer and still does columns but can't ever talk again, so he is off forever. So they have had all sorts of newspaper critics on with Roeper.

Rumors started that the show is going away, although Disney has been auditioning talent at WLS TV here for weeks. Roeper said it's been fun, but he was not expected a contract renewal. What has made the show last has been good reviews and not Hollywood pandering; discovering and championing little or foreign films; and being the first to review DVD offerings.

Disney announced yesterday that it will "transform" the show to something Hollywood-based with THEIR picked co-hosts. Maybe even a name change by fall. Long time Dem and Hollywood insider Frank Mankiewicz' son is one of the NEW hosts. Knowing Disney, the new show will showcase their product, something Ebert and Roeper did not always do though they worked for Disney in the end.

July 24 2008 at 16:28:01
Name: Greg
Topic: Great Comedy Records
Email: gbittickattccdotcom
Comments: No one's mentioned yet one of the greatest (arguably) "concept" comedy albums of all-time, "The First Family" featuring Vaughn Meader as JFK and a talented group of comics/impersonators of the Kennedys and other Washingtonians/world leaders of the early 60s.

My mother bought a copy of the LP when it first came out and I still have it today, but haven't played it in a long time. It's probably not in such good shape, considering how much we listened to it way back when. A few years ago, I found it on cassette, so I might give that a listen one of these days.

There was also a "Volume II" but I don't think it was nearly as successful as the original (nor as funny!).

July 24 2008 at 16:03:58
Name: Kenny Bolen
Topic: Comedy Albums
Email: kwerks@comcast.net
Comments: Thanks to my Uncle Ronnie, who had a record collection second to none to anyone, had an old Hudson and Landry album called 'Just Hangin' in There', got me started, plus who can forget Jonathan Winters?

Now going forward, Carlin, Martin, Cosby, Pryor, and Cheech and Chong were just standards in many of my friends collections *Dolfan!!! high fivin' ya* and surely made us all funnier.

July 24 2008 at 11:15:29
Name: Jeff H
Topic: More Comedy Record Musings
Email: $5.00 cover and two drink minimum
Comments: "Rejoice, Dear Hearts" I have found a web site that sells all and I mean all the old and newer comedy records.VinylRevival.com in the Windy City has a list of old comedy albums that is quite impressive.

"Rejoice, Dear Hearts" is an album by none other than Brother Dave Gardner, released in 1959 and produced by Chet Atkins.

Shelley Berman and Bob Newhart were the masters at using the telephone in their act. The comics of the sixties seemed to be storytellers instead of telling one liners in rapid fire. I wonder if this style of comedy will return and who will be the next Newhart, Berman or Cosby (One of the last really good ones was Richard Pryor). I've been watching "Last Comic Standing" and these comics are not that funny, it really shows how good some of the past generation of comedians were and to never try this at home!

July 24 2008 at 09:38:37
Name: DolfanBob
Topic: LP Comedy
Email: MiamiPhin@yahoo.com
Comments: All this talk about old comedy LPs made me think of one my favorite 78 RPMs of Shelley Berman that I had when I was little. The thickness of those old records were great for a little kid and I can tell you that I played that record so much that I to this day can still recite both sides of it. The routines were his famous, Dentist Office on one side and the hilarious Motel Desk Clerk phone call on the other. Great memories of a wonderful time of my life.

The great thing is, Shelley Berman is still working today, notably as a judge on "Boston Legal".

July 24 2008 at 08:52:27
Name: Henry in MI
Topic: Comedic Recordings
Email: hflem at aol dot com
Comments: I believe David Bagsby got two great Southern humorists confused. Jerry Clower was from "Route 4, Yazoo City, Mississippi" or Liberty, Mississippi and he often talked about his friends in the Ledbetter family, Marcel Ledbetter and Uncle Versie in particular. He hunted coon with dogs and fished.

Justin Wilson was the Cajun who hunted duck and drove a picking-up truck. He started his routine with "How y'all are?" and always wore suspenders. He also did a cooking show on TV.

July 23 2008 at 21:50:11
Name: John Hillis
Topic: Purple Onion/Comedy Records
Comments: In distant memory, I seem to remember a comedy record entitled "The Smothers Brothers Live at the Purple Onion." The P.O. was, I think a San Francisco club, and was "hip." Obviously, I never was a regular. This is not to be confused with the Purple Grotto, which was the (allegedly) imaginary locale from which the contemporaneous and extremely too cool for the room disc jockey Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins did his all-night show in S.F. and New York at various times. Interestingly, the Purple Grotto moved with him. Him, I dug as often as I could--his coolness was accessible, as the good radio folk always were.

In our age of many diagnoses, even "Mom always liked you best," would probably offend somebody.

I used to have as a startup sound on my computer at work my favorite clip from Brother Dave Gardner: "Don't tell me about your doubts, I got enough doubts of my own. Tell me something you believe in!"

And now for something completely different. I hear Paul Harvey has returned to the mic, though work has prevented me from actually hearing such. For a guy who turns 90 in a month or so, even if he's not at the top of the game, he's still a welcome interlude in a day.

July 23 2008 at 15:35:02
Name: Teb Blackwell
Topic: Purple Onion
Email: tebii at comcast dot net
Comments: Does anyone remember a 1950s club called the "Purple Onion?" Where, when and what was it like? Thanks.

There was an early 70s club in Norman called "The Blue Onion".

July 23 2008 at 09:49:18
Name: David Bagsby
Topic: Comedic Recordings
Email: deeceebeeaytsunflowerdottcom
Comments: Seems like our first comedy record was a Jerry Clower. Cajun humor at it's best. Used to always see those 'XXX' Redd Foxx records at TG&Y but never had the nerve to buy one...big mistake. Tom Lehrer was another great iconoclast and who could forget Lester 'Roadhog' Moran. The most influential by far was the National Lampoon Radio Hour on KTBA!

I've gotten so sick of waiting for somebody to take up the reins, other than Dave Chappelle, that I'm working on an internet TV thing in that vein. If you want a good laugh in the mean time, check out 'FACTORY' on Spike TV. This is the funniest show since the heyday of MadTV.

More comedy record discussion in GB 238.

July 23 2008 at 00:08:51
Name: roy lee
Topic: Old record collectors (or is that getting older record collectors?)
Email: royleeshouse@gmail.com
Comments: Steve Bagsby had by far the best record collection of anyone I knew in high school. Nobody else had the Hoosier Hot Shots! In a class of kids who thought Pink Floyd was radical, Steve stood out in the crowd.

July 22 2008 at 21:45:50
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Foster Brooks / Spike Jones
Comments: Foster Brooks: Didn't we have a posting on him here? He played Tulsa several times, but he was a semi-irregular on the Dean Martin Show. Yes, both were drinkers, but subsequent biographies and writings have shown them to be cold sober when performing "drunk acts". Though back in the 60s and 70s, many disdained drunkard humor. I think Phil Harris was a real drunk who had problems later, but he was a hoot from another generation.

Spike Jones: He ain't just comedy, he is a high brow artiste for us masses of a certain age! Somewhere I have 2 film transfers of 2 songs of his from featurettes. Not his best work but I am glad that I have 'em. "In the Fuehrer's Face" was a big WWII propaganda thing for him.

July 22 2008 at 17:58:04
Name: Rick Brashear
Topic: Comedy records
Comments: Mike, we ain't "aulde", we're just seasoned. Heck, I got my butt beat by neighbor parents when I was a kid for getting out of line and it was expected. It was a different time.

July 22 2008 at 16:51:04
Name: Steve Bagsby
Topic: Comedy Records
Comments: Homer & Jethro, The Hoozier Hotshots, and Spike Jones. With a little Frank Zappa and The Fugs sprinkled in. Tends to make a growing musician go weird in his old age.

July 22 2008 at 14:25:45
Name: Bob O'Shea
Topic: Italian Inn
Email: bob reavis at yahoo dot com
Comments: Man I used to work for Don Funston, the owner of the Italian Inn in the London Square Shopping Center. What an experience.

I was in between radio gigs and waiting tables there was good, fast cash. I'll never forget Don telling me the story about my uncle Jack Reavis, a widely known, award winning chef who got mad at Don one night in the kitchen of the old downtown location and picked Mr. Funston up and sat him down on the stove top. Jack had a bit of a drinking problem in those days. The stories Don told me about my uncle were hilarious, to me anyway. Mr. Funston had a very dry wit.

I never knew the entire time I worked for Don he was dying from lung cancer. He just never talked about it. He loved that restaurant and he expected top notch service from his wait staff. We wore tuxedos and I learned what waiting tables was really about. If you're going to make a living in the wait end of the biz, you've really got to be on the ball and be professional. It can be a good living depending on where you work.

The Italian Inn was a great place to work. My hat's off to the entire family.

July 22 2008 at 13:33:46
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Golden Girls
Comments: Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

I see Rue McClanahan is back on TV in another series. She IS a TU success story of my generation.

More pix of Rue at TU in GB 94.

July 22 2008 at 12:20:05
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Comedy records
Comments: Have to ask, do we really date ourselves when we talk about material that was "blue" or "risqué" in this age of either the FCC doing nothing or leavening mega-million dollar fines? I done think WE have become them aulde fuddy-duddies!

July 21 2008 at 22:57:43
Name: Rick Brashear
Topic: Comedy records
Comments: When I was in high school I listened to a couple of comedians who were, to say, risqué for their time. Rusty Warren was a woman comedian who beat Joan Rivers hands down on one-liners. She was great. The other was Davey Bold. That guy was hilarious. They were both out of Chicago and true stand-ups.

The father of my best friend Steve back then had played the piano with Davy in Chicago night clubs in the 1950s. Buck was a character himself: WWII vet, Chicago Jew, and had a great sense of humor. I remember one time when my friend Steve claimed he couldn't find any socks. His dad said, "How 'bout I kick your ass for every sock I find in your room?" Steve found plenty of socks. Another time Steve's mom complained it was cold outside and to close the window. So Buck closed the window, and with that perfect Chicago Jewish accent asked, "So, now it's warm outside?" Good stuff.

July 20 2008 at 21:26:25
Name: roy lee
Topic: Comedy records
Email: royleeshouseatgmaildotnet
Comments: My parents had a couple of the old Brother Dave Gardner records and I remember hearing those as a child. Pretty funny but not the least bit "blue" as far as I can tell. Listening to that stuff now, the funniest thing about it is that he's trash-talking John F. Kennedy! I guess he had to change the subject at some point.

I loved the Tom Lehrer stuff in high school. Right there in the stack with the Monty Python stuff. I can't imagine how cool it must have been to see Bob Hansen tell jokes in a bar, and I haven't even heard it yet!

July 20 2008 at 20:46:08
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Comedy records, 60s vintage
Comments: When in high school, we loved Allen Sherman though now his parodies are kinda...Tom Lehrer was big for his songs and Stan Freberg (originally in Chicago) for his comic bits. Mort Sahl was considered too old for us and Lenny Bruce, you heard of, but we were too young.

Nichols and May were kinda funny. Our dads bought several "When You're In Love, The Whole World is Jewish" series records with Lou Jacobi and an ensemble cast of Borscht Belt comics in sketches.

And in junior high, along with Alfred E. Neuman in MAD magazine, we all emulated Steve Allen saying, "Smok! Smmmmok!" and I cannot now remember WHY it was so funny.

You have to remember that MOR and rock 'n' roll stations often played short comedy vignettes when appropriate with the normal programming. WCFL and WLS here in Chicago had on-going comedic characters as "sub-plots" of evening music DJ shows. Super Chicken was one character: "He's here, he's there, so beware!" Who was supposed to be a feathered crime fighter who fizzled at all that he did.

I guess we were "too clean" for party records with risqué stuff. We knew other kids in school who had them. "Aural" pornography, we joked.

When with BET in '85-'87, there was some 50-ish gal known in the black community for party records, who was trying to do music videos - yes she could sing - but my co-workers from homes in the South said, "no NORMAL family that they knew" would play her stuff. She fizzled as a music video also-ran.

July 20 2008 at 17:52:01
Name: Jeff H
Topic: Comedy Records
Comments: Roy, I don't know what club these comics performed at in Tulsa but I saw Bob Hansen in Stillwater in 1971 at a bar, sorry I can't remember the name of the place. As I remember it had a kind of western decor and was on the main drag west of the university.

What is strange about this story is I had heard some reel to reel tapes of Bob Hansen performing his act live when I was 13 or 14 years old. My friend's dad had bought him a used reel to reel tape recorder for his birthday and a bunch of tapes came with it. His dad never played any of the tapes; if he had, they surely would have been confiscated, since the comedy was pretty blue. My friend and I thought this guy was really funny and enjoyed the tapes for the next few years...

Now we're 18, I am at OSU and my buddy is at OU, I'm out with a bunch of guys at a club and I hear this comic doing these jokes I have not heard in five years. I call my friend and tell him our long-lost comedian is alive and well and doing two shows a night in Stillwater, Oklahoma and when can you come down here and see the show?

A few weeks later we are front row for the Bob Hansen show. What great fun it was to see this guy live. After his set he came by the table, we offered to buy him a drink but he only drank orange soda, which seemed strange to us since about half his act was drinking jokes.

The mystery of who the funny and raunchy comedian on those tapes had been solved.

July 20 2008 at 17:42:44
Name: Rick Brashear
Topic: Old "adult comedy" records
Comments: I have two 'Doug Clark And The Hot Nuts' albums. They are, to say, risqué for the time. The skits and limericks are pretty good, but not near as funny now as when I heard them as a teenager. Tastes change. I'll take Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, or George Carlin any day.

July 20 2008 at 13:57:10
Name: roy lee
Topic: Old "adult comedy" records
Email: royleeshouseatgmaildotcom
Comments: I found some old comedy albums ala Redd Foxx at a garage sale the other day. One is Bob Hansen "The morning after" "For people with hangovers" another is "Saucy Sylvia" "Agent 0069" with and autograph which mentions fond memories of Tulsa.

Does anyone know what nightclub in Tulsa would feature these types of acts? What with the morality police, who could have gotten away with this type of show here? This would be 1966 according to the autograph...

July 20 2008 at 11:27:06
Name: Terri
Topic: A Dip's Dip Recipe
Comments: I have resisted the urge to use this great forum for recipe swappage, but feel I must share a recipe I happened on to, for the Italian Inn's Cheese Dip. Three ingredients: cream cheese, Catalina salad dressing to taste and for consistency, garlic powder to taste. Simple, yet tasty.

Here's the recipe as given in the World article:

ITALIAN INN CHEESE SPREAD

24 ounces of Wisconsin cold pack cheddar cheese
½ cup salad dressing
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh garlic (very fine)
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Let cheese soften and mix all ingredients together until smooth. The recipe should serve about 8 to 10 people.

July 20 2008 at 09:11:57
Name: Webmaster
Topic: Previous GroupBlog summary
Comments:

Archived GroupBlog 270, where Phil Naifeh remembered the original Italian Inn on Main Street (seen in a Beryl Ford photo), and a Tulsa World story recounted its history and revealed the cheese dip recipe.