December 21 2005 at 09:06:36
Name: Joyce Richardson
Location: Sunny SoCal
Comments: It's sad to read of the new Starship not having the personality of the old one. The "charm" was being crowded in with other like-minded people, exchanging opinions of music and artists. I was introduced to many new artists and songs there just by taking someone's word that it was a good album. I'm glad it still exists. I'm sorry I didn't take the time to visit it one last time before they were forced to move.

I have seen the same thing out here, when Rhino Records moved from its odd squished little store, complete with balconies hanging over a ladies clothing store. You almost had to know the secret door to get to it. It was tucked away down a generic white hallway in the rear of a building.

Now it's moved into an old grocery store. Way more selection, but none of the former quaint charm. It's almost generic.

December 20 2005 at 21:14:53
Name: Wilhelm Murg
Email: wilhelmurg@ yahoo dot com
Location: 11th & Dela...er...13th & Lewis?
Comments: I just got back from the new Starship, which is in one large metal structure, but with the tobacco accessories and adult novelties in a back room. Before I could open my mouth Matt Bunyan noted that something is going to be done about the lighting (i.e.--it's lit like a normal record store, unlike the bunker feeling of the original store). This is going to take a little getting used to; on the one hand it is bigger, you don't feel the breath of the other customers as you browse, but the romance of the hippie-era original store is lost forever. Matt also noted that it was really a matter of just getting open as fast as possible (in 75 daze) once TU dropped the axe (and flattened the building as fast as possible). Like many other Tulsans, I've already completed my Holiday shopping, so there's some money missing from Matt's pocket.

Ironically, I guess the best word I can use to sum up the new Starship is "clean," which somehow seems like a dirty word in this instance.

The weirdest nostalgia about the store is that it looks like the 15th street Sound Warehouse before it closed down a couple of years ago.

So if you haven't wrapped up your holiday shopping and want to help an honest, Tulsa-based, small businessman, you might think of Starship...A Tulsa counterculture tradition, regardless of how clean it is.

Again, Lost Tulsa comes through with a recent quartet of photos. I'm going to check out the new Starship.

December 20 2005 at 14:12:56
Name: Dave Jones
Email: djones@weather.com
Location: Atlanta
Comments: Well it's that time of year when I fondly remember as a child how I watched the images of Santa and his reindeer being tracked by Don Woods on radar...in black and white of course. Low-tech by today's standards but it sure got our attention and added to the excitement and great memories of growing up watching Tulsa TV.

Merry Christmas!

December 19 2005 at 17:24:08
Name: Mary
Email: Mec1118atAOLdotcom
Location: Huey's Shoes
Comments: Had a message on my machine this morning...my sister calling from her car, passing 21st and Yale as a steel wrecking ball was poised to demolish Mayo Meadow. Sniff. Shoulda taken a photo last time I was in Tulsa.

For a series of recent Mayo Meadow photos, see this item at Lost Tulsa.

December 19 2005 at 16:52:01
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: temperate DC
Comments: I saw "Syriana" Sat. night and agree with Dr. Chew - a longer movie could make it better. The cast was great I thought.

I noticed 2 things - we had a large group of Arabic-speakers at my showing who thought it was a movie on their former homeland, Syria -AND- it took me half the film to realize that the "good" son of the movie's emir, Alexander Siddig, was the actor who played the doctor on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"!

Hey - don't buy that digital HDTV this year! Save your dineros! Much to the chagrin of broadcasters - Congress has made the changeover date to ALL digital TV Feb. of 2009. Poor me - I will be trading in my 13" 20-year-old Sony in Dec. of 2008....may have to shelf the BetaMax deck then too!

December 18 2005 at 11:06:57
Name: Steve Todoroff
Email: info@preservemusic.org
Location: Houston, TX
Comments: Great article on wrestler/boxer Danny Hodge in Sunday's Tulsa World sports section...great quote from the article, "Hodge is what Roy D. Mercer wishes to be." May be worth the trip to Perry, OK to watch Hodge squash an apple in one hand...worth a read @ the Tulsa World.

It is a good article. However, you must subscribe to the World to be able to read it online. Here is another good one at the Mid-South Wrestling site.

In the 80s, I once spotted Mr. Hodge working security near the Brady Theater stage. I can't remember which group was playing, but they didn't have to worry about any crazed fans rushing the stage.

More about him on this site's Rasslin' Page.

December 17 2005 at 20:15:23
Name: Frank Morrow
Email: frankmor@io.com
Location: Austin
Comments: Ole timers will remember the commercials on the local country and western show on TV called the Big Red Warehouse. Maybe that was only the name of the sponsor. Perhaps is was the Big Red Warehouse Barn Dance. (I wonder how many dances were in barns.) The overly enthusiastic "host had a dumb, obnoxious "sidekick" whose name was "Gravel Voice."

If you didn't gag on the music, the commercials would do the job. Their specialty was selling different types of bedroom and dining room "soots."

December 17 2005 at 11:50:04
Name: Bob Dickson
Email: rdickson@masoncounty.lib.mi.us
Location: Northern Michigan
Comments: The 'UGH - U-Need-Um Tires' commercial had a funny line - something about other places selling tires for 'eight- eighty eight' 'nine-ninety nine' and 'ten-tenny ten.'

Another memorable car ad was the famous 'Chick don't care' where someone would take a baseball bat to one of Chick Norton's huge Buick Roadmasters.

December 17 2005 at 01:27:11
Name: Brian Curran
Email: brian.curran@cox.net
Location: Midland, TX
Comments: What memories this brings back!

I owe my career to Don Woods and Lee Woodward. Seriously. As a child I couldn't watch the weather on TV unless I straightened up and flew right! One of my earliest weather memories was of Lee Woodward doing his segment during the March '67 blizzard.

The week before the 8 June 1974 tornado outbreak I won tickets from KRMG to see some dumb movie ("Digby the Biggest Dog in the World", I think?). Went to see the movie the morning of 8 June. Remember low clouds screaming north in the morning, followed by sun, then the tornadic supercells rolling up the Turner that evening. The impressions of that day, and the 5 December 1975 Tulsa tornadoes, steered me into meteorology.

Watched Don Woods on KTUL that evening after coming home and was fascinated by the radar presentation of these storms. I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and the rest is history.

The articles on Johnny Martin are especially good as well. I might've been the only geek in Tulsa County listening to big band music -- it served me well, and I'm happy to share my love of jazz with my daughter now.

Again, thanks for the site and the memories.

December 16 2005 at 17:43:02
Name: Mike Bruchas
Comments: It's a smaller world! Guy Atchley - out in Tucson and anchoring at KGUN-TV - says that the Journal Broadcast Group took over as new owner this week at KGUN. They own KVOO and two other stations in Tulsa.

December 16 2005 at 16:37:40
Name: Lee Woodward
Location: Tulsatown USA
Comments: The Auto ads and Furniture store ads still retain all the worst elements from 1950's TV. Little has changed. In car ads, the Huckster now uses the Mick Jagger strut along with flailing arms and breathless pleadings. Furniture? Only the player's change; If you want that "Borax" you still have to act, rat now! And let us not forget...."The Evangelists!" Yikes!

December 16 2005 at 13:21:58
Name: Gary Chew (via email to webmaster)
Location: Sacramento
Comments: My dear colleague, Der Meistersinger Woodward, reminds me of yet another entrepreneurial tactic Mr. Wheaton employed; it was his "borrowing" of the Bell Amusement Park jingle that I vocal-quadruple-tracked to the tune of "Over the Waves" next door at KELi on the Fairgrounds. This was prior to my KOTV stint and realizing that Lee was more equipped to do such singing, not to mention zinging. Right, Claxton?

Mr. Wheaton's residuals allow me a lifetime complimentary pass to ride Zingo which, I'm told, is in the mail.

"Bellllll's Amusement Park, Bell's Amu-u-u-u-usement Park..." And so on, ad nauseum. Anybody have a dub? Sorry.

Holding my breath in Sacramento. Ugh! U-Need-Um Zingo?

December 16 2005 at 13:21:51
Name: David Bagsby
Email: dcbatsunflower.com
Location: Lawrence KS
Comments: ...sell YOU a car." Wasn't that D.B. Wilkerson? Still psychologically scarred from these ads after all these years.

I'm thinking it was Bill Cox wanting to sell us a car.

December 16 2005 at 12:13:12
Name: Steve Todoroff
Email: info@preservemusic.org
Location: Houston, TX
Comments: If someone from Tulsa taped today's Phil/Brent Annual Christmas Show on KMOD-FM would you please contact me? Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays to all here at Tulsa TV Memories!

December 16 2005 at 10:44:52
Name: Erick
Email: ericktul@yahoo.com
Location: Tulsa
Comments: For those people who love OKC TV as well as Tulsa, I present the BC Clark jingle. Perfect for the holidays.

December 16 2005 at 10:17:55
Name: Dana LeMoine
Email: d4wdw@valornet.com
Location: Still making pizzas........
Comments: Steve Bagsby asked: "...what did Bill Cox want to do...and to whom?"

Was it, "I want to sell YOU a car!"...?

December 16 2005 at 09:52:27
Name: Dana LeMoine
Email: d4wdw@valornet.com
Location: Making pizzas at "Irish Mike Clancy's"
Comments: How about, "If you didn't buy at Reeves, you paid too much" and "Don't forget poor ole Pappy!"

I remember being in Brownie's one night eating of all things, a hamburger, when in walked the whole Reeves bunch. They proceeded to sit at a table in the back that looked like it was reserved for them. Apparently they were regulars. From the looks of the fur coats the ladies were wearing, the appliance business treated them very well...........Dang, now I'm hungry for a Brownie's!

December 16 2005 at 08:39:57
Name: Steve Bagsby
Email: sbagsby@tulsacc.edu
Location: the Grease Rack at McElroy's
Comments: I remember the the spots for National Motor Company where the little kid says; "My daddy gives the best car deals in the whooooole world!" Speaking of which, what did Bill Cox want to do...and to whom?"

December 16 2005 at 08:01:37
Name: Jim Ruddle
Email: jruddle@earthlink.net
Location: Rye, NY
Comments: The worst Tulsa TV commercial that I recall was from a local car dealer who, cheap as most were, used his kid to deliver the spot's punch line:

"My Daddy say buy new car."

This was blurted with no feeling or interpretation. He might as well have grunted.

The worst radio commercial I can recall was a series that ran on KAKC in 1950. A KAKC salesman had garnered the account for a product called "RP," which stood for "rectal pain," but that was never mentioned on the air. The spots were cut on 33 1/3 discs by the ever-popular Buzz Donnelly and at least one featured Ken Reed saying in a strained voice:

"I had 'em so bad I could barely walk."

He didn't explain what "they" were, but I guess you were supposed to figure it out. But because "RP" was never defined on the air, the hemorrhoidal reference was lost on most of the world. Not that most of the world was listening to KAKC.

The best TV commercial, but only for those of us who worked Sundays at KOTV, was for a steak house that brought perfect T-bones and sirloins to the station for their live spots. As soon as the spot was finished, the crew descended on the helpless meat and devoured it.

December 15 2005 at 22:06:29
Name: Frank Morrow
Email: frankmor@io.com
Location: Austin
Comments: In the early '50s, Roy Pickett did Needham Tire commercials, complete with "ugh," on KTUL. Didn't have to worry about visuals back in those days.

Actually, I don't remember ever seeing Jim Wheaton. I thought he was strictly a sound guy.

December 15 2005 at 21:54:07
Name: Mike Bruchas
Comments: Life after TV - spoke with ex-KTULer Tom Roberts who is semi-retired some days. His wife, Yuki, and Tulsa TV great Hurst Swiggart and his wife, Barbara (I think she is a real estate great!) are all now Linnaeus Master Gardeners after 12 weeks of school there in Tulsey.

December 15 2005 at 19:55:25
Name: Dave
Location: looking for the drum...
Comments: Oh yeah, U-Need-Um Tires. You probably remember the commercials always opened with the traditional sound of an Indian drum beat and then he would say, "Ugh! U-Need-Um Tires?" So one time we were surpised to hear the commercial start with his voice saying, "Tom tom tom tom. Tom tom tom tom." He then explained he had been running around town making commercials at so many radio stations that he left his drum behind somewhere. I never believed it.

December 15 2005 at 15:16:42
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: The ice storm is on a smoke break in DC - for now...
Comments: All of this old ad stuff reminds of the late and much-beloved KTUL engineer "Huckleberry" Findlay West - who used to ask, mixing Griffin Products around, "When was the last time you had a big steaming cup of Griffin's Syrup? Yummm! It's goooood!!!". We had free Griffin's Coffee (from which he appropriated the commercial tag line) forever in the Leake-ownership days and it was very un-memorable!

Though I DO miss the KTUL Xmas parties at Southern Hills CC of the 70s (Jimmy Leake in his red velvet tuxedo)- but the KOTV party was always more fun for staff participation - from the likes of "Doctor" Woodward and the late (not Tuffy) Wayne Johnson on clarinet.

In this day and age - my employer in DC is changing ownership and our management has decided to forsake Xmas cards and a party this year. This means our $25 "bonus" Amex gift cards probably won't happen either. I remember the year KOCO's GM Al Parsons pulled a Grinch move on the staff there and cancelled the Xmas party due to a "low sales quarter" (plus a newsroom union vote - that failed) and we threw our own Xmas party at a nearby watering hole, Joe Kelly's. Al had the nerve to show up and NOT buy any drinks except for himself.

December 15 2005 at 12:17:20
Name: Lee Woodward
Location: Tulsa
Comments: I cannot remember the name of the eccentric fellow who did the spots for Needham Tires (Jim Wheaton...webmaster) but I came into the men's room at KOTV one evening as he was engaged in recording an ad-lib spot on his portable tape recorder...in one of the stalls. He emerged in a moment, looked at me and said; "I like the acoustics!" (He must have been right because Ridge Bond used to warm up in there.)

I found out later that he did most of his commercials this way and many times to good effect. Art Ford told me of one in particular where he stood on the curb at the corner of 3rd and Frankfort so he could get traffic sounds as he did the spot.

His was a one man agency and I think he had most of his materials in his unkempt suit. I seem to recall he always wore a hat, summer or winter.

I think Needham Tires had the head of an Indian Chief in full war bonnet as a logo. So, I suppose that accounts for the "Ugh!" that was the keynote word in all the spots?

December 15 2005 at 08:25:48
Name: David Bagsby
Email: dcbatsunflower.com
Location: Lawrence KS
Comments: ...and Shawnee adds the meat.

16 December 15 2005 at 01:23:02
Name: Webmaster
Comments: New web site about the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere due in 2007 to be plucked from a time capsule near the County Courthouse: BuriedCar.com. The site features a Jack Frank video showing the 1957 burial party and a latter-day interview with Forrest Brokaw, who was News Director at Channel 2 in 1957.

Here's another site about it: The Buried 1957 Plymouth.

Weren't we supposed to have flying cars and rocket belts by now? Where is the future we were promised?

December 14 2005 at 23:19:00
Name: Stephen
Location: in the rain
Comments: Gads! TV and Radio jingles, ya gotta love or hate em! How about "Ugh! U Need Um Tires?". The Needham Tires of Tulsa are (I think) out of business but the jingle says with me...it won't go away. Or "Hamp Baker says drive with care" on little signs all over OK highways.

I can make one... 7,8,9, I have a jingle but not the time.

December 14 2005 at 18:17:34
Name: Patrick Bryant
Email: patrickATmagicchordDOTcom
Location: Schwarzenegger-land
Comments: That Shawnee jingle ran in OKC too. A bud of mine who worked at Ch. 4 would sing his own words to it as he directed the 10pm newscast: "It's as easy as 4 - 5 - 6, and Shawnee makes you sick."

December 14 2005 at 17:25:14
Name: Dana LeMoine
Email: d4wdw@valornet.com
Location: Playing baseball behind the Village Theater
Comments: And Shawnee ads the me! With the big flap about Shawnee and my alma mater E.C. lately, that darn jingle has been running through my head!

December 14 2005 at 15:43:29
Name: Steve Bagsby
Email: sbagsby@tulsacc.edu
Location: Spiegel....Chicago.....60609
Comments: Can you complete the following phrase?

"It's as easy as 1-2-3, and Shawnee _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!"

That's the 12th and final question of this timely Tulsa TV commercial quiz.

December 14 2005 at 11:59:13
Name: Webmaster
Comments: I removed a couple of entries about yesterday's "4-to-Fix" vote and returned them to their authors. It's a perfectly valid topic for TulsaNow.org (in fact, that site has a thread about it here), but purely political commentary is outside the scope of this site. Here is the "policy" from Guestbook 89 in 2001.

December 13 2005 at 15:17:56
Name: Bryan Crain
Location: Markham Hall
Comments: Just thought I would plug the debut of "Woodturning Workshop" tonight at 8pm on RSU-TV (UHF 35 and Cox 19). Tim Yoder is the producer/host and I am the director/photog/graphics guy. It's basically a "how to" show. It's regular season run starts January 3rd, tonight is a special sneak peek (and re-airs sunday at 4:30). It also will be distributed nationally through NETA in January. Many of you probably know Tim from his work behind the camera at KOTV and RSU-TV for many years...now he's on the other end. Here is a link to the press release if you would like any more info.
(Thanks for letting me plug, Mike!)

December 12 2005 at 22:28:54
Name: edwin
Comments: The old..strange Guy, you know, Macarthey as well.

December 11 2005 at 22:27:27
Name: Stephen Spees
Location: Copperas Cove, Tx
Comments: For all those out there who have the LPs and want to preserved that sound without waiting for the retro commercials to sell them to you, go to Hammacher.com and you can convert your LPs to CD yourself! You can listen to LP or convert to CD.

That site has more than you can believe. I plan to convert my Dave Clark Five and Carpenters to CD soon.

They even have VHS to DVD boxes to convert movies over; pays for itself in about 20 tapes. Analog is going bye bye :(, but your Sky King VHS can live on...:)

December 09 2005 at 00:56:23
Name: Wanda Baker
Email: wandakbaker@gmail.com
Location: The kitchen at Frank Lloyd Wright's house in the desert
Comments: Thanks to each of you who responded to my question about vinyl vs. CD. That's good to know. We now have various Beatles LPs and 45s enroute to AZ as I type, so we'll be checking things out soon. Of course, now we have to buy a turntable ... can't seem to remember what happened to the old one.

I really enjoyed Stairway to Gilligan. You're right, it's just what it says!

I earn my living doing academic research, so I waste way too many brain cells worrying about whatever media we're storing data on at the moment and whether someone will have a way to read it years from now if they want to. Vinyl records -- who'dathunkit?

Lowell Burch, you were the first to respond to my inquiry. There's no way you'd remember me, but we grew up around each other. I'm an old northsider too, and if memory serves, you have a brother named Jerry who's my age.

I hope it's not inappropriate to plug a good cause here. If the Otasco jingle is playing, it must be Christmas. In Tulsa, that also means that police cars will be delivering refurbished computers to needy kids in the Tulsa area. I co-founded PC Power a couple years ago with the police officer who had the original idea. Fox news is interviewing retired TPD Chief Harry Stege tomorrow about this year's project. If you want to help us help some great kids whose parents can't afford a home computer, visit our web site at www.TulsaPCpower.org to learn more. If this is an inappropriate forum for this, please accept my apology.

No apology needed, it sounds very worthy.

December 08 2005 at 21:57:03
Name: David Brandenburgh
Email: daveandbarb2@hotmail.com
Location: Columbus, GA
Comments: I also remember Sylvester Smith. He owned a club in the shopping center behind Ranch Acres at 31st and Harvard. It was next to St. Michael's Alley, another story or two.

One night at Sylvester's he asked for customers to sing at the open mike. My friend chose "Rawhide," but the only words he could remember were "Rollin', rollin', rollin'.."

December 08 2005 at 21:12:35
Name: Lee Woodward
Location: Tulsa
Comments: Several of the last posts have spurred me to offer some comments on the various subjects on the just-archived Guestbook 198.

First, I am listening to 107.9 FM as I write this and am happy to have an alternative to try out. I'll have an opinion at the end as I'm only five minutes in.

As to pool halls? I spent my youth in them and got good enough to "hustle" by the time I was eighteen. Too many close calls after winning too much in nearby Fort Worth and getting called to active duty in the Marines (1950) saved me. There was a fellow hustler at Albert's Pool Hall (in Arlington, Texas) who was my hero early on. His name was Carl Parrot. He had to play most of the locals one-handed as he was that far above them. Everyone challenged him just so they could say they played him.

If anyone in Tulsa is interested, I immortalized him in a painting I call "Carl, running the table." It is still hanging in the gallery at Magoo's pool emporium on So. Memorial. I sold the painting to Jim McDermott a couple of years ago. He also owns THE hustle house over on 21st Street, east of Memorial.

In the background of the painting is the "rack boy," David Dalton. He wore the rack around his neck and when shouted at for a rack, he would beat himself to death trying to get it off his head. He was retarded. On occasion, if he got angry at you, he would throw pool balls at you.

I certainly do remember Levester Cunningham (the Chocolate Cowboy.) He was ubiquitous in the late fifties into the sixties in the places where you could drink. I will be honest; I don't remember his act or style that much but the public loved him...and his hat!

Another very fine singer during the 70s and 80s was a fellow of good looks and fine voice named Sylvester Smith. I happen to have a vinyl album he made during that time. Don't know whatever became of him. He was very smooth.

Finally, (sort of) there is no doubt that vinyl sounds different from CDs and I will use the word "warmer" to offer my feeling about it. But lost in all the discussion is a major cause which is the amplifier you're using. Most amps now are all solid-state whereas in the good old "warm days," they were powered by tubes. If you want to hear real sound from vinyl, listen to it on a real good stereo powered by tubes.

The only person I know who has a collection of these type amplifiers is David Miller, owner of Speakerworks on South Mingo. He has all the great old stuff. He has played some of my things on solid state and then tube amps and the difference is significant. He is a factory-authorized speaker rebuilder by the way.

Having listened to "Jazz Tulsa 107.9" for over thirty minutes now, I can say I heartily approve. They have a website and are looking for corporate underwriters. It's JazzTulsa.org.

I think I'm done; or is that "Tubed?"

December 08 2005 at 20:22:34
Name: Nancy Vuong
Email: swetiestevil_nancy@hotmail.com
Location: Canada
Comments: I love the movie and the book The Outsiders.

December 08 2005 at 19:51:21
Name: John K. Young
Location: Otasco on 3rd Street, waitin' to see Santa!
Comments: If you're interested in seeing some ads and other stuff from the 1950s, check out EphemeraNow.com. One of the ads I saw was for "Dutch Boy Paint" and the ad copy had a copyright of 1949 by The National Lead Company. Who said there was no "Truth in Advertising" in the 50s? LOL

I just came across that one a few days ago.

December 08 2005 at 16:37:22
Name: Webmaster
Comments: Archived Guestbook 198.

We had just learned the real name of the Chocolate Cowboy (Levester Cunningham), a Tulsa entertainer of the 50s-60s. Tulsa bowling alleys and pool halls of the 40s-50s were discussed. The qualities of vinyl vs. CD were explored.

George Hummingbird checked in with promise of more to come. We're still trying to find out how Tuffy the Tiger is doing. We heard about Tulsa guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Crook.

Why did the audience of "Truth or Consequences" laugh hysterically during the opening of every show? The answer to that, and other questions which may not have occurred to you, can be found in Guestbook 198.