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I guess El Chico is a national chain. They had those when I lived back in Kentucky. It was the first restaurant I visited that had "real" Mexican food instead of fast food. Too bad Tulsa doesn't have a "Taco John's." They have them in several states, and it's a bit better than the "Taco Bueno" restuarants that are around here. MMM. Casa Bonita. I like eating there, but I don't go very often because I always eat so much when I'm there that I'm miserable for days. When I moved here, I didn't know what that place was until a good friend took me there one day, and asked the waiter to seat us in the "cave" section. I felt a bit confused and puzzled until we got to the section that was like a real cave. I think I'm almost ready to go back.
So, do any of the regular contributors to this guestbook and site ever get
together once and a while for dinner?
I grew up in Arlington, Texas and remember the many Mexican restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. All of them made everything "in house" and it was wonderful. Nothing ran together on the plate. When I came to Tulsa in 1957, it was much the same and the really good places had been here for some time. I remember a place on 15th Street (just east of Atlanta) run by a fellow named Victor Mendoza. He played a fair guitar and sang. Alas, a better singer than owner. He later played and sang at La Casa Bonita at 21st and Sheridan. My all-time favorite was in Arlington. Called "La Tapatia," it was owned by gringos but everyone and everything else was Mexican. The owner's son made the statement once that Mexican food was the most profitable food on the face of the earth! And he was right. Done right, one of the most enjoyable.
El Chico stills does well in T-Town after first starting years ago in Dallas
(I think?)
Some company was selling tamales to butcher shops in our home town when I was a kid and Mom steamed them at home. She had taught in Monte Vista, CO in circa 1941 which was a railroad town with a large Spanish-speaking population and she grew interested in Mexican food. When we found this now long gone drive- in, tamales were the only non-burger item on the menu and I think you got 3 tamales for a $1.
I still dream of El Chico in its prime in Tulsa!
From their communique: "The Dose" would be extremely grateful for any assistance from our friends and family. Simply click on this link Popbang.com and scroll down to the yellow box and submit your vote for Purple Overdose - "Steal The Sun".
Where was I during the forties when Little Mexico was on 18th Street, just north of Quaker Drug? Or La Hacienda, out by TU, or a half-dozen other Mexican places whose names, after these many years have escaped me. It was in these establishments that we first learned of Dos Equis, where we discovered that we could fill up on tacos and "combo platters" and have a cheap date. Mexican food was one of the signal pleasures of growing up in Tulsa and the surrounding area. Tamale men roamed the streets in nearly every town of any consequence. It was only when I got to New York, in 1951, that I found that tacos were exotic,that the Manhattan phone book listed only one Mexican restaurant, La Mariposa, and it was a dog.
What can I say? I guess I led a sheltered life in T-town.
I remember when I was 5 in 1956 we took a trip to San Antone, and Mom, Dad, Sis & I were hungry and we stopped at a Mexican joint. Dad came back to the car & asked Mom what a taco was. It was the easiest thing for him to pronounce in Spanish. We really liked sharing the 3 delicious tacos that cost $1.00. They were no doubt larger than today's entries. Was Lea's the first pizza joint in T-town?
I met Jon recently at a wedding where he was playing bass with "Sounds Good", a jazz group. Actually, I had sort of met him in 1969 when Jon was a senior playing tuba in band at East Central high school and I was a lowly sophomore third clarinet player. Welcome, Jon. Your classmate, Joy Cooper, is a frequent contributor.
  
Thanks, Carl. Read Larry Kraus' piece below about this folkie hangout of the mid-60s in Tulsa. I threw in the ad from Lea's, since the Dust Bowl has it on their menu.
David: That sounds correct.....Beth was an encore song on that tour and the sound of Peter's off-key warbling would be enough to send any fan over the edge! KISS actually returned with Peter just ten months later on their Alive II tour.......I guess money speaks louder than a Jack Daniels bottle..... Here is a breakdown of Tulsa appearances by KISS: 2/12/75 - Cain's Ballroom Thankfully a promoter never picked up this show and it never was played.....Gene Simmons would have set that low ceiling on fire for sure! 6/13/75 - Fairgrounds Pavillion with Rare Earth and Point Blank 3/8/76 - Assembly Center with Electromagnets 1/6/77 - Assembly Center with Uriah Heep 11/26/77 - Assembly Center with Detective 10/29/79 - Assembly Center with Breathless 2/22/86 - Expo Square Pavillion with WASP 11/24/87 - Expo Square Pavillion with White Lion 5/8/90 - Expo Square Pavillion with Slaughter and Faster Pussycat
By the way, what ever happened to the numerous seventies promoters like Stone
City Attractions, Beaver Productions, Concerts West.......?
The strange thing about the place now is that it is closed on weekends, unless
they have changed their schedule recently.
In 1999, I was walking around the ruins of old MA-HU and came upon a date inscribed in concrete reading: August 7, 1941. The mansion goes back to 1937 according to your information. I was with my two young nieces at the time.
The next week I asked a female friend of mine to join me as she lived close
by, but it turns out that developers had already dug up and removed the remains.
Originally, I thought the inscription read 1944, but it was 1941. A really
surreal twist to this "mystery" for the ages.
"You were asking the question, where is (former KTUL audioman) Lawrence Heatley? He is in Crown Hill Cemetary in Tulsa, Ok. He had an accident...in Texas while cleaning his gun in the 1980's...".
She said brother John Heatley is still in the Tulsa area and doing well.
Notables who appeared over the years were Mike Murphey (later known as Michael Martin Murphey, of 'Wildfire' fame), and B.W. Stevenson (of 'My Maria' fame). Also appearing frequently were Dan Crarey (who still headlines music festivals, and is/was a fine flat-pick guitar player), and Hermes Nye, a lawyer/singer from Dallas, and the Roving Singers (Tommy Harris and Jim Smith). (Yours truly also appeared on occasion, but never as a headliner.) The Dust Bowl was part of an informal circuit of folk clubs that included the Sword and the Stone in OKC, the Rubaiyat in Dallas, and the 11th Door in Austin. Most of the people who played at one of those played at the rest. I ran into Michael Martin Murphey about three years ago and he still remembered the Dust Bowl with fondness. B.W. Stevenson, of course, died about 10 years ago. (I am still alive, barely.) I can still remember the night that the Folkmen returned from a tour shortly after Dylan released 'Highway 61 Revisited.' Everyone was aghast that they were playing electrical instruments. Unfortunately, they were using the electrical instruments on their standard repertoire and it just didn't work as well. Shortly after that (I'm guessing maybe 1967), the Dust Bowl closed. As I might have mentioned previously, the only person I can remember being thrown off the stage at the Dust Bowl for singing 'inappropriate material' was Richard Roberts. All of us pushed the boundaries a bit, but Richard apparently went way over. Of course, he was younger then.
Thanks for jogging another old memory.
A short film, "Good Night Valentino", starring Blaire will soon make its debut at Sundance (and possibly later, the Sundance Channel on cable). It's based on a real-life meeting between silent film matinee idol Rudolph Valentino and acerbic newsman H.L. Mencken.
My mind was racing, wanting to tell him how much I liked his weather report, Gusty cartoons, etc., but all I could get out was a short sentence on the weather. He politely answered with a one-liner. I then said, "you probably don't want to talk about the weather when you're not working, do you?" He looked at me, smiled, and said, "you're the first person that has told me that and I appreciate it."
Thanks, Steve, added your anecdote to the Weather page.
That was Massad's, of which Mr. Bagsby spoke. It's still there!
She found it. Emily added:
Gary played some music there when he was working at KVOO as a DJ.
Thank you...the old Delman theater was converted to the Appollo Delman Music Hall in the late 70s. I remember seeing Randy Ess and the Invisible Band open for Henny Youngman there. I still have a postcard with the logo, which I added below.
After graduating from art school in NYC in 1955, I went to work for WSAV-TV
in Savannah, GA as staff artist. Tom Belcher, who was from Enid, was our
sales manager (this was a start-up station). Subsequently Tom left, went
back to Oklahoma, and joined KVOO-TV. I got a call from him late one night.
He said the artist at Channel 2 had committed suicide and would I take the
job (gasp!). I did, joined the station January 1957 and stayed until 1960.
By the way, Bob Harvey, who later was an announcer at Channel 2 was also
on the staff in Savannah.
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). Let's say you are looking for all comments about Leon McAuliffe, for example. If you put "McAuliffe" in TTM's own good search engine, you will find all pages on the site that mention him. But most of the Guestbook pages are pretty lengthy, and finding specific words within them can take awhile. However, if you type "McAuliffe" in the Google Toolbar and search the internet once, you will then have a temporary "McAuliffe" button. Now, once you use TTM's search engine to get to a specific Guestbook page, just click the toolbar button to easily find each mention of "McAuliffe" on that page.
The price is right: free...at
http://toolbar.google.com
One good thing about Channel 41 was that it was connected in the back to
the bar/deli next door. Half the time when you couldn't find someone they
were next door enjoying a cocktail.
I was able to stand across the street while they were filming that scene. Other scenes were also filmed in Owasso.
See an old Tastee-Freez at the Tastee-Freez web site.
The Admiral Twin is run by the same folks who now run the 6-screen theater at Eastland Mall. I'll bet you can find out by asking the manager there. If I remember correctly, the Admiral Twin usually opens around Easter weekend.
Tina Ervin-Platt of the Admiral Twin will give us an update when she has a definite date.
Speaking of The Outsiders, I've been getting an itch to see a movie at the
Admiral Twin. Anyone know when they start up this spring?
New slogan for 2003: TTM...All Bran for your brain.
I am working on US coverage of the Paris to Dakar race car/truck/motorbike marathon that kicked off today. Watch it on the Speed Channel on cable in Tulsey. This year it goes to Egypt - not Dakar - on a new and neat route!
On a game site on eBay - one of my co-workers noticed a game site seller
in Tulsa - by TU - selling the 2003 Dakar race game. Have any of you ever
heard of Box Builders Inc. at
1716 S. Gary Ave. Tulsa, OK 74104???
Were you e-mail deluged on micro radio-controlled race cars for sale this year? They were selling from as low as $8 each to $35 if you bought them on-line (stupid!). Seems to be the TV MAGIC CARDS of 2002.
Boy is this USELESS information....
I played the part of Joseph. Actually, there was no performance involved.
I merely stood beside “Mary” with my hand on her shoulder. (Miss
Ronan remarked later that this was the first time any of her
“Josephs” had played the part while touching “Mary.”)
Bob Griffin, who was still at KAKC, I think, was also in the production.
Additionally, there were three spectacularly beautiful blonde girls from
Central who played parts of the angels. Looking at them, I thought I had
died and gone to heaven already. It also made me think that I had graduated
from CHS a few years too soon.
This is an excellent site, with links to many other radio sites.
Just in case you haven't seen it, here is your
2002 TTM Christmas card. Happy holidays to
everyone!
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Governor-elect Brad Henry's inaugural ball will be
held in the lobby of the Mayo Hotel this evening. The Mayo has undergone
major renovations in recent months. The complete story and photos of the
Mayo lobby today are at 
January 08 2003 at
13:13:09
The Tastee-Freez that played
a part in the movie The Outsiders was located on the NorthEast corner of
Main and 86th Street North. Sadly it was torn down years ago. I miss eating
there after school the owners were some really great people. The bleachers
that appear in the film is Ator Field which is still in use for football
(not high school football though). I am sure I have a picture of Tastee-Freez
somewhere. I have a year book that has a couple of pictures of some actors
and the Tastee-Freez owner.
