Sen. Joe McCarthy had just named the Weavers folk singing group as being on his list of subversives. Their transgression in reality had been mainly to support the unions and union organizing. Conservatives and liberal Democrats had used the Red-baiting Era to de-fang the unions by driving out the radical members who were providing the energy for the successes of the labor movement. Conservative union leaders had used it to take over power for themselves. In this they all were successful. (There are many good books on the subject. One is “Red Scare” by Don Carleton, who states that the only city in the country that was worse than Houston in being affected by the McCarthy Period was Tulsa.)

The good news is that, as a result of Joe McCarthy, I now have a nice collection of Weavers music on 78rpm records.

The effects of the McCarthy Period lingered on after the downfall of “Tail Gunner Joe.” (His legacy continues even today.) In 1956, when I was driving the KRMG newsmobile, Program Director Keith Bretz told me that the general manager, a man whose last name was Lane, wanted me to have a “man (sic) on the street” interview each day. I expressed my doubts, but went ahead with the assignment. Night after night I would park the Microbus on a downtown street, roll out my microphone cord, and stop people walking by. After explaining what I would like for them to do, the fear would immediately light up in their eyes, and they would say, “I don’t want to go on record to say anything,” or “I keep my opinions to myself.” They then would rush off.

Meanwhile, Lane was putting pressure on Keith, who was pressuring me. The only solution I could think of was to stage the interviews. I started going to my Kappa Sigma fraternity house to do it. Occasionally one of the boy’s girl friends would join us. The interviews would take an almost pre-determine path: Two guys would express opposing views, start shouting, and end up getting into a fight. I could have given Sam Avey a lesson or two in staging events.

Eventually the requirement the man (sic) on the street assignment was dropped, but I’ll never forget the fear on the faces of the people I approached when I asked them to exercise their First Amendment rights.

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Does anyone know how I can get in contact with Red Statum ? Many thanks !

I sent the info to you via email, Clifford.

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Re the pic of John Chick in headset - that is from one of the last JC Penney Xmas parades in downtown Tulsey. To me besides the lighting up of Utica Square the Friday after Thanksgiving - that was the sign Xmas had come to Tulsey!

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The comments about the KAKC studios and Coliseum are interesting. A year or two ago, work was being done on a parking lot located where the old building sat. I drove by and was able to peer into the old basement, still intact, just as it was when the structure burned. I thought I saw a mouse riding an old turntable.

Eerie.

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Great reminder, Frank. That back door was not sealed when I worked there, maybe they figured it would keep the rats out by closing it permanently. Once you opened it, you were faced with a catacomb running under the Coliseum that was filled with stacks of what appeared to be old wooden bleachers, or braces, or something like that. Obviously, good fuel for the later fire. I, too, got called down for referring on the air to "Our subterranean studios."

Actually, the only real rodents I encountered worked in the front office.

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Here is a story that Jim Ruddle will find familiar.

Before the coliseum burned down in 1952, the KAKC studios were in the basement of that building, on the northeast corner. There was only one exit--at the front. The studios were in the back. Near the ceiling of the control room there was the only window, a tiny, barred thing which looked out at foot level onto the street. There was a sealed door at the rear of the control room, the only thing separating us announcers from the myriad of rats which ran rampant in the large area under the used part of the building. It may have been used as a storage area. The rats made a terrible racket as they ran around, fighting, mating, bumping into things, and knocking things over as only rats can do. It was really spooky to be listening to this noise during a disk jockey program when you were the only one in the building.

It was not unusual to see the V/U meter jump when there was a thud coming from the back. One night, after experiencing a series of noises which were picked up by the mike, I explained to the audience what was happening, stating that we were broadcasting from the bowels of the Coliseum.” I got a cease-and-desist call from the general manager.

At least the door separated us from the rats, but nothing protected us from the mice. During a newscast a mouse left its hole on the left side of the control board, and ran across my hands and script. I was too shocked to react.

However, I could not ignore the next incident several weeks later during a disk jockey program. A mouse left its home, ran across the control board, and hopped onto the spinning turntable, knocking the tone arm off of the record which was playing over the air, and slinging the mouse off toward the back of the room. (It was a 78rpm record.) I turned the mike on and explained what had happened. Fortunately, this time the general manager was not listening.

When the Coliseum burned, there must have been a terrible slaughter of rodents.

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Getting back to checking the guestbooks: I talked with Jilda Unruh's mother, Paula, and subsequently e-mailed Jilda in Miami with no response as yet.

Speaking of transposition of initial letters of sponsors - my first commercial announcer job was at KMUS, Muskogee, and we had to deal with City Chevrolet. Treacherous!

I am still searching for exKOTVers...talked with Larry Thomlinson tonight in Glendale, CA.

KOTV will not be handling any sale of its 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL...but have awarded that to Broadcast News of Tulsa. I will have details of the cost, etc. tomorrow...and order must be made to Wichita address.

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I hope you will indulge me with this Tulsa non-TV memory.

In remembering the George Harrison concert, I thought about the time my dad bought us tickets for The Beatles concert in KC. He was called out of town suddenly and my mom refused to take us (I was 13). Dad would have let us miss school, Mom would not. I think that she got to feeling a bit guilty later so, almost as good, the Rolling Stones played the Tulsa Civic Center and she took us to that. Dick Clark MC'd. Anybody make that concert? Honestly, it didn't really seem like there was much of a crowd for a Rolling Stones concert.

Missed that one...non-TV Tulsa memories are welcome, too.

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This is not entirely a radio story, but a few memories about Johnny Chick:

Johnny and I were schoolmates from junior high school through college. He was in the class ahead of me. With his bright face, great smile and wonderful wit, he always was so much in evidence wherever he was.

For a Horace Mann Jr. High Christmas pageant Johnny and I shared the singing role of Joseph. Because the pageant was presented twice, there were two different casts of soloists. We all rehearsed together, however. My pre-pubescent tenor voice was high and thin, much outclassed by Johnny's full, mature voice. The girls in the cast loved to listen to Johnny sing. The teacher ("Big Bertha" Cook) should have had Johnny sing for both performances. (By the way, Johnny was a great whistler, too.)

At Central we not only occasionally were on stage together, we also appeared now and then on our weekly radio program "Experimental Theater of the Air" over KOME on Saturday morning. (I emphasized radio and plays at Central, while Johnny participated more in singing groups as well as plays.) I remember one broadcast where, as the announcer, I was introducing the songs which were being presented from the current Central operetta. During rehearsal, after I had introduced one song, Johnny came up to me and corrected my French. When the program came on, I made the same mistake, and, sure enough, here came Johnny who whispered the correct pronunciation again in my ear. I finally got it right the third time.

When we were both at KRMG in 1956, I was at Johnny's house one night. He and his wife had a baby, and Johnny did something I have never seen anyone do before or since. When he wanted to know if the baby needed changing, he merely inserted his hand down inside the diaper from behind. If his hand came up wet or brown, he knew immediately that a change was in order. Right then and there I knew that he was a braver soul than I.

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Sidebar for Chick fans:

In 1966, I was co-anchoring news at WGN-TV, in Chicago, when a woman from the program department told me that the station was auditioning for a staff announcer--a job that opened rarely there--and she wondered whether I knew anybody who might be a good candidate. I immediately suggested John Chick (or Johnny, as those of us who had known him when we were school kids together called him) and pretty much forgot about it.

A couple of weeks later, the lady said the station was bringing Johnny up for an audition. In due course, he arrived, went up against the best talent in Chicago and won the audition with nobody even a close second. Later, we had coffee together in the station cafeteria and he told me he didn't think he would take the job.

Now, I knew that WGN was not overly generous with beginning salaries for a station of that size and revenues, and new staffers would automatically be at the bottom of the totem pole, however, the station was probably the best local producer of children's programs, with Bozo's Circus, the Ray Rayner Show, Dick Tracy, Garfield Goose, and several others, and Johnny seemed to me to be a natural for the place. Obviously, he would shortly be installed as a talent on one of the programs or be given one of his own.

I asked him about his reluctance to take the job, and he explained that he was very happy doing what he was doing in Tulsa, that he genuinely loved doing the show he was doing there, and besides, moving to Chicago would mean a major upheaval in his life and his family. In short, he stiffed WGN and went back to Tulsa and his legendary career there. I'm sure he made the right decision.

The brass at WGN was completely confounded by his action and unable to comprehend that anyone would balk at a chance to work for them. But, then, they didn't understand a lot of things.

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Jilda Unruh has been around since leaving Tulsa. She was in the northeast for awhile, and spent some time in Minneapolis, now she's at WPLG in Miami, according to their website as an investigative reporter.

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RE: the George Harrison concert. During the concert George said, "The folks from Oklahoma City have asked me why I don't do a concert there. It is because I don't know anyone in Oklahoma City." Later in the concert, he invited his Tulsa connection on to the stage, Leon Russell, and they closed the concert out together.

At least that is the way I remember it.

I reviewed the tape again, and it has to be Leon Russell. I get the feeling that a lot of us here have been at the same place, same time on occasion.

I found a picture in Tulsa Magazine of the Leon Russell Oiler Park concert in '71...my first concert. Freddie King was the opening act. I will get that out here soon (see the Briefcase, Photo Album 1).

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Re the the "sticks" in Oneta - Bob Hardy I think was chief engineer at 23 then. The flashing white xenon strobes were new technology at that time and I think 23 was one of the first to go to this. The FAA liked it because it was more visible in fog/clouds. The bulbs supposedly lasted a lot longer - which meant the stations had to pay less often to have crews change out bulbs. Planes flying into towers is NOT good.

You remember the old tower lights flashed red off and on or were solid red. At 8 - we would call the FAA to report of the Lookout Mtn. short antenna lights were burnt out - just in case someone in a small plane was admiring the night view of Tulsa might be flying too low. Since 8 now has a chopper out there - I am sure they have much better illumination on that and the new phallic radome/water tower.

Stuart Odell when at 6 - went with Chief Engineer (the late) Chan Allen to Coffeyville or wherever the KOTV repeater was once. Chan conned him into climbing the tower in daylight for something - maybe a bulb change-out. The tower may have been taller than the short one at KTUL on Lookout Mtn. but still climbable without getting a nosebleed.

Stu was young and foolish and got up the tower and his glasses fell off to the ground and had to climb down near blind! I don't think he volunteered for this duty again....

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Well if KOTV just did an hour last night - I was disappointed with WUSA here in DC doing only 30 minutes for 50 years of broadcasting!

They had great film and tape - someone at WOIC/WTOP/WDVM/WUSA tv did have a sense of history and showed promos, shows and the station's move to "Broadcast House" in 1954 - the first custom built TV station here in DC. They are now in Broadcast House (deux) designed by OKC's Frank Rees.

Is KOTV selling a video copy on VHS? I remember 4 in OKC still is of their 50th show.

The Chuck Fairbanks thang - most of us behind the scenes staff at 8 called him the "inverted" name but had to be careful blurting this around talent so we wouldn't infect them with this version on air.

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Does anyone remember the "Jilda Unruh Show". She was on Channel 8. Her mom is Paula Unruh, former Tulsa politician.

I remember when 23 and 41 towers were being built. When they got them up and turned on the lights, they were very bright. (I grew up in Coweta.) I remember listening to KRMG's NightLine and people were calling in asking what the weird lights were east of town. Some thought the UFO's were invading. It was quite an interesting night to say the least.

And yes being so close to the tv towers really screws up the reception. You can almost watch tv with the set turned off!

Yes, I remember Jilda...what is she up to these days?

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Enjoyed the KOTV special. However, there were some things about it that confused me. About 20 minutes into the program, it swayed from being a history of KOTV, to being a history of Clayton Vaughn. Fortunately, that didn't last too long. It was quite a surprise to see Clayton become a temporary co-host. I thought they tried too hard to emphasize the fact that they were the first in Tulsa to "allow" women and minorities on-air. I wonder if they feel they made the point that Bob Hower did the first televised newscast in Tulsa?

Lots of nice footage though, which I loved to see. I felt they could've spent more time showing interviews with certain folks, but with only an hour to fill, I feel it was well-made. One major gripe, why not go all out and do 2 hours? Would that have been overkill to the majority? Probably.

Scott Thompson did a wonderful job of hosting. That guy could describe a blank sheet of paper and make it sound interesting.

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So, what did you all think of the KOTV special this evening? I see that John Hillis must have unearthed the Bill Pitcock "King Kong Flu" footage, because there it was during the final credits!

I was surprised and happy to see that there was more old footage available than I thought. There was a good segment on Lewis Meyer. I saw a brief glimpse of Randy Ess with the Rogues 5, a band that appeared frequently on Dance Party. Good bits with Lee Bayley. I would have loved to see more of the Lee Woodward and Gailard Sartain interviews, and we saw only one brief, current-day comment from Bill Hyden. Lionel still has it! More later...but good show; could have been longer for my taste.

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I was on the Tulsa Police Dept for 21 years at the old station at 4th and Elgin, remember where your studios were then? I DO. Back in those days I made the news real often working the grave yard shift on traffic. Retired in 1973

Hi, Therl...did you coach Little League baseball for the Mitchell Leprechauns? My brother was on that team.

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Call-in programs are a staple of radio now, but back in the early ‘50s such programs had not been tried. Even reporting via telephone was rare. The only broadcast I can remember was KVOO’s fishing report which came from out of town, complete with the periodic beep which was required at that time. But either in late 1952 or early 1953, KTUL decided to have a weekly call-in program on local events. Not trusting the audience to speak either within the very restrictive norms of proper English or to refrain from slander, the host, Vic Lundberg, took the calls and relayed to the audience what the caller said. (There was no five-second tape delay equipment then.) As I recall, the program only lasted for a short time, only a couple of weeks, because the caller’s remarks were upsetting the local politicos and power structure.

Although the program occurred on my shift, I did not ascertain what had happened behind the scenes, because I was new to the staff, and still very inexperienced. This was during the McCarthy period, and Tulsa was one of the cities most deeply affected by that scourge. Any outspokenness beyond the restrictive range was anathema.

Very interesting...we just learned on the KOTV special that there was pressure from local big wigs not to cover the developing civil rights story in the 60s. Why was Tulsa more affected by the McCarthy era?

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My heart goes out to Dick Van Dera for saying "Crystal Shitty Shopping Center." But, Dick, I'll go you one better. My dearest broadcasting friend is Paul Brignac, who is now with Tulsa County Public Defender's office. Paul used the radio name "Paul Wade." In his latter radio years he worked for KELI in Tulsa. But when he was in his late teens or early twenties he worked at a station in Oklahoma City. Don't know which one. It was during the Chuck Fairbanks years at the University of Oklahoma. In a live sports broadcast, Paul reversed the "F" and "C" on the coaches name. (Take a second and think about it.) He was NEVER able to say the whole name again! From that day forward, he always referred to the man as COACH Fairbanks.

This sort of slip is known as a "spoonerism".

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Note: For those of you setting VCR's to record KOTV 50th special tonight....TV WORLD from Sunday's paper shows it airing at 7PM instead of the correct time of 8PM. Of course you wouldn't miss the show....but could run out of tape. I am taping it because I have to work tonight. Looking forward to the show.

Great stuff about Dick West...I remember the sign off well....right MIKE?

Don't know where Dr. Ding is today. My show followed his. Uncle Zip appeared on Dr. Ding to play the piano and the song guessing game.

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Great stuff about Dick West! We always wondered where he went but knew so little about him. We knew he was a Jimmy Leake acquaintance but that was it. Amazing how many folks stayed up to watch sign-off! Thanks for filling us in!

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I have spent nearly 6 hours looking at this site. It is truly amazing. I grew up in Muskogee in the late 60's and in the early 70's moved to Coweta. One of my most favorite memories is watching lightning hit the old channel 8 tower. It glowed like a sparkler when it was hit a certain way. I'm sure the guy in the engineer's building would wet his pants when that happened.

I was living in Ada when the tower fell in 1987, but came home a few days later to see it all in a twisted mess on the ground. I bet that was an interesting site to see.

I was reading in the first guest book, and noticed a comment about Dick West's Indian Sign Language. It was at the end of Channel 8's day. Dick was a good friend of our family. Mr. Leake (who lives in Muskogee) got Dick who at that time was resident artist at Bacone College to do it. Dick was a tremendous artist. He later went to an Indian college in Kansas, then retired to Ft. Gibson Lake. Some of his paintings can be seen at Gilcrease Museum, at Bacone, and even the Smithsonian. He moved to Arizona to be close to one of his sons, and died a few years ago.

We don't see much of Mr. Leake anymore. His yearly auction is still a success. Does his family still own Griffins Foods in Muskogee? He is such a nice man. He donated his time and money to so many causes.

My wife is from McAlester, and growing up in the 60's and 70's Channel 8 was just about all she could watch (until cable). Mr. Zing and Uncle Zeb hold fond memories for us both. I was on Mr. Zing in probably 1969, just before it went off, but I don't have any keepsakes of the experience. I do have a funny story though. After we had driven from Muskogee, I needed to use the restroom, so one of the office people took me to a rest room and when I came out, there was Mr. Zing, his hand was over his mouth because he didn't have is moustache on. And he didn't want anyone to see Mr. Zing without his moustache.

Does anyone else remember the toy ads for Uncle Zeb featuring "Time for Timothy" I think it was for OTASCO.

Remember when Uncle Zeb would ride a ride at the fair. He always waved his bandana when he was getting sick, so the operator would stop the ride.

Remember when Uncle Zeb left the cartoon business they replaced him with Dr. Ding's Cartoon Lab. Who was that guy and what happened to him?

Christopher, I sure appreciate the information about Dick West. I wish we could find a shot of Dick West from that signoff.

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I just remembered a funny...or not so funny...incident that happened to me while at KRMG. When Johnny Martin was on vacation, I would do his all-night show....big band music and all. Truckers calling in, too. Watson Jelks, who was the crazy morning man before John Erling, would come in the studio 15 to 20 minutes before his on air shift--pull "records" for his show, and sort of organize, I guess. In those days, a lot of live spots were done. Watson was behind me pulling records.....I opened mike after warning him...and preceeded to read the 60 sec. spot. I don't remember who the sponsor was, but the tag line at the end was......"located at Crystal City Shopping Center." I read, with Jelks blowing in my ear......"located at Crystal Shitty Shopping Center." Red-faced, I had learned to just go on and listeners maybe would not hear what I just said, but no! Jelks said, "did you just say what I thought you said?" Future mornings with that same spot and Jelks in the room were never the same. I just use to sweat. Oh..... memories-memories huh? Enough for now....Love this site. I have more.......The bug on the turntable....that is a future story, not as good as Crystal City though!

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There is one aspect of the radio and TV cultures which were completely different in the ‘40s and ‘50s: trying to get an on-air announcer to break up and start laughing. In radio at that time it was raised to a fine art. Here are some examples.

KRMG: During a sportscast (presumably Creager’s) the other announcers set his script on fire while he was on the air. Creager was busy trying to save his script by pounding it onto the desk (quietly) with used pages while continuing to read as if nothing was happening.

KRMG: A variation of the above occurred to the same announcer. His buddies laid a trail of lighter fluid completely around the edge of the table being used. After it was lighted, Creager (presumably) frantically tried to continue amidst the wall of flame.

KRMG: During a 60 second commercial two fellow announcers crept up behind their on-the-air colleague. At the end of a sentence one conspirator quickly turned off the mike while his collaborator pulled the trigger on a CO2 fire extinguisher, placing a short blast onto the back of the head of the reader. The mike was immediately turned back on. It took about a third of a second to complete the act.

KTUL: Joe Cummins and I were doing a station break. After I gave the call letters, Joe started a 60-second commercial. I took my coke and started to slowly dripping it onto the top of Joe’s head. He kept his cool and continued reading. It was not until the coke started rolling down his nose, falling onto the script, and fizzing that Joe finally broke up.

KTUL: Jack Alexander was asked to start a weather program--something new. Because there was not really enough significant information to fill the entire program, I would scour the AP and UP wires for something interesting. The only thing I could find was weather from obscure places. I would run into the studio while Jack was reading, and hand him a piece of news onto which I had printed “Bulletin!” in large letters. Jack would usually break up, particularly when I would come in with the weather from Antelope Valley. Neither of us knew where Antelope Valley was, but it was absurd enough to break up Jack every time. After a couple of weeks Jack asked me to desist, because Program Director Karl Janssen had admonished him. (Click here only if you would enjoy two more somewhat gamy, R-rated radio anecdotes from Frank.

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After re-reading Jim Ruddle's story on his schoolin' in NM, I remembered John Chick also had a Masters degree - in Theatre I think - from TU.

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What a wonderful site. Thank you for the great memories and stories. Tulsa is full of wonderful people and History.

Mr. Zing's Daughter
Elizabeth Chick

Thanks, Elizabeth.

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Just heard on the radio that KTUL artist Monte Toon has some of his work on sale at the Sand Springs Fall Art Festival this weekend.

I recently loaned to Jack Frank of KJRH some old movie footage that I took of George Harrison's 1974 concert at the Civic Center. Seeing it again after many years, it looks like Leon Russell was a special guest at the show. Can anyone confirm this?

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Al Clauser from KTUL was a quite a character. He built/designed sets, was talent on Uncle Zeb, and was the floor director on the Chick shows. He also appeared in Carl Bartholemew's "Cole Justice" movie. That wasn't his first movie role though - he and the Oklahoma Outlaws band appeared in some "B" westerns way back when. Have always wanted to find a film he was in...

Besides this he had a home studio in scenic New Prue where he recorded "up and coming" country artists. Someone said at one time he did "scouting" for record labels for new talent,too - Decca or Dot as I recall. His own record company was AloeVera Records or some spelling like that - for Al and Vera Clauser.

This story is about Vera. Living out at New Prue was pretty remote in the early 70's. Evidently Vera had a trusty .38 for protection when alone. Al told us one day - Vera was in Tulsa at some ritzy department store shopping and opened her purse to pay - and her .38 fell out on the counter. The clerk was horrified, Vera just picked it back up and put it in her purse. I can't remember if they called store security but Al had us chuckling about it. As he said - who would be stupid enough to think a granny type would be a stick-up artist? She just carried it for protection!

How times have changed!

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I am the oldest of John Chick's daughters. My Mother, John's first wife, still communicates with Mike Miller and he told me of this web site.

I hope you are enjoying it, Jennifer...welcome! As you can tell from the Guestbooks, people remember your dad with a lot of affection.

We are now in Guestbook 25. We had just heard from Betty Boyd for the first time in Guestbook 24.

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Tuma memories...

We were running Bush's Beans spots at KTUL and Cy Tuma - who was relegated to "the voice of KTUL" - started to talk in rapture about Bush's Showboat Beans.

He hadn't had any in a long time and it triggered a "gotta have" in him. The Safeway at 15th and Lewis was in his neighborhood and I guess the manager knew him. Also that because of his need to use a walker - getting around in the store wasn't easy for him in these pre-ADA days.

So Tuma called in a favor, the manager at Safeway had a CASE of the beans waiting for him with a bag boy when Cy got off duty - drive-up grocery shopping. And for the next few weeks Cy would tell us all about Bush's Beans whenever a spot ran....

We didn't run the movie, "Tulsa" at 8 but I think someone had it on cable and Cy told us that the hotel used in the movie was where he met his wife. He was playing clarinet in a combo there I guess in some restaurant or club and she worked in the coffee shop. Back in those days a struggling musician from Grand Island, NE could afford to stay there.

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Just a brief addition to Terry's remarks about Cy Tuma: I doubt if many people know that Cy worked as a staff announcer at KVOO radio under the name "Paul Shepherd." Of course, he also played clarinet with the Eggs at Eight combo, which included Tubby Young on bass.

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I want to talk about Cy Tuma.

I've contributed a few things that indicate my interest in broadcasting from an early age. I also had a deep interest in local politics from an early age. It is REMARKABLE who and what I had the chance to experience along the way. Cy Tuma was no LITTLE part of it.

I remember him SO vividly when he was the MAIN MAN of local TV news. He was a handsome man. Resonating and authoritative voice. (I would have killed to have his voice!) My mother trusted him more than Americans trusted Walter Cronkite. I remember as if it were yesterday the night the tornado sirens malfunctioned at a most inopportune time (when there was bad weather in the area -- and remember -- we didn't have ANYTHING like Doppler!). Sirens were screaming. Rain and hail and wind was all around. My dad was at work. I was at home with my mom. She was terrified. I was in her bed with piles of sheets, blankets and pillows. We were terrified because the tornado sirens were wailing! CY TUMA came on the air -- live. He let us know that the sirens were due to an electrical failure. He stayed on the air (as I recall) reassuring us all. I was in my mother's arms and I KNOW that her blood pressure and anxiety level fell to acceptable levels because she believed and trusted Cy.

What a blessing I had working with him later at KTUL-TV. We developed an incredible relationship. Much beyond our broadcasting interest... he had run for Mayor of Tulsa in 1966 against Jim Maxwell.

Now, you must know that Jim Maxwell was my absolute political hero. I interviewed him when I was in the 6th grade as a part of a Tulsa history study section at Holmes Elementary School. Jim Maxwell and my mother and my uncle all went to Central High and all knew each other. So, when I went to interview Maxwell, I went in with the mind-set that I KNEW HIM WELL. Maxwell told me at that interview that he DID know my mother and uncle. And it was THAT day that I decided I wanted to be Mayor of Tulsa when I grew up. (I recognize that there are those who believe I became Mayor BEFORE I grew up...but that's another article altogether!).

While I worked at Channel 8, Cy Tuma and I became incredibly close as a result of him being a TV idol of mine and because of his mayoral aspirations combined with the fact that Jim Maxwell was a political idol of mine and MY mayoral aspirations. Cy was also one HELL of a clarinetist, too -- all despite the long-lasting paralytic effect of polio. His brother-in-law was one HELL of a violinist who also was my barber for most of the first 20 years of my life.

Cy lived to see me elected Mayor. I went to his funeral service in Owasso. If I were to submit one of those "Most Unforgettable Character" pieces to Reader's Digest, Cy would be one of mine. You miss people like him who influenced your formative years...but you miss people like him because there aren't any more of them. You can canonize Clayton Vaughn and Betty Boyd and Bob Hower... but you could get to know Cy Tuma.