Number 6 November, 1991 - Oklahoma State University

Transcription

A N
A N T I Q U E
M A L L
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Holiday Lament
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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE O F T H E STATE O F OKLAHOMA
OKLAHOMA Vol. 41, No. 6
November-December 1991
THE RANCH THAT FRANK BUILT
Will Rogers once said Woolaroc "is the most unique place in the United States." Now
a new book lends credence to the claim. By Jeanne M. Deulin, photographs by Jerry
Poppenhouse
THE ANTIQUE MALL ODYSSEY
16
Shopping malls have finally caught up with the past, making bargain-hunting for
antiques and collectibles the newest way to get malled. By Suzette Brmer,photographs
by Scotr Andenen
A COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS
23
Sometimes twelve gifts in twelve days isn't all it's cracked up to be. By Baxter Black,
i/lustration by Keuin Garrison
THE WELL-CONSIDERED BOOKSTORE
30
This is one bookstore where the joys of reading aren't reserved for the intellect alone.
From the fragrant air to the polished floor underneath, Full Circle engages all your
senses. By R a w Manh, photographs by Joseph Mills
KEEPING CHRISTMAS
34
T4 7 3
L a n d runs m a d e central
Oklahoma a ~ l a cwhere
e
dozens
ofcultures biended. Ahundred
years later, German, Mexican,
and British traditions still thrive. By Kman Goff-Parker, photographs by b y m i W. Mame/
.-
i3'pr3
I
Page 24
ONE ON ONE
IN SHORT
LETTERS
OMNIBUS 0' Cedar Tree, by Barbara Palmer
PORTFOLIO Photographing Life
FOOD T h e End 0' Main, by Rebecca L. Martin
WEEKENDER Making Merry, by Barbara Palmer
ARTS T h e Creation Windows, by Tern'L. D a m w
ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR A guide to what's happening
Page 20
4
5
6
7
24
43
45
47
49
COVER: Morning at Kerr Plaza in downtown Oklahoma City. Photograph by Tommy
Evans. Inside front cover: Spring Creek at Martin Nature Center in Oklahoma City.
Photograph by Tommy Evans. Back cover: Canoes on Lower Mountain Fork River in
Beavers Bend State Park. Photograph by David Vinyard.
3
OKLAHOMA
mDM I year and from forty to fifty-two edito-
I'
Introductions 1
9
I
m the party guest you can't get
rid of. T h e man who came to
dinner.
I didn't plan it that way.
When I crossed the Arkansas border
last January and slipped a homemade
tape of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
"Oklahoma" (from a 1950s studio recording with Nelson Eddy as Curly)
into my cassette player, I thought I'd
b e leaving in
May.
I'd c o m e t o $
teach journalism
for a semester at
OU, a break from 3
twenty-two years
in newsrooms as a
reporter and editor. By spring, I
knew I wouldn't
b e leaving in
May. I extended
my leave of ab-
:
job back East and
spent the summer teaching and advis.
ing the Oklahoma Daily.
One thing led to another: the friendliness of Sooners, a fascination with
Oklahoma culture and history, the exhilaration of new back roads to explore,
the first time I saw a buffalo-and, no
small factor, a job offer I couldn't resist.
I'm the first publisher in the thirtyfive year history of Oklahoma Today.
Before retiring this summer after
twelve years as editor-in-chief, Sue
Carter had seen her role evolve. Besides the editorial content, Sue oversaw
marketing, production, circulation, and
staff supervision. She was a de facto
publisher.
As its longtime readers know, Sue
Carter nurtured the magazine into an
outstanding travel and tourism publication. It grew from four to six issues a
rial pages an issue. Numerous awards
for editorial excellence came its way,
including being named magazine of the
year in 1991 by the Regional Publishers Association.
But why the need for a publisher?
T h e chief reason is the magazine is
going to introduce advertising in 1992.
For the magazine to grow, it needs
more financial support. Advertising will
give readers an even better editorial
product-more editorial pages, eventually more issues a year.
What kind of advertising? Appropriate, tasteful, and not a distraction from
the editorial content. Oklahoma Today is unique as a
chronicle of t h e
state's culture and
history as well as a
lively guide to its
present. It is also
pictorially beautiful. A d v e r t i s i n g
won't d i s t u r b
Oklahoma Today 's
aesthetic identity.
As publisher, I'll
seek to accommod a t e advertisers
without forgetting that readers come
first. Oklahoma Today's ethical standards are high. T h e ethical standards
will remain high.
Should an advertiser innocently
suggest that a twelve-page spread on
fertilizer would sure look good around
a full-color ad for his chain of farm
stores, there's Jeanne Devlin to help
me maintain those standards.
Jeanne joined Oklahoma Today as
managing editor in 1989 after a varied
career in journalism, teaching, and private industry, including time spent as
a llSA Today correspondent and a vice
president of advertising for P e n t e
Games, the one-time Stillwater manufacturer of the upscale board game. As
a reporter and editor for the NmsPress
in Stillwater, s h e won numerous
Continued on page 6
David Walters, Governor
@
Published by the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department Berl Schwartz
Publisher
Jeanne M. Devlln,
Editor
Felton Suoud. Suoud D e s ~ g n Inc.,
,
Art Direction
Barbara Palmer. Associate Editor
Steve Rice, M a r k M A d Sales
Melanie Mayberry, Circulation Manager
Llsa Breckenridge, Administrative Assistant
Pam Poston, Subscription Services
Pam Fox, Accounting
Steffie Corcoran, Copy Editor
Conhibuting Editors
Burkhard Bilger, M. Scott Carter.
Ralph Marsh, and Michael Wallls
Tourism and Recreation Directors
James C. Thomas, Amng Esctufrve Dtmctor
Davld Davles, Dcpury Dfnaor
T o m Creider, Parks
Krlstlna S. Marek, PIunningandDcvl/opmmt
Kathleen Marks, T r d a n d Tounsm
Mike Moccia, Admtnfstruhe S m m
T o m Rich, Rerorrs
Berl Schwartz, ORIahoma Today
Tourism and Recreation Commission
Lt. Gov. Jack Mlldren, Chairnun
Sweet Pea Abernathy
J. Patrick Bark
C. Coleman Davls
Llnda k Epperley
Charles S. Givens
Henry A. Meyer, I11
Ray H . Quackenbush
Michael D. T ~ p p s
Oklahoma Today (ISSN 0030-1892) IS publ~shedblmonthly tn January. March, Mav. July. September and
November by the Oklahoma Tounsm and Recreatton Department, 401 W~llRogers Bldg P 0 Box 53384. Oklahoma C~ty,OK 73152 (405) 521-24% or (800) 652-6552.
Subscnpunn prlces $13 50Iyr In U S.. $18 501yr. fore~gn.
U S copyr~ght0 1991 by ObIahoma Today maganne
Reproducuon In whole or In pan w~rhoutpcrmlsslon IS
prohrb~redThe magazine a nor rcspons~blefor unsol~c~td
rnater~alfor edltonal cons~derat~on.
.
Pnntedar P e n 1
P
T&
Second-class postage pa~dat Oklahoma Clry, OK and
enay offices Postmaster Send address changes
add~t~onal
to Oklahoma T&
C~rculanon.P 0 Box 53384, Oklahoma
C~ty,OK 73152
Oklahoma TODAY
Tradition on Tape vous at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum.
There, they encountered the Cherokee
buckbrush baskets of Ella Mae
Blackbear.
Life suddenly veered in a new
direction. "I kept thinking 'this is really
great' and wondering if any films had
been made about Cherokee baskets,"
recalls Swearingen.
Research turned up a few written
accounts, but no films, no videos, no
slides of any kind. T h e Swearingens
Scott Swearingen is an Oklahoman
born and bred, but he managed to reach
adulthood having never attended a
powwow or seen Indian crafts. Until 1981,
his image of an American Indian was the
Lone Ranger's stoic sidekick. Tonto.
His historic
perspective w a s
much better. "I just $
remember Oklahoma
history being
presented (in fifth
grade) as if the place
was kind of empty
and nothing happened here until the
land run," says
Swearingen.
Years went by. H e
moved to California
only to return to
. .-.
- .hEr
Tulsa in 1981 to raise
a family and, hopeGig-..1
fully, to continue
Osage
nbbonwork
by
the
[ate
Geotgeann Robinson.
making nature
documentaries with
his wife, Sheila.
couldn't believe their luck.
Flora and fauna it might have re"Here was something that seemed
mained, too, had someone not asked the
really gorgeous to us, something extraorcouple to document the annual Rendezdinary," explains Scott Swearingen, "and
it was kind of an unexplored area."
Their reaction? "Gosh, we ought to
make a tape about this."
Their tape on Ella Mae Blackbear took
a year and a half to finish. It follows the
basketmaker as she gathers buckbrush,
collects plants for dyes, and, finally,
weaves the grass into the forms she
learned at her mother's side; running
parallel with Blackbear's story is the story
of Cherokee basketry.
By the time the Blackbear tape was a
wrap, the Swearingens had another in the
works on Knokovtee Scott, a Creek
shellworker, as well as enough other ideas
to keep tape rolling into the 21st century.
T e n years later, four tapes form the
Native American Master Artists Video
Series. ( T h e third tape is on Osage
ribbonwork, the fourth on Native
American music.) Work has commenced
on a powwow video.
Swearingen sees no end in sight: "This
has opened up a whole other world to me.
It is fascinating to me that Oklahoma
could have the most vibrant, diverse
living Native American culture in the
country-by far-and I was able to grow
up and get all the way through high
school and go to Oklahoma State and not
have the slightest idea about it."
His videos may ensure a different truth
for the next generation.
Tapes are $34.95 each, plus $2.50 for
shipping and handling. For information,
call (918) 585-8849.
-JMD
'C
1
C
I
Chrome for Christmas When Jeanette Koenig and J. Don
Cook put the pieces together for "Route
66," an Oklahoma City gallery and gift
store, they started with a couple of
guidelines. It had to be totally unpredictable, and it had to be totally eclectic.
Something, in fact, like Route 66, the
highway where you never know what lies
around the next curve. In the store's case,
this may be a lamp with a fuschia-andturquoise-painted cowboy boot as a base,
a neon armchair, stacks of Route 66 tshirts, a cowhide-backed jacket, or a
flamingo fashioned from a shovel.
Given that, when Koenig set about
creating a gift basket to sell to Route 66
aficionados, using an actual basket was
pretty much out of the question. (Too
September-October 1991
predictable.) Instead, Koenig fills vintage
Cadillac hubcaps with a melange of
Route 66 souvenirs emphasizing Oklahoma. (A deluxe version holds a handpainted Route 66 watch by Oklahoma
City artist T i m Ozment.)
T h e design of the '60s-era Cadillac
hubcaps make them perfectly suited to
serve as a party tray, explains Koenig.
T h e chrome center, for example, could
hold salsa or cocktail sauce, and one could
fill the surrounding valley with shrimp on
ice or tortilla chips.
Apart from the fact that the hubcaps
are an icon of the road, they are right in
line with another of the store's guiding
principles: using available and recycled
materials. "Artists have always used
magnet,-a bag of red dirt, and a guidebook.Price: $40 and up.
what's available," says Koenig. "We
wanted something that could be thrown
away unless someone found a use for it."
Kind of like Route 66.
T o order the gift hubcap, call (405)
848-61 66.
-BP
5
Continuedfrom page 4
awards, including one in 1989 for the
second-best lifestyle section of its size
from the National Newspaper Association. As managing editor of Oklahoma
Today, she was largely responsible for
editorial development in the last two
years.
After two issues as acting editor,
Jeanne becomes editor with my appointment as publisher. She was kind
enough to lend me this space-her
space resuming in January. .
Having been an editor, I know what
editors want from publishers: to be left
alone, Greta-Garbo style (except, of
course, when they need something,
like more staff). And having been an
editor, I intend to be the kind of publisher I've always admired: the kind
who keeps abreast of every facet of the
magazine, who asks questions, settles
disputes, and takes final responsibility,
but who lets people do their jobs. T h e
nicest thing a publisher ever said to me
was he was looking for an editor who'd
"write his name across the paper."
(Then he hired somebody else.) Write
your name, Jeanne.
Jeanne and I have similar goals. We
want to retain and improve the editorial
quality. We are dedicated to Oklahoma
Today's emphasis on good writing. We
want to experiment. For example,
we've talked about an occasional short
story to showcase Oklahoma's phenomenal pool of talented fiction writers. We want to explore issues, like the
wild horse article featured in July. We
want more stories about Oklahomansfamous, offbeat, or just plain interesting. And we want more humor. After
all, this is still the land of Will Rogers.
Speaking of which, what did I do
when I went back East in August?
In a Pennsylvania antique shop, I
found and bought a first edition of Will
Rogers: Ambassador of Good Will, Prince
of Wit and Wisdom, by P.J. O'Brien,
"with an appreciation by Lowell Thomas," a 1935 biography published by
T h e John A. Winston Co.
And I took my family to New York
City to see-what else-"The Will
Army National Guard, in Oklahoma
City. This museum is one of the finest,
if not the finest, non-regular military
museums in the nation. Thousands of
-Berl Schwartz Oklahomans and others served with
the 45th in World War 11, the Korean
War,
and now Desert Storm.
(Bed Schwam, 44, has been WashingTed L. Maloy
ton bureau chief of United Press InternaGreater Houston Area Chapter,
tional, which included supervising White
45th Infantry Association
House correspondentHelen Thomas;he was
Houston, Texas
editor of the York Daily Record when
Pennsylvania publishers named it the best
Just heard on "Jeopardy" that
newspaper in the state in 1989; managing
editor of the award-winning Knoxville "Howdy Folks" is the official poem of
News-Sentinel in Tennessee; assistant t h e state of Oklahoma. As native
managing editor of Scripps Howard News Oklahomans, we didn't know we had
Service, which included running the such a poem. Would you be so kind as
Olympicbureaufor the newspaper chain at to forward a copy to us. Thanks much.
Oberia Harris
the 1984 Games in Los Angeles; a reporter
San Diego, California
who covered Congress, state, and local
governmentfor the Louisville Times of
Kentucky, and who as a cubforthe PhilaGlad to oblige. "Howdy Folks, " by
delphia Bulletin wrote about music and
interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono. David Randobh Milsten, was written in
He served last spring as thefint McMahon 1938 and describes the happenings at the
Centennial Profasor of Journalism at the dedication of the Will Rogers Memorial at
Univetsity of Oklahoma and continues as Claremore on November 4, 1938. The
an adjunct instructor in the School of poem, which has been set to music, is writJournalism. He likes baseball, antique ten through the eyes of WillRogets. In 1941,
hunting, andhebing raise his ten-year-old the eighteenth legislature of Oklahoma
twin daughters, with his wije, Alice, an adoptedit as thestatepoem.It can befound
in the Directory of Oklahoma, which is
attorney.)
availablefrom the Oklahoma Department
of Libraries, 200 Northeast 18th Street,
Oklahoma City, OK 73105.
Rogers Follies" on Broadway.
Let me know if you want to tape my
version of "Oklahoma" with Nelson
Eddy as Curly.
Letters
I'm sitting here reading an article on
"The Return of the Wild Horse" (JulyAugust 1991), and I like the idea of
adopting a wild horse. How does one
find information on this?
Brenda Parmley
Ripley
The adoption program in Oklahoma is
handled by the Bureau of Land Management office in Moore. That telephone number is (918) 794-9624.
Missing from your story on
"Remingtonland" (March-April 1991)
was a reference to the national 45th
Infantrv Division Museum. Oklahoma
Ron Wood was incomctLy identified as
Scott McCutchen on page 27 of the JulyAugust '91 issue.
In the September-October '91 issue, the
profile of violin maker Tauno Ekonen
should read string instmments by baroqueera craftsmen like Antonio Stradivarius
have been converted to meet modern orchestral standards. We regret the editing
mror. Readers have also been curious as to
the locations of thephotographsin "A Tour
on the Prairie." They are:pages 22 and23,
WashingtonIrving Cove at Lake Keystone;
pages 24 and 25, near Ingalls, south of
S.H. 51; pages 26 and 27, northeast of
Noman; insetphoto,page 27, Lake Hefner
in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma TODAY
0' Cedar Tree Bringing Rome afamily tradition G
rowingup,asfarafieldas I
had ever gone looking for a
Christmas tree was the Lions
Club tree lot along Highway
75 in Bartlesville.
My father, though, was a Missouri
farm boy who grew up cutting down
Christmas trees from the back pasture.
He left the farm and moved to Oklahoma to work as a chemist for an oil
company, but he retained some country ways. For instance, the winter the
blue spruce at the side of our house
needed trimming, we skipped the tree
lot and used the six-foot top of the
tree. In our suburban neighborhood,
that caused me excruciating embarrassment; I thought it roughly comparable to dragging in the birdbath to
use as an end table. I know better
now.
My husband's mother, Betty
Bonham Palmer, grew up on a farm
near Keota in Haskell County. Along
with her brother Griff and her father,
each year on the Sunday following
Thanksgiving, she went bumping
along in a wagon up the mountain behind the pasture and the pond to cut
down a red cedar Christmas tree.
I don't remember exactly when or
how we struck upon the idea of blending our families' memories and traditions. Yet now we travel every December to "Granddad's Mountain" to cut
our Christmas trees. We've done it for
five years now, and something about it
must be deeply satisfying, because it's
three hours down 1-40 for my family,
and my husband's sister and her family
come up from Texas when they can.
We meet in Muskogee and head
southeast, carrying thermoses full of hot
chocolate through December's olive
September-October 1991
drab landscape. W e pass through
Stigler and Keota, past the sandstone
farmhouse where Betty grew up and
the cemetery where her parents are
buried. There is a gas well at the foot
of the mountain that some might think
an eyesore, but Betty points out the
tidy brick homes her old neighbors
have bought with their royalties.
v,
2
d
&
B
-
-
A thicket of trees just a few hundred
yards from the fence line is the spot
that is almost sure to yield our final
Christmas trees. T h e cedars there are
shielded from the wind and grow even
and plump. But we don't look there
first. We walk along the road that once
carried the wagon and then cut across
high grass to where little draws carry
what's left of the fall rains down the
side of the mountain.
On the slope, we race from tree to
tree, stopping to deliberate, our
muffled shouts surprising in the still-
ness.0urdoglikewisecrashesthrough the woods, nearly delirious with the
smells of the country.
Later we'll walk more slowly, and 1'11
ask, as I do every year, to hear the
names of Granddad Bonham's cows
and dogs. Most of the cows' names
began with "Miz" and have a rural
charm, but the dogs' names are where
Mr. Bonham's wit shone. Terpsichore
was a spirited dog named for the Muse
of the dance; another dog answered to
Florence Josephine. T w o troublemakers he called Little Devil and
Worse. I missed knowing him, but
hearing the names he gave his dogs,
I know I would have liked him.
Our separate households have
their own agendas when we get out
our work gloves and hacksaws. My
in-laws go for size, choosing huge
trees with great, spreading branches
that fill the corner of their family
room and permanently block the
back door for the holiday season.
T h e y are purists when it comes to
decorating the cedar. No lights. All the
decorations made by one of their children or grandchildren. T h e y allow
themselves, however, to throw tinsel
on by the handful, which I appreciate
hugely, having been taught the tedious
strand-by-strand method.
At dusk, we tie our tree (from the first
tree patch: conical, tall, not too wide)
on top of our car, stuffing extra
branches for garlands into the hatchback. T h e biting, spicy smell of red
cedar will linger in our car for days.
Tomorrow or the next day, we'll
decorate our tree, throwing on handfuls
of tinsel. Then I'll go back and rearrange the tinsel, a strand at a time.
-Barbara Palmer
7
0I;laRQC
.\ The ranch that Frank built
inspires a new book.
W
Cowboys, outlaws, Indians, and banking tycoons
mingled at the annual Cow
Thieves and Outlaws Reunion at Woolaroc. Guns
were checked at the gate.
hen Joe Williams got the go ahead in 1990to do a book on
Woolaroc, the elegant country playground of Phillips Petroleum founder Frank Phillips near Bartlesville, he knew
one thing had to happen for the book to rine true: he had to
1 understand Frank Phillips.
T o argue that Woolaroc was to be about a place, not a man, was to miss
the point entirely. "Frank is Woolaroc," Williams explains simply.
If Joe Williams could grasp what made an oil baron build a plush retreat so he could impress presidents, bankers, and movie stars only to then
run ads in the Bartlesville newspaper offering locals free Sunday tours of
it (led no less by Uncle Frank himself on horseback), he could probably
depict Woolaroc in print as Frank Phillips had seen the place.
Williams could see only one way to do this: "I tried to become Uncle
Frank," he says a mite sheepishly. "Seriously. My wife would probably
say at times that I succeeded."
As a concept, it wasn't as outlandish as it might sound. Through the
years, Williams had more than once donned hat, chaps, gun, and the
trademark wire-rimmed glasses of Uncle Frank in order to portray the
oil man at civic affairs in and around Bartlesville. H e had read what he
could about Phillips, including Tulsan Michael Wallis's biography Oil
Man. And, like many an Oklahoman, the first buffalo Joe Williams had
ever seen was at the ranch that Frank built. Though they never knew
each other, Joe Williams and Frank Phillips went way back. It didn't hurt,
either, says Williams, "that I'm thin and, frankly, balding."
But writing a book was not performing a short skit in front of a tolerant
charity crowd. Over the next year, getting into Uncle Frank's character
became something of an obsession with Joe Williams. T h e Bartlesville
writer hunkered down in the basement archives of the Phillips's log lodge
at Woolaroc like a soldier in a bunker. There, he pored over old photographs of Woolaroc regulars such as Will Rogers, Wiley Post, and Paw--
Phillips's thank you one
year: this hat and chaps.
By Jeanne M. Devlin
Photographs by Jerry Poppenhouse
from the book Woolaroc
-
~
-
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11 2/11thf hotd E V N b~ roke, Phi//ips z ~ l / k m
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h ~llf//t-.Sh~~Pd
(ille/nd~/ier.s
.fi.o111it.~fN~r~ou.r
.z,hirh hetng ill t h Ililo/c~ro(.
7i1p Roon~.He r/l//ed the I;lrc~~~de/ier.r,
~ lodge, the 111ostr x p r ~ ~ s c.h~~~dr/iers
i~lf
1'11 the totr~~tly.
~ P C ~ / I I Sthq)'
Y uerc the S M I I I qf hir
itr'e.r.st~~~e~~t'.r
r(jt16r11.
Oklahoma 'I'ODAY
I n P h i l l i p s ' s day,
Woolaroc was a self-contained ranch, with its own
smokehouse, hen house,
livery stables, dairy cattle,
vegetable garden, and
slaughterhouse.For a time,
it produced its own brands
of sausage and bottled
water. The water was
shipped by the case to
Phillips's New York oftice.
Oklahoma 'TODAY
Frank Phillips had two
loves: riding horses and
sitting on the porch of his
lodge. Phillips patterned
the lodge after the rustic El
Tovar Hotel by the Grand
Canyon, and he once told
World War I1 correspondent Ernie Pyle it was a
"perfect example of selfishness."
"To think that I built
that whole lake and dam
and waterfall so I could sit
here on the porch and look
at it," marveled Phillips.
nee Bill. He perused hundreds of newspaper clips kept by Paul Endacott,
a former president of Phillips Petroleum and one of Frank's golden boys
from the oil patch days. H e took the time to decipher the daily business
journals of Phillips's bi-coastal comings and goings kept by Uncle Frank's
personal secretary and mistress Sidney Fern Butler. And he read a wealth
of personal correspondence between Phillips and the likes of auto magnate Henry Ford, big game hunter Osa Johnson, and Woolaroc guest
Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In the process, Joe Williams found epistles and photographs that no
one had found before, including the only photograph known to exist of
the Phillips family (five brothers, a sister, and Frank's mother, Lucinda,
at Woolaroc). "It's a great photograph," crows Williams.
There were other coups, including an intriguing correspondence between Frank Phillips and Nancy Cooper Russell, the widow of Western
artist Charles Russell. Those letters indicate that Woolaroc just missed
acquiring the entire collection of Charles Russell's work. "In 1940,"
explains Williams, "Frank offered $100,000 to Nancy Russell for the
entire collection. It wasn't accepted. She was asking $250,000, an amount
far out of line to Frank. In typical Frank Phillips fashion, he withdrew
the offer and came back with a lower figure of $80,000. She refused."
Nancy Russell died in May of 1940. T h e collection was still unsold.
Ultimately it was auctioned off piecemeal in 1941 by a California probate court. It brought $40,000. Frank Phillips didn't learn of the court
sale, until it was a done deal. As a result, Woolaroc's Western art museum, while the home of six Russell paintings and fourteen bronzes,
never became the world-class memorial to Russell that Frank Phillips
envisioned. As for the value of the collection-that-got-away, Williams
points out that the Russell painting When Meat Was Plenty acquired at a
cost of $1,000 by Phillips for Woolaroc is now worth an estimated $2
million.
And Williams dug deeper into Woolaroc's past.
I
Buffi~lu(lnd white fi~llowdeer
/
H e tracked down Sara Jane, one of Frank's two foster
daughters, and Frank's sister, Lura, who now lives in a Tulsa
nursing home. He spent many an hour in the Bartlesville office
of Paul Endacott, listening to the older man's colorful memories
of Frank Phillips, including one recollection of a 1926 business trip
which Phillips
asked
Endacott
measurements
of out
the west
rusticininterior
of the El
Tovar
Hotel to
bymake
the Grand
Canyon.
Phillips wanted to pattern the interior of his new Woolaroc lodge-especially the balcony-after the El Tovar. "Endacott recalls going into a
small Navajo log hut covered with blankets on the wall and seeing only
one other person besides the Indian clerk-Frank Phillips," says Williams.
Endacott saw Phillips give the clerk $1,400 for a mound of Navajo
blankets and rugs. " 'I thought he was squandering a lot of money for I
was only making $190 a month,' " Endacott told Williams. Today, many
of the blankets still drape chairs in the lodge and are worth at least
$25,000.
Good as the anecdotes he gathered for the book were, Williams says
- his best insights into Frank Phillips came while sitting alone in a twig
' ~ u N ~ O r ' ' chair on the front porch of the pine lodge Phillips built on the 3,600-acre
ranch and wildlife refuge in 1925."It's a place where you can hear your
heart beat," says Williams.
It was also Frank's favorite place on the spread.
From the porch, the pristine waters of Clyde Lake twinkle below and
the rolling hills of the Osage cascade out of sight. Buffalo roaming the
Oklahoma 'I'ODAY
Some 2,000 animals
once roamed Woolarocfrom yaks to black swans to
camels. Phillips gave up on
camels, reindeer, and exotics that couldn't survive
Oklahoma's climate.
Nonetheless, some 700
animals remain. Among
them: buffalo, mustangs,
Sika and fallow deer,
Brahmas, yaks, and llamas.
The ranch's eighty-three
longhorn cattle are from
the oldest, purest string of
longhorns in the world.
-
At Woolaroc parties
Frank would toast guests
with glasses of milk, then
ask how they liked the taste
of buffalo milk. As his
guests reeled from the experience, a straight-faced
Frank would offer them
another novelty-a
chance
to see a buffalo milked. The
hitch: buffalos could only
be milked after midnight.
Woolaroc nights found
Frank tucked in bed while
sheepish city slickers stood
by the barn waiting for
their demonstration.
tallgrass prairie are a common sight. "He liked looking out and surveying all of his land," says Williams. "And it wax all his land as far as he could
see."
T h e porch offered a vantage point for Phillips to survey where he came
from and just how far he had gone. What is now known as Woolaroc
actually abuts the site of Well No. 8 that launched Phillips Petroleum.
T h e view takes in the lake Phillips built just for the pleasure of looking
at it from his front porch, as well as the woods and rocks from which
Woolaroc (Wood-lake-rocks)gets its name.
In the end, Williams came to the conclusion that Frank Phillips may
have died in 1950, but he left Woolaroc's spirit intact.
In that, Uncle Frank's Woolaroc differs from the wealthy playpens of
the Newport Rich of Rhode Island or the Hollywood Rich of Beverly
Hills. Those tycoons built their mansions, sequestered them behind high
gates and even higher fences, and only let the masses in when inheritance taxes and the Great Depression made it clear the only way their
mansions could survive was by leaving them to paying tourists and the
velvet ropes that keep the masses from coming too close even after one
is gone.
Frank, on the other hand, like a boy with a new baseball card, had always been willing to show his ranch to anyone. Six years before he died,
Frank Phillips left Woolaroc to his private foundation. After that it was
not unusual for visitors to Woolaroc to come upon Uncle Frank sitting
on the porch at dusk or to have Uncle Frank stop a child to chat.
Woolaroc was still Woolaroc, you see.
When Williams finally realized Frank Phillips got as big a kick out of
impressing a local child with his buffalo herd as he did a Wall Street
banker, his book fell into place. What was supposed to be a 144-page
book, became a 192-page tome that is as beautiful as the ranch that Frank
- -
14
Oklahoma '1'OI)AY
loved. T h e extra pages of the book
have gone to show-and-tell-outlaw
tales, favorite pranks, heart-stopping
pieces of art, and the recollections of
insiders-just as if Uncle Frank were
still giving the tour.
And that is as it should be, says Joe
Williams. Because in the end, though
Woolaroc gave Phillips much joy,
watching others enjoy it, it could be
argued, gave him even more.
Jeanne M. Dmlin is editor of
Oklahoma Today. Jerry Poppenhouse,
a photographer for the P h i l l ~ s
Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, was
thephotographerfor the book Woolaroc.
T
Woolaroc
Getting
There
Woolarocis /ocatedfourteen miles
southwest of Bart/esvi//eon S.H.
123-fo~-fve miles northwest of
Tu/sa on S.H. 123. Besides the
Westernart museum with its 10,000
works of art (amongthem Russel/.,
Remingtons, and Morans), the wildlife
refge, and the Phi//$s's /og lodge,
visiton wiflfind nature trai/s,gift
shops, concessions,a stone barn wid a
petting zoo, anda Y-Indian Guide
Center.
Woo/arocis open 10 a.m. to 5p.m.
six akys a week,fifg-twoweeks a year.
It is dosed Mondays, Thanksgiving
and Christmas.Admission is $3, $2
for senior citizens. (Inkeeping with
Frank Phi//ips'smownedsoft spot
for childmn,them is no admissionfor
those undersixteenyears of age.)
For more infonnationon
Woolaroc,ca// (918)336-0307.
The book Woolaroc, wrinen and
duigned by Joe Wi//iamr,is avai/abfe
for$40p/us $4.50 for shipping and
hand/ingchalgesf m n ~Joe Wi//iams
Communications,P.O. Box 924,
Bart/esvil/e,OK 74005. (Proceeds
benefit the Frank Phi//$s
Foundation.) For more information
on the book, call (918)3-36-2267.
I
.
The
DYMEY
"Whenthe vims of restlessness begins to takepossession of a wayward man, and the road away from here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must3fstfind in AimseF a good and suficient reasonforgoing." -John Steinbeck
I
Where our intrepid writer hits twentynine malls in five days and returns home
with a truckload of treasure- and a new addiction. that the case, how long would it take me to get to the
Canadian border to escape the fury of my editor's wrath?
"Oh well," I rationalized, "how much do I really need to
know to go shopping for a week?" This trip would be much
easier to swallow, I decided, if one of my objectives was to do
all my Christmas shopping in one big buying belch.
"Will that be fifties or twenties?" asked the cashier, surly
from the heat.
"I don't care if it's deutsche marks," I told him. "Just let
me out of here." Cash in hand and buoyed by a full tank of
gas, Tulsa was soon in my rearview mirror. T h e road was calling
my name. I didn't have a plandidn't want one, quite frankly.
Only a map, a few clothes, and a
question mark that I drew in the
dust on my dashboard. Aquestion
that I hoped to answer at the end
of my journey.
was running late. It was high noon on a cloudy summer
Monday, and I was supposed to be in Stillwater at that
very moment having lunch
with my friend, Virginia
Thomas, who had agreed to
act as captain on my maiden
voyage for this story. I was, instead, stuck between cars in 105degree heat at a drive-in bank in
downtown Tulsa. And it seemed
that everything at the cashier's
window was moving in Sartrian
o you know
slo-mo fashion on that day. "No
J what the key to
Exit, T h e Sequel," they would
have called it.
collecting is,
dear?" Virginia
As I squirmed impatiently, "Headvases" were mass producedin the late 1940s, until
asked me later
tuning the radio to distract my- florists f o u n d t k were too shallow andstoppedbuyingthem.
that day over a lunch of turkey
self, it occurred to me that I was
charging headlong into virgin territory. No stranger to flea sandwiches, lemon spritzer, and oatmeal cookies. "Buy what
markets and, shall we say, "previously owned" merchan- you like--even if you don't have room for it. Eventually,
dise, I had to admit to myself that in my vocabulary "antiques" you'll find a place for it."
"Hmm," I replied. Her philosophy had a Zen quality
verged on being a foreign word.
about it that appealed to me, though Eric, my betrothed,
T h e line moved forward. And my anxiety grew.
What questions would I ask these people? What if there would later find it a little troubling.
With that, we headed for the Antique Mall of Stillwater.
wasn't that much to report? What if there was no story?Were
"The Mall of Them All," the business card proudly proIn Guthrie,you'llfindboth King's Antiques andthe 89'erMall on one
claimed, with the italics to back it up. Virginia introduced me
block, and a third mall, Dee's Antiques and Collectibles, with ten
to its proprietors, Ed and Arlene Brooks, and then left me to
vendors, a block south.
m--
I
3
'"D
fend for myself. One look at the Brooks' expectant faces, and
I decided to call a spade a spade. "Look," I began awkwardly, "I'm going to be very honest with you. I don't know
anything about antiques or antique malls, and that's why I
wanted to start here. If that's okay with you."
Ed, more than happy to let his wife do the honors,
disappeared into the back room. Arlene, a fiftyish woman
who came up to my shoulder, smiled warmly and chirped,
"1'11 do what I can."
One step higher on the collecting food chain than flea
markets, Arlene explained, antique malls are open six to
seven days a week, all year round, with
booths filled with everything from tiny,
rare salt spoons to massive antique furniture. Malls may appear interchangeable, but booths are as individual as
their owners; as such, they draw everyone from the simply curious to the
most profligate of collectors. (The
Brooks once had a caravan of Japanese
collectors pull up with U-Hauls; the
visitors walked the mall pointing at
their vehicles
items,
then piled
andtheir
droveselections
away.) Make
into
-
a serving bowl, I wondered how it would look next to that
platter I bought in San Francisco last fall. Or what about that
salt and pepper set in the shape of a cow jumping over a
moon? Wouldn't that be a cool gift for my friend who
recently moved into a new apartment?
Like a grownup Wonderland, the whimsical, seductive
charm of the antique mall seemed to rub off on anyone who
touched anything. "Suzette!" called Virginia from another
room. "Look at this chair! Isn't it just precious?"
A few hours later, I emerged relatively unscathed. My
undoing: a ($1.00) pair of high heels (to assuage my weakness for vintage clothing), a glazed
3
m
Mexican pottery dish ($1.00), and a
refrigerator bowl ($7.50). I had priced
nearly everything in the place. This
would be useful in the days to come.
lDI ay two in Stillwater
dawned under a torrential downpour, forwhich
I had come unprepared,
of course. And I was running far behind schedule as I am, sad
to say, not an early riser.
Armed with theAntiqueBuyerSGuide
no mistake, there are people who will
Arlene had given me the day before,
drive, fly, crawl on all fours if need be to
I went in search of a Stillwater woman
find so much as a cracked porcelain
by the name of Shelley Kulick, a
thimble like Grandma used to have.
woman who is said to have visited
This has also been substantiated by the
every antique mall in a 500-mile raBrooks' guest book, which is filled with
dius. By the time I reached her office,
addresses from all over the world. "The
the rain had rendered my windshield
book got so big," Ed would tell me
wipers practically useless. "I should
later, "we had to discontinue it."
get combat pay for this," I grumbled
There was another interesting dyto myself as I sloshed up to the door of
namic to this equation, I learned in
her office.
Stillwater: shopping antique malls can
"I don't really know if I can help
be extraordinarily addictive. ("How did
at the Anadarko
you,"
Kulick told me tentatively as I
You get
this stuff home?" my mys- AntigueMaflpresides oe,ert/lebooth o f 0
wiped beads of rain off my legs and
tified fiancee would later inquire.) It uendors&cia/izjnain Western andNatie,e
face, "but I can try."
started small, I admit. when Arlene America; artand;o//ectib/es.
I pulled out my soggy map and
had sensed I had absorbed all I could in
showed
her
the
towns
I
had already marked with a yellow
one outing, the conversation tapered off, and I went in
highlighter.
She
inspected
it curiously and thoughtfully,
search of Virginia. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, I
like
a
seasoned
navigator
charting
a course for the Gold
gave myself a pep talk: My Christmas shopping could wait.
Coast.
She
took
my
highlighter
and
methodically went to
At least a dozen malls lay down the road. T h e caveat lasted
work.
"Did
you
know
about
Blackwell
or Elk City or Noble
about as long as it took me to top the stairs and spy a display
...,"
she
asked,
circling
towns
at
a
dizzying
speed. In less
or
of Fiesta dinnerware perched like an exotic, multi-colored
than
two
minutes,
the
buyers'
guide
was
rendered
obsolete.
bird in the corner.
It
appears
antique
malls
are
growing
geometrically
in numThat is when I like to believe it all began. Yesiree, I was
ber
all
over
the
state.
Kulick
made
it
clear
that
even
the
most
hooked like a fish. Fiesta dinnerware aside, perhaps hunasup-to-the-minute
information
was
dated
almost
as
soon
dreds of pieces of glassware filled this particular boothsometimes
before-it
came
off
the
press.
Time
was
not
some interesting, some useful, some even ugly. And although
I refrained from buying any Fiesta, the point was: the virus going to be a luxury on this trip.
By 2 p.m. the rain had stopped, and I was standing at the
had taken hold. T h e search had begun. Gingerly picking up
18
Oklahoma TODAY
cash register of the Country Time Mini
Mall in Ponca City bombarding the
owner, Janice Allen, with my nowstandard questions ("Do you take credit
cards? Checks?"). That done, I began
to notice things, in particular glassware,
that I had seen the day before in
Stillwater. My handy "price guide" in
my head, I began to contrast and
compare. Hmmm, interesting. And fun.
T h e temptation to linger was strong,
but the sound of the clock ticking was
stronger yet.
I went to thank Janice Allen and to
ask if Ponca City had another antique
mall. She gave me directions to the
Pioneer Antique Mall. Before I could
leave, however, she introduced me to
Shirley Hollingsworth, one of her
vendors and an eighteen-year veteran
of flea markets and antique malls. "This
is the woman," Allen said decisively,
"that you need to talk to."
And she was right. "Garage sales
started the whole mess," Hollingsworth
said, as we sat down for coffee at a local
deli. "Then it went to flea markets,
and now it's antique malls."
Hollingsworth dismissed the idea
that a poor economy has given rise to
antique malls. "The system of 'waste
not, want not' started in the pioneer
days," she said. "People were frugal,
and they just didn't throw things away."
Antique malls could also be an indication that the greening ofAmerica has
reached Oklahoma. Antique malls are
considered a retail answer to the
question of how to recycle things other
than pop cans and newspapers. They
are a more organized version of garage
sales, a more dependable outlet than
estate sales, and a less stressful alternative to auctions. It doesn't hurt that
malls make good sense for vendors,
too. "With a flea market," said
Hollingsworth, "you have to tag it, pack
it up, take it to the place, unpack,
display it, watch over it, packit up, take
it home. Flea markets are a lot ofwork."
At Poston's Victorian Villagein J d s , meno
deaiers share 7,000squarefeet with a flower
shop and an interior design business.
aql JO uo!ss!w~ad ssa~dxaaql ~ n o q l !lunoas!p
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peq I 'wad SP:P peal q 3 1 e ~dw 'UMOP pa3001 I uaqM 1eql I .'ojIual a q L 'auo lsnfjo pealsu! ( ~ l e w
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01 x!s le!lua~od%u!llas aaeq nod,, 'panu!~uos aqs ,,'os~v,,
vendor. Furthermore, if an item isn't
priced-whatever the reason-it cannot be sold. I bought another piece of
Mexican pottery($2), then headed back
to Ponca City because the Pioneer Antique Mall closed at six. In fact, most of
the malls closed at five or six o'clock,
which didn't make my job any easier.
Most of my remaining daylight hours
were spent driving from one town to the
next. Oklahoma is no Rhode Island,
after all.
At seven-thirty, after interviewing
Pioneer's Dennis Conley and picking
up yet another set of Mexican pottery
bowls ($3), I pulled the car onto 1-35
South and tried to absorb everything I
had learned that day. According to
Conley, furniture, glassware, and
kitchen collectibles remain the breadand-butter items of most antique malls
for three reasons: workmanship, practicality, and affordability. Conley also
believes that recyclingconcerns deserve
credit for the increased popularity of
antique malls, but he said it goes beyond
that. "Antique malls are probably the
best-kept secret in retail right now,"
Conley said. "It's more like a museum
atmosphere where people see things
from their childhood, and they want to
pass on those memories."
eleven the next morning, I
was at the 89'er Antique Mall
in Guthrie, having already
visited with Elizabeth Mealer
at King's Antique Mall next
door. I thought I was making pretty
good time until I bumped into Scott
Andersen, the photographer for this story
who was obviously way ahead of me.
Within fifteen minutes, I was on the
road. By day's end, I had been to seven
antique malls including Guthrie, Kingfisher, Fairview, and Weatherford.
Glassware, furniture, linens, fountain
pens, opera glasses, vintage clothing,
dolls, train sets, trinket upon trinket-I
had sifted through 60,000 square feet of
merchandise if I'd sifted through an
inch. And I had not come away emptyhanded. Along the way, I had acquired
a nasty blue English china habit (three
OKLAHJMA
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($2 PER PACRAL
cup and saucer sets, $2 to $5 a piece), an Old Roman platter
($7.50), and a cast-iron bed frame.
That evening, I drove to Hinton to drop in on my childhood buddy, Anita Lambert, who, like everyone else on this
trip, was not expecting me. I found her playing the piano
between sets at a little church that was having its last night
of Vacation Bible School. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed,
running down the aisle to hug me. "I can't believe you're
here!"
"Come with me," I said, pulling her along. "I've got a
present for you."
She followed me to my truck. I reached inside and pulled
out one of the multiplying sacks on the floorboard. Inside
were the two Mexican bowls fromPonca City. Sheexamined
the bowls cautiously, as if they were precious, ancient
artifacts, and I saw in her eyes the possibilities that crossed
her mind like soldiers marching past an open window. I
suddenly realized that the virus
had onceagain been passed, from
me to my friend.
I called Eric later that night
from Anita's house.
from all over," she observed. "They eat, they buy gas, they
see other stores and stop."
And as with anything else, she added, word-of-mouth is
without a doubt the best advertising. "They'll say, 'Be sure
and go through Duncan, they've got lots of good stuff.' "
Indeed they do.
I made it back home to Tulsa at 9 3 0 on Thursday nightif for nothing else but to unload the truck and sleep in my
own bed. T h e next day would be my last on the road and
would include Tulsa, Bartlesville, Dewey, Nowata,
Claremore, and Jenks. I would learn on my Friday travels
that no universal antique mall pricing system exists, save for
Schroeder's Antique Price Guide. That may explain why the
Mexican pottery I had been picking up for a nominal amount
in rural Oklahoma was suddenly three times as high in my
hometown. (But, I did, nonetheless, find eight great damask
dinnernapkins ($1.25 each), a squarerefrigerator bowl ($3.00),
and aperfect Hallcasserole dish
($5.00).
Later that day, as I turned
onto Riverside Drive from I-
'
44, it occurred to m e through a
blur of exhaustion that I had, in
fact, gotten more out of the trip
than I had bargained for. One,
value is only in the eye of the
beholder. And two, we never
truly own anything. We are
merely renters in this life.
I am still, by all accounts, a
novice in the world of antiques
n Thursday, the TheAntique Mall of Stillwater maintains an equal mix of
and collectibles. Steuben,
road see me d fumifure, co/lectibles, and Indian artifacts.
Staffordshire, Royal Wanvick,
like a winding,
infiniteribbon, and I was tired. That antique Hull: they are fluffy, poofy-sounding words to someone
malls are incredibly easy to find made the who's been raised on jelly jars and Tuppenvare glasses. My
journey a little less taxing at this point. Most of the time, an mother, bless her heart, tried her darnedest to culture us
address wasn't necessary, because the malls were usually urchins. But let's face it: with four kids in the house, my
situated on the main street or major highway of a town, and parents' were happy to make it out alive. As far as furniture
was concerned, if a couch could fall out of the back of a
marked simply, "Antique Mall."
O n this day, I blazed a trail through southwestern Okla- moving vehicle and stay in one piece, it could certainly stand
homa, starting with Hobart, where I picked up a plaid platter up to our scrutiny. So when I landed in Stillwater on that
($3.50), a Staffordshire tea cup and saucer ($5), another unusually overcast day with my feeble knowledge of Fiesta
refrigerator bowl ($6), and a set of plaid (yes, plaid) Blair ware, Depression glass, and Louis XIV, little did I know that
dishes ($64), which are square (yes, square) in shape and my intrepid wanderings would prove far more enlightening
very hard to find. Anadarko was next, where I found a Rock than any art appreciation course I could ever sleep through.
Island Line toy train set ($20) for Eric, ostensibly to divert For there was history-somebody's history-behind every
his attention from my own growing collection of wares. (An single object I came across. Dennis Conley was right. It was
unsuccessful ploy, I might add.) And finally, I stopped in like a museum-a living museum-full of faint memories,
Duncan at about three o'clock, where I met Nancy Clark of past lives, and unknown treasures. And I, as the wayward
the Antique Marketplace.
traveler, had a front row seat.
Our conversation consisted of more than shop talk, with
which I had been inundated for four days. We talked about
the economic impact antique malls are having on the dead TulsanSuzette Brmer is afree-lance writer. Scott Andemen is a
Midwest Cj4'.
and dying main streets across the state. "It brings people free--/ancfphoto~a~herljvjngin
"Hey, it's me," I said.
"Hi, me," he said, "Where are
you?"
"In Hinton," I told him.
"You're never gonna believe
what I got today."
"I'm afraid to ask," he replied.
0
22
Oklahoma TODAY
J
By Baxter Black
On the frst day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a ranch house in a dow-ry... My true love gave to me Twelve cows worth keeping
Eleven cowboys griping,
T e n down-ed fences,
Nine chewers bummin
Eight goats need-ing milkin
Seven heifers calving,
Six bankers praying,
F-i-v-e heeler pups,
Fo-u-r broken gate
Three angry in-laws,
Two-o leather glo
And a ranch house in a dow-ry.
Fired all the in-laws, Hired m e a lawyer, Sold off the herd bull, Dozed down the outhouse, Locked up the windmill, Cussed out the bankers, Chased off the goat herd, F-o-u-n-d my other boot, Grabbed me my rope, And my horse, And made it to the gate, o-th-er fool! Baxter BlacR is a cowboy humorist who appears regularly on Johny Carson's "Tonight Show" and NPR 's "MorningEdition."
AK Owen CuptudAmeritu's Moments.
Y. O w e n l i v e d a
photographer's dream: he
was a camera for hire for
magazines the likes of L i f ,
Snzithsonian, and Sports Illustrated. As such,
he rappelled the north wall of the Grand
Canyon, was shipwrecked in the Arctic
-Circle, hobnobbed with
Pope Paul, Lyndon
Baines Johnson, and
John Wayne, tracked
guanaco through t h e
Andes Mountains, and
photographed the OU
S o o n e r s u n d e r Bud
Wilkinson.
Looking back, Owen
once said: "I wouldn't do
anything different."
Little wonder.
Like his Life
contemporaries Alfred
Eisenstaedt and John
Domonus, o w e n was Above, an A.Y.
b o r n w i t h t h e Owen cover photo
photographer's
gift: He for Life. Right, a
- could s e e a picture yOungA.Y.
where no one else saw a
thing. And he would go to any length to get
that image on film.
Over the years, this prompted Owen to
hogtie himself to the bed of a truck in subzero temperatures so as to better shoot an
oncoming eighteen-wheeler, to wheedle
1,800 feet of rope from a Life secretary so
he could lower himself into the Grand
Canyon, and to brave a Woodward tornado
so he could send to his editor at Life a
photo of a chicken that had dropped its
feathers in fright. Says his wife, Daphyn,
"A.Y.'s idea of a date was to climb a ladder to the top of a building under construction so h e could shoot photos and
have me shade his lens."
Ironically, Owen's most lasting images
A
1
L
are not about the strange or the exotic, but
the ordinary. T h e classic conflicts of life:
man against man, man against nature, man
against machine. "What I liked most," said
Owen at the age of seventy-six, "was tying
the grassroots of the country together in
my photographs."
N o o n e did it any
better. A.Y. Owen at his
best was to photographs
what Norman Rockwell
was to illustrations. For
Owen, too, realized it is
in the candid, simple
moments that we reveal
t h e most about our
character.
His own character was
rooted deeply in Oklahoma. Born i n Cheyenne, he took his
first photograph as
a nine-year-old a t
an Oklahoma City
YMCA. T h o u g h
ultimately he traversed t h e globe
for his craft ("I
guess there was a
wanderlust in
me"), he always made his home in Oklahoma City near his family. In fact, his eye
for the photogenic side of his native state
and its people landed both on many a Life
cover in the '50s and '60s.
Last year, when the first illness of his life
finally forced him to put down his camera,
it was at his Oklahoma City home that A.Y.
Owen settled in to organize his life's work,
which spills over two studios and many a
book shelf. Retiring did not come easily.
"A.Y.," says Daphyn, "always wanted just
one more picture." --Jeanne M. Devlin
II
-
A.Y. Owen died September 16, 1991. He wiff
be missed.
Oklahoma TODAY
Ronald Reagan, the movie star, liked
Owen's work so well he had the young
photographer reassigned to his 18th
AAF Motion PictureUnit. One of Owen's
greatest disappointments: the 18th
never made it overseas during World
War II.Above, the 45th Infantry Division at Ft. Sill.
John Wayne had this portrait
brought to him in the hospital three
days before he died; the Duke ultimately told his sons to use the photograph to cast the FranklinMint gold
medallionthat bears his likeness. Shot
on the set of "The Alamo," the photo
was one of Owen's personal favorites.
25
Oklahoma TODAY
"Five months ago a phturo such as
this would have shown at bast one
man out of step," Owen typad after
shooting this photograph in 1940.
The key: drilling, lots of drilling.
In his effort to illustrate the miserable conditions (ice, sleet, bonechilling cold) under which the 45th
trained i n Lawton, Owen once
pour4 a bucket of water over the
head oi cartoonist Bill Maddin. Ice
immediately formed. Ironically,
Mauldin had been assuring his
mother i n letters that he was dry
and comfortable, and she bolievd
him until she saw this photograph
i n the 45th Division News. Nonetbeless, Mauldin and Owon botame
fast frieads. In lator yoars the carg
toonist would say: "A.Y. could always shoot them faster than Icould
draw them."
Owen had a knack for capturing the
essence of the American character.
Right, Governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray
waits outside the hospital for news of
his sick wife. This candid shot i s the
only one Murray allowed that day.
"Boys With Thf r First Car," below,
was so on target it made the 1957 Life
article that accompanied it redundant.
Proof of its timelessness: a French firm
has bought rights to use the photo on
a series of postcards.
This picture of a soldier saying goodbye to his girl is classic Owen. "Iaways
shot for the lead and the middle,"
Owen explained, "and an ending that
would wrap it all up."
Oklahoma TODAY
Books fill Full Circle from floor to ceiline: There
are S ~ O O Otitles at F;// c&: , l a m m k
bookstores generally stock a mere 25,000 titles.
-
Oklahoma TODAY
THE WELL-CONSIDERED BOOKSTORE Full Circle feels like a book lover's
dream because that's what it is.
It was in winter that first day,
visiting in the city from the quiet of the hills. It was Northwest Oklahoma City concrete cold. Walking into the little
nook snuggled into the southeast corner of the third floor
of 50 Penn Place had the feeling, somehow, of coming home
to a place I had not found before.
A delicate young woman nodded pleasantly as she shredded a copy of the N m York Times Book Review for kindling,
added split oak wood, and rebuilt the smoldery fire in the
black marble fireplace. Her efforts spread warmth and a
reassuring odor throughout the room.
As I settled into a burgundy velvet chair beside the fireplace, wearing blue jeans and flannel shirt, sipping coffee
laced with cinnamon, it seemed perfectly proper to indulge
a secret love of the sounds of Shakespeare.
My thoughts,from far where 1 abide,
intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee.
I t was indexed under zealous. Sonnet 27, page 1,920.
Complete Concordance to Shakespeare. Price $65.
My mind roamed further afield: Comic Books of America.
High-Tech Handicapping in the Infonation Age. There was a
great sale on travel books, a lighted world globe that cost
$400, and a collection of country memories that cost $2. Out
front, on the "front porch," sat a blackboard. Someone had
handwritten on it in chalks of complementary colors just as
Mrs. Harlan did in the second grade, triggering in me an
inordinate desire to know everything ever written about
Black History: Words of Desmond Tutu; Anthology of Af r i a n
By Ralph Marsh
Short Stories; Aida, as told by Leontyne Price.
Thirty-two-thousand titles gathered into three rooms and
draped with the feeling that Santa F e would be thus if it
could. T h e witchery of a wood fire started from theNm York
Times Book Review. And a beautiful girl with auburn hair
suspended near the ceiling on a ladder I could not see,
stacking books as if she planned to read them.
Full Circle Bookstore is a seclude d glen for the spirits of the citybound. There is a sense
here that the world, somehow, still is sane. Non-Nintendo.
James Tolbert 111is an internationally recognized business
genius whose accomplishments and honors will not fit outside a reference book.
Jim Tolbert, on the other hand, is a sandy-haired, mildeyed, fifty-six-year-old Presbyterian Democrat. A scholar
with four grown children and a wife. A compulsive reader
who would have been an architect if he had had any talent
("nothing is fun if you have no talent") and a professor of
history if h e could have made any money ("I could not
provide the standard of living my wife wanted in that profession"). Instead, he went to Stanford for a master's degree
in business administration. H e joined Selected Investments,
and he has spent the rest of his life reorganizing distressed
businesses. So it is that in the world according to others,
James Tolbert 111wears a hard hat amid the crashing dreams
of those who would be wealthy.
Full Circle Bookstore was created by Jim Tolbert. It is the
Photographs by Joseph Mills
31
world as he would have it be. H e spends his Saturdays there. it is time to go back to work so the book is not damaged.
Researchers scour its stacks. Women decorating their
Clerking. "So much of what I do professionally is in the
abstract," he explained. "There is something very tangible rooms. "I want a blue book," she said, "where the middle
word is 'box.' "
about what we do here."
T h e way Tolbert runs the place is a little different than
On Saturday mornings that are not too busy, the clerk, Jim
Tolbert, may step with you into the little back room where most. "I do all the initial buying and then try to review all
you will disturb no one and you can look at the bookstore repurchases. I do a lot of it in airplanes, using catalogs. T h e
he has created, much as one would discuss a painting with financial end is run out of my office downtown. T h e key is,
an artist. "When you've spent a long time fantasizing about can you control your inventory? Ours is dependent on great
depth. We once had a card for every
something," Tolbert said, "it bebook. We marked it each time we
comes very specific. I went to my
sold an issue and repurchased when
architect friends, and they transit came up zero. We are computerlated my word pictures into this.
based now. We couldn't have
Things have accumulated that
32,000 titles without t h e commake it a little more personal, a
little more intimate.
puter."
T h e real key, however, is people.
"It has accreted," he said. And it
"Mary Anne Malone has been here
has, like honey in a properly preprobably eight or nine years. Mary
pared hive.
Anne does book reviews on ChanT h e fireplace? Or more specifinel5. She has such enthusiasm and
cally, its aroma? Funny winds circle
50 Penn Place Tower. Upon
verve, she has developed a cult.
People come here looking for her.
completion, the fireplace let the
S h e reads extensively and has
smell of woodsmoke seep into the
knowledge. People depend on her.
room. T h e architect who designed
Betty Jo Hill has been here almost
it said he could fix it easily so it
that long. Paula Campbell has a
would not smoke at all. Leave it be,
great feel for some areas of specialJim Tolbert told him. "I kind of
ization. Indians of the southwest
like the odor."
region. South American literature.
T h e ambience? "We have here
And
Mary
a tradition. We are just as happy james~
~wideb, bothfiction
l
andnon-~
~ Wilkinson,
~ she is in~her
middle to late 70s. She has worked
with people who come in and stay w o n , that be says: "Zbadto own a bookstore."
here a long time and has a followall day and treat us like a library
instead of purchasing something, because the one thing ing because she is so gracious. Most of them were customers
leads to the other. We make them comfortable with that. first before they came to work here."
Held by that elusive feeling.
There are lots of places to sit ...We will not censor anything
that comes into this store unless it is pornographic. We sell
a lot of best sellers, and we sell a lot of quality literature. The store has never been ordiMore poetry probably than any other place in the state...We nary. It was begun in Norman as a counter-culture bookstore
will order anything anybody wants to order. T h e only re- by Mark McGee. It was called Wine and Roses. It was moved
quirement we make of the buyer is that he come in and pick to Oklahoma City to 24th and Military, then to 42nd and
it up. We have an out-of-state book hunter. He is very good. Western, next to the old VZD drugstore. "In 1977, I bought
"It's a lot of fun for me," Tolbert said. "When somebody it from him because I had always wanted to own a bookfinds a book they can't find anywhere else. I say, 'Well, you store," said Tolbert. "It burned, and I opened it here in 1980.
should have come here in the first place.' "
It then had only the big central room. In 1987, I added this
And so it is that Full Circle Book Store has about it all (Oklahoma) room."
He paused. "The store at 42nd and Western was close,"
those working things a reader would have a bookstore be.
And more. Harried people seek refuge there. Businessmen he said, "but it didn't get there."
Full Circle Book Store is more than the sum total of all
in three-piece suits hurry there on breaks as to a club: "No
one here gets out alive!" T h e words rattle through the quiet. that has or will be said. Jim Tolbert spends much of his life
promoting other organizations that seek those feelings to
"No One Hen? Gets Out ALive?"
which he has given shelter in his bookstore: immediate past
"Yes."
"That stack there by the window." And the businessman chairman of the Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities;
sheds his coat and sits down to read, marking his place when chairman, executive committee, McGee Eye Institute;
F
7
32
Oklahoma TODAY
Look Home'ward,
t seems fitting that the
most
intimate room at Full Circlethe room with the fireplace and
the coffeepot-is where most
of the "Oklahoma" books are
stashed. The good news for browsers
is that the staff keeps categories fluid.
History books spill over into Indian
studies; books by Oklahoma-born
authors sit beside books by authors
who may have lived in the stare for a
short time, but got a good grasp of
their material during their stay.
Full Circle's selection of books on
Oklahoma history, politics, biographies, and Native American subjects is
outstanding, ranging from Angie
Debo's seminal work on the Five
Tribes to studies of the Dust Bowl
migration's effect on Bakersfield,
California. This reading list, however,
embraces favorites that exude-for
lack of a better word-Oklahomaness.There may be something here to
remind you of home.
C m m Oklahonta, by Jim Lehm,
1989. Expatriate Oklahomans, in
particular, seem to get a kick out of
the series on the adventures of OneEyed Mack. (Lehrer is co-host of the
PBS UMacNeil-LehrerNewshour.")
In C m n ,Mack, the lieutenant
governor, is ferreting out an alleged
Oklahoma Mafia. T h e plot is corny
and improbable and,
the words of a former resident exiled ;o
New Jersey. Certain elements, too, are
quite timely. T h e "crown'Yn the title
refers to the governor's determination ro
finally top off the state capitol.
Images of lr Past: NOMan's Land, by
Nancy Leonwd, 1989. Nancy Leonard fell
in love with the starkness dOklahoma's
Panhandle and the forthrightness of its
residents while living six months of each
year in Beaver. Over a period of ten
years, Leonard visited with older
residents and recorded their stories with
a camera and tape recorder.
T h e resulting book is part pictorial,
pan personal history. Leonard's photographs are telling, and the text is edited
unblinkingly,
- . exhibiting
- the same
qualities found in her excellent blackand-white photographs: depth, shadin&
and not a trace of gloss.
The Names: A Memoir, by N. Scott
Motnoday, 1976. The pages of N. Scott
Momaday's novels are so dense with
ideas and meaning, even the most
hungry reader is forced to slow down and
chew a little bit. This, the story of
Momaday's family, is the writer almost at
play. It's his most factually based book,
and fans of TheAncient ChiM and House
Made of Dawn will recognize the raw
material in his recollections. And when
Momaday slips into stream of conscious-
president, Oklahoma Academy for State Goals; executive
committee member, Oklahoma City Arts Council. H e was
t h e first man chosen when alumni of his boyhood school,
Casady, decided to name t h e graduate who has most demonstrated loyalty to t h e school, rendered service to his
community, excelled in his profession, and achieved recognition on a local, state, national, or international level.
But ..."Nothing in my life gives m e as much satisfaction as
this store."
And then, t h e long-held question. Jim T o l b e r t looks
shocked. "Why, yes, it makes money. I am a business person."
N e x t time I was there was a day in summer. I n from t h e
woods seeking a n elusive book as needed as hammer to
carpenter. Blistering concrete. Car horns cut the ear like torn
I
like literaijazz.
-
From Hillback to Boggy, by BonniS ' , 1991. Speer wrote this book
based on the Depression-era recolle
tions of her husband. less. Truth rings
from every page, beginning on page
one, where readers can almost taste
the red dust blowing into the tent
where the Speer family lives. T h e
book tells a mostly hard-luck story as
the Speers migrate east from western
Oklahoma, reversing the classic
California trek. There are no tidy
endings in this book and precious little
softness. When Speer writes, "Papa
may not have always been right, but
he was always boss," you know just
what she means.
-
Miss Pmny and Mr. Grubbs, by
is^ ~ ~ EM,
~ ~ 1991.
b E ~ ~,who/~
has written and illustrated ten
children's books, left Oklahoma for
New York soon after she graduated
from OU. Her characters, though,
could be your next-door neighbors in
Ada, or in Bartlesville, where Ernst
grew up.
In Miss Penny, a middle-aged
protagonist outwits her conniving
neighbor by expanding her thinking.
But as lovely as the message is, the
real draws are the exquisitely detailed
illustrations.
Barbara Palmer
~
metal. T h e woman clerk walked barefoot over cool polished
oak and faded woolen throw rugs, hair hanging free so that
it undulated with her steps.
"Here it is," s h e said. "By Danney Goble. I t was with t h e
other Oklahoma books."
Rabh
is afree-lante wn'ter who lives in Heae,ener.
CilyphotograPhef.
Mil/s is an
Full Circlea t Fifry Penn
Place in Oklalioma City is on
~/ler~
the east end of th third h e I
of the mall. Hours are 10 a.m.
to 6p.m., except on Thundays, when it
stays open until 8p.m. It i s closed Sundays. (405) 842-2900.
33
,
By Kevan Goff-Parker Photographs by Fred W. Marvel F
or Oklahoma children, Christmas trees are simple:
they're magic. City lots fill with evergreens before
the Thanksgiving turkey can turn into leftovers.
Trees are selected, haggled over, and strapped to the
top of the family car. T o children, some simply seem to
spring up overnight in the living room or den.
Grownups fuss endlessly over them. Innumerable electric
lights are wound around their boughs. White-lace angels are
lashed to their tops. Dainty blown glass bulbs and cookies
you're not allowed to eat are painstakingly hung from their
thick, sticky branches.
Their smell is Christmas.
Few historians agree on the date the first Christmas trce
was erected. Most, however, trace its origins to the English
habit of collecting greenery, which began in the British Isles
in the second century B.C. T o ancient peoples, evergreens
symbolized immortality. After all, the trees did remain green
through the coldest winter, an accomplishment most folks
attributed to supernatural powers.
T h e first sighting of a Christmas tree was sometime after
700 A.D., when the English missionary Saint Boniface traveled to Geismar, Germany, to convert the Germanic Druids
to Christianity. By felling the giant "Thunder Oak," Saint
Boniface convinced the nature worshipers that the tree was
not divine. T h e mammoth oak destroyed every shrub in its
path, with the exception of a small fir sapling. A tactical genius, the missionary capitalized on the significance of the
event, and the humble evergreen became the Christbaum or
"Tree of the Christ Child."
Subsequent Christmases in Germany were marked by the
planting of a fir sapling. By the 1500s, German families were
decorating indoor and outdoor evergreens with paper roses
(symbolic of the Virgin Mary), apples, sugar, gilt, and wafers.
T h e sixteenth-century Protestant reformer Martin Luther
further enriched the Christmas tree legend by attaching
candles to his Christmas tree in an attempt to recreate the
effect of stars he had seen twinkling amid evergreens one
frosty winter's night. Germans were soon combining such
ideas. T h e popularity of the "Christ tree" quickly spread
throughout Western Europe-later it would be taken to
America by the Pennsylvania Germans.
By 1821, a Christmas tree was erected in England during a
party for children in Queen Charlotte's court. Meanwhile,
across the ocean, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
recorded in his diary the first mention of a Christmas tree in
the New World. What is said to have sealed the fate of the
Christmas tree, however, is a moment in England in 1840.
That is the day twenty-one-year-old Queen Victoria and her
infant daughter, Pussy, were given a Christmas tree by
Oklahoma TODAY
Victoria's beloved yet penniless husband, Germany's Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert's sentimental
gesture, which put the tree at the heart of Windsor Castle's
Christmas Eve rituals, helped ensure that the Christmas tree
became the unrivaled Christmas symbol of choice in merry
01' England.
Sixteen years later, across the ocean, Massachusetts residents made Christmas a legal holiday, and President Franklin
Pierce put a Christmas tree up in the White House. Soon
Godey's Lady's Book was encouraging homemakers of the
1800s to make decorations for their trees. By the late 1800s'
Americans had adopted the Christmas tree as their own.
Linda Kennedy Rosser, author of Chn's2ma.r in OHahoma,
says that after the Land Run of April 22, 1889, when territorial lands were opened for settlement, what would one day
be known as Oklahoma became a melting pot for settlers'
Christmas traditions. "For early pioneers, the Christmas tree
symbolized home when they didn't quite feel at home here,"
said Rosser. "The most prominent example of how pioneers
celebrated with trees is that they didn't have individualized
trees in the homes ...what was more common was the community tree. A common saying was, 'we're going to the
Christmas tree.' "
Tree-trimmings at local churches or schoolhouses brought
35
In the sixteenth century, monarchs
spent more for lace than they did for
their crown jewels, says lacemaker
Virginia Lucas. And got a bargain.
Lucas, who is eighty-one years of age
and three-quarters English, shares her
knowledge of the art of making bobbin
lace at monthly meetings of the Lace
Guild of Oklahoma.
To make bobbin lace, a pattern i s
marked in pins on a pillow. Thread is
then worked around the pins, using
multiple bobbins. Simple lace can be
made with as few as twelve bobbinssome lacemakers have used as many as
1,200.
Lacemaking machines were developed in England in the early part of the
nineteenth century, putting lace within
the reach (and on the Christmas trees)
of common folk.
Still, making lace by hand, says
Lucas, is something anybody can learn
to do. "It just takes a little patience."
The Lace Guild of Oklahoma will
decorate a tree with bobbin lace at the
Kirkpatrick Treefest in Oklahoma City.
For guild information, call Lucas at
(405) 751-1 040.
people together to celebrate Christmas "like back in t h
states." Parents would place gifts-mittens, scarfs, perhal
a doll or train-addressed "from Santa" on the tree.
What kind of tree it was depended on whether one live
in Oklahoma or Indian territories. Pines, spruces, and firs gre.
in eastern Indian Territory. But in western or central Okl;
homa, more often than not, the lowly tumbleweed, blackjac
oak, or mesquite bush nailed to a wooden stand won the plac
of honor by default. "Families who don't have much mone
have always been creative," Rosser observed.
Pioneers hung popcorn and cranberry strands, paper chain
and cornucopias filled with goodies on the tree. Straw an
corncobs were also used for making ornaments. Says Rosse
"Little blackjack oak branches nailed to a wooden stan
suited them. Pioneers would wrap the branches in cotto
batting and top them off with tin stars. Trees were sometime
decorated with foil tinsel or 'icicles' made from tobacco plu
wrappings."
Wealthier families in Guthrie, McAlester, Oklahoma Citl
and Shawnee had Christmas items and pine trees brought i
by train. Still, most made their own decorations.
Almost from day one, the settlers' trees reflected the
owner's past. German immigrants used tabletop trees an
made iced cookies. Western European immigrants hun
hand-blown glass ornaments, which they brought from th
old country, in the shapes of birds, fruits, and Santa faces.
Rosser scoffs at the idea that Christmas trees were just fc
children. Decorating a tree was an escape from the harshne:
of prairie life. "There has always been this idea-dating bac
to Pawnee Bill-that Christmas trees were for children,
Rosser said. "I totally disagree. T h e Christmas tree is forth
family. I t is the most universal symbol of Christmas i
America. It transcends the purely religious and has become
secular decoration symbolizing peace, life, and hope."
Here, three ethnic groups-British,
German, and Hi!
panic-that call Oklahoma home share their traditions.
reat Britain native Jasmine Moran has a Christma
memory that has haunted her for more than fift
'years. It is a memory of singing Christmas carols i
a darkened bomb shelter in the English village c
Hornchurch. T h e village, situated near a British fighter bas
close to Epping Forest, had been attacked by Luftwaff
bombers. And rhe five-year-old's songs mingled with th
whistle of bombs and the wail of air raid sirens. "Christma
was pretty austere during World War 11," said Moran, wh
now lives in Seminole. "Food was difficult to get. We on1
Oklahoma TODAY
.,,< ,.-*-.r.'S*Tq.--.-..
:
-
..-*,A.
en-,,.
I..
,
.
,
had two eggs a week, a half pound of butter, and two ounces
of tea, but my mother tried to make it as fun as possible. She
was a child at heart during Christmas. We had one tiny Norfolk pine in our garden. It was a tiny little tree, really, but we
would decorate it with hand-made decorations like paper
chains and crocheted angels and bells.
"We never thought we were poor."
In England, Christmas stockings were for decoration only,
and gifts did not go under the tree. Instead, presents-fruits,
nuts, and other goodies-went into a plain pillowcase that was
placed by a child's bed by Father Christmas on Christmas
Eve. Blackout regulations
made it impossible to have
Christmas tree lights, so,
Moran says her family decorated its tabletop pine with
small bars of chocolate, colored
celluloid balls, and handblown glass and tin baubles.
Yet another family tradition
was the pulling of a Christmas
firecracker-a French custom
that gained popularity in Victorian England. Moran's
mother always hung several of
the small firecrackers on their
tree with larger ones placed at
the Christmas supper table.
"(The firecracker) is shaped
like a small bologna, made out
of crepe paper, and fluted on
both ends," Moran said. "Inside is a small toy like a
whistle, neck charm, or puzzle. Paper cornucopias and lace ornaments were hutig 011 I i//ot.lantrees.
There's also a paper hat, a
motto (funny saying or joke), and sweets. When you pull it
apart, a small amount of (explosives) goes off, and it pops.
, "I still order them from overseas," Moran says. "It's difficult giving up your heritage."
In 1953, Moran married a handsome Jewish U.S. Air Force
officer with a keen interest in Oklahoma oil. Together they
moved to Seminole. In that, Moran is typical of British immigrants. For more than three decades, most British immigrants to Oklahoma have been military brides or Brits looking for better jobs. In fact, by 1970, some 2,300 British and
Irish-born immigrants called Oklahoma home. Their numbers, however, don't begin to reflect their influence. Most
Oklahomans have some British ancestry, remembered or not.
In fact, the British pioneer was considered to be the average
newcomer to the Sooner State. Well before 1824, the year
Fort Gibson was built, British fur traders, trappers, and soldiers could be found here. After the Civil War, more British
immigrants set up shop in Indian Territory as railroad workers, coal miners, and farmers--oftentimes marrying Ameri-
1
L.
37
An Oklahoma Posadas
At the Puerta de Oro, a Hispanic senior citizen's center in Oklahoma City,
the nine days of the traditional Posadas
are condensed into one night, December 16, and one location, the
center's building on South Robinson.
Luckily, the center has a lot of doors.
"We all put our coats on, because it's
cold," says director Anita Martinez.
"We bring Mary and Joseph and the
shepherds and go from door to door.
All of the bad guys are on the inside and
all of the good guys are on the outside."
As it is traditionally done in Mexico,
when Mary and Joseph are finally allowed in, "we have a big party." There
is singing and a piiiata, along with tamales, Mexican bread, and hot
chocolate.
Visitors are welcome, says Martinez.
The senior center also sells handmade
piiiatas and tamales. (Martinez needs
a day's notice for the tamales.) Call the
center at (405) 636-0260.
can Indian women and acquiring rights to Indian land.
Nearly 760 British and Irish immigrants staked claims i
this region during the opening of the Unassigned Lands i
1889; many went on to farm near boom towns like Guthri
and Oklahoma City. By 1900, there were 4,290 English, Iris1
Scots, and Welsh settled in the twin territories. Some of thes
newcomers joined the healthy population of coal miners a
ready in Indian Territory, while others farmed or set up sma
businesses and joined the realm of white-collar workers.
Great Britain's children in the new land had much in con
mon. They were older than other residents; they had a
tempted to homestead in at least three states; and they us1
ally married outside their nationality. Despite this apparer
adaptability, they found life on the prairie to be lonely an
uncertain. Unlike the Italians, the English did not congrt
gate into communities. Their early Christmases were quie
community affairs celebrated with neighbors of mixed origi~
After statehood, British-born immigrants and their childre
became political forces to be reckoned with, particularly i
Oklahoma City. But then the Great Depression and th
deaths of older British immigrants in the '30s caused a fort
percent drop in their numbers. It wasn't until the '40s, whe
war brides like Moran arrived that their numbers swelle
again. Today, war brides fill the ranks of the numerous Bri
ish clubs throughout the state.
It can be difficult to find specifically British Christmas tret
in Oklahoma, but English or Victorian Christmas tree orni
ments that have been handed down through the years a1
commonplace. "My English-born Oklahoma friends still car1
on our traditions," Moran said. "The English Christmas
handed-down from generation to generation, and it sti
means family and tradition to me."
I
rma Tovar has made her home in Oklahoma since 197'
And she is content here. But Oklahoma City is nc
Mexico. And somehow Christmas always makes th;
poignantly clear to Irma. "I am happy here," said Irm:
as she expertly twirled tissue paper into a Mexican tree 01
nament, "but 1'11 always remember my Christmases i
Mexico."
Those memories center around her homeland's Posadz
celebration-a nine-day fiesta in celebration of Christ's birtlIS I
T h e Posadas (the spanish word for lodgings) recreates Joseph
and Mary's search for lodging on the night of Jesus's birth.
On December 16, Mexican families travel to nine pre-selected houses. Members of the crowd carry candles, images
of the Virgin Mary riding a donkey, an angel, and St. Joseph.
I
Oklahoma TODAY
At each home, they beg entrance by singing hymns and asking for a place where the Holy Family can rest. At the first
eight houses, the wanderers are told the households are
asleep, threatened with a beating, and turned away. At the
ninth house, they find an altar, a recreated stable and manger, and welcome. They kneel, pray, and someone carefully
places the holy figures beside the manger. Then that night's
fiesta begins. T h e journey is repeated each of the next eight
nights, with a new
ninth house each
night and a fiesta.
At t h e fiestas,
pifiatas hang from
doorways.
The
youngest child in the
group wins the honor
of breaking the piiiata
with a stick, and all
the children rush to
collect t h e sweets.
Hot tamales are the
food of choice. T h e
revelers also enjoy
fruit punch, fireworks,
music, and dancing.
Families in Mexico,
says Irma Tovar, put
their Christmas trees
in wooden stands on
December 16th; children share in t h e
decorating. Mexican
fam
tri their ~r ?S ffaa?r?OnJorHrspanlcs to break open a ptiiata dunng each of Me nrne nights of the Posadar.
trees with tissue paper
flowers, blown-glass baubles, miniature sombreros and baskets filled with peanut candies, angels, white doves (symbolizing peace), bears, burros, sheep, horses, and camels.
At the tree's base, the children build a tiny village using
plastic or clay nativity figures-men, women, children, choir
boys, the Three Wise Men, shepherds, the Virgin Mary, St.
Joseph, and various barnyard animals. Baby Jesus is "kept
in the closet" until December 24th, the final day of the
Posadas. On Christmas Eve, the youngest child carries the
doll (Baby Jesus), as the promenade travels to the final house
and members sing a song asking for shelter. Admitted, the
throng enters the room with the manger, and the Baby Jesus
is rocked and prayed and serenaded before being placed in
his rustic crib to sleep.
Some piiiatas are saved for Christmas Eve. Tamales, hot
chocolate, and sweet bread are served. T h e ensuing celebration lasts until families leave to attend midnight mass
and, afterwards, open presents. Christmas day is spent
feasting.
No wonder most Hispanic immigrants echo Irma's feel-
1
I
39
Like Mom Makes Them
Eva Rodgers says her mother,
Magdalena Riedel, is so used to being
the authority on the making of
pfefferkuchen that "she tells me when
she dies, she'll come from heaven to
tell me how to make it."
PFEFFERKUCHEN
314
1
112
2
cup honey
cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
stick butter
large eggs
Dash salt
6-8 cups flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
112 tablespoon cinnamon
112 teaspoon cardamom
114 teaspoon cloves
Orange peel
5 grams *hirschhornsalz (carbonate
of ammonia) and 5 grams *pottasche
(potassium carbonate) OR 1 112 teaspoons baking powder
Heat honey with sugar until sugar
melts; do not boil. Add butter; cool.
Add eggs, salt, and the other ingredients, dissolving hirschhornsalz and
pottasche (or baking powder) in a little
coffee.
Knead the heavy dough and let rest
(even overnight). Roll out and use
cookie forms. Place on greased and
floured cookie sheets, brush with sugar
water, and bake in a preheated oven
300 to 325 degrees F. until brown. Let
cool and glaze with powdered sugar
and lemon juice.
*Available at Nayphe's in Oklahoma City,
(405)848-2002.
I
ings-they love Oklahoma but miss the traditions of hom
It is thought that Oklahoma's first Hispanic immigra
were Mexican boys kidnapped during raids into Mexico
Apaches, Kiowas, and Comanches. There are stories
Mexicans in Oklahoma in a settlement in Beaver County a
rumors of Mexican desperadoes camping near Pauls Valle
Early settlements in Oklahoma followed the path o f t
railroad, with Hispanics living near the tracks in Edmon
Blackwell, Ardmore, Duncan, Oklahoma City, and Tuls
Western Oklahoma's cotton expansion drew seasonal lab
ers during harvest, and while most laborers returned to T e x
or Mexico at the end of the season some sharecropped
married American Indians and acquired land here.
By 1920, more than 340 Mexicans lived in Pittsburg Coun
drawn by work in the coal mines. T e n years later, despite
depressed mining industry, that figure nearly tripled. Un
the '30s, Hispanics found work in the lumber mills of sout
eastern Oklahoma and in Bartlesville's oil fields. T h e De
pression, however, forced many to leave the state. For thos
who stayed, life was rough. Most Hispanics refused to accep
charity, preferring instead to open small, if unpretentiou!
businesses like the tamale cart or to work as gardeners.
Language, culture, and economic status kept many first
generation immigrants from mingling successfully wit
Oklahoma's mostly Anglo society, but by the end of Worlc
War 11, many second-generation Hispanics were marryin,
Anglo spouses. In the postwar years, Oklahoma's Hispani
population changed dramatically. T h e most decorated cultura
group in World War 11, Mexican-Americans took advantag
of the G.I. Bill to go to college and build businesses.
It is estimated that 100,000 Hispanics now live in Okla
homa, a fact which has caused ripples in the state they cal
home. There is now an Oklahoma Hispanic newspaperVision-and L a Tremenda KZUE Radio in El Reno. Anc
Little Flower Catholic Church and the Salvation Arm!
Spanish Senior Center now stage Posadas and decorate tree:
in traditional decorations at Christmas time.
For many Hispanics, like Irma Tovar, life has changed dra.
matically, yet more and more it recalls the flavors of yester.
day. "We are all very excited about Christmas," said Tovar
as her fingers nimbly brought another tissue flower to life.
1
1
W
hether the Christmas tree was first the inspira
tion of Martin Luther, St. Boniface, or Christianity mixed with the pagan ritual of Germanic
Druids, Germany's tannenbaum has symbolized
everlasting life for centuries.
Oklahoma TODAY
It meant nothing less to the 5 million Germans
vho fled political and economic hardships at
lome from 1840 to 1899 and immigrated to
imerica. While few traveled directly to Oklaloma and Indian territories in their slow, westvard push toward what they called the hinterand, some German families did settle here to
vork for the railroads and mining companies.
rhousands followed in the land runs that would
ettle the area between 1889 and 1906.
German-Oklahomans gathered in small con.entrations, most notably in Oklahoma, Blaine,
nd Kingfisher counties. Germans from Russia,
hiefly an agricultural people, trickled into the
vestern half of Oklahoma Territory. By state~ood,about 4,100 Russian-German immigrants
ived in Oklahoma. By 1910, the German-born
bopulation had reached more than 10,000.
Because German pioneers often failed to
oncentrate into large ethnic communities, few
liscernible signs remain of them in Oklahoma.
h o n g the more obvious: their Christmas cusoms, including the use of greenery in the form
,fa table-top cedar or spruce in the home.
Christiane Faris, chair of the modern language
lepartment at Oklahoma City University, was
born in Berlin, but she has lived in Oklahoma
or more than twenty years. She is a member of
Iklahoma's German-American Heritage Assoiation. "German settlers constituted the largest
;roup of white Europeans who came to Oklavorking, obedient, and somewhat educated.
rhey came, they farmed, and they moved on. They had just
he essentials during their first Christmas in Oklahoma Teritory and gave their children clothes, toys, and other handnade things."
A German tree, says Faris, will ha1.e red or white candles,
lpples, candy, paper chains, silvered and gilded walnuts, and
straw decorations often shaped into birds and stars. Others
mainstays: colorful glass ornaments; golden-winged angels,
representing the German belief that the Infant Jesus mesjenger or Christkind comes to earth during Christmas-time;
xnd pfefferkuchen, a flat gingerbread cookie decorated with
Frosting. Pf4Jermeans pepper, and kuchen means cakes. In the
:ookies, this translates into a frosted cookie spiced with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pfefferkuchen is said to include the
spices necessary for a good life. "We shape the dough into
stars, animals, hearts, or flowers. They are good for eating the
~ n t i r eholiday season," says Faris.
Kevan Goff-Parker is a writer and editorfor the Oklahoma City
public school administration. Fred W. Marvel is a photographer
for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recmation Department.
...Or Let Ingrid Make Them
You can buy pfefferkuchen at Ingrid's
Kitchen, 2309 NW 36, in Oklahoma
City. The German bakery is owned by
Ingrid Quitz, who escaped from East
Berlin i n 1 9 6 2 . The true German
Christmas specialty, according to
Quitz, is spekulatiuf--cookies made of
spice dough and baked i n carved
wooden molds. The spekulatiufareone
German treat you won't find at Ingrid's,
since the baker can't find an authentic
mold.
-
A GUIDETO WELL-DRESSED
TREES
T
a Candlelight Walk; this year, the walk
he thing about traditions is
will be December 10 and December 12
they are always evolving.
Families adopt the ethnic tree- from 6-9 p.m. at the Kirkpatrick Center,
2100 N E 52, Oklahoma City. T h e
trimming traditions of their
exhibit of trees is open museum hours
forefathers. Then the next generation
Xovember 29 through January 4, 1992.
melds those traditions with
For more information, call (405) 427contemporary tree-trimming customs.
T h e latest evolution: Oklahoma
5461. communities have discovered the crowd potential offered by the prover- 7 bial Christmas tree. Here's a sampling j 5
of offerings around the state that star
the humble (and not so humble)
Christmas tree: 1
Lyric Theater's Festival of the Trees. T h e Lyric Theater Guild's tree festival features ten lavishly decorated trees, surrounded by enough booths selling goodies to be deserving of its name, a "Holiday Shopping Village." Trees are trimmed by artists and theater-lovers; trees are pre-sold. Proceeds benefit Lyric Theater. Festivities are set against a background of live carolers in the ballroom
of the Oklahoma City Mamott Hotel,
3233 Northwest Expressway. Hours are
noon to 5 p.m. November 17 and 9 a.m.
to 3 p.m. November 18. Admission to
the village is $3. For more information,
call (405) 755-1410.
The Kirkpatrick Center's Holiday
Treefest. T h e museum's treefest
began as a means of educating Oklahomans about the ethnic diversity to be
found within our borders. T h e result is
as beautiful as it is educational.
Ablaze with more than 40,000 lights
and topped with some 5,000 ornaments,
the forty-four trees include twenty
ethnic trees, from Laos, Bolivia,
Byzantium, China, Africa, Mexico,
Greece, France, Germany, Sweden,
Ireland, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Scotland, Italy, Korea, Japan, the
Philippines, Indonesia, and England.
Highlighting the treefest each year is
42
November 23 through December 8 at
the Philbrook, 2727 S. Rockford,
Tulsa. For more information, call (918)
748-5335.
Bartlesville's Festival of the Trees.
This festival is a textbook case of
teamwork. T h e local arts council loans
twenty-four, four-foot-tall artificial
trees to twenty-one local arts groups,
and in return the arts groups set up
booths, decorate the trees, and put
their creations up for sale. Proceeds
benefit the local arts community.
Opening night is at 6:30 on
December 6 at the Bartlesville
Museum, Sixth and Dewey; it
includes hot chocolate, wassail, and a
Christmas carol sing featuring local
carolers and choral groups.
Trees are on view from 10 a.m. to 8
p.m. December 6 and from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. December 7. Admission is free.
For information, call (918) 337-2787.
Stillwater's Festival of the Trees.
"TreeftbJ' Cand/e/ight" willbegin with
gunfire provided by two OKCgun clubs.
The noisemaking is a Gennan tradition.
The Philbrook Museum of Art's
Festival of the Trees. Designed as an
arts coalition fund-raising event and
exhibit, the Philbrook's festival of trees
combines elegance, ingenuity, and wit
with plenty of artistic adventurism. Tulsa
florists, interior designers, artists, and
architects decorate trees that range from
the avant garde to high-tech flash.
T h e festival includes arts exhibitions,
a sale of gift items, educational activities,
and live entertainment. Trees are
auctioned off at a party for museum
patrons; proceeds benefit the museum.
T h e festival is open museum hours
Through the years, Stillwater's annual
tree auction has gained a reputation
for its finger foods, themed trees, and
feverish bidding that sometimes pits
law partner against law partner and
husband against wife. (Organizers
have been known to nudge people
within sight of each other to enhance
bidding wars.)
This year's theme is "An Evening
in a Winter Wonderland"; fifteen trees
will be decorated by local artists, floral
designers, and arts supporters.
Proceeds benefit the local Arts and
Humanities Council.
T h e by-invitation-only tree auction
will be December 7; the public may
view the trees that day from 4-6 p.m.
Admission: $1. Both events will be at
the Best Western Inn, 600 E. McElroy
Road, Stillwater. For an auction
invitation, call: (405) 377-8175.
--Kevan Goff-Parker
Oklahoma TODAY
The EndO'Main Small-town caterer with big-cityplans.
T
only, the restaurant in the front still supper for Miss America. And with a
serves steak, shrimp, and Mexican food, fleet of nine vans, the company can cabut catering has become the mainstay t e r anywhere in t h e state-from
just as planned. "It took off because no McAlester in southeastern Oklahoma
one else was doing it," says daughter- to Beaver in the Panhandle.
O n e of the company's strengths is its
in-law Cheryl House. (Their stiffest
loyal staff.
Mary Bowers,
head cook, has
been with the
House family
for more than
twenty years,
and she knows
the company's
menu as well
a s if s h e ' d
authored it
herself. In
suiPly.
fact, s h e creWatonga has
ated dishes
its share of valike sausage
cant buildings,
dressed in
barbecue
too. And the red
sauce. At age
brick structure at
2 1 0 E. M a i n
seventy-six,
Street, across
Marie Lake
s t i 11 c 0 n t r i b from an a u t o
says Cheryl House. Above, roast beef, roast nrkty,
and
a
frosted
holiday
/ram--baked
ham
topped
with
seasoned
cream
cheese.
utes her spep a rt s s t 0 re,
s e e m s like it
cialties-musmight be one of them. N o sign on the competition was barbecue joints that tard potato salad and apple cobbler.
building, no windows, only two heavy catered.) T h r e e years ago, when the And Glendola Spencer, another cook,
wooden doors. But red-and-white vans H o u s e s retired, S t e v e a n d Cheryl has even contributed family to t h e
business-her three daughters now
parked outside act as an address might House bought T h e End 0' Main.
work
at End 0' Main. T h e arrangement
T h e company got its start catering
otherwise for T h e End 0' Main, a caseems
to suit everyone. As Bowers says,
tering company and sometime restau- dinners for the Greenfield Co-op south
"We
found
a home and we're gonna
rant based in downtown Watonga that of town, but credentials now include
stay."
Hawaiian luaus at an Oklahoma City
does a million-dollar-a-year business.
Not surprisingly, the source of the
Jerryand Roberta House started T h e water park, horse sales, and banquets
company's
menu is family based, too.
End 0' Main in 1974. For years they for three different governors (partisan
Steve
House
was raised on the roast
owned a restaurant that served mostly politics isn't a problem). T h e Houses
burgers and other easy meals, but they have set the table for retired Adm. Wil- beef, fried chicken, and cornbread
grew bored with the routine. They sold liam J. Crowe Jr.-then chairman of the dressing that form the mainstays of the
the old place and bought the building Joint Chiefs of Staff-as well as a group menu. "My mom has always been a real
downtown for a catering operation and of Russian dignitaries. Once, they even good cook," House says.
Additions have been made through
small restaurant. O n Saturday nights catered t h e wedding reception and
a k e a drive along Main
Street in Watonga and you
could be cruising any small
thoroughfare in rural Oklahoma where small businesses dominate. Pass Fannie Russell's barbershop
on w e s t Main
and you'll find f
an electrical
supply shop.
Howard Hursh !$
sells insurance
next door, and
the Watonga Republican has of-
2
m4!'
t h e years. Marilyn Cook, who is in
charge of making the salads, created
the summer recipe for cole slaw, which
has a vinaigrette instead of a cream
dressing. Cheryl House and Mary
Bowers played around in the kitchen
and came up with a horseradish and
cream cheese "frosting" for a holiday
ham. "Everybody has brought something and added to this business,"
Steve House says. And everything save
the pickles and the olives still is made
from scratch. Says Bowers, "We pride
ourselves in not taking restaurant
shortcuts."
N o cooking shortcuts but getting the
meal where it needs to go is a well-orchestrated routine, especially when
7,500 people-more than the entire
population of Watonga-need
to be
served in one day. I t falls to Steve
House to buy what is needed, be it bulk
grain for tabouli from Bishop Brothers
in Bristow or cheese from the Watonga
Cheese Factory down the street.
Come curtain time, each person has
a certain responsibility, whether cooking, packing, or transporting-or a little
of all three. T h e kitchen had to be
expanded about ten years ago, and one
of its more impressive gadgets is the
extra-large chicken fryer. Janie White
can cook 200 pieces on it every fifteen
minutes if need be. Once the food is
ready, 250 insulated carriers are used to
maintain the proper temperature during transport in the vans. Mileage to
most towns in Oklahoma is kept by
Cheryl House in a worn black notebook. Ask about a frequent stop, such
as Enid, and the Houses know t h e
mileaee bv, heart.
somejobs are booked five years i n
advance. Clients tend to be folks who
want a buffet for a meeting or food for
an informal gathering. Mary Bowers
recalls once T h e End 0' Main catered
a horse sale in Lone Wolf: "They had
a tent for the horses, but we were outside." When the tables needed leveling
on the rough ground, they used available materials: cow patties.
It's a bit more fun, says Cheryl
House, to cater fancy events like T h e
' 7
Grand National Quail Hunt, held in
Enid on the first weekend of the hunting season. "They let me go wild with
the menu," she says, and she gets to
break out the china, the linens, and the
silver chafing dishes. A typical buffet
menu might include sliced baked ham
with cherry sauce, glazed baby carrots,
and pistachio mousse.
T h e Houses are willing to grant that
someone else might be able to offer
recipes that taste as good as theirs do.
Their edge, they say, is in creating
dishes that can start out great in the
Watonga kitchen and end up just as
enjoyable on a buffet table in Lone
Wolf. As Steve House says, "The nice
thing about our peach mousse cake is
that we can travel 300 miles with it, and
it still tastes good."
-Rebecca L. Martin
pimi%-1
GLAZED CARROTS
5
pounds whole baby carrots,
frozen
112 pound butter (not margarine)
8 cups sugar
Combine ingredients in large pot and
bring to a boil on stove. No water is
needed; a glaze is made from the butter,
sugar, and water from the frozen carrots.
Serves: 50.
I
I
Getting There II
The End 0'Ahin, 210 E. Main Street,
Il'atonga, is openfor dinner on Saturday
nighfsfrom 5 to 9:31),September to March.
Rexrvatiofls are recommefzdedforlaw
groups. For information, cab (40.5)6235279 or wn'teBndO, Main, P.O.Box
IG8, Watonga, OK 73772.
o9Muin a/so prepares /romeso/e
mealsfordinnermcursionsaboardthe
Watonga Chief; an oldpassenger train that
makes an eight-mile tn$ along the North
the
Canadian River. Be ~elamedthis isn 'i
Orient Ex~ress,but a train hat's served
time running the rails. For reservations,
call (40.5) 732-0556.
I I
Malung Merry F o w wqsto m ~ e h s m o bn'jgk
n
WAGONER'S
FASHIONABLE
HOUSE TOUR
Wagoner's
Candlelight
Home T o u r
seems a tad short on,
well, homes. This year,
there are four-two territorial-era homes, a
post-World War I1 home,
and one that's spanking
new.
But when you factor in
Nellie Harris and add
the Oklahoma Historical
Fashion Museum as a
stop on t h e tour, you
have the makings of an
event that's become not
only the centerpiece of
Wagoner's holiday celebration, but one that
brings in carloads and
room is trans, edinto a castle Great Ha//, where knight\
buses full of visitors from At the OSU Mahigai Dinners, the Student Union
Tulsa, M uskogee, and and ladies sing of cou@ iove. Things can get a bit racy, "ifyoucan ranslate French,"says an organi~r.
Missouri.
Harris, described by an acquaintance the Muskogee Phoenix-Times Democrat, gala." An 1859plaid taffeta gown plays
as a "full-time riot," gives herself full after she noticed the contents of many a starring role, along with a brilliantly
credit for pulling together the home of the attics of Muskogee's grand old colored Carmen Miranda dance costour and making it a community tradi- homes were being hauled to the dump. tume, one with "a long, long train."
tion. Basically, she says, "I work like a "I was real grieved," she says. Espe- T h e dress was worn by Miranda in a
dog."
cially about t h e raccoon coats and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical.
Harris put her hand to the home tour beaded dresses.
T h e dance costume, Harris admits,
after first helping pull together the
Harris hit on the idea of a home tour isn't really Christmasy. "I get a big bang
fashion museum-a collection of vin- a few years ago after touring ante- out of it," she says. "I do it just for my
tage and antique clothing. (Wagoner has bellum mansions in the Deep South. own fun."
yet another fashion museum, t h e "We have homes this nice in Wagoner,"
The lour
December 5-7. Opening
Original Oklahoma Historical Fashion she remembers thinking. "Why not
evening
is
filed
with
festivities: community
Museum, but that's another story.)
stay home?"
onthecouflhouselawn
at ali&ted
Harris collected rooms full of vintage
T h e fashion museum, with Harris as
Chffshnas~arade
at8
in the local
and antique clothing during her twenty- hostess, dresses for the holiday tours.
dance
the
Twilight
Twisters,
three-year stint as the society editor at
"We dig out all the furs and get real
I
I
i
J
79 November-December 1991
outline their swirly skirts with tiny white
lkhts anddance on a flabedtmck), and az
10, after everyone'shada chance to tourthe
homes and the museum, hymn-singing a t a
localchurch. Formore information, callthe
Wagoner Chamber of Commerce at (918)
485-341 4.
MEDIEVAL MADRIGALS:
A HEARTY PARTY
I
n a nutshell, says Dr. Jerry
McCoy, fourteenth-century celebrants entertained themselves
by "drinking and smoking tobacco, hanging out and looking at the
trees, and making animal noises." And
singing and listening to madrigals.
T h e Oklahoma State University
professor should know. Each fall,
McCoy teaches a class in which students learn to perform madrigals, an
early form of music developed between
the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Madrigals are performed by small
groups of singers and use themes drawn
from medieval life-love relations, the
conventions of chivalry, and the aforementioned animal noises.
T h e singers are the heart of the
Madrigal Dinners, a seventeen-yearold tradition held in Stillwater in early
December to coincide with the winter
solstice. T h e hugely successful dinners
are a joint project among McCoy, the
university horticulture department, and
the Student Union. Last year, for each
of seven nights, 350 guests attended the
dinners. That's more than 2,400 guests,
or enough wassail to fill a small castle
moat.
One reason for the dinners' popularity is the care to detail given to the
event by its organizers. McCoy tends to
the authenticity of the entertainment
and provides guests with programs
filled with lyrics and historical footnotes. T h e horticulture department
decorates the ballroom with miles of
cedar rope and other natural greenery.
T h e OSU Student Union catering service prepares a period menu that typically includes wassail, date and nut
bread, roast pork, stuffed fish, and plum
pudding.
46
Perhaps most important is the fact
that creators plan the event to encourage a sense of community among diners. Guests sit at assigned seats at long
tables; one diner is appointed "Lord of
the Board" and charged with making
sure that everyone is served. Corporate
toasts are made, communal merrymaking is encouraged, and by the end
of the evening, when diners hold hands
and sing "Silent Night," the atmosphere is more warm than awkward.
The Madn'gal Dinners will be December
5-11. For resenmion information, call
(405) 744-5231.
VISIONS O F SUGARPLUMS
DANCE O N STAGE
T
I
Sherbet-colored paint creates stripe
parfaits; glossy brown paint shines o
a chocolate torte. A gingerbread house
brownies, cupcakes, and sprinkles ga
lore fill the stage. As the bakers' ap
pearance segues into the Hot Choco
late, Tea, and Coffee dances, there ar
certain to be some mouths watering.
You can satisfy those cravings at th
Ballet Theatre Guild's "Sugarplu
Party," a tea party at Harwelden
sion featuring old-fashioned sweets an
costumed characters from the ballet.
I
BalIetpe7fomances wiIIbe December 18
23 at 7p.m. andat 1p.m. on December21
and 23. For ticket information, call (918
585-2573. For infonnation on the pa^,
call (918) 528-2575.
here are almost as many
OPENING NIGHT:
moments to love in
A
DOWNTOWN JAM
Tchaikovsky's "The
Nutcracker" as there are
n the mid-1980s, conventional
annual productions of the classic holiwisdom held that nobody would
day ballet: the icy, ethereal quality of
come downtown in Oklahoma
the hushed Snowflake Dance, the
City after dark. T h e local city arts
drama of the clash between the Mouse council threw a big New Year's Eve
King and the gallant Nutcracker, a party downtown anyway and proved
Christmas tree that grows and spins as the conventional wisdom wrong.
the house around it flies away.
Three-thousand revelers were exBut some hearts don't really begin to pected. Eighteen-thousand showed.
beat fast until the second act, when the
As a result, t h e first "Opening
Sugarplum Fairy escorts Clara into the Night," was confusing, crowded, cold,
"Kingdom of the Sweets," a luscious and, judging from the way the party has
world of confection, spice, and choco- continued to grow, a blast. T h e event,
late. Here, true fantasy begins.
now in its fifth year, has grown from
A hallmark of t h e T u l s a Ballet twelve venues to twenty.
Theatre's annual Nutcracker producT h e celebration works like this:
tions has always been to cast scads of downtown buildings lend their lobbies,
scene-stealing small children as mice, parking garages, and auditoriums to
rabbits, angels, toy soldiers, and other local bands, theater groups, clowns,
extras. Beginning last year, a cadre of mimes, magicians, art exhibits, storypint-sized bakers was added to the tellers, and performance artists.
sweets' sequence, appearing just as Partygoers buy a badge ($4 in advance,
Clara settles into her throne-thirteen
$5 at the event) that gives them adtiny chefs (a baker's dozen), ages four mission to all performances. Artistically
to seven, parade before Clara, bearing speaking, everybody who is anybody is
oversized sweets on gilded trays two there, and the event lets visitors sample
feet across. T h e goodies are nearly as the local arts scene like grazers at a
big as the bakers.
holiday buffet. -Barbara Palmer
Cincinnati designer Jay Depenbrock
For information on where to buy badges,
sculpted the sweets from styrofoam
calI the Oklahoma City Arts Council, at
and cardboard to be lightweight, then
(405) 236-1426.
piled on t h e artificial sweeteners.
I
Oklahoma TODAY
1
The Creation Windows ExpmsingthTorah in gkrs
A
window as the Beginning. T h e clear,
handmade bevels represent the two
kinds of light. T h e next band, made of
dark blue-green glass and on which the
Creation story is written in Hebrew in
twenty-four-carat gold, represents that
which disperses darkness. T h e
third band, in which amethysts
and emeralds are suspended,
symbolizes t h e chaos o u t of
which order was made. T h e designer also inlaid images of fish,
birds, and plants into the windows' background, along with
abstract forms.
"Although I put a lot of recogKarchmer and four o t h e r
nizable forms in there, my emponsors-Annette Friedlander,
phasis is on the unrecognizable
. Edward Barth, Linda Barth
things, the feeling, the history,"
anovic, Milton Benjamin May,
says Marrilyn. "The most imnd their families-adhered to a
portant level (for the windows)
ng-standing Jewish tradition
to reach you is through your
hen they commissioned the The imagery of the Creation windowsgoes bqondthat which is
spiritual or intuitive side."
akingofthechapelwindows readilyseen:angels,fish,andlandscapes/iebeneaththesurface. M a r r i l y n s a y s s h e w a s c o n memorials to family members
scious of the fact that in designday celebration of Hanukkah, t h e ing and fabricating the windows, she
gone before them.
T o create the windows, the sponsors Jewish feast that marks the rededicat- was taking part in the very thing that
turned to Gary and Marrilyn Adams of ion in 165 B.C. of t h e T e m p l e in the windows describe-reation.
In the
Drageon Gate Studios in Edmond. As Jerusalem after Judas Maccabaeus' creative process, you gather all your indesigner, Marrilyn, who is non-Jewish, victory over Antiochus IV. Literally the formation, and the unconscious takes
first spent weeks immersing herself in "Festival of Dedication," Hanukkah is everything together and comes up with
Jewish history and the Torah, the five also a festival of lights. One candle is lit a new product, says Marrilyn. In this
books of Moses. She also studied the on the first night of the holiday, two on project, "I had a whole lot of things to
collections at T h e Fenster Museum of the second, and so forth, for eight days. play with."
T h e Creation windows include three
Jewish Art in Tulsa. Her research con"God is the great mystery in all religlass
panels, each of which depicts a gions," she adds. "What I really want,
vinced her that stained glass was an
ideal medium for telling the Creation different aspect of the Creation story. when people see my work, is for them
story. "Light is very, very important in T h e central panel shows t h e first to experience awe and wonder about
temple, scrolls of law, and Paradise. T h e life."
the Jewish faith," she explains.
-Terri L. Darrow
first
and third panels are dominated by
Marrilyn found that the Jewish faith
A sign in Rabbi David Packman's
recognizes two kinds of light, a super- outlines of Adam and Eve, as a resynagogue appropn'ately bears a quotation in
natural light and sunlight, the "light minder, says Rabbi David Packman, of Hebrmfrom Isaiah, ,'My HouseshallBe
that separated the night from the day." man's part in God's plan.
Thy House." Visiton are alwa-ys weIcome at
One interpretation of the windows is his
It is light, too, that breathes life into
services on Fn'daI orto vim The
stained glass. "When I'm working with to view the outermost band around each Creation windows.
s one of the sponsors of T h e
Creation windows in t h e
Esther Greenberg Chapel at
T e m p l e B'Nai Israel in
orthwest ~ k l a h o m aCity, Alfred
chmer had one major concern: H e
not want common stained ,
ass windows. H e wanted 2
thing unique. H e wanted {
e got what he wanted."I
s thrilled with the outcome,"
ys Karchmer. "They are very n
nique. T h e r e is such
loration ...it's artwork that can
e viewed as a painting or
1
glass, I'm working with light, controlling it, and producing a strong mystical
quality."
T h e Temple B'Nai Israel dedicated
the windows on December 14, 1990,
the second night of the annual eight-
.a
,
I ,I \, ,,
'-
;';J<%J,'
(
b
&
CALENDAR
+ Nov. 1OJan. 12 Frank Lloyd Wright's vision was to
create environments where landscapes, structures, and interiors were in
harmony with nature. With a n eighty-piece exhibit of Wright-designed
interior pieces at the Philbrook Museum of Art, you get an inside look at
furniture, glass, graphics, textiles, and photography.
Nov. 12,13,16,23
What you can't see from the road is waiting for you in the Wichita Mountains
Wildlife Refuge, on guided hikes into the Charon's Garden area and eaglewatching tours. ( Call ahead to reserve a spot.) Dec. 6-7 "AYuletide Festival"
is being billed as "as close as you can get to Radio City Music Hall in
Oklahoma," and, with the 75-member Philharmonic, the 120-member Canterbury Choral Society, and 40 Rockette-like American Spirit Dance Co.
dancers joining forces, who could argue? Watch for fake snow, candlelight,
airborne reindeers, and a big finish.
+
I
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, (918) 749-7941
"Pulps and Slicks," Nat'l Cowboy Hall of Fame.
OKC, (405) 478-2250
"Festival of Trees," Philbrook hluseum of Art,
Tulsa, (918) 749-7941
"Holiday Treefest," Omniplex Science Museum,
OKC, (405) 424-5545
MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES
NOVEMBER
1-1 1
Masters Exhibition Show, Five Civilized Tribes
Museum, Muskogee, (918) 683-1701
1-29 "Victor Higgins: An American Master," Gilcrease
Museum, Tulsa, (918) 582-3122
1-30 Charles Chapman Exhibit, Plains Indians and
Pioneers Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-613
1-30 Navajo Blanket Exhibit, Woolaroc Museum,
Bartlesville, (918) 336-0307
I-Feb. 2 "Old Master Prints from Philbrook's Permanent
Collection," Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa,
(918) 749-7941
Photographs by Alecia Atwell, McMahon
Auditorium, Lawton, (405) 581-3471
"Floral Works," Charles B. Goddard Center,
Ardmore, (405) 226-0909
"Beyond Tradition," Nat'l Cowboy Hall of Fame,
OKC, (405) 478-2250
4th Int'l Shoebox Sculpture Invitational,
OU Museum of Art, Norman, (405) 325-3272
"Frank Lloyd Wright: Facets of Design,"
DECEMBER
1
Old FashionedChristmas. CherokeeStrip Museum,
Perry, (405) 336-2405
Christmas Open House, Plains Indians and
Pioneers Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-6136
Fernando Padilloand Mike Daniels Exhibit, Plains
Indians and Pioneers Museum, Woodward,
(405) 256-6136
Mary Stephens Exhibit. McMahon Memorial
"A Christmas Corral," Nat'l Cowboy Hall of Fame,
OKC, (405) 478-2250
"Photographs by Ralph Eugene Meatyard," OKC
Art Museum at the State Fairgrounds, OKC,
(405) 840-2759
"Waldo Visits Omniplex!" Omniplex Science
Museum, OKC, (405) 424-5545
Cimarron Co. Art Show and Sale, Fairgrounds, Bois City, (405) 426-2217 Tri-State Arts and Crafts Show, Miami, (918) 542-6865 Illinois River Arts and Crafts Show, NSU, Tahlequak (918) 456-55 11 Quilt and Craft Show, Fairgrounds, El Reno, l(405) 262-0155 Holiday Express, Fair Building, Woodward, (405) 256-5236 Osage Hills Arts and Crafts Show, Sand Springs, (918) 245-2248 Festival of the Trees, Lyric Theatre, OKC, (405) 528-3636 Festival of Trees, Altus, (405) 482-0210 Fall Hafli, St. Anthony's Church, Tulsa, (918) 584-7300 Christmas Craft Fair, State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 685-3600 Holiday Treefest, Kirkpatrick Center, OKC, (405) 427-5461 Annual Thanksgiving Feast, Lake Murray Country Inn, Ardmore, (405) 223-6600 Mennonite Relief Sale, Major Co. Fairgrounds, Fairview, (405) 227-4730 Christmas Fair, Firehouse Art Center, Norman, (405) 329-4523 NOVEMBER
1-3,7-9
"Lend Me a Tenor," Pollard Theatre, Guthrie,
(405) 282-2800 "Daddy's Dyin': Who's Got the Will?" Carpenter Square Theatre, OKC, (405) 232-6500 "The Road to Mecca," Pollard Theatre, Guthrie, (405) 282-2800 "Macbeth," Nat'l ShakespeareCompany, NSU Fine Arts Auditorium, Tahlequah, (918) 456-5511 "Jekylland Hyde," McMahon Auditorium, Lawton, (405) 581-3471 "A Lesson from Aloes," Heller Theatre, Tulsa, (918) 743-1218 "Dial M for Murder," Ponca Playhouse, Ponca City, (405) 765-5360 "The Mousetrap," Theatre Tulsa, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 596-71 11 "My Three Angels," Shawnee Little Theatre, Shawnee, (405) 275-2805 "Born Yesterday," Muskogee Little Theatre, Muskogee, (918) 687-1714 "The House of Blue Leaves," Lawton Community Theatre, Lawton, (405) 355-1600 "Christmas Holly," SW Playhouse, Clinton, (405) 323-4448 "Dead Wrong," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC, (405) 521-1786 "Greater Tuna," Carpenter Square Theatre, OKC, (405) 232-6500 "A Territorial Christmas Carol," Pollard Theatre, Guthrie, (405) 282-2800 DECEMBER
6-7
7
7
Festival of Trees, Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 Festival of Trees, Stillwater, (405) 372-5573 Holidav Craft Bazaar. Purcell, (405) 872-3067 RODEO AND HORSE EVENTS
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
1 "Annie," NSU Fine Arts Auditorium, Tahlequah,
(918) 456-551 1 3-7 American CollegeTheatre Festival, OSU, Stillwater, (405) 744-6094 3-22 "The Sugar Plum Fairy and Co.," OK Children's Theatre, OKC, (405) 948-6408 4 "Hecuba," Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa, (918) 631-2566 5-8 "Golliwhoppers," Lawton Community Theater, Lawton, (405) 355-1600 6-8 "A Feliz Navidad Critter Fiesta," American Theatre Co., Tulsa, (918) 747-9494 6-8, 12-15 "Babes in Toyland," Broken Arrow Community Playhouse, Broken Arrow, (918) 258-0077 6-15 "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," TheatreTulsa, Tulsa, (918) 587-8402 13-21 "A Christmas Carol," Lawton Community Theatre, Lawton, (405) 355-1600 13-22 "A Christmas Carol," John Williams Theatre, FAIRS AND FESTIVALS
NOVEMBER
1-3 Watonga Cheese Festival, Downtown and Fairgrounds, Watonga, (405) 623-7249 Southwest Reining Horse Futurity, Hardy Murphy Coliseum, Ardmore, (405) 223-2541 7-9 NWOSU Rodeo, Woods Co. Fairgrounds, Alva, (405) 327-1 700 7-10 U.S. Team Roping Championship, Lazy E Arena, Guthrie, (405) 282-3004 13-23 World Championship Quarter Horse Show, State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 948-6704 23 Sooner POA Horse Show, Expo Square, Tulsa, (918) 744-1113 29-30 Nat'l Finals Steer Roping, Lazy E Arena, Guthrie, (405) 282-3004 30 Nat'l Finals Senior Steer Roping, Lazy E Arena, Guthrie, (405) 282-3004 1-3
DECEMBER
1-7 Nat'l Reining Horse Futurity, State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 948-6704 6-7,13-14,20-21 Holiday Hayrides, Allen Ranch, Bixby, (918) 366-3010 7-9 NWOSU Rodeo, Woods County Fairgrounds. Alva, (405) 327-1700 10-14 World Barrel Racing Futurity, State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 948-6704 21 Championship High School Rodeo, Hardy Murphy Coliseum, Ardmore, (405) 223-2541 Oklahoma TODAY
1
E N T E R T A I N M E N T
C A L E N D A R
SNU Concert Chorale Christmas Madrigal Dinner
Concert, Bethany, (405)491-6345
TulsaPhilharmonicPops with Maureen McGovern,
Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 747-7445
Southwestern Singers in Concert, SW Playhouse, Clinton, (405)323-1675 "The Nutcracker," Ballet Oklahoma, Civic Center Music Hall, OKC, (405) 848-8637 "The Mikado," Charles B. Goddard Center,
Ardmore, (405) 226-0909 "Hansel and Gretel," Ardmore, (405) 364-8962 "Nutcracker," Community Center, Bartlesville, (918) 336-4746 Tulsa Philharmonic and Youth Symphony, Union
High School, Tulsa, (918) 747-7445 "The Nutcracker," Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa. (918) 585-2573 Chamber Singers, Seretean Center, OSU, Stillwater, (405)744-6133
INDIAN EVENTS
OVEMBER
1-30 "Living Tradition," Jacobson House, Norman,
(405)366-1667
21-23 Indian Summer, Southroads Mall, Tulsa,
(918)622-0550
I
I
ECEMBER
1-31 Scandinaviannndian Christmas, Jacobson House,
Norman, (405) 366-1667
MUSIC AND DANCE
VOVEMBER
2-4
Koto Concert, Cimarron Circuit Opera Co., Norman, (405) 364-8962 3,10,17 Music at the Mansion, OKC Art Museum, OKC, (405)840-2759
7 Fall Jazz Concert, OSU, Stillwater, (405) 744-6133
8 "Cole Porter at 100,"Brady Theater, Tulsa,
(918)582-7507
Vienna Choir Boys, Community Center, Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 OKC Philharmonic Orchestra Pops Concert with Shirley Jones, OKC Civic Center, OKC, (405)843-0900
Wester'n OK Ballet Academy, Clinton,
(405)323-5954
"The Nutcracker," CASC Campus, Poteau,
(918)647-8660
Lawton Philharmonic Orchestra, McMahon
Auditorium, Lawton, (405)248-2001
Prairie Dance Christmas Celebration, Kirkpatrick
Center, OKC, (405) 478-4132
Stillwater Chamber Singers, OSU, Stillwater,
(405) 744-6133
Tulsa Philharmonic Classics Concert, Performing
Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 747-7445
OKC Philharmonic Classics Concert, Civic Center,
OKC, (405) 843-0900
OSU Symphony Orchestra, Stillwater,(405)744-6133
Reba McEntire Concert, 1ulsa, (918) 495-6000
Ballet Oklahoma, Eula B. Peterson Auditorium,
Altus, (405)482-0210
SPECIAL EVENTS
NOVEMBER
1-3 Antique Fall Swap Meet, Grady Co. Fairgrounds,
Chickasha, (405) 224-6552
Living History Program, Red River Trading Post,
Lawton, (405) 581-3460
Baseball Card Show, Ardmore, (405) 234-4426
House Tour, Wagoner, (918)485-3414
General Norman Schwarzkopf Lecture, Performing
Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 596-7 1 11
Fairview Fly-in, Airport, Fairview, (405) 227-3788
Veterans Day Parade, Downtown, Tulsa,
(918)583-2617
Wilderness Hike and Eagle Tour, Wichita
Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Indiahoma,
(405)429-3222
Territorial Christmas Celebration, Guthrie,
(405) 282-1947
Antique and Crafts Show and Sale, Bryan Co.
Fairgrounds, Durant, (405) 434-5641
Dedication of "Crossing the Red" Statue, Jackson
Co. Courthouse, Altus, (405) 477-1 100
Antique Toy and Doll Show, Expo Square, Tulsa,
(918) 744-1 113
Tree Lighting and Caroling Party, Myriad Gardens,
OKC, (405) 297-3995
DECEMBER
1
Swingle Singers, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa,
(918)596-7111
1 Tulsa Philharmonic on Ice, Williams Center Forum,
Tulsa, (918) 747-7473
5 Philharmonic and Choral Performance, McMahon
6 "Home for Christmas," Tulsa Pops, Tulsa,
(918) 582-7507
6 "Yule Song," Community Sing, First Presbyterian
Church, Muskogee, (918) 687-5401
6-7 "A Yuletide Festival," OKC Philharmonic, Canterbury Choral Society, and American Spirit Dance
Co., Civic Center, OKC, (405) 843-0900
6 Bryan County Peanut and Pecan Show, Fairgrounds,
Durant, (405) 924-5312
Madrigal Dinner, SNU, Bethany, (405)491-6345
Christmas Gala, Marland Mansion, Ponca City,
(405)767-0422
Christmas Light Extravaganza at Pensacola Dam,
between Langley and Disney, (918) 782-3449
Boare's Heade Feaste, NSU, Tahlequah, (918)
456-5511, ext. 2500
"OpeningNight," Downtown, OKC, (405)236-1426
Although the injomahon in this calendar is current, dates anddemih can change
without notice. Please check in advance before anmding any twent.

Number 6 November, 1991 - Oklahoma State University

Transcription

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