tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-311173732024-03-17T22:03:48.370-05:00Doug Dawgz BlogThis blog's focus is Oklahoma City history, past, present, and future!
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Enjoy!Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.comBlogger326125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-80259549478298895472014-12-30T16:19:00.001-06:002015-01-06T10:44:50.690-06:00Terry L. Griffith<a name="top"></a><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/terry_griffith_zps778916d6.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px;" />Very sad news ... Terry L. Griffith, Oklahoma City historian and writer of three basic books on Oklahoma City's history, died on Christmas Day 2014.
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I never met Terry but his three Arcadia Publishing books have been a constantly used and reliable source of information about our city's history. His obituary was published this morning in the <i>Oklahoman</i>:
<blockquote>Nov 8, 1961 - Dec 25, 2014 OKLAHOMA CITY Terry L Griffith, 53, of Oklahoma City, died Dec. 25, 2014, after a valiant fight with cancer. He was born Nov. 8, 1961, in Oklahoma City, a city he loved and had a passion for. He became a historian on his beloved city, with three published books on the subject. He worked as a barista for Starbucks, where his humor, charm, smiles and laughter will be missed. He is survived by his best friend, Stephen Spottedhorse; cousin, Johnny Hindman; and many loving friends. He was predeceased by his parents, Lee and Magnolia Griffith. Terry is gone from this life but never from our hearts. Memorial service will be held at a later date.</blockquote>
The three books mentioned in the above obituary are:
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(1) <i>Oklahoma City: Land Run to Statehood</i> (Arcadia Publishing 1999). <br>
(2) <i>Oklahoma City: Statehood to 1930</i> (Arcadia Publishing 2000).<br>
(3) <i>Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium</i> (Arcadia Publishing 2000).</br><br>
I reviewed these books in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/06/okc-history-books.html#griffith1" target="_blank">a much earlier post</a> and no need exists to do so again.
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God speed, Terry Griffith. You are missed, and you are thanked for your contributions to our city's history.
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<center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-14226128494692880282014-11-15T05:41:00.001-06:002014-11-24T19:50:51.210-06:00Oklahoma's Most Notorious Cases<a name="top"></a><i>A Book Review by Doug Loudenback</i>
<br><br><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/notorious_cover_zps0caa9fb4.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/notorious_covers_zps7a3ba145.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>
Who doesn’t savor extravagantly entangled murder mysteries, nefarious melodramas in which big business is allegedly unworried about harming the public, and yarns of political corruption-crime-and-intrigue?
I’m not presently thinking of stories like the modern-day <i>Sherlock</i> on PBS, or movies like 1979's <i>The China Syndrome</i>, or Netflix’s <i>House of Cards</i> — as much as I enjoy them all. Right now, I’m thinking, “Ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City.” <i>We’ve had real true-to-life similar troubles right here in Oklahoma River Cities!</i>
That kind of trouble is what <i>Oklahoma’s Most Notorious Cases</i> is all about. Hereafter, I use “Notorious” to reference the book title. In it, Oklahoma City author Kent Frates chronicles six of those true-story troubles — those befitting his label of “Oklahoma’s most notorious cases.” He identifies them as ...
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1. Machine Gun Kelly & the Urschel Kidnapping<br>
2. U.S. v. David Hall<br>
3. The Girl Scout Murders<br>
4. The Karen Silkwood Case<br>
5. The Sirloin Stockade Murders<br>
6. The Oklahoma City Bombing<br><br>
... and this is my review of and a few notes about Mr. Frates’s book, <i>Oklahoma’s Most Notorious Cases</i> (The RoadRunner Press, Oklahoma City, 2014).
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/kent_november_11_zps285d8635.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/kent_november_11s_zps4db75a21.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a><b><i>First Booksigning.</b></i> It was at the <i>Full Circle Bookstore</i>, Oklahoma City, Tuesday, November 11, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. — which is to say, a few days ago. My intention was to have this review done well before then, but that didn’t work out. I should have been too embarrassed to attend, but I sucked it up, attended the booksigning, and got the photo of the author, at the left. Other notable lawyers — (Honest) Don Davis, H.K. Berry, and John Michael Williams — were present while I was there. Probably, other booksignings will occur, and I will update this paragraph as I learn of them.
<br><br> <b><i>Booksigning UPDATE!</b></i> The next booksigning: Saturday, Nov. 29th, 3 - 4:30 p.m.
<i>Best of Books</i>, Kickingbird Square, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond 405.340.9202 (At least I'm on time for this one.)
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<b><i>The Book’s Website:</i></b><a href="http://www.okmostnotoriouscases.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.okmostnotoriouscases. com/</a> ... at this website, in addition to purchasing the book, you can read several pages of text in the Girl Scout Murders case and view a few images in the book.
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Perhaps because I wrote such glowing words about his <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2014/06/common-sense-from-paine-to-frates.html
target="_blank">June 2014 issue of <i>Common Cause</i></a>, Kent thought that I would be as generous were I to review his latest literary offering, <i>Oklahoma’s Most Notorious Cases</i>. If he did think that (and he probably didn’t — he is a stand-up guy), he was certainly correct. Having received his October 7 invitation to review his latest book, and having finished my reading and analysis, the briefest review is simply this: <i>I just loved this excellent Oklahoma (primarily Oklahoma City) history book.</i>
Naturally, I am obliged to be more particular and critical in an objectively written book review, so let’s have a closer look.
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<b>The Book Itself.</b> This hardback book is 338 pages long, plus 11 pages of chapter notes, plus 16 pages of mostly small but 30 high quality photos on glossy photo paper. That makes the actual page length 365 pages, not including the introductory pages to each chapter four of which begin with a poem penned by Mr. Frates. Paper and print quality are excellent. Graphics quality is also excellent, as shown by the reduced-size scan of two pages below:
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/notorious_photos_zps7de65a7b.jpg" target="blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/notorious_photoss_zpsf1e47345.jpg"></a></center>
My favorite of the above photos is the lower right hunting trip — Urschel is kneeling in the center and to his immediate right is the author’s father, C.L. Frates — the resemblance between the author and his dad is remarkable.
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The book size is approximately 6" x 9." The price is $24.00 U.S. dollars, $26 Canadian. It is also available at Amazon at a slightly lower price. For a quality hardback history book such as this book is, at any of these prices, it is quite a steal.
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<b>Why We Care About The Trouble.</b> In the book’s <i>Introduction</i>, Kent says,
<blockquote> Legal cases are, of course, about events, but they are more about people. They have heros, and they have villains ... sometimes really bad villains. Who the good guys and the bad guys are goes to the heart of any good legal case, or true story. How often has someone picked up the newspaper or turned on the television and asked himself, How could anyone do that? How could anyone be that evil?<br>
It may well be fortunate that we cannot know the thought process of the most vicious criminals, but it would be disingenuous to pretend that their crimes do not catch and hold our attention. As much as we’d like to understand what drives the villains, we are equally, if not more so, enamored by the heroism, resourcefulness, and pure tenacity of the law enforcement professionals who bring down the same criminals. It is somehow this ying and yang of our justice system that creates memorable cases.
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In a world of instant news and constant communication we must remember it was not always like this. The shrill buzz of 24/7 coverage is a relatively new phenomenon. Newspaper stores, word-of-mouth accounts, radio bulletins, and early-day television reports spread the news in less graphic and slower ways. <i>Trials remain a source of mass entertainment, but there was a time when people actually traveled from town to town to attend them, as fans might travel for a sporting event.</i> [Emphasis supplied]</blockquote>
Kent didn’t put it this way, but the truth is (I think) that most of us, including me, are voyeurs — <i>we like to watch</i> — and our attention is drawn to both humanity’s dark and light sides at the same time, for whatever reason. We like to watch Darth Vader as much as we do Luke Skywalker.
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<b>The Author’s Choices.</b> The preface page to his Introduction contains this definition of “notorious,” doubtless derived from some unnamed dictionary:
<blockquote><b><i>Notorious:</b> well-known or famous especially for something bad: generally known and talked of; especially: widely and unfavorably known: from the Latin</i> noscere <i>to come to know</i></blockquote>
In the <i>Introduction</i>, he amplifies his intended meaning and the reasons he chose the six cases he did from Oklahoma’s (and, largely, Oklahoma City’s) history:
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<blockquote> What then makes for a notorious case? Some trials are so universally well known, we simply refer to them as the “Trial of Galileo” or the “Scopes Trial.” But to rise to the level of notorious requires that a case be more than just ubiquitous, think, “Lizzie Borden” or “Charles Manson,” “John Hinckley Jr.,” or “O.J. Simpson.” <i>Such cases carry a hint of evil, an indifference to one’s fellowman not found in your average murderer or corrupt politician or thief.</i> [Emphasis supplied]
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* * *
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The cases chosen for this book cover a wide swath of Oklahoma history from 1933 to 2004. Some older cases were rejected because of the lack of sufficient reliable records.</blockquote>
Doubtless, the author’s six choices match all of his requisite standards — even though one could make a case for the addition of populist Governor Jack C. Walton, Oklahoma’s fifth Governor, who was impeached by the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and then tried, convicted, and finally removed from office by Senate on November 19, 1923, after serving only eleven months in office. The story of this politician and his career has all the earmarks of being “notorious” — plus, evidence of evil was ample on all sides surrounding his fascinating eleven-month term in office — including Walton’s imposition of martial law, his placement of armed National Guardsmen around and on top of courthouses, even his commandeering <i>The Tulsa World</i> newspaper for a time, his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and massive corruption in office, as well as the KKK’s involvement both in and out of the Oklahoma Legislature. Other scholars have noted that, most probably, a majority of Oklahoma House and Senate members were members of the KKK during the time of Walton’s tenure as Governor. Although I would have relished reading Mr. Frates’s description of this period of Oklahoma City history, I must give him a pass for not doing so because, after all, <i>Notorious</i> is his book and not mine.
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As to Kent’s content choices, I’ll make a few comments, but I’ll spend more time with the first case than the others — partly because I want to illustrate an exemplary case, but also because the Heritage Hills Urschel home is only three blocks from where I live in Mesta Park.
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<b><i>Case #1 — Machine Gun Kelly & The Urschel Kidnapping</b>, Chapters 1-11.</i>
<blockquote><blockquote><font size="1"><i>The Kidnapping, Not Your Normal Hostage, The FBI, The Ransom, The Hunt, On the Run, The First Trial, Capturing the Kellys, The Kelly Trial, Aftermath, Kathryn & Ora Set Free</i></font></blockquote></blockquote>
Some sources say that George Francis Barnes Jr. was born on July 18, 1895, in Memphis, Tennessee — <i>Notorious</i> says that he was born on July 14, 1900, in Chicago, Illinois. Either way, he changed his name to George R. Kelly and came to be popularly known as Machine Gun Kelly. He died on July 18, 1954, in Leavenworth, Kansas. His last wife, Kathryn, co-conspirator and probable planner of the kidnapping but not present when it occurred, was born Cleo Mae Brooks in Saltillo, Mississippi, in 1904. A third principal bad guy and participant in the actual kidnapping was Albert Bates, born October 16, 1893.
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About Kathryn, <i>Notorious</i> notes that J. Edgar Hoover said, in his 1938 book, <i>Persons in Hiding</i>:
<blockquote>Several years ago, thousands of our citizens shivered in fear of a kidnapper whose name had much to do with the terror he engendered: he was called Machine-gun Kelly. However, there was someone far more dangerous than Machine-gun Kelly. That was Machine Gun Kelly’s wife.</blockquote>
Anecdotally, I’ll mention that another lawyer friend of mine, John Brewer of Oklahoma City, whose father had been married to Kathryn before she married Kelly, related to me that Charles Urschel may have been an afterthought concerning their pending kidnapping. He says:
<blockquote>Some time prior to the Urschel kidnapping, Kathryn and George showed up in Pauls Valley [Oklahoma] with the intention of kidnapping my older brother. A hotel employee overheard the plotting, told my dad, and my dad told the local sheriff. Kathryn and George were told to leave town. Urschel was next in line. Actually Urschel was MUCH better off financially than my dad.</blockquote>
The actual victim-in-waiting proved to be Charles F. Urschel. He lived in Oklahoma City at 327 N.W. Eighteenth Street with his second wife, Berenice. Urschel was born in Hancock County, Ohio, on March 7, 1890, and died on September 16, 1970, in San Antonio, Texas.
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Frates doesn’t quantify Urschel’s wealth, but he does note that the Cushing oil field was developed by Urschel and Tom Slick and that, in 1919, “it accounted for seventeen percent of the United States and three percent of world production of oil.” Think about that for a moment — 17% of oil production in the United States and 3% of the world’s. <i>That’s one heck of a lot of o’ earl!</i>
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The pair continued their business partnership until Slick died in 1930, leaving Bernice as his widow. After Urschel’s first wife died in 1931, Charles married Berenice, Slick’s widow, thereby combining their vast fortunes.
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/urschel_home_zps6cf0991a.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/urschel_homes_zpsd25ec5cd.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>The author describes the Urschel home as a “mansion,” and indeed it was, and it so remains. The <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/AN-R.asp?ACCOUNTNO=R043884079" target="_blank">Oklahoma County Assessor’s records</a> state that the home contains 6,330 square feet. This photo was taken October 2014. The Oklahoma City Historical Preservation Commission’s marker on NW 18th states that it was built in 1923, was originally owned by Tom Slick, and would later be owned by US Senator Robert S. Kerr.
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/urshel_aerial_zps738f17bc.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/urshel_aerials_zps4ea257d4.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>This view from Google Earth shows the spacious mansion from the air.<br><br>
While playing a late-night hand of bridge within the above home’s screened back porch on July 22, 1933, at 11:15 p.m., Urschel and, initially, his friend Walter Jarrett, were abducted — Jarrett was released some hours later in eastern Oklahoma County once the abductors managed to figure out which of the pair was actually Urschel, the intended target of the kidnapping. A $200,000 ransom was demanded, paid, and, eventually, somewhat recovered. The author notes that the sum would be the equivalent of about $3,000,000 in today’s currency. He deliciously takes his readers through the lives of the people and events surrounding the first FBI kidnapping case and the first criminal trial to occur in Oklahoma City’s then new federal courthouse — quite possibly setting a land speed record for “speedy trial.”
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These comments just skim the surface of this fascinating case — and, no, Kelly did not coin the phrase, “G-man,” as in, “Don’t shoot, G-man.” Most probably, that phrase can be attributed to Hoover and his then infant FBI organization.
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Many internet sources exist for the events described in this <i>Notorious</i> case, but given that (1) the author’s research is extensive, and (2) he is a nephew of Charles and Berenice Urschel and communicated with Charles about it before his death, my expectation is that the author’s accounts are the most accurate of all available.
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<b><i>Case #s 2-6.</b></i> This review is already too long so I’ll make fewer comments about the other cases in <i>Notorious</i>, below.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/hall_zps69937dad.jpg" title="David Hall" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> <b><i>Case #2 — United States v. David Hall,</b> Chapters 12-24.
<blockquote><font size="1">The Road To Success, Politics, Governor Hall, Kickbacks, Bribes & The IRS, Political Defeat, Wired, The Sting, The Payoff, Federal Charges, The Trial, The Defense, Guilty, Payback & Denial</font></i></blockquote>
This case describes the legacy of the 20th Governor of Oklahoma (1/1/1971 - 1/13/1975). It is a story of money, bribery, kickbacks, and extortion, all wrapped up in a governor’s clothes. It tells the story of what can happen when blind ambition is coupled with very shallow pocketbooks in the power of the office of the Governor of Oklahoma. Near the end of his term in office, Hall was already the subject of federal grand jury proceedings — but the Fall 1974 investigation didn’t end there. Amazingly, Hall engaged in one of his most arrogant schemes during his last 1½ months in office, he knowing all the while that he was under intense scrutiny by federal authorities.
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On January 13, 1975, he served his last day in office. Three days later he was indicted on four counts in federal court involving extortion, conspiracy to use interstate commerce to carry on an unlawful activity, and bribery. His trial began on February 24 and the jury was given its instructions on March 12. On March 14, verdicts of guilty were returned on all counts. All appeals failed and, after serving only 18 months of his 4-year sentence, he was released from federal prison. He and his wife are living out the remainder of their lives in southern California, Hall still professing his innocence.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/camp_scott_map_zps435b63c0.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> <b><i>Case #3 — The Girl Scout Murders,</b> Chapters 25-37.
<blockquote><font size="1">The Crime, The Investigation, Gene Leroy Hart, Manhunt, Homeboy, Captured, The Prosecution, Preliminary Hearing, Newly Discovered Evidence, The OSBI Reports, The Trial, The Defense, Controversy</font></i></blockquote>
Late night, on June 13, 1977, three young Girl Scouts camping at Camp Scott south of Locust Grove in Mayes County were sexually molested and brutally murdered. They were Lori Lee Farmer (8 years old), Michelle Heather Guse (9), and Doris Denise Milner (10).
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This is the only case in <i>Notorious</i> which does not have a metropolitan Oklahoma City venue.
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That said, the only person ever charged with the murders, James Leroy Hart, was defended by a then-young Oklahoma City lawyer, Garvin Isaacs, who would make his name on this case.
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/camp_scott_aerial_zps6f55d2b9.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/camp_scott_aerials_zps1653446b.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>This case is as much a description of inept investigation and prosecution as it is with the only person charged with these brutal crimes — Gene Leroy Hart — who was eventually charged and acquitted. The author notes at the outset:
<blockquote>When a heinous crime occurs, and a suspect is charged and later found not guilty, public doubt always persists as to whether the defendant did or did not commit the crime. This is especially true when no other suspects emerge and no one else is ever charged with the crime. Such a case marks a failure by law enforcement. Either a guilty person was somehow acquitted, or the real perpetrator of the crime has not been found. In either event, the person who committed the crime goes free. It is this controversial result that marked the conclusion of what became known nationwide as “The Girl Scout Murders.”</blockquote>
Hart was a primary suspect from the beginning of the investigation. He was an escaped convict and grew up in the area where the crimes occurred. He was also a Cherokee Indian, and the author describes how that fact played into the mix. The trial began on March 5, 1979, and jury deliberations began at noon on March 29. By 10 a.m. the next day, the jury had reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty. On June 4, 1979, Hart died of a heart attack while in prison for earlier offenses.
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If Hart was guilty, very clearly the state — investigators, local sheriff, OSBI, and lawyers, had not done their collective job. The author notes, at page 146:
<blockquote>Later, jurors would say they had believed there was “manufactured evidence” and that “the investigation was a screwed-up mess.”</blockquote>
Although the science of DNA testing did not exist at the time of the Hart trial, three post-trial attempts to determine DNA matching, in 1989 or so, 2002, and 2008, were inconclusive.<br><br>
<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/silkwood_zps3e6bba53.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> <b><i>Case #4 — The Karen Silkwood Case,</b> Chapters 38-49.
<blockquote><font size="1">Unlikely Adversaries, The Union, Contamination, The Fatal Accident, Accident Reconstruction, Headlines, The AEC, The FBI, & Congress, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, The Trial, The Plaintiff’s Case, The Defense, Appeal, Reversal, & Settlement</font></i></blockquote>
This is the only case presented in <i>Notorious</i> that did not involve a criminal trial — but it did involve a high profile civil suit brought by the surviving members of Silkwood’s family against Kerr-McGee, the then mainstay energy company in Oklahoma. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on the grounds of negligence — gross and ordinary — and strict liability in tort due to an allegedly inherently dangerous substance — plutonium.
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/cimarron_plant_map_zps3d6562a9.jpg" target="_blank" title="Click on the image for a larger photo"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/cimarron_plant_maps_zps34a6901c.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>Inexplicably, Kerr-McGee denied that plutonium was an inherently dangerous substance and its denial opened the door for the plaintiffs to offer evidence that — <i>duh — plutonium <b>was</b> an inherently dangerous substance</i> and to prompt the plaintiffs’ often-mentioned mantra during trial that, “If the lion gets away, Kerr-McGee must pay.”
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Karen Gay Silkwood was born February 19, 1946, in Longview, Texas, and died on November 13, 1974, along OK 74 located south of the Cimarron River and of Crescent, and north of Oklahoma City on the same road which becomes Portland Avenue and the Lake Hefner Parkway in Oklahoma City.
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Shortly before and certainly after her death, Silkwood became a cause célèbre for labor, women’s rights, and anti-nuclear movements. The events even spawned a fine movie, <i>Silkwood</i>, a Mike Nichols film starring Meryl Streep as Silkwood, Kurt Russell, and Cher. Notwithstanding how public perception may have come to view and/or mold her legacy, she was not opposed to the nuclear energy industry in the United States, <i>but she was concerned about labor and safety issues</i>. Silkwood’s job at the Cimarron plant was to create plutonium pellets and load those pellets into long, stainless steel rods, and no information is presented indicating that she had any objection to those assignments.
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How and/or why did she die? Was it because she was a whistle-blower concerning Kerr-McGee’s safety practices? Ultimately, the question became, what was Kerr-McGee’s culpability in causing her death?
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On November 13, Silkwood drove from the Kerr-McGee plant southbound on OK 74 toward Oklahoma City when her car veered off the road and crashed, the crash causing her death. It was said that she was on her way to a meeting with a reporter for the New York Times and was carrying evidentiary documents harmful to Kerr-McGee. Those documents, if any there were, were never to be found.
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Some surmised that her vehicle struck was from the rear, forcing her car to careen off the road — one accident reconstruction expert surmised that the scenario was at least possible or even likely. Or was she under the influence of drugs or otherwise fell asleep, causing her own death? Was the plutonium contamination found in her residence placed there by Silkwood or planted there by Kerr-McGee?
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The federal court litigation had high-powered lawyers all around and Kent explores them all very nicely. Without getting into much detail here, the case went to the jury and it returned a verdict for $5,000 property damage, $500,000 for personal injuries, and <i>$10,000,000 for punitive damages</i>. Very evidently, the jury bought the substance of the plaintiffs’ case. But, on appeal, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the issue of personal injuries should have been pursued in Oklahoma Worker’s Compensation Court and the personal injuries award was vacated as was the $10,000,000 punitive damage award — only the $5,000 property damage award was affirmed. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted further review, and it determined that the 10th Circuit was wrong in vacating the punitive damage claim and the issue was remanded (sent back) to the 10th Circuit, which, in turn, sent the matter back to the trial court for retrial, five years after the original verdict.
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Rather than undergo another expensive and lengthy trial, in August 1986, the parties reached a compromise and Kerr-McGee agreed to pay $1,380,000 for a settlement of all claims.
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Even today, this being the 40th anniversary of Silkwood’s death, her case is the subject of retrospective analysis and controversy. As examples, see the October 28, 2014, issue of <a href="http://www.countylinemagazine.com/November-December-2014/Remembering-Karen-Silkwood/" target="_blank"><i>County Line Magazine</i></a>, and the November 10, 2014, issue of <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/forty-years-later-silkwood-s-children-reflect/article_282ccbe0-dafe-5757-9c63-d7d21e26b0a8.html" target="_blank"><i>The Tulsa World</i></a>.
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<b><i>Case #5 — The Sirloin Stockade Murders,</b> Chapters 50 - 61.
<blockquote><font size="1">The Crime, The Investigation Begins, The Lorenz Case, The Guns, Getting a Break, Roger Dale Stafford, Lawyered Up, The Trial, Roger Dale Takes the Stand, The Death Penalty, The Lorenz Trial, Verna</font></i></blockquote>
On Sunday night, July 16, 1978, the bodies of six employees at the Sirloin Stockade restaurant, 1620 S.W. 74th Street, Oklahoma City, were discovered in the restaurant’s small walk-in freezer, all shot. All but one was dead and she died later that evening. They were Terri Horst (age 15), David Salsman (15), David Lindsey (17), Anthony Tew (17), Isaac Freeman (56), and Louis Zacarias (43). Almost a month earlier, on June 22, 1978, a passing motorist discovered the bodies of Air Force Sgt. Melvin Lorenz (38) and his wife, Staff Sgt. Linda Lorenz (34). The body of their twelve-year old son, Richard, was found the next day. All had been shot dead about two miles south of Purcell, Oklahoma, near the northbound lanes of Interstate 35. While driving from San Antonio to Fargo, North Dakota, to attend Melvin’s mother’s funeral, they stopped to offer assistance to motorists whose car was apparently disabled, but instead of helping the stranded motorists, they were murdered by them.
In all these murders, the same people, Roger Dale Stafford, his wife Verna, and his brother, Harold, were the killers, but that was anything but evident at the outset. Early on, linkage between the pair of killings was not evident, and the identity of the killers was a mystery without leads.
If the Girl Scout Murders case serves to illustrate poor police work and prosecution, this pair of group homicides represents the other side of the coin. As to the Sirloin Stockade case, the author says,
<blockquote> No rational motive existed for the killings, and no obvious suspects could be identified. Solving the murders had to be accomplished the old fashioned way, by intense and thorough police work. The officers involved deserve credit for cracking the case, though the big break came compliments of the bizarre personality of the killer, Roger Dale Stafford.</blockquote>
Stafford’s brother, Harold, died in a motorcycle accident six days after the Oklahoma City killings; after all his appeals failed, Roger Dale died on July 1, 1995, by lethal injection in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma; and Verna is living in the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud while serving the early part of her eventual sentence — two consecutive life terms.
<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/verna_rae_stafford_zpsc8e3585c.jpg" title="Verna Rae Stafford" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" />A subchapter title in this case might have been <i>Verna Rae Stafford vs. Roger Dale Stafford, husband and wife</i>. Roger had apparently counted on her not being able to testify against him, but a change in Oklahoma law was interpreted by the courts as allowing her testimony.
<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/roger_dale_stafford_zpsf261c6a5.jpg" title="Roger Dale Stafford" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />The author reports on Roger Dale being interviewed/questioned by Arthur Linville, OSBI agent, as follows:
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When Linville advised Roger Dale that she [Verna] could indeed testify against him, Roger Dale was visibly shaken.<br>
“Man, I can’t think. I’ve got to think. All I can see is the gas chamber,” he said.</blockquote>
Verna’s cooperation with the prosecution doubtless facilitated the state’s case, even though much other evidence was presented at Roger Dale's trials other than his wife’s testimony — not the least of which was Roger Dale’s own testimony. He evidently considered himself as possessing an unerring ability to talk himself out of anything and he apparently insisted on waiving his right against self-incrimination and testifying to the juries in both the Sirloin Stockade and Lorenz murder trials. That didn’t work out — he received six death sentences in the Oklahoma City and three in the Purcell trials.
Doubtless, Verna hoped for leniency when her own participation in the murders was decided, following Roger Dale’s death sentences. Initially, in a plea agreement between the prosecutors in both cases and her attorney, she received an indeterminate sentence of 10 years to life. However, the author states at page 249:
<blockquote> In an unrelated case, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals had ruled that a court could not set an indeterminate sentence in a case in which a life sentence was the maximum imposed. Based on this decision, Verna moved to set aside her sentence and be resentenced to ten years which, given time served, would have allowed her to go free immediately.
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Her resentencing hearing was assigned to Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Freeman. The judge correctly set aside Verna’s original sentence but then proceeded to conduct a hearing in which both parties offered evidence.<br>
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At the close of the evidence, Judge Richard Freeman hammered Verna with two life sentences to be served consecutively, effectively meaning she would have to be paroled twice to ever have a chance to get out of prison. Judge Freeman told Verna, “I would wager that there’s one of the hottest corners of hell vacant with your name right above it.”</blockquote>
The author spins the true tale of these two groups of grizzly murders, step by step, inch by inch, in a darkly fascinating and unfolding drama. Any number of interesting items could be mentioned, e.g., Roger Dale’s Oklahoma City trial was the first trial in Oklahoma to be broadcast on television.
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The above killings were the worst to occur on Oklahoma soil, but that would change on April 19, 1995.
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<b><i>Case #6 — The Oklahoma City Bombing,</b> Chapters 62-79.
<blockquote><font size="1">Where Were You, McVeigh & Nichols, Waco, The Plot, Leaving a Trail, Building the Bomb, The Crime, The Arrest, The Investigation, The Arrest of Nichols, McVeigh’s Lawyer, The Legal Battle Begins, The Trial, The Defense, The Case Against Nichols, Nichols’s Defense, State of Oklahoma v. Nichols, Conspiracy Theories</font></i></blockquote>
Candidly, this is one case about which I did not want to read. I can answer the question, “Where Were You,” posed by the author’s first sub-chapter in this case. . I can answer the question, “Where Were You,” posed by the author’s first sub-chapter in this case. I was downtown in the first floor of the Oklahoma County Courthouse on Friday, April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., sitting in the jury box of Judge Clinton Dennis’s courtroom as he was beginning to call his regular Friday morning motion docket. Rather than elaborate on my personal experience further, allow me to say that the cases of the Murrah Bombing, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, the 168 murdered victims, including 19 babies and older children, and another 680 who were injured, and the trauma that all Oklahoma Citians suffered and endure through this day, are not things that I willingly recall, even now, almost 20 years later. I’ve never written on the topics in Doug Dawgz Blog, and, aside from these brief paragraphs, I never will.
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Gladly, the author’s “just the facts, ma’am,” approach keeps a reading of this case from becoming teary, and that method pleased me greatly. A very tough and sensitive subject was handled brilliantly, and that’s all I have to say about that.
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<b>Mastery of Content.</b> Notwithstanding my mild criticism of his <i>Notes</i> section, below, Mr. Frates’s research and command of the subject matter of his book are plainly evident. Meticulously, he pieces together each facet of the six cases with amazing ease — a task which could not be done without a deservedly confident knowledge that he had done his research well and thoroughly. The <i>Notes</i> section reflects his review of media reports, trial transcripts, appellate case decisions, interviews with defense and prosecuting attorneys, and more. In the <i>Machine Gun Kelly & Urschel Kidnapping</i> case, he even relates conversations with Charles Urschel, the man kidnapped who also happens to be the author’s uncle.
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<b>Writing Approach and Style.</b> In describing how he formed the book’s title, Kent says, “For a lawyer, a straightforward statement is usually the best way to communicate,” adding, “That’s not necessarily true for writer of history.” Although I am uncertain about how he would differentiate between the two, his use of simple words, short sentences, short paragraphs and chapters, and straightforward language in fitting together the often-complicated pieces of each of the six cases’ puzzles results in an exceptionally easy to read masterpiece of story telling. By comparison, not one of his sentences are as complicated as the compound sentence I’ve just written. Not once did I need to re-read a sentence to understand what the author just said.
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Each of the six cases in <i>Notorious</i> are broken into a varying number of context-driven chapters for each of the six cases. By “context-driven,” I mean “subtopic” — e.g., in the <i>Machine Gun Kelly & The Urschel Kidnapping</i> case, the chapters are “The Kidnapping,” “Not Your Normal Hostage,” “The FBI,” “The Ransom,” “The Hunt,” “On the Run,” “The First Trial,” “Aftermath,” and “Kathryn & Ora Set Free.” One might say that each chapter represents one large piece in the overall legal puzzle. By the use of such chapter subtopics, a reader understands what piece of the puzzle is being described and no need exists to have a strictly lineal timeline since multiple pieces of the puzzle may well be occurring simultaneously — much like a modern-day movie would do.
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The chapters are short, ranging from three to eight pages with three-to-four pages being the norm. Coupled with what I already said — that sentences are short and easy to read — each case story flows easily and quickly and, before you know it, the book is done.
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In addition to his content mastery, Mr. Frates’s writing style garners my highest compliments. It is no small task to take a complex case, regurgitate it, and then parcel it into coherent, brief, and easy-to-read subtopic-chapters — and do that six times — a task which the author brilliantly accomplishes.
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<b>Criticisms.</b> I have just a few ...
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<b>No Index.</b> Academically, I criticize any history book that does not contain an index at its end — maybe that’s just me or my view of good scholarship. Even though I’m hard-pressed to see how an index would add a great deal that the book’s very descriptive table of contents fails to provide, still, I note that <i>Notorious</i> contains no index.
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<b>The Notes.</b> As a reader of history, I like specific endnotes or footnotes within the text as the author tells his/her story. That way, I can follow up to the referenced note and check out the source and/or read more from that identified source than the author provided, if I want. Although an 11-page Notes section does exist at the end of <i>Notorious</i> and is fairly extensive, my preference is that actual endnote numbers be used within the text of the book which link to particular notes identified in the closing <i>Notes</i> section.
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Moreover, in the <i>Notes</i> section, the word “chapter” is used to refer to a particular case, e.g., “Chapter 2, The United States of America v. David Hall,” as opposed to the “chapter” usage which appears in the book’s body which range from chapter 1 through chapter 79. In this example, the <i>David Hall</i> case was identified as chapters 12 through 24 which are collectively identified as “Chapter 2” in the <i>Notes</i> section.
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Last, on occasion, the <i>Notes</i> section is date specific, sometimes not — e.g., referencing the <i>David Hall</i> case, the author notes that personal interviews occurred with three individuals by name and date, but sometimes other sources are not as particularly identified, such as when referencing “Newspapers” — the names of the newspapers (<i>Oklahoma City Times, The Oklahoman, San Diego Union, Tulsa World</i>) are mentioned but no particular articles are identified by byline or by date or in what context and/or literal chapter they might relate to. In the <i>David Hall</i> case, literal chapter numbers are from chapter 12 through chapter 24 — but the <i>Notes</i> section is unspecific in such regards.
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<b>Summary.</b> This is one of the most thorough, easy to read, substantive, and, yes, finest books on Oklahoma (and Oklahoma City) history that I’ve had the pleasure to read. It is also inexpensive. Its content is well-chosen. It is easy to read. The book production quality is excellent in all respects. Only in its lack of an index, and footnotes or endnotes within the text, coupled with more particular note identification in the book’s Notes section, does any shortcoming exist. In balance, these criticisms are not sufficient to cause me to lower my esteem for this book from 5-stars, my highest rating, to any lower number. <i>Notorious</i> is a 5-star book. It is a must buy for any lover of Oklahoma City, as well as Oklahoma’s, history.
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<b>The Book’s Website:</b> <a href="http://www.okmostnotoriouscases.com/" target="_blank">http://www.okmostnotoriouscases.com/</a>
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<b>Full Circle Purchase:</b> <a href="http://fullcirclebooks.com/?books=oklahomas-most-notorious-cases-by-kent-frates" target="_blank">Click here</a> <b>Amazon description/purchase:</b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Oklahomas-Most-Notorious-Cases-Kidnapping/dp/1937054330" target="_blank"> Click here</a>
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<b>The author's biography:</b> <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/misc/Kent_F_Frates_biography_2013.pdf" target="_blank">click here</a>
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</span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-66688143642731502582014-06-18T16:45:00.001-05:002014-06-19T19:51:48.594-05:00Common Sense from Paine to Frates<a name="top"></a><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_covers_zpsb3a6c1f5.jpg">
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What do the venerable Thomas Paine, author of the 1775-1776 pamphlet, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_%28pamphlet%29" target="_blank"><i>Common Sense</i></a>, and modern day Oklahoma Citian, lawyer, former Republican legislator, and author, Kent F. Frates have in common?
<br><br>They both had/have common sense. Read on, concerning the upcoming June 24 primary elections in the state. I promise you, Mr. Frates' observations will literally "leave you rolling on the floor laughing," be you a Republican (as he is) or Democrat (as I am) — as well as being chilled sober, all at the same time. If you are a "modern-day" Republican, as opposed to a Henry Bellmon or a Frank Keating Republican, you will probably not find his opinions so humorous. Latter-day Republicans will probably not like his torpedo salvos of <i>Common Sense</i> into the upcoming elections, even though those salvos hit the mark every time.
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<b>About Kent Frates.</b>
I've known Kent since I worked in his law firm in the mid-to-late 1970s, back in the day that I was still a registered Republican. In that time, Kent was a Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, representing the Nichols Hills area, and was once the (then Republican) minority leader in the house. I recall helping post yard signs in that time for his reelection. I recall very well Kent's adroit sense of humor on a daily basis, his keenness of mind, and his willingness to be his own brand of what it meant in that time to be a Republican. That willingness has evidently not changed. He received his undergraduate degree at Stanford and his law degree at the University of Arizona. For his full resume, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/misc/Kent_F_Frates_biography_2013.pdf" target="_blank">click here</a> for a PDF file showing the same.
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But Kent is much more than what those links and biography show. He is a modern-day Thomas Paine <i>Common Sense</i> kind of guy. If you doubt that, read on to read his June 2014 issue of <i>Common Sense</i>, his periodical newsletter. All boxed highlights are those shown in the original and I have done no editing. In the newsletter, it is stated,<br>
<blockquote><b><i>Common Sense</i></b> is solely published by Kent F. Frates. If you would like to receive or discontinue this publication, or if you have any submissions for or comments about this publication, please write to: Kent F. Frates, P.O. Box 54799, Okla. City, OK 73154. Reproduction in any form of this publication is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited without permission from Kent F. Frates, publisher. Copyright © June 2014.</blockquote>
Mr. Frates has kindly allowed that I reproduce the lead article in the June 2014 <i>Common Sense</i> publication, below.
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<table bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td><center><font size="3"><b>Letter from the Publisher ...</b></font></center>
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Dear Friends,
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Oklahoma's 2014 Primary Elections will take place on June 24th. As witnessed by the 2012 election, the state has become overwhelmingly Republican. Not only did Romney carry Oklahoma but, the Republicans swept every statewide office, all of the congressional seats and, dominated the state legislature. Fifty years ago almost every election was decided in the Democratic Primary, now it is the Republican Primary where the real contest occurs.
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It would be nice to analyze the Republican Primaries and, identify candidates that are worthy of support. Unfortunately, the voters in this election are faced with choices that range from weak to disastrous. Often the voter will have to exercise a fool's gambit by choosing between two distinctly undesirable candidates. The situation is reminiscent of an election for Governor in Louisiana between David Duke and the incumbent, Edwin Edwards. Edwards who had been charged with crimes and was later convicted, faced Duke, a proud member of the Klu Klux Klan.<br>
<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_1_zps9f009ce3.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />
A popular bumper sticker read "Vote for the crook, it's important", and that's what the people of Louisiana did. Although, it may not be quite as dramatic, we have some Republican Primaries where our choices are almost as unpalatable as the Louisiana governor's race. The problem is — that's all we've got. It's not a question of who you would like to have in office but simply a question of which one of these bozos would do the least harm. With that in mind, here is the <i>Common Sense</i> Election Special.
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Senator James Inhofe is too old, too narrow-minded and, too dumb to be reelected but, he will be anyway. He has drawn no serious opposition and the majority of the Oklahoma voters buy into his so called conservatism. He will thus retain his senate seat so that he can roam Washington D.C. like a carnivorous dinosaur, defending the military industrial complex of which he is a proud part.
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Inhofe is a professed fiscal conservative, until it comes to defense, highways and, any pork barrel project he likes. Certainly defense and roads are important and deserve high priority in the spectrum of government spending but, they cannot be held sacrosanct if the federal government is ever to achieve fiscal sanity. Inhofe's love for every new tank, plane or, ship, no matter the cost, can't possibly help balance the budget but, it will fatten the pocket of the defense contractors who love to support his campaign.
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Inhofe is also the self-appointed leader of those that dispute the fact that the manmade emissions of greenhouse gasses affect climate. His opposition is not based on science but, on an inherent prejudice against the scientists who have the temerity to raise this issue and paranoia about a left wing global warming conspiracy. Like many ignorant people, he does not want to be bothered by the facts and chooses instead to belligerently support his views by attacking the messenger. His arguments are laced with biblical references, misinformation and ridicule. What he really fears are some of the proposed solutions to global warming, like cap and trade. So, rather than looking for a better solution, he tries to deny the existence of the problem. Inhofe has four candidates facing him on the Republican ballot — all are obscure unknowns with no financial backing and no campaign. This is a discredit to the Republican Party in Oklahoma. At least, he votes correctly a lot of the time.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_3_zps33af0192.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px;" /> In the race for Tom Coburn's vacated United States Senate seat, there are three significant Republican candidates who are far right, further right and, furthest right. Congressman James Langford is by any measure a conservative on every issue but, he isn't pure enough for T.W. Shannon who also doesn't quite measure up to Tea Party standards, according to Randy Brogdon. Recently, the three candidates took part in a faux debate before a conservative forum. From the looks of the crowd, the gathering was composed almost entirely of older white people. One of the first questions asked was the position of each candidate on the U.N. All three quickly agreed that the U.S. should get out of the UN. Brogdon, in order to distinguish himself as the rightest of the right, also opined that the U.S. should throw the UN out of the country. These guys are living in another century, yet one of them will be your United States Senator, whether you like it or not. It moves me to shed a crocodile tear for Tom Coburn, an intelligent, independent and thoroughly committed public servant who is unfortunately stepping down from the Senate.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_2_zpsf724ec78.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /> Has the gene pool run out in Oklahoma? What ever happened to leaders like Bob Kerr, Howard Edmonson, Fred Harris, Henry Bellmon, David Boren and Frank Keating? No matter what their politics, these men were all intelligent, informed leaders, willing to address important issues. It is depressing that we have apparently dumbed down our state to the point where candidates like Langford, Shannon and Brogdon are the best we have to offer. But the Legislature wants to be sure we don't make third graders actually learn to read. It might threaten the future of the political class.
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Brogdon seems to have no real chance of being elected. As between Langford and Shannon, however, Langford appears the clear choice. When elected to congress, there were concerns that he lacked the background and experience to serve effectively, given that his life's work had been as an administrator at a Baptist Youth Camp. He was also a Baptist preacher and there was a danger that he would be another aggressive theocrat. In fact, Langford has served, for the most part, effectively. He has proven to be a savvy politician and in some cases, has actually voted for the good of the country, instead of pandering to the extreme right. His position on financial matters is conservatively sound. He is ultra conservative on social issues but does not appear to be obsessed with forcing his views on every citizen through legislation. In most years, Langford would be an extremely poor choice but the level of his opposition makes him look good, in spite of himself.
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Shannon has a reputation for mediocrity, and a penchant for political pandering. As Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, he supported and appeased the extreme social conservatives, while at the same time playing to the Chamber of Commerce crowd. Most recently he advocated making the gross production tax loophole permanent for the benefit of the oil and gas business — a move clearly calculated to help raise funds for his senate race. In spite of being a lawyer, he also tried to pass legislation politicizing the judicial process after the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared one of his pet bills unconstitutional. He also advocates doing away with the E.P.A. If you have any doubt about Shannon's politics, consider that he sought, obtained and, publicizes the endorsement of Sara Palin, the national joke that won't go away.
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Based on recent poles [sic, polls], it appears that Langford and Shannon are running neck and neck and that their race is headed for a runoff. If elected, Shannon may well become a right wing demigod following in the footsteps of Ted Cruz. At least Langford won't embarrass the state of Oklahoma, too much.
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A sidelight to the Senate campaign is the injection of hundreds of thousands of dollars from "dark money" groups backing both Shannon and Langford. These are entities formed under our obviously flawed election laws where contributions may be made totally anonymously. This sets up a situation where these groups can attack a candidate with vicious irresponsibility and the person they are supporting can profess total ignorance. This despicable charade cheapens the election process and avoids accountability.
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The Supreme Court's wrongheaded decision in Citizens United case allows an unlimited flood of corporate money into campaigns, but surely the voters are at least entitled to know where the money is coming from. Maybe if a candidate accused his opponent of taking money from the Russian Mafia, it would force a disclosure of the real source of funds. Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature should act to force a full disclosure of all campaign contributors.
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When it comes to Governor, the outcome looks like a foregone conclusion. Mary Fallin defines mediocrity. Yet she is a master politician, having been elected to the offices of state representative, lieutenant governor, congresswoman and governor. Her success is based on an ability not to commit to anything controversial and to be able to change sides effortlessly, if public opinion demands it. Witness her position on accepting an expansion of Medicare and taking federal funds associated with Obamacare and, then, flopping to the other side when the political wind blew the wrong way. Also, her about face on Common Core. She was for it, until she was against it. She exemplifies that old political saying: "I have friends on both sides and I am sticking with my friends." Although, in a rare instance of independence, she did stand up against the unfortunately successful attempt to effectively destroy Oklahoma's third grade reading test.
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Fallin has also mastered the special interest game which gives her the ability to raise large amounts of campaign funds. She is a cheerleader and errand girl for the Chamber of Commerce and the oil business, as witnessed by her recent push to lower taxes and to perpetuate the tax loophole for the oil and gas business in the gross production tax. Her latest "successful" lowering of the income taxes resulted in a 0.25% reduction so small to the ordinary tax payer as to be insignificant. Her pro-business stance is good for the state but her propensity to dodge controversial issues leaves a leadership void at the top.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_4_zps8734e746.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px;" /> At least, in the governor's race, we have a choice. Chad Moody is a pure Libertarian, running as a Republican. A criminal lawyer who has personally observed the failure of the War on Drugs, Moody is advocating the legalization of marijuana. He also opposes the government's interference in the rights of citizens. As his campaign sign states "Forget faith, family and, freedom (Fallin's Slogan) and vote for God, grass and guns." <i>Common Sense</i> urges you to vote for Chad Moody, our only endorsement in this lackluster primary election.
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In the race for U.S. Congress in the fifth district you can't tell the players without a program. The seat was left open when Langford decided to run for the Senate. There are six Republicans, three Democrats, one Libertarian and one Independent. Four of the Republicans — Shane Jett, Clark Jolley, Steve Russell and, Mike Turner — and one of the Democrats, Al McAffrey, are current or former state senators or representatives. Patrice Douglas serves on the Corporation Commission and was formerly the mayor of Edmond.
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All of the Republicans are pro-life, against gun control, and hate Obamacare. Although none of the candidates seem remarkable, Jolley has been an effective Legislator. Chairman of the Senate of Appropriations Committee, he has considerable clout. He has also authored a number of significant pieces of legislation. He easily wins the web page war by addressing a wide spectrum of issues on a specific basis, something that more candidates ought to try.
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Douglas has been an effective fundraiser and has a sizable war chest. Turner has put $500,000 of his own money into his campaign. Russell touts his military service in Iraq with patriotic ads showing him in uniform. By reputation, Douglas has been a very mediocre Corporation Commissioner. Turner is religious zealot and has been a showboat in the Legislature.
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So far, it has been a low profile campaign and it's hard to get a line on the candidates and differentiate one from the other. It does appear the Jolley may be the most competent.
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I have a personal history with the gross production tax. As a newly elected legislator, I was immediately faced by an attempt to raise the gross production tax from 5% to 7%, led by Populist Governor David Hall and an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. However, the fact that a majority of the legislature was Democratic is deceptive. Many of those Democrats were extremely conservative, particularly in fiscal matters and, the issue was hotly contested.
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Along with the other Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, I fought hard against the purposed increase, which passed by the narrowest of margins. At the time, oil sold for $3.40 per barrel and drilling was moribund. Based on the circumstances, raising the tax was not justified.
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Today, the oil and gas business in Oklahoma is in far different condition. We are experiencing a shale boom fired by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This is, of course, good for the whole state. It does not in any way, however, entitle oil companies to a tax break but, that's what the Legislature gave them.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Frates/common_sense_5_zps246c3046.jpg" style="float: center; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" />
A few weeks ago, the leaders of three of Oklahoma's biggest oil companies gave the legislature its orders as to exactly what to do regarding the extension of a tax break from the gross production tax. The Legislature then fell in line like so many sheep, only slightly modifying the industry's mandate and passed a bill permanently installing a tax subsidy. The historic tax rate of 7 percent was changed to 2 percent for the first 36 months of production on all wells. It had been temporarily 1 percent for 48 months on horizontal wells, ostensibly to encourage drilling. The increase from 1 percent to 2 percent is chump change to the oil companies, but means all of us other chumps will have to pick up the difference to pay for government services like the highways the oil business drives their trucks on and the schools their employee's children attend.
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The fallacious argument made in favor of this tax break by the oil companies was that they would drill elsewhere if the tax break was not extended. This is in spite of the fact that they own thousands of acres of valuable leases in Oklahoma. All of these leases have a term, typically three years. There is no way, based on the rate of the gross production tax that the oil companies would let these Oklahoma leases expire without drilling every viable prospect.
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George Kaiser, the straight talking billionaire oilman from Tulsa, put the tax break in its proper perspective by pointing out that the tax is a tiny part of the expense of drilling and producing wells. In Kaiser's opinion not a single well that promised to produce economic quantities of oil and gas would be curtailed if the tax went back to 7 percent. But, I forgot, Kaiser is a Democrat. He even supported Obama so the fact that he is smart, fair and, civic minded must be ignored. To the credit of the oil business, Kaiser's position was supported by a number of independent operators, both Democrats and Republicans. No matter, the Legislature showed who butters their bread or, maybe even furnishes the bread.
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Let's just wait and see how loud the oilies complain when the next subsidy for wind or solar is proposed. Why settle for a level playing field when you control the governor and the majority of the Legislature. Good government be damned.
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In this issue, you will find a preview of book being written by Thom Schott and Robert Sweitzer. Thom and I survived a rap sheet full of stupid antics together at Stanford. On the other hand, Robert, as far as we know, is sane.
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Also, included is an homage to Thomas Paine who inspired the name for this humble journal. He incited a revolution. If only this version of <i>Common Sense</i> could do as well.
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Vote early and often.
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/s/ Kent
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/yoda_zpsdad111c7.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />Kent's words have far greater elegance than mine could ever have, and the sad truth is that we — citizens who have or claim to have some measure of sanity — have ourselves at least partially to blame for the ascendency of those who have become leaders in the Republican party today — and the same is true for Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, whoever, that sees a menace encamped on the horizon yet takes no action until the menace-takeover is already accomplished. Like Yoda said, "Blind we are if creation of this clone army we could not see."
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Kent closed his piece by saying, "Also, included is homage to Thomas Paine who inspired the name for this humble journal. He incited a revolution. If only this version of <i>Common Sense</i> could do as well."
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An unexpected and wonderful thing would that be. Who can say? It might just be that Kent is rather analogous to another famous <i>Star Wars</i> character, identified in this message to him by Princess Leia: "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
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<center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-72646127678948718392014-02-28T15:51:00.003-06:002014-06-19T09:43:23.905-05:00Invisible Black History Before Statehood<center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/black_history/invisible_okc_zps087004a9.jpg"></center>
This post honors Black History Month with three stories about Invisible Black History in Oklahoma City before statehood, and largely tracks my presentation to RetroMetro OKC at the downtown library on February 17, 2014. A few additional materials and resources are provided here.
This post is still being constructed.
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To view the videos below without enlargement, just click on the triangle in each video. To see videos in full-screen mode, click the full-screen icon as shown in the near-right icon (the red rectangle); adjust the volume with the far-right blue rectangled icon; both below:
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<b>Part 1: Introduction -- Why Is Pre-statehood Black History Invisible?</b> The video for the Introduction is broken into two parts, for faster loading and quality purposes.
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<table bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white" size="3"><b>Introduction: Part 1</b></font>
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<table bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white" size="3"><b>Part 2: Bird Gee</b></font>
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<table bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white" size="3"><b>Part 3: Sandtown</b></font>
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</span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-84380962926925700052013-07-08T15:30:00.002-05:002013-07-21T17:18:53.523-05:00We CAN have a convention hotel ... For A Few Dollars More<a name="top"></a>
<b><i>Was a convention hotel mentioned as a part of the MAPS 3 campaign?</b></i> Part of the June 11, 2013, City Council discussion focused on that question during a presentation by the Alliance for Oklahoma City Economic Development. A truncated version of the discussion, focusing only on this question, appears below ...
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<i><b>For a few dollars more.</b>
<br><br><b><font color="darkred" size="3">MORE THAN WHAT?</font></b></i> <i>That would be more than</i> the $280 million (now $250 million) that those in charge of the MAPS 3 campaign said that it would cost to fund the convention center element of MAPS 3 ... around $50-$250 million dollars more ... that the city would need to spend for the MAPS 3 convention center project for it to be economically viable. In this context, "city", unfortunately, means the taxpayers of Oklahoma City. You can be sure that the mayor and city council members, as individuals, aren't going to pony up the cost of financing a convention center hotel, right?
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The above video only contains relevant portions of the council meeting as to whether a convention hotel was mentioned during the MAPS 3 campaign. The complete discussion between Ms. O'Connor and the City Council is in the 22:43 minute clip below. The main components of the discussion begin at the following time-points ... use the slider to move to particular locations ...
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<td align="center" width="25%" bgcolor="FFFFCC"><b>Cathy O'Connor</b> ...</td><td align="center" width="8%" bgcolor="FFFFCC">0:13</td><td align="center" width="25%" bgcolor="C2DFFF"><b>Credentials;<br>Tom Morsch</b> ...</td><td align="center" width="8%" bgcolor="C2DFFF">12:20</td><td align="center" width="25%" bgcolor="#FFE87C"><b>Pete White</b> ...</td><td align="center" width="8%" bgcolor="#FFE87C">17:48</td>
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<td align="center" bgcolor="#EBDDE2"><b>Ed Shadid</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#EBDDE2">4:09;<br>12:20</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><b>Meg Salyer</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFCC">15:48</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFDFDD"><b>Larry McAtee &<br>Jeremy Stone</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFDFDD">19:00</td>
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<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFCBA4"><b>James Greiner</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFCBA4">11:20</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#E5E4E2"><b>Patrick Ryan</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#E5E4E2">16:53;<br>18:48</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><b>Motion & Vote</b> ...</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFCC">21:20</td>
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<center>Links Within This Article
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<a href="#background">Background</a> <a href="#hotel_history">Hotel History</a> <a href="#biltmore">Biltmore Hotel</a>
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<a href="#colcord">What Would Colcord Do?</a> <a href="#destruction">Urban Renewal Destruction</a> <a href="#aftermath">Urban Renewal Aftermath</a>
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<a href="#hotels">Exiting Hotels</a> <a href="#chamber1">Pre-Maps 3 Chamber Viewpoint</a> <a href="#thunder">Thunder Interlude</a>
<br><a href="#maps3begins">MAPS 3 Begins</a> <a href="#csl_study">The Chamber's Study</a> <a href="#dark_city">Dark City</a>
<br><a href="#hotel_not_mentioned">Hotel Not Mentioned</a> <a href="#why_not">Why Not?</a> <a href="#chamber_quest">The Chamber's Hotel Quest</a>
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<a href="#o'connor_why">Why Did O'Connor Say What She Did?</a>
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<a name="background"></a><b>BACKGROUND.</b> In this period, it is helpful to understand that a convention center AND a convention hotel were not always linked together as they have evidently come to be linked today. I'll begin with the easiest part, the development of the city's downtown hoteliers.
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<a name="hotel_history"></a> <b>A Glimpse At Downtown Hotel History.</b> This by no means traces the history of Oklahoma City's downtown hotels and is only a peek at a part of it. Building and operating hotels involves a good bit of risk taking, and Oklahoma City's downtown hotel experience is abundantly steeped in both sides of that flipped coin, particularly concerning the frailty of downtown hotels when economic times are tough and public assistance in helping them survive was non-existent.
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<a name="biltmore"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/biltmore_zpsaf8736ae.jpg?t=1373610779" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/biltmore_225_zps571fc5bc.jpg?t=1373610767" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> <b>The Biltmore.</b> Construction of a large downtown hotel finds a precedent with the Biltmore. With construction starts and stops before it was completed, the Biltmore was constructed between 1929 and 1932, it opening in March during that year, a year after the Great Depression finally hit Oklahoma City. It involved a monumental undertaking for private business leaders to get the project completed. A number of city capitalists played key roles in making this hotel a reality, including Charles F. Colcord, Martin Reinhart, Stanley Draper, J.F. Owen, Frank Buttram, Frank P. Johnson, W.E. Hightower, W.T. Hales, and W. R. Ramsey who built the 33-story Ramsey Tower (now City Place).
<br><br>About Johnson, it was said in a December 18, 1931, <i>Oklahoman</i> article on 1931's "Most Useful Citizen," that:
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<blockquote>In nominating Johnson, C. Edgar Honnold, broker, wrote: * * * I believe it has been through his efforts that the First National building has been erected. It is certainly a great credit to any community, institution or individual. I believe it has been mostly through Mr. Johnson's efforts that the Biltmore hotel has actually been constructed and completed. ¶ Charles W. Gunter, chairman of the First National bank and Trust Co. executive committee, and W.R. Ramsey, oil man, also nominated Johnson for similar reasons. ¶ Gunter wrote: "I am convinced the Oklahoma Biltmore never would have been built had it not been for his (Johnson's) untiring efforts and leadership."</blockquote>
In a December 25, 1931, letter to the <i>Oklahoman</i> editor, J. K. Wells nominated Ramsey, noting, among other things,
<blockquote>He was largely responsible for bringing the Biltmore hotel to Oklahoma City and was the first to suggest the idea to the Biltmore interests of New York City.</blockquote>
As to Colcord, a March 6, 1932, <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter T.T. Johnson said,
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<blockquote>Seventy-two years old, he is still straight and agile. His brown eyes are clear, his hair snow-white. He has proved his generosity and kindliness many times, and his record forbids that anyone ever should gainsay his qualifications as a forceful leader. During the three-year fight for the Biltmore, he arose early and worked late and vigorously. When the hotel seemed doomed, he snatched it from the brink of failure. He drove, drove, drove, into the pocket books of men who were able to pay. He has given Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the southwest its finest hotel.</blockquote>
The project also involved a community effort. As late as early 1932, money was still needed for an operating fund for the hotel. In February 1932, stock sales were solicited from the public to create a $400,000 operating fund for the hotel.
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When done, standing at 26 stories plus two basement levels, it was the 3rd tallest downtown building (although it claimed to be the tallest, perhaps because of its signage) and hosted 619 rooms. The Biltmore was then the largest hotel in the state and was said to be "the finest hotel in the Southwest." From 1932 until its destruction in 1977, no Oklahoma City hotel has matched its size or room capacity, and none have thereafter. <i>To this day, the Biltmore remains as a shining example of what Oklahoma City's business leaders can do if they are willing to take the risk, even if dire economic challenges are presented while doing so.</i>
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<a name="colcord"></a> <b>In retrospect, what would Charles Colcord do today?</b> One can but wonder what Charles F. Colcord might do if presented with today's challenge of building a convention hotel in Oklahoma City. Would he enlist investment by Oklahoma City's existing capitalists and take on the job of making it happen? Would he engage experts to determine the need? Would he involve the Alliance for Economic Development? Would he ask city taxpayers to share in the expense? Or would he just step up and see that it got done, just like he did with the Biltmore? These days, are any capitalist leaders around in the mold of Charles Colcord, whether he/she be a member of the Chamber or not?
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<a name="destruction"></a> <b>Urban Renewal Hotel Destruction.</b> Beyond the Biltmore, many of us remember the stark time that the Urban Renewal Authority demolished many downtown hotels in the 1960s-1970s, including the Huckins, Bristol/Threadgill, Kingkade, Egbert, Oklahoma Club/Tivoli Inn, Wells-Roberts, YWCA, and others, including, to be sure, the Biltmore.
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<a name="aftermath"></a> <b>Urban Renewal Aftermath.</B> After those legacies were gone and the 1964-1993 Holiday Inn (last named the Commonwealth) at 520 W. Main closed its doors as a hotel, only the 1976 Sheraton Hotel (then called the Century Center) remained as a downtown hotel. In 1993 it, too, was in dire straits, it owing $167,000 in back property taxes for 1990, 1991 and 1992. As for the Skirvin, it closed its doors in 1988, not to be reopened as the Skirvin Hilton until 2007, 19 years later, and only after a huge effort by the city and private partners was the Skirvin restored to its former glory in 2007.
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<a name="hotels"></a> <b>The City's Existing Downtown Hotel Stock.</b> As described above, Oklahoma City's downtown hotel status had been abysmal for many years prior to the 2009 MAPS 3 election, even though it had improved by that time. At one point, after the former Holiday Inn (via various iterations) (about 200 rooms, 1964) finally closed as a hotel in 1993, Oklahoma City's downtown included only one hotel, the Sheraton, built in 1977, with 395 rooms. Hotels either completed or in construction as of July 2013 are shown below.
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Between 2000 and 2008, six (6) hotels were added: the Marriott Renaissance (2000, 311 rooms); the Courtyard Marriott (2004, 225 rooms); the Colcord (2006, 108 rooms); and, not the least, the Skirvin Hilton (2007, 225 rooms). In Bricktown, the Hampton Inn (2006, 200 rooms) and Marriott Residence Inn (2006, 151 rooms), were also added.
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As of this writing in July 2013, four other hotels in Bricktown, Deep Deuce, and/or the Health Sciences area, are under construction and will open in 2013 or 2014: Hilton Inn & Homewood Suites (2013, 255 rooms); Aloft (2013, 130 suites); Holiday Inn Express (2014, 124 rooms); and Embassy Suites (2014, 194 rooms).
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/okchotels_2013_b_zpsc46faf65.jpg?t=1373562796" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/okchotels_2013_b_510_zps25608551.jpg?t=1373562792"></a></center>
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/ambassador_zps5f53fb1a.jpg?t=1373564898" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/ambassador_250_zpsb302a017.jpg?t=1373564887" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>Yet another, a 54-room Midtown boutique hotel owned and being developed by Tulsa hotelier Paul Coury's company (which developed the Colcord Hotel in 2006) should be included. This outstanding project is presently converting the historic 1929 Osler physicians building at 1200 N. Walker into an Ambassador Hotel and it is scheduled for opening in December 2013. That date may be a bit ambitious — I'm guessing that an early 2014 opening is more likely.
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Still other downtown hotels are in the proposal/approval stage, but I'm not including any of those projects in hotel room count here since doing so would involve some degree of speculation, and that includes a possible convention center hotel. Others not included are possible hotels that have been mentioned but remain speculative: Staybridge Suites (Bricktown, 131); East Bricktown (Bricktown, 150); Springhill Suites (Deep Deuce, 125); Patel's 2 potential projects in Bricktown at Lincoln & Sheridan (125 each).
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As it stands today, the downtown stock of hotels, either built or being built, numbers twelve (12) and, unless I've misread something, that amounts to 2,372 downtown hotel rooms or suites which could bear some or a lot of risk should the city decide to finance, partially or completely, a convention hotel — which would compete against them — and remembering that "economic times" are historically cyclical and include both good times and bad.
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Abbreviations below are: CBD=Central Business District; BT=Bricktown; DD=Deep Deuce; HSC=Health Sciences Center; MT=Midtown.
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<td align="center" width="5%">#</td><td align="center" width="41%"><b>Hotels Done or Under Construction</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>Rooms</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>CBD</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>BT</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>DD</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>HSC</b></td><td align="center" width="9%"><b>MT</b></td></tr>
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<td align="right">1</td><td align="left"><B>Sheraton (1976)</b></td><td align="right">395</td><td align="right">395</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">2</td><td align="left"><b>Marriott Renaissance (2000)</b></td><td align="right">311</td><td align="right">311</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">3</td><td align="left"><b>Courtyard Marriott (2004)</b></td><td align="right">225</td><td align="right">225</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">4</td><td align="left"><b>Colcord (2006)</b></td><td align="right">108</td><td align="right">108</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">5</td><td align="left"><b>Marriott Residence Inn (2006)</b></td><td align="right">151</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">151</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">6</td><td align="left"><b>Skirvin Hilton (2007)</b></td><td align="right">225</td><td align="right">225</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">7</td><td align="left"><b>Hampton Inn (2008)</b></td><td align="right">200</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">200</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">8</td><td align="left"><b>Hilton Inn & Homewood Suites (2013)</b></td><td align="right">255</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">255</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">9</td><td align="left"><b>Aloft (2013)</b></td><td align="right">130</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">130</td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">10</td><td align="left"><b>Holiday Inn Express (2014)</b></td><td align="right">124</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">124</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">11</td><td align="left"><b>Embassy Suites (2014)</b></td><td align="right">194</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">194</td><td></td></tr>
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<td align="right">12</td><td align="left"><b>Ambassador (2014)</b></td><td align="right">54</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">54</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="#EEE8AA"><td colspan="2" align="center"><b>Total Done or Under Construction</b></td><td align="right"><b>2,372</b></td><td align="right"><b>1,264</b></td><td align="right"><b>730</b></td><td align="right"><b>130</b></td><td align="right"><b>194</b></td><td align="right"><b>54</b></td>
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Several articles by <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter Steve Lackmeyer have documented downtown hotel development. In his December 6, 2005, article, Lackmeyer reported on the appointment of Alan Sims as the convention center sales director. Lackmeyer said, "A decade ago, the Interstate 40/Meridian Avenue hotel corridor dominated the convention business. Since then, the downtown hotel market has recovered, with the number of hotels increasing from just one, the Sheraton, to seven with 1,400 rooms being opened over the next two years."
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<a name="chamber1"></a> <b>The Chamber's Pre-Maps 3 Point of View.</b> Well before the 2009 MAPS 3 campaign and after several downtown hotels had been added (above), the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce had been pushing for a new convention center, AND a new convention center hotel, although not always in tandem. In the December 2005 article referenced above, Lackmeyer said that, "[new convention sales director Alan] Sims said he thinks the city's Metropolitan Area Projects improvements downtown and at the State Fair Park, combined with new hotels, make the city ripe for a move into the second tier of the convention market. He said the city could still use a large convention hotel downtown — but can compete without one."
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By Lackmeyer's January 18, 2007, article, "City chamber explores shift to tier two city," he reported,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
A large conference hotel and additional meeting space may be the next mission downtown for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber as it explores how to move from a tier three to a tier two convention city. ¶ The effort, announced by chairman Larry Nichols at Wednesday's State of the City address, will start with the chamber hiring a consultant next month.
<br> "A new 1,000 room convention hotel is something we can certainly dream about," Nichols said. "The convention center is at capacity. If you try to book something in three weeks, won't find anything available." ¶ Nichols said the city has been told repeatedly it needs more than 1,000 hotel rooms to attract large conventions — and the opening of six new hotels over the past few years has put downtown's room count to more than 1,400. He noted more meeting space was added at the Cox Convention Center a decade ago as part of the Metropolitan Area Projects improvements back when downtown only had one hotel.
<br> "Now we're on the other side, where we have more rooms but less convention space," Nichols said. "We've got to define what a tier two city needs in terms of facilities and hotel capacity. And if you look around, major tier two cities all have major conference hotels — 500 to 1,000 rooms, a convention headquarters — which we don't have."
<br>* * *
<br> Mayor Mick Cornet endorsed the chamber's study. ¶ A lot of people look at Oklahoma City and say, 'anything is possible.' We need to know if this center can be expanded or do we need to start over someplace else,' Cornett said."</td></tr></table></center>
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In a January 25, 2008, op-ed piece by Brett Hamm, then President of Downtown OKC Inc., he said,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
What tools are needed for Oklahoma City's future? An expanded convention center? A convention hotel? A light rail system? How do residential, retail and Core to Shore fit into tomorrow's picture? And, what will it take to integrate thse new and vibrant districts? ¶ As we collaboratively work to answer these questions, our willingness to consistently assess available tools and implement new tools as needed is paramount. These past 15 years have shown that when we rise to this challenge we not only surprise other cities, but ourselves as well.</td></tr></table></center>
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Can you say, "These comments were a precursor to the MAPS 3 content?"
<br><br>
<a name="thunder"></a><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/thunder_zps8c3db00e.jpg?t=1373550119" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> <b>2007-2008: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to <del>The Forum</del> <u>MAPS 3</u>.</b> MAPS 3 seemed to be on track for a vote sometime in 2008. But, when it developed in December 2007 that Seattle's ambivalence/incompetence/whatever in handling its own affairs made it evident that the SuperSonics could well move to Oklahoma City because of that, should the Oklahoma City voters agree to make improvements occur to the Ford Center and construct a training facility, potential MAPS 3 matters took the sideline. Acting quickly, Mayor Cornett took the lead in December 2007 to be the cheerleader in presenting a vote to the public to undertake the needed items through a "mini-MAPS" project for a penny sales tax for 15 months at a cost of $128 million beginning with the January 1, 2009, expiration of the MAPS For Kids sales tax in the same penny amount. One might call this development the "MAPS With No Name" or "MAPS For NBA." On March 4, 2008, voters eagerly assented to the projects by a vote of 44,849 to 27,564 (62% to 38%). The rest is history and the SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City, were renamed the Thunder, and there you have it — Oklahoma City's National Basketball Association team, right here in River City.
<br><br>
<a name="maps3begins"></a><b>MAPS 3 — 2009.</b> At long last, we arrive in 2009, the year of the MAPS 3 vote. Development of a MAPS 3 plan was sidelined during 2008 due to the Ford Center project, but in spring 2009, things got cookin'. MAPS 3 was ostensibly formulated during spring and summer 2009 — I say, "ostensibly," since it is clear that since at least 2007 a new convention center, as well as a a convention hotel, were projects favored by the Chamber and the Mayor — but not necessarily as parts of MAPS 3, per se. Recall also that Steve Lackmeyer's January 18, 2007, article, reported that the Chamber would hire a consultant the next month, February 2007, to evaluate the city's needs for a convention center, and that in the same article that Chamber president Larry Nichols spoke of the need for a 500 to 1,000 room convention hotel.
<br><br>
<a name="csl_study"></a> <b>The Chamber's CSL Convention Study.</b> The convention study referenced in Lackmeyer's 2007 article was doubtless the study by Conventions, Sports & Leisure, International, which was first publicly described (as far as I can locate) in Lackmeyer's March 11, 2009, article, "New convention center is priority, study finds." Doubtless, the study funded by the Chamber in February 2007 was completed well before its first public quasi-disclosure in March 2009.
<br><br>
"What do you mean, 'quasi-disclosure,'" you rightly ask? Even though the study was performed by CSL in 2007 and was likely completed during the same year, no mention was made of that study in the <i>Oklahoman</i> or other news sources before March 2009, and it has pretty much been a phantom study as far as the public is concerned. Even to this day, the study has not been released to the general public. It is foolhardy to doubt that it was not seen by the Mayor and at least some council members prior to its quasi-disclosure in March 2009 in an <i>Oklahoman</i> article by Steve Lackmeyer.
<br><br>
Lackmeyer's March 11, 2009, article said, in part:
<br><br>
<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left"> Oklahoma City is at a crossroads in its quest to become a second-tier convention market, and a new study commissioned by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber recommends building a $400 million convention center to ensure the city stays competitive.
The study by Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, suggests that replacing the 38-year old Cox Convention Center will cost $250 to $400 million.
<br>
Mayor Mick Cornett has suggested for the past two years that any MAPS 3 should include a new convention center as a priority project. That call is being joined by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.
<br>
"We believe the convention center plays a vital role in the development of the visitor industry and in the development of downtown," said David Thompson, chamber chairman.
<br>
"This study tells us clearly that our current center is not large enough, nor does it boast the amenities we need to be competitive. It is time for us to make an investment in this industry or recognize that we are slowly going out of business as far as conventions are concerned."</td></tr></table></center>
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Did reporter Lackmeyer have the full CSL study when writing the above March 11 article? He didn't say. <i>$250 to $400 million</i> for a convention center cuts a pretty wide swath. Was a Phase 1 and Phase 2 mentioned in the study? He didn't say.
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One additional item should be mentioned about this March 11, 2009, article. In the article's sidebar, Lackmeyer wrote,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
<b>WHAT'S NEXT?</B> >Consultants recommend construction of a new convention with between 200,000 and 300,000 square feet of exhibit space; between 50,000 and 75,000 square feet of meeting space; and between 30,000 and 50,000 square feet of ballroom space. * * *
<br>* * *
Chamber President Roy Williams predicts planning for a new convention center will be complicated, and an opening would take six years if started today. <b>Ideally, Williams said, a proposal should include <u>a hotelier ready to commit to building a convention hotel</b></u> as part of the project if approved by voters. Williams added the convention center and hotel should open at the same time. [Emphasis supplied]</td></tr></table></center>
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A reasonable inference, if not explicit suggestion, of Williams' comments just referenced is that a convention hotel, if one be built, would be not involve taxpayer support, but would instead be paid for by a hotelier ready to commit to building a hotel. At the least, if I've misconstrued Williams' comments, his remarks clearly differentiate between (a) a convention center which would be funded by the public as part of a then potential MAPS 3 proposal and (b) a convention hotel which would not be. At least, that's my reading.
<br><br>
In a separate March 11 Q&A <i>Oklahoman</i> article with the Mayor by Lackmeyer, we get more of a glimpse at, but not yet a complete picture, of the answers:
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
<b>Q:</b> The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber released a study Tuesday recommending construction of a $400 million convention center. How do you see this proposal moving forward?
<br>
<b>A:</b> <i>First of all, the $400 million number you mentioned is <b>if we pursued both a phase one and two.</b></i> I think we are more focused on considering a phase one in the short term, which would cost closer to $250 million. * * * But the vehicle for funding this project would be a MAPS 3, and we as a community still have to decide that we want to proceed towards a MAPS 3 vote at the end of this year. If we do, a new convention center will strongly be considered as a project.</td></tr></table></center>
<br>
Again, I wonder if Lackmeyer had the full report when writing the pair of March 11 articles.
<br><br>
About the CSL study, the main March 11 article continued by giving Roy Williams' (the chamber's CEO) take on the study:
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
Williams said Conventions, Sports & Leisure was chosen because of reputation and prior experience looking at Oklahoma City's convention market. ¶ Williams said the study is ongoing. The first phase included a comparison to cities Oklahoma City competes with for conventions, and a destination market analysis that considers the likelihood that the city can move up to the next tier with a new convention center. ¶ "The destination market analysis looks at other amenities you should have to attract visitors," Williams said. "It looks at the total component of visitor attractions." ¶ Williams quoted the consultants as saying Oklahoma City is assured increased business if it builds a new convention center.
</td></tr></table></center>
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"Phase one" ... "phase two" ... where do those phrases come from? They obviously relate to the CSL study, but, aside from Cathy O'Connor's comments in the June 11, 2013, city council discussion, wherein O'Connor said ...
<br><br>
<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">The convention center hotel project WAS [emphasis hers] mentioned as a part of the MAPS 3 campaign literature and campaign materials as a part of the <i>Phase 1</i> development of a new convention center.</tD></tr></table></center>
<br>
... we are pretty much left to guess about the parameters of phases one and two in the CSL study and any possible mention of a convention hotel. During the MAPS 3 campaign, the CSL convention study received no mention all from March 11 until December 8, the day of the election itself.
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In an un-authored December 8, 2009, "A closer look," article, on the day of the election, the <i>Oklahoman</i> said,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
A study by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber found the Cox Convention Center is too small to serve the city's convention needs in the coming decades.
<br>
* * *
<br>
A study commissioned by the chamber estimates the new convention center would triple the economic impact of the Cox Center, bringing nearly $80 million a year and 1,100 jobs to the local economy.</td></tr></table></center>
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What I've identified above contains the complete public record of any mention of the CSL study between March 11 and December 8, 2009. Other than the passing reference Roy Williams made to a convention hotel in Lackmeyer's March 11 article, no mention is made of a possible convention hotel.
<br><br>
Even after December 8, 2009, until today, the CSL study has received little mention in the press, even though the <i>Oklahoman</i>, or at least its leadership, as well as the Mayor and at least some council members, were obviously privy to it.
<br><br>
<a name="dark_city"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/dark_city_zpse3fcc9ec.jpg?t=1374438250" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/MAPS%203/dark_city_225_zpsbaeb491c.jpg?t=1374438250" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> <b>Dark City. </b>This was a very dark period for investigative journalism at the <i>Oklahoman</i>, very dark. Recall these things: the Chamber itself guided the MAPS 3 campaign; the campaign was led by David Thompson, then the Chamber President; Thompson was also president of the OPUBCO Communications Group. Thompson or his staff held close reigns on what <i>Oklahoman</i> reporters were allowed to write about during the MAPS 3 campaign and, on at least one occasion that I am privy to, even changed a reporter's submitted MAPS 3 story to render it more MAPS 3 friendly than the article he originally wrote for publication.
<br><br>
During Thompson's regime as head of the MAPS 3 campaign, that <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter privately communicated with me by e-mail. The reporter, no longer with the <i>Oklahoman</i>, told me that a MAPS 3 article that he'd submitted for publication was substantially changed by his editor to make it more MAPS 3 friendly and that the changes were made without his knowledge or consent and even though the reported story continued to bear his byline.
<br><br>
In short, the Chamber, which had commissioned the study in February 2007, was fully aware of the study's content after its completion, probably in late 2007 but certainly by early 2008, and that the Chamber via David Thompson controlled what was said about the convention center, including the CSL study, during the entirety of the MAPS 3 campaign.
<br><br>
<a name="hotel_not_mentioned"></a> <b>Hotel Not Mentioned. </b>The Chamber's "Breaking Through" presentations/luncheons in October and November 2009 did not mention the study or a convention hotel. The city's website for MAPS 3 did not mention that a convention hotel would or might be needed for the convention center's viability.
<br><br>Why then did the CSL study which was relied upon by the Chamber and the Mayor as being so important as a touchstone rationale as to why a convention center should be included in MAPS 3 receive absolutely no attention during the MAPS 3 campaign itself?
<br><br>
As of this writing, the <i>Oklahoman</i> has still not presented an article comprehensively describing the content of the CSL study. Fortunately, the city has a weekly newspaper, the <i>Oklahoma Gazette</i>, which sometimes fills in some of the gaps.
<br><br>
In a lengthy December 5, 2012, <a href="http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-17065-unconventional-concerns.html" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoma Gazette</i> article</a> by Clifton Adcock, some, but not all, of the CSL missing pieces were filled in. About the study, Adcock wrote,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
The CS&L study almost has the air of legend to it — often referred to, but few have actually seen it.
<br>
Completed in February 2009, it details why the city needs more convention center space. Although it holds critical implications for public policy and the spending of taxpayer money, the report itself is not a public record.
<br>
Instead, it is kept by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. The chamber recently provided <i>Oklahoma Gazette</i> with access to the study. A reporter was allowed to read it under supervision and take notes, but not to copy or photograph any of the materials.</td><tr></table></center>
<br>
That is a step in the right direction, at least. The article says that the report was completed in February 2009, notwithstanding that the Chamber engaged CSL to perform the study in February 2007. That fact leads one to wonder if an earlier CSL study also existed, or if the report was merely delayed to be in sync with the MAPS 3 campaign. Be that as it may, Adcock's report continues ...
<br><br>
<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
"The rationale behind the study was we have a 40-year-old convention center that is not built to industry standards. If we're going to grow our convention business, what do we have to do?" said Roy Williams, president of the city chamber.
<br>
The report concluded that while the "practical maximum capacity" occupancy rate — the amount of sellable space being occupied per year — is around 70 percent, the Cox Convention Center had an average of only 26 percent occupancy between 2003 and 2009. ¶ The current usable space is too small and not high-quality enough to attract many large-scale conventions, according to the study. CS&L recommended a center with at least 285,000 square feet of usable space to better compete with peer cities.
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This part of the study is often cited by officials and boosters as justification for a new convention center. ¶ But another reason for the low occupancy levels, the study continues, is the fact that management of the Cox Convention Center is shared by two companies: SMG, which manages and leases out arena and event space; and Renaissance Hotel, which manages and leases out the center’s ballroom and meeting rooms.
<br>
In the late 1990s, city leaders had used management of some convention center space to help entice the Renaissance to locate downtown. ¶ But that bifurcated management situation "is highly unusual in the industry and likely impacts overall ability to book events" at the convention center, the CS&L report says. "For any future hotel development, we strongly recommend that a hotel operator not be given rights to book or operate space in the convention center."</td><tr></table></center>
<br>
That's all good, but several unanswered questions remain:
<br>
<ol><li>Did CSL do one, or more than one, convention studies for the Chamber?</li>
<li>If only one, since the Chamber commissioned the CSL study in February 2007, why was its "release" (a euphemism, I think) not made until March 2009?</li>
<li>Exactly what does "phase one" and "phase two" mean?</li>
<li>Was ANY mention made of a convention hotel during the MAPS 3 campaign?</li>
<li>When, if ever, will the Chamber come out of the closet and let the public see the study or studies?</li>
<li>Did ANY study by the Chamber make mention of the need for a convention hotel?</li>
</ol>
The bottom line is that the public does not know the answers to the first 3 questions. Neither do I.
<br><br>
As to the fourth, we know that the answer is, "No. A convention hotel was not mentioned during the MAPS 3 campaign." Notwithstanding Cathy O'Connor's statements to the City Council on June 11, 2013, neither during the Chamber's "Breaking Through" luncheons, through other campaign publicity, or otherwise in the media was a convention hotel ever mentioned, as council members Shadid and Greiner said on June 11, 2013. O'Connor was flat wrong.
<br><br>
Council member McAtee was also wrong in suggesting that Shadid and Greiner had "slanted" their comments, if "slanted" means not being truthful. If any council member can rightly be charged with being untruthful in the June 11 discussion, it is Larry McAtee and not the other two guys.
<br><br>
<a name="why_not"></a><b> Why wasn't a convention hotel mentioned in the MAPS 3 campaign? </b>My answer and opinion is that David Thompson, who chaired the campaign and the other campaign cheerleaders, including the Mayor, didn't want it to be. See <a href="#dark_city">Dark City</a>, above. Most probably, given the unpopularity of the MAPS 3 project, those leaders feared that its mention might doom the MAPS 3 vote, should the public become aware that yet another city taxpayer expense might become involved with the convention center than was involved in the MAPS 3 tax, itself.
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<i><b>My opinion is that Thompson, the Chamber, the Mayor, and all those privy to the CSL study, deliberately concealed from the public that a convention hotel would also be needed for the success of the MAPS 3 convention center.</i></b> With publicity about the possible need for a convention hotel, and the potential of additional public funding beyond MAPS 3's amounts, MAPS 3 might well have been doomed to failure. As it was, without that information being available to the public, MAPS 3 passed by a vote of 54% to 46%. Would disclosure of the potential hotel expense have mattered in the vote tally? My guess is that, probably, it would, since the convention center was popular with the Chamber but not by the voters.
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As to question 5, who can say? Maybe the Chamber will discontinue its peek-a-boo position concerning the CSL study (studies) and will at long last step out of the closet.
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As to the 6th, we don't know the answer to that question with certainty, but we do have considerable information which indicates what the Chamber wanted.
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<a name="chamber_quest"></A> <b>The Chamber's Quest For A Convention Hotel.</b> At least by January 18, 2007, we know that the Chamber made its views known in a Lackmeyer article of the same date. In that article, "City chamber explores shift to tier two city," he reported,
<br><br>
<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
<b>A large conference hotel</b> and additional meeting space may be the next mission downtown for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber as it explores how to move from a tier three to a tier two convention city. ¶ The effort, announced by chairman Larry Nichols at Wednesday's State of the City address, will start with the chamber hiring a consultant next month.
<br> <b>"A new 1,000 room convention hotel</b> is something we can certainly dream about," Nichols said. "The convention center is at capacity. If you try to book something in three weeks, won't find anything available." ¶ Nichols said the city has been told repeatedly it needs more than 1,000 hotel rooms to attract large conventions — and the opening of six new hotels over the past few years has put downtown's room count to more than 1,400. He noted more meeting space was added at the Cox Convention Center a decade ago as part of the Metropolitan Area Projects improvements back when downtown only had one hotel.
<br> "Now we're on the other side, where we have more rooms but less convention space," Nichols said. "We've got to define what a tier two city needs in terms of facilities and hotel capacity. And if you look around, <b>major tier two cities all have major conference hotels — 500 to 1,000 rooms, a convention headquarters — which we don't have."</b> [Emphasis supplied]</td></tr></table></center>
<br>Hey, wait a minute! This article, mentioning the Chamber's wish list for a 1,000 (or 500-1,000) room convention hotel, was written on the eve of the Chamber's commissioning of the CSL study, the Chamber firing its salvos favoring a convention hotel. Put this info into your pipe and smoke it as the CSL study was about to begin.
<br><br>
However, like Ron Popeil says, "BUT WAIT!" so lets hold up on that smoke for a moment. Another article, a January 25, 2008, op-ed piece published in the <i>Oklahoman</i> written by Brett Hamm, President of Downtown OKC Inc. (a component of the Chamber), Hamm said,
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
What tools are needed for Oklahoma City's future? An expanded convention center? <b>A convention hotel?</b> * * * [Emphasis supplied]</td></tr></table></center>
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By the time the January 2008 op-ed piece by Hamm was written, the CSL study commissioned by the Chamber in February 2007 would presumably have been done.
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Now, finally, put the above into your pipe, also, and then proceed to smoke. It is difficult to doubt that a Chamber priority since at least 2007 has been the building of a convention hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. It is just as difficult to doubt that the CSL study which the Chamber initiated with CSL in 2007 did not mention a convention hotel.
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<a name="o'connor_why"></a> <b>Why Did O'Connor Say What She Did?</b> This one's a bit hard to figure. If Ed Shadid had wanted or needed a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_%28literature%29" target="_blank">foil</a> who would present, as the antagonist to the protagonist, a springboard to his more substantive comments about a convention hotel, it would be hard to imagine a better one than O'Connor presented with her opening remarks on June 11, 2013.
<br><br>
Why would O'Connor have made such a huge blunder? Perhaps it was because in her own mind she had melded and blurred the content of the MAPS 3 campaign, September 2009-December 2009, with the content of the CSL study, finished between 2007-2009, when she made her remarks on June 11, 2013, 3½ years after the MAPS 3 vote ...
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<center><table width="95%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left">
The convention center hotel project WAS [emphasis hers] mentioned as a part of the MAPS 3 campaign literature and campaign materials as a part of the <i>Phase 1</i> development of a new convention center.</td></tr></table></center>
<br>O'Connor's completely inaccurate and false misrepresentation of history is perhaps due to (1) her ignorance or forgetfulness of what publicly transpired during the MAPS 3 campaign, and/or (2) her familiarity as an insider who was privy to the Chamber's CLS study (or studies). She may have simply confused the public campaign with the Chamber's private study and made no distinction between the two. Doubtless it was not her intention to be Shadid's foil in making the inaccurate statement that she made. Regardless, in her public words on June 11, she made a wholly historical blunder, and one which rather nicely played into the hands of and setting up Ed Shadid's rejoinder and his other comments, which followed her own presentation. Hearing O'Connor's remarks, Shadid may have been thinking to himself and inwardly rolling his eyeballs upward while sitting on the City Council's horseshoe, saying, "Thank you, god."
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This post is nearly done but more will shortly follow.
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<center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center>
</span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-33560097631549053192013-05-23T09:10:00.000-05:002013-06-06T17:47:30.098-05:00While My Guitar Gently Weeps<center><iframe width="510" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6SFNW5F8K9Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
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This haunting tune by George Harrison strikes me as particularly poignant this week in the Oklahoma City metro, as the city of Moore and other metro communities experienced yet again the horrors that Mother Nature can bring. Some (<a href="http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/bostonspirit/2013/05/westboro_baptist_church_blames.html" target="_blank">Westoro Baptist Church, Kansas</a>) submit that the tornadic devastation represents the wrath of god. Others count god's blessings for those who survived, but (by inconsistent logic, I'm thinking) don't mention god's wrath upon those who didn't or were otherwise devastated. Others submit that Mother Nature just is what she is, not invoking a deity one way or another. See <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/prayers_for_oklahoma_wolf_blitzer_and_other_journalists_should_leave_god.html" target=_blank">this CNN Wolf Blitzer video about that</a>. Count me in the latter group. You are, of course, free to take your pick. <br>
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<br>Regardless of your religious inclination, this week has been bad, very very bad, in Oklahoma City. <i>It has been yet another week that Oklahoma City has gently weeped.</i>
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Above, <i>While My Guitar Gently Weeps</i> was performed at the <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/ceremonies/2004/" target="_blank">2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</a> induction ceremonies in which George Harrison, Prince, Jackson Browne, The Dells, Bob Seger, Traffic, and ZZ Top were inductees. In the above tribute to George Harrison by Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison (George Harrison's son, to the right of Tom Petty), Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, and Prince (in the red hat), the melancholy tune was beautifully performed.
<br><br>Our deepest thoughts, grief, sadness, and yes for those who are religiously inclined to claim either god's damnation or the salvation of those who did or not die or otherwise suffer devastation, our prayers, are shared around the world.
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By this time, you've already seen images of the massive destruction in Oklahoma City's sister-city, Moore, earlier this week, and no need exists to repeat those images here. There is really nothing more to say or to see, other than to say that my best thoughts and prayers are out there, too, for whatever they may be worth.
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May God bless and mend all those whose hearts are broken and may the dead amongst us have everlasting love and peace. <br><br>This is an unbeliever's hope and wish ... or maybe not quite an unbeliever ... that, and that you might like to listen to and see J.S. Bach's <i>While Sheep May Safely Graze</i> ...
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<br>... and conclude that not all is wrong with the world, notwithstanding our present and most desperate and lamenting grief.
<br><br></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-84120502179591535532013-03-11T23:55:00.001-05:002013-05-21T16:10:05.373-05:00John Lampton Belt, 1936-2013<a name="top"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/paseoawards_johnbelt0_zpsd3ad86fb.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/paseoawards_johnbelt0_250_zpsf653fd60.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>It came as a shock to me to read in Steve Lackmeyer's <i>Oklahoman</i> article that John Lampton Belt died Sunday morning, at the age of 76. Steve's article was published on-line on the same day, March 10, and it appeared in the print version of the <i>Oklahoman</i> on March 11.
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Why is John Belt significant to Oklahoma City history? The answer is simple. John Belt is/was a person who found his comfortable place in preserving and enhancing a historic neighborhood in Oklahoma City, and he singularly established the Paseo District into what it has become today.
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<b>Steve Lackmeyer's Articles. </b>After Steve's <a href="http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-developer-john-belt-dies-at-age-76/article/3764593" target="_blank">initial article</a> on March 10-11, he wrote another for the <a href="http://newsok.com/john-belt-paseo-pioneer-leaves-oklahoma-city-a-masterpiece/article/3764844" target="_blank">March 12 <i>Oklahoman</i></a>, and both will tell you things about John Belt and his many contributions to our city, and no need exists for complete repetition here, except to note some snippets:
<center><table width="95%" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left"> Belt may be best known for his efforts over three decades to revive Spanish Village, a faded commercial corridor, into Paseo, an arts district that is home to 20 galleries and working studios. The district, located between NW 28, NW 30, Walker and Dewey Avenues, also is home to gift and clothing shops, an event center, live theater, restaurants and bars.
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Belt’s efforts to revive Paseo started in 1976 when he was dismayed to learn a favorite sandwich shop where he often ate lunch was about to be closed by a neighbor who planned to buy the building and use it for storage.
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In a quick cash upfront deal, Belt did the deal instead, and the restaurant stayed put. More deals followed. As Belt renovated one building after another in the former Spanish Village, artists opened up galleries and the neighborhood enjoyed a slow but steady rise from blight.
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In 2010 the Paseo was named one of the Top Ten Greatest Neighborhoods in America by the American Planning Association, one of America’s Top Revitalized Neighborhoods by Forbes Magazine and in 2011, the BBC listed Paseo as one of the Most Beautiful Neighborhoods in the United States.</td></tr></table></center>
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The above snippets are from Steve's first article. In the second, discussing the property which will be shortly shown below, he said,
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<center><table width="95%" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"><tr><td align="left"> At one of our many visits at the restaurant now known as Picasso's, I stared across the street at the forlorn former home of the Spaghetti Factory. The building was a stark white blank canvass in the middle of an otherwise colorful mix of pastels and tile roofs. The building also was the largest on Paseo Drive, and a reminder of what the rest of the strip looked like before Belt's first building purchase in 1976.
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The owners were known to be tough negotiators when it came to striking a deal. This would not be a cheap buy for anyone — especially someone like Belt, whose heart was worn on his sleeve.
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A couple months later, Belt called me back. Life is short, he explained, and he decided it was indeed time to get the building (once the Paseo Plunge) and bring it back to life after 20 years of dormancy.
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Belt then moved quickly to turn the nondescript building into his next artistic masterpiece. I was amused as he had to submit the building designs to the Downtown Design Review Committee, which had been set up just a few years earlier.
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How, I wondered, could this group really tell Belt what was and wasn't an appropriate fit for the area when he was the master planner of it all for more than 30 years?
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Belt never used that card on the committee members — he respectfully but firmly haggled with the group over their proposed changes. And the project went forward, even without a firm plan on the building's ultimate use.
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The building wasn't an easy renovation project. It was huge, without a lot of windows, and built so solidly it would likely withstand a 7.0 earthquake.
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We talked about this dilemma a few times. He pondered setting up musical practice studios in the virtually soundproof basement. He considered a balcony coffee shop or restaurant. An arts center, retail complex or community gathering spot all were on the list.
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As noted by his friends, John Belt almost always wore a suit and tie amid the more casually dressed “funky” folks who populate the Paseo. Yes, he was an attorney tied to pretty powerful interests in this town. But at heart, he was still the song-and-dance man who thrilled audiences in college, community theater, and briefly, in New York City. He was an artist at heart. And the Paseo, with all its colorful buildings, artists, attractions and events, is the masterpiece that John Belt, the artist, has given Oklahoma City to enjoy for generations to come.</td></tr></table></center>
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In addition to Steve's articles published in the <i>Oklahoman</i>, in one of his <a href=""http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2013/03/14/legacy-john-belt-and-the-paseo/" target="_blank">OkcCentral blog posts</a>, he presents a very fine 10 minute video published by OPUBCO, much of it featuring Mr. Belt's overview of the Spanish Village and its transition into the Paseo Distict, complete with the 1960s-early 1970s hippies period and its transformation after that to the modern Paseo District. I've shamelessly embedded that video here, below.
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With respect to Mr. Belt, the Paseo Plunge was not the only place for the general public to swim in the 1950s-1960s. For example, <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/04/springlake.html" target="_blank">Springlake Amusement Park</a> had a fantastic swimming pool area and I think there were a few others as well. But, he can be forgiven for that minor error.
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<b>My Personal Privilege. </b>Lots and lots of people have known John Belt far longer than I have but I regard it as a high privilege that I came to know him when I did. My first contact with him occurred by phone when at the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/05/paseo.html#The%20Elms" target="_blank">JRB At The Elms</a> art gallery back in 2006 or 2007 when I was doing research on the history of the Paseo area, originally called "Spanish Village," the construction of which began in 1929 by G.A. Nichols. While at the gallery with my wife, I spoke with John's wife, Joy Reed Belt, and I inquired about the basis for the Paseo's claim to be "the first commercial shopping district north of downtown Oklahoma City," as was stated in one of the Paseo's websites. She assured me that it was (notwithstanding my observation that Plaza Court at 1100 Classen Drive, built in 1927, was Oklahoma City's first suburban shopping center) and she suggested that I might want to speak with her husband. I said that would be great, she got him on the phone, and we spoke with each other for the first time.
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Truth is, I don't remember much about that conversation ... I just remember that it happened. My <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/05/paseo.html" target="_blank">first blog post</a> about the Paseo occurred shortly thereafter, in early May 2007. It was followed by my <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/05/2007-paseo-arts-festival.html" target="_blank">second post</a> later in the month about the 2007 Paseo Arts Festival.
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Some time passing, in the pre-organization days of <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2010/07/retrometro-okc.html" target="_blank">RetroMetro OKC</a>, probably in 2009, Mr. Belt was the guest speaker at a brown-bag lunch at the Oklahoma City downtown library, and his presentation was fascinating. I was pleased that he recognized me and gave me kudos for my Paseo research. Enter ego bump number 1 for Doug Dawg.
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More time passed. Sometime in 2011, October I think, John contacted me and wondered if I might do some updating on my prior Paseo posts and I said that I would if he would help, and he quickly volunteered. We had lunch at Picasso's and then he gave me a private tour of the former Paseo Plunge property that he had purchased; later, we had another meeting at his law office at NW 50th & Western ... the latter being perhaps more like an Oklahoma City museum than a law office. A very nice friendship was formed during this time and (unless my memory has totally failed me) I understand from my wife that John's wife said to her that John had referred to me as his "new best friend," which, of course, pumped up Doug Dawgz ego several more notches, whether deserved or not. I mean and let's get real, John Belt was a person who was <b><i>making</i></b> Oklahoma City history ... I was merely an observer who was writing about it.
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Then, on November 7, 2011, John hosted a meeting of RetroMetro OKC and made a splendid presentation at the formerly decrepit property that he had purchased and was completely reinventing at great personal expense, the old Paseo Plunge, and I took a number of photos of John and the re-purposed property. My original intention was to publish these photos more than a year ago, but I never did. It is fitting that I finally share those photos with you now as a tribute to John Lampton Belt, even if tardily done.
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<b>The Paseo Plunge. </b> I've given some description of this property and its history in a <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/05/paseo.html" target="_blank">May 2007 article</a>. It is and was located at 3010 Paseo. First, I posted a few pics of what it looked like in early May 2007, one of which is shown below:
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/paseo31.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/paseo31s.jpg"></a></center>
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In a nutshell, the Spanish Village Bathing Pool opened in 1933 and was not originally within a closed building, and by 1934 it was named the "Spanish Village Plunge." By May 1944, it was renamed the Paseo Plunge. The pool closed by the early 1950s apparently in response to the 1949-1952 or so polio scare which resulted in the closing of swimming pools around the country. In the video above, Mr. Belt said that the polio scare was in 1957, but I think that he was mistaken about that. In any event, in July 1954, the revamped property reopened and became the Jamboree Surf Club, a private member club operated by Mike Samara. By that time the pool was surrounded on all sides by high walls to assure privacy but was still open-air at the top. A July 11, 1954, <I>Oklahoman</i> article said, "On the first floor of the main building are lockers and dressing rooms. On the second floor, on the same level as the sun deck, is a snack bar and lounge." A May 22, 1955, <i>Oklahoman</i> article said, "The Jamboree Surf club, rebuilt and enlarged from the old Spanish Village plunge, is one of the finest of its kind in the southwest. The concrete apron surrounding the large pool is divided into sunlit and shaded area. A spacious, elevated sun deck borders the pool on two sides." In May 1956, ads appeared in the <i>Oklahoman</i> again naming the pool the Paseo Plunge, open to the public, and those ads continued into 1960. The terminal date of the Paseo Plunge as a swimming pool has thus far eluded me.
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By summer 1968, Sussy's Snack and Pizza Bar had opened at 3010 Paseo, and I am guessing that to be the time that the pool and property became totally enclosed, as well as re-purposed. A September 12, 1968, <i>Oklahoman</i> ad announced that "Sussy's Frozen Spaghetti with sauce" was available at that location.
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In December 1977, the Spaghetti Factory grand opening occurred at the same location. At the time, one could have "dinner & disco" – spaghetti, pizza, and disco by the Wolfman." The Spaghetti Factory continued through 1989. A July 27, 1979, <i>Oklahoman</i> article described it: "Nestled in Oklahoma City's Paseo district, the Spaghetti Factory's long white exterior camouflages an inside decor which can best described as 'early nondescript.' ¶ A diner who walks through the front door is suddenly confronted with odd electronic devices on the wall, and what they are is anyone's guess."
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By the time that I took the photo shown above in May 2009, the property had been unused for many years (Steve's 2nd article says for 20 years) and was on the market for sale. It was an eyesore and a huge blemish on the Paseo District that Belt had been earnestly developing for several years.
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In that May 2009 article, I said,
<blockquote>At the moment, this former "pool" property has got to be one large negative to The Paseo today. It is large, it is empty, it is in disrepair, and it will take significant investment to change all of that.</blockquote>
The significant investment came from none other than John Lampton Belt who purchased the property under the name of Paseo Village on December 11, 2009. Lackmeyer's 2nd article gives some description of Belt's intention for the property.
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<b>The New Paseo Plunge.</b> By November 7, 2011, the Paseo Plunge had a new look:
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/04_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsaa527c17.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/04_paseo_11_7_2011_510_zps2b144916.jpg"></a></center>
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Mr. Belt invited RetroMetro OKC to meet at the work-in-progress of the Paseo Plunge on November 7 and have a gander at what occurred thus far and to see and hear him make a presentation of The Paseo's history. His investment and vision for this once decrepit property were staggering. More images from that meeting are shown below.
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<center><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/00_paseo_11_7_2011_zps9028e116.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/00_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsaf691738.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">1 - Looking north from Plunge</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/01_paseo_11_7_2011_zps14550c1a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/01_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps8c3b833c.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">2 - Looking south</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/02_paseo_11_7_2011_zps15acb086.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/02_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsc4c3a9aa.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">3 - Looking west from Plunge</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/03_paseo_11_7_2011_zps3c500109.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/03_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps46fdb578.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">4 - Looking south at Plunge</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/04_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsc06419fb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/04_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsaa527c17.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">5 - Looking east at Plunge</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/05_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsde8a8704.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/05_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps9d757339.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">6 - Plunge Entrance</font></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/07_paseo_11_7_2011_zps594d3918.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/07_paseo_11_7_2011_510_zps2d753e0d.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">7 - Closer look at 2nd floor<br>Inside view of the lighted window is shown in #12, below</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/06_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsc3dcbb51.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/06_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps05cbdfe7.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">8 - Art window above entrance</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/06a_paseo_11_7_2011_zps21ae183d.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/06a_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps9918f4a4.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">9 - Closer look at the art</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/08_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsf56a3310.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/08_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsbd175a67.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">10 - Old fashioned freight elevator</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/09_paseo_11_7_2011_zps43b26bdf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/09_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsd22426b2.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">11 - Part of spacious 2nd floor</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/09a_paseo_11_7_2011_zps01cdee30.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/09a_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsa7b2f51a.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">12 - Window looking west</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/10_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsaec14bc1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/10_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps8c138515.jpg"></a><font color="white">13 - Preparing for meeting</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/11_paseo_11_7_2011_zps69576173.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/11_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps23e94086.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">14 - Preparing for meeting</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/12_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsf633b22b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/12_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsa377b675.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">15 - RetroMetro starts to assemble</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/14_paseo_11_7_2011_zps50f3c14a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/14_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps7c500edd.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">16 - RetroMetro meeting starts to assemble</font></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/15_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsd9e76bcf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/15_paseo_11_7_2011_510_zps5ee74106.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">17 - John Belt explains how he became involved with the Paseo - to save Hiram's, his favorite sandwich shop</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/hirams1_zps4fde3cf0.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/hirams1_250_zps7ecf7937.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">18 - Hiram's sandwich shop</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/hirams3_zps4f6db1fe.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/hirams3_250_zps9e8bdd98.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">19 - Hiram's location</font></td></tr>
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<td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16e_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsd9169fa9.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16e_paseo_11_7_2011_510_zpsee027bd1.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">20 - Photos of John Belt during his presentation</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16a_paseo_11_7_2011_zps2d365fb7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16a_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpse0c716cf.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">21</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16b_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsb0695f6f.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16b_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps7382467c.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">22</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16c_paseo_11_7_2011_zps56777dde.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16c_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps2e5de135.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">23</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16d_paseo_11_7_2011_zps3d003eb7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/16d_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsd2376ace.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">24</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/17_paseo_11_7_2011_zps353a6eb1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/17_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpse3050468.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">25 - After presentation</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/19_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsee45aac1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/19_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps260623b8.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">26 - In basement</font></td></tr>
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<td colspan="2" align="center"><font color="white">Photos 26-34 show the Plunge's basement, where the bottom of the pool originally was. Probably, during Sussy's Snack and Pizza Bar's tenure (1968- ?), much of this space was converted to large freezers to store frozen pizza for marketing outside the property and around the state. In photo 29, "pass through" windows between freezer rooms can be seen whereby pizzas would be passed from one room to the next. At great expense and difficulty, the floor had been leveled-out and solidified. As will be observed, much work remained to be done, e.g., old pipes and pumps.</font></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/20_paseo_11_7_2011_zps57c4612b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/20_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps7639404e.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">27</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/21_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsb4bbe383.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/21_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps6d64b0b5.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">28</font></td></tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/21a_paseo_11_7_2011_zps2d3311ed.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/21a_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps73b50a75.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">29</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/22_paseo_11_7_2011_zps580f8059.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/22_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps804ed7b2.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">30</font></td></tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/23_paseo_11_7_2011_zps1563a4e3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/23_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps74620035.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">31</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/24_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsbf35d343.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/24_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zpsc57863b6.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">32 - sump pump</font></td></tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/25_paseo_11_7_2011_zpsbfc315e7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/25_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps269812d5.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">33</font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/27_paseo_11_7_2011_zps0e5211ba.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/27_paseo_11_7_2011_250_zps631e0d0b.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">34</font></td></tr>
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<td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/28_paseo_11_7_2011_zps825dabf4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/28_paseo_11_7_2011_510_zps656e5766.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">35 - Leaving the meeting and looking north at artwork on a building on the Plunge's north side, symbolic of Belt's influence in the Paseo District</font></td></tr>
</table></center>
<br>
I've not returned to the Plunge since the November 2011 meeting so I cannot report on changes since that time. A graphic rendering appears at <a href="http://www.paseoplunge.com/" target="_blank">http://www.paseoplunge.com/</a>, shown below, the text simply reading, "The Paseo Plunge is currently under renovation in the beautiful and renowned Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma."
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<center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/paseo/paseo_plunge_zpsc131bda8.jpg"></center>
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Hopefully, John Belt's survivors will do what they can to see that his vision for this property continues and that it becomes a reality and a fitting testament to his dreams and vision.
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Oklahoma City will forever be in your debt, John Lampton Belt, for all that you dreamed and did. I'm not particularly a religious person, but, still, I say, "Thank you, John Belt, and may God bless you and look fondly upon your soul," just as we do here amongst the living.
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<center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-36535437556435737652013-02-02T21:07:00.000-06:002013-02-23T15:13:17.822-06:00Sandtown Circa 1884<a name="top"></a><b>This is a test question:</b> <i>The first "legal" settlers in Oklahoma City acquired their rights on:</i><br><br>
<b> (1) April 22, 1889, Land Run<br>
(2) Earlier than the Land Run</b>
<br><br>
If you chose (1), amazingly, you may well be mistaken; if you chose (2), you are just as amazingly, but more likely than not, correct.
<br><br>
<i>How can the second choice possibly be correct?</i> Most if not all established historians and other writers take it as a given that land in the Unassigned Lands could not be legally acquired prior to the April 22, 1889, Land Run. Boomers couldn't; Sooners couldn't. The notion is so ingrained that it is almost universally assumed to be a "given," something beyond dispute, beyond being questioned.
<br><br>
But are legitimate Land Runners really all there were in the context of legitimate claim holders to that part of the Unassigned Lands which today comprise a part of Oklahoma City?
<br><br>
Not necessarily. There were arguably if not most likely a handful of black freedman who settled in Oklahoma City south of Reno, east of May, in 1884, in part of the area that became known as "Sandtown," more particularly in the Sandtown area that I'll call "the boot," in the bend of the North Canadian River which is more or less in the Lewis Addition to Oklahoma City, described below.
<br><br>The fact that the Sandtown area was a black neighborhood in Oklahoma City in early Oklahoma City annals is not disputed by anyone. But, the issue of how and when those black residents came to be there in the first place has not been investigated by any Oklahoma City historian, save one, Ronald James Webb.
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1922_sandtown2_zps0afcd10f.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1922_sandtown2_510_zpsbf1d2cff.jpg"></a>
<br>Sanborn Ins. Co. 1922 Map Showing The Sandtown Area</center>
<span class="fullpost">
<br>
<b>INTRODUCTION. </b>The "Five Civilized Tribes" residing in Indian Territory before the Civil War owned African American slaves, but after the Civil War they were freed, hence their name, "freedmen." This article develops the notion that some of them came to reside in the Sandtown area in 1884, five years before the April 22, 1889, Land Run, and that they continued to reside there from that time for as long as the Sandtown community continued to exist. As well, it provides as much information about their community, life, and environment as I'm able to tell.
<br><br>
In a September 29, 1997, <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_1997_zpse775c31f.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> by Melissa Nelson, "Memories Help Sandtown Area Come Alive," she wrote:
<blockquote>William Welge, the Oklahoma Historical Society's archive director, said his organization has no records on Sandtown's history. ¶ Welge said he doubts the claim by Antioch Baptist Church at 2727 SW 3 that it was founded in 1885. That was before the unassigned lands were opened to public settlement. ¶ But Welge said former slaves known as freedmen could have settled the area under a federal program to relocate southern blacks. ¶ "It's unfortunate that the Sandtown area is largely forgotten and has been totally ignored by historians," he said. "Really, there are only a handful of people who [illegible] it ever existed."</blockquote>
Are the claims of these freedmen and their descendants imaginary, as OHS historian Bill Welge suggested, or are they real? If real, the written history of the origins of Oklahoma City requires a rewriting so that written history matches factual reality. In addition to tracing the history of Sandtown, this article explores the possibility that, like Ralph Waldo Emerson's <i>Invisible Man</i>, these black men and women who collectively comprised "Sandtown" did exist even if they have been invisible in Oklahoma City's written history.
<br><br>
<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/ronald_james_webb_zps8e1c7de1.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/ronald_james_webb_225_zps837453eb.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><B>PART 1: THE RESEARCH AND WRITING OF RONALD JAMES WEBB. </B> While doing my research on Oklahoma City's Sandtown, one of the links I followed was to <a href="http://www.sandtownhistory.com/" target="_blank">www.sandtownhistory.com</a> (which doesn't appear to be working as I write this text). In that website, a link was present to "History of Sandtown," or something like that. When I clicked the link, the referenced internet page was no longer available. But I also found an email address for Mr. Webb and I began an e-mail discussion with him which turned out to provide a treasure trove of information ... a godsend, actually.
<br><br>
Due to his host's web page formatting issues, he explained, the paper that he'd written in 2005 was no longer available on that website ... but, he asked me if I would like to have a copy.
<br><br>
<b><i>Would I like to have a copy? Hoorah! Cha-ching! </i></b> "Are you kidding?" I replied. Of course I would. To shorten the story a bit, he furnished me a copy of his paper in Microsoft Word format; I converted it to WordPerfect format (the word processing software that I use); I then created a PDF version of his paper, complete with bookmarks. He kindly allowed that I re-publish his paper here. Aside from formatting changes, the only difference between his 2005 research paper and the 2013 re-publication here is that I have added a footnote which gives his own background information and describes how he became interested in Sandtown, as follows:
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<center><table width="95%" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="FFFFCC" border="1"><tr><td align="left"> Ronald James Webb, born December 14, 1946, moved with his family to Oklahoma City in 1948. His academic degrees are: Bachelor's degrees in history (Marquette University) and electrical engineering (University of Wisconsin) and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He worked for Motorola in Chicago, for Samsung in Dallas, and for Nokia in Helsinki and now (January 2013) in Beijing.
<br>
While attending Bishop McGuiness High School his interest in Sandtown started. He says,"There was some discussion in religion class about happiness, poverty and fullness of life. Some ideas were proposed that maybe happiness and satisfaction are not dependent on wealth, but on culture, status, and security. That's when the assignment was made to investigate the subject further by visiting poor communities, like Sandtown. I chose Sandtown because it seemed the poorest of the poor. This was rather presumptuous, the idea that we could just drop in to some poor community and ask questions. But somehow it worked for me, and it opened my eyes. I could write many pages about this but the short of it was that I no longer regarded wealth as a prerequisite for happiness. Forty years later, I woke up one night thinking about Sandtown, and decided to visit again. Of course it had drastically changed, destroyed actually, but some of the houses were still there, and I found two residents, Glennie Hunter and Lucile Williams, who had been born and raised in Sandtown, I mention these in the article. Glennie Hunter was the most valuable source of information, she provided many photos, stories and a fairly complete history of Sandtown. I was hooked. I then made a systematic study of Sandtown, starting with the Antioch Baptist Church, which had been located in Sandtown from 1884 until 1999, according to their records. I spent hours at the OHS, with help from a friendly worker there. Consulted old newspapers, Polk City Directories, Sanborn maps and census data. I spent hours at the land and tax offices researching warranty deeds starting with April 22, 1889. I read several books about OKC, including McRill's classic And Satan Came Also, and Stan Hoig's The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. McRill was involved personally with Sandtown, and Hoig provides excellent detailed information about what happened around OKC in the 1880's before the Land Rush. I found a monograph about Sandtown culture, written by Phelicia Ann Morton, a Sandtown resident who went to Cornell University, graduated and got a Master's degree there. In short, it became a passion for me, culminating in this article."
<br>
"I sent the article to the OHS. After several months without response I inquired again, did they receive it? Again, no response. So after six months, I created a website www.sandtownhistory.com, and published an abbreviated, but more decorative version, online. I then was contacted by the head of the OHS who said that she just started in the job, and found my manuscript in an old shoebox. I told her that I had already published the article on my website, and she said that it was regrettable, but the OHS cannot publish anything that has been published already elsewhere."
<br>
As noted above, Mr. Webb's article was originally self-published in 2005. This republication is made in January 2013, with only formatting changes to the original.</td></tr></table></center>
<br>
Mr. Webb's 25-page single-spaced article includes 14 images and 54 endnotes which identify his sources. In addition to establishing a legitimate basis for the claim that Sandtown's origins trace to 1884 and continued thereafter, his article contains information about the people, community, culture, and environment in and around Sandtown, much of that based upon interviews with Sandtown residents in 2005. The paper is seriously researched and is written by the pen of a scholarly author, one not to be taken lightly. We are all indebted to Mr. Webb for allowing his paper to be available here, for all to read.
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<a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/sandtown_ronald_j_webb_2005.pdf" target="_blank">Click here</a> or click the image below to open and/or save to your computer Ronald James Webb's "Oklahoma City’s Historic Sandtown Neighborhood."
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<center><a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/sandtown_ronald_j_webb_2005.pdf" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/webb_page1_zps7e09a36a.jpg"></a></center>
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The author describes Sandtown before and after the passing of <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/05/jim-crow-in-oklahoma-city.html" target="_blank">Jim Crow ordinances</a> in Oklahoma City which established residential white and black "blocks," and he explores the impact of the Packingtown district in and after 1906 upon Sandtown residents. Churches, schools, business, and other activities are discussed, as are the environs around Sandtown itself, including conflict with the antagonistic residents of nearby Mulligan Flats. At page 17, this description of Sandtown is presented:
<br><blockquote> In the 1940’s and 50’s Sandtown hosted weekly block parties between Chickasaw and Pottawatomie (3rd and 4th) Streets on Doffing Ave. Maddie Wright, on the piano, and her husband George on the guitar, got things started on Friday nights. The parties often extended through the weekend. Glennie recalls that "there was never trouble except when Eastsiders came over." The Sandtown community was stable and close-knit. "People looked out for each other and the town was like a big family."
<br>
Something about living on the river, the uncertainty and the possibility of imminent disaster, gave the citizens an edgy lust for life that is found today only in places like New Orleans and San Francisco. On the other hand, Sandtown was very stable. People moved into Sandtown and stayed, at least until the packing plants closed.</blockquote>
Of course, the North Canadian River is also described — as the source of both early day sustenance and the devastation caused by occasional flooding. River straightening from 1953 to 1958, construction of the I-40 crosstown expressway in the mid-1960s which split Sandtown apart, and the closing of the meat packing companies from 1960 through 1981, all contributed to the demise of this first and most historic neighborhood of Oklahoma City.
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The last image in Mr. Webb's article portrays Sandtown over time ... after the I-40 crosstown was built and which split the region, and after the relocation of the North Canadian River, and it provides an index locating some of Sandtown's once-existing structures.
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<center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/figure14b_zpsbb609ed2.jpg"></center>
<BR>
Thanks, Ronald James Webb, for allowing that this outstanding piece of work be made available here and for your contribution to Oklahoma City history.
<br><br>
<b>PART 2: MY OWN RESEARCH. </B> First, some definitions and clarifications are in order. Although sometimes reported as "Sand Town" in the <i>Oklahoman</i>, the correct name for the black community south of Reno, east of May Avenue, north of Packingtown (more particularly, north of Katherine Street [SW 6th Street]), and west of Agnew (broadly defined -- Sandtown was not as far east as Agnew; the old riverbed of the North Canadian River was Sandtown's eastern border) is "Sandtown," one word. Secondly, Sandtown is not at all the same as the the Walnut Grove area south of Bricktowown or the "May's Camps", also called "Community Camps" or "Hoovervile Camps" which existed during the Great Depression, nor is it the same thing as "Mulligan Flats," the latter area being mentioned in Mr. Webb's article.
<br><br>Last, it may be that a totally different area known as "Sand Town" existed near the North Canadian River south of the warehouse district that is known as Bricktown today, perhaps what Dr. Blackburn had in mind for the Walnut Grove area which he labeled "Sand Town." In <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/12/deep-deuce-history.html" target="_blank">this post on Deep Deuce history</a>, I reported that our renowned Oklahoma historian Bob Blackburn said,
<blockquote> From 1889 to the 1930s Bricktown was a battleground for social justice and the birthplace of cultural diversity in Oklahoma City.<br>
It began when some of the first 200 African-Americans attracted by the land run settled in Sandtown, located along the north bank of the river east of the Santa Fe tracks. From there, the black community grew northward as jobs were created and new waves of immigrants arrived looking for a piece of the promised land.</blockquote>
<i>STOP, already. </i>If an area did exist where Dr. Blackburn said, known as "Sandtown" or as otherwise reported "Sand Town,", it was NOT the more historic area more properly known as "Sandtown," south of Reno, east of May Avenue, about three miles west of the Santa Fe railroad tracks, that arguably if not most probably existed in 1884. The settlers in the "real" Sandtown almost certainly appeared in their chosen area five years before the 1889 Land Run, or, at least, I am so persuaded. No disrespect at all is intended to Dr. Blackburn in saying this ... instead, I am reminded of the words of William Welge, mentioned at the outset of this article,
<br><blockquote>William Welge, the Oklahoma Historical Society's archive director, said his organization has no records on Sandtown's history. * * * "It's unfortunate that the Sandtown area is largely forgotten and has been totally ignored by historians," he said. "Really, there are only a handful of people who [illegible] it ever existed."</blockquote>
<i>Déjà vu</i>, ala Ralph Waldo Ellison's, <i>The Invisible Man</i>. "The Sandtown area is largely forgotten and has been totally ignored by historians." Enough said.
<br><br>Second, let's have a look at a few maps showing the Sandtown area.
<br><br>
<b>County Assessor's 1905-06 Township Plats. </b>Probably the earliest map available is a crop from the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2008/08/1905-oklahoma-county-township-maps.html" target="_blank">1905-06 Oklahoma County Township Maps</a> showing part of Greely Township, more particularly, Section 6, Township 11 North, Range 3 West of the Indian Meridian, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma:
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<center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/1905_greeley_crop_zps7d2b254f.jpg"></center>
<br>Mr. Webb's article includes this map and discusses early real property transactions involved with early-day Sandtown real property transfers. Particularly, he notes that the small area at the river's bend owned by D.M. Hadlock was acquired by him in January 1906 and was the "original" or "old" Sandtown before its expansion west toward May Avenue and north toward Reno.
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<b>Sanborn Insurance Co. Maps. </b>Sanborn Insurance Company maps between 1922 and 1955 show the Sandtown area in "Index" maps but none of those Sanborn maps present detailed maps of the area as was generally done with other areas within the boundaries of Oklahoma City. Nonetheless, the index maps are useful. Click on map images for larger views.<br><br>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" bgcolor="black" borders="2"><tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><font color="white" size="3"><B>SANBORN INSURANCE COMPANY MAPS</B></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1922_zps488f9843.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1922_510_zps9838df3c.jpg"></a>
<br><font color="white"><b>1922 Highlighting Sandtown</b>
<br>The 1922 Sanborn Map is particularly important because it alone identifies the plats within Sandtown. The particular plats will be described shortly.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1933_sandtown2_zpsbdc2269c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1933_sandtown2_250_zps88a9a8fb.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white"><b>1933</b></font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1948-1949_sandtown_zpsfe6f855c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1948-1949_sandtown_250_zps73592ef8.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white"><b>1948-1949</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1950_sandtown2_zps0cc5a158.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1950_sandtown2_250_zps818edc0b.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white"><b>1950</b></font></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1955_sandtown_zps50b863d7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sanborn_1955_sandtown_250_zps3f9b5bd6.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white"><b>1955</b></font></td></tr></table>
<br>
Beginning with the 1922 Sanborn map, the Sandtown area is shown with various street names and those street names remained constant through the 1950 map. About that, Mr. Webb says, in his article when describing Figure 6, "The streets of Old Sandtown were never named. Cliff Drive and Shady Lane appear on maps from the 1920’s perhaps as a mapmaker's joke." With respect to Mr. Webb, Cliff Drive and Shady Lane are present in the Lewis Addition plat, presented shortly, and from which the Sanborn Maps assuredly derived their names. After the filing of the Lewis Addition plat in June 1909, those names were plainly official, even if they may not have been used by Sandtown residents.
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The 1955 Sanborn map image, above, is the poorest quality of any other Sanborn map images. Nonetheless, it does show the change in the North Canadian River that had occurred by that time.
<br><br>
<b>Plats. </b>As of the 1922 Sanborn map, eight plats were filed for record embracing all of Sandtown from 1903 through 1910. The first, and from which the Doffing Neighborhood organization takes its name, is Doffing's Suburban Addition, filed November 18, 1903. Aside from Lewis Addition, it embraced all areas in Sandtown from Reno to Katherine (SW 6) and from May Avenue east to the North Canadian River, many of which areas would be further subdivided during 1909-1910. It did not include the "original" Sandtown area represented by most of the Lewis Addition plat, reminiscent of a boot. All plats are shown below.
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<table width="100%" bgcolor="black" borders="1"><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_1_1903_11_18_doffings_suburban_zpsc7ca6f4a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_1_1903_11_18_doffings_suburban_510_zpsa28c9218.jpg"></a>
<br><font color="white">1 - Doffing's Suburban Addition was filed for record on November 18,1903, and it extended from Reno on the north, May on the west, Katherine on the south,and a large part of the river-bend area on the east, but not including what has been called the "Old Sandtown" area on the east. Doffing's Suburban Addition was subsequently subdivided by plats during 1909-1910.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_2_1909_6_2_lewis_zps24c1b00a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_2_1909_6_2_lewis_510_zps45b3e9f4.jpg"></a>
<br><font color="white">2 - The Lewis Addition was the 2nd area to be platted, on June 2,1909, and it included a small piece of Doffing's on the west but more importantly included the river-bend area on the east, the area known as "Original Sandtown." Notice that the street names, "Cliff Drive" and "Shady Lane," are present in the plat.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_3_1909_6_9_morrisdale_zps7970d878.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_3_1909_6_9_morrisdale_510_zpsd7b68b26.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white">3 - Morrisdale, a subdivision of Doffing's, was filed on June 8, 1909. It was a subdivision of Block 2, Doffings's.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_3a_1909_11_3_morrisheights_zps8f6c32f3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_3a_1909_11_3_morrisheights_510_zps49385a31.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">4 - Morris Heights, a subdivision of Doffing's, including part of Block 5, filed November 3, 1909. The Morris Heights plat is notable because it was the only plat in the Sandtown area to contain a restrictive covenant, it reading, "No transfer of lots shall be made to any person or persons of African descent, commonly known as Negroes." However, the covenant did not contain a reverter provision (that property title would revert to its prior owner or to the original owners should the covenant be violated). Without such a reverter provision, such covenants were held to be unenforceable in the courts. Ironically, this area which includes SW 5th (Pottawatomie) immediately east of May Avenue, that piece of SW 5th including the largest remaining remnants of the former Sandtown today.</font><br></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_4_1910_1_14_morrisdale_2nd_zps9603b3d2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_4_1910_1_14_morrisdale_2nd_510_zps7c5a33cb.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white">5 - Morrisdale 2nd Addition was the next area to be platted,on January 14, 1910. It subdivided Block 3 of the original Doffing's Suburban Addition.</font></td></tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_5_1910_2_23_jacksons_zps98c2804f.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_5_1910_2_23_jacksons_510_zpsa79d937b.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white">6 - Jacksons or Jackson's Addition was a subdivision of Block 9, Doffing's, flanking Reno on the north and Doffing on the East, filed February 23, 1910.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_6_1910_8_2_hatcher_zpsc04fb018.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_6_1910_8_2_hatcher_510_zps2f15f6c8.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white">7 - Hatcher Addition was a subdivision of Lot 7, Doffing's Suburban Addition, filed August 2, 1910. The original Sandtown School was located in Block 1, Lots 6 & 7. The school burned to the ground in late 1942 or so. The new school George Washington Carver, was located immediately west of the original school location.</font></br></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_7_1910_11_14_zecherles_zpscd81ae89.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/plat_7_1910_11_14_zecherles_510_zps6c62d740.jpg"></a><br>
<font color="white">8 - Zecherle's Addition at Reno and May, plat filed on November 14, 1910</font></td></tr></table>
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<b>How It All Fits Together.</b> I've assembled a Sandtown map which fits all of the above plats into a single image and in which the Sandtown puzzle-pieces are made clear. The map is scaled and the scaled measurements fit the specific and general regions of Sandtown. To see a high resolution image of this map, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/grid_sandtown_allplats.jpg" target="_blank">click here</a>. To see a 1024 px wide image of the map, click the map, below.
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/grid_sandtown_allplats_1024_zps3be72f77.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/grid_sandtown_allplats_510_zpsf3378b27.jpg"></a></center>
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Other plats or modifications to existing plats doubtless occurred after 1910 but I've not explored such possible changes, my intent here being to focus on Sandtown as it existed in its earliest days.
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<b>Manly Office Supply Map. </b>Manly Office Supply Company was a long-existing office supply company located downtown in the First National Center. It produced a map of Oklahoma City which appears to span the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps even into the early 1950s, with updates over time. Unfortunately, the map is not dated. <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/08/okc-street-map-history.html#1940s%20Street%20Map" target="_blank">I had thought</a> that the copy that I own was published around 1947-1948, but, given that the North Canadian River's location is shown as changed or changing in this map, it may be that this map was published around 1953. Regardless, the map shows the Sandtown area as follows:
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/manlymap_sandtown_zps03f3003c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/manlymap_sandtown_510_zps6ba85994.jpg"></a></center>
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The Manly Map is also helpful in getting a fix on particular street locations since it includes a street index. In the expanded, annotated Manly map view below, note that blocks north of Reno had a different numbering system than blocks south of Reno and that they are "skewed." For example, "the Big House casino" mentioned in Mr. Webb's article shows the property located on Reno in the north part of Sandtown. However, the 2500 block on the north side of Reno would locate that property at Villa and Reno, different than Mr. Webb's map. BUT, adjusting block numbers south of Reno for those shown in the Manly Map places the Big House casino just as located in Ron's map.
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An expanded and annotated view of the Manly Map is shown below. Manly's Map doesn't include all Sandtown street names but they have been added, largely based upon locations identified in the 2010 County Assessor's aerial map, shown shortly. The annotated map also identifies the plats shown in the 1922 Sanborn Map, they being added from 1903 through 1910. Doffing's Suburban Addition (1903) included most of Sandtown, but it did not include the "Original Sandtown" area shown at the river bend, lower right, which was platted as Lewis Addition in 1909. Other plats may have been filed after 1910. The remnant of the original Doffing's Surbaban Addition after the subsequent plats is shown in yellow.
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/manly_expanded_annotated_zps63780ba9.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/manly_expanded_annotated_510_zpse0e6b07e.jpg"></a></center>
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<b>Sandtown In 2013. </b>The Google Map below shows what's left of Sandtown as this article is written. Basically, a slice exists north of Interstate 40, along SW 3rd and thereabouts, and south of Interstate 40, along SW 5th Street. Sandtown's former southern border, SW 6th Street (earlier named Katherine), mostly lies at the bottom of the Oklahoma River.
<br><br><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_zpsf882b351.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_510_zpsb1d58808.jpg"></a></center>
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<b>Contemporary Images. </b>On February 4, 2013, I drove through the areas shown in the above map and took some photos. Some items didn't occur to me to take, but I've assuaged my neglect by using images from Google Maps street view. An index of the photographs appears below:
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_anno_zps9f2872dd.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_anno510_zps14e78ae2.jpg"></a></center>
<br>The numbers in the map correspond with the following pictures. It will be obvious that some images are not historic Sandtown structures but I've included the more contemporary buildings for completeness. The thumbnail images shown below are cropped and reduced in size from the larger (1024 px wide) images. Click on any thumbnail to see its larger image.
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<table width="100%" bgcolor="#3B0B0B" border="1"><tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><b><font color="white">Buildings North of Interstate 40</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_1_zps9917309e.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_1_250_zps5bfe89c0.jpg"></a>
<br><font color="white">1 - Near W Ross</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_2_zps2b030448.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_2_250_zpsa9c13222.jpg"></a>
<br><font color="white">2 - On SW 3rd</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_3_zps9a21b10b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_3_250_zpsb3ee8751.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">3 - Corner of SW 3 & Miller Pl</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_4_zps73b033a0.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_4_250_zpsc20f3869.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">4 - On S Miller Pl</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_5_zps802fd86c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_5_250_zpsd8f9a763.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">5 - On SW 2nd</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_6_zpsef128a76.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_6_250_zpseec8ee89.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">6 - On SW 2nd</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_7_zps1ebf99d1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_7_250_zps2e39ccdc.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">7 - On SW 2nd</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><font color="white"><b>Buildings South of Interstate 40</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_8_zps6a2016cc.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_8_250_zpscea22967.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">8 - SW 5th From May Ave</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_10_zps10846dd3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_10_250_zps48f5a4c4.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">10 - Adopt A Street Sign</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_9_zps14a2620d.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_9_510_zps14c406d1.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">9 - Neighborhood Association Gateway Marker</br>In 2006, under the leadership of Dana Lusk Dunn, the <a href="http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/Doffing/info" target="_blank"><font color="aqua">Doffing Neighborhood Association</font></a> was formed. It chose the name Doffing instead of Sandtown, but the association's intent is to embrace the historic Sandtown neighborhood, most of the remnants being on SW 5th Street. In 2007, the association received a $10,000 grant from Oklahoma City to construct this "gateway" edifice on SW 5th Street, on the east side of May Avenue.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_11_zps865622ed.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_11_250_zpsffad0a67.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">11 - On SW 5th</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_12_zps51064c07.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_12_250_zpsea790d58.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">12 - On SW 5th</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_13_zps293820f2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_13_510_zps4364b8c9.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">13 - On SW 5th<br>
I'm showing a larger thumbnail for this image since it was one<br>of the venues for the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.209447465782390.52279.181502458576891&type=1" target="_blank"><font color="aqua">2011 Sandtown Celebration</font></a>.</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_14_zps4df5f356.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_14_250_zps2b270dd3.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">14 - On SW 5th</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_15_zpsbe0f01e3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_15_250_zps6e16fc07.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">15 - On SW 5th</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_16_zps58286f39.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_16_250_zps7ae24248.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">16 - On SW 5th</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_17_zpsf6c83054.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_17_250_zps9b3c666b.jpg"></a><font color="white">17 - On SW 5th</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_18_zpse4faa594.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_2013_18_250_zps7258f118.jpg"></a><br><font color="white">18 - At the end of SW 5th,<br>looking west toward May Avenue</font></td></tr></table>
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<b>2010 County Assessor's Aerial Map. </b><i>Is <b>the above</b> all there is, all that remains? </i>Yeah, pretty much, and the Google map used above doesn't include all of the Sandtown area. For a full view of what once was Sandtown, I've patched together aerial views from the Oklahoma County Assessor's website, the aerial pieces being taken between March 19 and 29, 2010, and have emphasized the street names shown in the assessor's map. Using the above Manly map as a guide, the original Sandtown area has been highlighted, the curvy part on the east being the former location of the North Canadian River. Click on the image below for a 1024 px wide view. Or, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/assessor_march_2010_2_2000.jpg" target="_blank">click here</a> for a 2000 px wide image, or <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/assessor_march_2010_2.jpg" target="_blank">click here</a> for a 2,599 px wide image, it showing the actual size of the assembled pieces from the assessor's website. For the original map, 2,599 px wide, without my annotations or highlighting, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/assessor_march_2010.jpg" target="_blank">click here</a>. The assessor's detailed lot and block information will only be readable in the 2,599 px wide views.
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<center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/assessor_march_2010_2_1024_zps85e46a4b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/assessor_march_2010_2_510_zpsad1198d8.jpg"></a></center>
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More noticeable in the larger views is that the outlines of by-gone streets and street names are observable, e.g., Katherine (same as SW 6th Street), the southern boundary of Sandtown which is shown as mostly being in the bed of the North Canadian River. I guess that the County Assessor's office didn't get the memo that the portion of the river shown is now the Oklahoma River.
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Notice that much of the original Sandtown is empty space or, in some parts of the north and northeast areas, commercial property.
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<i>What happened</i> — why do contemporary aerial maps, like the above, depict Sandtown areas that were previously occupied by homes, even if decrepit, being replaced by (1) grassland or by (2) commercial property, particularly in the north and northeast areas of Sandtown?
<br><br>I'm not completely clear about this. Based upon articles in the <i>Oklahoman</i> in late 1962, my first impulse was to opine that the answer probably comes from activity by Oklahoma City's Urban Renewal Authority (OCURA) in the 1960s-1970s. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/sandtown_1962_zpsff10cfa7.jpg" target="_blank">Three 1962 <i>Oklahoman</i> articles</a> cause me to think this way. First, a pair of articles in the October 31, 1962, <i>Oklahoman</i>, reported as follows:
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<blockquote> (Article 1) Official designation by the city council of Oklahoma City's first blighted areas was urge Tuesday by the city planning commission. ¶ The planning board adopted and sent to city councilmen a report prepared by Sam B. Zisman, planning consultant, in which recommendations were made for designations of four geographic areas of the city for priority attention of the Urban Renewal Authority. ¶ They include: * * * <b>Reno-May Renewal Area</b> located south of Reno Ave. and east of May in the George Washington Carver School and Doffings Addition area.
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(Article 2) <b>Reno-May Area. </b> Planners described this area as "wholly blighted" except for the George Washington school and a few non-residential establishments. ¶ The area has already been disrupted by clearance of right of way for the Downtown Expressway.</blockquote>
The third 1962 <i>Okahoman</i> article, on December 7, says that, among other things, the planning commission's "Reno-May" area report had been approved by city council and said,
<br><blockquote> Three general areas of blight and a group of seven pocket areas were designated with the last month by the Oklahoma City Council and the city planning commission as suitable for a more detailed study and possible Urban Renewal projects. ¶ The three large areas included are the University Medical Center area, lying between NE 13 and the Rock Island Railroad, N. Lottie Ave. and the route of the future Lincoln Blvd. Expressway; south central area lying between Main St. and the floodway, Western Ave. and the Santa Fe railroad; and Reno-May, an area south of Reno Ave. and east of S May in the George Washington Carver School and Duffings [sic] Addition area.</blockquote>
I have thus far not located later <i>Oklahoman</i> reports or other sources which state, in fact, that the barren parts of Sandtown and/or the commercial developments seen in present day aerial maps were/are the result of OCURA activity such as occurred in the Deep Deuce or Medical Center areas where, after acquisition by OCURA, large areas were transformed into areas of oblivion and grass.
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To test my hypothesis, I took a fairly close look at the Oklahoma County Clerk's records after 1962 to see what I could find, particularly those on the east side of Sandtown -- the original Doffings's Suburban Addition in the northeast part which was never broken into lots or blocks, Morrisdale and Morrisdale 2nd Additions, just below that, and Lewis Addition, which formed the southeastern part of Sandtown.
<br><br>I could locate no instance of property in those areas being acquired by OCURA. Possibly I missed something, and possibly the on-line version of the County Clerk's records are incomplete, but if a conveyance to OCURA was present after 1962, I did not find it.
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But I did find a few other things. A number of Oklahoma City notices were filed for record with the Oklahoma County Clerk concerning dilapidated structures in the area and a few tax deeds were issued for failure to pay county taxes. It reads as though Sandtown structures were destroyed, not by OCURA, but by Oklahoma City through its normal processes.
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<B><i>OKLAHOMAN</i> ARCHIVES.</b> I've rather thoroughly reviewed the <i>Oklahoman </i> archives from 1901 to the present time to locate anything I could find which mentioned "Sandtown" or "Sand Town" (since the <i>Oklahoman</i> used both names for the area), as well as some other search words and phrases, and that process resulted in hundreds of finds. Many were pretty useless as far as shedding light on Sandtown's history is concerned. A summary of what I found is the following — and all that follows assumes that the <i>Oklahoman</i> reports were accurate, even though that was not always the case.
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<b>When Did Sandtown Become A Part Of Oklahoma City?</b> The easy answer is March 11, 1930. The harder question is, <i>When did Sandtown FINALLY become a part of Oklahoma City,</i> and I am unable to give a definitive answer to <i>that question</i> based upon the <i>Oklahoman's</i> reports.
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/annex_1930_zps9e613800.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Sandtown/annex_1930_250_zpse16e16c6.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>Prior to March 11, 1930, it was definitely outside Oklahoma City's limits. A pair of articles appeared in the March 12, 1930, <i>Oklahoman</i> describing the annexation ordinance adopted by the city council on March 11. In one article, a map showing annexed areas is presented, part of which I've re-created here since the image quality in the on-line version is so poor. Click on the map for a larger view. The map shows an area called "Packing Town," obviously broadly defined since parts of that area extend north of West Reno and begin south of the water works area on Pennsylvania. The map shows that the Sandtown area was included in the annexation.
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A March 13, 1930, article by Meredith Williams appeared in the <i>Oklahoman</i> which gave her condescending and somewhat poetic description of the Sandtown area that had been incorporated into the city limits. The headline read, <b>"Sandtown, dreary waif in civic realms, not excited by new status."</b> Part of that article reads as follows, and it contains some interesting remarks (emphasis added) — and yes, I did have to look up a couple of words that were new to my vocabulary: <i>choleric</i> = extremely irritable or easily angered, irascible; <i>acarpous</i> = not producing fruit, sterile, barren. Read on ...
<br><blockquote>That choleric and acarpous region which for years has been dubbed simply "Sandtown" officially was a part of Oklahoma City Wednesday and police prepared to cock an extra eye on the territory, while the city hall gleefully counted additional population by extending the city limits. ¶ <i><b>Without ever becoming downright vicious, Sandtown for years had been a place of considerable mystery, and the residents there have fought out their battles among themselves, generally unmolested by such dignitaries as constables, deputy sheriffs and brass-buttoned cops.</i></b> ¶ Sandtown stretches its dreary desolation between Reno avenue and the Canadian river, east of May avenue, like a patter of mush dumped on unoffending linen. It is low and flat. In summer it boils; in winter the wind whistles ominously through its decadent vegetation and the thin walls of its dwellings. ¶ Razors are sharp in Sandtown, and tempers quick. Mysterious fires have occurred there in the past, sometimes claiming lives as well as property. When there are neither knives, nor incendiary fires, nor prying eyes from outside to fear, there is always the river, which has more than once risen in anger and driven the residents from such homes as they possess. ¶ But now Sandtown is to have "protection." It even became so important that when it was annexed by Oklahoma City a clause was put in the ordinance reciting that it being "immediately necessary for the protection of the public health, peace and safety," Sandtown at once should be added to the capital, great center of oil, culture and Jamaica ginger. ¶ Protection, of course, includes not alone police. It also means sewers, water main, bath tubs, taxes, and the privilege of voting for councilmen and mayors. ¶ Anyone would suppose such high honors would turn Sandtown's [illegible] head, that its very sand would turn to rich loam, or even to gold dust. ¶ Strangely enough, though, Sandtown turned the same morose, forbidding stare toward the city, its silence broken only by the muddy water of the river as it gurgled over a dead tree perpetually hymning, "cops acomin, cops acomin," while the March wind hissed, "taxes, taxes, taxes."</blockquote>
Interesting stuff it was that Ms. Williams wrote. However, one must wonder if her conclusions and remarks were based upon personal research — that is, did she actually deign to go into Sandtown to interview its residents — or was she merely parroting what was commonly understood by the white folk in the day. Make your own guess, but recall that her article was written in 1930.
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Regardless, the March 11 annexation didn't last long, certainly not for the Packingtown area and most probably not for Sandtown, as well.
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... more coming shortly ...
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</span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-76397242776222363542012-12-10T01:54:00.002-06:002012-12-13T20:38:54.879-06:00Death of the Zombie Sonics<a name="top"></a><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/zombiesonics.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /><i>Started on December 10; finished on December 12.</i>
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Sorry to have been absent in my blogging duties since late August. I've got my reasons. I fully intend to complete the 100 Years of Oklahoma Presidential Elections but that project has proven rather time intensive in both research and writing, so I'll take a small break before finishing that article to give an update on the national social acceptance since the relocation of the Seattle Super Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 and the success of the Oklahoma City Thunder since its arrival in Oklahoma City from its inaugural 2008-2009 season through this point in time, five seasons later. On this very night, December 9, 2012, the Thunder whipped the Indiana Pacers in the Chesapeake Energy Arena for their 8th straight victory this season and achieving the 2012-13 current record of 17-4 through the 1st quarter of this year's regular season.
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As will appear below, virtually all vestiges of the Thunder's Seattle baggage has been shorn, particularity when combined with ESPN sports columnist Bill Simmons' remarks about the "Zombie Sonics" and/or "the team which shall not be named" ostensibly being laid to rest. <sup><b>Footnote 1</b></sup>
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Please don't misunderstand ... it's not that Simmons' opinions particularly matter in the real world all that much, because they don't ... but Simmons was the last significant national columnist who persisted in the practice of using snide, sarcastic and unfriendly names which were ascribed to my team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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<sup><b>Footnote 1.</b></sup> As will be seen at the end of this piece, one must put a footnote to Bill Simmons' "Footnote 1" contained in an article published by him on October 11, 2012, from which footnote some conclude that Simmons has actually turned a new leaf and that he has laid to rest the name "Zombie Sonics" when referring to the Oklahoma City Thunder. At best, whether he has turned over such a leaf must also be qualified with the words, "kinda sorta." I'll get back to his Footnote 1 at the end of this piece. That said, some have interpreted his October post as having abandoned his tirade against the Oklahoma City Thunder. But, the truth is, whether Simmons agrees or not, the words Zombie Sonics are no longer a part of anyone's nomenclature or thought processes (with the possible exceptions of Simmons and die-hard fans of the Seattle Super Sonics).
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Where to begin? With ESPN sports writer Bill Simmons who dubbed the Oklahoma City Thunder as the Zombie Sonics way back when? No, I'll hold that to the butt-end of the post, where it rightly belongs.
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<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/sam_anderson.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />Instead, I'll begin with the November 8, 2012, <i>New York Times Magazine</i> cover article by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Anderson_%28writer%29" target="_blank">Sam Anderson</a>, the <i>New York Times Magazine’s</i> critic at large. Actually, it was within this article that I first learned that Simmons had "retired" the cleverly designed nasty phrase that he earlier coined. Anderson's article is a long one and you can read it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/magazine/the-oklahoma-city-thunders-fairy-tale-rise.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0" target="_blank">from its source</a>, but it is simply too good, too thorough, not to set out verbatim, as it is below.
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<center><table width="95%" cellpadding="8" border="2" bgcolor="FFFFCC"><tr><td><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/2012_11_8_nytimesmagcover.jpg"><br><br>
<b><font size="4">A Basketball Fairy Tale in Middle America</font></b></center><br>
<b>By SAM ANDERSON</b><br>
Published: November 8, 2012
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<a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/2012_11_8_durant.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/2012_11_8_durant_250.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> N.B.A. scoring champions are, as a rule, weirdos and reprobates and in some cases diagnosable sociopaths. Something about dominating your opponent, publicly, more or less every day of your life, in the most visible aspect of your sport, tends to either warp your spirit or to be possible only to those whose spirits are already warped. Michael Jordan, when he wasn’t busy scoring, was busy punching a teammate in the face and gambling away small fortunes. Allen Iverson, in his spare time, recorded an aesthetically and morally terrible rap album and gave an iconic speech denigrating the very notion of practice. Kobe Bryant is and shall forever be Kobe Bryant. Wilt, Shaq, Pistol Pete, Dominique, McGrady, McAdoo, Rick Barry — it’s a near-solid roster of dysfunction: sadists, narcissists, malcontents, knuckleheads, misanthropes, womanizers, addicts and villains. While it’s true that plain old N.B.A. superstars do occasionally manage to be model citizens (cf. Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Steve Nash), there is something irredeemable about a scoring champion.
<br> Kevin Durant, the star of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is the youngest scoring champion in N.B.A. history. At 24, he has led the league in scoring for three consecutive seasons, and all signs point to him keeping that up for the foreseeable future. It follows, then, that Durant should also be a prodigy of a head case. He should have been arrested for reckless driving at around age 9, broken his hand in a strip-club brawl at age 12 and accidentally shot his chauffeur no later than age 15.
<br> Instead, Durant has a reputation roughly on par with Gandhi. He seems to be — not just for a scoring champion, but for anyone — almost inhumanly humble. His motto, which he intones constantly, is “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” His pregame ritual involves kissing his mother, as does his postgame ritual. Once, in college, during probably the greatest freshman season of all time, a reporter asked Durant if he realized that he had just single-handedly outscored the entire opposing team in the second half of a game. Durant answered, with absolute sincerity, “Who, me?” When I asked the Thunder coach, Scott Brooks, to tell me about his superstar, he laughed. “Whatever you say nice, you can print it out and I’ll just say I said it,” he said. “Because it’s true.”
<br> Durant could be forgiven for wanting to brag a little. He is currently the second-best basketball player in the world — a category in which he trails only LeBron James, who is four years older, and whose Miami Heat beat the Thunder last year in the finals. The budding rivalry between KD and LBJ (off the court they’re friends, Olympic teammates and sometimes, controversially, workout partners) is the kind of thing the N.B.A. has been fantasizing about for decades, a yin and yang as tightly balanced as any since Magic and Bird.
<br> LeBron and Durant are, conveniently for storytelling purposes, opposites. LeBron looks like something out of a Marvel comic: a sentient pile of muscles. Durant looks like something from a Pixar movie — a humanoid praying mantis. He is 6 feet 9 inches tall and almost disturbingly skinny, with disproportionately long arms. Sportswriters, struggling to describe him, have compared him to capellini and a pterodactyl. His body looks almost like an engineering mistake, and early in his career it seemed as if it might actually be one: before the 2007 draft, there was a minor kerfuffle when it was discovered that Durant couldn’t bench-press 185 pounds, the standard predraft litmus test, even a single time. (The next pick in the draft, Al Horford, lifted it 20 times.) LeBron entered the league as a teenager and promptly knocked around all of the grown men who tried to guard him. As a 19-year-old rookie, Durant drifted around, shooting jumpers and trying to avoid contact, and still spent much of his time picking himself up off the floor. Although he won Rookie of the Year, he wasn’t particularly efficient in doing so, and his team was horrible.
<br> Despite their discrepancy in visible muscle tone, Durant has strengths that LeBron will probably never have. LeBron’s jump shot, for instance, is funky-looking, jerky, angular and streaky. Durant’s is natural, pure, quick and stunningly accurate — somehow, his ridiculous arms manage not to get in the way but to amplify his power, so it looks as if he’s shooting with zero effort even from 30 feet away.
<br> Durant’s real advantage over LeBron, however, is civic. LeBron infamously held a prime-time TV special in the summer of 2010 to announce that he was abandoning Cleveland for the glamour of Miami — a P.R. debacle known as the Decision. When he arrived in Miami, he took part in a histrionic rally at which he promised, on a stage surrounded by a W.W.E. -style light show and smoke machines, that his new team was so good it was going to dominate the rest of the league without even trying.
<br> It’s impossible to imagine that kind of behavior from Durant. In the middle of the overheated summer of 2010, the day before LeBron’s Decision, Durant announced quietly, on Twitter, that he had just signed a contract to stay in Oklahoma — the third-smallest market in the league, a place devoid of beaches and celebrities and night life — for another five years. You got the feeling he would have committed to the Thunder for the rest of his life if only the Players’ Union would have allowed it.
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 10px 5px 5px;" /> Durant, in other words, seems to have been invented in a laboratory beneath the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce to serve as the international face of Oklahoma — a state known for its citizens’ kindness, levelheadedness, work ethic, community spirit and, above all, humility. (The mayor of Oklahoma City told me that he thinks Oklahomans are humble because of their proximity to Texans, who will never stop bragging about anything.) Led by Durant, the Thunder has become one of the N.B.A.’s best and youngest and most popular teams, an international icon of brotherhood and good will that has helped to usher in golden ages in both Oklahoma City and the N.B.A., an electric blue Trojan horse inside of which Oklahoma has managed to smuggle its ethos to the rest of the world: good folksy folks humbly helping other folksy folks stay humble and helpful.
<br> Oklahoma sits right in the middle of the country: it’s not the cultured East or the wild West or the frigid North or the humid South but exactly where all those things meet. The mountains touch the prairies, which touch the plains. This has created, over the millenniums, crazy animals and crazy weather and crazy 25-car pileups of culture. In 1889, the almost unbelievable land run sent tens of thousands of ragtag settlers from all over the country literally racing to claim tracts of practically uninhabitable land. Oklahoma, in other words, is the Hadron supercollider of states: it slams disparate things together, over and over, producing endless crises of cohesion. Even tornadoes, the region’s defining devil winds, are a result of a meteorological collision: a convergence of three different weather systems that happens with freakish regularity in Oklahoma and its immediate environs. Meteorologists in Oklahoma are basically rock stars.
<br> Professional athletes, on the other hand, have rarely had much of a presence here. That began to change in 2006, when a consortium of wealthy Oklahomans, led by the financier Clay Bennett, bought the Seattle SuperSonics — a once-proud franchise that had been stuck for years in the drain-swirl of mediocrity. Most people assumed, cynically, that Bennett was buying the team in order to move it, as quickly as possible, to Oklahoma City, his hometown. He had pledged to make a good-faith effort to keep the team in Seattle — an effort that came into suspicion shortly after the sale, when the new owner demanded that Seattle come up with nearly $300 million to build a new arena.<br>
<blockquote><i>Doug Dawgz Note: Anderson's article is a bit weak on this important point. In fact and at the very instant, on July 18, 2006, that the Sonics sale to Bennett's group was announced in a press conference attended by the Sonics former Howard Schultz owner and by Bennett, Clay Bennett made explicitly clear that his intention to leave the team in the Seattle area was contingent upon two things occurring by October 31, 2007, about 18 months later: (1) Seattle and/or Washington must agree to build a new NBA arena, and (2) a contract which would make it possible for the team's owners to make a profit must be agreed to. This pair of items was not hidden ... they were straightforwardly stated by Bennett from the get-go. The same comments apply to a few of Anderson's comments which follow. In his article, Anderson glosses over a good bit of what transpired during the Sonics' rupture from Seattle, as do most commentators. Not very many have taken a really close look at what occurred during this transitional period of time.</i></blockquote>
Seattle refused, at which point the ownership group announced, regretfully, that it was going to have to move the Sonics to a city with a suitable arena — a city that also happened to be Oklahoma City. The fallout was intense: lawsuits, protests, scandal. Even Oklahomans who love the team admit that they were uncomfortable with the way it was acquired. The sportswriter Bill Simmons, in solidarity with the people of Seattle, referred to the Thunder exclusively in his columns as the Zombie Sonics.
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /> One of the miracles of the modern Thunder — and there are several — is how quickly they’ve made people forget the stain of their origin. The re-branding of the franchise has been quick and efficient: the team is now widely perceived as principled, well run and — above all — thoroughly Oklahoman. ESPN recently named it the No. 1 sports franchise in America. This fall, it seemed like a step toward closure when the Seattle City Council approved a plan to build a new basketball arena there. Simmons announced, just a few weeks ago, that he was officially retiring the phrase Zombie Sonics. In almost no time at all, the Oklahoma City Thunder had achieved escape velocity.
<br> Much of the credit for this turnaround goes to Sam Presti, the Thunder’s general manager. Presti took over the team the year before they left Seattle. He was 29, the youngest G.M. in league history. His first move was to draft Kevin Durant, which anyone would have done. His second, less obvious decision was to strip the roster of all the veterans and big contracts that would have prevented him from rebuilding from scratch. When the team moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City, Presti found himself in charge of not only the worst team in the league but also one of the worst in the history of professional basketball. The Oklahoma City Thunder won 3 games out of their first 32. This record, 3-29, is now a kind of touchstone in the organization — almost everyone I talked to invoked it at some point, and many of them even exaggerated it to 3-30.
<br> Most G.M.’s would have panicked, but that isn’t Presti’s way: he moved patiently, methodically. He overhauled not only the roster of the team but also the culture of the organization. This involved rethinking everything, no matter how small, from meeting times to media policy to the decorations on the practice-facility walls. Everyone soon became familiar with the Presti buzzwords: process, system, patience, sustainability. He made a habit of promoting people within the organization so that, from top to bottom, the Thunder became very young and tightly knit. He stressed community outreach to an unusual degree. He devoted extra resources to the development of the young Thunder players and, on the marketing side, refused to call attention to any single player apart from his teammates, even Durant, who was quickly becoming an international superstar. Meanwhile, Presti used high draft picks to surround Durant with other promising young players — Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, James Harden — all of whom overachieved, relative to the rest of their draft classes, to an almost amazing degree.
<br> The Presti rebuild, a meticulously rational plan, now looks a lot like a fairy tale. The Thunder has improved, year by year, exactly on schedule: they made the playoffs in their second season, the Western Conference finals in their third and the Finals last year. If the Thunder doesn’t win the title this year, it will seem almost unfair — a violation of the basic laws of narrative. Among basketball fans, Presti has become a mythic braniac legend, the managerial equivalent of Kevin Durant: young, focused, dominant and improbably humble.
<br> I met Presti two weeks before the start of training camp at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, a site that commemorates, powerfully, the city’s defining tragedy: the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Presti shook my hand in the lobby, quickly and firmly, and then proceeded to say nothing for many minutes. The museum’s director was giving us a tour, and Presti seemed relieved to cede the floor completely to her. He wore a polo shirt, casual pants, fashionable glasses and hip sneakers. He was very slim — no excess — and was fidgeting a lot, bouncing rhythmically at the knees.
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote3.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> We were at the memorial because, as Presti told me later, “This place is part of our existence.” Presti sits on the memorial’s board, and he makes sure that every player who joins the Thunder visits the site before he ever plays a game. The idea is to teach them the character of the citizenry they’ve just joined, to help them recognize, as Tom Brokaw put it on the night of the bombing, Oklahomans’ “essential sense of goodness, community and compassion.”
<br> After our tour, Presti and I talked for a while outside. He struck me as one of the most cautious people I’ve ever met, constantly stopping and rephrasing, weighing and reweighing his words, openly worried that I was going to misinterpret the team’s relationship to the memorial as a P.R. grab, or that I was going to focus my article on him at the expense of others. He ascribed most of the Thunder’s success to either luck or his colleagues. The most revealing thing Presti said to me that day had to do with the grounds of the memorial, which were impressively tidy. Despite a suffocatingly hot run of late-summer days, the grass was thick and lush and perfectly mowed, with perfect circles around the perfect trees. Presti pointed out how much work it takes to keep everything looking like that, how much deliberate organization, but also how important it is.
<br> At the Thunder’s training center, after a practice in early October, Kevin Durant and I sat on folding chairs at the edge of the gym. He was wearing a black tank top, black shorts and ridiculously colorful shoes. (Loud footwear is one of his few obvious vices.) Practice that day, according to everyone involved, had been “chippy” — Durant’s team had lost a couple of early scrimmages to a team full of rookies and backups, and this had sent everyone, especially Durant and Westbrook, into competitive overdrive.
<br> Sitting with Durant a few minutes later, though, I could detect none of that aggressive energy. He was placid, polite, obliging. He said pretty much everything you would expect him to say, in exactly the way you would expect him to say it. He took every opportunity to gush about his teammates, singling out Westbrook and Harden — the team’s two other big scorers — as “killers” and insisting that, despite the media’s constant attempts to create controversy among them, there was no tension on the team about sharing the ball. It would be ridiculous, he said, to “put those guys on a leash just so I can get two or three more shots up a game.” He praised his teammates’ unselfishness and said he had learned to play the same way. He said that, although he’d known almost nothing about Oklahoma City before the team moved there, now he couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else.
<br> I told Durant that, all over town, people were giving me spontaneous speeches about what a nice guy he was. His response was, naturally, impeccably nice. “I’m just being me, man,” he said. “I’m just enjoying this all. I can’t complain. I mean, I wasn’t raised to be a jerk to anybody. You know what I mean? My mama wouldn’t like that, so that’s just all I know. Just being nice to people and enjoying what I do.”
<br> But how is it possible, I asked, to be as competitive as he must be while also being so nice? Don’t those impulses conflict?
<br> He answered with a story.
<br> Growing up, Durant told me, he was a sore loser. That all changed one day when he was 11, after he got destroyed by his father in a game of one on one in the driveway. “Of course I knew I was gonna lose,” he said. “He was so much bigger and stronger than me. He was backing me down, dunking, pushing me. He was screaming, talking trash. I scored like one point.” Little Kevin was so upset by the loss (and, presumably, by the bullying) that he burst into tears, ran into the house, locked the door and refused to let his father in. The intensity of his own crying surprised him and, after a while, inspired some self-reflection. “I sat back and thought about it and was like, What am I so mad at?” Durant told me, and in that moment, he said, he made a decision. “It’s good to be passionate, it’s good to hate losing — but I’ve got to channel it the right way,” he said. “You know what I mean? And after a while I just started to learn to leave it where it’s at, get rid of it. Once you’re done and you’re off the court or out of the venue or whatever, go back to being you.”
<br> Durant’s story touched on something I’ve thought about often while watching him play. If there’s been one consistent criticism of him, it’s that he’s not aggressive enough — that he fails to use his unearthly skills, as Jordan or Charles Barkley or Kobe would have done, to destroy everybody in his path. There are times, during games, when he seems almost removed from the action, simultaneously there and not there. I always figured that this detachment was just a byproduct of his smoothness: it looks so easy for him, when he strokes four consecutive 3-pointers or tosses in a little half-hook over two defenders, that it’s tempting to imagine he’s thinking about other things the whole time — that the real Kevin Durant is watching from a little viewing platform deep inside his own head, reading a magazine and clipping his nails, ready to re-engage fully when things get intense. But now I suspect that that uncanny stillness, that sense of remove, is the outward manifestation of Durant’s internal control, a sign of his fluency in moving between worlds: aggressive and relaxed, nasty and nice.
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Occasionally you can see Durant moving between those worlds, and the transition is jarring. There are moments, for instance, when he dunks and in his excitement begins to stare down his opponent, showboat-style, and you think, No, no, no, no, Kevin Durant, so much of my worldview depends on you not being the type of person who stares people down after dunks. And then, inevitably, a second or so later, he seems to catch himself and jogs back down the court to give all the credit to his teammates. You can see the impulse and the correction — the (to get Freudian for a second) ego and the superego.
<br> This turns out to be a useful way to think about the Thunder. In “Civilization and Its Discontents,” Freud argues that humans are ruled by two warring impulses: love, which seeks to bind people into larger and larger groups, and aggression, which seeks to tear them apart. For civilization to work, on even the most basic level, each of us has to find an acceptable outlet for that antisocial aggression. Back in the driveway, Durant’s father directed his aggression toward him. Freud argues that most of us, however, learn to turn our aggression inward, where it morphs into what he calls the superego — the policeman of the psyche, watching us constantly to ensure (with its billy club of guilt) that we make choices for the benefit of the group, not just for our own egos. That psychic self-surveillance, Freud says, is one of the big prices we pay for civilization — a kind of voluntary tax we levy against ourselves for the privilege of living with others.
<br> Kevin Durant oozes superego. Even as we talked on our folding chairs after practice, I sensed a duality. He was simultaneously genuine and polished, open and guarded. This seems to be an inevitable consequence of living the life of a superstar, especially in a place like Oklahoma City. Last summer there was public outrage, in some quarters, when it was discovered that Durant’s torso — the skin under his jersey, which by design is publicly hidden — is covered with tattoos.
<br> One evening I went to the mall to observe one of Durant’s public events. He was at a GameStop, signing copies of a new video game that featured him on its cover. I arrived to find the OKC equivalent of Beatlemania: a line of people, decked out in Thunder gear, stretching out the door and wrapping around the neighboring stores. As I approached the scene, a policeman was dragging a young man who apparently tried to get too close down an escalator. Just then a huge cheer broke out from the crowd. Durant had arrived, through a back entrance, along with a small entourage. I squeezed past the line, stood at the side of the room and watched him throughout the session. He was wearing his signature “KD” gear: hat, T-shirt, sweats. He seemed friendly but also not totally present. Between signatures and photos, he would occasionally grab his phone and sneak a text message under the table. He bantered, here and there, with a couple of kids, but mostly he was quiet and dutiful. His smile seemed automatic. I got the sense that Kevin Durant, the actual 24-year-old guy with the secret tattoos, was hardly even there that night: he was just an avatar for his own fame — this abstract thing that doesn’t actually exist but is millions of times bigger than he is. Not that that was his fault, of course. Even if Durant wanted to genuinely connect with people that night, the sheer scale made it impossible. There was too much inflow for a single person’s outflow. I got a sense of how insane it must be to live that kind of life, in which things are like that every day, everywhere. Is it even possible to be a good, thoughtful, civic-minded person under that kind of pressure? Suddenly all of those sociopathic scoring champions made sense to me. Radical detachment seemed, in a strange and sad way, almost like the proper response.
<br> Toward the end of our post-practice conversation, Durant leaned over and started unlacing his shoes. I took this as a signal that he was ready to leave. He was tired, no doubt, and had other things to do. I wrapped up our interview and thanked him for his time. He popped immediately out of his seat and walked away. After a few steps, he seemed to catch himself. He turned around, walked back and shook my hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said.
<br> The full name of Oklahoma City is the City of Oklahoma City. The police chief of the City of Oklahoma City is named — I’m not joking — Bill Citty. (“Citty” is pronounced exactly like “city.”) Chief Citty, hearing that I was in town to write about his city, offered to give me a tour. He drove me around in his sedan, neighborhood by neighborhood, casually ignoring traffic laws, occasionally being honked at, for more than three hours. The last hour or so we spent at the Oklahoma State Fair, where he drove me around in a golf cart.
<br> Chief Citty’s tour was my introduction to the civic paradox that is modern OKC: a city that, over the last 15 years, has managed to reinvent itself while other cities have melted down, a conservative town that happily submitted to a series of voluntary taxes, a place where the oxymoron “corporate citizen” almost begins to make some kind of sense.
<br> Citty grew up in Oklahoma City, so he has seen, firsthand, the major phases of the last 60 years. He was born during the postwar boom, in 1953, when everything was awash in federal money. (It is one of the many paradoxes of Oklahoma that, despite all its rhetoric of rugged individualism and free markets, the economy has been heavily depending on the federal government for decades.) Citty’s mother worked for a gas company downtown, in an office in the First National Center, one of the defining masterpieces of the city’s skyline — a 33-story Art Deco tower with elaborate aluminum decorations based on King Tut’s tomb. As a teenager in the 1960s, Citty watched as the new malls and highways started sucking all of downtown’s energy out into the suburbs, leaving behind the usual inner-city decay. In the 1970s, after some years of hippyish drifting, he decided to cut his hair, shave off his beard and join the City of Oklahoma City Police Department.
<br> It was 1977. Citty was assigned to patrol a downtown neighborhood called the Deep Deuce, an African-American community that had once been home to world-famous jazz clubs but had declined, by then, into a hub for drugs and gambling and prostitution. (Just before Citty joined the force, a serial killer dumped the body of a prostitute in the basement of a nearby church.) From his beat downtown, Citty watched the city’s economy boom with oil money. New houses sprouted everywhere. Then, in 1982, he watched it all go bust: banks, farms, oil — everything. People lost their new homes; thriving businesses closed. “What happened to us in the early ’80s,” Citty told me, “is what happened to the U.S. economy in ’08.”
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /> Things were still bad in 1993, when the mayor of Oklahoma City, Ron Norick, persuaded his constituents to do something improbable: to voluntarily tax themselves in order to rebuild the city. The program was called Metro Area Projects, or Maps — a one-cent sales tax that raised more than $350 million. Over the next two decades, Maps and its sequels (the city is currently on Maps 3) would change almost every neighborhood in the city, especially downtown. It built a canal and a minor-league baseball stadium and a new library; it turned an endless stretch of empty warehouses into a vital shopping district; it overhauled the schools; it put water back in the river, which had been so dry that, for decades, the city had to mow it. And of course Maps built a basketball stadium, which would come spectacularly into play many years later.
<br> In 1995, just as Maps was getting rolling, life in the city suddenly came to a stop. On an otherwise ordinary April morning, a 26-year-old terrorist drove a moving truck full of fertilizer and other chemicals into the heart of downtown and parked in front of the nine-story Federal Building. The explosion, at 9:02 a.m., killed 168 people and injured 684. Five blocks west, at Police Headquarters, the tile shook so hard and so many windows broke that Bill Citty assumed the bomb had gone off inside. He figured out its real source only when he saw that the paper raining down everywhere had come from offices inside the Federal Building. He made it there within 20 minutes and stayed for the next month. At that point, Citty was the department’s public information officer, which meant he had to wrangle the media, a suddenly gargantuan task. He became, in a sense, the link between Oklahoma City and the rest of the world.
<br> As part of our tour, Citty drove me down to the Deep Deuce, which was now full of bright new brick apartment complexes. He drove me past the State Capitol, the only one in the nation with an oil rig in front of it. He drove me through Automobile Alley, a revitalized hipster pocket. He pointed out the public bike-rental program, Spokies, that opened over the summer. Half of the city seemed to be under construction. Near the basketball arena, an old elevated highway was being torn down: it was now just a lattice of concrete, with on- and offramps that ended in midair. The highway will soon be replaced by a grand boulevard — the Champs-Élysées of OKC — leading right to the Thunder’s home.
<br> This public rebuilding helped bring in private investment, which in turn brought in more revenue for public works, which brought in more private investment — and these cycles eventually combined to make Oklahoma City a plausible home for N.B.A. basketball. When it arrived, the growth and the basketball amplified each other. “We’d have a lot of good things happening now even if we didn’t get the Thunder,” Citty told me. “But we got the Thunder because good things were going on, and now even better things are going on.” As an example, he drove me past the Devon Energy Center, the city’s new skyscraper, a 50-story steel-and-glass tube that dwarfs every other building in sight.
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote5.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> This, then, is part of the city’s love affair with the Thunder. It’s more than just a basketball team: it’s the culmination of 20 years of civic reinvention, and the promise of more to come. Over the last five years, the city and its team have undergone a perfect mind meld, so at this point it’s impossible to talk about one without talking about the other. After all of that sacrifice — the grind of municipal meetings and penny taxes and planning boards, the dust and noise and uncertainty of construction, the horror of 1995 — the little city in the middle of No Man’s Land has finally arrived on the world stage. While it’s there, it fully intends to put on a good performance.
<br> A basketball team is a kind of miniature society, and the Thunder’s is a strange one. Most great N.B.A. teams are built on a rational distribution of talents: two or three elite players whose skills complement, rather than overlap with, one another’s, supported by a small army of role players. The classic example is the 1986 Celtics, in which Larry Bird’s all-around game and outside shooting were supplemented perfectly by the under-the-basket play of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. The Thunder, however, were built around three big stars — Durant, Westbrook and Harden — who all have essentially the same talent. Each one is an elite perimeter scorer, and each one needs the ball to be effective. Each could easily be the focus of an offense all by himself. (Harden, who was recently traded after a contract dispute, will now put this theory to the test with the Houston Rockets.) As a result, when the Thunder offense is good, it’s organized chaos — an embarrassment of riches. When it’s bad, which it is less and less frequently, it’s just chaos: stagnation, wild shots, wasted possessions.
<br> Scott Brooks, the Thunder’s head coach, told me that he fell in love with basketball in seventh grade, in a small town in Northern California, at a free clinic taught by a local coach. What he loved, immediately, was exactly the problem of this Thunder lineup: the way the game forced you to braid together individual achievement and teamwork, the singular and the collective. Brooks loved that he could go to the gym and work on his game, all by himself, whenever he felt like it, and then, the next day or week, see that work play out in the context of a team. Brooks’s mastery of the individual-collective balance allowed him to become a star in high school and college and then — against all the athletic odds, as a 5-foot-11 nonleaper — to patch together a 10-year N.B.A career playing with seven different teams, including the 1994 champion Houston Rockets. Although Brooks had been a scorer in college, as a pro he accepted the job of the old-school N.B.A. point guard: to get the ball to his various teams’ stars — Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon — and then get out of the way.
<br> This made Brooks the opposite of the Thunder’s point guard, Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is often referred to as the most explosive athlete in the league — his physique is so cartoonishly chiseled that one of his teammates recently compared him to a He-Man doll — and he uses those superpowers to do things Brooks never could have dreamed of: to turn a defensive rebound, in just a few reckless seconds, into a dunk at the other end, or to get his jump shot off over two defenders when everyone in the arena knows it’s coming. This skill set makes him unorthodox as a point guard, to say the least. The Thunder’s horrific start as a franchise in 2008 — that legendary 3-29 — was in part a result of Westbrook’s wildness. He led the league in turnovers for his first season. Early on, there were murmurs that Westbrook couldn’t play point guard, especially next to a scoring superstar like Durant — someone who, many thought, would have benefitted more from a Scott Brooks type, a teammate who would get him the ball and get out of the way. Even as the Thunder improved, there were rumors that Westbrook and Durant resented each other, that they couldn’t coexist, that the ecosystem of the team might be beyond repair.
<br> Throughout the losing and the turnovers and the rumors, however, Brooks not only kept playing Westbrook but also encouraged his recklessness. That confidence paid off. Westbrook is now a superstar in his own right — if Durant is the second-best player in the world, Westbrook is probably in the Top 10. He’s still wild, and he still occasionally makes high-profile mistakes, and TV analysts still love to question his shot selection — but he has improved in all of those areas enough that his net effect on the team is overwhelmingly positive. It’s impossible, at this point, to disentangle the bad from the good. In Game 4 of the Finals, Westbrook kept taking wild, flying, contested midrange jumpers — one of the least efficient shots in the sport — and making nearly all of them. He scored 43 points and almost single-handedly kept the Thunder in the game. (They ended up losing, after some LeBron heroics, by 6.)
<br> I asked Brooks if he ever had trouble maintaining a balance between chaos and order, crazy Westbrook and sane Westbrook.
<br> He laughed. “Trust me, there are times where my hair is almost out,” he said.
<br> But he defended his point guard. “Is he a natural John Stockton type? No, but he never will be. Those guys are done. Those guys are over. You’re not seeing those guys coming back. Russell is a dynamic offensive player. I would be a foolish coach if I said, ‘Russell, I don’t want you to go to the basket and draw fouls and score and put pressure on the defense.’ We need that.”
<br> He also dismissed the idea of a rift between Westbrook and Durant.
<br> “I’m with them every day. Did they have some competitive moments? Absolutely. But that’s how we work here. We challenge each other. It gets chippy. James and Kevin, Serge and Russell, me and Perk, Thabo and Russell — all of us. If it ever gets on the wrong side of being competitive, I’ll step in. But not once have I had to step in, in five years. If Russell and Kevin have problems, then I didn’t get along with any of my teammates.”
<br><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/2012_11_8_coyne.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/2012_11_8_coyne_250.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 10px 5px 5px;" /></a> One symptom of a small sports market is a lack of celebrity fans. Among N.B.A. teams, the Lakers are famous for their fame: they have Jack and Penny and Denzel and a whole human gallery of plastic-surgery glamour; the Knicks have Spike and Woody and Chris Rock and a rotating roster of Broadway stars.
<br> <img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote6.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" />The Thunder has Wayne Coyne, the singer of the alternative-rock band the Flaming Lips. Coyne is famous for floating over crowds in a giant bubble at concerts and generally behaving like a psychedelic space cadet around town. He was raised in Oklahoma and, unusually — even as his creative peers poured out toward the coasts — he never left. Over the last 15 years, as the Flaming Lips have gained worldwide fame, and as Oklahoma City has begun to rebrand itself as a vital place for young, artsy energy, the city has embraced Coyne, now 51, as a kind of elder statesman. This has turned out to be, for both sides, a rather complicated transaction. Three years ago, the Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize??” was named the official rock song of Oklahoma, but only over the strenuous objections of several state politicians. Coyne’s latest OKC adventure, much blogged about in the city, is a spectacularly ill-advised art gallery called the Womb — a drab old warehouse, in the heart of downtown, that he bought and repainted in explosive rainbow colors, complete with cartoonish naked women and a giant abstract vagina on the front door. After Coyne told the local paper that he was going to have a huge New Year’s party there, at which teenagers might be able to drop acid with Yoko Ono, the fire marshal showed up and shut the gallery down.
<br> As OKC’s reigning celebrity, Coyne sometimes attends Thunder games, where he sits courtside. Although he seems genuinely fond of the team, he’s not what you would call a sports aficionado. When I asked him if he followed basketball before the Thunder came to town, he had to think for a few seconds. “No,” he said. “I mean, I liked, like, the Harlem Globetrotters. Or some mythical figure like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar” — and he pronounced “Jabbar” in the most amazing way, with an exotically soft “j” and several extra vowels, as if it were the name of a genie that had come drifting one morning out of his bong.
<br> Coyne admits that at Thunder games, he doesn’t always understand what’s going on. “It’s not like a Steven Spielberg-scripted event when you’re there,” he told me. “You’re like, Well, did we win? I’m confused. Did they win? And then you look up and you’re like, Well, is the game over?”
<br> He said he has been yelled at by other fans for cheering for Kobe Bryant. (“That was wicked! Who is that?” he shouted the first time he saw Kobe score. The crowd told him that it was Kobe and suggested, forcefully, that he stop cheering for him. “But that was wicked!” Coyne responded.)
<br> Coyne and I spoke, late one night, sitting in his Prius, which was parked in front of the Blue Note Lounge, a smoky bar at which the Flaming Lips played their first show 30 years ago. He was wearing a gray suit (he’d just come from a wedding), and his gray hair poured out in a big curly plume from his head. His fingernails were painted gold, and his face was lightly dusted with glitter.
<br> Coyne believes that the Thunder transcend the limits of their confusing sport — that they channel the energy of the whole community in a way that resonates across the world. Using a variety of accents, he told me stories about people in Germany and Switzerland and Sweden — places where he never used to hear about his hometown — all of a sudden talking to him about how much they love the Thunder. “I think people like the idea that, whether you’re a weirdo rock dude or a basketball player, we all have this spirit of the city,” he said. “Which I don’t think really exists. But I think the Thunder has probably pulled it together more than anything else.”
<br> Thunder crowds are notoriously loud and supportive. Visiting players often say it feels more like a college crowd than an N.B.A. crowd. Fans wear color-coordinated shirts for big games, and even when the team was horrible, they never booed. “Sometimes I would think to myself, Do these people realize that we’re down 20 with 3 minutes to go?” Scott Brooks told me, remembering the early days. “We’d be walking through the tunnel and I’d think: O.K., this is the night that I get heckled. This is the night I get popcorn thrown on me. Nothing. Every single game, it was: ‘Hang in there coach. Players, we love you guys.’ ”
<br> Coyne sees an analogy between basketball games and rock concerts. Playing a song for the thousandth time, he told me, is just as meaningless as putting a ball through a hoop. Under the right circumstances, however, those things take on great collective meaning. “It’s that idea of everybody being focused on the same thing at the same time and being together in the bigger experience,” he said. “It’s silliness, but all things are like that.”
<br> The Thunder has become a surprisingly integral part of hipster life in OKC. Coyne lives in a residential neighborhood called the Plaza District, the main drag of which has been — like so much of the city — radically transformed over the last five years. These days there’s a vintage shop, a tattoo parlor where people come to get Thunder tattoos and, in a building that used to be known as a brothel, a new restaurant devoted to gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches. I went into an artsy shop called DNA Galleries, across from the grilled-cheese-sandwich restaurant, and it turned out to be full of Thunder gear: local artists had designed, often very cleverly, their own T-shirts, beer cozies, stickers and onesies. Most businesses around town let their employees dress in Thunder gear on game days, which has created a big market for Thunder clothes: many Oklahomans have entirely separate game-day wardrobes. The store’s owner told me that the Thunder changed her life. Saleswise, she said, basketball season is like eight months of Christmas.
<br> And now it is time to talk about James Harden’s beard.
<br><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/nytimes_quote7.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /> The fate of Harden was the first serious test of the Thunder’s utopian culture — the first stubborn wrinkle in Sam Presti’s enlightened basketball collective.
<br> Harden was the first draft pick ever made by the Thunder: they chose him third in 2009. (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka all joined when the team was still the Seattle SuperSonics.) His beard, at the time, was modest and closely cropped, the kind of thing you could wear to a business meeting without raising any eyebrows. Harden was a 19-year-old shooting guard with an old man’s game, full of the kinds of tricks you might see at your local Y.M.C.A.: quick shots, misdirections, shifts in speed, counterintuitive arm motions designed to bait defenders into fouls. He wasn’t overwhelmingly athletic, though, and many experts thought the Thunder had selected him too high. During his rookie year, he did little to convince anyone otherwise. As Harden’s beard grew, however, so did his mojo. As it started to hang from his face, his tricks started, improbably, to work in the N.B.A. The beard grew thicker and more unruly, and Harden began to exceed everyone’s expectations. By last season, he had become one of the most effective scorers the N.B.A. has ever seen.
<br> By the time the Thunder reached the finals, Harden’s beard was a full-on Rip Van Winkle, and it had become something of an unofficial team mascot. Photos flew around the Internet: a James Harden cake from an OKC bakery, with a huge mess of black icing extending off its cake chin; an Oklahoma City building with a giant beard hanging from its facade; a James Harden tattoo on some anonymous superfan’s arm. The most popular item at the official Thunder retail store, its manager told me, was a Harden-style fake black beard, which fans would wear at home games. Harden’s beard was gratuitous, quirky and improbable — the same set of attributes that made Oklahoma City basketball different than Miami or Los Angeles or New York.
<br> Harden’s rise was great for the Thunder — not many third bananas get that good, that fast — but it was also a threat. He had always been a complicated figure in Presti’s scheme. He was an elite scorer willing to come off the bench — a citizen willing to pay a serious tax (in minutes, shots and star potential) to be a part of the Thunder society. The group, in turn, offered Harden some harder-to-measure benefits: As a sixth man, he got to play against the other team’s bench players, which made him look even better than he was. When he shared the floor with Durant and Westbrook, he benefitted from the other team’s obsessive attention to them.
<br> But Harden got a little too good. The cost-benefit balance tipped out of whack. He wanted a maximum contract and, by league standards, probably deserved one. The Thunder — having already committed max contracts to Durant and Westbrook, and having just signed Ibaka to a near-max — wanted to pay him less. Near the climactic point of the Harden contract crisis, several people in Oklahoma City joked to me that they would be perfectly willing to pass another Maps tax to help pay for him to stay. Then they made it clear that, actually, they weren’t joking; the people of Oklahoma City would seriously do this. One city official I spoke with thought a penny tax would be too much — maybe an eighth, he suggested, with a quarter of that going to improve the city.
<br> Presti’s goal is to build a sustainably excellent organization, which means one that transcends its players. No individual, no matter how important or loved, can ever be allowed to trump the group. At 8:28 on the night of Oct. 27, Kevin Durant tweeted the word “Wow.” Over the next few hours, that message was retweeted more than 10,000 times. The Thunder had traded James Harden, just three days before the start of the season.
<br> For the Thunder, this trade marked a passage from innocence (youth, ideals, plenitude) to experience (age, cash, loss). The fairy-tale part of their story, in which they’re magically immune from the muddiness of N.B.A. success, is over. The team will still be good — Presti got a reasonable return for Harden, and of course they still have Westbrook and Durant — but it feels as if they’ll never be the same. Unless, of course, all that collective energy is strong enough to somehow conjure, like a phoenix rising from Harden’s beard, another great individual.</td></tr></table></center>
<br>Is Anderson's long <i>New York Times Magazine</i> article a great read, or what? But, now, it's time to get back to that opening Footnote 1 ...
<br><br>
<img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/billsimmons.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /><b><sup>Footnote 1</sup> ... Bill Simmons. </b>Like I said at the beginning, when the above article said, "Simmons announced, just a few weeks ago, that he was officially retiring the phrase Zombie Sonics. In almost no time at all, the Oklahoma City Thunder had achieved escape velocity." The <i>New York Times Magazine</i> piece that I'd read and started to post here on December 10 was published November 8, so I was way behind the curve when learning of Simmons' turned leaf. So, finishing the <i>New York Times</i> part, I started my Simmons research.
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First, I saw that <a href="http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/10/16/rip-oklahoma-city-zombies/" target="_blank">The Lost Ogle</a> had already written about it on October 16. The Lost Ogle's piece quoted a footnote within in an October 11 column Simmons had published at his <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8486795/the-harden-dilemma" target="_blank">Grantland</a> website. The footnote reads:
<br><blockquote><sup>Footnote 1:</sup> Important note for this season: I'm giving up my four-year vow to avoid typing the word "Thunder" in an NBA column after the Sonics were hijacked from Seattle with the implicit consent of the NBA's commissioner, David Stern. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to keep the "Zombies" thing going, and more important, Chris Hansen is definitely bringing the Sonics back to Seattle. That's happening. Let's start looking forward instead of backward.</blockquote>
The <i>New York Times Magazine</i> and The Lost Ogle articles concluded from Simmons' footnote that he had "retired" the Zombie reference. But, upon reading the Grantland article which was titled, "The Harden Dilemma," it is plainly evident that such a conclusion was premature, at best. Why? Because in the main article, Simmons called the Thunder "the Zombies" once again:
<br>
<blockquote>How will Harden's saga play out? I see three potential outcomes, and only three ...
<br> • Harden's agent accepts less money to stay in Oklahoma City — a fundamentally ignorant decision that would mean they were brainwashed by Oklahoma City's small-market B.S.. If that happens, lock down <font size="3"><b>the Zombies</b></font> for two to four titles in the 2010s assuming nothing funky happens (injuries, drugs, a fatal injury during a brawl at the BET Awards, whatever).
<br> • Harden's agent says, "Let's play this baby out." That's actually the best outcome for both parties. Harden guarantees himself a four-year, $64 million offer from someone this summer; Oklahoma City locks Harden into a cheap 2012-13 price ($5.82 million) while also leaving itself the flexibility to (a) trade Harden during the season (doubtful; they'd never mess that dramatically with a potential title team), (b) match Harden's "max" offer next summer and amnesthize Kendrick Perkins (most likely), or (c) match that offer, then trade Harden or Westbrook after the 2013-14 season because the tax penalties will keep getting worse (possible).
<br> • Oklahoma City panics and trades Harden before Halloween, or some time before February's deadline, for 100 cents on the dollar. Totally improbable … and yet, we can't totally rule it out.</blockquote>
Given the above emphasized text, it becomes evident that Simmons hasn't yet "retired" the Zombies term ... <i>he has simply allowed himself the option of using "Zombies" and "Thunder" (which he earlier said he would never say) interchangeably ... Zombies, Thunder, whatever</i>, it doesn't matter.
<br><br>
So, put Simmons' use of the term in the same general category as <i>Oklahoman</i> sportswriter Berry Tramel's continued use of "Boomers" as an acceptable interchangeable moniker for the Thunder. Although Tramel's term isn't as offensive, both writers continue to use a unique name for the Thunder for their own personal pleasure.
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<b>So, Is The Name "Zombie Sonics" really Dead?</b> Yes, it is. But it's not because Bill Simmons said so (because he didn't) ... it's because he is an island to himself amongst professional sportswriters who seems to feel the need to continue to be ugly to the Thunder. He continues to bash the Thunder's owners even if he has become more sympathetic to the city and Oklahoma City Thunder fans (see <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8047976/thunder-family-values" target="_blank">this Grantland article</a>).
<br><br>
As a December postscript to Simmons' October 11 dire predictions for the Thunder if Sam Presti chose the "improbable" door #3 vis a vis James Harden, we all know by now and despite Simmons' faux-wisdom that Sam Presti <b>DID</b> choose door #3 ... "The Beard" James Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets before October 31, in exchange for Kevin Martin and other assets. In a post-Harden-trade <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8573213/the-harden-disaster" target="_blank">October 30 Grantland article</a>, Simmons predicted ...
<blockquote>You want predictions for the 2012-13 season from me? I have two and two only.
<br> 1. Miami is going to beat the Lakers in the Finals.
<br> 2. Oklahoma City will rue the day it traded James Harden.</blockquote>
What can one objectively say about those remarkable predictions?
<br><br>
<b>First, Simmons' Second Prediction. </b>It's safe to say that all Thunder fans loved "The Beard" and that all fans very much regretted him being traded away, largely done for salary cap penalty issues associated with the Thunder breaching that cap. But, Oklahoma City Thunder fans aren't sufficiently naive to recognize the practical realities that any NBA team (save a precious few like the Heat and the Lakers) have to cope with given last year's collective bargaining agreement. And, while we surely miss The Beard, we have been quick to embrace Kevin Martin, the principal asset acquired in that same trade.
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Going into tonight's (December 12) home game against the Hornets (this part of the article is written before that game on December 12), the Thunder is 17-4, leading the NW division by 5½ games. After tonight's game against the Hornets, on December 14 we host Sacramento and there is a good chance that the Thunder will be 19-4 after that. Then, the Thunder host San Antonio on Monday, December 17 in a match-up between, presently, the two best teams in the Western Conference, arguably the two best teams in the NBA right now.
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But, wait, there's more! As noted in the <i>New York Times Magazine</i> article, ESPN recently named the Oklahoma City Thunder <a href="http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/teamrankings" target=_blank">the best professional sports team</a> in the United States (including the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL). In its most recent power-rankings, <a href=
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/rankings/2012/12/11/power-rankings-thunder-spurs-lebron-james-kevin-durant-damian-lillard/1760381/" target="_blank">USA Today</a> deems the Oklahoma City Thunder #1, followed by San Antonio Spurs #2. The Lakers, Simmons' favorite but faltering badly since Simmons made his October 30 predictions, came in at #20.
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Now, I know that one-quarter of a season does not a season make. Simmons may well be proved true about Oklahoma City "ruing the day," but, not yet.
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I am reminded of a personal story ... when I quit high school band in favor of high school debate way back in the fall of 1959. To excel at either activity took lots of non-school after-hours time, and my family history was in music. But, I had gotten involved with debate a year earlier and it fascinated me. In the fall of 1959, I concluded that I could not do both with excellence and I chose debate which led to me becoming a lawyer. But, when giving my Lawton High School band director, Mr. McHenry, my drop card, he insisted on a private meeting in his office, during which he said, "You are letting your school down, Doug, and you will come to regret this decision."
<br><br>
I'm not dead yet so that eventful day of remorse may yet come to pass. But, now approaching 70 years of age, it ain't likely. Second-guessing on the viability of Sam Presti's decision regarding the James Harden decision appears to be fainter and fainter by the day. Maybe the personal analogy ain't perfect, but it's pretty close to the mark.
<br><br>You know what, I'll take Sam Presti's decisions over Bill Simmons' predictions any time, any where, any place.
<br><br><b>Second, Simmons' First Prediction. </b>Here, Simmons proclaimed the Lakers Western Conference champions this season, and he said, "Miami is going to beat the Lakers in the Finals."
<br><br>Right. As of the morning of December 12, the Heat were 14-5, not too shabby but certainly not at the top of the Eastern Conference. As for the Lakers, they are 9-13, just having lost to Cleveland. If the season ended now, the Lakers wouldn't even make the playoffs.
<br><br>Again, I understand that 1/4 of a season does not a season make. But both the Heat and the Lakers are going to have to work their arses off so that Simmons manages to look good by the end of the regular season.
<br><br>
<b>Simmons' Third Prediction.</b> He didn't mention this one in his October 30 article. Rather, it was contained in "Footnote 1" to his October 11 Grantland piece, mentioned above. There, he said,
<blockquote>Chris Hansen is definitely bringing the Sonics back to Seattle. That's happening.</blockquote>
Who is he kidding? It would have to be his Seattle following because if and when Seattle gets an NBA team in the future is wholly speculative and which may be in the realm of "Dream On, Teenage Queen."
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<i>In the first place</i>, Seattle would need to have in place at least a commitment (if not an established fact) from Seattle/Washington to build a new arena ... part of what the Clay Bennett partnership announced as a "stay in Seattle" condition way back when, but when Seattle/Washington gave the Oklahoma investors group the stiff-arm regarding such a prospect. But, yes, Hanson <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/nba/story/2012/09/12/sonics-coming-soon-seattle-city-council-backs-to-nba-arena-deal/57753114/1" target="_blank">has made progress</a> about getting a new $480 million NBA/NHL arena in Seattle. Also, see this <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/sonics/2012/10/16/seattle-supersonics-nba-return-legislation-arena-financial-plan/1637871/" target="_blank">USA Today article</a>. The problem with this development is that it's all written in disappearing ink ... no commitments, no signatures on the dotted line. <i>Unless the facility is actually built or contracted to be built</i>, whether or not the NBA or NHL might agree to place a team there, not one shovel of the new NBA/NHL proposed arena has yet been shoveled. Hence, even Hansen's proposed arena remains speculative.
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<i>In the second place,</i> who says that the NBA <u>has</u> a team to locate in Seattle? For that to be true, either (a) an existing NBA team would need to relocate there, or (b) the NBA would have to expand to include more than the present 30 teams. Without belaboring the point, a study in either possibility is wholly speculative.
<br><br>
<i>So where does reality come face to face with Simmons' prediction, "Chris Hansen is definitely bringing the Sonics back to Seattle. That's happening."</i>
<br><br>The obvious and simple answer is that Simmons hasn't got a clue and has no credibility concerning Seattle or Oklahoma City at all. He is merely pandering to the Seattle fans that he took under his wing way back when and has, more recently, kinda-sorta thrown under the bus.
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Sorry, Seattle, but if/when you are prepared to take Simmons' predictions to the bank as though his opinions were delivered from god-almighty, as you may be, you have my best wishes. He is not the first pied-piper that you may have followed before before this day, the first of whom was probably <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-now-special-thanks-to.html" target="_blank">Chris Van Dyk</a>.
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</span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-35150906012248102382012-08-27T01:16:00.051-05:002013-02-07T02:25:17.391-06:00100 Years of Oklahoma Presidential Votes<a name="top"></a><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1908_11_4_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1908_11_4_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br />Oklahoma's First Presidential Vote Was For The Man Above</center><br />This being a presidential election year, I thought it might be fun to review Oklahoma's votes for President of the United States after we were granted that opportunity, which is a 100-year period of votes. Until statehood in 1907, pre-territory (1889) and then territory elections (1890-1907) did not allow us to vote in presidential elections -- only until Oklahoma became a state in 1907 did we have the right to vote for the next president of the United States. Our first ballot for US President/Vice President candidates was presented to Oklahoma voters on November 3, 1908.<br /><br />This article reviews a century of Oklahoma's votes for United States president -- from 1908 through 2008. It also takes a look at the <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorial advocacy during that 100-year period of time.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="#statistics">About the statistics</a> <a href="#1908">1908</a>  <a href="#1912">1912</a> <a href="#1916">1916</a> <a href="#1920">1920</a> <a href="#1924">1924</a> <a href="#1928">1928</a></center><br /><a name="statistics"></a><b>About the Statistics.</b> The statistics in the charts below are based upon the excellent information provided at <a href="http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/" target="_blank">Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections</a>, an excellently done website which provides free election information to the public, and I heartily commend Dave Leip for making that service and information available to anyone that wants it. I've taken information from that location to put together the following tables. In the tables, "EC" means Electoral College. "NOB" means Not On Ballot. Some national <i>de minimus</i> candidates are not included but all candidates on the Oklahoma ballots are. In the national results parts of tables, sometimes candidates who were on the Oklahoma ballot are not shown in Mr. Leip's data and, in such event, a "?" mark is shown. Most probably, the Oklahoma candidate would have been included in the "Other" group for a particular election year at his website. As for Electoral College votes, Oklahoma has been a "winner take all" state (as are most if not all others), with the exception of 1960 when Oklahoma had 1 unpledged (of 8) votes. Oklahoma's Electoral College votes have ranged from 7 (1908, 2004, 2008), 8 (1952, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), 10 (1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1944, 1948), and 11 (1936, 1940). <br /><br /><a name="1908"></a><table width="100%"><tr bgcolor="FFFF99"><td align="left"><b>1908</b></td><td align="center"><b>US Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>Vote %</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC %</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK %</b></td></tr><tr><td>Wm. H. Taft (Republican)</td><td align="center">7,678,355</td><td align="center">51.57</td><td align="center">321</td><td align="center">66.5</td><td align="center">110,474</td><td align="center">43.80</td></tr><tr><td>Wm. J. Bryan (Democrat)</td><td align="center">6,408,979</td><td align="center">43.04</td><td align="center">162</td><td align="center">33.5</td><td align="center">122,363</td><td align="center">47.99</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene V. Debs (Socialist)</td><td align="center">429,852</td><td align="center">2.83</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">21,734</td><td align="center">8.52</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene Chafin (Prohibition)</td><td align="center">254,087</td><td align="center">1.71</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">NOB</td><td align="center">NOB</td></tr><tr><td>Thomas Watson (Populist)</td><td align="center">?</td><td align="center">?</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">412</td><td align="center">0.16</td></tr></table><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1908_11_4_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1908_11_4_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center>In the table, note the Socialist Party candidate, Eugene V. Debs. As will be seen, Oklahoma contained a higher than national average number of Socialist Party voters for several years, including many voters in Oklahoma City. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1908_11_3_editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> favored Bryan</a> who won the state, but Oklahoma County voters gave Taft a narrow win.<br /><br /><a name="1912"></a><table width="100%"><tr bgcolor="FFFF99"><td align="left"><b>1912</b></td><td align="center"><b>US Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>Vote %</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC %</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK %</b></td></tr><tr><td>Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)</td><td align="center">6,296,284</td><td align="center">41.84</td><td align="center">435</td><td align="center">81.9</td><td align="center">119,156</td><td align="center">46.95</td></tr><tr><td>T. Roosevelt (Progressive)</td><td align="center">4,122,721</td><td align="center">27.4</td><td align="center">88</td><td align="center">27.4</td><td align="center">NOB</td><td align="center">NOB</td></tr><tr><td>Wm. H. Taft (Republican)</td><td align="center">3,486,242</td><td align="center">23.17</td><td align="center">8</td><td align="center">1.5</td><td align="center">90,756</td><td align="center">35.7</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene V. Debs (Socialist)</td><td align="center">901,551</td><td align="center">5.99</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">41,674</td><td align="center">16.42</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene Chafin (Prohibition)</td><td align="center">208,156</td><td align="center">1.38</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">2,185</td><td align="center">0.86</td></tr></table><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_11_6_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_11_6_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center>In the Republican presidential convention, William Howard Taft defeated Theodore Roosevelt to become that party's nominee. Following that, Taft joined the Progressive (Bull Moose) party and became its nominee. However, the Progressive party was not on the Oklahoma ballot. Apparently <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_10_28_roosevelt.jpg" target"_blank">an attempt was made</a> to back-door Republican electors would favor Roosevelt, but that was unsuccessful. Notice that Socialist Debs received 16.42% of Oklahoma votes, up from 8.52% in the 1908 votet. Wilson received the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_11_5_editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman's</i> blessing</a>, as did Oklahoma County and the state.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_statecapital.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1912_statecapital_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>As an aside, at the same November 5, 1912, election, Guthrie backers succeeded in getting a referendum petition on the ballot to move the State Capital back to Guthrie. Click on the image for a clearer look at the ballot as well as substantially complete voter returns. Voters in at least 28 counties supported the measure (Adair, Alfalfa, Cherokee, Craig, Creek, Ellis, Garfield, Grant, Kay, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Logan, McIntosh, Mayes, Muskogee, Noble, Nowata, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Payne, Rogers, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner, Washington, Woods, and Woodward, but the measure nonetheless failed. It's difficult to read the <i>Oklahoman's</i> vote numbers, but it appears that "Yes" voters totaled 85,467, "No's" were 102,915, and 44,493 were silent and marked neither check box.<br /><br /><a name="1916"></a><table width="100%"><tr bgcolor="FFFF99"><td align="left"><b>1916</b></td><td align="center"><b>US Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>Vote %</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC %</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK %</b></td></tr><tr><td> Woodrow Wilson (D)</td><td align="center">9,126,848</td><td align="center">49.24</td><td align="center">277</td><td align="center">52.2</td><td align="center">148,113</td><td align="center">59.59</td></tr><tr><td>Charles Hughes (R)</td><td align="center">8,548,728</td><td align="center">46.12</td><td align="center">254</td><td align="center">47.8</td><td align="center">97,233</td><td align="center">33.21</td></tr><tr><td>Allan Benson (Socialist)</td><td align="center">590,524</td><td align="center">3.19</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">45,527</td><td align="center">15.55</td></tr><tr><td>James Hanly (Prohibition)</td><td align="center">221,302</td><td align="center">1.19</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">1,646</td><td align="center">0.56</td></tr></table><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1916_11_8_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1916_11_8_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center><br />The November 8, 1916, headlines above tell the story -- although Wilson carried Oklahoma and Oklahoma County against Charles Hughes handily, the national vote was still in doubt on November 8. Europe had been at war since 1914 but Wilson had so far kept the United States out of it, even after the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger ship, by a German submarine on May 7, 1915.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1915_05_8_lusitania.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1915_05_8_lusitania_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Of the 139 US citizens aboard Lusitania, 128 lost their lives; however in January 1916 Germany agreed to pay retribution for the Americans and to refrain from unwarned U-boat attacks on passenger vessels in the future.<br /><br />Hughes felt differently about American participation in the European War and the country was fairly well divided between the candidates, though less so in Oklahoma. That Socialist candidate Benson received 15.55% of the Oklahoma vote evidences the continuing strength of that party in Oklahoma. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1916_11_7_editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i></a> supported Wilson in the election and closed its November 7 editorial with these words: "That is Woodrow Wilson's record. He has served us. He has saved us." <br /><br />Of course, it developed that Germany changed its position. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_entry_into_World_War_I" target="_blank">This Wikipedia article</a> puts it this way:<br /><blockquote>In early 1917 Germany decided to resume all-out submarine warfare on all commercial ships headed toward Britain, realizing it would mean war with the U.S. It offered a military alliance to Mexico in the Zimmerman Telegram -- and publication of that offer outraged American opinion just as the U-boats (submarines) started sinking American ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" and "make the world safe for democracy," and Congress voted to declare war on April 6, 1917.</blockquote><a name="1920"></a><table width="100%"><tr bgcolor="FFFF99"><td align="left"><b>1920</b></td><td align="center"><b>US Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>Vote %</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC %</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK %</b></td></tr><tr><td>Warren Harding (Republican)</td><td align="center">16,146,093</td><td align="center">60.32</td><td align="center">404</td><td align="center">76.1</td><td align="center">243,831</td><td align="center">50.11</td></tr><tr><td>James Cox (Democrat)</td><td align="center">9,139,661</td><td align="center">34.15</td><td align="center">127</td><td align="center">23.9</td><td align="center">217,053</td><td align="center">44.61</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene V. Debs (Socialist)</td><td align="center">913,693</td><td align="center">3.41</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">25,726</td><td align="center">5.29</td></tr><tr><td>P. Christiansen (Farmer-Labor)</td><td align="center">265,398</td><td align="center">0.99</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">NOB</td><td align="center">NOB</td></tr><tr><td>Aaron Watkins (Prohibition)</td><td align="center">188,787</td><td align="center">0.71</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">NOB</td><td align="center">NOB</td></tr></table><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_3_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_3_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Although United States participation in the "Great War" was relatively brief by contemporary standards (April 6, 1917, to the date that fighting ended in November 1918), World War I resulted in the death of 116,516 United States <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughboys" target="_blank">"Doughboys"</a> and other citizens and another 204,002 were wounded. By the 1920 election, Wilson and his League plan had become unpopular. Millions had died in the Great War -- according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>,<br /><blockquote>The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million. There were over 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.</blockquote>Instead of being opposed to isolation, President Wilson strongly advocated, as part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles" target="_blank">Treaty of Versailles</a> which ended the armed conflict, the establishment of a "League of Nations" which would have involved the United States in a more international endeavor. Although his advocacy for United States participation in that League was strong, by the 1920 presidential elections, it had not been ratified by the U.S. Senate, and in a very real sense, the 1920 elections would be a national referendum on Wilson's presidency and his League of Nations proposal. <br /><br />Although Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to establish the League, in 1920 Democrat James Cox who shared Wilson's views was roundly defeated by Republican Harding who campaigned against U.S. participation in the League and who favored an isolationist stance, and that included high tariffs which would protect large corporate interests in the United States. The <i>Oklahoman</i> editorialized very progressively and strongly for Cox and the League and against some large corporate interests -- see <a href="http://i8.photMay 7, 1915.obucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_2_editorial.jpg" target="_blank">this example</a> and <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_1_editorial.jpg" target="_blank">another</a> -- and Cox did carry Oklahoma County 15,722 to Harding's 13,605 -- but Harding carried the state. <br /><br />The League of Nations was never approved by the United States and our country was never a member of the League. Instead, the United States entered into separate treaties with Great War combatants Germany and Austria during the Harding administration. It would take yet another great war, at a later time, for Wilson's vision to be appreciated by Wilson's home country in another form.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_4_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_4_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center><br />U.S. Senate and Congressional races were also a huge part of the 1920 election. Oklahoma's first Republican Senator, J.W. Harreld, was elected as were Republicans from five of Oklahoma's eight Congressional districts.<br /><br />Interestingly, the 1920 presidential election was the first that R.E. Stafford was no longer a part owner or editor of the <i>Oklahoman</i>, roles owned by E.K. Gaylord in 1920. The editorials linked to above were quite progressive and aggressively pro-Democrat and a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1920_11_5_oklahoma_county.jpg" target="_blank">November 5, 1920, article</a> seemed to take pride in the fact that Oklahoma City had bucked the statewide Republican trend. The article began with this language:<br /><blockquote>Returning the largest democratic majority in its history, while the state was joining the republican ranks, Oklahoma City shines today as one of the very few bright spots on the democratic map.</blockquote>Socialist Debs was also on the ballot but earned only 5.29% of Oklahoma's vote in 1920, down from 1916's 15.55% share. Concerning the Oklahoma U.S. Senatorial vote, a November 5 <i>Oklahoman</i> editorial opined that:<br /><blockquote> The returns indicate the election of J.W. Harreld, republican nominee for United States senator, by a large majority. He owes his victory not only to the votes of members of his own party, but to the support of a number of socialists and Gore democrats.<br />* * *<br /> The socialists who voted for Harreld clearly did so because Harreld supported a resolution which would have allowed Victor Berger to retain his seat in congress.</blockquote><i>Berger? Who was Berger? Did anyone living in Bromide (etc.), Oklahoma ever hear the name, <i>Victor Berger</i>? In this time of much-less-than-instant communications, how would such communities even know about Berger? The possibility that they did strikes me as hugely unlikely.</i> <br /><br />According to Wikipedia, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_L._Berger" target="_blank">Victor L. Berger</a> was a newspaper man and a founder of the United States Socialist movement. The article says,<br /><blockquote> When the United States entered the war and passed the Espionage Act in 1917, Berger's continued opposition made him a target. He and four other Socialists were indicted under the Espionage Act in February 1918; the trial followed on December 9 of that year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The trial was presided over by Judge Kenesaw Landis, who later became the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. His conviction was appealed, and ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court on January 31, 1921, which found that Judge Landis had improperly presided over the case after the filing of an affidavit of prejudice.<br /> In spite of his being under indictment at the time, the voters of Milwaukee elected Berger to the House of Representatives in 1918. When he arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress formed a special committee to determine whether a convicted felon and war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress. On November 10, 1919 they concluded that he should not, and declared the seat vacant. Wisconsin promptly held a special election to fill the vacant seat, and on December 19, 1919, elected Berger a second time. On January 10, 1920, the House again refused to seat him, and the seat remained vacant until 1921, when Republican William H. Stafford claimed the seat after defeating Berger in the 1920 general election.<br /> Berger defeated Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926. In those terms, he dealt with Constitutional changes, a proposed old-age pension, unemployment insurance, and public housing. He also supported the diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union and the revision of the Treaty of Versailles. After his defeat by Stafford in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee and resumed his career as a newspaper editor.</blockquote>Upon Eugene V. Deb's death in October 1926, Berger delivered Deb's eulogy.<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/red_scare_1919.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />But, the <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorial analysis was most probably incomplete since it failed to account for the Bolshevik scare, also known as the "First Red Scare," in this country. In 1919 through May 1920, fear gripped much of the country, as well as much of the world, because of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The fear, of course, was that the same thing that happened in Russia would occur here -- labor would unite against capitalist interests and government, revolt, and the United States (as eyes would then know it) would become a thing of the past. (The 2nd Red Scare would come in the early 1950s with Rep. Joseph McCarthy of the House Unamerican Activities Committee hearings fame, but we'll get back to that later in this post.)<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Red_Scare" target="_blank">This Wikipedia article</a> says,<br /><blockquote> In American history, the First Red Scare of 1919–1920 was spawned by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism. Concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and alleged spread in the American labor movement fueled the paranoia that defined the period.<br /> The First Red Scare had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I. At the war's end, following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, American authorities saw the threat of revolution in the actions of organized labor, including such disparate cases as the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike and then in the bomb campaign directed by anarchist groups at political and business leaders. Fueled by labor unrest and the anarchist bombings, and then spurred on by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's attempt to suppress radical organizations, it was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists.<br /> Bolshevism and the threat of revolution became the general explanation for challenges to the social order, even such unrelated events as incidents of interracial violence. Fear of radicalism was used to excuse such simple expressions of free speech as the display of certain flags and banners. The Red Scare effectively ended in the middle of 1920, after Attorney General Palmer forecast a massive radical uprising on May Day and the day passed without incident.</blockquote>The 2011 movie, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar" target="_blank"><i>J. Edgar</i></a>, staring Leonardo DiCaprio, depicts Palmer's campaign to deport alleged radicals, led by J. Edgar Hoover.<br /><br />Putting the pieces together, it seems probable that the lower 1920 Socialist vote in Oklahoma was not only keyed to a "deal" to help Berger, as the <i>Oklahoman</i> suggested, but was also related to the Bolshevik scare of 1919-1920.<br /><br />During the Harding/Coolidge term, two amendments to the United States Constitution were ratified by the states: 18th (Prohibition) on January 16, 1919; and 19th (Women's Suffrage) on August 18, 1920. Oklahoma voted for both amendments.<br /><br /><a name="1924"></a><table width="100%"><tr bgcolor="FFFF99"><td align="left"><b>1924</b></td><td align="center"><b>US Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>Vote %</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC</b></td><td align="center"><b>EC %</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK Vote</b></td><td align="center"><b>OK %</b></td></tr><tr><td>Calvin Coolidge (Republican)</td><td align="center">15,723,789</td><td align="center">54.04</td><td align="center">382</td><td align="center">71.9</td><td align="center">226,242</td><td align="center">42.82</td></tr><tr><td>John Davis (Democrat)</td><td align="center">8,386,242</td><td align="center">28.82</td><td align="center">136</td><td align="center">25.6</td><td align="center">255,798</td><td align="center">48.1</td></tr><tr><td>R. LaFollette (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_%28United_States,_1924%29" target="_blank">Progressive</a>*)</td><td align="center">4,831,706</td><td align="center">16.1</td><td align="center">13</td><td align="center">2.4</td><td align="center">46,376</td><td align="center">8.78</td></tr></table><font size="1">* In Oklahoma, the party shown for Robert LaFollette was the Farmer-Labor Party of Oklahoma, not the Progressive Party, although both were liberal and similar in their orientation. See the section on "Farmer-Labor Party," below.</font><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_11_5_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_11_5_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center>Republican Harding died on August 2, 1923, from heart ailments while on a speaking tour before the end of his term. Vice President Coolidge completed Harding's term and then ran for president himself in 1924. The period of time between 1920 through the 1924 election had it all — political corruption, martial law and suspension of the right of habeas corpus by an impeached Oklahoma governor, political and racial unrest, the KKK, and a new brand of third party candidate (well, sort of) — and the above headlines don't begin to tell the much larger story.<br /><br />At the national level and despite some positive accomplishments, Harding's administration proved to be plagued by corruption, including the infamous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal" target="_blank">Teapot Dome scandal</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_G._Harding" target="_blank">Wikipedia article</a> on Harding reads, in part:<br /><blockquote>President Harding rewarded friends and political contributors, referred to as the Ohio Gang, with financially powerful positions. Scandals and corruption, including the notorious Teapot Dome scandal, eventually pervaded his administration; one of his own cabinet and several of his appointees were eventually tried, convicted, and sent to prison for bribery or defrauding the federal government.</blockquote>Until Richard Nixon's Watergate scandals, the Teapot Dome affair is said to have been the most notorious to have occurred at the presidential level.<br /><br />Although the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_11_3_editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> editorialized</a> for the Democrat, John Davis, and although Davis did carry the state and Oklahoma County, the paper's <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_11_4_tilghman.jpg" target="_blank">November 4 edition</a> (election day) was as much if not more occupied with the murder of territorial U.S. Deputy (and for a time police chief of Oklahoma City) Bill Tilghman in Cromwell a few days before the presidential election. The November 4 <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorials did not include one favoring Davis, although it had given one the day before.<br /><br />At the start of the election year, however, the <i>Oklahoman</i> was all over it -- "it" being the Coolidge connection with the Teapot Dome scandal. The front page headlines on January 28, 1924, looked like this:<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_1_28_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_1_28_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/presidents/1924_1_28_articles.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to read</a> the lengthy actual front-page articles.<br /><br />... more to come for the 1924 election ...<br /><br /><a name="1928"></a><b>1928.</b> ... coming next ...<br /><br />... This post is in its early stages with much more to come ...<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-71098698731098930122012-07-24T07:28:00.067-05:002012-08-26T18:44:58.587-05:00In Search of Bird Gee<a name="top"></a><I>Originally posted July 24, 2012; edited on August 20-25, 2012, to add interactive flash video of Bird Gee's real property interests in Oklahoma County and to complete this article.</i><br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><i>July 19, 2012</i></font></td><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8a_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><i>110 Years Ago, Circa 1902</i></font></td></tr></table><br />Looking into that field of black jack (scrub oak) trees up there and somewhat hidden by tall grass might be Bird Gee as he surveys 80 acres of property located in Pottawatomie Township that he purchased in 1903. Or, instead of Bird Gee, it might show his great nephew, Roland J. Miller, as he looked at the same property on July 19, 2012. Or and better still, dé·jà vu, it might show them both.<br /><br />On June 24, 2012, I received an email from one Roland J. Miller — pasted into a word processing document using a 12 point font, the email was six (6) 8½" x 11" pages long, single spaced.<br /><br />The kernel of Mr. Miller's post was that he was researching the time that a great uncle of his, named "Bird Gee," spent in Oklahoma City, and he wondered if I might be able to help. In closing his initial email, he said, "I realize that this may be of no direct interest to you, but I would really appreciate your assistance to make my research and impending visit [to Oklahoma and Oklahoma City] more fruitful."<br /><br />Although I was somewhat suspicious — we all get crank emails, don't we, and, to boot, I'd surely never heard of anyone who had "Bird" as their sole first name — I nonetheless decided to have a look around and see what I could find, thinking it unlikely that a person would take the time to write six (6) 8½" x 11" pages in an email as a crank.<br /><br />Guess what? <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />I learned that <i><b>Bird Gee was a real person</b></i> and <b>so is Roland aka Rolando Miller</b>. His email led to my learning about the city's most notorious murder-mystery at the dawn of statehood, previously mentioned in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/06/marilyn-hudson-bizarre-history-genie.html" target="_blank">this post about Marilyn Hudson</a>. As if not more importantly, his email led to learning about Bird Gee, probably the most prominent black man in Oklahoma City during 1900 to 1910.<br /><br /><center><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a> <a href="#real_property">Real Property</a> <a href="#locations">Business Locations</a><br /><a href="#other_business">Other Businesses</a> <a href="#tegeler">Tegeler Murder Trials</a> <a href="#personal"> Gee As A Person</a><br /><a href="#park">Bird Gee Park?</a> <a href="#resources">Additional Resources</a></center><br /><a name="introduction"></a><b>INTRODUCTION. </B>The email exchange with Roland Miller provided an opportunity and the catalyst for making a most excellent new friend, Rolando Miller — inexplicably, just now, my fingers paused on the keyboard just when intending to type Rolando's name since they wanted to type, "Bird Gee." I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, <i>Rolando is actually Bird Gee</i> who has just come back to the city for a brief visit to see what's different than when he left our town in 1913 or so. Oh — I see that statement makes me look like I'm crazy. I take it back.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_0.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_0_510.jpg"></a></center><br />It was my pure privilege and pleasure to welcome <strike>Bird Gee</strike> (oops!) Rolando Miller to Oklahoma City and to my home on July 19, 2012, and to join with him in researching Bird Gee's history in Oklahoma City during 1900 or so through 1913 by some drive-arounds in Oklahoma County and by researching the records of the Oklahoma County Registrar of Deeds.<br /><br />So, what did we find?<br /><br /><center>Is Rolando Miller Bird Gee Reincarnated?<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_8b_510.jpg"></a><br /><br />No, but he comes pretty darned close.</center><br /><a name="real_property"></a><b>BIRD GEE REAL PROPERTIES IN OKLAHOMA COUNTY. </B>The high quality flash video shown after the contemporary city map below is an interactive file which tours most of the properties owned by Bird and Nancy Gee in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, during 1901 through 1913. The music background for the file is an old recording of <i>Hesitation Blues</i> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_Roll_Morton" target="_blank">Jelly Roll Morton</a> (1885-1941) who claimed to have invented jazz in 1902. Whether so or not, his tune seemed an appropriate background. The flash video shows relevant maps, plats, aerial and ground photos contained within the six areas shown in the following contemporary city map:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_oklahoma_city_map.jpg"></center><br /><I><b>Click on the image of Bird Gee, below, to start the interactive flash video.</I></b> It will load in a few or several seconds, depending on your internet connection speed.<br /><br /><center><OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" CODEBASE="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" WIDTH="510" HEIGHT="600" ><PARAM NAME="MOVIE" VALUE="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/gee_county_properties_start.swf"><PARAM NAME="PLAY" VALUE="true"><PARAM NAME="LOOP" VALUE="true"><PARAM NAME="QUALITY" VALUE="high"><EMBED SRC="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/gee_county_properties_start.swf" WIDTH="510" HEIGHT="600" PLAY="true" LOOP="false" WMODE="opaque" QUALITY="high" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED></OBJECT></center><br />Seeing the depth and breadth of real properties owned by Bird Gee, it is not surprising that an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_1907_10_2.jpg" target="_blank">October 7, 1907, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> said that he was "understood to be the wealthiest negro in Oklahoma City." At one point in time or another, he owned around 320 acres in Pottatawomie Township, 80 acres in Cass Township, 80 acres in Crutcho Township, and owned properties in Maywood Addition, west of Western and north of Reno, and a large chunk of lots and blocks in the original Dittmers Heights Addition (around NW 13-14th & McKinley). Four plats in Oklahoma County bear his name (Gee & Jones Addition in Crutcho Township; Gee's Addition west of N Western; Bird Gee's Amended Plat also west of N Western; and Gee & Weesner replat of a part of Dittmers Heights, above mentioned). A street in Crutcho Township still bears his name, "Gee Lane Road."<br /><br /><a name="locations"></a><b>BIRD GEE BUSINESS LOCATIONS. </B><i>Oklahoman</i> archives reflect that Gee's primary business activity was in the sale or rental of real property. Ads during 1903-1904 show a business address for Bird Gee as "13th & McKinley" but in 1904 his business address moved downtown and had these addresses: 117 W. Grand (1904); 217 W. Grand (1905); 325 W. Main (1906); and 210 W. California (1906-1910). By 1906, the ads read, "Bird Gee Realty Co." These business locations are shown in the map below -- old street locations and current uses are also shown.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_downtown.jpg"></center><br />The 1905 address was immediately next to and perhaps a part of the Overholser Opera House, as shown in the 1906 Sanborn Map, below. Click on the map for a larger image.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/sanborn_1906_217_w_grand.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/sanborn_1906_217_w_grand_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Quite evidently, Gee not only lived in what would come to be regarded as a "white" area, he did business smack in the middle of downtown rubbing elbows with the likes of the Overholsers, at least through 1910.<br /><br /><a name="other_business"></a><b>OTHER BIRD GEE BUSINESS INTERESTS. </B>Although real property sales and rentals were clearly his mainstay, Gee was also a notary public (as reflected by documents filed with the Registrar of Deeds), an undertaker (as reflected by a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_undertaker_1907.jpg" target="_blank">May 3, 1907, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> which described his lawsuit for unpaid services as such), and a bail bondsman, evidenced by <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_bondsman.jpg" target="_blank">a pair of 1907 and 1909 <i>Oklahoman</i> articles</a>.<br /><br /><a name="tegeler"></a> <b>The Tegeler Murder Trials.</b> It was Gee's experience with his bail bond business, combined with the growth of <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/maps/jimcrowhistory.htm" target="_blank">Jim Crow laws</a> in the state and city, which likely led to Gee leaving the state in 1912 or 1913.<br /><br />Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907. Before that, territorial legislative sessions imposed no requirements of racial separation in business, residential, or personal matters, even if the attitude prevailed in the white population that African-Americans were in all ways inferior to the whites.<br /><br />As a forerunner to statehood polemics, see this <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jim_crow_1904_9_11.jpg" target="_blank">September 11, 1904, <i>Daily Oklahoman</i> article/editorial</a> which assumes that Indian Territory might be granted statehood (apart from Oklahoma as we know it). It reads, in part:<br /><blockquote> Muskogee, I.T.<br /> When Indian Territory gets statehood doubtless it will at the time of its legislative convention pass a Jim Crow law, and that is going to cause a big howl from the minority of the population of the Territory. <b>The negroes here, especially the freedmen, have by virtue of being land holders, brought themselves to believe they are entitled to all the privileges of the white man.</b> This will continue until some form of local self government comes and the feeling at that time is likely to be so intense that a very stringent law of this character will be enacted. * * * But the white population recognize the fact that there must be some such law to protect the public and it likely that both political parties will agree to such a bill.</blockquote>Of course, Indian Territory was not admitted as a separate state, by itself. When statehood to both Oklahoma and Indian Territories became the real deal in 1907, the <i>Oklahoman</i> was in your face as to its position which was, pure and simple, separation of whites and blacks. To its credit, the <i>Oklahoman</i> played no games by masking where it was coming from, but to its everlasting discredit, it was coming from the awful and dreadful position of white supremacy. Beyond a couple of front page caricatures, I'll not further elaborate since I'm thinking the caricatures speak for themselves as to the posture of the <i>Oklahoman</i> at the time. See <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/05/jim-crow-in-oklahoma-city.html" target="_blank">History of Jim Crow Laws In Oklahoma City</a> for more.<br /><br /><center>September 13, 1907<br />"Have YOU a daughter, Mr. Voter?"<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1907_09_13_oklahoman.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1907_09_13_oklahoman_510.jpg"></a><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_03_13_negro_cartoon_editorial.jpg" target="blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_03_13_negro_cartoon.jpg"></a></center><br />After Oklahoma became a state, several Jim Crow laws were quickly enacted in the areas of public accommodations, transportation, public education, and marriage. Residential restrictions would soon follow at the municipal level. The <i>Daily Oklahoman</i> was one of the cheerleaders leading the Jim Crow charge. It was a very ugly time for the history of Oklahoma and the city of Oklahoma City and that's putting it mildly. Bird Gee had no real property sales or rentals ads in the <i>Oklahoman</i> after 1910 -- his business activity in the city had markedly dwindled and most of his properties had been sold.<br /><br />Throw into that racial travesty Bird Gee's bail bond business and, most probably, Bird Gee's last Oklahoma straw is found. As briefly discussed previously in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/06/marilyn-hudson-bizarre-history-genie.html" target="_blank">this blog post about Marilyn Hudson</a> and without much elaboration here,<br /><ol><li>In 1907, Rudolph Tegler was charged with the murder of James R. Meadows, as was Meadow's wife, Lila. Lila was acquitted. Rudolph was tried three times. The first time, he was convicted, but that conviction was reversed on appeal. The second trial in 1910 resulted in a hung jury.</li><li>Mike O'Brien aka M.C. McGraw was a key defense witness in that 1910 trial. After that trial, O'Brien was charged with perjury, was found guilty, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.</li><li>O'Brien appealed the conviction. While the appeal was pending, Bird Gee was said to have posted bond for O'Brien's release and, in any event, O'Brien was released. During the appellate process, O'Brien disappeared, and that resulted in <a href="http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocument.asp?id=16819&hits=" target="_blank">his appeal being dismissed in 1912</a>.</li><li>O'Brien having become a fugitive, Gee was then called to make good on his appeal bond for O'Brien, but he did not do that.</li><li>In 1912, Gee was then charged with perjury for falsely stating his worth in the appeal bond and he was taken into custody.</li><li>While in custody, Gee filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus which was denied by the trial court. The Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals <a href="http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocument.asp?id=21852&hits=" target="_blank">affirmed the trial court's decision</a> to deny the writ.</li><li>Notwithstanding, bond was posted to secure Gee's release from custody.</li><li>Gee was tried on that perjury charge in 1912. He was acquitted, as is further discussed below.</ol>After Gee's initial arrest, bond was posted by Dr. John Threadgill and D.M. Phillips, both white and commercially successful, to secure his release. Dr. Threadgill built the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/03/downtown-hotels.html#Threadgill" target="_blank">Threadgill Hotel</a> on Broadway around 1903. D.M. Phillips was an "alderman" (city council member) in 1904. For some reason, Gee was again taken into custody and a later bond was posted for his release by T.H. Traylor, W.H. Slaughter, and Bird's wife Nancy. Dr. W.H. Slaughter would later build "Slaughter's Hall" in Deep Deuce.<br /><br />During Gee's trial, the evidence showed that Gee's bond was conditioned upon Dr. John Threadgill likewise posting bond for O'Brien's appearance which Threadgill never did. The jury was out only five (5) minutes before returning its finding of not guilty. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_perjury_charges_1912.jpg" target="_blank">this link</a> for the <i>Oklahoman's</i> coverage of Gee's perjury charge and trial.<br /><br />After the 1912 perjury proceedings were concluded, Bird Gee left Oklahoma City for good, in 1912 or 1913, presumably never to return. By this time, Gee would have been about 68 years old -- whether Nancy Gee was still living when he left the city is not clear but she was alive as of her co-posting of Gee's appearance bond on May 2, 1912.<br /><br /><a name="personal"></a><center><B>BIRD GEE AS A PERSON</B></center><br />Bird Gee's great-nephew, Roland Miller, reported in email to me that Gee was one of eight children born to Elijah and Ritter Gee, that he was born during slavery (May 1844) in Missouri, and that Bird reunited with his parents and siblings in Highland, Doniphan County, Kansas, circa 1863. Bird served as a private for the Union Army during the Civil War, and returned to Highland, to reside up to 1886. <br /><br />Roland said that while in Highland, Doniphan County, Kansas, Bird Gee blossomed as an entrepreneur and community leader. He said that Gee was a farm owner, hardware store merchant, tobacco store merchant, oil land prospector and real estate agent. He was also on close terms with George Washington Carver who, Roland says, "Also while improving his business skills, personal wealth, and communiy status, he worked at local orchards along with George Washington Carver who came to Highland to attend the local Highland College but was refused admittance when college administrators became aware that he was African-American," and in the same email, Roland said, "In Ness County [Kansas] the Gees and Carver owned neighboring properties, and on at least one official event Carver was a witness for Bird Gee."<br /><br />As to matters pertaining to race relations, Roland said, "Bird was one of the five complainants included in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 (State of Kansas vs. Stanley Murray), which was escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court, deliberated upon and not favorably awarded the fair judgement it deserved, and essentially opened the floodgates for Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws imposed in the oppressive years preceding the pre-Civil Rights Acts of the mid-20th Century."<br /><br />Roland provided the following transcript of an article appearing in the April 6, 1876, <i>Kansas City Chief</i> which described federal trial court proceedings under the then existing civil rights law:<br /><blockquote><i>Kansas City Chief</i>, April 6, 1876<br /> In the name of the United States versus David Stanley and Murray Stanley, before U.S. Commissioner, C. W. Shreve, on Thursday of last week, U.S. District Attorney, Geo. R. Peck, appeared in behalf of the plaintiff, and Col. F.M. Keith and R.M. Williams, for the defendants. The complaint charged the defendants - keepers of a hotel in Hiawatha, Kansas - with violating the act of Congress known as the Civil Rights Bill, which guarantees to all citizens equal rights, regardless of color, or previous condition of servitude.<br /> The testimony on both sides went to show that Bird Gee - and, by the way, a gentleman - was, in October last, refused the privileges extended to other guests of the house, simply because his skin did not happen to be quite as white as other guests of the house. One witness (Murgatroyd) testified that he was sitting at the table at which Gee was sitting, when another regular boarder, named McCowen, came in and sat down in his regular place at the table. McC. saw the "nigger" immediately and at once left the table, and reported at the office that there was a "nigger" at the table. This brought young Stanley into the dining room where he placed himself behind Gee's chair, and proceeded to persuade him to leave the table, and finally tell him that "he would have to go out." By this time, this witness began to get mad, and aware that "he was just getting ready to leave the table himself."<br /> The attempt of the correspondent of the <i>St. Joseph Gazzette</i> to create the impression that it was a "put up job," and that Gee did not find out that he had been insulted until 5 months after the occurrence, falls still born, when one of the attorneys for the defense admits that Gee talked with him about prosecuting the case only a "day or two" after the affair, and was that the U.S. District Attorney was the proper person to prosecute it, and that he had already been talked to by he other party about the matter. This fact may account for the "surprise of the landlord" when he was arrested. District Attorney Peck made a good impression for himself in the management of the case, which did not seem to be characterized by any spirit of persecution, but simply a desire to get at the facts of the case, and vindicate the majesty of the law. Both of the defendants were held to bail in the sum of $1000 each, to appear before the U. S. District Court, at Topeka, on the 10th of April.</blockquote>Roland also supplied the following transcript of an article which appeared in the <i>Kansas City Chief</i> on September 14, 1876:<br /><blockquote>New York City, September 2, 1876.<br /> Ed. Chief: -- Please permit me space in your columns, to give to the many readers of the Chief a few thoughts on the condition of Kansas and the Eastern States.<br /> It was not infrequently said by Kansas men, during the drouth and grasshopper infliction, that tbe Eastern States could stand it better than Kansas; but I beg leave to differ with them. In 1873, 1874, and 1875, Kansas had partial and almost total failures in a great many districts.<br /> With the advice of the Chief to keep a stiff upper lip, they have worried through. Many left the State for other parts, giving it the name of the grasshopper country.<br /> Well, it was very discouraging; but a question asked by the Chief is still unanswered: <b>Where will you go to better yourselves?</b> That Is a hard question. You can't go East, for they have a partial drouth there, and it is felt more forcibly than the failure in Kansas. The manufactories are all suspending; thousands of men are out of employment, walking the streets who are dependent on labor for support. Starvation is staring them in the<br />face. The great cry with them is, they are living under the Republican administration, and want a change. They all want change - when they feel round, they have none.<br /> Improve your lands in Kansas, and stick to it. The population here is something like raising a crop of wheat and renting land to stack it. There are a good many young men that are thrown out on their own resources.<br /> There must be room for them. Christ commanded Adam to go multiply and replenish the earth, but we believe It has been misconstrued. They are multiplying and punishing the earth.<br /> The staple products of the State of New York, are cheese and hops. Cows are kept on hay only; if that fails, it is worse than a corn failure in Kansas. All branches of business are feeling the great pressure. Oysters are selling at the docks at from 30 to 80 cents per hundred.<br /> A Democratic candidate made a speech in the city, a few days since. He said this is and should be a white man's government, for the white men and their posterity. It is well to note such expressions made by a party, in anticipation of being placed in power. I am yours,<br /> BIRD GEE.</blockquote><i>"Where will you go to better yourselves?"</i> Apparently Gee considered the matter further and he and his wife, Nancy, migrated to the "Unassigned Lands," still part of Indian Territory, on or shortly after the April 22, 1889, Land Run, they initially residing in Edmond. About that, Roland said,<br /><blockquote> My official documentation for Bird Gee is sketchy after 1888, with the exception of a few documents for land ownership and businesses. I wish I had more information regarding his community involvement in OKC. From what I accumulated about him, he doesn't seem like the kind of person to settle into mediocrity or a rut. My sister and I jokingly talk about how he must have come off as brash and arrogant to those who wanted to force him into a role of acceptance, when every indication is that he was proud, self-motivated, and not self-limiting and didn't concern himself with conforming to the projected limits and expectations of others.</blockquote>The "migrated to Edmond, OKT (circa 1888)" remark is obviously a mistake (obviously, since the Land Run didn't occur until April 22, 1889) but there is no reason to doubt the content of Gee's pension affidavit (below) that he resided in Edmond from 1889 to 1900.<br /><br />As we've seen, Gee certainly did not settle into mediocrity when migrating to Oklahoma. He achieved remarkable if not amazing business success here during the first decade of the 1900s. But, in the end, he learned as well that racial bigotry was very much alive in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma, and he left our city and state to move to Texas. <br /><br />As to his arrival and duration in Oklahoma County, Roland reported to me that Gee submitted a claim for a Civil War pension affidavit dated April 11, 1900, part of which reads as follows:<br /><blockquote>"Affidavit of Claimant dated April 11, 1900.<br /> State of Oklahoma, County of Oklahoma ss:<br /> In the matter of Pension Claim No. 1177369 of Bird Gee<br />On this 11th day of April A.D. 1900, personally appeared before me a Notary Public in and for the aforesaid county duly authorized to administer Oaths, Bird Gee aged 56 years [which would place his date of birth in 1844], whose Post-office Address is Edmond in the county of Oklahoma And Territory of Oklahoma, who, being duly sworn declares that he is the claimant in the above case.<br /> He has resided, since his discharge from service, in the following places:<ul><li>From June 1865 to 1876 - Highland, KS</li><li>From August 1st to September 1st 1876 - New York City</li><li>From September 1876 to August 1878 - Philadelphia, PA</li><li>From August 1878 to November 1880 - Chester Town, MD</li><li>From 1881 to 1885 - Leavenworth, Kansas</li><li>From December 1885 to October 1886 - Highland, Kansas</li><li>From 1886 to 1889 - Beeler, KS</li><li>From 1889 to the Present 1900 - Edmond, Oklahoma Territory</li></ul></blockquote>I was unable to find documentation as to Bird Gee's residence in Edmond. Roland said that ancestry.com showed Gee's residences and occupations as:<br /><blockquote>1902 Dittmen [sic Dittmer] Heights<br />1903 Oklahoma City Real Estate<br />1905 Oklahoma City Real Estate<br />1906 Oklahoma City Real Estate<br />1907 1413 N. McKinley, Oklahoma City<br />1908 Oklahoma City <br />1911 1413 N. McKinley, Oklahoma City<br />1912 1413 N. McKinley, Oklahoma City Real Estate<br />1913 1517 Gregg, Houston<br />1917 1202 ½ San Felipe, Houston Real Estate<br />1920 206 Broadway, r rear, 2nd Ward, Houston Real Estate</blockquote>A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_host.jpg" target="_blank">January 9, 1909, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> is indicative of Gee's prominence in the local black community. With regard to an upcoming visit to the city and state by W.P. Vernon, the article states:<br /><blockquote>One of the greatest gatherings of colored people in the southwest will take place in the auditorium on February 4, when W.P. Vernon, the negro appointed registrar of the treasury by President [Theodore] Roosevelt will deliver an address under the auspices of the Oklahoma Negro Business league. <br />* * *<br />The Rev. William H. Jernagin, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, is chairman of the committee which will receive the negro so honored by President Roosevelt, and escort hm through the state. <i>Bird Gee of Oklahoma City is another member of the committee and will have general supervision over the arrangements.</i></blockquote>About this, Roland Miller commented that,<br /><blockquote>Bird Gee's sister, Nancy (Gee) Bruce, married Henry Bruce (second marriage, no kids) -- the younger brother of Blanche Kelso Bruce who was the first African-American to serve as "Treasurer" of the United States and is the only African-American to have his name appear on a U.S. Treasury note. So, when Bird was hosting the negro Treasury appointee, it wasn't his first encounter with someone from that office.</blockquote>Whether Bird Gee found greener pastures in Houston after leaving Oklahoma City, I don't know but my hunch is that, for a decade or so, during the first decade of the 1900s, Gee reached his greatest level of business accomplishment. His <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_death.jpg" target="_blank">certificate of death</a> shows that he died about ten years after he left Oklahoma City in Houston on March 20, 1923. The certificate shows an incorrect date of birth as being "unknown 1858," as opposed to 1844.<br /><br />Roland reported to me that Bird Gee dropped out of his family's communication for some unknown reason. Roland said,<br /><blockquote>In my uncle's [Loren's] book, and according to our family oral history, Loren mentions that Bird Gee returned to Kansas City (Wyandotte) in the early 20th century to visit his sister and family. Uncle Loren also mentions that Bird Gee became very embittered when his claim for Native-American citizenry was denied and, after departing his visit to Kansas, was never heard from again. I haven't been able to find the date of his visit but it was probably around the time of death of his sisters Nancy (Gee) Bruce (around 1910) or Martha Hubbard (1913).</blockquote><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgee_full.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgee_full_300.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>When commenting upon how thoroughly Bird Gee managed to integrate himself into Oklahoma City's white residential and business environment in the 1900's (which I had not expected to see), Roland had this to say:<br /><blockquote>I'm not surprised that Bird moved so easily in circles with whites or any ethnicity. It seems that is something that is taught to all of us descendants of the Gees - although it is still up to the individual to embrace and embody. In my immediate family, our father made sure we observed etiquette, look people in the eye when speaking to them, spoke clearly and respectfully, and were educated within the requirements of the family - not the lower expectations of educational institutions. In fact, on the few occasions we didn't receive daily homework assignments, dad would promptly visit the administrators of the school and ask what the hell was the matter with them. We were over prepared for our grade levels and learned multiplication and were reading books well before local requirements. It's funny when I think back to how the teachers would have to really interrupt us from reading around the entire "Dick and Jane" book when the class was supposed to take turns reading book excerpts. They finally decided to assign my brother and me to separate classrooms to minimize disruption. We were all taught, at early ages, that we were no better or worse than anyone else and that the only thing that separated us from the fate and situation of others was preparation, opportunity, and circumstance.</blockquote>I'm sure that Roland will eventually give much more information about Bird Gee in <a href="http://doniphancountymuseum.org/" target="_blank">his own website on the Doniphant County, Kansas, Museum</a>, still in its beginning stages (the county is in the northeast tip of Kansas, north of Kansas City), or elsewhere, when he is ready to do so. Roland and others are taking steps to restore St. Martha's AME Church (1882-1998) there as a county museum. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/kansaschurch1.jpg" target="_blank">photo 1</a>, <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/kansaschurch2.jpg" target="_blank">photo 2</a> and <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/kansaschurch3.jpg" target="_blank">photo 3</a>, the latter showing Roland and another family member.<br /><br /><a name="park"></a><CENTER><B>BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT A BIRD GEE PARK?</B></CENTER><br />While doing our drive-around on July 19, the first thing we did upon leaving my home in Mesta Park was drive to NW 13th & McKinley, less than a mile from my home. The physical address that Roland Miller had earlier supplied as a Gee residence was not in my head (1413 N. McKinley) when we did that. So, arriving in the area, I incorrectly told him that the property's location was on the north side of McKinley Park. He took a look at McKinley Park, shown below, and said, "Well, maybe we could get the park renamed to be "Bird Gee Park," and I concurred to that goal.<br /><br />Problem is, my head was not then on straight -- odd numbered addresses are on the west side of north/south streets in Oklahoma City, so 1413 N. McKinley would not have been on the park's property but would have been across the street on the west side of McKinley.<br /><br />Even and after recognizing my initial error, I said to myself, "Well, so why not? Why not rename the park to become Bird Gee Park?" After all, Gee replatted the area right across the street, he had two plats bearing his name a few blocks south, he owned large acreages in southeast and north central Oklahoma County as well as other tracts, and, as the October 7, 1907, <i>Oklahoman</i> said, he was "understood to be the wealthiest negro in Oklahoma City," and he has not heretofore been recognized in the annals of African-Americans in Oklahoma City's early days. All things considered, renaming McKinley Park to become Bird Gee Park seems to me to be a fair and reasonable tribute to "the wealthiest negro in Oklahoma City" circa 1907.<br /><br />So, let's have a closer look at McKinley Park ... click on images below for larger views.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="8"><tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><font color="white"><b>VIEWS OF McKINLEY PARK TODAY</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark1_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark2_250.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark3_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/birdgeepark4_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><br />The park sits in the original Dittmer Heights Addition, Blocks 3 and 4. The original use of the area was not a park but was the home of the Oklahoma Press Brick Company, as shown in the 1906 Sanborn map, below.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/sanborn_1906_mckinley_park.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/sanborn_1906_mckinley_park_510.jpg"></a></center><br />After the brick company stopped its operations, McKinley Park was formed over the former brick company operations.<br /><br />Roland was surprised in our July 19 county tour to find lots of red dirt and rock formations in eastern Oklahoma County; I told him that the same was commonplace in western Oklahoma. On our tour, I looked for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_rock" target="_blank">rose rocks</a> but didn't find any. The same red dirt/rock is present in McKinley Park, where the brick company once existed. I gave him a pair of rose rocks as a souvenir of his visit here.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="8"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/rolando_2012_7_19_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/roland_cass2_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/roserocks.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/roserocks_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><br />Roland Miller's quest to fill in the blanks about his great-uncle Bird Gee is not yet done, but I'm pleased to have been able to fill in at least some parts of Bird Gee's time in Oklahoma City and County, parts of which may well be some of the most substantive pieces of Bird Gee's history.<br /><br />As importantly, because of Roland Miller's search for information about his great-uncle, it is now evident that Bird Gee was, during the first decade of the 1900s, one of if not the most prominent African-American businessman who lived in our then young city during the first decade of the 1900s.<br /><br /><a name="resources"></a><b>Additional Resources. </b>Aside from information supplied by Roland Miller, most of this article is based upon information taken from the following sources, some containing more detail than I have described above. Click on any link for more detailed information.<br /><ol><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_perjury_charges_1912.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> Articles On Bird Gee's Perjury Charge</a></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_1.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> Bird Gee Ads, 1901-1906</a></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_2.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> Bird Gee Ads & Articles, 1907-1909</a></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_3.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> Ads & Articles, 1909-1910</a></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/bird_gee_bondsman.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> Articles, Bird Gee as Bail Bondsman</a><br />___________________________________________</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/assessor_pottawatomie_gee.jpg" target="_blank">County Assessor's 1905 Township Map</a> showing Gee's around 320 acre interest in Pottawatomie Township</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/assessor_cass_gee.jpg" target="_blank">County Assessor's 1905 Township Map</a> showing Gee's 80 acre interest in Cass Township</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/assessor_crutcho_gee.jpg" target="_blank">County Assessor's 1905 Township Map</a> showing location of Gee's 80 acre interest in Crutcho Township</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_and_jones_plat_1907.jpg" target="_blank">Gee & Jones 1907 Plat</a> in Crutcho Township; shows Gee's signature</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_maywood_plat.jpg" target="_blank">Plat of Maywood Addition</a>, emphasizing Gee's lots</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gees_addition_1903_plat.jpg" target="_blank">Plat of Gee's Addition (1903)</a></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_orchardpark_amendedplat_1907.jpg" target="_blank">Gee's Amended Plat</a> to parts of Orchard Park Addition; shows Gee's signature</li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_orchardpark_lots_sanborn_1922.jpg" target="_blank">1922 Sanborn Map</a> showing additional Orchard Park lots earlier owned by Gee</li></li><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/BirdGee/gee_and_weesner_plat_1903.jpg" target="_blank">Gee & Weesner 1903 Amended Plat</a> of parts of Dittmer Heights Addition</li></ol><br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-92083594982990579092012-07-09T21:15:00.064-05:002012-07-24T03:35:17.656-05:00Why Can't the Oklahoman Stop Slamming Ed Shadid?<a name="top"></a><i>The initial parts of this post were published here on July 9, 2012, but the post was only completed on July 22. It took me that long complete it.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/goodnight_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/goodnight_01_300.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>The <i>Oklahoman</i> has been critical of Ward 2 City Council member Ed Shadid beginning with before he won the April 5, 2011, runoff election which pitted him against banker Charles Swinton, until the current day. The <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/03/dirty-politics-committee-for-oklahoma.html" target="_blank"><i>Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum</i></a> (a "super PAC" established to influence the 2011 City Council elections and funded in the amount of $415,000 by Devon Energy's Larry Nichols) and the <i>Oklahoman</i> opposed Shadid, the <i>Oklahoman</i> through its editorial position and during a time that <i>Oklahoman</i> reporters were limited by ownership and management as to what they could, and could not, write stories about and say when reporting the news.<br /><br />For the past few or several months, I've deliberately avoided making posts here about Oklahoma City Council stuff, wanting to get back to my original intention when I established this blog -- research and write about Oklahoma City history "back in the day," to use a popular phrase. I said to myself that I would reserve political discussion to major issues if and when they might be presented, e.g. MAPS, Central Park or something major along those lines.<br /><br />But, dammit, the <i>Oklahoman</i> isn't content to leave well enough alone. Although the newspaper's ownership has changed, its editorial opinion, if not its reporting, persists in belittling and slamming people or political positions it doesn't like. Regrettably to me, one of those people is Ward 2 City Council member Ed Shadid, a person and council member whom I greatly admire. <br /><br />Hence, this post.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="#summary">Overview & Summary</a> <a href="#history">Oklahoman Editorials Through Its History</a><br /><a href="#shadid">Shadid Detail</a> <a href="#2.28.2011">February 28, 2011</a> <a href="#3.3.2011">March 3, 2011</a> <a href="#4.1.2011">April 1, 2011</a><br /><a href="#4.8.2011">April 8, 2011</a> <a href="#6.25.2011">June 25, 2011</a> <a href="#7.7.2011">July 7, 2011</a> <a href="#7.8.2011">July 8, 2011</a><br /><a href="#7.28.2011">July 28, 2011</a> <a href="#8.3.2011">August 3, 2011</a> <a href="#10.29.2011">October 29, 2011</a><br /><a href="#11.19.2011">November 11, 2011</a> <a href="#1.11.2012">January 11, 2012</a><br /><a href="#4.10.2012">April 10, 2012</a> <a href="#5.1.2012">May 1, 2012</a><br /><i><b><a href="#chapped">What Really Chapped Me Off & Prompted This Article</a></b></i><br /><a href="#6.30.2012">June 30, 2012</a> <a href="#7.2.2012">July 2, 2012</a> <a href="#7.3.2012">July 3, 2012</a><br /><a href="#conclusion">My Conclusion</a></center><br /><a name="summary"></a><b>Overview and Summary.</b> I've reviewed the <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials which contain Ed Shadid's name and, as well, a couple of what I call "quasi articles" which, to me, could pass for editorials. You can be the judge in just a bit, when I get down to detail. For now, here's a summary and my ratings, plus, neutral, and negative. Click the image below for a larger view.<br /><br /><center><i>Summary of My Review of Oklahoman Editorials<br />or Quasi Articles, February 2011 - July 2012</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/shadidtable.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/shadidtable_510.jpg"></a></center><br />I rated each item on its bias or prejudice, negative or positive comments, usually in increments of 5. The most positive score I attributed to a piece was +5, which means inferentially positive, although I was prepared to rate an editorial +10 (directly positive) or +20 (really positive). I rated one item as 0 (neutral). What got under my skin and prompted this article were the last three items, occurring in June and July 2012. I'll get into that detail, shortly.<br /><br /><a name="history"></a><b>On The Nature of the <i>Oklahoman's</i> Editorials and Articles.</b> But, first, something needs to be said about the nature of many <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials over the years. One day, but not yet, my intention is to do at least a fairly thorough review of <I>Oklahoman</i> editorials throughout its history.<br /><br />Some such editorials during the first decade of the 20th century are often deserving of nothing but contempt by a 21st century reader, or, for that matter, a 20th century reader of any time-stripe. For example, consider the following <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials, caricatures, and news stories: <br /><br /><center>Click the image below for a larger view;<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1907_09_13_oklahoman_2.jpg" target="_blank">Click here for a readable view</a><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1907_09_13_oklahoman.jpg" target="_black"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1907_09_13_oklahoman_510.jpg"></a></center><br />The above had to do with passage of Jim Crow laws in the Legislature concerning separate white and black public schools.<br /><br />The <i>Oklahoman</i> was in the forefront of those who publicly advocated Jim Crow laws covering all sorts of topics. In this regard, see the February 16, 1908, <i>Oklahoman</i> front page and accompanying article conveying its glee as to the U.S. District Court's approval of the Legislature's act requiring that blacks sit at the back of public transit vehicles.<br /><br /><center>Click the image below for a larger view.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1908_2_16_front_page.jpg" target="_blank">Click here for a readable image on this news item</a><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1908_02_16_headlines_510.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimCrowLaws/jimcrow_1908_02_16_headlines_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Below, the March 13, 1908, front page caricature didn't even have a story or an editorial <i>directly tied to it</i> and is an example of the mean-spirited and gratuitous racism that was the <i>Oklahoman</i> "back in the day." Although the front-page cartoon had no other content on the front page about the characteristics of African Americans, if one turned to the editorial page one would read the lead editorial, it being supplied by an organization called the "People's Press." <br /><br /><center>Click the image to read the full editorial<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_03_13_negro_cartoon_editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_03_13_negro_cartoon.jpg"></a></center><br />Excerpts from the editorial are shown below.<br /><blockquote><center><b>The Negro And Crime</b></center><br /> Under the caption, "Undesirable Citizens," the Peoples Press presents some statistics relative in the negro question in Payne County that are food for thought. It says:<br />* * *<br /> With the negroes constituting so small a percentage of the population, yet responsible for so great a percentage of the crime committed, we must conclude that the negroes, taken as a whole, are not good citizens. With these facts and figures staring us in the face we might give the race question more serious consideration.</blockquote>These aren't isolated examples, I assure you. Like I said, one day I hope to get around to doing a comprehensive study of <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials over the course of its history.<br /><br />Fortunately, the <i>Oklahoman</i> isn't racist any longer, from all appearances. So, what does this mini-review of the 1st decade of the 1900s have to do with what the <i>Oklahoman</i> has to say about Councilman Ed Shadid? Before getting to that, allow me to summarize what is plainly observable so far ...<br /><ol><li>The <i>Oklahoman</i> doesn't have any shame. It doesn't know the meaning of the word.</li><br /><li>The <i>Oklahoman</i> is completely up to the task of employing fear tactics when taking its editorial positions. More, it is darn good at it.</li><br /><li>The <i>Oklahoman</i> is likewise skilled at conveying incomplete, if not altogether false, and misleading information.</li><br /><li>The <i>Oklahoman</i> is masterful in the techniques of being snide and using innuendo. Those qualities aren't fully shown by the above caricatures and opinion pieces – in them, the <i>Oklahoman</i> was pretty much "in your face" in its approach in those instances. These qualities will be demonstrated before this piece is done.</li></ol><a name="shadid"></a><b>The Shadid Detail.</b> Applying the above principles to my review of <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials (15) and quasi articles (2) which mention Ed Shadid, it is clear enough that the <i>Oklahoman</i> just doesn't like this guy. You'd think he was the <i>Oklahoman's</i> whipping boy. Although I haven't checked, I'd hazard a guess that only President Barack Obama is mentioned more frequently in a negative way by the <i>Oklahoman's</i> owners and editorial writers.<br /><ol><li><a name="2.28.2011"></a><b>February 28, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_2_28_norespect.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>No Respect: Council hopefuls scorning voters' will</b><br /> Some Oklahoma City Council candidates have a low opinion of the voters they hope to attract in Tuesday's election. ¶ In 2009, voters approved extension of a 1-cent sales tax to fund MAPS 3. Those opposed to MAPS 3 haven't gotten over the loss and have made it the basis of their quest for a council seat.<br /> Even worse than the sour grapes motivation is the partisanship being injected into races for nonpartisan council positions — Ed Shadid (Ward 2) from the left and Adrian Van Manen (Ward 6) and Cliff Hearron (Ward 8) from the right.<br />* * *<br /> Behind the candidacies of Shadid, Van Manen and Hearron are public employee unions that opposed MAPS 3. The candidates refused to answer surveys on their positions. * * *<br />* * *<br /> This election isn't just about the city's future. It's also about respect for voters.</blockquote><i>Low opinion of voters? Sour grapes motivation?</i> Probably true for Van Manen and Hearron. But, Shadid — really? Shadid repeatedly said during the campaign that he favored implementing the MAPS 3 projects, all of them. And partisan injection from Shadid? Well, if taking positions on making City Council business and city projects more transparent be considered a "partisan" position, he is doubtless guilty of doing that — if that be "partisanshp," such a position is deserving of praise and not scorn. Those in charge of the <i>Oklahoman</i> during this editorial <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_2_28_opubco.jpg" target="_blank">are shown here</a>.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="3.3.2011"></a><b>March 3, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_3_3_campaign_results.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Voters send clear signal in city council elections</b><br /> It would be difficult to imagine a more resounding repudiation than the one Oklahoma City voters delivered to tea party-backed naysayers who sought to unseat two city council incumbents Tuesday.<br />* * *<br /> This slapdown was a clear message that voters don't appreciate misleading and nasty campaign literature, such as that sent by mail by and on behalf of Van Manen and Hearron. This was especially loathsome considering both men have strong ties to their church and were only too happy [to] point it out. * * *<br />* * *<br /> The one council race not decided Tuesday was in Ward 2, where Charlie Swinton and Ed Shadid were top vote-getters in a six-person race. Shadid has made it a point to bash city government; we'll see how that message resonates in the runoff April 5.</blockquote>What gets a low score from me on this one is that, while bashing the ugly negative campaign literature sent out by Van Manen and Hearron, not once during the election and after did the <i>Oklahoman</i> say the same thing about its good buddies, i.e., Charlie Swinton and the Committee For Oklahoma City Momentum, who were doing exactly the same thing and probably even worse than those candidates were. And if criticism of Oklahoma City government and public projects because of a lack of transparency is a criticism, like the <i>Oklahoman</i> said, "Well see that message resonates in the runoff April 5." Query to the <i>Oklahoman</i>: How did it resonate, with <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/04/ed-shadid-wins-ward-2.html" target="_blank">Shadid winning that runoff</a> by a vote of 62% to Swinton's 38%?<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="4.1.2011"></a><b>April 1, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_4_1_twogoodcandidates.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>For Swinton: Experience a plus in Ward 2 race</b><br /> * * * Shadid also backs MAPS 3, would like to see light rail become a reality across the city and wants the council to embrace policies that encourage healthier lifestyles. ¶ In this race between two good candidates, The Oklahoman recommends Ward 2 voters choose Swinton based on his experience and commitment.</blockquote>After saying that Shadid was running on a campaign of sour grapes in not favoring MAPS 3, the <i>Oklahoman</i> now says that that he "backs MAPS 3" and that he is a "good candidate." Hmmm ... what happened here? IF the <i>Oklahoman</i> editorial had coupled that with a <i>mea culpa</i> of some kind, e.g., "We apologize for getting this item wrong earlier," I'd have given the <i>Oklahoman</i> a +10 for making a "directly positive statement." But it didn't. The <i>Oklahoman</i> doesn't apologize in its editorials for nuttin. Never gonna happen.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b></li><br /><li><a name="4.8.2011"></a><b>April 8, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_4_8_new_day.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>A New day: Partisan overtones infect council races</b><br /> This year's city council elections have come to an end. And so too, we fear, have the nonpartisan races that have been the standard in Oklahoma City through the years. ¶ The Ward 2 runoff between Ed Shadid and Charlie Swinton, which Shadid won impressively on Tuesday, was clearly partisan. * * *<br />* * *<br /> Conservatives have only themselves to blame for this trend. The state Republican Party took shots at Mick Cornett's opponent in the mayor's race of 2004, and since then we've seen partisanship injected into these races, school board races and others. ¶ The good news is, we remain the envy of many because of our city governance. The leader of an effort to get Tulsa to change its charter said this week, "The motto in Oklahoma City is 'city first,' but the motto in Tulsa is 'me first.'" Our guess is that Shadid will work to help that reputation grow.</blockquote>In sort of a backhanded compliment, the editorial notes Shadid's "impressive" victory in the runoff between him and Charlie Swinton (the numbers: 62% to 38%) but still calls Shadid's victory "partisan" but it never explains why it thought that was so. See above comments about transparency. The <i>Oklahoman</i> also knocks "conservatives" for injecting partisanship in council elections in the first place, although it wholly fails to knock the Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum in any way. It also offered a comment of hope that Shadid would become a council member who will be of the mindset, "city first," which he doubtless is. I'm giving the <i>Oklahoman</i> the benefit of the doubt in my score on this one.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b></li><br /><li><a name="6.25.2011"></a><b>June 25, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_6_25_fiercely_independent.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Fiercely independent</b><br /> Ed Shadid, one of two new members of the Oklahoma City Council, is firming up his reputation as a relentless challenger to the status quo. This isn't out of line with his campaign promises when he came from behind to win a runoff for the Ward 2 seat. * * * Shadid is an intelligent, caring candidate who embraces social media. Still, a reputation as a naysayer (or an "aginner" in Oklahoma parlance) didn't serve Brian Walters well. The Ward 5 incumbent was ousted by voters in favor of the other new member of the council, David Greenwell.</blockquote>This editorial is harder to score. It says that he is "an intelligent caring candidate", which is a positive, but also labels him as a "naysayer" or an "aginner" ... and notes that such an approach didn't serve Brian Walters well, he being defeated in the 2011 elections. This item could be scored as modestly positive, or neutral, or slightly negative since the nuance seems to be that Shadid, like Walters, did not get re-elected in his own 2011 council race ... hence a shot across the bow. In balance, I thought the editorial to be slightly negative in its tone as offering a warning shot, but not greatly negative. It was more along the lines of saying, "We are watching you."<br /><b>My score: — 3</b></li><br /><li><a name="7.7.2011"></a><b>July 7, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_7_7_debategood.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>MAPS 3 timeline debate healthy for city, projects</b><br /> Disagreement over the MAPS 3 timeline could be seen as class warfare, or project-to-project combat. We choose to view it as healthy debate among council members, all of whom want the best for this city. ¶ The council members who voted against the timeline approved Tuesday made legitimate points about the people's priorities. The council's job was to sort out the various priorities; the majority made a choice to speed up construction of the crown jewel of MAPS 3, the convention center.<br /> MAPS 3 detractors — those who never liked the initiative and actively opposed it — will say the timeline pits downtown moneyed interests against average folks. They will say the vote should have been delayed to allow the presence of Councilman Ed Shadid, who likely would have voted against it but who was held up in transit when returning from a vacation. Yet Councilwoman Meg Salyer, who likely would have voted for the timeline, was also absent.<br />* * *<br /> When voters passed MAPS 3 in 2009, they weren't voting on a timeline. They were voting on specific projects with specific dollar amounts attached. Committees were established and consultants were hired to do the heavy lifting. The council was asked to endorse the recommendations made so far. It did so Tuesday. We applaud the decision.<br /> MAPS 3 was structured in such a way as to attract voters with diverse interests. Many residents don't often go downtown, but they liked the trails included in the package. Others were attracted by the streetcar system, which (along with the convention center) wasn't among the most popular projects.</blockquote>The implication may be that Shadid was "one who never liked the initiative and actively opposed it" — no other council member could possibly have been alluded to in that reference, even though Shadid was acknowledged by the <i>Oklahoman</i> in its April 1, 2011, editorial to have backed MAPS 3 and about which Shadid said as much during the city council campaign. The <i>Oklahoman</i> is clearly playing fast and loose with its words here. <br /><br />The editorial also said, "They will say the vote should have been delayed to allow the presence of Councilman Ed Shadid, who likely would have voted against it but who was held up in transit when returning from a vacation." The editorial does not mention that, prior to the vote, Shadid had communicated with Councilman Pete white and City Manager Jim Couch that his airline vacation flights had gone gotten off-track but that he would, nonetheless and if need be, engage at his own expense travel extraordinary arrangements which would get him to Oklahoma City by the time of the council meeting in question. The editorial does not reflect that Shadid had expressed that information to council member Pete White and City Manager Jim Couch and that he had been assured that a continuance would be granted, and, ala Councilwoman Meg Salyer's May 31 comments at <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/07/okc-city-council-civility-is-it-lost.html" target="_blank">an earlier council meeting</a>, that all a council member needed to do was to request a continuance and it would be granted. <br /><br />With that background and despite and after such assurances, the vote on the timeline was NOT continued and Shadid was not present to vote on July 5, 2011, though he would otherwise have been. Had he been present, the vote would have been different since City Council procedures do not allow votes by proxy (i.e., Salyer's hearsay remark to the mayor that she would have voted otherwise).<br /><br />The <i>Oklahoman's</i> failure to set the context of Shadid's absence when the July 5, 2011, vote was taken on the MAPS 3 timeline gets a negative score from me. It also presents an instance of incomplete and misleading information being contained in the <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorial. Shadid's presence, which he said that he would have occurred but for the assurances he'd been given, would have caused a different outcome in the vote. Later <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials would accuse him of "whining" about this but you can judge for yourself if that was actually the case.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="7.8.2011"></a><b>July 8,2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_7_8_respect_moveon.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in full:<br /><blockquote><b>Mend, bend: Bloc merits respect, now must move on</b><br /> Fence mending is in order at City Hall before construction fences go up for a new convention center. ¶ Approval of the MAPS 3 timeline by the Oklahoma City Council this week generated as much news about who wasn't at the meeting as who was. Mayor Mick Cornett and three councilmen approved the timeline. Three council members voted against it. ¶ Who wasn't at the meeting were two other members whose votes would have canceled each other out. So why is anti-timeline Councilman Shadid so upset about missing the vote?<br /> It was scheduled for July 5. Shadid took a vacation and couldn't get back in time. His ire over not getting the vote delayed was in full flower upon his return. ¶ Still, this isn't a case of a lone dissenter throwing a fit. Shadid's reaction was over-wrought, but he and three other members who voted against the timeline form a bloc that will be crucial in finishing MAPS 3. Their views should be heard and considered at every step. This puts the onus on Cornett and City Manager Jim Couch to mend fences. It also puts the onus on the anti-timeline bloc to move on.<br /> We like how the council majority voted. Shadid and the other three don't. Fair enough. The last thing Oklahoma City needs is the kind of infighting that routinely goes on at Tulsa's city hall. ¶ Voters here have come to expect better behavior from the council. Members who don't know this could find out at the next election.</blockquote>Truth is, I'm giving the <i>Oklahoman</i> the benefit of the doubt on this one since it attributed to him and used inflammatory language <i>which Shadid did NOT make</i> following the July 5 vote. The editorial said,<br /><blockquote> So why is anti-timeline Councilman Shadid so upset about missing the vote?<br /> It was scheduled for July 5. Shadid took a vacation and couldn't get back in time. His ire over not getting the vote delayed was in full flower upon his return.</blockquote>We've already gone over the circumstances of why he was not present on July 5. But the July 8 attribution to Shadid as making some sort of poor-pitiful-me language after his return is a <b>complete fabrication</b> by the <i>Oklahoman</i> and has no basis in fact. That said, since the editorial did say that both "sides" would need to work together and mend fences, I decided to give the <i>Oklahoman</i> a pass. Were I to remake the chart, a negative score would have been given to the <i>Oklahoman</i> for its false and inflammatory language, but I'll let it pass.<br /><b>My score: 0</b></li><br /><li><a name="7.28.2011"></a><b>July 28, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_7_28_cantletgo.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Councilman can't let convention center go</b><br />  Ed Shadid invites comparisons to Ralph Nader for his tenacious vigilance concerning suspected impropriety. Perhaps a better comparison for the Oklahoma City councilman is Don Quixote: Shadid's quest to reveal impropriety in the matter of the MAPS 3 convention center is relentless. ¶ He bought a two-page newspaper ad to argue that the convention center was the least popular MAPS 3 project. And to raise his lance against downtown business interests over the MAPS construction timetable. And to hint that the chosen site might benefit certain people financially.<br />  The ad contains about 2,500 words. By comparison, the Gettysburg Address is around 250 words and the Declaration of Independence is roughly 1,300. But word count isn't the only issue. It's the actual words he used. ¶ They show that the councilman still hasn't gotten over the decisions his colleagues made on July 5, when Shadid was absent. Unlike Mayor Mick Cornett, who also didn't favor the chosen convention center site, Shadid has trouble letting go. He still questions the motives of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and Devon Energy Corp., whose investment in downtown is unprecedented. ¶ What's making Shadid raise his lance? He wonders if MAPS3 would have passed had citizens been "fully informed" about the convention center's details. Perhaps a 2,500-word ballot section could have accomplished that goal, but Shadid might then question the color of the ink and who got the printing contract.<br />* * *<br />  When it comes to the convention center, instead of 2,500 words for the Man of Ward 2, we have just three: ¶ Move on, councilman.</blockquote>Oh my god. The <i>Oklahoman</i> has the audacity to fault Shadid when its own <i>tour de force</i> and <i>modus operandi</i> is to state bogus information in its own editorials, even if it does so with the fewest words? What a laugh. If there is a <i>sine a qua non</i> master at stating half or less than half fact premises, that title belongs to the <i>Oklahoman</i> in its editorials. Incidentally, the portions of the editorials (not the quasi articles) quoted in this article (i.e., less than the complete content) have a word count of 2,420. Throw the excluded part in and the total is well above 2,500. For what it's worth.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="8.3.2011"></a><b>August 3, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_8_3_deferralmeasureshotdown.jpg" target="_blank">This quasi article </a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Deferral measure shot down in split vote</b><br />By Michael Kimball<br /> A measure that would allow for an Oklahoma City Council member to automatically defer a vote in many circumstances was defeated in Tuesday in a 5-4 vote.<br />* * *<br /> The ordinance defeated would have allowed any council member to defer a vote the first time it appears on a docket unless a two-thirds majority voted to suspend the privilege.<br />* * *<br /> Shadid criticized The Oklahoman in comments made near the end of Tuesday's meeting. He accused the newspaper of avoiding coverage of controversial issues related to MAPS 3, and The Oklahoman's executives of refusing to allow fair and comprehensive stories about MAPS 3 and an Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. substation near downtown that could be moved. ¶ Almost 440 stories and editorials related to MAPS 3 have appeared in The Oklahoman since February 2003, including nearly 430 since April 2007, when it was first proposed. ¶ The Oklahoman has printed at least eight stories in the past two years on the substation.</blockquote>I call this a quasi article because it is plainly a piece written by the <i>Oklahoman</i> in its own defense. Therein, Bolton states, as fact,<br /><blockquote>He [Shadid] accused the newspaper of avoiding coverage of controversial issues related to MAPS 3, and The Oklahoman's executives of refusing to allow fair and comprehensive stories about MAPS 3 and an Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. substation near downtown that could be moved. ¶ Almost 440 stories and editorials related to MAPS 3 have appeared in The Oklahoman since February 2003, including nearly 430 since April 2007, when it was first proposed. ¶ <b>The Oklahoman has printed at least eight stories in the past two years on the substation.</b></blockquote>I decided to look for myself for those 8 stories on the substation written two years before Bolton's article ... I didn't go back as far as 2003 since that would be way beyond the pale of any realistic discussion of MAPS 3 since that initiative didn't get formally hatched until August 2009. But, since earnest discussion about it did begin in spring 2009, my searches were between January 1, 2009, through December 12, 2009, which is to say, from several months before the MAPS 3 initiative was announced and extending through about a week after the MAPS 3 vote.<br /><br />Before getting to the results of that research, the fact is, during the MAPS 3 campaign, the ownership and/or management of the <i>Oklahoman</i>DID tell its reporters to lay off certain stories and it DID on at least one occasion that I'm personally aware of <i>actually change the content</i> of a reporter's article without conferring with the reporter before publishing the reporter's article. Bolton's article never denies that the same occurred, not even by implication.<br /><br />As I said, my search of the <i>Oklahoman's</i> archives was from January 1, 2009, through December 12, 2009. Searching for the words "substation," "downtown substation," "OGE" and OG&E," here are the number of "finds" with regard to anything remotely having to do with MAPS 3:<br /><br /><ul><li>"substation" -- 0</li><li>"downtown substation" -- 0</li><li>"OGE" -- 0</li></li><li>"OG&E" -- 0</li></ul><br />Ok. What about "central park" articles mentioning any of the above? I checked that phrase, and, to be more than fair to the <i>Oklahoman</i>, my search included both Core To Shore and MAPS 3 when doing this search.<br /><br /><ul><li>Articles or editorials mentioning "central park" -- 11</li><li>Within the same, those mentioning the OGE substation -- 0</li></ul><br />Bolton's August 3, 2011, article said that, "The Oklahoman has printed at least eight stories in the past two years on the substation." Two years prior to August 3, 2011, would be August 3, 2009. So, I did another search between August 3, 2009, and August 2, 2011, for substation articles, expecting to find at least 8. Depending on how Bolton was counting, there were 7 or 8 — none in 2009; 1 or 2 in 2010 (July 3 and December 15, the latter mentioning the substation in passing when mentioning the area as one of several possible locations for the transit intermodal hub — calling this "a story on the substation is a bit of a stretch); 6 in 2011 (February 6, April 14, April 20, an editorial on April 21, May 11, and an editorial on May 12). To reach the number of 8 stories, 2 editorials must be counted and, as well, the December 15, 2010, article which mentioned the substation in passing.<br /><br />Interestingly, the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_4_21_substationeditorial.jpg" target="_blank">April 21, 2011, editorial</a> said, in part:<br /><br /><blockquote>* * * The substation money was never discussed publicly by the council, according to its records, and it wasn't included in mailings to voters during the MAPS 3 campaign.</blockquote>Ok. Though not mentioned in Bolton's article, Shadid also criticized the handling of the convention center element of MAPS 3 as not being complete, i.e., for the convention center to work, another building, a convention center hotel, will either need to be built or heavily subsidized by Oklahoma City taxpayers.<br /><br />It is known that the study undertaken at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce noted the inclusion of a convention center hotel for the commercial success of the project and that it would likely require some measure of public (that's you and me) subsidy and/or financing. The Chamber declined to make that study publicly known, although council members were allowed to review it. Chamber officials knew, too, including the Chamber's then chairman, David Thompson, who was also the campaign leader for MAPS 3, and, who not uncoincidentally just happened to be President of the Oklahoma Publishing Company. See <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/09/maps-iii-actual-proposal.html#resources" target="_blank">this discussion</a> about that.<br /><br />So how many <i>Oklahoman</i> articles and/or editorials mentioned "MAPS 3" and "convention center" and "hotel" in the same piece?<br /><br /><ul><li>Articles mentioning Maps 3 and Convention convention center: 12</li><li>Within such articles, also mentioning the word "hotel": 2</li></ul><br />But, hey, that's progress right? At least, there was two "finds." Taking a look at the 1st "find" doesn't help the <i>Oklahoman's</i> cause, though. The relevant part of a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2009_5_14_conventionhotel.jpg" target="_blank">May 14, 2009, article</a>, reads thusly:<br /><blockquote><b>Highlights of the Mayor's Development Roundtable</b><br /> Mayor Mick Cornett said if a convention center is not included in a MAPS 3 initiative, a new one won't be built. A panel of experts warned Oklahoma City cannot maintain current events and conferences with the Cox Convention Center <b>and added that the city must also try to <i><u>attract</u></i> a new convention hotel</b> to be a part of any new development.</blockquote>The emphasis is supplied by me. Of course, this was before MAPS 3 was formally put together in its final form. Is there <i>any implication</i> therein that the citizens might have to foot all or part of the bill to fund such a hotel? To me, the opposite implication is present ... "try <b>to attract</b> a new convention hotel," it says. Reach your own conclusions, just as I have.<br /><br />The 2nd "find" was a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2009_7_3_canal_convention.jpg" target="_blank">July 3, 2009, article</a> but the article presents a totally different context (extension of the Bricktown Canal)and isn't really relevant to the context being discussed here. Buried on the 2nd page of that article, the text reads, <br /><blockquote>* * * 'I like the idea,' Norick said. ¶'The big trick is getting it [the canal] past the railroad tracks. There is a place where they can do that. It's a decision of the council. But I think we should do it [extend the canal], especially if the convention center will be relocated should of the Ford Center <u>with a new hotel</u>.</blockquote>So, it's hard to say that this is one of those many articles alluded to in Michael Kimball's August 3, 2011, article.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="10.29.2011"></a><b>October 29, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_10_29_keepingcitizensinformed.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Keeping city citizens informed</b><br />* * *<br />[speaking at to the county commissioners' action without notice when adopting anti-discrimination procedures similar to Shadid's resolution]<br /> Perhaps through inadvertence rather than design, the change wasn't given adequate public disclosure. The same can't be said for Councilman Ed Shadid's proposal. It got a hearing Tuesday, although a final vote was deferred until Nov. 15. This should give citizens time to express their views on the matter. Again, this is how it should be. ¶ The county's decision, once it became known, did draw opposition. Shadid's idea will also draw fire, but this time the citizens will know the vote is coming.</blockquote>Although the editorial doesn't give Shadid any praise, in balance it has a positive tone to it.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b></li><br /><li><a name="11.19.2011"></a><b>November 19, 2011:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2011_11_19_stoopinglow.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in full:<br /><blockquote><b>Stooping low</b><br /> The Oklahoma City Council agreed this week to add sexual orientation to the city's employment discrimination policy. Members voted after hearing from many of the residents who packed council chambers. Some of the comments were absurd. A local minister cited a New York judge who supposedly said says commit half the murders in large cities. For that and other remarks he got a standing ovation. Then there was Councilman Ed Shadid, who sponsored the proposal. Shadid compared job discrimination against gays to Adolph Hitler's targeting of some groups in Nazi Germany. That was way over the top. We expect better from a person of Shadid's intellect.</blockquote>Although the <i>Oklahoman</i> had an opportunity to compliment Shadid on passage of the anti-dicrimination resolution, it instead chose to be directly critical. I will concede that Shadid's allusion to Hitler and Nazi Germany may have been politically incorrect in this part of the country (have we already forgotten that said that homosexuals are a greater threat to this country than are Islamic extremists, according to Representative Sally Kern), personally, it's hard for me to see that his remarks were "over the top."<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="1.11.2012"></a><b>January 11, 2012:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_1_11_emsa.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a> reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>EMSA dance: Records request a waste of time</b><br /> After an Emergency Medical Services Authority paramedic with a DUI on his record was involved in a fatal traffic accident on the job, a media request [from the Tulsa World] was made for information regarding all the agency's paramedics and EMTs. It proved to be a waste of time. ¶ EMSA provided first and last names, the dates the workers were hired, and their medical license numbers. Left wanting were full names, dates of birth, disciplinary actions and other identifying information the Tulsa World had requested. <br />* * *<br /> An attorney for EMSA says a state Supreme Court ruling last year gives the agency cover. The court said state agencies can opt not to provide records if they believe their employees' rights to privacy outweighs the public's right to know. * * *<br />* * *<br /> Oklahoma City Council member Ed Shadid, an EMSA trustee, shouldn't be the only official irked by this episode. Dancing around open records laws is no way to engender public confidence.</blockquote>Since the <i>Oklahoman</i> and Ed Shadid seem to be on pretty much the same page when it comes to EMSA, it wasn't critical of him but was inferentially positive although that may be stretching a bit. I'm giving the <i>Oklahoman</i> the benefit of the doubt on this one.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b></li><br /><li><a name="4.10.2012"></a><b>April 10, 2012:</b> Generally, the editorial was hard on EMSA's director of Emergency Medical Services Authority, Steve Williamson. Shadid is a trustee of the EMSA board. In part, <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_4_10_emsaquestions.jpg" target="_blank">the editorial</a> reads:<br /><blockquote><b>EMSA quesions merit answers from top official</b><br /> Shadid, a member of the Oklahoma City Council, has been pushing for more answers from Williamson. Last year he questioned annual spending on travel, meals and lodging that exceeded $100,000. In January he criticized EMSA's bare-bones cooperation with a media request for records on employees after a paramedic who had a DUI on his records was involved in a fatal traffic accident while on the job. ¶ Now Shadid says an investigative audit is needed. * * *<br />* * *<br /> If Williamson isn't inclined to provide answers, perhaps Shadid should press for a change at the top.</blockquote>Still the <i>Oklahoman</i> gave Shadid no direct praise for his EMSA efforts but it impliedly supported his actions.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b></li><br /><li><a name="5.1.2012"></a><b>May 1,2012:</b> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_5_1_emsa_answerscoming.jpg" target="_blank">This editorial</a>, another on EMSA, reads, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Trust Issue: Concerns prompt close look at EMSA</b><br /> The Emergency Medical Services Authority provides ambulance service for Tulsa, Oklahoma City and their surrounding communities. Has EMSA also been taking taxpayers for [a] ride with the way it conducts its business? ¶ An audit of EMSA should answer that question. It's one that needs to be answered, following investigations by the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman that revealed questionable spending and management by the agency. * * *<br />* * *<br /> In mid-April, the Tulsa City Council ordered a management audit of EMSA by Tulsa city staff. Oklahoma City's council opted not to do that, preferring the EMSA trust make that decision. The trust last week voted to form a committee to determine the scope of the potential audit.<br />* * *<br /> One committee member, EMSA trustee and Oklahoma City Council member Ed Shadid, would prefer a wide scope. Shadid, a medical doctor who has been critical of EMSA, says a thorough scrubbing is needed to "restore maximum credibility with the public." That sentiment was echoed by Tulsa-area lawmakers last week and by state Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones. "Citizens have a right to have their questions answered," Jones said. ¶ Those citizens should be pleased to know those answers are coming.</blockquote>Once again, generally but not directly supportive of Shadid, the <i>Oklahoman</i> could have taken the opportunity to give Shadid an "attaboy" but did not.<br /><b>My score: + 5</b><br /><br /><a name="chapped"></a><center><b><font color="darkred" size="4">The Consortium of Things<br />That Really Chapped Me Off<br />And Prompted Me To Write This Article</font></b></center><br />As I said at the outset, I've tried to get back to history "back in the day" and avoid politics for the past several months. But, dang it, after a period of about seven months, the <i>Oklahoman</i> could just not persist in changing its ways. <br /><br />On September 15, 2011, it was announced that the <i>Oklahoman</i> and all OPUBCO assets were being sold to conservative Denver businessman Philip Anschutz and his Anschutz Corporation, and that sale closed in October 2011. A few months after that, it became apparent that the reins placed on <i>Oklahoman</i> reporters during the MAPS 3 campaign were loosened and that reporters were given greater liberty in sniffing out news stories and reporting on them, and that's all to the credit of the new ownership. On <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_6_30_management.jpg" target="_blank">June 30, 2012</a>, the <i>Oklahoman's</i> heirarcy consisted of the following: Gary Pierson, president and CEO; Christopher P. Reen, president and publisher of the <i>Oklahoman</i>; Kelly Dyer Fry, Editor and vice president of news; Christy Gaylord Everest, member at large; J.E. McReynolds, opinion editor; Owen Canfield III, chief editorial writer; and Ray Carter, editorial writer.</li><br /><li><a name="6.30.2012"></a><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/anthonyshadid.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /><b>June 30, 2012:</b> This is the worst editorial yet. As will shortly be observed, this editorial was critical of Shadid for a speech he made on June 23 before the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee's convention in Washington, D.C. in which Ed Shadid named the <i>New York Times</i> as being responsible for the death of his cousin Anthony, shown at right, while on assignment against his will in Syria on February 16, 2012.<br /><br />Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Shadid died in Syria while apparently experiencing an asthma attack. At the ADC convention, Ed Shadid said that before his cousin entered Syria on that assignment, he conversed with his wife, Nada Bakri, and said:<br /><blockquote> Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times reporter who died in Syria this year, had heated arguments with his editors just prior to his final trip into the country, a cousin of Shadid's says, and told his wife that were he to die the New York Times would be to blame.<br /> "The phone call the night before he left [Turkey for Syria], there was screaming and slamming on the phone in discussions with editors," Ed Shadid, a cousin to the late reporter, said last night at the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee's convention in Washington, D.C.<br /> "It was at this time that he called his wife and gave his last haunting directive that if anything happens to me I want the world to know the New York Times killed me," Ed Shadid said.</blockquote>See <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/shadid-said-to-have-blamed-death-on-nyt-127119.html" target="_blank">Politico.com</a> for more about this as well as a video of Ed Shadid's June 23 remarks which video is also available <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEAjbKCSnHw" target="_blank">at YouTube, here</a>. Also, see <a href="http://gawker.com/5921090/" target="_blank">this Gawker.com</a> article by John Cook. Clearly an important news story, reports appeared in newspapers around the country, including <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_6_26_ADC_convention.jpg" target="_blank">this article in the <i>Oklahoman</i></a> on June 26 (and I find no fault with that).<br /><br />It was the <i>Oklahoman's</i> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_6_30_anthonyshadid.jpg" target="_blank">June 30 editorial</a> that was way out of line. The full editorial is shown below:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_6_30_anthonyshadid.jpg"></center><br />Wow. Amazing. No longer is the <i>Oklahoman</i> content to be merely critical of Shadid for his statements in and/or positions at the Oklahoma City Council, it now presumes to lecture him on what he should and should not say in matters which solely pertain to his personal life.<br /><br />From what source has the <i>Oklahoman</i> acquired the status to lecture Ed Shadid about what he should or should not say when it relates to the death of his cousin in Syria? Does it stem from Christy Gaylord Everett, remnant member from the Gaylord family in the <i>Oklahoman's</i> leadership (and recalling that Shadid made what might be considered a negative reference to "Gaillardia" when saying that he disfavored the new Northwest Express route which has its terminal point at MacArthur & Meridian near Gaillardia? Is it from the new ownership? Or is it from those further down on the chain like McReynolds, Canfield, or Carter ... or from some other higher power? The <i>Oklahoman's</i> meddling into Shadid's personal affairs is deserving of the strongest possible condemnation.<br /><b>My score: — 20</b></li><br /><li><a name="7.2.2012"></a><b>July 2, 2012:</b> In <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_7_2_zoofunding.jpg" target="_blank">this quasi article</a> written by Michael Kimball, the same writer who provided the <i>Oklahoman</i> its defense on <a href="#8.3.2011">August 3, 2011</a>, above, Kimball writes, in part:<br /><blockquote><b>Oklahoma City councilman questions zoo funding</b><br />By Michael Kimball<br /> At least one Oklahoma City councilman thinks it's time to study whether sales tax money currently routed to the zoo should instead go to public safety or street requirements. ¶ Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid brought up the zoo's funding in June during a discussion of what to do with a projected surplus of $1.5 million in the new fiscal year, which began Sunday. The council, which still has not made a decision, debated using the money to hire new police officers, fix more streets or add Sunday bus service, among other options. ¶ Shadid noted the city was trying to decide what core service should get the surplus, but that the eighth-cent sales tax dedicated to the zoo for the last two-plus decades was rendered untouchable, like all dedicated funding sources, without a change to city code. The sales tax is expected to bring the zoo about $12.4 million this year.<br /> "In my mind over the next year, it's time to look at the one-eighth sales tax (for) the zoo," Shadid said. "Then we could debate how much this year of excess funds we want to give to the zoo instead of ... our core business, which is public safety." ¶ Shadid did not respond to multiple requests last week to elaborate on his comments.<br />* * *<br /> Shadid contends it's worth studying whether the zoo can make do without so much help from the city. ¶ "That's the one entity that could consistently, and does, get private donations," Shadid said. "You're not going to get private donations for police officers."<br />* * *<br /> [Dana] McCrory said any abrupt and major funding shift would be disastrous for the zoo. She pointed out the campaign to raise $4.5 million in private donations for the veterinary hospital alone will take three years.</blockquote>I'm going to combine my response to the above with the following the <i>Oklahoman</i> editorial, below, which Kimball's article relates to.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li><br /><li><a name="7.3.2012"></a><b>July 3, 2012:</b> One day after Kimball's article, an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_7_3_zoogaffe.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i> editorial</a> threw in its thoughts on the zoo matter, shown in part below.<br /><blockquote><b>Giraffe gaffe: Zoo tax redirection hindrance to fitness</b><br /> We thought Oklahoma City Councilman Ed Shadid wanted folks to get fit by walking in the great outdoors. We assume he does want this, but his carping about the dedicated sales tax for the zoo makes us wonder.<br />* * *<br /> * * *The Ward 2 council member has a reputation for going against the grain. We didn't know he wanted to go against the giraffes as well. ¶ Shadid's anti-zoo tax remarks were made at a council meeting, but he failed to respond to multiple requests from The Oklahoman to elaborate.<br /> * * * The zoo tax works. Let's leave it alone.</blockquote>Consider the editorial's chose of words ... "... carping about the dedicated sales tax for the zoo makes us wonder," and,"The Ward 2 council member has a reputation for going against the grain. We didn't know he wanted to go against the giraffes as well," and other remarks which characterized Shadid as being "anti-zoo." I'll expand my remarks, below, when talking about "The Scut Farcus Affair," below.<br /><b>My score: — 10</b></li></ol><center><B><font size="3">The Scut Farcus Affair</font></b></center><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/scutfarcus.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />I've named this section "The Scut Farcus Affair" because Scut was a bully, and the <i>Oklahoman</i> is, too. Bullies seize on every opponent shortcoming or weakness and then beat them over the head with it. That is what happened here, in my opinion. <br /><br />The last pair of the pieces, one quasi article and one editorial, critique Shadid's remarks at the June 19 city council meeting. Listen to what he said and judge for yourselves ... and recall that at the outset of this article I said that <i>Oklahoman</i> employs fear tactics and is a master in the use of innuendo. Ok. What did he actually say to again bring down the wrath of the <i>Oklahoman</i> after fairly smooth sailing during and after December 2011 until June 2012? Judge for yourself, below.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white"><b>June 19, 2012</b></font><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/prb7Wk0q_Hk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br />If you want to read a transcript of all of Shadid's remarks, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/citycouncil/shadid_transcript.pdf" target="_blank">click here to open the PDF transcript</a> I've put together. (Originally, I'd set out the transcript here, but I decided it took up too much space and was rather beside the point, anyway).<br /><br />As fond and proud as I am about our fine zoo, I wouldn't be doing this blog piece if it was simply about the zoo. <b>And, dare I say, Shadid's remarks about the zoo weren't all that important to the <i>Oklahoman</i>, either.</b><br /><br />"Why do you say that," you ask, and that's a fair question. For the answer, consider the sequence following sequence of events:<br /><ol><li><b>A Long Period of Calm.</b> From November 20, 2011, through June 29, 2012 — that's a period of 7 months and 9 days, 222 days altogether — the <i>Oklahoman</i> broke its earlier pattern of writing editorials (or quasi articles) critical of Shadid and had nothing negative to opine concerning his work on the City Council or otherwise. In fact, during that period, three editorials having to do with EMSA could inferentially be referencing Shadid in a positive light.</li><br /><li><b>Tuesday, June 19 City Council Meeting. </b>This is the meeting that Shadid made his remarks about the zoo (and many other topics related to city budget planning).</li><br /><li><b>Wednesday, June 20. </b>The <i>Oklahoman</i> in an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/2012_6_20_budgetissue.jpg" target="_blank">article by Michael Kimball</a> reported fairly extensively on the July 19 council meeting, including a few comments about what Shadid had said, including the zoo. <i>This article</i> was a news report and <i>was not</i> a quasi article (in my parlance, not a news report but effectively an editorial). Kimball reported, "Shadid pointed out the Oklahoma City Zoo and State Fair Park are examples of parts of city government with a dedicated funding source, leaving council members to debate which core services get extra money instead of more peripheral services."</li><br /><li><b>Saturday, June 23. </b>Shadid makes his speech before the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee's convention in Washington, D.C.</li><br /><li><b>Tuesday, June 26. </b>Michael Kimball reports on that speech in a "real" news article.</li><br /><li><b>Saturday, June 30. </b>The <i>Oklahoman</i> writes its editorial presuming to advise Shadid on what he should or shouldn't say about his cousin's death.</li><br /><li><b>Monday, July 2. </b>On the <i>Oklahoman's</i> front page and <u>thirteen (13) days after Shadid's remarks before the City Council on June 19</u>, Michael Kimball revisited selected parts of what Shadid said nearly two weeks after the fact. And he did so incompletely. And he did so inaccurately. <i>Suddenly (Last Summer), Kimball is dispatched <u>by someone</u> to do a story on zoo funding</i> (I am using the word "dispatched" advisedly — Kimball had already reported on the City Council discussion in his June 20 article — given that the <i>Oklahoman</i> came out with its July 3 editorial which is clearly anti-Shadid <i>the day after Kimball's article</i>, I'm saying that common sense, logic, and the <i>Oklahoman's</i> general anti-Shadid posture and history points directly to the conclusion that the back-to-back July 2 quasi article and the July 3 editorial were not coincidental. Kimball interviewed Dana McCrory, executive director of Zoo Friends, and Dwight Scott, zoo director. He also said, "Shadid did not respond to multiple requests last week to elaborate on his comments."<br /><br />Well, that's what Kimball said. In Ed Shadid's July 7 discussion of this matter <a href="http://edshadid.org/examining-okc-dedicated-zoo-and-fairgrounds-sales-tax/" target="_blank">at his website</a>, he said,<br /><blockquote>The front page story in the Oklahoman occurred two weeks after I made comments from council and ignored any mention of the fairgrounds. In the ensuing week there was no interest from the paper and a week later I had a conversation with the reporter about another story on Monday and he made no mention of it. Later editorialist Owen Canfield wrote two editorials critical of my comments regarding my deceased cousin (which I can no longer find on their website) in which I agreed in the comments section with a reader who felt my comments were taken out of context; which drew another editorial. At a time of numerous media requests regarding my cousin, I then received a text asking to "talk about the zoo in the next day or two" on Wednesday (without mentioning a story was being written) and then a voicemail on Friday indicating that a story was going to be filed in a couple of hours.</blockquote>Kimball said that "multiple attempts" were made to contact Shadid about the Zoo matter. Shadid obviously disputes the veracity of that remark.<br /><br /><i>Who/what is one to believe?</i> I know my personal answer to that question. You have the ability and are free to figure out your own. Neither you, good reader, nor I are not requried to wear the <i>Oklahoman's</i> blinders when thinking for ourselves.</li></ol><a name="conclusion"></a><b>My Conclusion. </b>If you've not already figured it out, I'm for the right of every citizen to form their own conclusion(s). I've given several of mine, above. Maybe I've got something wrong and that will be nothing new. But maybe I've "nailed it," which might be something unusual. Think and unravel these threads for yourselves, and feel free to critique my research processes any way you care to do.<br /><br />When looking at the <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorials, though, it might be wise to recall not only that they can and have been over time mean-spirited, sometimes rooted in fear tactics, and incomplete and misleading information. The <i>Oklahoman's</i> editorials and "quasi articles" blow with the wind most favoring the <i>Oklahoman's</i> ownership/management perspectives. As an example, today, most of us think of the <i>Oklahoman</i> as being rather conservative and favoring the wealthiest members of our community. <br /><br />That was not always the case. Consider the piece below, to show the <i>Oklahoman's</i> mirror image — from its inception until sometime in the latter part of the 1900s, the <i>Oklahoman</i> represented "labor" as opposed to corporations and was a representative voice against the wealthiest members of our city. <br /><br />Do you doubt Doug Dawg? If you don't, you should ... you should challenge, think, and evaluate <I>FOR YOURSELVES</i> and it's not only fair to do that, it is what you <I>OUGHT TO DO</I> as concerned citizens. Do that and report back on your findings, if you will.<br /><br />Anecdotally, in evaluating <i>Oklahoman</i> editorials, it is also interesting to recall that the <i>Oklahoman</i> was not always the big-business-protector which we see it as being today. Way way "back in the day," and I'm talking early-to-mid 1910s, the <i>Oklahoman</i> was a "labor" newspaper, favoring unions, democrats, and was anti-big business. In 1904, the <i>Oklahoman</i> had the following to say about capitalist Henry Overholser, he often being regarded as the "founder of Oklahoma City:"<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/1905_4_1_headlines_510.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/1905_4_1_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/Oklahoman/1905_4_1_article.jpg" target="_blank">Click Here For The Full Quasi Article About "Uncle Henry"</a></center><br />In its storied past, the <I>Oklahoman</i> has demonstrated a capacity to change ... it did that by stopping its blatant anti-black caricatures at some point in time ... it eventually came to have an abiding affinity for capitalists ... and, perhaps, today, it can just cut the crap when it comes to a member of our city's governing body, Ed Shadid.<br /><br />Will the <i>Oklahoman</i> do that? We all wait to see.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-59054782121897160452012-06-29T21:15:00.016-05:002012-07-01T21:53:26.733-05:00Marilyn Hudson, Bizarre History Genie<a name="top"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson1.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson1_250.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>I am constantly reminded, one way or another, about how much I DON'T know about Oklahoma City history and what a relatively untapped and deep well that it truly is. <br /><br /><a name="BirdGee"></a>The thing which eventually led to my awareness of Marilyn Hudson was an unsolicited email on June 24, 2012, from Mr. Roland Miller, an African-American man living in Chicago. He inquired if I knew anything about his great-uncle, Bird Gee, who lived in Oklahoma City on or shortly after the April 22, 1889, Land Run, and who remained here until sometime in 1913, he said. I replied that I didn't but that I would ask around and look through the <i>Oklahoman's</i> archives.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_photo.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_photo_crop.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Bird Gee</b> was the name of the ancestor, a great-uncle of the gentleman from Chicago. I wasn't optimistic that I'd find anything about the black man with an unusual name — during the referenced period of time. As I have reported previously, the <i>Oklahoman</i> took a decidedly dim view of African Americans and rarely reported anything particularly good about them.<br /><br />To my complete surprise, I found a good bit of information about Bird Gee in the <i>Oklahoman's</i> on-line archives. Among other things, an October 2, 1907, article said that he was "understood to be the wealthiest negro in Oklahoma City." Articles reflected that he owned considerable amounts of land in the county, operated his real estate sales and rental business smack in the middle of downtown among the town's wealthiest white folk, and lived around NW 13th and McKinley, a white part of town.<br /><br />But, this post isn't really about Mr. Gee — later, a different article will be just about him. This post is about Marilyn Hudson and her work as a historian and story teller, even though I'm being circuitous and mysterious in getting to the point. <br /><br />The research disclosed that Mr. Gee was indirectly involved as a bail bondsman in a case associated with and related to the most notorious Oklahoma City murder trials — there were at least three and perhaps a fourth — since the Land Run, the alleged crime occurring right around Oklahoma's 1907 statehood, but I'll get back to that later in this article. Actually, it was Chicagoan Miller who put two and two together and identified Marilyn Hudson to me. Her blogsite is called, <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Mystorical — where history meets mystery</a>.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/mystorical1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/mystorical1_510.jpg"></img></a></center><br /><span class="fullpost"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson3.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson3_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>About Marilyn Hudson. </b>I'll get back to the sensational murder trials and Bird Gee in a moment. First, here's some information about Ms. Hudson. Here biography at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-A.-Hudson/e/B005FCDT9C" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a> reads:<br /><blockquote> Marilyn A. Hudson is currently an academic library administrator in Oklahoma. Prior to that, she served as public services librarian for the Metropolitan Library System, as a library media specialist for Norman Public Schools, and as an archives fellow.<br /> Her writing experiences include stints as a contributing editor and a local newspaper stringer. Her general research interests are in history, especially social, religious, and church history; women's studies; mythology, folklore and storytelling.<br /> Hudson was lead writer and editor of the book, <i>One Night Club and A Mule Barn: The First 60 Years of Southwestern Christian University</i> (Tate, 2006), edited a collection of her late mother's religious poetry, <i>In Her Own words</i> (Whorl Books 2010), and authored, <i>Those Pesky Verses of Paul: Examining Women in the New Testament</i> (Whorl Books 2005), <i>Elephant Hips are Expensive</i> (Whorl Books /Hudson House, 2005), and the chilling short fiction, <i>The Bones of Summer</i> (Whorl Books 2011), the true crime <i>When Death Rode the Rails</i> (Whorl Books, 2011), and co-authored <i>The Mound: A Novel</i> (Whorl Books, 2011).<br /> She received a B.A. in History and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Oklahoma.</blockquote>But that bio doesn't mention the book which hooked me onto her and her websites, <i>Tales of Hell's Half Acre: Murder, mayhem, and mysteries of early Oklahoma and Oklahoma City</i> (Whorl Books 2011).<br /><br />Below are book-cover images from some of her books listed for sale at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-A.-Hudson/e/B005FCDT9C/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5?qid=1341079554&sr=1-5" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a> (although she has written others).<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="1"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book7_2006_mulebarn.jpg"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book7_2006_mulebarn_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>One Night Club<br />& A Mule Barn</b></font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book1_2011_rails.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book1_2011_rails_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>When Death<br />Rode the Rails</b></font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book5_2010_velmaterry.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book5_2010_velmaterry_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>In Her<br />Own Words</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book6_2010_noelbrooks.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book6_2010_noelbrooks_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>Noel<br />Brooks</b></font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book4_2011_bones.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book4_2011_bones_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>The Bones<br />of Summer</b></font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book3_2011_themound.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book3_2011_themound_170.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white" size="1"><b>The<br />Mound</b></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" align="center" valign="top"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/marilyn_hudson/marilynhudson_book2_2011_hellshalfacre.jpg"><br /><font color="white" size="2"><b>Tales of Hell's Half Acre</b></font></td></tr></table><br />Of course, that last book is the one that hooked me on Marilyn's stuff, it being the book that my new Chicago friend located which describes the dime-novel and almost surreal circumstances surrounding the alleged murder of James Meadows. <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marilyn's blog</a> opened in 2007 and contains any number of fascinating historical topics, several focusing on parts of Oklahoma City history, e.g., <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/big-anns-place-recruiting-station-for.html" target="_blank">Big Ann's Place: Recruiting Station For Hell</a>; <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-sensation-before_27.html" target="_blank">The Meadows Murder: Sensation Before Statehood</a>; <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-crime.html" target="_blank">The Meadows Murder, The Crime</a>; <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-sensation-before.html" target="_blank">The Meadows Murder: Part 4</a>. Also, see <a href="http://marilynahudson.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marilyn's personal blog</a> and <a href="http://hudsonauthor.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">another of her blogs</a>.<br /><br />OK. Let's get back to the part about the notorious 1907 murder which began this post. I've not yet got my copy of the Ms. Hudson's book but am eagerly awaiting it in the mail. It appears that possibly four chapters of the book focus on the trial (unfortunately, the book's table of contents does not appear at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Hells-Half-Acre-mysteries/dp/1463547420" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a>).<br /><br />Marilyn's <i>Mystorical</i> blog kindly gives some excerpts from the book about the Meadows murder ... <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-sensation-before_27.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-crime.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a>, and <a href="http://mystorical.blogspot.com/2012/05/meadows-murder-sensation-before.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a>.<br /><br />Excerpts from Part 1 ...<br /><blockquote><b>THE MEADOWS MURDER OF 1907, part 1:</b><br /> It was little wonder the story remained a major headline event for over a decade. The tale had it all: a murder mystery with titillating intrigue, illicit lust, yellow journalism, city officials on criminal payrolls, a guilty till proven innocent public sentiment, clairvoyant mediums, shady peripheral characters, lying witnesses, plots and shenanigans, a grand standing defense attorney, a lovely and frail widow, a virile young villain, and lingering rumors of a man thought dead still being alive.<br /><br /><b>Lila Meadows, the Widow</b><br />* * *<br /> She was frequently ill, court testimony identified it is a morphine addiction, and then later she has dramatic appendicitis surgery in 1910. Good woman cruelly used, grieving widow, seducer of the young killer, it is hard to classify the woman but some clues lead to ideas about underlying truths. She is known to have been living in 1908 with Annie Wynne Bailey aka “Big Annie”, and one of Annie’s former courtesans Fannie Ritchie, at the notorious Arlington on West 2nd Street. About this time, Annie left for California after her first unsuccessful run-in with local law. Did Annie cut a deal? Was Lila a charity cause or one of Annie's own girls?<br /> Significantly, a few days before June 4, J.O. Green of the Sun Accident Insurance company calls to remind Mrs. Meadows of the due date of the life insurance premium on James was due June 1.<br /><br /><b>Mother Myers aka Rose Myers aka Ronie Myers, the Psychic</b><br /> The boarding house had provided some income but it had also brought Meadows' wife into contact with some questionable people. The so-called "Mother Myers", who convinced people she was a clairvoyant with powers to see things, had also swindled people so that she had to flee to avoid arrest or worse. There were others, women mostly, who may have had been giving his wife ideas that were not to her betterment and were detrimental to a happy home. Dorothy Keith was one such friend and confident. He urged them to leave the boarding house and he set out to find somewhere in Capitol Hill for them to live.<br /> Labeled a fortuneteller, medium, clairvoyant, and physic, Myers had been operating in Oklahoma City, in the boarding house, prior to the death of Meadows. It was suggested at one point she was the real mother of Lila and after some searching was finally located in Doxie near Elk City. One of Annie's connections?</blockquote>Excerpts From Part 2 ...<br /><blockquote><b>THE MEADOWS MURDER, THE CRIME</b><br />* * *<br /> The day after the body is found, the police begin proceeding to indict Mrs. Lila Meadows, Miss Dorothy Keith. Roy A. Baird and Edward Loughmiller identify the remains at the city morgue as James R. Meadows. As a photo in the local paper shows, the body was badly decomposed. Investigators, however, noted he had been shot in the back and the face. They could not find a matching hole in his shirt and this added to the aura of mystery that would ensue. Near the time of the funeral, Dorothy Keith claims the casket is empty and Meadows is not dead. In July of 1912, the witness of two physicians attending the body added to the debate. The body was badly decomposed, but the doctors were able to ascertain the man was a) in good health and b) had a full set of teeth. Some of Meadows closest friends, however, indicated he had been in very poor health and was missing a tooth. Further discussion of these points is missing in later accounts and no explanations are given for the disparities other than the extreme level of decomposition may have hindered findings.<br /> Two days after the body is found, the theory of the police was clear. Tegler was a naïve young man besotted and manipulated by a lovely older woman who used her sexual charms to her advantage. The man's belief in the supernatural powers of the medium Myers, and a sad story of an abusive husband, were used to develop a patsy (at the least) for the murder of her husband, and so soon had both Mrs. Meadows and Rudolph Tegler were facing indictments for murder.</blockquote>Excerpts from Part 4 ...<br /><blockquote><b>1908 VERDICT</b><br /> On February 13, Tegler was given a life sentence for the murder of James R. Meadows, with two jurors holding out for acquittal. Out on bail he planned to go to Rock Island, New Mexico for a visit with his step-father and uncle, George L. Tegler and his mother Hermina Tegeler before taking up residence "in the pen". His defense team (now J.W. Johnson and A.N. Munden) had charged that Meadows had been in Panama where he had been working for the telephone company and was returning to New Orleans on the 28 but had not so far been located. The attorneys then suggested he had drowned in the sinking recently of a White Star ship in the gulf. A third trial was set to start in December.<br /><br /><b>1910 VERDICT: Shenanigans</b><br /> In the courtroom of Judge Carney, the Defense lead council was Judge D.B. Welty and Morman Pruiett. The chief tactic was the claim that "Meadows lives." They brought in witnesses from Kansas, a Johnson from Kansas City and a Livingston from Atchison, stating the man was alive. Livingston had known James and Lila Meadows in El Reno and claimed they had been married there and lived in the town for a while. In 1909, he was the proprietor of the Robinson Hotel in El Paso, Texas and there, two years after the murder, he entertained both Lila and James Meadows. They were using the name Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hall and urged his silence. Tegler was set to go to New Mexico again to visit relatives, took a tour of Oklahoma City, visited with his sisters Mrs. J.D. Carpenter (Ft. Worth, TX), Mrs. John Hoppleman (OKC) and his attorneys Welty and Pruiett. His bond was paid by an assortment of local business and farming people. This may indicate there was some public belief that he may have been an innocent pawn in a larger game.<br /><br /><b>1910: ACCUSATIONS</b><br /> In September of 1910, defense accused the victim (Meadows) of having ruined the life of a young girl (Amelia Shamcok, had a child, and had tried to blackmail him (thus explaining the initial missing $200 from the telephone company). This affair and the blackmail was what were behind the disappearance of Meadows. The Judge and the defense attorney noted a morphine problem with Mrs. Lila Meadows (whom one called a "dope fiend"). The defense also charged other lovers for Lila as well. A prominent, but unnamed city official, was implicated in the placement of the young girl in the north Broadway rooming house of Meadows. Tegler, it was claimed, denied leading the police to the grave and that a Webb Jones was the first man there.<br /><br /><b>1911 VERDICT</b><br /> The jury found Tegler guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in the pen by the district court of Judge Brown of Mangum in February. On the way to a cell, he passed <b>Mike O'Brien</b> who had perjured himself years before and had been sentenced the previous month. [Emphasis supplied.] He had said under oath that he had seen Meadows alive after Teglers' arrest.</blockquote><i>Note the name, <b>Mike O'Brien</b>, in the last above paragraph.</i> Mike O'Brien aka M.C. McGraw was a key defense witness in the 2nd trial (September 27, 1910 - October 15, 1910) but that trial resulted in a hung jury and mistrial. He testified that he was a detective and had seen and spoken with a very much alive James Meadows in New Orleans in May and June, 1910. His testimony, and state challenges to his veracity and credibility, were sufficiently sensational as to be the subject of major <i>Oklahoman</i> articles on September 27, September 30, October 1, October 4, and October 5, 1910. O'Brien was subsequently charged with, convicted of, and sentenced to a term of 10 years in jail for perjury by reason of his 1910 testimony.<br /><br />That statement brings this article full circle to its point of beginning — closure is a good thing when it is there to be had.<br /><br />One of O'Brien's bondsmen on that perjury charge was <a href="#BirdGee">Bird Gee</a>, the great uncle of my Chicago e-mail friend, first mentioned at the outset of this article. Bird Gee had posted bond for O'Brien in an undertaking in the amount of $10,000. After O'Brien was convicted, O'Brien skipped the state and that led to bond forfeiture proceedings against Bird Gee in 1912. He, too, was charged with perjury — for falsely stating under oath his worth in his bond's undertaking. Interestingly, two of Bird Gee's bondsmen in the stages of those proceedings were Dr. W.H. Slaughter and Dr. John Threadgill. Dr. Slaughter was a black doctor and businessman who, among other ventures, owned and operated <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/maps/vintage_slaughter.htm" target="_blank">Slaughter's Hall/Building</a> which would come to be built around 1921 in Deep Deuce. Dr. Threadgill was a white doctor and businessman who, among other ventures, owned and operated the already built and then-upscale <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/03/downtown-hotels.html#Threadgill" target="_blank">Threadgill Hotel</a> (1903) at NW 2nd (R.S. Kerr today) and Broadway.<br /><br />Bird Gee and the <i>Oklahoman's</i> coverage of this fascinating tale, as well as the tale itself, will be further described in future articles, a quick peek at which is shown below.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="3"><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><br /><font color="white"><b>Sample <i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines — The Meadows Mystery</b></font><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1907_06_22_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1907_06_22_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines on June 22, 1907</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1907_06_25_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1907_06_25_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines on June 25, 1907</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_02_28_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_02_28_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines on February 28, 1908</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_07_29_headlines.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1908_07_29_headlines_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines on July 29, 1908</b></font><br /></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white"><b>As to O'Brien, he was sentenced for 10 years<br />in the state penitentiary for perjury</b></font><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1911_01_29_headlines_obrien.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/1911_01_29_headlines_obrien_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i> Headlines January 29, 1911</b></font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><font color="white"><b>As to Bird Gee, After O'Brien Skipped His Bond,<br />Bird Gee Was Acquitted of Perjury</b></font><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_acquitted_1912_05_18-19.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_acquitted_1912_05_18-19_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white"><b><i>Oklahoman</i>, May 18 and May 19, 1912</b></font></td></tr></table><br />In the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2008/08/1905-oklahoma-county-township-maps.html" target="_blank">1905 Township Maps</a>, Bird Gee was shown to own 160 acres of property in the southeastern part of the county:<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_townshipmaps.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/meadows_murder/birdgee_townshipmaps_510.jpg"></a></center><br />By 1912, that could easily have been different. Identified in an October 2, 1907, <i>Oklahoman</i> article as being "understood to be the wealthiest negro in Oklahoma City," after 1912, Bird Gee removed himself from Oklahoma City and moved to Houston. Possibly, his thought was that he had worn out his welcome as a successful black man in the midst of the dominant white culture in Oklahoma City. Certainly the <i>Oklahoman</i> in its many deprecating racial caricatures, slurs, and articles about blacks in Oklahoma City during this time provided him no warm welcome. Who can say for sure, except for one thing: these proceedings marked the end of his time as an Oklahoma City citizen.<br /><br />There is obviously so much more to say about several of the items/topics mentioned but I'll refrain from saying anything more about them here and will simply close this post by saying,<br /><blockquote><b><i>Thanks, Marilyn Hudson, for the contribution you have made, are making and will make, to the fascinating study of the history of our city and state! Hats off to you!</b></i></blockquote><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-75983264335172567732012-06-16T14:37:00.007-05:002012-06-16T23:17:58.393-05:00Father's Day 2012<a name="top"></a>Who says that Father's Day (tomorrow) is just a day to celebrate older guys like me (69 in 2 weeks) -- it's also a date for dads to celebrate their offspring, as well. So, I, Doug Dawg, am celebrating the privilege and honor of being the father of two great kids, a son and a daughter, each of which have given this old man great children-in-law and great grandchildren.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><iframe width="500" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6VlyrFI8GSc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br />Thanks to <a href="http://www.jibjab.com/" target="_blank">JibJab.com</a>, one of my favorite places, for these cool animations.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Yep. There are important things going on in Oklahoma City right now, not the least of which is the presently on-going NBA Championship series as it enters game 3 in Miami tomorrow.<br /><br />But I'm taking a breather in all and any such events and am just thinking about my kids. I've got two kids, David and Mary. David came to marry an exceptionally cool lady, Michele, and Mary earlier married an equally exceptional cool guy, Brian. So both my son and son-in-law have to have space here ...<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><iframe width="500" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zbNAeCs6MUQ" frameborder="0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br />Ahh ... that's my boy, a chip off the old block.<br /><br />But, then there's Brian, husband to my daughter Mary. Well, Brian is hands down a hunk. Better than that, look at him handle some guys in this JibJab video ...<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><iframe width="500" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tFzRPDvpwGE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br />Happy Father's Day, everyone and all.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-81525855807612720352012-05-30T12:54:00.010-05:002012-05-30T20:30:06.288-05:00Jim Kyle Memoirs, Part 4 — Learning Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma<a name="top"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/KoreanWar/26_jim_kyle_korea_11_1953.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/26_jim_kyle_korea_11_1953_175.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Editor's Introduction.</b> In the last installment of Jim Kyle's Memoirs, <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/08/oklahoma-citian-remembers-korean-war.html" target="_blank">"We Didn't Use Billy Clubs"</a>, he left us with images and stories a war which wasn't — the Korean Conflict, Police Action, or whatever other euphemism it was called by some. Shown here as a First Lieutenant in November 1953, I'm thinking that Jim just might be smiling because it was nearing his time to come home.<br /><br />In this memoir installment, Jim has a new story to tell, a story about which most of us are probably unfamiliar — the connection between those who wrote "The Hallelujah Trail," "Onionhead," "Hondo," and "Bend of the River" (to name a few), and Oklahoma ... more particularly, the University of Oklahoma. Jim tells about those who taught the authors, particularly Walter Stanley Campbell aka Stanley Vestal and his assistant William Foster Harris aka Foster-Harris. Additionally, Jim describes his experience with them at the University of Oklahoma and describes his own professional writings during his long career. <br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/samuel_johnson_circa1772_joshua_reynolds.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/samuel_johnson_circa1772_joshua_reynolds_175.jpg" style="float: left; margin: -10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>In this article, Jim takes as his title part of a famous quotation by the stuffy-looking Englishman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson" target="_blank">Samuel Johnson</a> (1709-1784) shown at left — I'll leave it to Jim to say why, below. Although Jim Kyle may or may not take issue Johnson's definition of a "blockhead" and whether he is one, you will certainly conclude just as I have that it just ain't so. Samuel Johnson, as skilled and wise a writer and critic as he may have been, knew nothing of the Internet.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahistory/UnlessHeBeABlockhead.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a PDF version of this file</a><br />Click a link below for other Jim Kyle's Memoirs<br /><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/06/memoirs-thoughts-of-oklahoman-reporter.html" target="_blank">Memoirs & Thoughts of a 1950s Oklahoma Reporter — Part 1 (Okc Newspapers)</a><br /><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/06/memoirs-thoughts-of-oklahoman-reporter_30.html" target="_blank">Memoirs & Thoughts of a 1950s Oklahoman Reporter — Part 2 <br />How 2 Men Ended The 50-Year Drought</a><br /><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/08/oklahoma-citian-remembers-korean-war.html" target="_blank">An Oklahoma Citian Remembers The Korean War — We Didn't Use Billy Clubs</a></center><br /><br /><table bgcolor="#FFEFD5" width="95%" cellpadding="8"><tr><td><center><b><font size="4">Unless He Be A Blockhead</font><br />By JIM KYLE</B></center><br />Few fellow Oklahomans are aware of it, but a massive fiction factory exists right in the middle of our state — and for more than 70 years has been turning out top-notch authors who have produced hundreds of best-selling books and movies. It's still doing so. <br /> You'll undoubtedly recognize some of the titles. Among the best-known movies are "The Hallelujah Trail," "Onionhead," "Hondo," and "Bend of the River."<br /> It began in 1938, when our very first Rhodes Scholar (who didn't get his first bachelor's degree during his lifetime) convinced The Powers That Be of the University of Oklahoma to let him establish courses in "professional writing." Walter Stanley Campbell had already become a professional writer himself; his books about native American life had made that clear. Published under the pen name Stanley Vestal, they recounted events from the Indian viewpoint.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/walterstanleycampbell_ohs.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/walterstanleycampbell_ohs_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> Many colleges and universities offered "creative writing" courses, but none of them provided much (or for that matter, any) guidance for anyone wanting to earn a living as an author. They concentrated on creativity, artistic value, and similarly literary subjects; Professor Campbell was teaching such a course himself, not at all happily.<br /> University officials agreed to offer a course to train writers in professional techniques, but initially wanted to establish a school magazine in which to publish their work. That wasn't what Professor Campbell had in mind. Not at all.<br /> His plan to teach a would-be writer how to approach the task in a professional manner required that his students test their wings in direct competition with established writers. This meant providing instruction in such mundane material as "how to submit a story to an editor" and more importantly the technique of analyzing potential markets for one's product.<br /> One of the first things taught, in the first course, was a quotation from Samuel Johnson: "No man, unless he be a blockhead, writes, except for money." That's not always true. Sometimes we write just because we have something to say, with no regard for getting paid. Like here, for example. That's okay — but it's NOT professional. So I'm a blockhead. So what?<br /> In the early days, the most accessible market for fiction was the pulp magazine. They barely exist today, but before and during WW2 they filled newsstands and provided the entertainment that we now seek from TV. Each specialized in some specific genre. There were westerns, detective stories, tales of flying derring-do, science fiction, horror — you name a subject, there was probably at least one pulp devoted to it. <br /> With so many of them being printed every month, the need for material was huge. They didn't pay much; the standard rate varied from half a cent to one cent per word, which meant that a writer would get only $25 to $50 for a 5,000-word story (the standard length). However in the late Thirties, that was very good pay. If a writer could sell one story every week, his family could be well fed.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/walterstanleycampbell_1950_soonermagazine.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/walterstanleycampbell_1950_soonermagazine_510.jpg"></a></center> Campbell's writings had been more scholarly than popular, so right at the beginning he brought William Foster Harris, one of the most prolific writers of westerns at the time with more than 800 short stories published by the pulps, into the program. Harris, who wrote as "Foster-Harris" and was known to his students simply as "Foster," was expert in the mechanics of plotting, and also a more than capable editor. The entire program became known as the Campbell-Harris Professional Writing Program.<br /> Once a student had completed the initial courses under Campbell, Harris took over to hone the skills of would-be fictioneers. His classes were one-on-one, in his office. He required the student to write one new 5,000-word short story each week, and Foster would then critique it. After the first week, the student would have several stories in the rewrite process together with each new one. When Foster deemed one to be ready, the student would submit it to the market of his choice — and if it sold, that brought a better mark from Foster.<br /> Actually, grades didn't matter much, because until the early 1950s, the courses did not lead to any sort of degree. They were not part of the official curriculum of the English Department, and had no direct connection to the School of Journalism either. This was by design on the part of Campbell; his position was that no editor cared about a diploma when evaluating a submission. It was either acceptable, and bought, or it was not, and was rejected. The intent of the program was to train professional writers, not scholars.<br /> Another difference became clear very early in the course. While "creative writers" worried endlessly about their writing styles, Campbell's admonition was blunt: "Don't worry about style. You can't change it any more than you can change the shape of your face. Just write." He also made it clear from the start that the program would not guarantee immediate success. The most he was willing to promise was that by providing the fundamental techniques and mindset, it would cut ten years off the time required to get there. In actual fact, many of his students reached the top levels more rapidly after completing the courses. Several did even before completing the program.<br /> The list of top-flight authors trained by Campbell and Harris — either in the residence courses, by correspondence, or in the annual on-campus short course (unfortunately discontinued several years ago) — is far too long to include here. It includes among others Louis L'Amour (one of the first), Mary Higgins Clark, Fred Grove, Tony Hillerman, Bill Gulick, William R. Scott, Ed Montgomery, Neal Barrett, and Bill Burchardt (editor of <i>Oklahoma Today</i> magazine for 19 years before his retirement in 1979). More contemporary standouts include Norman's Judith Henry Wall, Eve Sandstrom ("JoAnna Carol") from Lawton, and Jean Hagar.<br /> At least five winners of the Owen Wister Award presented annually for "Outstanding Contributions to the American West," including Harris himself in 1974, are associated with the program. Other winners of the award include John Wayne, John Ford, and Clint Eastwood.<br /> Relations between the Professional Writing Program and the rest of the English department were always somewhat strained because of the "no diploma required" philosophy, and when Harris was promoted in the early Fifties the tension became great. Dr. Fayette Copeland, dean of the Journalism school at the time, suggested transferring the program into the J-School, and that happened on June 1, 1951 — just in time for me to claim some of my hours there for my minor in English, and others toward my major in Journalism.<br /> Campbell died on Christmas day 1957 at the age of 80. Harris assumed leadership of the program, and brought in noted science-fiction author Dwight V. Swain as his assistant. Earlier, he had recruited Swain as his substitute when a serious illness in late 1951 felled him for most of a semester. In addition to writing short stories and novels, Swain was an accomplished screen writer, and in 1961 added courses in the writing of screenplays to the program.<br /> Swain added considerably more than new courses to the professional writing program. His screenwriting background led to an emphasis on scene and structure that had been much less emphasized in the earlier approaches. His textbooks on this subject are still in demand.<br /> In 1974, Harris retired. Jack Bickham, who wrote more than 70 novels and had joined the professional writing faculty in 1969, became the new director. Four years later, in May 1978, Harris died at the age of 74. Before Harris' retirement, former students had endowed a $10,000 scholarship fund for outstanding students in the program; it's still helping new writers today.<br /> Swain retired early because of failing health. His replacement as Bickham's assistant was Carolyn Hart, author of many mystery novels and still going strong although she left the program in the mid-Eighties to write full-time. Bickham retired in 1991. Deborah Chester and J. Madison Davis were then hired as permanent faculty to continue the program, and together with Scott Hodgson, Win Blevins, and Chris Borthick constitute the present faculty.<br /> In the years since its founders retired, the program has grown immensely — but still retains the same basic philosophy of teaching a professional approach to the writers' trade. So who were these people who created such a powerful fiction factory (or, if you prefer, boot camp for writers)?<br /> Campbell was born Walter Stanley Vestal near Severy, KS, on August 15, 1877. His father died not long afterward, and his mother married James Robert Campbell, who later became the first president of what is now Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. He adopted young Walter, who took his stepfather's surname. When he began writing for publication, he created his pen name "Stanley Vestal" from his middle name and his birth surname.<br /> Young Walter grew up in Weatherford, and was a member of the first graduating class from SWOSU (then known as Southwestern Normal School). However political issues had resulted in the school's degree-granting authority being suspended for a short time in 1908, so he never got a diploma. He did, however, become the state's first Rhodes Scholar, and received both a B.A. and an M.A. from Oxford University. The lack of his original diploma was corrected in July 2011, when SWOSU awarded his degree posthumously.<br /> Upon returning to the U.S. in 1911, Campbell taught for a year in Kentucky, but gave it up to write full time. Having grown up in Cheyenne-Arapaho country and being quite familiar with native American people, he wanted to tell their stories. His biography of Sitting Bull is still the gold standard.<br /> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/billgulick_1987_stan_paregien.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/billgulick_1987_stan_paregien_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>He joined the OU faculty in 1915, teaching English. When the U.S. entered WW1 in 1917, he took leave of absence from OU and joined the army, rising to captain in an artillery regiment. Upon leaving the army he returned to OU and remained there until his death. In the mid-20s he returned to writing professionally, and published several books — one of them a text titled simply "Professional Writing." That one led to the program's creation.<br /> During his lifetime, he wrote more than 20 books and over 100 shorter articles on the old West. He is buried at the Custer National Cemetery in Big Horn County, MT.<br /> William Foster Harris was born August 7, 1903, near Sulphur in what was then the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. His mother was a teacher and his father was a wildcatter in the oil patch. He graduated from OU in the mid-Twenties as a geologist, and like his father went into the oil fields. His writing ability soon took him to the editorship of an oil-related newspaper. From there, his interest in the old West led him to begin writing for the pulp Westerns.<br /> <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/fosterharris_1950_soonermagazine.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/fosterharris_1950_soonermagazine_175.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>By the time Campbell tapped him to join the program in 1938, Foster had published more than 800 magazine pieces. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He spoke from successful experience. He reduced the essentials of plot mechanics to a simple formula based on two equations: 1+1=2 and 1-1=0. As he explained it in his "Basic Formulas of Fiction," the first is the happy-ending plot, while the second is the opposite. The "1"s represent emotional forces, that are in conflict. The plus sign means "make the right choice" while minus means "wrong choice." In a successful story, both plots exist: the hero gets 2 while the villain gets 0.<br /> His prototypical example is illustrated in part by the movie "High Noon" in which the hero (Gary Cooper) had promised his wife (Grace Kelly) that he would not kill anyone, only to be faced with the prospect of a returning badman who had sworn to kill him. The conflicting forces on the hero are "keeping his word" versus "self-preservation."<br /> The movie didn't follow Foster's example, though. As Foster explained it, his badman was basically a coward. His hero resolved the conflict by choosing to walk into the battle but never draw his gun, accepting death before dishonor. The badman, faced with a resolute lawman advancing fearlessly toward him, panicked and ran — thus destroying his reputation forever.<br /> Foster also relentlessly pounded into us his notion of the "magic trinity" composed of the author, the reader, and the viewpoint character through whose eyes the story is told. Only when the author feels the conflicting emotions, and makes them clear in the viewpoint character, does the reader experience them and enjoy the story. Achieving this merger of three individuals into a single entity was the secret to becoming a successful storyteller — an art which I never mastered.<br /> In the Winter 1964-65 issue of <i>Oklahoma Today</i> magazine, Goldie Capers Smith wrote of Foster's philosophy about writing:<br /><blockquote>The writer with the Western viewpoint," says Foster-Harris, "can write till he is ninety-seven and has to have help to totter to his typewriter each day. But his writing still sells.</blockquote> Of the Western Story in the sense of a story set in the Old West, he says, "The spell of the Western is the spell of green pastures over the hill. Look at the popularity of Western movies and on TV. The hero always leaps on three or four horses and rides a few thousand miles to kill a few million bad men." The girl in the Westerns is unimportant. "She's just a trophy. Keep her on the shelf and award her to the hero. Let him decide what to do with her."<br /> Plotting, which many beginners find the bugaboo of writing, Professor Harris considers no problem at all. "The way to catch a plot," he explains, "is the way to catch a woman. Pretend not to be interested." The student who complains that it is impossible to find a new plot because all the plots have been used, he tells, "You don't need a new plot. Just put a little parsley on the same old dish!"<br /> I was in the program during what were possibly some of its best years: 1949-52. Just a year ahead of me, Tony Hillerman had graduated. By the time he died in 2008, he had published 29 books, including 17 mysteries featuring Navajo police officers Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. He had received every major honor for mystery fiction. <br /> William R. Scott, who published "Onionhead" (made into a great movie starring Andy Griffith) under the pen name Weldon Hill to disguise its autobiographical roots, finished the courses the year that I began (he also wrote for The Covered Wagon, the campus humor magazine, as "Steinway Hemingbeck"). Neal Barrett, recently honored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, was a classmate both at Classen in OKC and in the program at OU, although we were never close.<br /> I don't remember just how I learned of the program's existence. Quite possibly, it came to my attention through the magazine <i>Writer's Digest</i>, which I read religiously at that time and which was quite enthusiastic about the courses.<br /> I do remember, though, that it wasn't simple to get into in the first place. You couldn't just sign up for it and start going to class. You had to fill out a detailed questionnaire, complete a sample story, and survive a one-on-one interview with Campbell himself if the written material passed muster.<br /> One of the questions was "Why do you want to be a writer?" My somewhat flippant reply was "Because it beats working." When Campbell got to that one during my interview, he chuckled. "I think you'll discover otherwise," he said. He was right. Nevertheless, he accepted my application, and I showed up for class with my box of Crayolas and pulp magazine in hand, as required.<br /> The crayons and magazine were part of the technique to discover the scaffolding on which a pulp story was built. He assigned one color to "narrative verbs," another to "description," still another for "emotion," and so forth. We were to go through a specified story in the magazine, marking each word with its appropriate color, then determine the amount of each color in the story by measuring the total length of its lines.<br /> After doing this for each of the stories, we began to get a feel not only for the amount of each kind of content, but for the patterns in which they occurred. Our introduction to professional techniques had begun.<br /> On the wall of Campbell's oversized office which also served as the classroom was a small framed cartoon. It had four panels, each showing a person shouting a single word. The words were "Hey," "You!" "See?" and "So." One day after class, I asked Campbell about its significance.<br /> "That's the formula for non-fiction," was his reply. "You begin with 'Hey' to grab the reader's attention, follow immediately with ‘You' to make it personal. When you do that, you have him hooked. The ‘See' provides the main body of the article, and 'So' wraps it up neatly."<br /> That simple four-word formula is the most important single thing I learned in the entire three years I spent in the program. I've never been able to keep a fictional character alive long enough to tell a salable story, but "Hey, you! See? So" has bought me two homes over the years and kept food in the pantry since I learned it. Even before completing the courses, I had sold two non-fiction articles to national magazines, including a personality sketch of Bud Wilkinson to <i>Sport Magazine</i>.<br /> If you look closely, you can see that I'm still using it right here. It works.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/jim_kyle_1957.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/jim_kyle_1957_200.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a> During my years in the newspaper business, I didn't pursue magazine work seriously at first. However, after acquiring a family, I began writing for ham radio magazines to supplement a reporter's pay. <br /> After I left the <i>Oklahoman</i> and moved to the Los Angeles suburbs to become an electronics tech writer in the defense industry, the increased cost of living there made extra income a necessity — especially after the 100-hour weeks and their accompanying overtime pay came to an abrupt end. That's when the formula really began to pay off — and bought my first house. <br /> I became a contributing editor for a start-up magazine called <i>73</i> that was run by an editor with whom I had previously worked. He needed copy to fill its pages, promised to pay on acceptance, and I needed money. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. My typewriter filled half of those pages during the first year of publication, and I remained on the masthead as a contributing editor for 10 years. Some of my first published books were collections of articles written for 73.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/jimkylebooks.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/JimKyle/jimkylebooks_217.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> I also wrote for more general electronics magazines, and even sold material to <i>Mechanix Illustrated</i> for its electronics section. This prolific output caught the attention of another magazine publisher who was planning to move his operation from California to Oklahoma City, and who offered to pay my moving expenses if I would work for him as an editor on three trade journals. Since my whole family was homesick, I jumped at the chance.<br /> The editorship lasted just one year, but taught me about "the other side" of the publishing business. After it folded, I free-lanced for a couple of years before joining General Electric to write the service manuals for the very first "TV Typewriter" computer display terminal — and even then continued to write for publication on the side. During the free-lance years I published my first book; the count eventually passed 20, all on highly technical subjects.<br /> Aside from the books, I did very little outside writing from 1965 until the mid-Eighties. I had discovered the joy of writing software; at G-E I had access to computers. This led me in a roundabout way to become active on the CompuServe network, a predecessor of the Internet, and that in turn resulted in my becoming a "sysop" or "system operator" for the on-line forum sponsored by <i>Computer Language Magazine</i>.<br /> Discussions there brought me back into the magazine writing world, and I began selling a few articles to CLM. Those led to an offer by Allen Wyatt, at the time an editor with Que Publishing Company, for me to update, as a second edition, a book he had written. I jumped at the offer, and added a couple of chapters to the original, including one about the "undocumented" computer code that lay at the foundation of Microsoft's Disk Operating System known as MS-DOS.<br /> Prior to the 1989 release of "DOS Programmer's Reference, Second Edition," that code had been a closely guarded trade secret, known to only a handful of folk outside the Microsoft labs. What I had published was nowhere near all of it, of course, but it gained notice throughout what was then still a cottage industry providing PC software. <br /> In 1990, a literary agent approached me to see if I was interested in joining a team that would produce an entire book devoted exclusively to the undocumented aspects. At almost the same time, my long-time employment with G-E, Honeywell, MPI, and BancTec Systems came to an end. Again, I jumped at it. "Undocumented DOS" turned out to be the closest thing to a best-seller I ever did, rising for a while into the top 20 for technical trade books, going into a second edition, and being translated into Russian and Japanese. Nobody ever made an offer for the movie rights to it, though — and it was a collaborative effort with four other fellows, anyway.<br /> So looking back on more than 60 years as a published writer, I find it difficult to pinpoint all of the major landmarks I've passed — but I'm certain that my time with Campbell and Harris was the most significant of all of them. Even though I never completed a successful short story or sold a novel, they taught me what professional writing is all about. And their legacy lives on, not only in the accomplishments of those who learned directly from them, but in the program itself which continues to this day.</td></tr></table><br /><b>Editor's Closing Notes. </b>So, right now, having read this, put your hand up if you think that it was Samuel Johnson who was the blockhead and not our man Jim Kyle — I'm looking ... ahhh, it's good to see that we all agree! <br /><br /><b>Additional References. </b>For a few additional references about Jim's topic, see:<br /><ul><li>Dianna Everett, <a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/V/VE006.html" target="_blank">"Vestal, Stanley (1887-1957)"</a> (OHS Oklahoma Encyclopedia of History & Culture)</li><li>Carol J. Burr, <a href="http://www.oufoundation.org/sm/winter2012/postscript.asp?ID=451" target="_blank">"Postscript ... a.k.a. Stanley Vestal"</a> (<i>Sooner Magazine</i> Winter 2012)</li><li>Goldie Capers Smith, <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahistory/oklahomatoday_winter_1964_65_goldiesmith.pdf" target="_blank">"Parsley On The Dish"</a> (<i>Oklahoma Today</i> Winter 1964-65) — about Foster-Harris</li><li>Stan Paregien, <a href="http://www.cowboydirectory.com/G/g--ua.html" target="_blank">"Bill Gulick" (Cowboy Directory.com)</a> — shows Campbell's grave site</li><li>University of Oklahoma, <a href="http://www.ou.edu/gaylord/home/main/majors/professional_writing.html" target="_blank">Studies in Professional Writing</a></li><li>Jim Kyle's Website, <a href="http://www.jimkyle.com/" target="_blank">www.jimkyle.com</a></li></ul><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-6345490464404665962012-05-13T12:46:00.022-05:002012-05-18T15:29:07.897-05:00On Being Excited About OKC's LGBT Citizens 2012<a name="top"></a><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/okcpride_gayevent2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/okcpride_gayevent2_510.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/okcpride_gayevent1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/okcpride_gayevent1_510.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><br />According the sponsoring organization's <a href="http://okcpride.org/press-release/" target="_blank">press release</a>, 2012's OKC Gay Pride events kick off on Thursday, May 17, and last for ten days until May 27. <br /><span class="fullpost"><blockquote>A rather lengthy discussion and review of LGBT issues and the history of the Gay Rights Movement was done last year in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/05/on-being-excited-about-okcs-lgbt.html" target="_blank">On Being Excited About OKC's LGBT Citizens 2011</a>, and I'll not be redundant here. Click the link if you want to read an article which is more historical and delves into some of the legal issues faced by the LGBT community in Oklahoma and elsewhere.</blockquote>This piece focuses on the 2012 activities and events of the LGBT community, as well as mentioning a couple of newsworthy items which occurred after the 2011 article was written.<br /><br /><b>Newsworthy Items Since 2011.</b> I'll mention a couple of such events — (1) last week's remarks by our President and (2) our City Council's actions in the latter part of 2011.<br /><br /> <b>1. The President's Remarks.</b> <i>Aside from a <font color="darkred">remote but nonetheless interesting possibility of an attack on the new and fabulous Devon Tower by a group of Lesbian Zombies</i></font> (just kidding), nothing could probably have been better timed than the remarks by the President of the United States last week on May 9 concerning gay marriage. Listen to the President and judge for yourself:<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><font color="white"><b>President Obama's Remarks On May 9</b></font><br /><iframe width="510" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kPDWe3nHXSU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br /> <b>2. Oklahoma City Council Votes To Protect Sexual Orientation in its Personnel Policies. </b>On Tuesday November 15, 2011, the Oklahoma City Council voted 7-2 to approve a resolution which protected gays and lesbians in the hiring, firing, promotion, demotion of employees in one of the city's largest employers, the City of Oklahoma City.<br /><br />A complete discussion of the November 15 council proceedings <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/11/well-shut-my-mouth.html" target="_blank">is here</a>. The discussion began <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-18-another-fun-day-at-races.html" target="_blank">on October 18</a> when council member Ed Shadid wondered out loud why Oklahoma City didn't have such approbations in place concerning its city employees and suggested that he would be bringing the matter up soon ... the next day, on his Facebook page, he said, "Next Tuesday I will introduce resolution prohibiting discrimination among 4300 city employees based on sexual orientation." On October 25, he did just that, even though the matter was deferred until November 15 for decision. During the October 25 discussion, council member Patrick Ryan indicated that he wanted the continued hearing date to be at a time he would be present because he supported Shadid's resolution — his support caught me by surprise. As to some in the Christian conservative persuasion, Shadid said, "I would propose that we let the city be the employer and let God be the judge." His complete remarks at the November 15 meeting are shown below.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><font color="white"><b>Ed Shadid's Remarks On November 15, 2011</b></font><br /><iframe width="510" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BBX15gYWOHY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><br />Only two, council members Larry McAtee and Skip Kelly, voted against the proposal. The strongest support came from council members Pete White, Patrick Ryan, and Gary Marrs, who voiced their support for the proposal. Although voting for the resolution, Mayor Mick Cornett and council members Meg Sayer and David Greenwell chose to remain silent during the discussion and said nothing at all. Read into that silence combined with affirmative votes whatever you will. Opponents Larry McAtee and Skip Kelly did offer explanations for their negative votes.<br /><br /><b>Amazing Array of 2012 Events. </b>I won't list all events here — you can get that from the <a href="http://okcpride.org/press-release/" target="_blank">official press release</a>, at the <a href="http://okcpride.org/" target="_blank">2012 OKC Gay Pride website</a> and at <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/gay-pride-2012-25th-anniversary-okc-pride-finalizes-events-and-entertainment" target="_blank">Scott Buttram's piece at www.examiner.com</a>. For those who want even more reading, see the <a href="http://okcpride.org/pride-guide/" target="_blank">60 page Pride Guide</a>, which not only describes events but delves into the history of the LGBT community. Since I've already given <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/05/on-being-excited-about-okcs-lgbt.html" target="_blank">my own lengthy history</a> last year, here, I will only single out the following events which struck my fancy the most.<br /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">Pre-parties On May 17. </font></b>At least, that's what we called such things back in the day that I was a student at Oklahoma State. Two events are scheduled for Thursday, May 17, even though the official opening event is scheduled for May 18.</li></ul><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_0_may17.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /><b><font color="darkred">S&B Burger Joints — 10 am - 11:30 pm. </font></b>On May 17 between 10 am 11:30 pm, eat at either S&B Burger Joint, a business that supports OKC Pride, and Pride will receive 10% of all sales. The two locations are 5929 North May and the newest at 20 NW 9th in Automobile Alley.<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_00_may17.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 10px;" /><b><font color="darkred">Oklahoma City Museum of Art — 7:30 pm. </font></b>Co-presented by deadCENTER Film Festival and OKC Pride, the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1746264/" target="_blank">"Wish Me Away," a 2011 documentary</a> on the life of Chely Wright. The museum is located at 415 Couch Drive immediately north of the City Hall Building. The two-hour film presents the story of Chely Wright, the first country music star to come out as gay. Over three years, the filmmakers were given extraordinary access to Chely’s struggle and her unfolding plan to come out publicly.<br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_1_may18.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 18 — Outdoor Movie On Film Row.</font></b> </li></ul>The <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/123833284417090/" target="_blank">OKC Pride website</a> describes this event as follows: <br /><blockquote> OKC Pride will officially kick off Pride Week 2012 with a FREE outdoor movie on Film Row! Bring out your chairs & blankets for a dramatic, laughter-filled cinema experience al fresco in the parking lot at 616-624 W. Sheridan Ave!<br /> Producer/director Tim Wolff will be presenting his documentary "The Sons of Tennessee Williams" which covers 50 years of New Orleans' gay civil rights revolution.<br /> Special guest will also be Albert Carey, one of the original activists from the early days of the gay movement in New Orleans.</blockquote>An excellent 4:50 minute video preview of this film is shown below.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/3029852" width="510" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></td></tr></table><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_2_may19.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 19 — The Downtown Festival On Film Row.</font></b> </li></ul>Perhaps the most dramatic development in/of the 2012 Gay Pride events is that its geographic focus shifts to downtown Oklahoma City. The 1st official event was just described and the unofficial Oklahoma City Museum of Art's movie event on May 17 follows suit. <br /><br />On Saturday, May 19, Sheridan, spanning two blocks between Shartel and Dewey, will be closed between 11 am and 10 pm for the 2012 OKC Pride Festival.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/2012festivalmap.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/2012festivalmap_500.jpg"></a></center>Bands will be playing on stage at the east end and lots of other booths, food, and other stuff will be going on. See <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/327455303982227/" target="_blank">this link</a> for the full schedule of activities and events.<br /><br />The "downtown" expansion of the LGBT events was put into perspective by <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter <a href="http://newsok.com/okc-pride-festival-moves-to-film-row-in-oklahoma-city/article/3675482" target="_blank">Steve Lackmeyer in his May 15 article</a>:<br /><blockquote> It may be of some note, historically, that this weekend a community that city leaders kept at a distance have the unanimous backing of City Hall as it prepares to host its annual festival in an area of town that also was ignored just a decade ago. ¶ Such is the case as the city's gay and lesbian community is set to celebrate its annual OKC Pride festival Saturday along downtown's Film Row.<br /> A decade ago, the Oklahoma City Council voted 6-3 for an ordinance that attempted to stop just the promotion of the festival via light pole banners that have for decades been used to promote just about every other major festivity. That ordinance was overturned in courts, and festivities have continued annually at Memorial Park at NW 36 and Classen.<br /> Now, far from trying to block organizers of the festival from displaying banners, the Oklahoma City Council recently voted unanimously, without debate, to allow the event to shut down Sheridan Avenue to make Film Row the event's new home.<br /> It was also a decade ago that the 700 block of W Sheridan Avenue was similarly the subject of scorn at City Hall. It was an area derided as "skid row." But as with the Pride festivities, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this neighborhood also has enjoyed increased community support as it has re-emerged as Film Row.<br /> <b>Matt Harney, a board member of the organizing committee,</b> is hoping relocation of the daylong festival will not just increase exposure for the event, but also promote the ongoing revival of Film Row. ¶ The parade, he said, will stay at Memorial Park. But the festival, which will feature more than 60 exhibitors, will be set up along Sheridan Avenue where its new identity is being forged with an influx of creative firms, Joey's Pizzeria and the IAO Gallery.<br /> The festival will get an early kickoff with an outdoor screening of the movie “The Sons of Tennessee Williams” at 8:30 p.m. Friday. The festival itself will run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and will include booths hosted by interfaith religious organizations and a children's zone with face-painting, music and inflated jumping bubbles.<br /> Harney notes that while the festival is hosted by the city's gay, lesbian and bisexual community, it's an overall celebration of diversity, and he sees Film Row's growing creative class as a natural partner in moving forward. ¶ "It's an up and coming cool part of town," Harney said. "There's so much going on — so much development there with the restaurants, the IAO gallery. We want to play our part. ¶ "We appreciate the creative community. There's a good overlap between art, film and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)."</blockquote><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gibbs.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px;" />NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs does not believe there is any such thing as coincidence. If he is right about that, it was perhaps some sort of cool karma that my doorbell rang this afternoon around 6:30 pm. I thought about ignoring the ring and just go upstairs, but I instead answered the door.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/harney.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/harney_150.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px;" /></a>This pleasant young man introduced himself — "I am <a href="http://harneyforhouse.com/" target="_blank"><b>Matt Harney,</b> a progressive Democrat, running for House District 88</a>," he said. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/housedistrict88.jpg" target="_blank">House District 88</a> is the district formerly represented by Al McAffrey until he was elected to the State Senate in February 2012. My wife and I had a good long visit with Matt on our front porch, during which time I decided who I'd be voting for — him.<br /><br />I hadn't closely read Steve Lackmeyer's above column before our front porch conversation with this 30-year old Oklahoma House candidate and only when updating this article did I put Matt and OKC Gay Pride 2012 together, and there you are — not a coincidence, only good karma!<br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/parade_2012_may20.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 20 — Parade.</font></b> </li></ul>The event's Facebook page says,<br /><blockquote>The 25th annual OKC Pride Parade will take place on Sunday, May 20th on the same route as last year. The parade will lineup at 4:00pm. Judging will start at 5 and the Parade will step off at 6:00 pm. More than 60,000 citizens came to enjoy the parade in 2011. The OKC Pride parade is the second largest parade in Oklahoma each year! This year — to commemorate the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – we're inviting current LGBT service members to march in our Parade and be recognized, collectively, as our Grand Marshal.</blockquote><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/paraderoute_2012.jpg"></center><br />As you can see, above, the parade route begins at NW 36th & Classen, proceeds north to NW 39th, then left on NW 39th to Pennsylvania, crossing Pennsylvania to Barnes.<br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_3_may22.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 22 — Grease.</font></b> </li></ul>At or near 4010 N. Youngs at 8:30 pm, an outdoor sing-along showing of "Grease" will be presented. The group's website describes the event this way:<br /><blockquote>Come sing along to GREASE with Expressions Church and Pastor Neil and be a part of Pride week! This outdoor movie will start at 8:30 and is between Expressions Church the 1-800-2-SELL-HOMES property.</blockquote>A map is shown below.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/grease_2012_may22.jpg"></center><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_5_jmay24.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 24 — Turning Drag On Its Wig.</font></b> </li></ul>This adult (21+years) event occurs at Angles, 2117 NW 39th Street. The event's website describes the event as follows:<br /><blockquote> Join us during pride week, Thursday, May 24th, at 8 p.m., for a night of the most unlikely drag queens you never thought you'd see. This is a fundraiser for Cimarron Alliance, and will be held at Angles, located at 2117 NW 39th Street in Oklahoma City.<br /> There will be a $5 cover charge, and all proceeds will benefit "Stop Hate in the Hallways," Cimarron's anti-bullying program.<br /> Our host and M.C. for the evening will be Mr. Gay Oklahoma U.S.of.A., Kelly "Keliente" Forbes. DJ Chris Glitter will be playing some great dance music before and after the event.<br /> Our star-studded cast includes: Scott "Cimma Ronette" Hamilton(Cimarron Alliance Executive Director), Floyd "Wanda Wheeler" Martin (OKC "Gay Mayor"), Josh "Hazel Lies" Sauer (OKC Pride V.P.), Dr. David Macey (UCO Professor / SAFE Advisor), Wayne "Miss Thang" Johnson, Jon Trushenski (Member, Mayflower Congregational Church), Ben Corbett (OCU Professor / SPECTRUM Advisor), Calvin "Cali Forña" Rowe.</blockquote><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/gaypride2012_4_may27.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px;" /><ul><li><b><font color="darkred">May 26-27 — Rodeo.</font></b></li></ul>Huh? An LGBT rodeo? Yep, at the State Fairgrounds, Barns 6 & 7, May 26 at 8:00 am until May 27 at 8:00pm, the broncs will be busted and the steers will be tamed at the <a href="http://ogra.net/" target="_blank">O.G.R.A. sponsored event</a> (Oklahoma Gay Rodeo Association).<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/gaypride/rodeo_2012_may25-27.jpg"></center><br />As I said already, other events than the above are on the calendar — see <a href="http://www.facebook.com/okcpridefan/events" target="_blank">the event's website</a> for the complete schedule.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-49081761860710366392012-05-09T03:00:00.003-05:002012-05-14T22:41:06.555-05:00Oklahoma City Circa 1967 - Part 1<a name="top"></a><i><blockquote>This article was originally posted on February 29, 2012, in very preliminary form and it has taken me until May 9 to finish it. It is VERY long (about 69 pages if you can print it without the left pane and top banner) but it is bookmarked so that you can move quickly to what you want to see. The largest section by far is a rather thorough account of the fascinating history of the Gold Dome, originally Citizens State Bank, which contains about 56 pages. Enjoy!</i></blockquote><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/2_24_1967_1024.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/2_24_1967_510.jpg" /></a><br /><i>Click the above image for a 1024 px wide view<br />or click below for even larger views ...</i><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/2_24_1967_2000.jpg" target="_blank">2000 px wide view</a> <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/2_24_1967_6040.jpg" target="_blank">6040 px wide view</a></center><br />I rarely make a post based upon just a single photograph, but this is the exception that proves the rule — based upon the photo, I'll write three articles, this being the first. A good friend and excellent Oklahoma City attorney, Jim Slayton, recently furnished me with a paper photo that he owns — one of his clients mailed it to him on February 24, 1967 — and the photo was probably taken in January or February 1967 or in late 1966 at the earliest. As you can see, the downtown skyline is in the background, a substantial part of Midtown is in the middle, and the Gold Dome and other properties along NW 23rd Street are in the foreground. The photo was taken from a vantage point slightly north of NW 23rd and Classen Boulevard and looks southeasterly toward downtown.<br /><br />This is the first of three articles which takes a closer look at many of this photo's pieces ... organized by slices.<br /><br /><br /><center><i>The Top Slice, Part 3 — Downtown — This Will Come Last</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/topslice_2000.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/topslice_510.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><i>The Middle Slice — Midtown — This Will Come Next</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/middleslice_2000.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/middleslice_510.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><i>The Bottom Slice — Uptown — This Is Presented Here</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_2000.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_510.jpg" /></a></center><br />The remainder of this Part 1 article focuses upon the parts within the bottom slice above shown, with a good bit of history thrown in.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /></span><br /><center><span class="fullpost"><b>The Bottom Slice — Uptown</b><br /><i>Click on any image for a larger view</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_2000.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_510.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_2000-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bottomslice_510-1.jpg" /></a></span></center><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><table border="2" cellpadding="6"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><b>1 —</b> <a href="#beverlys">Beverly's</a></td><td valign="top"><b>5 —</b> <a href="#vacuum">Vacuum Cleaner Sup.</a></td><td valign="top"><b>9 —</b> <a href="#mayflower">Cinema Mayflower</a></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><b>2 —</b> <a href="#battens">Battens Flowers</a></td><td valign="top"><b>6 —</b> <a href="#blueprint">Oklahoma Blueprint</a></td><td valign="top"><b>10 —</b> <a href="#beefandbun">Beef & Bun Restaurant</a></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><b>3 —</b> <a href="#goldbond">Gold Bond Gifts</a></td><td valign="top"><b>7 —</b> <a href="#townleys">Townleys Milk Bottle</a></td><td valign="top"><b>11 —</b> <a href="#someplaceelse">Someplace Else</a></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><b>4 —</b> <a href="#hammond">Hammond Organ</a></td><td valign="top"><b>8 —</b> <a href="#classencafe">Classen Cafeteria</a></td><td valign="top"><b>12 —</b> <a href="#golddome">Citizens State Bank</a></td></tr></tbody></table></span></center><br /><b>Bottom Slice History & Additional Images.</b> The 1967 photo certainly does not take in all of "Uptown" — it does not go eastbound much further than Western Avenue — but it nonetheless contains that part of Uptown which was centered around Classen and NW 23rd. Historical notes and images relevant to the bottom slice of this 1967 photo follow. For the most part, boldfaced names are the property occupants at the time the 1967 photo was taken.<br /><ol><li><a href="" name="beverlys"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/beverlys_1967.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/beverlys_1967_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Beverly's Chicken In the Rough. </b>I'm not able to document when this Beverly's at 1220 NW 23rd came to exist — the earliest <i>Oklahoman</i> reference I've located is a February 27, 1966 want-ad for a waitress. But, Mo Moon (see the 1st comment at the end of this article) remembers it being there in 1962 or 1963. Note, also, that Mo recalls "the fresh-squeeze orange juice from those tall, green juicers, and the fact that the waitresses were all required to wear girdles beneath their neat white uniforms," points worth remembering! In 1988, the same property became the home of Jeff's Country Cafe but in 2004 it became the location of a Walgreen's Pharmacy. Then, Jeff's Country Cafe moved to its present location at 3401 N. Classen. For more, see discussion in the Citizens State Bank section, below.</li><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/battens.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/battens_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><li><a href="" name="battens"></a><b>Batten's Flower & Gift Shop.</b> This florist business was one of, if not the, oldest in the city when this 1967 photo was taken and was then owned by Roy E. Stephenson and his wife Sara Marie Stephenson, nee Batten. In 1921, the business was owned by Sara's parents and its sole location was 320 or 322 W. Main (varying by <i>Oklahoman</i> ads) — see <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/oklahoman_battens_5_9_1924.jpg" target="_blank">this 1924 <i>Oklahoman</i> ad</a> as an example — but it expanded to include other locations, as well, including NW 23rd & Harvey in 1952. The location shown in this 1967 photo was built in 1956. Roy E. Stephenson died in December 1971 followed by his wife, Sara, in August 1982. The business continued to operate at the location, presumably by surviving family members, until at least until 1988, the last <i>Oklahoman</i> ad appearing in the <i>Oklahoman</i> on February 9, 1988. Today, the property is the home of Fashion Sports and Uniforms.</li><br /><li><a href="" name="goldbond"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/goldbondgifts_225.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/goldbondgifts_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/goldbond.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/goldbond_100.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Gold Bond Gifts.</b> This is the place where Gold Bond Stamp hoarders took their books of stamps to exchange them for goods, e.g., electric shavers and the like. IGA groceries were some of the more prominent retailers that used Gold Bond Stamps to encourage shopping — Central National Bank did so, as well.</li><br /><li><a href="" name="hammond"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hammondorgan.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hammondorgan_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Hammond Organ Studios of Oklahoma City.</b> Until sometime in the mid-1950s, this property was residential. Its first commercial use appears to have been a Blalock Oil gas station, that venture being purchased by Kerr McGee in 1955. Before 1961, it became Lee Devin TV, but it became Hammond Organ Studios of Oklahoma City with an August 1, 1961, grand opening and that business lasted at least through 1975. By 1979, the premises became Audio Associates. Today, this property is part of the Jade Asian Plaza. County Assessor records reflect that this small shopping center was built in 1972, but it is evident from the 1967 photo that it was built several years earlier. Today, the strip shopping center which contains both #3 and #4 is known as the Jade Asian Plaza, shown below on March 1, 2012.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jadeasianplaza_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jadeasianplaza_3_1_2012_490.jpg" /></a></center></li><br /><li><a href="" name="vacuum"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Vacuum Cleaner Supply.</b> If you're like me, you think of this business located at 2405-2407 Classen as "Hoovers Vacuum" since <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_2405_classen.jpg" target="_blank">that name is and has been prominently displayed</a> and even though the business name for this mom and pop vacuum service center was and is "Vacuum Cleaner Supply." <br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_2407classen_5_5_1960.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_2407classen_5_5_1960_175.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a>The first <i>Oklahoman</i> ad I located for this business was May 5, 1960, shown here at 2407 Classen. The building abutting 2407 to the south was 2405 Classen until the buildings were joined to form a single property. Current County Assessor records show that Winfred and Velma Parker own the properties and that they also own property #6, below. <br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/hoover_3_1_2012_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><br />The Hoover shop is presently boarded up and appears to have ceased operations, even though its vacuums and parts thereof are readily viewable from the sidewalk in its overflow storage location in the former Rainbow Records to the south. See Oklahoma Blue Print below. County Assessor records show the property was constructed in 1914. <i>Oklahoman</i> want ads show that 2405 Classen was used for various purposes — in 1959 it was the campaign headquarters of Ralph M. Cissne, Ward 1 election candidate; from 1960 through 1963, it was Tom Ford Company, a carpet and furniture seller.</li><br /><li><a href="" name="blueprint"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbowrecords_2401classen.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbowrecords_2401classen_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Oklahoma Blue Print & Supply Co.</b> Although I'm showing the County Assessor's 2005 photo of Rainbow Records here (since that's probably what most of us remember for this location), this property at 2401 Classen was Oklahoma Blue Print & Supply Co. when the 1967 photo was taken. County Assessor records show present ownership of the property are the same Parkers identified in #5, above, that it was constructed in 1914, and that the building was <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbowrecords_drawing.jpg" target="_blank">very oddly shaped</a>. Earlier <i>Oklahoman</i> ads and articles show that the property was a Klein Oil Co. service station in 1925, Southern Meats & Groceries in 1930, Roberts Drug Co. between 1946 and March 1964, a Mobil Service Station in November 1964, and then Oklahoma Blue Print & Supply Co. in October 1965 until <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/blueprintandsupply_1_12_1969.jpg" target="_blank">at least January 1969</a>. In 1975, the location became Rainbow Records, once said to be "Oklahoma's oldest independent record store," and that is how most of us remember the property. Rainbow Records moved to 3709 N. Western in March 2004. <br /><br />Today, the property seems to be the overflow location of lots of used vacuum cleaners, parts, and other stuff by the building's present owners. The photos below were taken on March 1, 2012, looking through the windows of the former Rainbow Records premises. <a href="http://www.jenx67.com/2009/04/oklahoma-citys-rainbow-records-vacuum.html" target="_blank">JenX has blogged about this</a> and I am compelled to agree with her, even though I lean to giving the benefit of the doubt to local mom and pop stores. Probably, nothing can be done as long as the owners follow city code requirements. But, someday, perhaps the owners may come to have a sense of civic pride. Or not. Also, <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/02/oklahoma-city-circa-1967.html#citizens_salvation">see this part of #12</a>, Citizens State Bank, below.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="8"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbow1_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbow1_3_1_2012_250.jpg" /></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbow2_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/rainbow2_3_1_2012_250.jpg" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></li><br /><li><a href="" name="townleys"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/townleysbottle.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/townleysbottle_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Townley's Milk Bottle.</b> The very large white milk bottle was placed on top of the very small flatiron building building at 2426 N. Classen in 1948. The small flatiron 1920 building is listed on the National Historical Register of Historic Places, something which would not likely have happened but for the bottle.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/townleysbuildingdimensions.gif" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/townleysbuildingdimensions_200.gif" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>The <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/AN-R.asp?ACCOUNTNO=R133301055" target="_blank">County Assessor's drawing</a> shows the building's floorspace at only 392 square feet, and it's hard to imagine that a tenant could pull off a successful business there.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/braumsbottle_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/braumsbottle_3_1_2012_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>But, as part of today's Oklahoma City Asian District, the present day Saigon Baguette has managed to pull that off that improbability. This photo was taken on March 1, 2012.<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/gregburns_milkbottle.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/gregburns_milkbottle_225.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>However, before Braum's, there was Townley's, the bottle in place when the 1967 photo was taken and the milk bottle that older folk identify with. Oklahoma City renowned artist Greg Burns shows the Townley's milk bottle which made it an Oklahoma City icon.<br /><br />But what were the origins of this small tract, building, and milk bottle? Brandon Bowman <a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/oklahoma-citys-milk-bottle-building-7376550.html" target="_blank">writes this here</a>:<br /><blockquote> The unusual shape of the property was created by the diagonal meeting of the old Belle Isle streetcar line with northwest 23rd Street. The resulting triangular lot was chosen as the construction site for a similarly shaped building, which was completed in 1930. Originally known as "Triangle Grocery and Market", the building was a stop on the streetcar line until the rail service was stopped in 1947, and the tracks were paved for roads. Despite no longer being a way point for mass transit, the little triangle building and site remained prime commercial territory, a small island in a sea of traffic.<br /> The name of the building was changed to "Milk Bottle Grocery" shortly after a large metal milk bottle sign was added to the roof in 1948. With the lack of adjacent ground space for a sign, the only space left available for a sign was the roof. To be effective, the sign had to be sufficiently eye-catching to gain the attention of passing traffic, and the result was a metal sign almost as tall as the building itself. The sign, being 8 feet wide and almost 11 feet tall, almost dwarfs the building that serves as its base. It's constructed of sheet metal, and has a tapered neck, rimmed mount, and crenelated cap, just like the old glass milk bottles of the early 20th century. The sign was traditionally rented separately from the building below, and was used to advertise local dairies. Over the years, the sign has advertised Steffen's Dairy, Townley's Dairy, and nowadays carries the Braum's emblem.</blockquote>Bowman's observations are completely consistent with the registry application filed with the with <a href="http://www.ocgi.okstate.edu/shpo/nhrpdfs/98000199.pdf" target="_blank">National Register of Historical Places</a>, and that's good enough for me and there you have it.</li><br /><li><a href="" name="classencafe"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/classencafe.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/classencafe_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Classen Cafeteria.</b> This property was located at 2400 N. Classen (most often called 2400 Classen) Boulevard and, when the principal photo was taken in December 1966 or January 1967, it was Classen Cafeteria (observable by clicking on the thumbnail shown here), the entry being from Classen Boulevard. The earliest <i>Oklahoman</i> mention I could find for the address is a 1940 ad showing that it was a Humpty-Dumpty grocery. In the mid-1940s O'Mealey's Cafeteria opened their first business in the property. <i>Vanished Splendor II</i> by Jim Edwards and Hal Ottaway (Abalache Book Shop Publishing 1983) says that Classen Cafeteria began its operations at the address in mid-1948 and the <i>Oklahoman's</i> first mention was in February 1948.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/classencafe_vsp2.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/classencafe_vsp2_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>This image is is a postcard from <i>Vanished Spendor II</i>. The book's text says that Classen Cafeteria closed "sometime in 1967." Later tenants were Jeans America (1972), The Jeannery (1972), Oklahoma Rehab, Inc. (at least by 1993 and into 1994). In 1996 a $500,000 building permit was issued to Anderson & House to construct a retail store, and, presumably but I'm not certain, this project involved the destruction of the building shown in the 1967 photo. In any event, the property became part of the parking lot for an Eckerd Drug, and, later, the CVS Pharmacy at 2412 N. Classen which occupies the space today.</li><br /><li><a href="" name="mayflower"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1967.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1967_175.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Cinema Mayflower.</b> Independent suburban theater owner Sam Caporal's Mayflower Theater at 1133 NW 23rd Street opened in April 1938 with the 1936 movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028092/" target="_blank"><i>Pennies From Heaven</i></a> staring Bing Crosby and featuring Louis Armstrong in a supporting role, a rare happening in that day. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_4_12_1938.jpg" target="_blank">Click here</a> for the <i>Oklahoman's</i> movie ad.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_4_10_1938.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_4_10_1938_175.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>This wasn't Caporal's first suburban movie venture, he having established the Yale Theater in Capitol Hill at least as early as 1921 according to William D. Welge's <i>Oklahoma City Remembered</i> (Arcadia Publishing 2007). Caporal later built and operated the Bison (1941 - 1314 NE 23rd) and Skyview Drive-In (1948 - 3800 NE 23rd).<br /><br />As best as I can determine, the theater rarely if ever showed first run movies but in the main they were good solid movies, often double or triple features. In 1966 the Mayflower Theater closed temporarily to be completely remodeled and reopen in October as the Cinema Mayflower, the original intent being to present quality foreign films. That idea eventually failing, in its last years, the theater resorted to X-rated films which perhaps catered to a daytime male business-worker group — such as might occur for an extended lunch-and-a-movie break (yeah, I've been there and done that).<br /><table><tbody><tr><td align="center">1975 - Credit <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20%20http://www.cinematour.com/picview.php?db=us&id=11790" target="_blank">Jeff Chapman</a><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1975_jeffchapman.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1975_jeffchapman_250.jpg" /></a></td><td align="center">1985 - Credit <a href="http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c36%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=32550" target="_blank">American Classic</a><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1985_americanclassic.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_1985_americanclassic_250.jpg" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>After the movie theater closed around 1991, <a href="http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/11076" target="_blank">comments here</a> say that the property operated as "Planet Earth" for a time as a live music venue. The property was purchased in 1996 by Vietnamese refugee immigrants Johnny and Tina Hy who opened Asian Restaurant, and, today, it is part of Sun Moon Plaza. A March 2012 photo of the former Mayflower is shown below.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mayflower_3_1_2012_510.jpg" /></a></center></li><br /><li><a href="" name="beefandbun"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/beefandbun_1967.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/beefandbun_1967_175.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Beef & Bun Restaurant.</b> That was the name of the business property at 1107 NW 23rd Street in 1967 when the aerial photo was taken. In 1944 the residential property which then occupied the space was either destroyed or removed and from 1947 through 1963 the Carnation Company operated a business at the property, it frequently advertising in the <i>Oklahoman</i> for fountain help and waitresses during that 16-year period. See the <a href="http://www.okchistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:its-gone&catid=42:places&Itemid=78" target="_blank">Carnation Ice Cream Store article</a> in Steve Lackmeyer's Oklahoma City history website for much more about that store, including photos.<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/beefandbun_11_25_65.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;" /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sussys_6_1_1974.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sussys_6_1_1974_175.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" /></a>For a time, the property experienced an ethnic identity crisis. From 1965 through 1972, it was the Beef & Bun but for a short time in 1974 it was the home of "Happy Days," a Jack Sussy Italian restaurant. By 1979 until 1981, it was the home of R. L. Sullivan's Steak & Spaghetti restaurant and in 1982 it was renovated to become the home of New Orleans and southern cooking as Rhett's Place, but that only lasted until 1983. In July 1983, the property was renovated and became the home of <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/23corner_7_24_1983.jpg" target="_blank">"the 23 Corner" restaurant</a> operated by Loc & Kim Le. Loc, a political refugee from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, was one of the many Vietnamese who came to call Oklahoma City home. But, other than egg rolls, Asian food was apparently not on the menu. When 23 Corner opened, Loc and Kim already owned and operated two Jimmy's Egg restaurants in the city and American food was the principal offering at 23 Corner, including the same omelets served at their Jimmy's Eggs in addition to steaks, hamburgers, and seafood dishes. I've not determined when 23 Corner stopped operating but Loc and his family has continued the expansion of Jimmy's Egg with other franchises in and beyond the city. <br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/shalimar_7_28_1985.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />By July 1985 the property became the home of Shalimar India restaurant which appears to have operated at the location until 1987. In fact, I got my first taste of India-Indian cuisine there and loved it.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/kimson_5_14_1988.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/kimson_5_14_1988_200.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>In May 1988, the property was again remodeled and this time it became Kim Son, its owner Phung Hy serving Chinese, Vietnamese, Cantonese and other Asian foods. This restaurant lasted until 1995 or 1996 — the only <i>Oklahoman</i> evidence during that time being reports of a murder which occurred in November 1995 in the kitchen over a dispute concerning the victim's wife's fidelity. Both the victim and the accused, who plead guilty to manslaughter in May 1996, had the same last name. The <i>Oklahoman</i> report of the conviction was the paper's last mention of Kim Son. By the time the 1996 photo below was taken, the property was called China Garden.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sunmoonplaza_7_26_2006.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sunmoonplaza_7_26_2006_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;" /></a>In 2004, the property was purchased by Asian Plaza, Inc., and Steve Lackmeyer reported in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sunmoonplaza_7_26_2006.jpg" target="_blank">July 26, 2006, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> that Mike Nguyen and Denny Ha, they having purchased this and other adjoining properties, had big plans to create a new "gateway" into Oklahoma City's Asian District called "Sun Moon Plaza." Although the recent recession appears to have put that project on hold, by the time this article is written it is fully underway. In the March 1, 2012, photo below, the property's location would be to the left of the leftmost building shown in the photo.<br /><br /><center><i>Sun Moon Plaza</i><br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sunmoonplaza_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/sunmoonplaza_3_1_2012_490.jpg" /></a></center></li><br /><li><a href="" name="someplaceelse"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/someplaceelse.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/someplaceelse_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Someplace Else Deli & Bakery and Cookies Tavern.</b> Unfortunately, the 1967 aerial photo of this property immediately east of the Gold Dome is not sufficiently crisp to be able read any signage on either of these buildings. The signage on the property at 2310 N. Western, Someplace Else today, appears to begin with "25," but that's far from certain, and the property located at 2304 N. Western, Cookies tavern today, is even less helpful in the 1967 aerial. The only thing certain is that neither property bore their present day names, shown below on March 1, 2012.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/someplaceelse_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/someplaceelse_3_1_2012_490.jpg" /></a></center><br />That said, here's a bit of each property's prior history. County Assessor records state that each property was constructed in 1935. The Someplace Else business has existed since 1976 but I don't know when Cookies tavern was born but it was by 2001. Today, both properties have the same owners, David and Peggy Carty, the operators of the deli.<br /><br /><b>2310 N. Western. </b>Among other uses and names, this property was a small grocery and meat market (1947), Moser's Pet Shop (1952-53), Universal Improvement Co. (1955), appliance repair (1959-60), DeSpain Realty (1962), Doll Haven & Hospital (1963-64), Acme Vacuum Sales (1964-65), AAA Upholstery (1968), and, most notably, Sound Warehouse (1972-1973), which I understand was that company's first location.<br /><br /><b>2304 N. Western. </b>In 1947, this property was advertised for rent as a storeroom, it measuring only 20 x 40 feet, with a glass front. In 1947, Robert Goodman's beer license was revoked (the property being immediately east of Jefferson School — see Citizens State Bank, below) but that decision was appealed — the <i>Oklahoman</i> does not report the outcome but the appeal likely lost since Jefferson did not cease operating as a school until May 1950. <i>Oklahoman</i> ads between 1948 and 1985 do show the property's names as Emerald Lounge (1948), Embro Lounge (1953), Ralph's Club (1985). By November 2001, the premises were advertised as "Cookies."<br /><br />About the above pair of properties, Jim Kyle, a contributor here and former <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter, adds a bit more via his comment here on March 14:<br /><blockquote>Someplace Else was established in 1976. Peggy was a co-worker of my wife's at the Crum & Forster Insurance Company's claims office in the American Fidelity complex, and I remember the going-away party they had when she and David opened the deli. We still visit there often; David's baked goods (made on the premises) are the best available!<br /> When Cookie's was operating as the Emerald Lounge, its owner also ran stock car races at a small track located on N. May avenue, near the present location of the Honeybaked Ham place. The track circled a small farm pond, and even ran over its dam. I used to shoot photos at the track on Sunday afternoons; he paid the winners at the lounge every Sunday night, so I would process the photos in a hurry and have 8 x 10s available for the winners to buy with their winnings that night! Thanks for bringing back those memories... </blockquote>You are more than welcome, Jim, but mainly, thanks to you for the additional memories about this fine pair of properties which would otherwise have been unknown!</li><br /><li><a href="" name="golddome"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1967.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1967_300.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Citizens State Bank aka the Gold Dome. </b>I've saved the best for the last in this bottom slice of the 1967 aerial photo, and it will take longer to tell the story than any of the above have. Constructed only about 9 years before the 1967 photo, this story not only involves the building structure and good times, it involves bank failure and the corruption of an eventual principal owner, but, in the end, the building's salvation and redemption which was spearheaded by citizens concerned with the building's preservation.</li></ol><center><a href="#citizens_jefferson">Jefferson School</a> <a href="#citizens_origins">Bank Origins</a> <a href="#citizens_dome">Gold Dome Construction</a><br /><a href="#citizens_glory">Glory Days</a> <a href="#citizens_darkness">Masked & Dark Days</a> <a href="#citizens_corruption">Corruption</a> <a href="#bazarian">Bazarian</a><br /><a href="#mitchell_charges">Mitchell Charges</a> <a href="#mitchell_trial">Mitchell Trial</a> <a href="#mitchell_appeal">Appeal</a> <a href="#mitchell_aftermath">Mitchell Aftermath</a><br /><a href="#citizens_laterbanks">Later Banks</a> <a href="#citizens_salvation">Salvation</a> <a href="#citizens_restoration">Restoration</a></center><br /><a href="" name="citizens_jefferson"></a> <b>● Origins — Jefferson Elementary School. </b>Way before the Gold Dome was the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_7_27_1905.jpg" target="_blank">1905 Jefferson School</a> which sat between Classen and Western along NW 23rd Street. I've not located any good images of the school, so the September 24, 1916, <i>Oklahoman</i> image will have to do for now.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_9_24_1916.jpg" /></center><br />The school was built <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_7_27_1905.jpg" target="_blank">in 1905</a> to serve the then far northwest part of the city, but <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_12_9_1905.jpg" target="_blank">as early as December 1905</a> it was seen as being too small to serve the city's expanding northwest and in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_10_15_1907.jpg" target="_blank">October 1907</a> four additional rooms were ready for use. Between these two dates, overall city student attendance grew by more than 1,000 students — 4,600 in December 1905 to 5,700 in October 1907.<br /><br />I didn't make a thorough study of the <i>Oklahoman's</i> archives concerning the school, but this <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_9_20_1916.jpg" target="_blank">September 20, 1916, article</a> did catch my fancy:<br /><blockquote><b>"Statue Bell" Is New Feature Introduced at Jefferson School</b> — The "statue bell," inaugurated at the Jefferson school by Principal G.B. Mitchell, is an innovation in the school signals in Oklahoma City. Four times a day — just before school starts in the morning and for the afternoon session, and at the close of each recess, the bell is sounded. <b><i>Its ringing is a signal for every child to drop everything and become absolutely motionless. The pose lasts for sixty seconds.<br /> The purpose of this bell is not only to teach the child the habit of <u>instant obedience</u></i></b> but also to prepare him to march into his classroom with a minimum of commotion.<br /> The new bell has been used at the Jefferson school for about a week and it is proving to be decidedly successful, Mr. Mitchell said. [Emphasis supplied.]</blockquote><b><i>Holy Human Midget Statues, Batman</i></b> — principal Mitchell's grade school kids must have been hell on wheels back in 1916 to merit them being turned into stone four times a day — or maybe it was only Mitchell who was the devil. I am reminded of Pink Floyd's classic 1979 rock opera, <i>The Wall</i> ... "Wrong! Do it again!" ... "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!", and "You! Yes! You behind the bikesheds! Stand still, laddie!" One can but wonder if the good principal himself tried being a 60-second statue four times a day, Monday through Friday, or ever. "All in all it's just another brick in the wall," I'm thinkin'.<br /><br />Skipping forward, the school board closed Jefferson School in May 1950 over heated objections by parents. Between the closing through 1954 or so the building was used as part of the school systems administrative offices and for other purposes. In September 1954 some if not all of the property was zoned for commercial use by the city council, over the objection of the city planning department, and the school board wanted to sell the property for commercial use, as well. In <a _target="_blank" href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_2_23_1956.jpg">February 1956</a>, attorneys David Shapard and Woodrow McConnell and insurance agency owner Hill Hodges signed a 120-day $410,000 option agreement to acquire the property and create an "ultra modern" 16-story on the property but the prospective purchasers failed to exercise their option. Finally, the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/jeffersonschool_9_5_1956.jpg" target="_blank">September 5, 1956, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Citizens State Bank had agreed to purchase the property for $351,000 for its new location, although the agreement was contingent of full payment by February 1957. The last $150,000 payment was made on February 1 or 2, 1957, and the stage was set for Citizens State Bank to build its new building.<br /><br /><a href="" name="citizens_origins"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1stcitizensstatebank_1948.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1stcitizensstatebank_1948_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;" /></a> <b>● Citizens State Bank. </b>Citizens State Bank organized in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_10_1946.jpg" target="_blank">December 1946</a>, incorporators being C.R. Anthony, Fred Sewell, Felix Simmons, B.D. Eddie, V.V. Harris, and Virgil Brown, and its initial facility at 601 NW 23, on the northwest corner of <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_10_29_1947.jpg" target="_blank">Dewey and NW 23rd</a>, opened for business on May 27, 1948. Even though presently vacant, the property still stands as shown by this photo taken in March 2012. The images below show the bank shortly after its construction and a few years later after adding a drive-through to the west. Both are from the Oklahoma Historical Society archives.<br /><table><tbody><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome1948.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome1948_240.jpg" /></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome1950.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome1950_240.jpg" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>Advertising itself as a convenient suburban bank but with all of the facets of a downtown bank, the state bank grew rapidly and outgrew its original home and in only eight years, by September 1956, total deposits reached $20 million and it was the largest "state" bank in the state and the 9th largest of any bank in Oklahoma.<br /><br /><a href="" name="citizens_dome"></a> <b>● The Gold Dome Is Born. </b>When the bank purchased the old Jefferson School property for its new location in 1957, the remarkable design of its new facility wasn't publicly known. After razing the school, bids were solicited for the project in November 1957, but if the <i>Oklahoman</i> contained any description of the property before May 1958 I couldn't find it. It may well be that the public's first knowledge was in the newspaper's <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_5_8_1958_2.jpg" target="_blank">May 8, 1958, story</a> and construction photo, the photo appearing below. Those passing by the Classen & NW 23rd intersection must have been puzzled and fascinated.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_5_8_1958_490.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_5_8_1958_490.jpg" /></a></center><br />Also, see this <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_7_1958.jpg" target="_blank">December 7, 1958, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> for some additional description. The general contractor was Secor Construction Co. of the city but the geodesic dome itself was being assembled by Dale Benz Inc. of Phoenix. The article says that the dome would include 625 diamond shaped panels of gold anodized aluminum and that its assembly began on May 7 and was amazingly expected to be complete only one week later. <br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/fullerstamp2004.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/fullerstamp2004_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>The first geodesic dome was designed by German Walther Bauersfeld to house his planetarium which was completed in 1926 in Jena, Germany, but it was Richard Buckminster Fuller who coined the term "geodesic" and improved upon the science and and popularized it — he received a <a href="http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/Geodesic-Dome/First-Geodesic-Dome.htm" target="_blank">U.S. patent</a> for his version of the dome in June 1954. He is shown in this July 2004 stamp with a domed head, the stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Fuller's patent.<br /><br />I'm just guessing, but one would suppose that neither the bank's 1957-1958 owners nor directors came up with the notion of using the then fledgling concept of a geodesic dome for the new bank. Most probably, that idea came from the architects they selected, the Oklahoma City firm of Bailey, Bozalis, Dickenson & Roloff. The <a href="http://www.ocgi.okstate.edu/shpo/nhrpdfs/03000875.pdf" target="_blank">2003 documentation</a> submitted to request registration of the building on the National Register of Historic Places indicates that Robert B. Roloff was the principal architect. Like Larry Nichols and Devon Energy decades later, the bank's owners and directors apparently chose to make an architectural statement in their city, and they did. Admission of the dome to that august organization of American historic structures occurred in 2003.<br /><br />The initially planned opening date of the day after Labor Day did not happen, but, on Sunday, December 7, 1958, the new bank was open for public inspection, and on December 8 it was open for business. A photo from the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_7_1958.jpg" target="_blank">December 7, 1958, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> shows a view of the interior.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_interior_12_7_1958_490.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_interior_12_7_1958_490.jpg" /></a></center><br /><a href="" name="citizens_glory"></a> <b>● Glory Days. </b>Citizens State Bank opened for business at the Gold Dome on Monday December 8, 1958, following an open house to the public on Sunday, and it was a sight to behold. Although the gold color has faded now, the photos below from the Oklahoma Historical Society show that the building's cap was indeed a brilliant gold.<br /><br /><table><tbody><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_1_250.jpg" /></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_2_250.jpg" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>Under the leadership of its board chairman and chief executive C.R. Anthony, Citizens continued its growth in the Gold Dome. In 1963, it shed its state bank status and became Citizens National Bank of Oklahoma City. In January 1970 Citizens added a trust department and the bank got its final name, Citizens National Bank & Trust Co. of Oklahoma City.<br /><br />Although not owned by Citizens, several of its owners and directors joined to purchase the block south of the bank during 1960-1963. An <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/citizenstower_8_2_1963.jpg" target="_blank">August 2, 1963, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> told why — those investors would build an office building, Citizens Tower, south of the bank. The article reported that the building would be 25 stories tall and would be designed by the same architect, Bob Roloff of Bailey, Bozalis, Dickenson & Roloff, that had designed Citizens State Bank only a few years earlier. It, too, would maximize gold anodized diamonds which were very compatible with the bank's design. The article notes that B.D. Eddie was president of Citizens Tower Corporation and that other of Citizens' officers and directors were involved with the project — C.R. Anthony, Myron Horton, L.A. Macklanburg, V.V. Harris, Jr., among others. This building, which was actually built to 21 stories, will be more particularly described in Oklahoma City Circa 1967 — Part 2.<br /><br />At least by 1965, Citizens became the city's 5th largest bank and 9th largest bank in the state — by 1976, Citizens' deposits broke $100 million for the first time and it was the city's 4th largest, behind Liberty, First National, and Fidelity. That remained true through 1979. A general <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1_13_1980.jpg" target="_blank">January 13, 1980, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> boasted that assets at metro area banks approached the $5 billion level in the 1979 year. The article quotes various metro banking officers as saying such things as,<br /><blockquote>[Wilfred] Clarke [of Fidelity] expects the Oklahoma City economy to continue to grow, describing it as "vigorous, diversified, expanding and strong." * * * Jack Foster, president of fourth-ranked Citizens National Bank, attributed increased earnings to expansion of the bank's commercial lending to firms able to pay the 15 percent to 17 percent interest on their loans. Foster said Citizens Bank's earnings increased 22 percent before taxes last year, and 14.49 percent after taxes, compared with 1978 profits.</blockquote>At the time, Oklahoma City metropolitan unemployment was only 2.9% (compared to the nation's rate of just under 6%), and, as well, the city's General Motors assembly plant went into production in May 1979 and added more than 5,000 jobs to metro employment.<br /><br />The article also includes this then-benign observation ...<br /><blockquote>Banking executives agreed that a booming rise in oil and natural gas exploration, production and land leasing contributed primarily to the increase in business activity and jobs.</blockquote>A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_2_1980.jpg" target="_blank">March 2, 1980, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> presented detail on the performance of the 13 Oklahoma banks with assets of $100 million or more ... published asset values, rounded down, are shown here ...<br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><table border="2" cellpadding="5"><tbody><tr><td width="29%"><b>1</b> 1st NB, Okc — $1.5B</td><td width="35%"><b>5</b> Fidelity, Okc — $522M</td><td width="36%"><b>9</b> F&M, Tul — $210M</td></tr><tr><td><b>2</b> Liberty, Okc — $1.2B</td><td><b>6</b> 4th NB, Tul — $317M</td><td><b>10</b> Citizens, Okc — $155M</td></tr><tr><td><b>3</b> BOK, Tul — $977M</td><td><b>7</b> Utica, Tul — $283M</td><td><b>11</b> Commerce, Tul — $137M</td></tr><tr><td><b>4</b> 1st NB, Tul — $909M</td><td><b>8</b> 1st NB, B'ville — $232M</td><td><b>12</b> Union, Okc — $125M</td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><b>13</b> Penn Square, Okc — $114M</td></tr></tbody></table></span><br />The importance of #13 on the list, Penn Square Bank, would become known two years later when, on July 5, 1982, Penn Square Bank was declared insolvent, probably unknowingly foretold by the above quote in the January 13, 1980, <i>Oklahoman</i> article. A February 15, 1981, <i>Oklahoman</i> article reported that Penn Square Bank replaced Citizens as the city's fourth largest bank during 1980.<br /><br />In 1980-1981, oil prices dropped substantially and Penn Square Bank's speculative oil and gas lending practices, mimicked or indirectly participated in by other banks, started a bank failure domino effect heard around the world — more about that in the next section.<br /><br />A snapshot of the remarkable rise of Citizens Bank deposits during its history through June 30, 1983, is shown below. Thirty-eight (38) <i>Oklahoman</i> ads and articles published during the period are the sources of this detail which I've collectively assembled in the chart below.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/deposits.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/deposits_490.jpg" /></a></center><br />But, of course, deposits are not all there is in terms of a bank's well-being. Citizen's performance report on June 30, 1985, published in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_7_25_1985.jpg" target="_blank">July 25, 1985, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> show deposits at $232.4 million. Before the end of 1985, things at Citizens would change.<br /><br /><a href="" name="citizens_darkness"></a> <b>● Days of Masked Darkness & Failure.</b> Although Citizens was far less aggressively involved with speculative lending than Penn Square Bank (what bank wasn't?), in 1981-1982 it nonetheless had a substantial loan portfolio that became bad and had to be written off the books, meaning "pretty much uncollectible," or something like that. Although Citizens did not begin to be referred to as a "troubled bank" until later, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_9_12_1982.jpg" target="_blank">September 12, 1982, article</a> did note that Citizens charged off $4.3 million loans in 1981 and an additional $6 million in April 1982 "as a result of an examination of the bank completed that month." The article did not identify who had made the examination, but, in the banking business, it is a given that a bank's examiners are federal level banking types of folk.<br /><br />A month earlier, an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_17_1982.jpg" target="_blank">August 17, 1982, article</a> reported that a bank holding company had been established to own Citizens which was called "Citizens National Bankshares Inc." (actually, the name was Citizens National Ban<u>c</u>shares, Inc.). Its stated purpose was to "allow Citizens to respond [with] more flexibility to the changing requirements of the banking public and to permit geographic diversification of bank operations," said Citizens' President, Jack Foster. An <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_8_1982.jpg" target="_blank">August 8, 1982, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported that such holding companies had become a trend and gave further explanation of why the same was occurring. That article said,<br /><blockquote>Thomas G. Watkins, economist for the Kansas City federal reserve bank, said transfer of ownership to bank holding companies gives owners opportunity to pump more capital into the bank to raise its operating performance, and provides attractive benefits that, in effect, make it possible to buy a bank with a minority of cash and loans from the bank being purchased.</blockquote>Probably that makes sense to those who are well-versed with banking practices, but to simple ears like mine it sounds more like, "Citizens just ain't cutting the mustard without someone trying something new." Probably, that's just me.<br /><br /> <b>• Dale E. Mitchell. </b>Regardless, that development was the vehicle for the old regime to substantially exit and a new player to enter the unfolding Citizens drama, that being Dale E. Mitchell, then only 39 years old. The <i>Oklahoman</i> reported on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_9_12_1982.jpg" target="_blank">September 12, 1982</a>, that,<br /><blockquote>Oklahoma City banker Dale Mitchell has bought control of Citizens National Bank & Trust Co., and will take over top management of Citizens on Oct. 1, it was confirmed Saturday.</blockquote>At the time, Mitchell was principal owner of the Bank of Commerce, Tulsa, and had a substantial interest in 1st National, Tulsa (see the table, above). Immediately before the move, he was the president and vice-chairman of First National Bancorporation (i.e., 1st National, Oklahoma City). A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_9_14_1982.jpg" target="_blank">September 14, 1982</a>, article said that he "jumped at the chance" to acquire the interest and become chairman and CEO of the bank and its new holding company. The article said,<br /><blockquote>Mitchell said the opportunity to buy control of Citizens came up quickly only a few weeks ago. "I jumped at it," he said. ¶ He is resigning as vice chairman of the First Oklahoma Bancorporation, which owns the First National Bank & Trust Co., the state's largest bank with $3 billion in assets. ¶ In seven years at First National, Mitchell rose from vice president to president and chief executive of the bank and vice chairman of the holding company. ¶ Mitchell acknowledges that he will take a substantial cut in salary and perquisites [ed. note: perks], but he also is starting, at age 39, a career as an owner and chief executive. He owns control of The Bank of Commerce and the neighborhood Gilcrease Hills Bank in Tulsa. ¶ The Bank of Commerce has assets of $270 million, and with the Citizens' assets of $227 million, Mitchell has control of about $500 million in bank assets, with a joint lending limit of $4½ million. ¶ "We will be able to serve and keep our customers as they grow," he said.</blockquote>The article says that Mitchell characterized Citizens as "strong," and he also said that "energy" loans had been reduced to 5%. As to the loans which had been written off, Mitchell said, "We expect good recoveries from those loans written off."<br /><br />In fact, Citizens' experiences after Mitchell assumed control were optimistic. Below is a photo from a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_5_1983.jpg" target="_blank">March 3, 1983, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> showing Mitchell during a remodel of Citizens' interior which carried the headline, "Overhauled Citizens Bank All Set for Profitable Year." Also in this regard, see <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_4_15_1983.jpg" target="_blank">this April 15, 1983, article</a>.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_5_1983_pic.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_5_1983_pic_490.jpg" /></a></center><br />The March 1983 article called 1982 a "disaster year" for Citizens, even though an <i>Oklahoman</i> reader could not have known that from reading 1982 <i>Oklahoman</i> articles pertaining to Citizens. <br /><br />Despite the remodeling of the Gold Dome then underway, the article reported that Mitchell said,<br /><blockquote>"We have to get commercial and retail banking physically separated," he said. "We need a new building, a square building, but we won't build until we can afford a new building on our property."</blockquote>That remark did not bode well for future of the Gold Dome. Mitchell was evidently interested in seeing Citizens compete with the largest commercial banks in the state, and he was apparently interested in seeing the then defunct Penn Square Bank tower, then named Northwest Tower, but shortly to be renamed Citizens Plaza, become Citizens' home.<br /><blockquote>Mitchell acknowledges the differences between executive rank in a $3 billion banking firm, with regional and even international connections, and once a highly profitable bank. He risked the change with the conviction a new era is coming in Oklahoma banking. * * * He is considering the idea of merging the Citizens and Commerce [of Tulsa] Banks into one holding company if the legislature passes the pending multibank measure, and making the Gilcrease Bank in Tulsa a branch of Commerce. ¶ Their consolidated assets have grown to just under $500 million; loans exceed $300 million and deposits are at $420 million.</blockquote>The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_6_21_1983.jpg" target="_blank">June 21, 1983, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that a young, 32-year old, Timothy A. Baker had been appointed to be Citizens' president. According to the article, his prior banking experience was vice-president of InterFirst Bank of Dallas in charge of its new loan production office, in addition to Mitchell's appointment of Baker to be executive vice-president of Citizens in March 1983.<br /><br />Very quickly, though, Mitchell was recruited to become the savior of Fidelity Bank by a search team headed by Dean A. McGee whom Mitchell had evidently impressed. Mitchell was elected chief executive officer of Fidelity Bank on July 7, 1983, for the apparent purpose of doing at Fidelity what he was at least perceived to have done at Citizens — shed bad energy loans, improve capitalization, and improve profitability. He acquired no stock in Fidelity and kept his holdings in other banks, including Citizens. <br /><br />But, due to banking regulations, Mitchell could not maintain his leadership roles at Citizens while performing lifeguard duty at Fidelity. At Citizens, Baker became CEO at and Larry Hartzog became chairman of the board, and they led Citizens until Mitchell would return in November or December 1984 (<i>Oklahoman</i> reports varied). <br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/miscbuildings/valliancetower.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/miscbuildings/valliancetower_175.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>A possible new physical future emerged for Citizens during Mitchell's absence — but it is inconceivable that major moves would not have been informally discussed between Mitchell, Baker and Hartzog. Even if Mitchell had no official position at Citizens during his hiatus, he remained Citizens' major owner. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_2_1983-1.jpg" target="_blank">December 2, 1983, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> contained the bold headline, <b>"Northwest Tower Becomes Citizens Plaza."</b> Among other things, the article says,<br /><blockquote>Citizens National Bank & Trust Co. will rent 43,604 square feet of space in the new 21-floor Northwest Tower at Interstate 44 and Northwest Expressway and the name of the building will be changed to Citizens Plaza, it was announced Thursday. * * *Citizens will be designated the anchor tenant, occupying space on the ground floor and on the third and fourth floors. The agreement includes options for Citizens to lease space on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors for future expansion.</blockquote>The article noted that negotiations had been underway since April (i.e., when Mitchell still held his positions at Citizens), so Mitchell was very clearly involved in the process. The article was vague as to whether the Citizens Plaza property would become the bank's primary location or would only be a branch and it noted that, either way, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency's approval would be required.<br /><br />A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_20_1984.jpg" target="_blank">March 20, 1984, article</a> reported that Citizens planned to move to Citizens Plaza in August, leaving the future of the Gold Dome in doubt. The article quoted Tim Baker as saying, <br /><blockquote>We will either have to refurbish it or tear it down and build a new building on the site. * * * We will maintain banking operations at NW 23 and Classen, but we're just not sure if it will be a branch or a main headquarters. Our building is 26 years old and it was only meant to have a useful life of 10 to 12 years. The roof leaks, the pipes freeze and the golden dome is not as shiny as it used to be.</blockquote>Once again, however, the article reported that the move was still waiting the approval of the U.S. comptroller. Status of the Gold Dome became a little clearer in a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_7_13_1984.jpg" target="_blank">July 13 article</a>. While noting that Citizens' original intent was that Citizens Plaza was to become the bank's headquarters, the application <i>then pending</i> before the comptroller was that the latter would be a branch and that the Classen and NW 23rd location would remain bank headquarters. <br /><blockquote>Thursday, Tim Baker, Citizens president, said executive offices and lending and trust operations will move to Citizens Plaza when the branch application is approved. He said the Golden Dome at the bank's current site has inadequate space to handle the bank's growth, but that it technically will remain the headquarters bank, at least for the present.</blockquote>Although I admit to doing a bit of tea-leaves-reading here, my suspicion is that Mitchell, Baker and Hartzog <i>wanted</i> Citizens Plaza to become Citizens' headquarters but that the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency had thrown a critical eye in that regard and that the application, which had been pending since December 1983, had been modified to gain the comptroller's approval. Mitchell had made very clear that his goal was to make Citizens a player in commercial lending, inclusive of his ventures in Tulsa, particularly the downtown Commerce Bank. On at least four occasions during 1982 and 1983, a side-by side "Statement of Condition" for each bank was published in the <i>Oklahoman</i>, for ending quarters for December 1982, April 1983, June 1983, and September 1983. I'd hazzard a guess that the same thing was occurring in the <i>Tulsa World</i>. See this <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_10_18_1983.jpg" target="_blank">October 18, 1983, example</a>, published during Mitchell's stay at Fidelity. Under the common banner, "Oklahoma's Banks That Mean Business," were the statements,<br /><blockquote>There's a new commercial banking network in Oklahoma. Bank of Commerce in Tulsa. And Citizens Bank in Oklahoma City. The first <i>full-service</i> commercial banking network that's making history. A business-banking network specifically designed to give your company powerful new resources and expanded service. * * * If your company has branch offices in either the Tulsa or Oklahoma City areas, this new joint working relationship can be particularly advantageous foryou.</blockquote>Very plainly, the earlier retail/consumer oriented goals of Citizen State Bank's founders — implied in the choice of the name, "Citizens" — had changed under the Mitchell regime.<br /><br />A festive black-tie dinner dance in the new Citizen Plaza penthouse (actually, there were two penthouse floors, but who's counting?) a day or so before December 9 served as sort of a christening party for the new tower. The event was described in a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_9_1983.jpg" target="_blank">December 9, 1983, <i>Oklahoman</i> society page article</a> like this:<br /><blockquote>Peter Duchin and his orchestra were flown in from New York to add their special music to the sophisticated atmosphere. * * * It was definitely the black-tie invitation that motivated the "in" crowd to deck themselves out in their holiday finest, put on their dancing shoes and spend a delightful evening high in the sky. * * * Guests could circle the penthouse and take their pick of such delicacies as lobster, lamb chops, thin sliced beef ...</blockquote>Etc., etc., etc. Chances are good that no readers of this article were invited to the ball, but the event was attended by Dale Mitchell and Cleta Deatherage among many others who the article described as being in the "in" crowd. Andy Coats, to be mentioned later, was present, as well. As for your and my absence of an invitation ... oh, well ... maybe next time or in some other life we too will have such an opportunity.<br /><br />Back to topic. I couldn't determine the reason for the branch opening delay — comptroller issues or something else — but Citizen's branch bank at Citizens Plaza did not open until almost a year after the gala party described above. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_11_22_1984.jpg" target="_blank">November 22, 1984, article</a> said that Citizens would formally open its new branch at Citizens Plaza on December 3, although the article also said that limited operations were already occurring there as of the article's date. A December 9, 1984, <i>Oklahoman</i> ad by Citizens publicly announced the opening of the new branch office at Citizens Plaza.<br /><br />By that time, Mitchell had finished his business with Fidelity — which is a story for another day, but, in a nutshell, during his time at Fidelity was acquired by and merged into BankOklahoma Corp. (Bank of Oklahoma) of Tulsa — and had returned as Citizens' chief executive officer and chairman of the board. As part of his leaving Fidelity, he was given a $1 million promissory note which note would become important in two of the later criminal charges against him. Notwithstanding that a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_11_7_1984.jpg" target="_blank">November 7, 1984, article</a> already said that Mitchell was then Citizens' chairman, and that his wife, Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, was the bank's general counsel and a vice president, a later <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_11_22_1984-1.jpg" target="_blank">November 22, 1984, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported that Dale Mitchell had been re-elected chairman and chief executive of Citizens, that James Burgar, formerly with Fidelity, was named president, and that former president Timothy A. Baker had relinquished his presidency and chief executive positions to become vice chairman of the board of directors, all effective December 1. In the article, Mitchell announced that Citizens would formally open its Citizens Plaza (called Tower in the article) branch on December 3 although limited operations were already occurring there when the article was written.<br /><br />As for Mitchell after his return to Citizens, <i>Oklahoman</i> articles — and there were several — mainly show his involvement in the dispute between Dean Krakel and others with several prominent members of the board of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for control of the Cowboy Hall and the possibility that it might leave Oklahoma City. Mitchell was the Cowboy Hall's board treasurer and Citizens had a substantial loan to the Hall. That's quite a fascinating story all by itself but it won't be further gotten into here. <br /><br />As for banking, only four stories about Citizens appeared in the <i>Oklahoman</i> in 1985, plus Statements of Condition. Recalling what has been previously said about Mitchell's interest in the Tulsa's Bank of Commerce, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_5_23_1985.jpg" target="_blank">May 23 article</a> described steps being proposed and taken to bolster the Bank of Commerce and other banks with a linkage which would potentially include Citzens. I'll get to the other 1985 <i>Oklahoman</i> stories shortly.<br /><br />Statements of Condition published in 1985's <i>Oklahomans</i> were no longer paired with similar statements about Commercial Bank of Tulsa. Citizens' 1985 published statements showed deposits, loans & reserves for loans, and total assets as follows:<br /><br /><center><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><table border="2" cellpadding="1"><tbody><tr><td align="center" width="25%">Report Date</td><td align="center">Deposits</td><td align="center" width="25%">Loans & Reserves</td><td align="center" width="25%">Total Assets</td></tr><tr><td align="center">3/31/1985</td><td align="center">$235.672M</td><td align="center">$172.350M</td><td align="center">$256.610M</td></tr><tr><td align="center">6/30/1985</td><td align="center">$232.451M</td><td align="center">$168.075M</td><td align="center">$253,551M</td></tr><tr><td align="center">9/30/1985</td><td align="center">$216.021M</td><td align="center">$155.827M</td><td align="center">$229.973M</td></tr><tr><td align="center">12/31/1985</td><td align="center">$159.675M</td><td align="center">$146.503M</td><td align="center">$204.994M</td></tr></tbody></table></span></center><br />The December 31, 1985, Statement of Condition was the last to be filed by Citizens in the <i>Oklahoman</i>. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_6_13_1986.jpg" target="_blank">June 13, 1986, article</a> reported that, "Citizens has not published its bank call (ed. note: statement of condition?) for the first quarter. Most Oklahoma City banks published theirs in April." None were published during the remainder of 1986, either.<br /><br />The second 1985 <i>Oklahoman</i> article appeared on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_4_1985.jpg" target="_blank">December 4</a> and was evidence of internal discord within the Citizens organization. The article reported that, on November 18, two officers had resigned, Jan L. Miller, executive vice president for lending, and Jim D. Burgar, president of the bank. The article says that, "Burgar said he left because of disagreement over how the bank ought to be run." Mitchell then assumed Burgar's role.<br /><br />The third 1985 <i>Oklahoman</i> story about Citizens appeared on December 17 and <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_17_1985.jpg" target="_blank">that article</a> marked the end of Mitchell's leadership roles in Citizens. The article reported that the directors of Citizens Bancshares Inc., which owned the bank, voted to approve an option agreement with Shawnee banker H.E. Gene Rainbolt to buy control of Citizens — later articles indicated that meant an option which Rainbolt could exercise within a 5-year period to buy 55% of Citizens but it was an option that Rainbolt never exercised — and that the directors elected Ray F. Bauer, Rainbolt's choice, to be president and chief executive officer of Citizens. Mitchell was replaced as President although Mitchell would remain chairman of Citizens National Bancshares until the Federal Reserve Board would approve Rainbolt as chairman and chief executive. Bauer's appointment as chief executive already had the approval of the regional director of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, so this development must have started well before the December 17 article.<br /><br />The last 1985 article, <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_29_1985.jpg" target="_blank">December 29,1985</a>, was about what Dale Mitchell would do with himself upon his departure from Citizens. Read the article for more particulars, but a synopsis is that he would become a professional adviser in the following regards:<br /><blockquote>"I'm going to spend all my time trying to interpret to clients how to invest and how to sustain those investments," he said. "I intend to concentrate on revitalizing businesses that are already here in Oklahoma, those with 25 workers who can grow and avoid going broke."</blockquote>Good luck with that — see the <a href="#citizens_corruption">Days of Corruption</a> section, below.<br /><br /> <b>• Post-Mitchell Last Days. </b>Mitchell was effectively gone from Citizens by December 16, per a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_12_17_1985.jpg" target="_blank">December 17, 1985, article</a>, and the new person in control <i>seemed to be</i> H.E. Gene Rainbolt. Rainbolt was a successful Shawnee banker who had created a consortium of banks within a holding company named United Community Corp. which involved banks in several Oklahoma cities, e.g., Shawnee, Guthrie, Konawa, McAlester, Sand Springs, Seminole and Stillwater. If he was able to make substantial changes at Citizens during his tenure as chair of Citizens Bancshares, chances were good that he would have exercised his purchase option for 55% of Citizens and would have added Citizens to his stable of banks. It is difficult to imagine that he would have become involved with Citizens' fate for any other possibility. <br /><br />His view of Citizens was different than Mitchell's and was more akin to the original Citizens State Bank incorporators when C.R. Anthony and others formed the bank in 1948. But his view would not prevail — by May, it became evident that a majority of the board of Citizens Bancshares did not share Rainbolt's aspirations for the bank.<br /><br />A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_2_1986.jpg" target="_blank">March 2, 1986, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> anticipated federal approval and a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_20_1986.jpg" target="_blank">March 20 article</a> reported that federal approval of the Rainbolt development had been granted. The direction that Rainbolt wished to take Citizens was described in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_3_2_1986.jpg" target="_blank">March 2 article</a> by Bauer who had been acting President for about two months:<br /><blockquote>He [Bauer] said Citizens is on a reducing regimen, changing its goal of becoming a $300 million commercial lending institution to a community bank of between $200 million and $225 million to serve smaller businesses and consumers. ¶ He said the Golden Dome at NW 23 and Classen comprises "our main bank, our main offices and the primary source of deposits and lending. ¶ Those people have been our customers and will continue to be," he said. "Our goal is to re-emphasize a community banking philosophy. We intend to increase installment lending. It is prudent to take care of our core depositors and borrowers."</blockquote>Perhaps that would have happened had Rainbolt had greater control but, as it was, an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_8_1986.jpg" target="_blank">August 8 article</a> reported that Bauer, Rainbolt's choice as bank president, had been replaced by the Citizens Bancshares board in May and that board members selected Wallace H. Emerson to serve as president instead. Although Rainbolt continued as board chairman after that board action in May, his role became passive and <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_8_1986.jpg" target="_blank">the August 8 article</a> reported that Rainbolt resigned his chairmanship of Citizens Bancshares. Rainbolt's reasons were reported in the article.<br /><blockquote>"We saw it as an opportunity, and the board saw it a different way," he said. "We picked our person and our approach, and if that was not what they wanted to follow, that was sufficient to terminate our agreement."</blockquote>Earlier articles, in June, were less specific about those factual developments but those June articles evidenced that the bank's attorney, Terry W. Tippens, had become the bank's principal spokesman, he doubtless speaking on behalf of the board. In the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_6_13_1986.jpg" target="_blank">June 13 article</a> mentioned previously, it was reported that the <i>Oklahoman</i> had obtained the bank's first quarter 1986 report filed with the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, principal regulator of U.S. banks, prepared during Bauer's regime. Even though the submitted report had not been made publicly available, it was a "public record," and that fact entitled the <i>Oklahoman</i> to obtain the information. The report was not a good one for citizens.<br /><br />The article's main headline read, in bold print, <b>"Citizens Bank Net Worth Drops 68%,"</b> and the secondary headline was, "Report Indicates Problems in Loan Portfolio." Emerson, Bauer's successor as bank president, would only say, "I have no comment," to Kevin Laval, the <i>Oklahoman's</i> reporter. Lawyer Tippens said that the figures were based on information prepared by Bauer's staff and that they had been withdrawn for re-evaluation. The article also noted, however, that Ellen Stockdale, spokesperson for the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, "said such reports are public records that can be revised but not withdrawn."<br /><blockquote><i>"Oh, come on, Terry,"</i> I was thinking as I read this article — Tippens, a top-flight lawyer in this field, would have known better, and his remarks only represented a failed transparent attempt at window dressing, in this writer's opinion.</blockquote>The report reflected that during the first quarter Citizen's net worth dropped from $12 million to $3.8 million and that assets had dropped to $179 million. The article said that federal regulations require that "a bank of Citizens' assets * * * maintain net worth of $10.7 million." If that's so, that means that Citizens was under-capitalized at the end of March by $6.9 million.<br /><br />The article also said,<br /><blockquote>Tippens also said a plan has been developed for increasing the bank's net worth, although he would not discuss the proposal in detail.</blockquote><i>"But, wait, there's more" (ala Ron Popeil).</i> The article goes on to say,<br /><blockquote><i>The Oklahoman</i> obtained a [ed. note: another] report from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, which regulates bank holding companies. Martha Conner, of the Fed's Freedom of Information office, said the report was written by the FDIC and consists of data filed with the FDIC by the bank. ¶ The report shows problems in Citizens' loan portfolio and, as a result, weakness in the ability to produce income. When a loan is lost, the income it would produce is also lost. ¶ The report shows that the bank acknowledged $7.6 millions of loans — most of them commercial lendings — as losses during the quarter. * * * With the net loss, equity capital — which was $5.9 million at the beginning of the period — fell to a negative $7.8 million.</blockquote><i>This report</i> was not a report by Citizens, <i>it was a report by the FDIC</i>, and neither Tippens nor his client Citizens Bancshares would have any control over withdrawing or revising that federal report.<br /><br />These things, and other items mentioned in the full <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_6_13_1986.jpg" target="_blank">June 13 article</a>, explain the reason for Terry Tippens' fancy-dancing.<br /><br />But the dance would not work. Although an <i>Oklahoman</i> article as late as <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_12_1986.jpg" target="_blank">August 12</a> indicated that Dallas-based MCorp might be considering acquiring Citizens Bank and probably as part of the new regime's plan, it was too little too late. From the federal perspective, several things were possibly, and I think probably, seen as true and as probable givens:<br /><ol><li>Federal authorities did not like what had occurred at Citizens during the several months before December 1985.</li><li>As evidence of that hypothesis, by December 1985, Federal authorities had already pre-approved Bauer as president before he was appointed to that position — such kinds of things do not happen quickly at the federal level.</li><li>Federal authorities liked Bauer's proposed appointment and approved the proposed arrangement with Rainbolt.</li><li>Both Rainbolt and Bauer had more modest visions of what Citizens' goals would become.</li><li>Bauer was gone from Citizens in May and Rainbolt was gone in August. By May, the board majority at Citizens Bancshares had assumed control.</li><li>This new regime was perhaps more interested in Mitchell's commercial model than Rainbolt's consumer model (I'm just guessing).</li><li>First quarter 1986 was a disaster for Citizens.</li><li>Regardless of any hype from Tippens, nothing had happened after the first quarter to present a more promising Citizens to federal officials.</li></ol> <b>● Citizens Fails On August 14. </b>Whether my above analysis of the situation is correct or not, Citizens National Bank & Trust Company of Oklahoma City was closed by federal regulators at 5:00 p.m. on August 14, 1986. A pair of <i>Oklahoman</i> articles on August 15 gives the detail — <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_15_1986_frontpage.jpg" target="_blank">the main front page story</a> and the chart showing failed Oklahoma banks <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_15_1986_page21.jpg" target="_blank">on page 21</a>. Citizens' failure was the 3rd largest in state history (Penn Square Bank, Oklahoma City, July 5, 1982, $470 million deposits; First National, Oklahoma City, July 14, 1986, $1.5 billion deposits; Citizens on August 14, $158 million deposits). The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_15_1986_page21.jpg" target="_blank">page 21 chart</a> shows that Tulsa's Bank of Commerce in which Mitchell had a major interest was closed on May 8, 1986, with $126 million deposits, and the relevance of that bank closure will become evident in the next section.<br /><br />The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_8_15_1986_frontpage.jpg" target="_blank">front page article</a> contained a Bulletin that Liberty Bank, Oklahoma City, had purchased Citizens the better assets of Citizens from FDIC. Citizens' Gold Dome and its branch at Citizens Plaza would reopen on Monday, August 18, but as branch banks of Liberty National Bank & Trust Co. of Oklahoma City and the once proud bank originally known as Citizens State Bank would be seen no more.<br /><br /><a href="" name="citizens_corruption"></a> <b>● Days of Corruption. </b>I'm not sure that's the best title for this section since I'm not interested in being judgmental — but, sadly, a rose by any other name is still a rose. The names mentioned in this section are associated with Dale E. Mitchell's name in one way or another.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39886/dale-mitchell-was-no-goat-the-guy-who-took-the/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/dalemitchell_2010.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px;" /></a><b>Dale E. Mitchell.</b> Dale is one of the sons of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Mitchell_%28baseball%29" target="_blank">L. Dale Mitchell</a>, a former baseball great at the University of Oklahoma who became a major league baseball icon and for whom the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Dale_Mitchell_Baseball_Park" target="_blank">L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park</a> at the University of Oklahoma is named. In this October 2010 picture, the son is in the background and the father is shown in the foreground in a Cleveland Indians baseball card. The son, too, played baseball at the University of Oklahoma, but the story here is not about baseball.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/wotol/deatherage/index.htm" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/cletadeatherage.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>After Dale Mitchell's 1983 divorce from his first wife, Mary Ellen Mitchell, Mitchell married Cleta Deatherage in March 1984. Deatherage was then a Norman up-and-commer in the Democratic party — she served eight years as member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives (1976-1984) and was seen by many as a beacon of progressiveness in Oklahoma and in the Democratic party, generally. She felt so strongly about the Democrat party that, as a premarital condition of her changing her last name to Mitchell upon marriage, she insisted that Dale switch his party affiliation to Democrat before their marriage, and he obliged. A March 9, 1984, <i>Oklahoman</i> article reported Deatherage as saying, "He wanted that [name change] and it wasn't negotiable. It was important to him." At their marriage, Dale was 41 and Cleta was 33 years of age. A few months earlier, both attended the gala black-tie invitation-only dinner-dance for the opening of Citizens Plaza as was reported in the <i>Oklahoman</i> on December 9, 1983. After their marriage, in November 1984 the Mitchells purchased a home at <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2617/R169574070001rA.jpg" target="_blank">6715 Avondale Drive</a> in Nichols Hills, leaving their Norman residence. <i>Oklahoman</i>, November 7, 1984. According to the <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/AN-R.asp?ACCOUNTNO=R169574070" target="_blank">County Assessor's records</a>, on November 1, 1984, Cleta Deatherage Mitchell became the owner of the Avondale Drive property and she sold the property, valued around $1 million, for only $310,000 on May 1, 1987. Go figure.<br /><br />This was her second marriage, as well. <a href="http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/why-conservative-power-attorney-cleta-mitchell-bashes-goproud-while-her-firm-embraces-diversity/" target="_blank">It has been reported</a> that her first husband was gay, and it has been suggested that that fact may have influenced her metamorphosis from a liberal Democrat into an ultra-conservative Republican activist after she and Dale left Oklahoma, but I'm offering no opinion about that. After first moving to New York, they eventually settled in Washington, D.C., as will be discussed below. As has already been mentioned, after Mitchell left his Fidelity Bank duties and resumed his positions at Citizens Bank in November or December 1984, Cleta Deatherage Mitchell became General Council for and a vice president of Citizens National Bank & Trust Company.<br /><br />Mitchell was eventually charged with bank fraud, in 1992, and one might think that just telling a bit about that trial and its outcome would be a simple thing to do — but, the problem is, that such an approach would leave out significant parts of the story which, before the end be told, has elements of a melodrama, a very interesting con-man (Bazarian, not Mitchell), an ex-wife and a bankruptcy thrown in. <br /><br />I'm saying that a very engaging television soap opera could easily be crafted upon the Mitchell story unfolding here.<br /><br />I'll start with Mitchell's ex-wife. As alluded to above, following a 19-year marriage, Mitchell and his first wife, Mary Ellen, were divorced in Oklahoma City on August 24, 1983. But, in July 1985, Mary Ellen filed a petition to vacate that decree which wasn't the result of a trial but of a negotiated divorce agreement. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_divorce_7_12_1985.jpg" target="_blank">July 12, 1985, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Mary Ellen filed a petition to vacate that decree, alleging that Dale had omitted assets, "knowingly and with the intent to mislead" Mrs. Mitchell into entering into the agreed divorce settlement. Her lead attorney was Los Angeles attorney Marvin Mitchelson who came to fame during his representation of California actor Lee Marvin's paramour in her claim against the actor for what has come to be called, "palimony." Dale Mitchell's attorney was Mayor Andy Coats. The <i>Oklahoman</i> does not contain a report of how the post-divorce litigation was resolved, but in Mr. Mitchell's <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky01-1_1_1987.jpg" target="_blank">December 31, 1986, bankruptcy petition</a>, one of the creditors he identified was Mary Ellen whom he identified as a $341,547 creditor. <br /><br />I'll get back to the bankruptcy shortly after moving fast forward to July 1988 and 1991 — and, yes, the bouncing ball is a bit hard to follow. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_banned_7_19_1988.jpg" target="_blank">July 19, 1988, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Dale E. Mitchell and Timothy A. Baker had agreed to be banned for life from employment at federally insured banks. The article said,<br /><blockquote>Specifically, the [U.S.] comptroller [of the currency] said the two arranged loans that were concealed from the bank's board and officers. It said the loans, which it described as unsafe and unsound, were intended to "further Mr. Mitchell's financial interests in violations of banking law and their fiduciary responsibilities to the bank." ¶ The comptroller said the loans resulted in $1 million of losses for Citizens, which was declared insolvent and closed August 14, 1986, and another $400,000 of losses for the bank's holding company.</blockquote>The referenced loans were (1) $1.2 million to by Citizens to Tulsa Commerce Bancshares which was used to augment capital at that bank in which Michell owned a substantial interest, as previously described; (2) $200,000 to a "Mitchell business associate for purchase of stock in a financial institution in which Mitchell had an interest," (3) $150,000 to a Mitchell business associate to buy property in a matter in which Mitchell had a joint-venture interest; and $26,000 to a Mitchell business associate for the purchase of a Norman residence that Mitchell owned. The comptroller's action was agreed to by both Mitchell and Baker, and although both were required to pay relatively small penalties ($10,000 and $5,000 respectively), the administrative action did not preclude criminal proceedings from being filed. Anyway, hold on to this paragraph and relate it to Mitchell's Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding and criminal charges which will be described shortly.<br /><br /><b>Timothy A. Baker. </b>On <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/baker_fraud1_8_8_1991.jpg" target="_blank">August 7, 1991</a>, a federal grand jury indicted Timothy A. Baker, the sometime Citizens president but probably always Mitchell assistant while Mitchell was away at Fidelity Bank, and the charges were much the same as were described in the above paragraph. Nothing in the charges suggested that Baker gained any benefit other than being a good servant to Mitchell, and, as a guess, that may well have been the reason that Baker was acquitted in a jury trial, as reported by the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/baker_fraud02_12_25_1991.jpg" target="_blank">December 25, 1991, <i>Oklahoman</i></a>. The article reported,<br /><blockquote>In closing argument on Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Borden told the jury that Mitchell directed Baker to make the loan and that Baker was being prosecuted for the false statements contained in the loan documents. Baker at the time had a choice either to obey the law or to obey Mitchell. ¶ He chose to be loyal to Mr. Mitchell," Borden said.<br /> Baker's attorney, Irven Box, said in closing arguments that the government failed to tell "the whole story." Box told jurors that Baker lost his family, his profession and came close to taking his own life over the incident. ¶ They (government) never told you why they didn't bring Mr. Mitchell in here," Box told the jurors Monday. "Are we going to guess he (Baker) conspired with Mr. Mitchell? ... You don't have the whole story. You don't have the whole truth."</blockquote>The jury acquitted Baker of all charges. When his time came in the box, the result would not be the same for Mitchell.<br /><br /><b>Mitchell's Bankruptcy. </b>OK. Drop back in time to 1986. Mitchell filed his Chapter 13 (personal reorganization) bankruptcy proceeding on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky01-1_1_1987.jpg" target="_blank">December 31, 1986</a> — Cleta Deatherage Mitchell was not a party to or directly involved in the matter. Without delving too far into what a Chapter 13 proceeding involves, this brief discussion is intended to make some sense out of the other items mentioned in this section (and with apologies to bankruptcy and/or other lawyers if I'm getting any of this oversimplification wrong):<br /><ul><li>The general Chapter 13 idea is that a debtor will file a reorganization plan to pay the debt that he has incurred AND can be reasonably expected to pay over the duration of the reorganization plan which can be three to five years. If payments under the court approved plan be made, excess amounts of debt over plan provisions (i.e., original debt compared to debt scheduled to be paid within the duration of the plan) would be discharged.</li></ul><ul><li>The debtor must file a complete disclosure of assets and liabilities. If such disclosure be shown not to have occurred, the proceeding might be dismissed.</li></ul>In documents filed by Mitchell (see articles on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky01-1_1_1987.jpg" target="_blank">January 1, 1987</a>, and <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky02-1_27_1987.jpg" target="_blank">January 27, 1987</a>), he said that he owed $341,547 to Mary Ellen — that probably represented her share of property division awards in the divorce litigation since child support and support alimony are not affected by a bankruptcy proceeding. He also listed $4 million of bank debts to Mercantile Texas Corp. in Dallas for lendings associated with Tulsa Commerce Bankshares (Commercial Bank), a $1.2 million debt on his and Cleta's Nichols Hills home, $312,000 to Citizens as guarantor of a loan from Citizens to Cleta, as well as borrowings from nine other Oklahoma banks. Mitchell's filings said that he had $2.8 million in assets and $12 million in liabilities, resulting in a negative $9.2 million in net worth. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky02-1_27_1987.jpg" target="_blank">January 27, 1987, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> said that Mitchell said he owed Charles J. Bazarian $1 million on a promissory note. Remember the name because it will come up again shortly.<br /><ul><li>As to liabilities, either the debtor or creditor can file an "adversary proceeding" in bankruptcy court, either contesting or advocating that a particular claim should be discharged.</li></ul>The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky04-6_6_1987.jpg" target="_blank">June 6, 1987, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that both Mitchell and Mary Ellen had filed such proceedings in the proceeding. The article reported that Mary Ellen had filed a $5.3 million claim involving real estate (probably related to property division awards in the divorce case), alimony, child support and attorney fees and costs arising from the divorce litigation and that their respective adversary proceedings were then pending.<br /><ul><li>Claims of creditors must be filed by a time specified by the bankruptcy judge — otherwise, claims as might have been filed if timely made are lost.</li></ul>The FDIC was particularly interested in filing a claim since Mitchell's involvement with failed Oklahoma banks was significant — Citizens of Oklahoma City, Citizens Bank of Tulsa, Central Bank of Tulsa, Bank of Commerce of Tulsa, as well as Fidelity in Oklahoma City. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky03-6_5_1987.jpg" target="_blank">June 5,1987, article</a> reported that FDIC had asked for more time to investigate such matters and whether it would object to discharge of Mitchell's debt. An extension until August 31 was granted to FDIC.<br /><blockquote>Atkins [representing FDIC] told [bankruptcy judge Richard] Bohanon that the FDIC was investigating Mitchell's conduct as an officer and director of Citizens National, First National Bank and Trust Co. in Oklahoma City and the former Fidelity Bank in Oklahoma City. Mitchell has been chief executive of all three institutions.<br /> Filings in Mitchell's bankruptcy case listed debts to Citizens National, Central Bank and Bank of Commerce. Mitchell was a stockholder of the holding companies of Citizens Bank and Bank of Commerce when those institutions failed. <br /> All of the five banks except Fidelity, later named Bank of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, were declared insolvent and closed in 1986. Bank of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, [ed. note: Fidelity Bank] effectively failed and was merged into Bank of Oklahoma, Tulsa, last year as a branch.</blockquote>FDIC presented nothing further and the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky05-9_5_1987.jpg" target="_blank">September 5 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that the deadline had passed. The article restates that Mitchell's ex-wife had filed a claim for $5.3 million, described above. <br /><br /><a href="" name="bazarian"></a><b>Charles J. Bazarian. </b>However, another interesting claim was filed, this one by Charles J. Bazarian, mentioned above. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_bky04-6_6_1987.jpg" target="_blank">June 6, 1987 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported on Bazarian's $7 million claim in Mitchell's bankruptcy concerning the purchase of stock in Citizens holding company. At the time of the claim, Bazarian himself was appealing a criminal bank fraud conviction in Florida and was resisting an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding filed against him in Oklahoma City. Bazarian's claim involves some twists and turns and is kind of hard to follow, but the gist seems to be this: Bazarian claimed that Mitchell had loans totaling $8.3 million to MBank of Dallas and that Bazarian had guaranteed those debts under a repurchase agreement that was part of a stock sale between Bazarian and Mitchell. Under that December 31, 1984, agreement, a Bazarian trust purchased 135,147 of the 236,957 shares of voting trust stock in Citizens National Bancshares for an unstated price. Bazarian alleged that he had paid MBank $762,000 on his MBank guarantee agreement before the stock sale transaction with Mitchell and another $457,000 on the debt and that his total claim against Mitchell was a bit more than $7 million. The agreement with Mitchell also included an option which required that Mitchell repurchase the Citizens stock at Bazarian's request.<br /><br />Does the above make sense to you? Read the above article and perhaps you'll come up with something different but, for me, it's very hard to follow. But since Bazarian has already been mentioned in two occasions in this article, and will be again before we're done, this is as good a place as any to step aside from the Mitchell bankruptcy and just talk about Bazarian himself.<br /><br /><table bgcolor="#F5ECCE" border="2" cellpadding="8"><tbody><tr><td align="left"><br /><center><b>Charles J. Bazarian</b></center><br /><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarianpic1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /><b>Mystery Man. </b>Just who was this "mystery man," as he was called by an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_01_1985.jpg" target="_blank">April 14, 1985, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a>. The bold headline read, <b>"Mystery Man Credits Street Smarts for Financial Success,"</b> and includes a sub-headline, "Bazarian Remembers Being Poor, Vows, 'Never Again.'" The article by Glen Bayless says,<br /><blockquote> Charles Bazarian has money, and access to a lot more. ¶ Since 1979 he has used what he calls street-smart skills to buy and sell government-insured apartment projects, office buildings and engaged in real estate lending to make a million. ¶ Today he is focusing his energy and money on financial institutions, as well as building his own investment banking firm.<br /> Bazarian is somewhat of a mystery man to many bankers and executives. He has kept a low profile, and senses his activities have been largely misunderstood. * * *</blockquote>The article reports that he was 45-years old when the article was written and that the Danbury, Connecticut, native had been in Oklahoma City for 18 years, meaning that he was 27-years old when he moved here. The article continues:<br /><blockquote>Bazarian reviewed the 18 years he has been in Oklahoma City, working first as a chef at the Hermann's restaurant owned by Valgene, then as an insurance agent who got into trouble, and how he vowed to emerge from poverty to wealth. ¶ "I was penniless," he said. "I'm never going to be poor again." ¶ Bazarian is almost pugnacious about recalling the hard times, and often introduces himself to a new acquaintance as a convict and bankrupt.</blockquote>The article explains the frame of reference — after his move to Oklahoma City, Bazarian was indicted on mail fraud involving the interstate sales of medical insurance in the late 1950s but his cooperation with federal officials resulted in that firm's founder being sentenced to 10 years in prison. For his cooperation, Bazarian was only sentenced to 4-years probation but he lost his insurance license and took bankruptcy. The article continued:<br /><blockquote>Some say that he also has a temptation to brag, and that is the cause of a lot of criticism. ¶ A long-time friend summed up: He wants to associate with the great and near great. ¶ Bazarian is voluble and even bombastic in speech and gestures, which some people say manifests a kind of defense against real and imagined foes. ¶ Friends say he is simply making the most of curbstone talents and mother wit sharpened in the marketplace, and there are obvious rough edges.</blockquote><b>Connection With Mitchell. </b>The article goes on to briefly discuss his extensive involvement with HUD projects and describes some of his financial institution investments, including his interests and ventures with Citizens National and Local Federal Savings & Loan in Oklahoma City and stock ownership in Commercial Bank, and others, in Tulsa. Importantly, the article goes on to note,<br /><blockquote>Bazarian has been a large depositor, borrower and stockholder in Citizens National Bank since banker Dale Mitchell was brought into citizens in 1982 to revive a troubled bank. ¶ Mitchell recalls Bazarian had business relations with Lakeshore Bank and when one of Lakeshore's executives came to citizens he brought Bazarian with him. ¶ "He turned out to be one of our best customers," Mitchell said. Bazarian is one of the control group with Mitchell in the bank ownership, with a considerable stake in Citizens, he said.</blockquote>Bazarian's principal business organization was called CB Financial, and he brought Sig Kohen into that organization in 1983, the article says. In February, Kohen was elected to the board of directors of Tulsa's Bank of Commerce holding company, which has been previously described as one of Mitchell's principal banks and investments.<br /><br /><b>Florida Conviction. </b>The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_02_1987.jpg" target="_blank">February 5, 1987, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Bazarian was on trial in Orlando, Florida, for bank fraud, associated with federal charges that in 1985 Bazarian and four others conspired to takeover the Florida Central Bank which had been closed in April 1986 after the bank lost $7.2 million. <i>Supporters of Bazarian's character in that litigation included boxing champion Muhammad Ali, astronaut Tom Stafford, and former OU quarterback Steve Davis.</i> Nonetheless, Bazarian was found guilty on 3 of 4 charges according to a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_02_1987.jpg" target="_blank">February 13, 1987, article</a>. Bazarian received a 2-year sentence and a $100,000 fine but remained free on bond pending appeal.<br /><br /><b>Oklahoma Bankruptcy. </b>As mentioned already, in May 1987 Bazarian and his company CB Financial were forced into involuntary bankruptcy. Therein, he and his wife listed their <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2621/R079951895001vA.jpg" target="_blank">$2 million + home</a> at <a href="http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/AN-R.asp?ACCOUNTNO=R079951895" target="_blank">7428 Country Club Drive</a> in Nichols Hills as exempt property under Oklahoma's homestead laws. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_03_1988.jpg" target="_blank">September 1, 1988, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> said that the proceeding's trustee had file a complaint alleging that the property should not be exempt since it was obtained using $400,000 that was obtained through a fraudulent transfer of funds. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_03_1988.jpg" target="_blank">September 16, 1988, article</a> reported that the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC) filed a $3.6 million adversary petition in the pending Bazarian Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding as to the failed Investors Saving and Loan Association in El Reno, FSLIC claiming that Bazarian and his company had made false statements to obtain $7 million in loans from that institution.<br /><blockquote>The FSLIC has asked that a bankruptcy judge prevent the defendants from discharging their debt of $7.5 million still owed the defunct thrift and thus its receiver.</blockquote><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_03_1988.jpg" target="_blank">A month later</a>, bankruptcy judge Bohanon entered a temporary restraining order preventing Bazarian or his company from transferring any assets, the bankruptcy trustee having alleged that assets were being transferred outside the trustee Thomas J. Kenan's reach:<br /><blockquote>During the past year, Bazarian has been able to convert assets to cash, distribute and spend more than $1 million, Kenan said in court documents.</blockquote><b>Goes To Jail and Additional Charges. </b>Bazarian's appeal from the Florida convictions failed and in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_04_1989a.jpg" target="_blank">August 1989</a> he reported to prison in Ft. Worth to begin serving his two-year sentence.<br /><br />While there, Bazarian received additional federal charges related to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD, savings and loan schemes, and wire fraud charges. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_04_1989a.jpg" target="_blank">September 19, 1989, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported on the charges which were filed in Oklahoma and California federal courts, and a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_04_1989a.jpg" target="_blank">September 21 article</a> reported his plea of guilty to the charges. A news story in the <i>Oklahoman</i> on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_05_1989b.jpg" target="_blank">October 8</a>, rather after the fact, reported on how Bazarian had cajoled, intimated, and, for sure, embarrassed HUD in its dealings with what might be Oklahoma's premier con-man. Here are some snippets from that lengthy article by Ed Kelley of the paper's Washington bureau:<br /><blockquote> In the beginning, there was Charles Bazarian. ¶ The political operatives assigned to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the start of the Reagan revolution barely had unpacked before the impatient, profane financier from Oklahoma City was banging on their collective door, ready to cut deals.<br />* * *<br /> * * * "He can save projects and make money doing it," gushed a HUD official. A department employee in Tulsa said the Washington headquarters considered Bazarian "the best thing that ever came down the track."<br />* * *<br /> A 635-page report filed by HUD's office of inspector general, obtained recently by <i>The Oklahoman</i> through the federal Freedom of Information Act, details — from interviews, letters and other documents — the circumstances by which Bazarian fell out of favor while embarrassing the bureaucracy's upper echelon.<br />* * *<br /> He convinced, for example, a high-ranking HUD type to issue letters of endorsement, which gave others the impression that the administration had signed off on his reputation as an honest businessman. ¶ Robert Kalish, the HUD official who sent the letters, later told investigators he did so because Bazarian's "track record" in turning around four projects in the Oklahoma City area that had been in default. ¶ But as so often is the case with Charles Bazarian, nobody bothered to check the record.</blockquote>Hmmm ... Ed Kelley came across sounding rather superior and holier-than-thou in the article ... but, wait ... the failure "to check" would include the <i>Oklahoman's</i> prior reporting, as well, would it not, but Kelley didn't spread the "failure to check" charge to his own organization. Regardless, the full article presents a fascinating picture of the man.<br /><br />A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_06_1990.jpg" target="_blank">February 14, 1990, article</a> reported that Bazarian was sentenced to five years on some of the charges and a lesser amount on others. In his bankruptcy proceeding, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_06_1990.jpg" target="_blank">March 28 article</a> reported that he agreed to $61 million in restitution, and he was effectively barred from any significant relationship with any federally insured bank or savings and loan. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_07_1993a.jpg" target="_blank">July 15, 1993, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> said that he was released on probation in January 1992, after serving 3½ years. During his release, he was one of the government's key witnesses in bank fraud charges against Dale Mitchell, to be discussed below.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_map.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_map_200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Bazarian's Last Con. </b>The last and perhaps most interesting chapter in the Bazarian saga begins in 1993, after the December 1992 Mitchell trial, described after this section. It seems that Bazarian didn't stay clean during his probationary release as was reported in a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_07_1993a.jpg" target="_blank">July 15, 1993, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> which said that the government was seeking to revoke his probation on account of misdeeds since his January 1992 release. Bazarian, who had helped the FBI in investigations in Florida, Louisiana, Colorado, California, and Oklahoma, was alleged to have done new bad things after his release from prison. In the revocation proceedings, his lawyer was the highly respected Robert A. Manchester. In the article, Manchester said,<br /><blockquote>"They are saying he was a real bad boy," Manchester said. "I want them to prove it."</blockquote>The article said that Bazarian had been spending much more money than his $38,811.81 income he reported as earning since his release, one such expenditure of $48,850 and six others greater than $5,000 and that he was allegedly guilty of offenses that I'll not further describe here.<br /><br />His revocation hearing was set before U.S. District Judge David Russell on August 31, 1993. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_07_1993a.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i>, August 26</a>. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_08_1993b.jpg" target="_blank">On August 31</a>, Bazarian's probation was revoked ... <i>but</i> ... <i>he was granted a 24-hour leave to attend his daughter's Oklahoma City wedding on Saturday, September 4, at St. Eugene's Catholic Church</i>. Problem was, Bazarian attended the wedding but then he "went on the lamb." <br /><br />Then budding <i>Oklahoman</i> reporter Steve Lackmeyer reported on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_08_1993b.jpg" target="_blank">September 6</a> that Bazarian had gone "AWOL." The article said,<br /><blockquote>Mr. Bazarian was allowed to attend daughter's wedding and was given time from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday. He did leave for the wedding, but he never returned to jail," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McCampbell said Sunday.</blockquote>Lackmeyer's <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_08_1993b.jpg" target="_blank">September 7 article</a> indicated that the fugitive might not be an easy find.<br /><blockquote>He was last spotted at his daughter's wedding reception between 5:15 an 5:30 Saturday, Lackey said [US Deputy Marshall Phil Lackey]. ¶ Relatives interviewed Sunday and Monday claimed they were unaware of any plans by Bazarian to flee, Lackey said.<br />* * *<br />Dan Vogel, the FBI's Oklahoma City spokesman, said he believes the investigation will become nationwide.</blockquote><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarianpic2.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" />The manhunt continued. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_09_1993c.jpg" target="_blank">November 15, 1993, article</a> said that the search had become worldwide, as far away as Argentina, and described Bazarian as "the consummate con man." After a three-month run, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_09_1993c.jpg" target="_blank">November 27 article</a> reported that he had been captured in San Juan, Puerto Rico.<br /><blockquote>Charles Bazarian, the fugitive Oklahoma financier who has been the subject of a massive international manhunt since early September, was arrested Friday by FBI agents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as he was leaving a theater showing the mobster movie "Carlito's Way."</blockquote>The article said that Bazarian didn't give a good review of the movie because he didn't think it was realistic. <i>Oklahoman</i> articles during this time did not use more flattering images of Bazarian than mug shots like the one shown above. While in custody in San Juan, he <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_09_1993c.jpg" target="_blank">may have attempted suicide</a>, but views differed on whether the attempt was serious or not. <br /><br />Back in Oklahoma City, Manchester was appointed to represent him, this time being paid by the government, and, on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_11_1994.jpg" target="_blank">July 7, 1994</a>, although his health was poor, he received a 15-year sentence for the crimes he had earlier plead guilty to, in addition to the 2 years remaining on his revoked sentence. Federal Judge David Russell was reported as saying,<br /><blockquote>"You have an apparently winning personality with which to cheat people," Russell said as Bazarian an Manchester stood before him. "You need to be put away from society to keep you from doing to people what you've been doing for so long." ¶ The judge also said Bazarian personally "cheated" him. Russell was referring to Bazarian's escape Sept. 4, 1993, after Russell granted him a 24-hour furlough to attend his only daughter's wedding.</blockquote>Bazarian's <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_12_1995-1999.jpg" target="_blank">unsuccessful appeal</a> of the sentence argued that he had effectively received a life sentence given his health condition, and that statement proved to be prophetic. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/bazarian_12_1995-1999.jpg" target="_blank">September 11, 1999, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Bazarian had recently died in prison at the age of 60.<br /><br />So, who and what was Charles Bazarian? Was he merely a crook, a swindler, a master con-man, as <i>Oklahoman</i> articles came to label him, or was he more than that? Researching though all of this, I am inclined to add adjectives like "moxie" and "colorful," and I would say that his fascinating story has won him a place in Oklahoma City history. From the beginning, this city has enjoyed if not relished in and aggrandized its earliest "crooks," like our first provisional mayor William L. Couch, illegal sooner that he was and even if that fact is ignored in common parlance to make him seem not to be a crook, even though he was. See <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/04/cops-robbers.html" target="_blank">Cops & Robbers, Part 1.</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a href="" name="mitchell_charges"></a><b>Criminal Charges Against Mitchell. </b><i>Oklahoman</i> articles never referred to Dale Mitchell as a "crook" or the like. He was more gentile, so to speak, than Bazarian was, and he had friends in higher places. But, if Bazarian was a crook, so was Mitchell.<br /><br />This part of the story actually begins in Colorado, before any criminal charges were filed against Mitchell. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud01_7_31_1992.jpg" target="_blank">July 31,1992, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that Mitchell was identified in a federal charge in Denver against Stanley G. Miles II. Miles was the principal owner of Columbine Valley Bank & Trust located in Littleton, Colorado, and he was charged with accepting a 1985 bribe from Mitchell — the <i>quid pro quo</i> being that a delinquent $2.3 million loan owed by Columbine to Citizens Bank would be extended if Mitchell received a $141,000 loan in return. A later article (December 9, below) said that Miles was also bargaining for a $750,000 letter of credit in his negotiations with Mitchell. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud01_7_31_1992.jpg" target="_blank">July 31 article</a> said that both Mitchell and Cleta had moved to New York. Mitchell's lawyer, by-then former mayor Andy Coats, responded to the allegation in an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud02_8_1_1992.jpg" target="_blank">August 1 article</a> by saying that he was "absolutely certain there wasn't any kind of bribe involved." The article reviewed Baker's earlier charge upon which he was earlier acquitted (see above), and added,<br /><blockquote>Coats said Mitchell has been under investigation since the late 1980s. The former Oklahoma county district attorney [and former city mayor] said he was unsure whether federal prosecutors planned to indict his client. ¶"Who knows?" Coats asked. "I don't think there is any reason why they should."</blockquote>Miles plead guilty to the Mitchell-bribery charge and another charge not related to Mitchell. According to the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud03_9_5_1992.jpg" target="_blank">September 5, 1992, <i>Oklahoman</i></a>, part of Miles' plea agreement was that he would help authorities in other criminal investigations, including an investigation of Mitchell. The article said,<br /><blockquote>In return for Miles' guilty plea to two charges, federal prosecutors in Oklahoma City and in Denver agreed not to prosecute him on other charges, according to a plea agreement. * * * "As far as I know, Dale was never involved in any direct loans to Miles, so this comes as a surprise to us," Coats said. "I think it's unfounded, and I think it can be shown later to be an outrageous representation of the truth."</blockquote>On <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud04_11_7_1992.jpg" target="_blank">November 7 </a> Miles was sentenced to 2 1/2 years and ordered to pay $315,000 in restitution.<br /><br />It is also noted here that before Mitchell's Oklahoma City trial began in December 1992, Dale Mitchell's brother, Dudley "Bo" Mitchell, and Mike Matthews, the president of Columbine in 1985, also entered guilty pleas in federal bank fraud charges pending against them in Colorado, both of which were relevant to Oklahoma City charges against Dale Mitchell. These facts weren't mentioned by <i>Oklahoman</i> reports until during the <i>Oklahoman's</i> December 1992 reporting of Dale Mitchell's trial in Oklahoma City.<br /><br /><b>Charge Particulars. </b>Before Miles' sentencing, he had already begun his cooperation and in October testified in an Oklahoma City federal grand jury investigation of Mitchell. An indictment was returned by the grand jury on October 8, 1992, and on October 26, the indictment was unsealed and charges were filed against Mitchell, all allegedly occurring in 1984 and 1985. Although an article by Ed Godfrey in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud05_10_27_1992.jpg" target="_blank">October 27 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> discussed the charges, he did not do so with clarity, and, frankly, I found some parts of the article almost impossible to follow. For that reason, I've assembled a list of the charges filed against Mitchell, first, taken from the the <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/15_f3d_953_us_v_mitchell.pdf" target="_blank">10th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion</a> which was involved with 5 of the 8 charges and clearly identified them, and, second, from Godfrey's <i>Oklahoman</i> reports which were more casually written but which were nonetheless particular enough to get the drift of the other three charges. In the list of charges below, Counts 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 were enumerated in the appellate court opinion. For the three, I'm using Count 1?, Count 2?, and Count 5? to identify charges which were not enumerated in the 10th Circuit opinion but which were generally mentioned in Godfrey's articles but without enumeration. Interestingly, the charges against Mitchell which stemmed from Miles' testimony would either result in dismissal or acquittal in the Oklahoma proceedings.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><table border="2" cellpadding="8"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" width="10%"><b>Count 1?</b></td><td width="90%"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Bribe of Miles. </b></span>Mitchell was charged with demanding and receiving a $100,000 bribe from a Colorado real estate developer, Stanley G. Miles II, in exchange for him receiving a $750,000 letter of credit from Citizens. Judge Lee West found that there was no evidence supporting the connection between Miles and Dale Mitchell regarding this matter — instead, it involved Dale Mitchell's brother, Dudley, who was not called as a witness in the Oklahoma City trial proceedings. Following trial but before the matter was submitted to the jury, Judge West dismissed this charge based upon insufficient evidence. If there was a connection between the brothers, one will never know — during the trial, Dudley Mitchell was never called to testify although he was listed as a government witness.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 2?</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Coercive Loan to Mitchell. </b></span>Mitchell was charged with demanding a $140,000 personal loan from the Littleton, Colorado, Columbine bank in exchange for his influence in renewing that bank's loans to Citizens and Bank of Commerce. See the discussion of Miles' Colorado proceedings above. The jury acquitted Mitchell on this charge.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 3</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>MAGI Transaction, Part 1.</b></span> Count 3 charged that Mitchell conspired with others to use his influence to require Management Assistance Group, Inc. (MAGI), to borrow $1.2 million from Citizens National and use the funds to purchase stock in Tulsa Bankshares, as a condition of First Citizens' funding a $1million loan previously requested by MAGI. The jury found Mitchell guilty of this charge and the conviction was affirmed on appeal.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 4</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>MAGI Transaction, Part 2.</b></span> Count 4 charged that Mitchell unlawfully demanded and caused to be demanded a thing of value for Tulsa Bankshares by demanding, as a condition of funding the requested $1 million loan, that MAGI borrow another $1.2 million from Citizens National and use the funds to purchase Tulsa Bankshares stock. The "thing of value" was the improvement in the capital position of Tulsa Bankshares by MAGI's purchase of its stock. The jury found Mitchell guilty of this charge and the conviction was affirmed on appeal.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 5?</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Personal Home Matter. </b></span>Mitchell was charged with misapplying $26,000 used in the purchase by another of his Norman home. The jury acquitted Mitchell on this charge.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 6</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Tolex Energies, Inc., Loan by Citizens. </b></span>The count charged that Mitchell "misapplied and caused to be misapplied" funds of the bank which, under the statute involved, required that an accused either make a loan or influence the making in a significant way. Mitchell owned all stock of Cuatro Explorations, Inc., which owned oil and gas properties, and he had persuaded the owner of Tolex to switch its banking connections from another bank to Citizens National, and Tolex had been borrowing from Citizens National. Tolex inquired about a loan from Citizens of $1.3 million to pay off a $1 million note at another bank and Mitchell referred the matter to David Durrett, a Citizens loan officer. While the Tolex loan application was under consideration by the loan committee Mitchell was negotiating a business relationship with Tolex. On July 31 Mitchell and Tolex entered into an agreement pursuant to which Mitchell sold to Tolex oil and gas properties owned by Cuatro, for which Mitchell received a promissory note for $220,000 and 20% of the common stock of Cuatro. He was also given an option to become a Tolex member of the board of directors. Hence, Mitchell would have had a personal interest in the $1.3 million loan by Citizens, if made. The loan committee did not immediately approve the Tolex loan but considered it on three separate occasions, the loan being approved on the third, on July 29, and the loan was made on August 2. Mitchell did not disclose the interest he was negotiating with Tolex until after the loan had been made. The jury found Mitchell guilty of this charge but it was reversed on appeal.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 7</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Note Deferral From First City Bank. </b></span>This count charged that Mitchell knowingly made and caused to be made a material false statement to First City Bank for the purpose of influencing that bank to defer collecting payment of a loan it made to him in the amount of $810,000, which loan was secured by an assignment of a $1,387,103 promissory note to Mitchell from Fidelity Bank. In fact, Mitchell's promissory note to First City described the collateral as "Assignment of Net Proceeds and Promissory Note." The note provided that it would become immediately due and payable if the collateral became unsatisfactory or insufficient either in character or value. In Mitchell's deferral request to First City Bank, the government alleged that Mitchell falsely represented to First City Bank that the promissory note payable to him from Fidelity Bank was still available to the bank as security, when he knew that the money due to him under that note had already been paid in full. In fact, Mitchell had made two other loans, $215,000 from the Bank of Commerce and $250,000 from the First Oklahoma Bank, and used the same Fidelity Bank note as security. In February 1985, Fidelity paid Mitchell $1,000,000 in full settlement of its note. In March, First City asked Mitchell for a current financial statement, and Mitchell gave a statement dated March 31, 1985 that showed the First City debt of $810,000 as a note payable but a note to the statement said: "The note is secured by an assignment of net proceeds agreement and promissory note." Once First City Bank discovered that the Fidelity note had been paid it obtained new collateral from Mitchell and did not press for collection, and eventually the First City note was paid. These facts do not change the circumstances we have described that the jury could find to be a false representation. The jury found Mitchell guilty of this charge and the conviction was affirmed on appeal.</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><b>Count 8</b></td><td><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Loan From First Oklahoma Bank. </b></span>As noted above, Mitchell obtained a $250,000 loan from First Oklahoma Bank, using the same collateral referenced above, the note payable to Mitchell from Fidelity Bank. The Court of Appeals opinion said, "A loan officer from First Oklahoma testified that Mitchell gave the Fidelity note as collateral for a $250,000 loan and orally stated to him that the note already was pledged as collateral securing a loan from Bank of Commerce of $335,000 but did not disclose that it also had been pledged as collateral for a loan from First City Bank." The opinion adds, "Mitchell says that his statement was not material because, first, when First Oklahoma learned (from bank examiners) that it was third in line on the security it called on Mitchell for additional collateral which he supplied, and, second, he eventually paid the First Oklahoma note. These arguments are frivolous." The jury found Mitchell guilty of this charge and the conviction was affirmed on appeal.</td></tr></tbody></table></span><br />According to an article by Ed Godfrey in the October 27 <i>Oklahoman</i>, Mitchell plead innocent to all eight (8) charges and was released on bond. The article said that Mitchell had moved to Washington, D.C., and was unemployed. See Godfrey's article for his description of the charges. Frankly, I found the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud05_10_27_1992.jpg" target="_blank">October 27 article</a> very difficult to follow and that is the reason that I assembled the table of charges, above, to gain some degree of clarity.<br /><br /><a href="" name="mitchell_trial"></a><b>Mitchell Trial. </b>Mitchell's December 1992 trial spanned December 7 until the jury returned a verdict on December 14, and Ed Godfrey gave daily blow-by-blow reports in the <i>Oklahoman</i>. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud08_12_10_1992.jpg" target="_blank">December 10 article</a> said that Mitchell's wife, Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, sat with Dale during the trial proceedings. Another family member, Dudley "Bo" Mitchell, Dale Mitchell's brother, was mentioned for the first time, beginning with the second day of trial, but he was never called as a witness during Dale's trial.<br /><ul><li><b>Day 1: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud06_12_8_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Monday, December 7</a>. </b>Trial began before U.S. District Judge Lee R. West with the lawyers' opening statements. Mitchell's attorney, Coats, told the jury that his client committed no crimes and that he didn't even know about some of the financial transactions alleged in the eight charges facing him. As to the charge that Mitchell was involved with the Management Assistance Group, Inc., the California based company transactions, assistant U.S. attorney Lee Borden told the jury that the California business met with Mitchell and Charles Bazarian and "were given no option but to borrow the money for the stock purchase if they were to get a $1 million loan (from Citizens) they wanted."Coats responded, telling the jury that Bazarian "was the real mover and shaker in the deal" and that officials of the California company never met with Mitchell. The December 8 article which described the first day of trial also said that three witnesses were called to testify but the article only identified one of them, Donald Hogoboom, a former board member of the Littleton, Colorado, Columbine bank, who plead guilty to misapplication of bank funds and improper entries in bank records in the Denver federal criminal litigation already mentioned. The article said that Hogoboom testified that Mitchell asked the Columbine bank for a $140,000, said that he felt obligated "to help Dale in any way we could" to get an extension on his bank's loan with Citizens, but he also testified that Mitchell never demanded the money and that there was no agreement between him and Mitchell.</li><br /><li><b>Day 2: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud07_12_9_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Tuesday, December 8</a>. </b>Three witnesses were identified in Godfrey's December 9 article — Bruce Rozet, Stanley G. Miles II, and Mike Matthews. Testimony on Day 2 contains the first mention of Dudley "Bo" Mitchell, Dale Mitchell's brother, in any <i>Oklahoman</i> article which described either the Colorado or Oklahoma federal court proceedings.<br /><br />About the California company, MAGI, Godfrey's article described the testimony of Bruce Rozet, MAGI's owner, as follows:<br /><blockquote>Bruce Rozet, owner of MAGI, said he came to Oklahoma City on March 29, 1985, to close the deal on the company's $1 million loan. Rozet testified he met with Mitchell, Oklahoma City financier Charles Bazarian and another Citizens official, Timothy Baker, to discuss the loan. ¶ Rozet testified he was informed at that meeting of the Tulsa bank's need for capital and was told if MAGI would borrow the additional $1.2 million to buy preferred stock in the bank, the stock would be sold to someone else before the loan became due. ¶ Rozet testified he had no desire to buy the stock. When asked by assistant U.S. attorney Lee Borden why he would sign the $1.2 million loan agreement, Rozert replied, "because I thought I wouldn't get the $1 million loan."</blockquote>The article also said that Rozet testified MAGI couldn't get the loan elsewhere and that, "We said if that's what we have to do, we will do it."<br /><br />Defense co-counsel Wes Fredenburg cross-examined the witness. Although a party's lawyers may not offer testimony in their client's litigation, he nonetheless claimed that Mitchell was in Dallas on March 29 and that Rozet's testimony was "concocted" to protect himself from liability with the FDIC. Rozet denied the allegation.<br /><br />As to Littleton, Colorado, Columbine bank transactions, two witnesses testified. Stanley G. Miles II said that he needed a letter of credit for the purchase of a Denver hotel and asked Dudley "Bo" Mitchell, Dale Mitchell's brother, for financial help. The article said that Dudley had also plead guilty in the Denver federal court proceedings to a charge of aiding and abetting bank fraud, but Dale's brother would not be called as a witness in the Oklahoma City proceedings. As to Miles, the article said,<br /><blockquote>Miles said he thought the $100,000 fee "was real expensive, but I needed the letter of credit." Miles said the $100,000 was disbursed through a bank in Littleton, Colo, and didn't know who received it. ¶ Miles also testified he never had an agreement with Dale Mitchell for him to use his influence in arranging for the letter of credit.<br /> Dale Mitchell is accused in another count of receiving a $140,000 loan from Columbine Valley Bank and Trust for his influence in renewing a loan to Columbine from Citizens and the Tulsa Bank of Commerce. Miles was majority stockholder in Columbine. ¶ Mike Matthews, the president of Columbine in 1985, testified Dale Mitchell called him one day and "asked where his money was"and wanted money wired to him that day. Matthews said he was unaware at the time of Dale Mitchell wanting a $140,000 loan. ¶ Matthews said he refused to make the loan but later did so at Miles' insistence. Matthews said Mitchell later refused to pay it back. ¶ Miles testified Dudley Mitchell pressured him to make the loan. At the time, renewal of a $2 million loan to Columbine, held by banks controlled by Dale Mitchell, was "being dragged out," Miles testified. ¶ Miles testified he felt if he didn't loan $140,000 to Dale Mitchell, all of Columbine's loans in the Oklahoma banks would be in jeopardy. Miles had about $8 million in loans in Oklahoma. ¶ Miles admitted never talking to Dale Mitchell about the loans.</blockquote></li><li><b>Day 3: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud08_12_10_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Wednesday, December 9</a>. </b>This would be Charles Bazarian's day to testify, and Godfrey's December 10 article described no other witness than him. His testimony related to the California company, MAGI, as well as his own relationship with Mitchell and the Oklahoma banks, Citizens in Oklahoma City and Bank of Commerce in Tulsa.<br /><br />As to the California company, MAGI, the article said,<br /><blockquote>Convicted bank swindler Charles Bazarian testified Wednesday that former Citizens head Dale E. Mitchell attended a 1985 meeting where a California company was required to borrow an additional $1.2 million for a stock purchase [in Bank of Commerce] in order to receive a $1 million loan. <br />* * *<br /> Bazarian, who also owned stock in Tulsa Bancshares, said he and Mitchell met with MAGI owner Bruce Rozet in 1985 and informed him they needed help raising capital for the Tulsa bank. He testified MAGI didn't want to buy stock in the Tulsa bank, but had to in order to get the $1 million it wanted. ¶ Mitchell's attorney, Wes Fredenburg, tried to discredit Bazarian during cross-examination, pointing out Bazarian's numerous bank fraud convictions and claiming that he is the target of another criminal investigation into money laundering.<br />* * *<br /> * * * Bazarian also testified he has been paid $3,500 by the FBI for information and expenses and helped with investigations in California, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado and Oklahoma. ¶ Fredenburg also hammered at the inconsistency between Bazarian's testimony and that of Rozet, who testified on Tuesday. Bazarian and Rozet testified differently about where the meeting took place and the people in attendance. ¶ Bazarian said he couldn't recall the date of the meeting, but insisted that Mitchell was there, despite Fredenburg's claim that he wasn't. Fredenburg accused Bazarian and Rozet of making up the story. ¶ Bazarian was the owner of CB Financial Corp. and testified MAGI was the company's biggest customer. CB Financial Corp. couldn't loan the $1 million to MAGI because the company was up to its lending limits, Bazarian said.<br /> He testified that he and Mitchell were good friends and that CB Financial had borrowed $8 million to $10 million from Citizens and the Tulsa Bank of Commerce. Bazarian said he bought stock in Tulsa Bancshares at Mitchell's request and that he also purchased a $1 million Edmond farm from Mitchell.</blockquote>The article doesn't say so, but with Bazarian's testimony the government was apparently close to resting its case.</li><br /><li><b>Day 4: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud09_12_11_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Thursday, December 10</a>. </b>As readers must certainly know, in a criminal proceeding an accused cannot be compelled to testify against himself under the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although Godfrey's December 11 article does not say so, Mitchell must surely have waived that right since the article mainly describes Mitchell's testimony on Day 4 of the trial. <br /><br />But, first, the government apparently closed its case with the testimony of Mary Andrews as related to the California (MAGI) alleged but disputed meeting between Mitchell, Rozet, and Bazarian. The article said,<br /><blockquote>Mary Andrews, an employee of Citizens at the time [of the alleged meeting between Mitchell, Bazarian, and Rozet], testified Thursday morning that she and Mitchell were in Dallas that day but that Mitchell had flown back early. ¶ Mitchell testified Thursday afternoon that he "wouldn't dispute Mary" on the fact that he returned to Oklahoma City early that day but denied ever meeting with Bazarian and Rozet.</blockquote>The article then describes, even if briefly, what it says were more than four hours of testimony by Mitchell. <br /><br />In that testimony, Mitchell denied all charges, and the fairly brief article can certainly not be said to contain everything that he had to say. But, among other things, the article said,<br /><blockquote> * * * Mitchell on Thursday denied being at any such meeting [between Rozet and Bazarian]. He said that he was told by Bazarian that Management Assistance [MAGI] wanted to borrow the money. ¶ Mitchell claimed that he had lost control of his stock in the Tulsa bank to Bazarian but under cross-examination admitted the stock was still in his name. ¶ Mitchell's defense attorneys had told government witnesses during the trial that Mitchell was in Dallas on March 29, 1985.</blockquote>But see the testimony of Mary Andrews and Mitchell's response, probably during his own cross-examination, described above. <br /><br />The article continues.<br /><blockquote>Mitchell is also accused of receiving $100,000 for his influence in arranging a $750,000 letter of credit from the Tulsa Bank of Commerce for Stanley G. Miles, a Denver real estate developer. Mitchell testified he didn't even know about the letter of credit until he was told he was going to be indicted for it. The money came from his brother, Dudley "Bo" Mitchell, who owed him the money, Mitchell said. ¶ Federal prosecutors allege Dudley Mitchell got the money from Miles. <br /> Mitchell is accused in another count of receiving a $140,000 loan from Columbine Valley Bank and Trust in Littleton,Colo., for his influence in renewing Citizens' and the Tulsa Bank of Commerce's participation in a loan to Columbine. * * * Mitchell testified he never discussed the loan with Miles and did nothing to affect the renewal. * * *<br /> Another count charges Mitchell with misapplying $26,000 from Citizens. Prosecutors allege the money was used in the purchase of the Norman home of Mitchell and his wife, former Oklahoma legislator Cleta Deatherage Mitchell. ¶ Prosecutors claim Mitchell advised a Citizens loan officer that the buyer, former state legislator Jim Fried, wanted the money to invest in the stock market. Mitchell testified he never told the loan officer the purpose of the loan was to buy stock.</blockquote>With that, Day 4 of the trial ended, and the article noted that cross-examination of Mitchell would continue the next day.</li><br /><li><b>Day 5: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud10_12_12_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Friday, December 11</a>. </b>If there was further cross-examination on December 11, Godfrey's December 12 article certainly did not describe it. Instead, it appears that both the government and Mitchell rested their cases, that motions were then heard by federal judge Lee R. West, and upon his rulings and instructions to the jury (the article does not say that, but that's how legal proceedings work), the case was submitted to the jury which began its deliberations. Frankly, the reporting leaves a lot to be desired for accuracy purposes, but one reviewing history takes what one can get. <br /><br />The December 12 headline simply read, <b>Mitchell Bribe Charge Tossed; 7 Counts Mulled</b>. A "tossing" of a charge would not occur had the parties not already have rested, so it appears that no further cross-examination of Mitchell occurred on Friday. If it did, the article does not mention it.<br /><br />The charge which Judge West "tossed" was the charge that Mitchell received a $100,000 bribe from a Colorado real estate developer, Miles, as a condition for Miles to receive a $750,000 letter of credit from Citizens. This is the transaction which involved Dale Mitchell's brother, Dudley. Godfrey's <i>Oklahoman</i> article said,<br /><blockquote>In dismissing the charge, West said there was no direct evidence Dale Mitchell had any influence on approving the letter of credit, but there was evidence of an existing debt between Mitchell and his brother. ¶ The judge also said he found it significant that the government had subpoenaed Dudley Mitchell in the case but did not call him to testify.</blockquote>Following closing lawyer arguments, the remaining 7 counts were submitted to the jury. The article reported that the government's closing argument made by assistant U.S. attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna included these remarks:<br /><blockquote>During closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Zemp Behanna said Mitchell during the early and mid-1980s had built his wealth "on a house of cards." Mitchell needed money desperately and kept constantly borrowing from one bank to pay another, Behenna claimed. ¶ Mitchell had a home in Nichols Hills, a vacation home in Phoenix and a $400,000 art collection, Behenna said. ¶ "He had a very nice style of living and he wanted to keep it that way," Behenna told the jury. "That is why he did the things alleged in the indictment."<br /> Mitchell's attorney, Andy Coats, told the jury in his closing argument the government had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt any crime had been committed and that prosecutors "just wanted to throw a lot of mud on the wall."</blockquote>Otherwise, the December 12 article really didn't add all that much to the story, except to say that, "Mitchell had been working as a stockbroker in Washington, D.C., prior to his indictment. The article noted that the jury deliberated for two hours before recessing for the weekend.</li><br /><li><b>Day 6: <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud11_12_15_1992.jpg" target="_blank">Monday, December 14</a>. </b>Godfrey's article in the December 15 <i>Oklahoman</i> bore the front-page headline, <b>Jury Finds Ex-Banker Guilty on 5 Counts. </b>Of the seven counts remaining after Judge West dismissed one charge on Friday, the jury found Mitchell guilty on five of the seven remaining. It acquitted him on two counts: (1) of misapplying $26,000used in the purchase of his Norman home; and (2) receiving a $140,000 loan from the Colorado Columbine bank in exchange for his influence in renewing that bank's loans to Citizens and Bank of Commerce.<br /><br />As to the California MAGI matter, "Mitchell was found guilty of demanding that a California corporation borrow $1.2 million and use the money to buy stock in a Tulsa bank [Bank of Commerce] he owned in order for the company to receive a $1 million loan it had requested from Citizens," the article said. Mitchell was also convicted on failing to disclosing to Citizens' loan officers that he had a financial interest in Tolex Energies which had applied to borrow $1.3 million from Citizens. And, the jury convicted Mitchell on charges that he had obtained two personal loans totaling more than $1 million based upon his false statements. </li></ul><b>Trial Aftermath. </b>Mitchell remained free on bond pending Judge West's review of the verdict and Mitchell's sentencing. Godfrey reported on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud12_2_18_1993.jpg" target="_blank">February 18, 1993</a>, that Judge West had reviewed Andy Coat's motions for acquittal based on insufficiency of evidence and on February 17 he ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented to the jury which, if they believed it, would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the crimes were committed by Mitchell. "The court does not weigh conflicting evidence or assess witness credibility, the judge wrote." <br /><br />From this and the jury's decision, Mitchell would later appeal. But, before that, he would have to be sentenced by Judge West, and Godfrey reported that decision in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud13_4_15_1993.jpg" target="_blank">April 15, 1993, <i>Oklahoman</i></a>. Dale E. Mitchell was sentence to five years but the sentence was suspended, and Mitchell was ordered to pay restitution of $3,039,740, and was ordered to perform 208 hours of community service during each year of his probation. It was very evidently true that Godfrey got it right when he reported:<br /><blockquote>At the sentencing, the judge told Mitchell that he was fortunate "to be appearing before someone who does not happen to believe that incarceration is required or serves any purpose in every case, and particularly this case." ¶ West said Mitchell also had "increased good fortune" that an alternative sentence could be imposed. ¶ The federal sentencing guidelines, which establish a range of imprisonment that federal judges must follow, did not apply in Mitchell's case. The crimes of which Mitchell was convicted occurred before the enactment of the guidelines, allowing West full discretion at sentencing. ¶ Based on the amount of money involved in Mitchell's case, the sentencing guidelines likely would have recommended a prison sentence of at least two year. Federal prosecutors had asked that Mitchell be sentenced to prison. ¶ West said that Mitchell's sentence "will at least spare us the additional expense of incarceration, which in my view will serve no useful purpose.</blockquote>The article reflects, somewhat, that Judge West had some concern about "the last-minute revelations by the government regarding Charles Bazarian, a key government witness," and the article said that, <blockquote>The judge said that it was unfortunate Mitchell allowed himself to become involved with such people as Bazarian and others, "who demonstrated little or no respect for the law. ¶ Whether by reason of ambition or greed or both, you participated in activities which the jury has found to be illegal," the judge told Mitchell. "Unfortunately for you this has resulted not only in the loss of public funds, but the complete destruction of your promising career." ¶ The judge told Mitchell he would likely "suffer guilt and other psychological pain for the rest of your life" for having caused his family such trauma."</blockquote>Maybe so, but as will be seen at the end of this section, Mitchell seems to be in pretty good shape these days, due no doubt in large part by the later success of his wife, Cleta, in the legal circles of Washington, D.C., and, particularly, within the Republican party.<br /><br />But, I digress. Up in Colorado, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud06_6-25-1993.jpg" target="_blank">June 25, 1993, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported that Stanley G. Miles II's sentence had been reduced from 2 ½ years to 7 ½ months, due to his cooperation in the Oklahoma City Mitchell trial. Notwithstanding that Mitchell was acquitted in Oklahoma City of the charges which involved Miles' Colorado guilty pleas and convictions, the Colorado federal judge ordered him to be released immediately based on prison time already served, based upon federal prosecutors' recommendations. The article reported that Oklahoma City prosecutor Vicki Zemp Behenna wrote that, "Miles' testimony in the trial of Mitchell 'was truthful and personally unflattering. I found Stan Miles to be most helpful and cooperative during the entire pretrial and trial process (of Mitchell)."<br /><br /><a href="" name="mitchell_appeal"></a><b>Mitchell's Appeal — Affirmance, Reversal, and Remand. </b>As for Mitchell, he appealed all prior decisions, the convictions and the sentence, to the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Denver, a three-judge panel consisting of federal judges Paul J. Kelly, Robert H. McWilliams, Jr., and John C. Godbold who wrote the court's opinion. <br /><br />A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud14_11_13_1993.jpg" target="_blank">November 13, 1993, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported on oral arguments. Andy Coats argued that Mitchell was not financially able to pay the $3 million restitution order, as well as arguing that the jury's decisions should be overturned. Coats told the court that Mitchell's liabilities exceeded his assets by $4 million and that, in addition to the negative net worth the federal government had a lien on his property for $795,000 in unpaid income taxes. The article also noted that most of the restitution was to be to FDIC and to MAGI, the California company. As to the convictions, Coats' argued that the government's evidence was insufficient. Naturally enough, US Assistant Attorney William Lee Borden Jr. took the contrary view but did concede to a $470,000 reduction of the restitution amount. As well, it was mentioned in the article that FDIC had written a letter which prosecutors presented during Mitchell's sentencing proceedings, the article stating:<br /><blockquote>"The FDIC, FSLIC or institutions which later came under receivership by these agencies filed proofs of loss totaling in excess of $18,703,841.92," the letter stated. "The FDIC eventually lost in excess of this amount considering the associated legal fees, related litigation costs and general receivership expenses."</blockquote>After having taken the case under advisement and reviewing the parties' briefs, the court filed its written opinion deciding the appellate issues on January 28, 1994. <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/okchistory/15_f3d_953_us_v_mitchell.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for the full opinion</a>. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud15_1_29_1994.jpg" target="_blank">January 29, 1994, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported on the appellate court's decision, but I'm relying on an actual review of the actual court opinion here.<br /><br />In a nutshell (and in addition to the clarification the opinion gives to particular identification of five of the eight charges against Mitchell, not particularly well done in earlier <i>Oklahoman</i> articles), the court affirmed four convictions under Counts 3 and 4, both involving the California MAGI allegations, as well as Counts 7 and 8, both involving personal loans Mitchell had with other banks, the court finding that the evidence was sufficient to support the respective convictions.<br /><br />But, as to Count 6, the court reversed the conviction. As previously discussed, this charge related to a loan sought by Tolex Energies, Inc., from Citizens, arising from Mitchell's failure to make his interest in Tolex clear to Citizens loan officers until after the Tolex loan had been consummated. In this regard, the court's opinion identified a trial witness, David Durrett, not mentioned in the <i>Oklahoman</i> reports. The opinion noted that when Tolex inquired about obtaining a $1.3 million loan, Mitchell referred the matter to Mr. Durrett, a Citizens loan officer, and the opinion contained some of Durrett's relevant testimony. Although Citizens did loan Tolex $1 million, no testimony was presented during the trial that Mitchell had influenced that decision, other than possibly by inference and/or innuendo (my terms, not the court's). Part of the opinion reads,<br /><blockquote>The indictment charged that Mitchell "misapplied and caused to be misapplied" funds of the bank. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 656 requires that an accused either make a loan or influence the making in a significant way. There must be a causal connection between the defendant's actions as officer and the making of the loan. [Citations omitted]. The evidence of a causal connection between Mitchell and approval of the loan was not sufficient that a reasonable jury could find Mitchell guilty beyond reasonable doubt.</blockquote>The court noted that the government had changed its position from trial to appellate circumstances:<br /><blockquote>In the district court the government contended that Mitchell violated Sec. 656 by failing to discharge an affirmative duty to disclose his relationship with Tolex when he knew that Tolex had a loan application pending. On appeal it has shifted its position and, recognizing the necessity for a causal relationship, suggests that Durrett "sponsored" the loan for Mitchell's benefit and appeared before the loan committee "on Mitchell's behalf." There is not substantial evidence supporting those contentions. The motion for judgment of acquittal on Count 6 should have been granted.</blockquote>But, Mitchell's biggest victory in the appeal was his allegation that the $3,039,740 restitution order was too great and that the amount should be reduced. Excerpts from the court's opinion read:<br /><blockquote>After a sentencing hearing the district court ordered Mitchell to pay restitution of $3,039,740, in amounts to be determined by the probation office. <sup>3</sup></blockquote>Incredibly, at least to me, footnote 3 reads, "Mitchell represents to us that the probation office has ordered payments of $50.00 per month." If I've done my math correctly, that would mean that Mitchell would have had 1,215.9 months, which is 101.33 years, to accomplish the restitution.<br /><br />The appellate court opinion continues:<br /><blockquote>The district court made no specific finding that Mitchell is able to pay any restitution. Arguably such a finding is implicit in its order that he pay $3,037,740. But we do not know what underlying fact findings would support a finding of ability to pay. The PSI [ed note: pre-sentence investigation] showed Mitchell as currently unemployed. It listed assets of $8,000 plus, liabilities of $4,156,358, a negative net worth of $4,148,346, monthly income (from spouse's salary) of $4,180, and negative monthly cash flow of $2,615. The PSI concluded that Mitchell does not have the ability to pay restitution. The court stated that it had considered the PSI, but it did not refer to the recommendation that Mitchell could not pay anything.<br />* * *<br />Additionally, the prosecution presented to the court a letter addressed to the judge from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It outlined that agency's analysis of losses it said it had incurred as a consequence of Mitchell's wrongs. Counsel for Mitchell strongly objected to the letter on the ground that he had received it only the day before the hearing and that it embraced transactions not a part of the case. The letter requested a substantial prison sentence and restitution of not less than $2,705,681.88. It said that Mitchell defrauded Citizens Bank of several million dollars, obtained money under false pretenses, and used loan proceeds for purposes other than stated to obtain the loan. Mitchell was not convicted of any such offenses. The letter listed 20 failed banks that FDIC said Mitchell was "involved with" or "associated with" as director, officer, influencing shareholder, borrower, or some combination of these, having total assets of more than $11,000,000,000. Which, if any, of these banks suffered any loss as a result of Mitchell's "association" or "involvement" was not stated. Delivery of the letter to defense counsel only one day before the hearing was not explained. Defense counsel expressed his outrage at the letter's presentation, the delay in furnishing him a copy, and the contents of the letter. The district judge announced that he had received the letter and reviewed it and would consider it for whatever the court deemed it was worth and appropriate. We do not know what, if any, reliance the judge gave to the letter.<br /> Finally, in this court the government concedes that the amount of restitution directed must be modified to eliminate $370,852.22, an amount relating to a victim not connected to any charge on which Mitchell was convicted and $101,000 in attorney fees not directly related to Mitchell's criminal conduct. Also, our reversal of Count 6 would, by itself, require the court to revisit the restitution order.<br /> Whether Mitchell has the ability to pay any restitution is sharply contested. It is not necessary for us to recite the facts pro and con that came out at trial and bear on that issue since the entire matter of restitution must be readdressed.</blockquote>After the 10th Circuit Court's opinion, Judge Lee West was required to reconsider his restitution order, and he did. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud16_3_16_1994.jpg" target="_blank">March 16, 1994, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> by Ed Godfrey reported that Mitchell's restitution was cut to $1.3 million from its original $3,039,740 amount as the result of a government/Mitchell agreement. The article also noted some degree of Mitchell resilience. It said,<br /><blockquote>In the agreement on $1.3 million in restitution, the government and Mitchell's attorneys said Mitchell was employed for five years in the temporary personnel field and that he reported income of $177,493 between June 1986 and April 1988 from Express Temporary Service. ¶ Dividend Personnel paid Mitchell $72,000 in 1990 and loaned Mitchell $78,000, according to the agreement. ¶ Mitchell and others created Dividend Personnel from nothing, and at the end of 1990 it was sold for $750,000, the agreement states, showing that Mitchell's involvement in businesses can earn him substantial amounts of money.</blockquote><a href="" name="mitchell_aftermath"></a><b>Mitchell Aftermath. </b>That's the end of the Dale E. Mitchell part of the Citizens story, except for this sort-of-postscript note. An <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud02_8_1_1992.jpg" target="_blank">August 1, 1992, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> reported that the Mitchells, Cleta and Dale, had established residence in New York but by an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/mitchell_fraud05_10_27_1992.jpg" target="_blank">October 27, 1992, article</a>, the Mitchells resided in Washington, D.C., and that appears to have remained true since that time. <br /><br />As for Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, the once-progressive Oklahoma Democrat who insisted as a premarital condition of her taking Mitchell as her last name that Dale switch his political party to Democrat, it seems that the tables have turned. She is now more commonly known as Cleta Mitchell and has become what many articles call a "powerful" Washington lawyer and a flag-waver of the conservative elements in the Republican Party. She has testified before Congress on at least two occasions I noticed while Googling her name. At the time of this writing (April 6, 2012), she serves as Republican presidential <a href="http://normantranscript.com/headlines/x1361426706/Norman-connection-Santorum-taps-former-lawmaker-as-counsel" target="_blank">candidate Rick Santorum's general counsel</a>. Other of her organizations <a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/909/000129522/" target="_blank">are shown here</a>. The <i>Oklahoman</i> has at least twice carried political columns written by conservative George Will which cite who cite her with approving content. In an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/cleta_4_28_2011.jpg" target="_blank">April 28, 2011, column</a>, he mentioned her testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on a matter of campaign finance and said that she was "a campaign law specialist and president of the Republican National Lawyers Association." In a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/cleta_3_1_2012.jpg" target="_blank">March 1, 2012, column</a>, he referred to her as "Washington's pre-eminent campaign lawyer."<br /><br />It's more difficult to find contemporary information about Dale, though. In this exception, the focus of the <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39886/dale-mitchell-was-no-goat-the-guy-who-took-the/" target="_blank">October 15, 2010, <i>Washington City Paper</i> article</a> (a Washington, D.C., weekly) was on his baseball-star father, E. Dale Mitchell, but toward the bottom the article did note,<br /><blockquote> Dale E. will talk, though. He’s so proud of his father’s accomplishments as a ballplayer and businessman — the elder Mitchell began a long run as a Martin Marietta executive shortly after the 1956 Series—that he’ll talk about everything Dad did, including that infamous strikeout. He says he’s often asked to do just that <b>when he introduces himself at business and social functions</b> (he’s married to Cleta Mitchell, a big Oakland A’s fan and one of this town’s rainmakingest GOP lawyers, now all over the news for representing Tea Party darlings Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle).<br /> “I’ll go out to the golf course, and I’ll notice a guy’s watching me,” he says. “And about the third hole he’ll work up the courage and say, ‘You know, there used to be a ballplayer with that name...’ It’s just amazing to me: My dad’s been retired for 54 years and dead for about 24. But baseball people remember!”</blockquote>Apparently, for the Mitchells in 2012, life is good — elbow-rubbing with the rich and famous once again but this time in a different city and with an even more prestigious group of notables. But, what the heck — it's all just part of the history of Oklahoma City, the good, the bad, and the ugly. A history buff enjoys reading it all.<br /><br /><a name="citizens_laterbanks"></a> <b>● Post-Citizens Banking Aftermath. </b><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10_275.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>As discussed in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/02/oklahoma-city-circa-1967.html#citizens_darkness"> Days of Masked Darkness & Failure</a>, above, upon Citizens' closure on <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1986_08_15.jpg" target="_blank">Thursday, August 14, 1986</a>, Liberty National Bank and Trust Co. of Oklahoma City acquired its better assets and liabilities and reopened on Monday, August 18, as a Liberty branch bank, complete with new signage. Doing so, Liberty promptly <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1986_08_19.jpg" target="_blank">fired 67 of 130 Citizens employees</a> and went on about the business of being Liberty Bank. Citizens' branch at Citizens Plaza was retained by Liberty for the time being. The photo shown here is from the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10.jpg" target="_blank">September 9, 2001, <i>Oklahoman</i></a>.<br /><br />Liberty itself was no sure thing, however. In <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1997_01_19.jpg" target="_blank">January 1984</a>, Liberty National Corp. of Oklahoma City merged with First Tulsa Bancorporation, owner of First National Bank of Tulsa, and the banks' holding company was called Banks of Mid-America. It went through its own doldrums and that topic will be developed in Part 3, the "top slice" of this 1967 photo chain of articles. <br /><br />The Gold Dome's next name was Bank One. Beginning in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1997_01_19.jpg" target="_blank">December 1996</a> and ending in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1997_06_03.jpg" target="_blank">June 1967</a>, negotiations led to Liberty's acquisition by Banc One Corp. of Columbus, Ohio (with a "c" in "Banc") holding company of Bank One (with the "k") thus drawing to a close its Oklahoma ownership, and, of course, that included the Gold Dome as one of Liberty's branch banks. <br /><blockquote>As an aside, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1997_06_03.jpg" target="_blank">June 3, 1997, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> explained that under federal regulations only a chartered bank could use the word, "bank" — hence, a bank's holding company commonly used the word, "banc."</blockquote>Under Bank One's ownership, the Liberty name and logo continued to be used until <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1997_12_6.jpg" target="_blank">December 1997</a>, after which Bank One took the name of all Liberty acquisitions, including the dome. <br /><br />In <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2004_01_15.jpg" target="_blank">January 2004</a>, a merger was announced between Bank One and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (headquartered in New York although its consumer banking base was located in Chicago), and a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2004_06_9.jpg" target="_blank">June 9 article</a> said that the merger was nearing completion. Following the merger that summer, Bank One logos continued to appear on Bank One banks for a time, but, an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2005_04_21.jpg" target="_blank">April 21, 2005, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> shows that name changes to Chase Bank were then underway.<br /><br />However, since the issues concerning the Gold Dome and non-bank ownership of the dome were finally resolved in 2003 before the Chase merger, Bank One, not Chase, was the the last banking institution to call the Gold Dome home, more particularly described in the next and last section of this article.<br /><br /><a href="" name="citizens_salvation"></a> <b>● The Gold Dome's Salvation. </b>But what would become of the Gold Dome, itself? As good a place as any for this part of the story to begin is <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1998_08_10.jpg" target="_blank"> August 9, 1998</a>, since, at that time, a movement formally began that the city would begin taking steps to protect its assets along the NW 23rd Street corridor, as it was called. In an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1998_08_10.jpg" target="_blank">August 11 article by Jack Money</a>, the <i>Oklahoman</i> reported as follows:<br /><blockquote> Oklahoma City is working to add a new zoning area along the NW 23 corridor between Interstate 235 and Villa Avenue. ¶ The area, when implemented, will require property owners to participate in a special design review process if they want to demolish or modify properties fronting the street in that areas. * * * ¶ It would potentially stop the demolition of various properties, including a landmark gold-domed banking building at the corner of NW 23 and Classen Boulevard.<br /> That building's demise was rumored in the past couple of weeks, alarming members of the Uptown 23 Association, a group working to improve the NW 23 corridor. ¶ Association members say they want to preserve the street's unique commercial nature, which features older art-deco face buildings with commercial space fronting the busy street. ¶ Group members also want to save historic buildings like the one with the gold dome and others, like the Tower Theater building in the 400 block of NW 23.<br /> "If that (gold dome) building wasn't there and there was just another brown box at that corner, when you went buy you might think you were in Amarillo," said Michael D. Smith, vice president of the Uptown 23 Association. ¶ "There is no reverence of respect for things that are unique — there is a lack of that," said Smith. "That comes with age, education, and experience."</blockquote>The general project wasn't a done deal as of Money's August 10, 1998, article. On <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1998_11_4.jpg" target="_blank">November 3, 1998</a>, the City Council adopted a zoning ordinance which established a North Downtown Urban Revitalization District along the NW 23rd corridor and parts of the Gatewood neighborhood and required that exterior renovations or new construction of business properties within the district be subject to review by its urban design review board, identical to similar boards or committees established for Bricktown and other core areas of the city. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1999_01_29.jpg" target="_blank">January 29, 1999, article</a> by Money said that landscaping funding for the overall project had been found.<br /><br />So, what was the rumor, when Money's August 10, 1998, article was written? A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_24.jpg" target="_blank">July 24, 2001, article</a> by Gregory Potts said that preservation groups had met with Bank One officials 2-3 years earlier in 1999 but were then rebuffed by Bank One, it saying that its intention was to destroy the building. So, it was not unexpected that the rumor became reality by the time that a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_17.jpg" target="_blank">July 17, 2001, article</a> by Potts was written, when it was reported that Bank One proposed to demolish the Gold Dome and replace it with a smaller branch bank and a Walgreen's pharmacy on the property. The proposal needed to be submitted to the Urban Design Commission, however.<br /><blockquote> The plan calls for the dome to be replaced with a smaller bank and a Walgreen's. [Dennis] Box [attorney for the applicant] said the deal with Walgreen's is contingent on approval of the application to destroy the building. ¶ Box estimated the dome would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate.<br /> "From an economic standpoint, the heating and cooling costs are inefficient," he said. "The building has asbestos and major structural issues that need to be resolved, and, as a result, the economics don't work."<br />* * *<br /> John Bozallis, a retired Oklahoma City architect, worked for the firm that designed the dome. Bozallis said the building was only the third geodesic dome in the world and prompted an article in the London Times. The building's design was based on a patented design from the famed engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller.<br />* * *<br /> Trent Margrif, executive director of Preservation Oklahoma, said he believes the building is of national historical significance. ¶ "There are plenty of domes on the American landscape now, but not many from th 1950s like this one," he said. ¶ Margrif said he is afraid Oklahoma is developing a reputation for failing to take care of its historic structures.</blockquote>The article also noted that opposition to the demolition might be futile, as was the case with the downtown YMCA and Belle Isle power plant on the north side of the old Classen Circle.<br /><blockquote>Stan Carroll, a board member of the Central Oklahoma Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said he is pessimistic that the building can be saved. ¶ "If Belle Isle and the YMCA are any indication, I think it's hopeless," Carroll said. ¶ The Belle Isle power plant was demolished to make way for a strip mall, and the bomb-damaged YMCA building is being destroyed to make way for a parking lot. Some considered both buildings local landmarks.</blockquote>If Carroll's pessimism would become fact, the Gold Dome was domed. However, for almost two years, from July 2001 through April 2003 the resolution remained in doubt. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_19.jpg" target="_blank">July 19, 2001, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> by Potts reported that Bank One said that it would consider alternatives to destroying the structure. After more than 30 appeared at the hearing before the July 18 meeting of the Urban Design Commission to protest the dome's destruction, Bank One asked for and was granted a month's continuance of the pending matter. That article said:<br /><blockquote>Catherine Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the state Historic engineer Office, said the agency earlier in the day announced its support for the building's candidacy to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.</blockquote>It also reported that Bank One's president, Bill Scheihing, said that it would cost at least $1.7 million to accomplish repairs and upgrades to the dome. Before the continuance was granted, the city planning department advocated denial of the demolition request. One witness at the hearing, Daniel Carey, director of the National Register of Historic Places, testified as follows:<br /><blockquote>* * * [Carey] said the building marked a dramatic engineering breakthrough. * * * ¶ What Frank Lloyd Wright was to Prairie Style architecture, Buckminster Fuller was to the dome," Carey said. ¶ If the city decides to allow the building to be demolished, "then Oklahoma City has learned nothing from its past mistakes, and it will continue to distinguish itself as a city that cares little about history and architecture," Carey said.</blockquote><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_24.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_24_protester.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><b>Protests & Rallies. </b>From July 2001 through the matter's final resolution in late March 2003, protests surrounding the destruction of the dome seemed to expand exponentially in the city. Shown here is Joseph Mills and his dog, they being amongst the 30 protesting at the dome on July 23. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_24.jpg" target="_blank"> The article</a> quotes Mills as saying, "I just kind of assumed a structure like this would always be there, just due to its architectural significance." The article also notes,<br /><blockquote> In 1999, the Oklahoma City Historic Preservation and Landmark Commission contacted Bank One to discuss nominating the building for city landmark status. Bank One officials declined, stating their intention then to destroy the structure.<br />* * *<br /> "When this war is over, all we'll have left is an empty Eckerd or an empty Walgreen's," said Nicole Altobello, president of the Paseo neighborhood. ¶ Hers is one of several nearby neighborhoods that have opposed the plan.<br /> Randy Floyd, also an architect, said she would be willing to fight through legal and other means. ¶ "At this point in time, we don't want to get nasty," she said. "We want to start to raise awareness in Oklahoma City and also with Bank One and with Walgreen's, but we're going to get nastier eventually if they don't change their minds." ¶ Floyd said that saving the building could be in the economic self-interest of Bank One and Walgreen's. </blockquote>A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_29.jpg" target="_blank">July 29, 2001, <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> noted that protests had quickly grown. The article said that the property at the southwest corner of the intersection was also available for the Walgreen's pharmacy and that a full block was offered to Walgreen's at that corner of NW 23rd & Classen but that so far Walgreen's had shown no interest in that location. <br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_08_10_crop.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_08_10_crop_175.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;" /></a>The opposition wasn't only led by individuals and organizations who had a limited focus on historical preservation. Recall that <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/02/oklahoma-city-circa-1967.html#blueprint">Rainbow Records</a> was then located at the northwest corner of NW 23rd and Classen. For many years a billboard had sat on top of that structure and still does today. At the time, Sonic Corporation owned those billboard rights and the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_08_10.jpg" target="_blank">August 10, 2001, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> said that the owners of Sonic restaurant franchises in the Oklahoma City area had decided to support the movement to save the dome — and they temporarily donated, without charge, rights to use the billboard to Citizens for the Gold Dome. See the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_08_15.jpg" target="_blank">August 15 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> for more about Sonic's commitment to saving the dome. The new sign is shown here. At least one similar billboard would later appear along the Northwest Highway.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10_2pic.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10_2pic_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>Protests were not limited to NW 23rd & Classen. Here, in a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_10_2.jpg" target="_blank">September 10 <i>Oklahoman</i> pictorial</a>, Nancy Nagel and others are shown in front of Bank One downtown.<br /><br />Other public events, like the July 27, 2002, "Atomic Dance-O-Rama: A Mid-Century Meltdown Party" held at the Buick Building at 504 N. Broadway, was described in a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_07_9.jpg" target="_blank">July 9, 2002, <i>Oklahoman</i></a> article. Admission was $20, and its sponsors were Sonic, Party Galaxy, Leit Motif, VZD's, and Rand and Jeannette Elliot.<br /><br />Summing up, quite a formidable array of public and private organizations, architects, and just plain citizens joined in opposing Bank One's plan to demolish the Gold Dome. Resolution of the matter took a rather extensive amount of time, about 20-21 months, between July 2001 and March 2003.<br /><br /><b>Bank One Response. </b>Although preservationist requests had been dismissed out of hand by Bank One in 1999, it was perhaps taken aback at the initial hearing before the Design Review Committee on July 18, 2001. Even before the hearing, Bank One's attorney, Dennis Box, a July 17 article said that he was unaware of opposition to the demolition plan and that no opponents had contacted him. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_17.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</i>, July 17, 2001</a>. At least by the July 18 initial hearing before the Urban Design Commission, he knew. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_07_19.jpg" target="_blank">July 19 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> reported that the meeting was packed and that "Only a few found chairs." It said that "more than 30 protesters" opined at that meeting that the building was architecturally significant, and, on its own initiative, Bank One through its president Bill Scheihing requested a month's continuance to consider alternatives to the dome's destruction. The article said that his request was granted, together with the appointment of a committee "to help advise Bank One on the matter." The article also said,<br /><blockquote>After the meeting, Scheihing said he had not changed his mind, but wanted to learn more about other options that might be available. ¶ "I would not say that I've had a change of mind," he said. "I think we have some real issues and we heard a lot of issues from the community, and I think what we heard was worthy of us sitting down and spending 30 days to talk about it."</blockquote>One or more meetings occurred with the preservation committee, and an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_08_2.jpg" target="_blank">August 2 <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> said that Bank One had agreed to try to find a buyer who would pay about $1.2 million for the property by the end of September. The article quotes Scheihing as saying that, "It's a change of direction we were going." Lisa Chronister, an Oklahoma City architect and spokesperson of Citizens for the Golden Dome, said,<br /><blockquote>"This is a positive step toward Bank One demonstrating its commitments to the urban character of Oklahoma City and a gracious response to the recent outpouring of community support for the dome," the group said in a statement.</blockquote>The article also notes that Bank One was not agreeable to applying for the dome to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also noted that additional rallies would continue to be held.<br /><blockquote>The group will hold a third demonstration at the site Monday, as well as a larger demonstration Aug. 11. Chronister said the group anticipates 1,000 people to attend. They will march up Classen Boulevard from Memorial Park [NW 36th and Classen] and Classen Boulevard to the bank. ¶ "We would love to turn the August 11 rally into a celebration rally," she said. "It's either going to be a protest or a celebration, depending on what happens." * * * ¶ At Scheihing's request, the Oklahoma City Urban Design Commission deferred its decision on the demolition request. Scheihing said the issue will not appear on the commission's agenda as long as the building is on the market.</blockquote>The Urban Design Commission voted on August 15 to defer its pending decision until October 17. <br /><br />The problem was, at the time, only one entity stepped up to make an offer for the property and that possibility did not pan out. The offer was by "Blue Stuff," a Bethany company which was known for its nationwide infomercials marketing a pain-relieving ointment, and a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_09_27.jpg" target="_blank">September 27, 2001, article</a> evidenced several problems associated with the possibility. An <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_10_13.jpg" target="_blank">October 13 article</a> said that the matter was again continued at the commission's October meeting, Bank One requesting additional time to negotiate with Blue Stuff. But, an <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_10_31.jpg" target="_blank">October 31 article</a> indicated that the negotiations with Blue Stuff had not proceeded smoothly. The article said,<br /><blockquote> It looks like Bank One's "Gold Dome" branch will lose its best chance at being saved from destruction by week's end. ¶ Jack McClung, owner of Blue Stuff, the company that made an offer on the building, said his company had set a deadline for Bank One to accept the offer. McClung also said he thinks the bank has been uncooperative in negotiations. ¶ "It appears as if Bank One really doesn't want to sell the dome," he said.<br /> McClung said the company's final offer for the building is $1 million. Bank One's lowest counteroffer was $1.1 million. Blue Stuff has given the bank until Friday to accept its offer. Blue Stuff also wants to accept a nearby parking lot from Bank One for $50,000. ¶ In addition, McClung said the deal depends on a third party volunteering to make repairs to the building, including caulking the leaky roof. Blue Stuff spokesman Dale Epperson said an engineering inspection of the building revealed that the leak repairs would cost $250,000. ¶ Unless someone or some organization comes forward with money for repairs, we're out, " McClung said.</blockquote>Given those remarks, it's hard to conclude that Blue Stuff didn't add to the difficulties in reaching an agreement with Bank One. <br /><br />In any event, the proposed deal with Blue Stuff failed, as was reported in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_11_3.jpg" target="_blank">November 3 <i>Oklahoman</i></a>. My read of that article and from what was said above is that Bank One had negotiated in good faith, perhaps better than Blue Stuff had. Regardless of interpretation, the Blue Stuff deal was no longer on the table. What would happen next?<br /><br />Following failure to reach a deal with Blue Stuff, a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_11_17.jpg" target="_blank">November 17 article</a> said that Bank One requested another continuance before the Urban Design Commission. The article gave no reason for the request, but my guess is that Bank One was making an estimate of the situation before deciding its next step. The continuance was granted. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2001_12_13.jpg" target="_blank">December 13 article</a> said that Bank One agreed to yet another continuance, postponing the hearing until January 2002, while Bank One and Citizens for the Golden Dome continued their discussions. The article said that Bank One was open to the possibility of disassembling the dome and donating it to a civic group which could move it to another location. <br /><br />Then, at its <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_01_17.jpg" target="_blank">January 16, 2002, meeting</a> at which Bank One's demolition request was set for hearing, the Urban Design Commission on its own motion continued Bank One's request until a special meeting of the commission on January 31. At that meeting, Bank One's request was denied by the commission by a vote of 5-0. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_02_1.jpg" target="_blank">February 1 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> headline read, "Gold Dome supporters win round in design panel." The article said,<br /><blockquote>Commission member Richard Dowell questioned Bank One officials when they argued the cost of refurbishing the building would make the project not feasible. ¶ Dowell said by the bank's own figures, it would cost about $2.2 million to put the bank in "relatively pristine" condition for reuse, while it would cost more than $3 million to demolish it and build new structures for the branch and the [Walgreens] drug store. ¶ "I am frankly extremely puzzled by the applicant's figures," he said.</blockquote>The article also said that Bank One had not yet decided whether to appeal the matter to the Oklahoma City Board of Adjustment. But a <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_02_6.jpg" target="_blank">February 6 <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> indicated that the bank was prepared "to go all the way" in pursuit of its plan to demolish the dome. The article said that the bank's lawyer, Dennis Box, said that an appeal would be filed with the Board of Adjustment and, if necessary, an appeal would be filed in district court — " 'We'll take it all the way,' Box said." The article also said that preservationists expressed similar intentions.<br /><br /><b>The <i>Oklahoman</i> Position.</b> As for its part in the process, a lead but unsigned editorial in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_02_8.jpg" target="_blank">February 8 <i>Oklahoman</i></a> gave the public the newspaper's point of view. At the time, Edward L. Gaylord was the chairman and publisher of OPUBCO and Patrick B. McGuigan was Editor of the editorial page so, presumably, the editorial was written by one of the two of them and with the approval of the other. The lengthy editorial read, in part:<br /><blockquote> We have sympathy for both sides in this issue, but Bank One has the better argument. * * * Both sides have vowed to use all legal channels available to win the debate. The city's Urban Design Commission has already rejected Bank One's application to demolish the dome. Next step is the Board of Adjustment, followed by district court. ¶ The court couldn't force the bank to use the dome for a certain purpose; it could only keep it from demolishing the structure. <b>If that happens, we fear the property would eventually become like so many other beloved buildings in the past — most particularly the Skirvin Hotel — still standing but eternally empty.</b><br />* * *<br /> The dome does not meet its needs and, as legal owner of the property, Bank One has a right to pursue other options for the land. <b>The preservationists are smarting over the recent loss of the old downtown YMCA building to the wrecking ball.</b> But unlike the golden dome, that building was heavily damaged by the Murrah Building bombing. ¶ Opponents of the Y's demolition also took it to court but ran out of money. Those seeking to keep the dome will have to raise enough money for a protracted legal fight. Perhaps instead they should be raising money to buy the old building. ¶ Easier said than done, of course. <br />* * *<br /> * * * Either economics or nostalgia will triumph in this dispute unless a happy medium can be found. For the preservationists, it may be time to put up or shut up.<br /><br /><i>[Ed note: emphasis supplied.]</i></blockquote><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/skirvinrestoration.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/skirvinrestoration_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> In hindsight, we know that the Skirvin was saved and brilliantly so and, today, is the city's finest hotel. We know that the YMCA did indeed receive damage but none that impacted upon its structural integrity but, nonetheless, received the Board of Adjustment's approval for demolition.<br /><br />Take what you will from the Gaylord editorial, but if you're like me and are quite pleased that the Skirvin did not meet the wrecking ball but instead serves as the most excellent Skirvin Hilton Hotel, the finest hotel in our city, take note that the Skirvin's revival and restoration would not evidently have happened had the Gaylords had their way in the management of city affairs. The Skirvin was acquired by the city in 2001 with the hope of finding a way to save the building from destruction, and, of course, that did happen.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/ymca.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/ymca_225.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a>Likewise, the editorial gives little if any sympathy to failed efforts to preserve the city's 1952 YMCA building at the northeast corner of 5th and Robinson, it being a prime example of one of a handful of International Style buildings remaining in the United States and the only such building in Oklahoma City. The city had been offered the donation of this building but the city declined and it was sold to a local investor who planned to demolish the building and make a street level parking lot in its stead. Although the YMCA was not structurally damaged by the Murrah Bombing and was completely available to restoration, the city allowed the demolition of this building in favor a street level parking lot, that occurring in 2001.<br /><br />Using the Gaylord approach based upon its/their own words, the Skirvin would have been quite rightly demolished by the wrecking ball and the YMCA properly met that same fate.<br /><br />Bank One's appeal from the Urban Design Commission's decision was scheduled for hearing before the Board of Adjustment on April 4. Two of the five board members recused themselves and after hearing the matter for over two hours, the remaining three board members continued the hearing until April 18 with a request to both sides to provide more detailed information on the economic feasibility of refurbishing the dome. However, according to an April 19 <i>Oklahoman</I> article, another board member, board chairman David Criswell, said he had learned that he might also have the appearance of a conflict of interest since he and his financial business had been represented by attorney Victor Albert who was also representing the Friends of the Gold Dome and Oklahoma Preservation, Inc.. Even though Bank One lawyers said they had no problem with Criswell participating in the decision, the hearing was again continued, apparently for Criswell to determine whether he would recuse, but, later, he did not do so.<br /><br /><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/irene_lam.jpg" border="0" /> But, before the next scheduled meeting, on May 2, a new development occurred. The <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_05_2.jpg" target="_blank">May 2 <i>Oklahoman</I></a> reported that an offer to purchase the building had been submitted by optometrist Irene Lam and Bank One requested a two-week delay to consider the offer. Lam's "letter of intent" was that the building be purchased for $1.1 million and that the building become an office, retail, and Asian community center. Bank One's request was granted and the hearing was continued until May 16. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_05_18.jpg" target="_blank">May 18 article</a> reported that an actual purchase contract, as opposed to a "letter of intent," had been delivered by Bank One to Dr. Lam and her husband.<br /><br />But, as is said, the devil is in the detail. Although Bank One was open to the proposal to save the dome, it continued to press its hearing before the Board of Adjustment to at least be allowed to construct a small branch bank on the property. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_06_7.jpg" target="_blank">June 7 article</a> reported that the fate of the dome "remained a mystery" and that on June 6,<blockquote> Attorneys, planners and members of Oklahoma City's board of adjustment engaged Thursday in a procedural taffy pull over the fate of the golden dome before one board member left, leaving the body without a quorum and apparently delaying a decision yet again. ¶ "I'm not sure I understand what just happened," said Steven J. Wacker, senior vice president for Bank One, owner of the golden dome that preservationists say is a landmark. "It's pretty frustrating."<br /> Bank One hoped the board on Thursday would give it permission at least to proceed with plans to build a smaller branch bank adjacent to the dome while negotiations continued with a potential buyer for the familiar building.</blockquote>At the next meeting, on June 19, the Board of Adjustment granted Bank One approval permission to construct a small branch bank next to the dome, conditioned upon a sale of the dome to a third party. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_06_20.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoman</I>, June 20, 2002</a>. On July 25, the <i>Oklahoman</I> reported that a contract had been agreed to by Bank One and Lam's group, Gold Dome LLC, but that some outstanding issues remained, parking being one. The article also said that preservationists "remained cautious" It quoted Lisa Chronister, spokesperson for the preservationist group, as saying,<blockquote>Until title is transferred, the building's fate remains uncertain, she said. Besides, she said, "just because it transfers ownership doesn't mean it's saved. We don't care who owns it. We care about what's done with it."</blockquote>By the time of the last article, the dome had been listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation of one of the 11 most-endangered structures in the nation.The parking issue was resolved by October, when Bank One agreed to build its branch south of the done at NW 22nd and Western, thereby giving Lam's group the full block. See <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2002_10_2.jpg" target="_blank"> <i>Oklahoman</I>, October 2</a>. Finally, the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2003_04_3.jpg" target="_blank">April 3, 2003, <i>Oklahoman</I></a> reported that the contract had been executed and that title to the dome block had been transferred to Gold Dome LLC, thus ending the controversy with Bank One — destruction of the Gold Dome had been averted and preservationists had won the day.<br /><br /><a name="citizens_restoration"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/tom_waken_interior_2003_02_7.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/tom_waken_interior_2003_02_7_200.jpg" border="0" /></a><b>Restoration. </b>Remaining, however, were cures to the leaky roof, heating and air conditioning, and other issues that Bank One presented in its demolition request. The $1.1 million that Lam's group paid for the property didn't cure any of such matters. The April 3 article simply said that, "Lam said she plans to apply for grant money." Asbestos removal was also a restoration problem and expense. A note in the July 13, <i>Oklahoman</I> by Steve Lackmeyer said that the federal Brownfields program might help pay for that by a $366,000 grant and that a forgivable loan of $734,000 might be available through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Such requests filter through city government and are requested by municipalities, and the brief article said the matter was on the city council's July 15, 2003, agenda. <i>At right, Tom Waken inspects the space immediately above the dome's external cover — credit the February 7, 2003, Oklahoman.</i><br /><br />Although the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2003_07_16.jpg" target="_blank">July 16 <i>Oklahoman</I></a> reported city council approval was given on July 15, it is not clear from the article whether the approval merely had to do with a stand-alone Brownfields federal grant application as opposed to the larger FHA forgivable loan mentioned above. Whichever, ward 4 council member Brent Rinehart cast the lone dissenting vote. The article also noted that Lam was applying for placement of the dome on the National List of Historic Places and that the same would qualify the property for restoration tax credits. A legal notice authored by the City Planning Department was published in the <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2003_08_5.jpg" target="_blank">August 5 <i>Oklahoman</I></a> which, among many other things, said,<blockquote>NOTICE OF PUBLIC DISCLOSURE AND PUBLIC HEARING BEFORE THE OKLAHOMA CITY COUNCIL TO CONSIDER AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSOLIDATED PLAN FOURTH ACTION YEAR * * *<br /> Consideration and possible recommendation to amend the Consolidated Plan to include a Section 108 Loan Guarantee for the Gold Dome Building in the amount of $734,000. ¶ On April 25, 2003, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published Notice of Funding Availability for the Brownfields Economic Development initiative (BEDI). BEDI grants must be coupled with a companion Section 108 Loan. The Section 108 Loan program requires the City to pledge its future CDBG entitlement as security for the loan.<br /> One project has been identified as an eligible and viable project for the BEDI application — the Bank One Building (Gold Dome) located at 1112 Northwest 23rd Street. The project has been reviewed and recommended by the Empowerment Zone Brownfields and Executive Committees. * * *</blockquote>The lengthy notice says much more and that the matter would be presented to the City Council on August 26, 2003. Consequently, whatever the City Council did on July 15 clearly did not end the matter. Although a pair of August 27 articles by Steve Lackmeyer reported on the council's August 26 proceedings, no mention was made of this particular item and until the March 30, 2004, City Council meeting, I was unable to locate any other relevant article on the topic.<br /><br />On <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2004_03_31.jpg" target="_blank">March 31, 2004</a>, an article by Steve Lackmeyer reported the headline, "City Council delays vote on Gold Dome," and the content of the article effectively evidences that no action had been taken on the federal application during the hiatus between July 2003 and March 2004. The article begins by saying, "A $1 million federal loan guarantee application to help pay for renovation to the Gold Dome building at NW 23 an Classen Boulevard has been delayed," but he might have added a concluding word, "again." The article noted the proposal's opposition by Ward 8 council member Guy Liebmann and that he had successfully lobbied to delay voting on the application until April 13, he asserting that the matter needed more study. Ordinarily, <i>Oklahoman</I> reports of City Council action occur on Wednesday, the day after council meetings but the April 14 <i>Oklahoman</I> made no mention of this item, even though Lackmeyer did report that the City Council put a stop to nude dancing at Dottie's on South Shields — so it's not like the <i>Oklahoman</i> wasn't paying attention to the April 13 City Council proceedings.<br /><br />Regardless, the matter was before the City Council on May 4 and, conditioned upon Irene Lam personally guaranteeing $200,000 should the redevelopment project fail, the federal loan application was finally approved by the City Council. Similar and earlier such applications had not made developer guarantee requirements, and even though Lam felt that she was being treated unfairly, she assented to the requirement. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2004_05_5.jpg" target="_blank">May 5, 2004, <i>Oklahoman</I></a> article said,<blockquote> Ward 8 Councilman Guy Liebmann asked for the personal guarantee. He cite a previous Section 108 loan granted by the city to Tower Tech in 1999. Liebmann supported that loan despite warnings by then-Mayor Kirk Humphreys that the water cooling tower company was failing. ¶ Tower Tech eventually declared bankruptcy and defaulted on the loan. Liebmann said he wanted to minimize the city's risk on such a loan for the domed building.<br /> "I think your number just came up at the wrong time," Liebmann told Lam. * * *<br />* * *<br /> Ward 6 Councilwoman Ann Simank, who represents the neighborhood where the building is, said she didn't understand why so much was being asked of Lam. ¶ She also criticized the tone of the questions being asked by some council members. Simank said Lam had already gone above and beyond federal requirements for the loan. ¶ "I commend you for offering that [the guarantee]," Simank told Lam. "I don't think I would. And I don't know that I'd want to stand here in front of this council and be spoken to in the way you've had to be spoken to. I'm surely apologetic for that."</blockquote>Although not related to the dome's restoration or development (since the vote did not affect Dr. Lam's or her organization's debt to the city), it should be noted that the city's obligation to the federal government was revisited in <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2011_04_13.jpg" target="_blank">April 2011</a> when the City Council voted 7-2 to utilize $874,000 of federal Community Development Block Grant money to satisfy the city's Gold Dome Section 108 debt to the federal government. That money had been given as security by the city on the original 2004 Gold Dome loan. Council members Pete White and Ed Shadid voted against the proposal, White saying that,<blockquote> "I'm not voting against this kind of a project," White said. "I don't think we ought to prepay $1 million that we're paying 1 percent interest on without a thorough vetting of all the other things that money could be used for." ¶ White argued that the nearly $900,000 in grant money could be better used on another project to benefit residents' quality of life rather than paying off a low-interest loan.<br />* * * <br /> If the federal Community Development Block Grant program is cut, as has been discussed in Washington, D.C., and the city had not paid off the federal loan with the money, it could have faced paying the loan with general revenue bonds, Claus said after a question from Ward 8 Councilman Patrick Ryan.</blockquote>Back to restoration and renovation. A <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2004_06_17.jpg" target="_blank">June 17, 2004, article</a> by Steve Lackmeyer said that final renovation plans had been approved by the Urban Design Commission, the same body that had earlier saved it from demolition. Unfortunately, restoration of the dome's exterior to its original golden luster could not be done because of cost and because of the brevity of a guarantee, said the article. Dis-assembly would have been required, the pieces shipped to Kansas where each aluminum piece would then be dipped into a electrically charged vat of chemicals, shipped back and, then, hopefully, reassembled "like a jigsaw puzzle." The least expensive estimate was $450,000 with only a 2-year guarantee.<br /><br />The article also reflected that Norman architect Mike Kertok and contractor Ronald Rocke, president of Maccini Construction, were optimistic about renovation of the dome's interior to its original presentation. <blockquote>Designs also call for restoring an inner gold dome that for years has been hidden by ceiling panels. ¶ There are actually two domes, the outer dome and inner dome," Kertok said. "When we started, we didn't know that. We've taken some of the panels out, and the inner dome is in good shape."</blockquote>As previously mentioned, the dome's acceptance to the list of <a href="http://www.ocgi.okstate.edu/shpo/nhrpdfs/03000875.pdf" target="_blank">National Register of Historic Places</a> occurred in September 2003. Renovations began in 2004. In November 2007, the dome project was one of 21 national award winners from the National Trust for Historic Preservation organization. At this point, it is right to show a few photos of the inside and outside of the premises.<br /><br /><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" bgcolor="black"><tr><td width="50%" align="center" valign="top"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2005_05_13" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2005_05_13_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Interior 2005</font></td><td width="50%" align="center" valign="top"><br /><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/domeinterior_2007.jpg"><br /><font color="white">Interior 2007</font></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_mezzaine.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_mezzaine_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Mezzanine 2010</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/gold_dome_2010.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/gold_dome_2010_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Mezanine 2010</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_1.jpg"><br /><font color="white">Street view 1960s</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_1960s_2.jpg"><br /><font color="white">Aerial view 1960s</font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2012_03.jpg" target="blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/1967/golddome_2012_03_1_510.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Street view March 2012</font></td></tr></table><br />There is more that could be said, but this is enough to traverse the beginnings of Citizens State Bank from its beginnings, its meteoric climb in the Gold Dome, its darker days and demise, and the final chapters on its salvation and restoration.<br /><br />This ends Part 1 of Oklahoma City Circa 1967. Coming next, Part 2.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-30961986050972607752012-02-18T09:03:00.010-06:002012-02-19T17:07:13.463-06:00El Degüello - Citizens United or We The People<a name="top"></a><i>Originally posted on January 15, 2012. Updated on February 18, 2012.</i><br /><br /><center><table bgcolor="black" width="100%" cellpadding="10"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><iframe width="510" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aGUfVIoyhhc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table></center><br />Remember the $540,000 of nasty political ads expended by "Super PACs" in City Council elections last year? The <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/03/dirty-politics-committee-for-oklahoma.html" target="_blank">Committee For Oklahoma City Momentum</a> spent about $415,000 and Voice For Responsible Government spent $125,000.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="#intro">Introduction</a> <a href="#comedic">The Comedic Side</a> <a href="#serious">The Serious Side</a><br /><a href="#national">Corporate Greed 1870s-19teens</a> <a href="#OklahomaCity">Oklahoma City</a><br /><a href="#mayscamp">Mays Camp</a> <a href="Oklahoma_legal">Oklahoma Legal Stuff</a></center><br /><a name="intro"></a><b>Introduction. </b>That outrageous blot on Oklahoma City democracy was made possible by the United States Supreme Court ruling in <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html" target="_blank"><i>Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission</i></a> which was decided on January 21, 2010. In that 5-4 decision, the majority held that corporations are "people" and are therefore entitled to the 1st Amendment protection of free speech, and the upshot has been that corporations can make unlimited contributions into Super PACs without ever once saying who they are.<br /><br />Some might call Super PACs "educational" but I'll call them big big money trying to buy our votes. I call them a threat to democracy.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/occupy-the-courts.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/occupy-the-courts_s.jpg" border="0" /></a>Various movements have sprung up around the country to attempt to undo the <i>Citizens United</i> decision, one being <a href="http://movetoamend.org/ok-oklahoma-city" target="_blank">MoveToAmend.org</a>, it advocating an amendment to the federal Constitution which, at its core, would declare that corporations are <i>NOT people</i> and effectively overturn the <i>Citizens United</i> decision.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/susanmccann_renaguay.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/susanmccann_renaguay_275.jpg" border="0" /></a>Taking a cue from "Occupy Wall Street," "Occupy The Courts" rallies are planned around the country this Friday, January 20, 2012. In Oklahoma City, the rally is spearheaded by these ladies, Susan McCann (left) and Rena Guay (right), and I'll get back to writing about their activities shortly.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/federalcourthouse.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/federalcourthouse_300.jpg" border="0" /></a>The Oklahoma City rally will be in front of the Federal Courthouse, 200 NW 4th, between 12 noon until 1 pm. <br /><br />I'll have more to say about the <i>Citizens United</i> decision and rallies around the country shortly.<br /><br /><a href="comedic"></a><b>The Silly/Funny Background. </b>However, before I get serious, it is an indeed ironic coincidence (?) that yesterday, January 15, the Super Pac <i>Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow</i> launched a juicilloushly (if that's not a word, it should be) sarcastic ad in the South Carolina Republican primary — the Super PAC was formed by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert and is also known as "The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC" — Colbert transferred control of the PAC to Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" last week so he could form an exploratory committee to consider a run for "President of the United States of South Carolina." Since that initial TV ad, Comedy Central has done more, and I'll show a pair of their videos here.<br /><br />This 1st video is simply too good not to watch ... over and over again! The narration is by John Lithgow ...<br /><br /><center><div style="background-color:#000000;width:512px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:405930" width="510" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><b><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/405930/january-15-2012/colbert-super-pac-ad---attack-in-b-minor-for-strings">The Colbert Report</a></b></p></div></div><br />The above was followed by the January 17 production, "Colbert Super PAC - Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert," on Jon Stewart's <i>Daily Show</i>:<br /><br /><div style="background-color:#000000;width:512px;"><div style="padding:2px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:406106" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-17-2012/colbert-super-pac---not-coordinating-with-stephen-colbert">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a></b></p></div></div></center><br />This ongoing political satire at Comedy Central has captured the nation's print, television, and internet media fancy. Here are excerpts from an opinion piece by Linda P. Campbell on January 19 in the <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/19/3379080/commentary-will-colbert-nation.html" target="_blank"><i>Ft. Worth Star Telegram</i></a>:<br /><br /><center><table width="90%" bgcolor="#FFFFCC" cellpadding="8"><tr><td><b>Commentary: Will Colbert Nation make its point about super PACs in S.C. primary?</b><br /><br /> What's more likely to call attention to the outrage that is the super PAC: a bunch of Occupiers showing up at federal courthouses Friday — or Colbert Nation upending Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary by voting for Herman Cain?<br /> Two years ago Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed super PAC funding on American voters by ruling that key restrictions on campaign spending amounted to censorship of corporations and labor unions that wanted to pour big money into electing candidates. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the court said corporations, which are created strictly by the laws that shield them, have the same free speech rights as people, who are created by a power greater than the state.<br />* * *<br /> Colbert has made a running parody of the absurd depths to which campaign funding has fallen. It's brilliant, skewering satire. His super PAC, funded by viewer donations, started as Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow and ran an ad in which low-profile GOP candidate Buddy Roemer got around the "coordination" rule by saying it was an issue ad he wished he weren't in.<br /> Because Colbert wanted to run in the Republican presidential primary of his home state of South Carolina, he handed his super PAC to fellow late-night comic Jon Stewart and renamed it The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC -- all under the grinning eye of his lawyer, Trevor Potter, a former FEC chairman who advised George H.W. Bush and John McCain.<br /> Colbert couldn't get on the ballot, but former candidate Herman Cain is still listed. So Colbert has been mischievously pumping his viewers who are registered South Carolina voters to support him by marking their ballots for Cain. It's a deliciously devious scheme with the potential to mobilize real political action.<br /> A group called Move to Amend is protesting Citizens United in a more conventional way, organizing an Occupy the Courts day for Friday and promoting the idea of a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations and labor unions don't have the same rights as human beings.<br /> It seems like a sincere exercise of the time-honored right to free assembly, with events planned for federal courthouses in more than 130 cities, from Dallas and San Antonio to Missoula, Mont., Central Islip, N.Y., and Dothan, Ala.<br /> But forgive me for doubting they'll rock the system. For goodness' sake, their New York City march is planned for the height of rush hour, with an evening rally after the courthouse has closed for the day.<br /> I'm expecting more impact from Colbert's subversives.</td></tr></table></center><br /><a name="serious"></a><b>The Serious Background. </b>Both before and after the <i>Citizens United</i> decision, a number of items are present to consider. "<u>Who</u> is a person?" "<u>When</u> does a person come to exist?" "<u>How</u> — does it matter how a person was conceived — in other words, can a person be conceived in one or more ways than the ordinary human reproductive means to do so?"<br /><br /><a name="national"></a><b>Early National Background. </b>Although not mentioned in the United States Constitution, corporations have been around since before the American Revolution, they picking up steam in England during the Industrial Revolution. In the States, the so-called Second Industrial Revolution gained momentum with the steam engine and transcontinental railroads, among many other good things, and the corporations served such interests. But, at the time, and to use a term that would probably be called "collateral damage" today, many were harmed by the virtually unrestrained corporate capitalism which flourished during the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/borgcube.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/borgcube_200.jpg" border="0" /></a>Put differently, are the rights of a person different if they are human or if they are a person formed by the law of a state or the United States?" <i>I mean, we are seriously having to look at Star Trek's fictional Borg when considering this topic, aren't we?</i> If you disagree, please explain in a comment.<br /><br />In our civics and history classes in secondary school we learned about the Standard Oil monopoly and we learned about Boss Tweed and other political corruption which was influenced by unbridled corporate greed during that time — well, to qualify that statement, at age 69 I really have no clue what is taught in secondary schools in Oklahoma or elsewhere these days — heck, I don't really know if American history is even taught in schools any more although I hope that it is a required subject. <br /><br /><center>Click on the images below for larger views.</center><br /><table width="100%"><tr><td align="center">Standard Oil Monopoly<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/standardoil.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/standardoil_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center">Boss Tweed, 1871<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/bosstweed1871.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/bosstweed1871_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table>The above newspaper editorial cartoons reflect the time of the late 1800s. Not to mention the working conditions of adult laborers which were often life-threatening and horrible at best, many corporations hired child labor in their workforce — which is precisely why child labor laws began to develop in the 20th century. Corporations were the reason that child labor laws came to exist in the first place — such laws did not merely pop into place for no reason.<br /><br /><table width="100%"><tr><td align="center">1900s Coal Miner Children<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/childlaborcirca1900s.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/childlaborcirca1900s_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center">1912 Child Labor<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/childlabor1912.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/childlabor1912_250.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center">5 Year Old Hymie Miller<br />Selling Newspapers in Oklahoma City<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/hymiemiller_1917.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/hymiemiller_1917_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center">5 Year Old Ernest Chester<br />Selling Newspapers in Oklahoma City<br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/ernestchester_1917.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/ernestchester_1917_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table>The above pair of images are credited to Larry Johnson, <i>Historic Photos of Oklahoma City</i> (Turner Publishing Co. 2007). In the text, Johnson notes, "In 1917, the National Child Labor Committee investigated conditions of child workers in Oklahoma. Noted Photographer Lewis W. Hine documented the committee's work." The kids were called, "newsies," Johnson says, and in another picture not shown here of a 9 year old child selling papers downtown, the child was quoted as admitting to his truancy saying, "I dunno where the school is."<br /><br /><a name="OklahomaCity"></a><b>Oklahoma City.</b> National economic calamity can be another byproduct of unrestrained poorly regulated corporate capitalism. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 marked the beginning of the 10-year long Great Depression. In Oklahoma City, though, downtown construction continued full-steam into 1930 with the construction of the 1st National Building and Ramsey Tower (City Place today), as well as the YWCA on NW 1st (Park Avenue) and many others, and some opined that Oklahoma would not necessarily be hit by the Wall Street Crash as hard as some places. By 1931-32, it became evident that any such hope was merely wishful thinking.<br /><br />During the 1930s, Oklahoma City came to have some of the most populated <a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/M/MI012.html" target="_blank">"Hoovervilles"</a> in the nation. Mostly located on the river-bottom of the North Canadian River between Byers and Pennsylvania, but also Mays Camp at the May Avenue bridge crossing of the river, these camps were home to thousands in Oklahoma City. According to William H. Mullins, writing for the <a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/G/GR014.html" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture</i></a>,<br /><blockquote><a name="mayscamp"></a>By the end of 1930 Tulsa and Oklahoma City formed unemployment committees. The economy reached bottom in the winter of 1932-33. Joblessness probably exceeded three hundred thousand, out of an urban population of around eight hundred thousand.</blockquote>The May Avenue Camp became famous/infamous via photographs taken by Russell Lee, a photographer with the U.S. Farm Security Administration, and just a few of them are shown below.<br /><br /><center>Click on any image for a larger view.</center><br /><table width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_1_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_2_250.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_3_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/mayscamp1939_4_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table>The April 26, 1938, <i>Oklahoman</i> article below paints a dismal picture of the city:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/oklahoman_4_26_1938.jpg"></center><br /><blockquote>As to Oklahoma City, he [author Stuart Chase] said, "I went on to Oklahoma City where oil wells spout on the grounds of the state capitol and perhaps the most extensive Hooverville in the nation lies spread along the flood plain of the river — a tarpaper, barrel stave, tincan slum that would disgrace any town in Mexico. Here congregate thousands of Americans who have lost their homes and everything else except possibly a battered Ford. Here they congregate at one of the great crossroads of the nation, wondering where a job can be found, north, south, east, west, striving to exist in a hovel from which a self-respecting dog would run yelping."</blockquote>By saying the above, I don't mean to say that unbridled and unregulated corporate capitalism was the sole cause of the Great Depression or of Oklahoma's share of it, and I'm not forgetting the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s contributed largely to Oklahoma's woes during the 1930s-early 1940s. And I'm not ignoring that during the same period of time corporations did a lot of good for the economy.<br /><br />Just the same, it would be difficult to argue that corporations did not contribute largely to the Great Depression itself. It would be even more difficult to argue, I would suppose, that corporations place national or local well-being in as high a priority as they do their own bottom line — profit. That's natural and fair — but the plain fact is that corporate expenditures to political campaigns directly or as Super PACs indirectly are made for the same reason — their own profits. At least, that's my opinion.<br /><br />I'm probably not too far off base to speculate that laws which existed prior to the <i>Citizens United</i> decision were made for substantial reasons, and that those reasons were something along the lines of what I've discussed above.<br /><br /><a name="Oklahoma_legal"></a><b>Oklahoma Law. </b>Oklahoma is one of many states which either prohibited or restricted corporate funds being spent on political elections. See this article at the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/citizens-united-and-the-states.aspx" target="_blank">National Conference of State Legislatures website</a>. In Oklahoma, corporations are created under the authority of state or federal law which fact is universally true in the United States.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=85024" target="_blank">Oklahoma Constitution, Article 9, §40</a>, provides that,<blockquote><b>§40. Influencing elections or official duty.<br /><br />No corporation organized or doing business in this State shall be permitted to influence elections or official duty by contributions of money or anything of value.</b></blockquote>That constitutional provision has not been repealed and remains the constitutional law of our state. Even in the present Oklahoma era of what I will call extreme moral conservatism, in which the state Senate just approved a bill which, if enacted into law, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/okla-senate-oks-personhood-embryos-15655530#.Tz-8-FHrSSo" target="_blank">would declare human life to begin at conception</a>, corporate "personhood," which could by analogy be seen to be the point of conception of a — incorporation of the corporation — was ignored.<br /><br />... more to come ... <br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-34265953407357044822012-02-09T20:28:00.028-06:002012-02-13T08:33:26.336-06:00The Men Who Kicked The Hornets Nest<a name="top"></a><center><iframe width="510" height="370" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OukjFS-vJVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />Credit <i>The Who</i> for background audio, "Who Are You," in the video, above, and Swedish author Stieg Larrson for the concept — his <i>Dragon Tatoo</i> trilogy is almost certainly the finest political/crime/suspense literature of this century and the Swedish movie versions of his work are simply extraordinary and follow the books true to form (unlike the recently released US <i>Girl With The Dragon Tatoo</i> which takes more license than the Swedish counterpart). The books, the movies, and the aftermath of the <i>Citizens United vs. F.E.C.</i> United States Supreme Court decision are not for the timid or feint of heart. They are all rock-hard sobering stuff.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwithdragon.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwithdragon_170.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwhoplayed.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwhoplayed_170.jpg"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwhokicked.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/girlwhokicked_170.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><br />If Pete White and Ed Shadid have any dragon tattoos on them, they are probably figurative and not literal, but there can be no doubt that the pair has aggressively pursued their common cause of kicking the <i>Citizens United</i> hornets nest as much as can be done at the municipal level of government. They began kicking it up a notch at the January 17, 2012, city council meeting, and "bully pulpited" municipal campaign disclosure again on January 24 and February 7, our last three council meetings, each of which is fully reported on below.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><b>Background For The Current Discussion.</b> On March 1, 2011, outgoing Ward 2 council member Sam Bowman became the 1st councilman to become vocal about the huge amounts of money being spent anonymously in the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-1-city-council-election-returns.html" target="_blank">spring 2011 City Council elections</a>. He said,<br /><blockquote><b>And then, in these last few weeks, big money has gotten involved to the extent, my opinion, it has just made a mockery of our city elections. * * * The people, I think, need to know who's behind the money...</b></blockquote>His Ward 2 successor, Ed Shadid, railed about the Super PAC expenditures of in excess of $500,000 during the Oklahoma City Council elections, Oklahoma City having been one of, if not the, first battlegrounds which came face to face the practical consequences and reality of the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/01/el-deguello-citizens-united-or-we.html" target="_blank"><i>Citizens United</i> decision</a> by the United States Supreme Court in 2010. It is recalled that the anonymous Super PAC Committee For Oklahoma City Momentum called labeled him "Too Extreme For Oklahoma City," among one if its kinder observations about Ed Shadid the candidate. <br /><br />After his election, it is a fair and safe thing to say that several existing council members were discourteous of, if not downright disrespectful to, councilman Shadid during the first months following his taking office. See <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/07/okc-city-council-civility-is-it-lost.html" target="_blank">this post here</a>, for example. <br /><br />But at least some measure of thawing and cooler heads became evident in <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2011/11/well-shut-my-mouth.html" target="_blank">the November 15, 2011, council meeting</a> when Shadid's resolution to prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation of city employees was adopted by a 7-2 vote with only Skip Kelly and Larry McAtee voting no.<br /><br />... more coming shortly ...<br /><br /><b>Recent Comments In City Council. </b>During each of the last three meetings of City Council the topic of doing something about the <i>Citizens United</i> decision was brought to the floor in the "Comments By Members of Council" section of the council's agenda. That discussion is shown in its entirety and is briefly commented upon, as follows.<br /><br /><center><b>January 17, 2012, City Council Excerpts</b><br /><table width="100%" cellpadding="10"><tr bgcolor="black"><td width="50%" align="left" valign="top" ><center><font color="white">January 17 - Part A<br /><iframe width="250" height="200" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C0UEVcRnM8M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></font></td><td width="50%" align="left" valign="top"><center><font color="white">January 17 - Part B</font><br /><iframe width="250" height="200" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZRAyjZ0FSdg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr><tr bgcolor="white"><td align="left" valign="top"><font size="2" color="black"><b>Part A Notes.</b></center> <b>Ed Shadid</b> noted that during the previous week by a 3-2 vote the State Ethics Commission declined decided not to make recommendations to the Legislature for revisions to the Political Subdivision Ethics Act despite the general recognition that the ethics commission doesn't have the manpower, will, or even the jurisdiction to oversee municipal elections. <b>Shadid</b> described Pete White's comments to the commission as "chilling and powerful" and he noted that in the spring 2010 elections that 12 entities did even not file campaign finance reports with the City Clerk. He said, "Democracy is slipping away." "I would hope that we as group can maybe vet this and try and work toward other solutions," he said, opining that the city needs to "do something." He characterized the political consultants who attended the commission meeting as "very cynical" and "licking their chops" concerning the 2013 city council elections for Wards 1, 3, 4, and 7 in a circumstance in which no ethics commission overlooks city elections and there is no enforcement. <b>Pete White</b> said that the system before <i>Citizens United</i> worked well and that the <i>Citizens United</i> decision does allow for disclosure and sanctions if state and/or local organizations implement the same. "I don't think that we can afford to not have a system that requires people to report money that's contributed to campaigns," he said and added, "We should know who they are." He further opined that cities have the ability to act independently of the Legislature and cited the City of Norman's establishment of a city election commission as evidence.</font></td><td align="left" valign="top"><font color="black" size="2"><b>Part B Notes.</b></center> <b>David Greenwell</b> said that his impression was that the commission merely wanted to wait until the Legislature acted. <b>White</b> responded that the commission missed the opportunity to be a "bully pulpit" and, as to the commission revisiting the matter in February, he said, "Well, I'm certainly not holding my breath." <b>White</b> noted that two election cycles will likely occur before any state legislation might be implemented, the 2013 council elections and the 2014 mayoral election. "We're going to have to do something ourselves," he said. "I want to know who you are. If you're going to say bad things about me, I want to know who you are cause I may want to say bad things about you," he said. He noted that political consultants Pat Hall and Pat McFerran told the commission that disclosure rules may "dampen" election activity. To that, <b>White</b> said, "Well it sure as hell might dampen some of the activity, some of it that might be dampened if they had to tell who their names were," and he added, "What it really dampen is people getting in. Who's going to want to get in," adding, "Nobody's going to want to run against that." He asked the mayor's office to determine "what's out there for us." <b>Mayor Cornett</b> said he thought the matter might be for the city's Legislative Committee to consider. <b>Meg Salyer</b> passingly said that she pretty much agrees with White "across the board," but that she wanted it to be clear that what happened last spring was the result of the US Supreme Court and not the fault of any on the city council. <b>Patrick Ryan's</b> brief comments at the end are somewhat garbled but he sounded generally friendly to what White had said.</font></td></tr></table><b>January 24, 2012, City Council Excerpts</b><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="8"><tr><td align="left" valign="top" width="50%"><font color="white">At this meeting, only Pete White spoke on the topic. It is evident, though, that he and councilman Larry McAtee had previously discussed the matter, McAtee wanting it to be made clear that White's comments did not represent city council position, nor perhaps his own. White obliged and made that clear, but, more, he used the opportunity to forcefully talk about the topic.</font></td><td align="center" valign="top"><iframe width="250" height="200" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lyWFvd_IBIQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></td></tr></table><b>February 7, 2012, City Council Excerpts</b><br /><table width="100%" cellpadding="10"><tr bgcolor="black"><td width="50%" align="center" valign="top"><font color="white">February 7 - Part A<br /><iframe width="250" height="200" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PgUATyjkpNs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></font></td><td width="50%" align="center" valign="top"><font color="white">February 7 - Part B<br /><iframe width="250" height="200" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XL6Llp5DFHE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></font></td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="top"><font color="black"><b>Part A Notes: </b> <b>Pete White</b> began by saying that it appeared likely that the state is going to make a major step to require disclosure and do something with regard to something with regard to what he said was "a serious ethics problem" and with regard to municipal elections. "I believe they will be willing to give the cities the authority to manage that themselves," he said. "That's kind of good news and bad news. The good news is that we may be able to find a way to manage it ourselves. The bad news is there are many many pitfalls in my opinion in forming our own ethics commission," he said and explained. <b>Patrick Ryan</b> said, "Pete, do we need an ethics commission to require reporting?" and <b>White</b> answered, "Perhaps we don't." He wanted the mayor to appoint a small study group. Municipal Counselor <b>Kenneth Jordan</b> opined that the state has preempted the field and that what Norman did in forming its Election Commission wasn't legal. However, no one seemed to know exactly what Norman has done. <b>Jordan</b> said that he sent council a legal opinion a couple of weeks ago — to my knowledge, that memo has not been made public. <b>Ryan</b> said we need to wait for the state to act. <b>White</b> agreed but said, "We need to be ready to do something as soon as we possibly can." <b>White</b> commented upon the current national Republican primary noting, "They're not running positive ads with this money. And the reason they're not is because they don't have to put their name on it. If you have to be identified as they guy that's throwing the garbage then you're much less likely to do it." Ryan again said that we should to wait for the Legislature. Mayor <b>Mick Cornett</B> said, "Why don't we ask staff to look into what legislation might be introduced, or about to be introduced, that we can put our 2¢ into." <b>White</b> stressed the need to work with our local legislators. <b>Gary Marrs</b> said he wanted a report from (presumably legal) staff as to what we can and cannot do. "We all know what the bottom line is — and that is you want people to put their name down as donor on the PAC that they're doing it," he said. But, he didn't want to spend time trying to do something which would result in time being spent uselessly, he saying, "I don't want to get down to the very end and all of the sudden we're all throwing up our hands saying, 'Why did we go through this whole mess if they're not going to have to report anyway?'"</font></td><td valign="top" align="left"><font color="black"><b>Part B Notes:</b> <b>White</b> agreed. He also noted the District Attorney's suggestion of making remedies civil instead of criminal since proving a civil case carries an easier burden of proof. <b>David Greenwell</b> said that adoption of the federal election rules for state and city elections would satisfy much of the problem. But, he added, "One thing you won't be able to do is that 501C4 organizations do not have to disclose who contributes to them and as long as they don't make independent expenditures their primary activity, keep it below 50% of expenditures, then they fall within the Internal Revenue Service guidelines." <b>White</b> then said that the political consultants at the State Ethics Commission were "self-serving for the most part — about, well, that the reporting requirement would be burdensome — that if you put reporting requirements on people that will cause fewer people to run for office. To me that is so disingenuous it's hard to hold in my head." He said, "All these little barriers are being thrown in the way and not by this group but by others that are trying to find a way to delay disclosure, to avoid disclosure, and <i>Citizens United</i> does not say that you can't have disclosure, it says you can't put caps on money," he apparently disagreeing with Greenwell's above opinion. <b>White</b> continued, "I want their names. I want to know who they are. And, to the extent we can do that, that's what I think we ought to be trying to do because I think you'll stop some of this goofiness if your name has to be on it." <b>Shadid</b> said he thought it was too late to get laws on the books before the next election but said, "I'd like to see all of the candidates who are running for city council to just come right out and say, 'We're not OK with this.'" "If the candidates all in unison lock arms and say, 'This is not OK, it's not tolerable. If you do it we're going to call you out, I think that's possibly the deterrent that we need." <b>Ryan</b> said such an approach was overly simplistic, "it might sound good but it wouldn't work." He did acknowledge the "opportunity for mischief" as might occur were an undisclosed PAC secretly wanting to build a city casino. <b>White</b> countered, saying, "It would work if you did it." <b>Shadid</b> added that the approaches "are not mutually exclusive, you can do both." <b>Larry McAtee</b> closed the discussion by implying that it might be better to have discussion in the council's Legislation Committee instead of during council meetings. He did not explain why.</font></td></tr></table></center><br />My intention is to update THIS post with additional city council clips and/or later information when they become available.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-88216252406015603252012-01-31T12:11:00.023-06:002012-02-03T11:13:32.197-06:00A Book Review For Black History Month<a name="top"></a><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/blackhistorymonth.jpg"><br />Above, Clara Luper</center><br />February has come to be accepted as "Black History Month" or "African American History Month" in the United States. About that, see <a href="http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/" target="_blank">this Library of Congress page</a> and this <a href="http://www.okc.gov/council/council_library/minutes/020115.html" target="_blank">January 2002 City of Oklahoma City Council resolution</a>.<br /><br />It is all the more fitting, then, to review a book by <i>ON</i> African American history written by Rochelle Stephney-Roberson, <a href="http://www.oklahomaimpactbooks.com/default.html" target="_blank"><i>IMPACT — Blacks in Oklahoma History</i></a> (Forty-Sixth Star Press 2011).<br /><br /><center><table width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellpadding="10"><tr><td align="center"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/frontcover.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/frontcover_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Front Cover</font></td><td align="center"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/backcover_250.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/backcover_250.jpg"></a><br /><font color="white">Back Cover</font></td></tr></table></center><br />Both the publisher, Forty-Sixth Star Press, and the author, Rochelle Stephney-Roberson, are local to Oklahoma City, and, as an owner and reader of that book, it gives me pleasure to review this fine contribution to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City, history which was published in late 2011.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/rochelle_stephney-roberson.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/rochelle_stephney-roberson_250.jpg" border="0" /></a><b>About The Author. </b>Ms. Rochelle Stephney-Roberson describes herself as having been born and raised in Oklahoma City and says that she grew up in a large family in northeast Oklahoma City. After being graduated from Douglass High School, she received a bachelor of science degree in Education and a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. She says that she "began working in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system in 1981 and again in 1986," and that she "has worked with and educated youth for over 25 years."<br /><br /><b>Scope of Book. </b>This 5.75" x 8.75" 198-page hardback book is of the survey type and is <i>NOT</i> a college-level or academia type of book — nor is it intended to be. Instead, it is primarily intended for Oklahoma secondary school audiences and adult generalists. That is made fairly clear in the Preface, where the author states:<br /><blockquote>The reader should know that this resource book is nowhere near a complete history of black history in the State of Oklahoma. It is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many important African Americans who have made a huge impact on this state who are not included. This is not because of their lack of importance or the amount or type of their contribution, but due to the fact that I simply had to have a cutoff point for my research. ¶ Throughout my many years of working in the public school system, I found that a large number of youth are not educated about the wonderful impact many African Americans have had on the state of Oklahoma as well as the nation. This is not because students are not interested, but because there has simply not been a tool of this kind available.</blockquote>The book's publisher noted to me that the book was written to state public school standards for history and that it has been accepted as a textbook by the state committee and, in fact, a second soft-cover book, a student's activities workbook, was simultaneously published. The <a href="http://www.oklahomaimpactbooks.com/ANSWER-KEY.html" target="_blank">book's website</a> says that, "The Activities Edition contains multiple choice, T/F, fill-in-the blank, and word finder puzzles useful to school teachers and homeschoolers." The "activities" book is not covered by this review.<br /><ul><li><b>Book Content Overview. </b>As a survey book, the main book presents a significant review of a substantial amount the history of Afro-Americans in Oklahoma. It proceeds chronologically time-wise beginning with Indian Removal to Indian Territory through the end of 2011. Although the Land Run and earlier period is covered rather superficially, much greater detail is presented after the Land Run period.</li><br /><li><b>Book Content Detail. </b>Below, I've expanded the book's Table of Contents to include many of each item's components so that the breadth of topics covered is plainly evident. Click on the image below for a more readable view. Note that items I've marked with with an asterisk relate to Oklahoma City — for others, I've added a parenthetical city or county which is the primary focus of those items. I've numbered items to better show the breadth of the number of subjects actually covered by my numbering system, that's 160 topics within the space of a 198-page book and that's pretty impressive.</li></ul><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/expandedcontents.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/expandedcontents_510.jpg"></a></center><ul><li><b>Introductory Items. </b>Only three pages cover the time leading up to and inclusive of the April 22, 1889, Land Run into the "Unassigned Lands," inclusive of where Oklahoma City is today. This period begins with removal of the of the Five Civilized Tribes — Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole and Chickasaw — into Indian Territory during the 1830s.</li></ul>Each of these tribes were located in southeast portions of the United States where members of those tribes owned properties, plantations, and slaves — just as their white counterparts did. When those tribes were coerced to leave their homelands and remove into Indian Territory, their black slaves came with them. The Civil War resulted in those slaves being "freed" — hence the name "Freedmen" came to describe the former black slaves of the five tribes.<br /><br />As to the April 22, 1889, Land Run, the author's description of "Boomers" and "Sooners" is an oversimplification. Boomers were not only those who advocated opening the Unassigned Lands for white settlement and participated in that Land Run, some Boomers also laid claim to property by virtue of their prior claims based upon presence upon it before the Land Run. And, not all "Sooners" were people who illegally entered the area before the Land Run began — there were plenty of "legal" Sooners, as well (e.g., law enforcement officials, railroad employees, and others who were legally present before the Land Run) who tried to make their claims to Land Run properties.<br /><ul><li><b>Detailed Black History Items. </b>In this section which comprises the vast majority of the book, the author is much more fact specific and this is where she shines.</li></ul>Here, beginning with All-Black Towns and individual people, particular topics, and events, the author does a much better job than she did in the initial section. Although the author uses no footnotes or endnotes to credit her various statements, she does give an itemized description of "Selected Sources" at the end of the book which include five books, twelve newspapers, thirty-two personal interviews, and many other internet and sources. Were the author to have included footnotes or endnotes, however, the book's resource status would have been much enhanced.<br /><br />Aside from that criticism, the text reads easily and smoothly and presents much more information on the history of blacks in Oklahoma than I've personally seen anywhere else. There is something to learn in this book for everyone.<br /><br /><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/constance_johnson.jpg" border="0" />For example, in the author's description of Oklahoma State Senator Constance N. Johnson from Oklahoma City, she gives a description of the "African American Centennial Plaza" which is intended to be around the State Capitol Building in the areas shown below. The source of the map is <a href="http://www.ok.gov/DCS/documents/DFH_Proposal_African_American_History_Plaza_01_May_2006_a.pdf" target="_blank">a PDF file at www.ok.gov/DCS/documents</a>, a source not mentioned in the author's book.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/centennial_plaza_bill_signing_10_27_2006.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/centennial_plaza_bill_signing_10_27_2006_250.jpg" border="0" /></a>The bill approving this project was signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry on October 27, 2006, but the project's funding has thus far not been approved by Oklahoma's Republican-controlled Legislature. Hopefully, that will change and this project will get done.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/african_american_centennial_plaza.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/african_american_centennial_plaza_505.jpg"></a></center><br /><ul><li><b>Oops! </b>There is one biography that the author might have been prudent to avoid, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure.</li></ul>In <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/bass-lesure_1_25_2011.jpg" target="_blank">January 2011</a>, Ms. Bass-LeSure was charged in District Court, Oklahoma County, with fraud in connection with adoption and related matters which were personal to her and her husband, and at least that much information was known to the author before this book came to publication in late 2011. A year after charges were filed, <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/bass-lesure_1_7_2012.jpg" target="_blank">in January 2012</a>, it was reported that Judge Bass-LeSure was negotiating a plea agreement on those charges with the District Attorney. Perhaps the author was intending to give a vote of confidence to the judge well after charges were filed, I don't know. But, if that was the intention by including the judge's biography, it appears to have been misplaced.<br /><ul><li><b>Additional Features. </b>To the author's credit, the book contains a 3-4 page Index, even if it is not as detailed as I would have liked. For example, at page 79 a section describing Percy H. James notes that one of his projects was the Jewel Theater (which, although the author doesn't say so, was located at 904 NE 4th Street in Oklahoma City), saying that it was the first movie theater for blacks and opened in 1931; however, the Index does not mention the Jewel Theater. (Incidentally, the Aldridge Theater built in 1919 predated the Jewel, as the author notes at page 46). Following the index, three pages of "Selected Sources" identifies five books, twelve newspapers by name (but not particularly identified by issue and/or article), five periodicals (ditto the previous comment), and the names of thirty-two people who were interviewed by the author, and twenty-six websites that the author used as resources.</li></ul><b>My Rating. </b>Using the same bases that I have used for other <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/06/okc-history-books.html" target="_blank">Oklahoma History Books</a>, these are my conclusions.<br /><ol><li><b>Content: 4 Stars. </b>My opinion is that the author has very substantially succeeded in her dual goals of providing a book which could "educate youth" and "enhance the knowledge of adults" as to the contributions of American Americans in the State of Oklahoma. However, a few glaring omissions are important, most notably the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/12/famous-deep-deucians.html" target="_blank">Deep Deuce musicians</a> such as Jimmy Rushing and Charlie Christian, who are not mentioned. I understand that the author had cost and spatial limitations, but there is simply no way that these musicians should not have been given a prominent place in any survey of the history of the contributions of African Americans in and to Oklahoma. Another notable omission is that several Oklahoma towns had informal "Sunset Laws" which would have been good to note in the "Black Codes" section of the book. Two central Oklahoma examples were the all-white towns of Norman and the former town of Britton, now a part of Oklahoma City, where posted roadway signs read something like this: "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Set On YOU." See <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/books/23green.html" target="_blank">this New York Times book review</a>, a portion of which reads, <br /><blockquote>For almost three decades beginning in 1936, many African-American travelers relied on a booklet to help them decide where they could comfortably eat, sleep, buy gas, find a tailor or beauty parlor, shop on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls, or go out at night. * * * ¶ Historians of travel have recognized that the great American road trip — seen as an ultimate sign of freedom — was not that free for many Americans, including those who had to worry about “sunset laws” in towns where black visitors had to be out by day’s end.</blockquote>A last criticism is occasional oversimplification, e.g., at page 60 it would have been worthy to note that <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/maps/jimcrowhistory.htm" target="_blank">Gov. Alfalfa Bill Murray</a> imposed martial law on Oklahoma City in 1933 concerning where blacks and everyone else could live, and at page 48 the author included a newspaper clipping but did not identify the newspaper.</li><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/african_american_centennial_plaza2.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/literature/african_american_centennial_plaza2_200.jpg" border="0" /></a><li><b>Images: 4 Stars. </b>All are black and white and I understand that cost is a factor and I don't fault the author for that. <br /><br />But there are not enough of them to suit me, at least. For example, inclusion of the overall map of the African American Centennial Plaza, shown in this review, would have better shown the breadth of this project than the one image which the author did include, shown at right. An abundance of images are available which would have made this book more attractive to those who like to "see" elements of history that an author is discussing, and I'd suppose that to be particularly true for secondary school students, one of the author's main audiences. It's true for an old geezer like me, as well.</li><br /><li><b>Quality of Production: 5 Stars. </b>Paper quality is good and the black and white images are crisp. Of course, color would have been good but would have bumped the cost of the book considerably. Given that this book is primarily intended for education and not coffee table usage, I have no criticism of the production.</li><br /><li><b>Worth the Money: 5 Stars. </b>Absolutely. Although I bought my copy for $25 at Charlie's Books & Records, 5114 Classen Circle, Oklahoma City, <a href="http://www.oklahomaimpactbooks.com/NEW---PURCHASE-BOOKS-LOCALLY.html" target="_blank">other local locations</a> are marketing the book. It can also be purchased <a href="http://www.oklahomaimpactbooks.com/MAKE-A-PURCHASE.html" target="_blank">at the seller's website</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Impact-Oklahoma-History-Rochelle-Stephney-Roberson/dp/0981710573/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0" target="_blank">at Amazon</a> for a slightly smaller price (plus shipping and handling). If you want to purchase locally, call before you go. For example, the copy I bought at Charlie's was the last copy he had, at the time.</li><br /><li><b>Overall Rating: 4 ½ Stars. </b>All criticisms aside, I know of no Oklahoma survey of black history which approaches its level of completeness, and I do heartily recommend it.</li></ol><b>Additional Oklahoma City References. </b>Here are a few additional references appropriate to Black History Month with an Oklahoma City emphasis:<br /><ul><li><b>Books. </b></li><ul><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-City-Music-America-Publishing/dp/0738584274" target="_blank"><i>Oklahoma City Music: Deep Deuce and Beyond</i></a> by Anita G. Arnold (Arcadia Publishing 2010)</li><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-OClock-Jump-Unforgettable-Oklahoma/dp/0807071374/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328222754&sr=1-4" target="_blank"><i>One O'Clock Jump</i></a> by Douglas Henry Daniels (Beacon Press 2006)</li><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ralph-Ellison-Biography-Arnold-Rampersad/dp/B0044KMVDG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328223109&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><i>Ralph Ellison: A Biography</i></a> by Arnold Rampersad (Alfred A. Knopf 2007)</li></ul><li><b>Oklahoma City Internet Articles. </b>Articles by Oklahoma Citians. Steve Lackmeyer and I have written the following:</li><ul><li><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/12/deep-deuce-history.html" target="_blank">Deep Deuce History</a> (Doug December 4, 2006)</li><li><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/12/famous-deep-deucians.html" target="_blank">Famous Deep Deucians</a> (Doug December 28-2006)</li><li><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/05/jim-crow-in-oklahoma-city.html" target="_blank">History of Jim Crow in Oklahoma City</a> (Doug May 1, 2009)</li><li><a href="http://www.okchistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=185:roscoe-dunjee-fighter-for-equality&catid=41:people&Itemid=78" target="_blank">Roscoe Dunjee: Fighter for Equality</a> (Steve April 25, 2009)</li><li><a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/04/ultimate-deep-deuce-collection.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Deep Deuce Collection</a> (Doug April 20, 2009) — this reference includes an interactive Deep Deuce map and 34 mini-articles (some are less "mini" than others) on Deep Deuce history</li></li></ul><li><b>Additional Internet Resources. </b>Additional resources having Deep Deuce relevance are:</li><ul><li><b>Excellent General Articles</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/deepdeuce/deep_second_still_lives_in_dreams_perry_1_8_1993.jpg" target="_blank"><em>Deep Second Still Lives In Dreams</em></a><em> The Oklahoman</em>, John Perry, 1/8/1993</li><li><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEEDE1439F931A35751C0A960948260" target="_blank"><em>The Count's Account</em></a>, by Michael S. Harper, reviewing <em>Good Morning Blues</em> by Count Basie with Albert Murray</li><li><a href="http://www.keyokc.com/1205/toc.html" target="_blank"><em>Key Magazine</em></a>, 12/2005</li></ul><li><b>Zelia Breaux</b><ul><li><a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/B/BR010.html" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History</a></li><li><a href="http://www.ok.gov/ocsw/Oklahoma_Women%27s_Hall_of_Fame/Inductees/" target="_blank">Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame</a></li></ul><li><b>Charlie Christian</b><ul><li><a href="http://www.npr.org/artists/15380848/charlie-christian" target="_blank">Charlie Christian at NPR</a></li><li><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/A_biography_of_Charlie_Christian_jazz_gu.html?id=s3sIAQAAMAAJ" target="_blank">Charles Christian Biography</a> by Wayne Goins</li><li><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=834507" target="_blank"><em>Revisiting the Sound of Charlie Christian</em></a> at NPR</li></ul><li><b>Jimmy Rushing</b><ul><li><a href="http://www.jimmyrushing.com/" target="_blank">Jimmy Rushing's Hot Spot</a> and <a href="http://www.jimmyrushing.com/interview.html" target="_blank">Jimmy Rushing Interview</a></li><li><a href="http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JimmyRushing.htm" target="_blank">Jimmy Rushing – Cascade Blues</a></li><li><a href="http://library.thinkquest.org/2667/Rushing.htm" target="_blank">Jimmy Rushing – ThinkQuest</a></li></ul><li><b>Ralph Waldo Ellison</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1420" target="_blank">Ralph Waldo Ellison (1913-1994)</a></li><li><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E3D91139F935A15756C0A9649C8B63" target="_blank">New York Times review of <em>Ralph Ellison – Emergence of Genius</em></a> by Lawrence Jackson</li><li><a href="http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/attractions/public_art/monuments/african_american_experience/html/image_4.html" target="_blank">New York City's monument to Ellison showing "the invisible man"</a></li><li><a href="http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=omeally.html" target="_blank"><em>Living with Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings</em></a> by Robert O'Meally</li><li><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ellison_r_homepage.html" target="_blank">PBS's <em>American Masters Series: Ralph Ellison, An American Journey</em></a></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ellison" target="_blank">Wikipedia: Ralph Ellison</a></li></ul></ul></ul><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-43261654413441206482011-12-31T00:31:00.033-06:002012-01-01T21:10:16.631-06:00New Years Eats 2011-2012<a name="top"></a><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/newyears/newyearseve.jpg"></center>This year's downtown celebration of New Year's Eve has its usual flair, with some pluses and a bit of rearrangement. Called "Opening Night," this event sponsored by the Oklahoma City Arts Council first occurred in 1987 and has progressively grown since then and transverses most all of downtown Oklahoma City from 7 pm through and after midnight. <a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/newyears/ON04Ball.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/newyears/ON04Ball_200.jpg" border="0" /></a>This year, the lighted ball will rise from the rejuvenated Myriad Gardens Grand Lawn at 11:30-midnight capped with a glorious array of fireworks instead of that activity's long-standing location on Broadway south of NW 4th Street, near Kerr Park, shown in the top image. See <a href="http://newsok.com/opening-night-to-ring-in-oklahoma-citys-new-year/article/3635375" target="_blank">this <i>Oklahoman</i> article</a> for more information about Opening Night events. For sure, the 4-0 Thunder (currently tied with Miami for best in the NBA at this time) will be playing Phoenix at 7:00 at the Chesapeake Arena and will almost certainly extend their record to 5-0. For sure, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips will perform at the Bricktown Coca Cola Events Center on December 30 and December 31, augmented by Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, son of John. (The post-concert party for the December 31 Flaming Lips concert <a href="http://newsok.com/article/3636317" target="_blank">has now been relocated</a> to the Okc Public Farmers Market, 311 S. Klein, due to Fire Marshall issues.) And <a href="http://newsok.com/oklahoma-citys-opening-night-rings-in-2012-with-an-array-of-entertainment/article/3636253?custom_click=headlines_widget" target="_blank">much much more</a> will transpire on New Year's Eve in downtown Oklahoma City.<br /><br /><b>But,</b> this post is not about Opening Night 2011-2012 <i>events</i> in Oklahoma City. It is about <i>what to EAT</i> on New Years Day — it is about "New Years EATS."<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="#hoppinjohn">Doug Dawgz Hoppin John</a> <a href="#applepudding">My Mom's Apple Pudding</a></center><br /><a name="hoppinjohn"></a><b>BLACK-EYED PEAS.</b> This, of course, is the absolute "must do" on New Year's Day, and my personal and spicy recipe may be just what you want:<br /><br /><center><font color="#800000" size="4"><b>DOUG DAWGZ HOPPIN' JOHN</b></font><br /><a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/misc/hoppinjohn2011.pdf" target="_blank">Download or open a PDF file for this recipe here</a></center><br />Whatever you do on New Year's Eve, consider this to be Doug Dawgz contribution to your New Year's DAY ... but remember that grocery stores seem to run out of black-eyed peas before December 31 ... so ... buy them early! No, my recipe is not yet "historical," but, trust me, it's damn good and, one day, it will be!<br /><br /><table bgcolor="black" cellpadding="8"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_pot1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_pot1_250.jpg"></a></td><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_pot2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_pot2_250.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="middle" colspan="2"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_bowl.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/hoppinjohn_bowl_510.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><table cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td bgcolor="#ffe0c0" colspan="3"><blockquote><p align="justify"><em>It is rumored that unless you eat black-eyed peas <strong>on January 1</strong>,</em> January 2 ~ December 31 will not bring good fortune. <strong><em>Why take such a chance?</em></strong> This recipe provides one way to avoid such calamity.</p></blockquote></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td bgcolor="#ffcc00" colspan="3"><blockquote><p align="justify">This recipe provides more such risk avoidance than you may want. But, why not just go ahead and make plenty ... share with your family, friends, and office-mates ... excess portions may be frozen for later consumption, like at such time(s) that you may feel you need a boost of good luck!</p></blockquote></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="49%" style="color:#ffe0c0;"><span style="font-size:14;color:#800000;"><center><b>WHAT YOU NEED</center></span></b><font color="#000000"><ul><li><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/newyears/beagle.gif" border="0" border="none" align="right" /><strong>A giant pot</strong> ... large enough to put a small beagle in ... a pot at least 12-14" in diameter and 12" or more high, with a lid</li><li><strong>2 pounds of dried black-eyed peas</strong></li><li><strong>3 pounds ham</strong> (it doesn't really matter what kind, but if fatty,cut out the fat)</li><li><strong>3-4 ham hocks</strong></li><li><strong>3-4 large (18-19 oz) cans of tomatoes</strong> (depending on how "tomatoey" you want the mix to be — I use 3)</li><li><strong>2 15 oz. cans of tomato sauce</strong></li><li><strong>3-4 medium yellow onions</strong></li><li><strong>4-10 Tabasco peppers</strong> (see <em>General Tip</em> — I use 10)</li><li><strong>½ -1 tsp. salt</strong> (see <em>General Tip</em>)</li><li><strong>3-6 tsp. chili powder</strong> (see <em>General Tip</em> — I use 5)</li><li><strong>2 small or 1 large package of sliced almonds</strong> — this is for "crunch"</li><li><strong>2 cups of rice(s) of choice</strong> (I like to use a mix of white, wild, and brown)</li></font><br /></ul></td><ul></ul><td width="2%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"></td><td width="49%" style="color:#ffe0c0;"><span style="font-size:14;color:#800000;"><strong><center>WHAT YOU DO</center></strong></span><font color="#000000"><br /><strong>1.</strong> <strong>Soak dried black-eyed peas</strong> in water as directed on the bag (usually overnight), or at least 2-3 hours prior to cooking (if you like "crunchy" beans). Be sure to drain the beans in a strainer else you may get more "crunch" (and broken teeth) than you desire! (Years back, small rocks were present but less so now.)<br /><strong>2.</strong> <strong>Mix into the giant pot all ingredients <em>except</em> the rice</strong> ... mix the beans, the ham (diced into dimensions that suit you, e.g., about 3/4" square), the ham hocks, the canned tomatoes (including the water, and slicing the tomatoes in the pot), the tomato sauce, the onions (chopped), the Tabasco peppers (finely chopped), the salt, chili powder, and the almonds<br /><strong>3.</strong> <strong>Stir and add water </strong>as needed to cover the mixture<br /><strong>4.</strong> <strong>Cover & cook</strong> on low-medium heat for about 1 hour<br /><strong>5.</strong> <strong>Add the rice</strong> of your choice and continue cooking on low heat until the rice is done ... around 1 hour; if needed, add more water<br /><strong>6. Eat (at least some on January 1) and/or Freeze</strong> ... the mixture freezes and saves nicely<br /><strong>7. Other Things</strong> ... cornbread is good but not required for good luck. <br /></font></td></tr><br /><tr valign="top"><td bgcolor="#ffcc00" colspan="3"><blockquote><p align="justify"><strong>GENERAL TIP:</strong> <strong><em>Seasonings can be added as the mixture cooks</em></strong><em></em> ... so, you might want to add less or more than what I've suggested before it's all done ... but, remember that it's easier to add seasonings than it is to get rid of them. This is particularly true for (1) salt, (2) chili powder, and (3) Tabasco peppers! It's quite OK to add as you go, to suit your personal palate!</p></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a name="applepudding"></a><b>MY MOM'S APPLE PUDDING.</b> This has nothing to do with good fortune, other than for your taste buds. Once you try this recipe, you may become addicted — it is <i>that good!</i><br /><br /> <b>The Background Story.</b> During many of the years after my 1961 high school graduation, I have yearned for some of what my mom simply called "apple pudding" but it's a recipe that she didn't pass along except in my memories. From time to time, I've looked for a recipe that would make this tasty dessert but all my attempts at mimicry failed. On December 26, 2011, I Googled again and found the recipe below (slightly modified here) at Carolyn T.'s <a href="http://tastingspoons.com/ archives/92" target="_blank">http://tastingspoons.com/ archives/92</a> for her own mom's "Crisp Apple Pudding." Here's why I'm so bold to say that Carolyn T.'s mom's recipe is also my own mom's recipe for the same apple pudding — that and the fact that I've now cooked it and it's just as good as I remembered.<br /><br />In her own blog page about this recipe, Carolyn T. said:<br /><blockquote> I would be ever so negligent if I didn’t post one of my favorite recipes, my mother’s Crisp Apple Pudding. I’ve been making this for as long as I’ve been cooking (that began in 1962). It was written out in my mother’s small recipe journal, something she began when SHE got married in the 1930's, a recipe from her mother. And she passed this recipe on to me when I got married. * * * I believe — but I’m not sure — that this recipe came from a vintage (probably 1930's version) <i>Betty Crocker Cookbook</i>. Or maybe it was a <i>Better Homes & Gardens</i>. Did they publish cookbooks back in the 1930's? I think one time in a used book store I saw a very old, stained copy of one of those books and glanced in it, and sure enough, it looked like this recipe.</blockquote>My mom, Elizabeth, was also a devotee of one or both of those cookbooks in the 1930s and 1940s and that was the clincher since she probably didn't get recipes from any other cookbooks as far as I'm aware. I'm completely confident that this is the identical recipe used by my mom who would have had one or both cookbooks in the 1930s when my older brothers were born, and, of course, on and after I was born in Oklahoma City 1943 and during my childhood years. Many years later, at the end of 2011, I thank Carolyn T. not only for the taste but for providing another remembrance of my mom via a recipe which both of our moms had in common.<br /><br /><center><font color="#800000" size="4"><b>MY MOM'S APPLE PUDDING</b></font><br /><a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/misc/mymomsapplepudding.pdf" target="_blank">Download or open a PDF file for this recipe here</a></center><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center"><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding3_510.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><table width="100%" cellpadding="8"><tr><td align="left" valign="top" width="40%"><center><b><font color="darkred">WHAT YOU NEED</b></font></center><ul><li>1 cup flour</li><li>1 cup sugar (or 7/8 cup if desired)</li><li>1 teaspoon baking powder</li><li>1 whole egg, beaten</li><li>1 teaspoon cinnamon</li><li>1 teaspoon nutmeg</li><li>2 tablespoons butter (salted is better tasting but use unsalted if you're wanting to reduce salt)</li><li>1/4 cup water</li><li>2 tablespoons sugar</li><li>4 large or 5 small cooking apples, peeled & sliced – use firm apples whether tart or semi-sweet as you prefer</li></ul><br /><center>Makes 6-8 Servings<br /><br />Per Serving, Approximate: 309 Calories; 5g Fat (15.1% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 64g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 46mg Cholesterol; 133mg Sodium</center></td><td align="left" width="60%"><center><b><font color="darkred">WHAT YOU DO</b></font></center><br />1. Preheat oven to 350°.<br /><br />2. Spread sliced apples into an 8×8 or similar baking dish (here, a 5 x 9 oval baking dish is used).<br /> <br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding1.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding1_175.jpg" border="0" /></a>3. Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Add the egg and mix well. Spread this mixture over the top of the apples, spreading evenly. Sprinkle the top with the spices and the 2 tablespoons of sugar. <u>Very important step:</u> Use your fingers to sprinkle the water over the top as evenly as possible (this step makes the top crusty and crisp). Dab the butter on top in small squares, as shown above.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding2.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/recipes/applepudding2_175.jpg" border="0" /></a>4. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the top is brown. Cool for about an hour or until the pudding is at or near room temperature. Servings can be topped with milk, half & half, heavy cream, or other dairy topping. My mom could only afford milk, so that is what she used. And I loved it.</td></td></tr></table><br /><center><i>That's it! Enjoy, and Happy New Year!</i></center><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-28742873208425946162011-12-24T06:39:00.007-06:002011-12-24T08:12:29.374-06:00Christmas 2011<a name="top"></a><i>Originally posted 12/20/2011; updated 12/24 to include the closing video portion of <u>It's A Wonderful Life</u>, Frank Capra's 1946 best Christmas movie ever.</i><br /><br />Has Doug Dawg become a religious person in his aging years? Maybe ... I once was, and maybe still am, and/or may yet come to be ... the position continues to perplex me as to where I stand in the religious cycle of things to this date. <br /><br />But, if one sets aside the commercial aspects of Christmas and the politically correct names of the season, one winds up with only one thing — Christmas, that being the world calendar's date (even if historically incorrect) for the birth of Jesus the Christ Child.<br /><br />Literally, "Christmas" is a truncated form of "Christ Mass," a decidedly religious date on Christian and civil calendars for the birth of the Christ Child. While you probably won't find "Christ Mass" mentioned on religious calendars on many church calendars in Oklahoma (perhaps other than Catholic, Orthodox, and Episcopalian), that's what the conjoined word "Christmas" means ... the Mass (aka Eucharist or Holy Communion) associated with the birth of Jesus. <br /><br />Listen, watch, and enjoy the sweet haunting sounds of Enya ... <i>O Come O Come Emmanuel</i>. Click the full screen icon at the lower right for full screen or click the YouTube icon for the original size.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><object style="height: 390px; width: 510px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V17GnI9uahE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V17GnI9uahE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="510" height="390"></object></td></tr></table><br />As beautiful as the master painters' classic works of art are for this occasion, in this video I've avoided those images, favoring instead the less deified and simpler human images which reflect better upon the humility, humanity, and intimacy associated with the birth of the infant Jesus, the Christ Child.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Here's more Christmas music for you to enjoy. <br /><br /><b>Bob Seger.</b> I'll start with Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band which performed on December 15 in the Chesapeake Energy Arena to a wholly grateful crowd. A fine review of the performance appeared in the <a href="http://newsok.com/concert-review-fans-wont-forget-bob-segers-performance-thursday-night-in-oklahoma-city/article/3632531?custom_click=headlines_widget" target="_blank">December 16 <i>Oklahoman</i></a>. Credit the photos below to <i>The Oklahoman</i>.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td valign="middle" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_1_250.jpg"></a></td><td valign="middle" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_2_250.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td valign="middle" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_3_250.jpg"></a></td><td valign="middle" align="center"><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/segeriniokc2011_4_250.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><br />Below, two videos showcase Seger's rendition of <i>The Little Drummer Boy</i>, a tune originally written by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1942 as "Carol of the Drum." The left video is a November 17, 2011, performance by Seger in his 2011 tour in Louisville, Kentucky, about a month before his Oklahoma City performance; the right video was done much earlier when Seger's hair was still brown, with background video from the popular "Little Drummer Boy" animation. Click the full screen icon at the lower right corner of each video for a full screen display, or watch them in their original size by clicking the YouTube icon.<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center"><object style="height: 180px; width: 250px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MRDkDyGaGkM?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MRDkDyGaGkM?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="250" height="180"></object></td><td align="center"><object style="height: 180px; width: 250px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/c_YGsW1J7LI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/c_YGsW1J7LI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="250" height="180"></object><br /></td></tr></table><br /><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 10px 10px 0px 0px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/catstevens_1.jpg" border="0" /><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/christmas/catstevens_2.jpg" border="0" /><b>Yusuf Islam.</b> "Who's that," you say? That would be the person you know as <b>Cat Stevens.</b> Born in England as Steven Demetre Georgiou in 1948, in his prominent professional carrier he was known as Cat Stevens until he converted to Islam in 1977 ... he assumed his new name in 1979. Now, fairly elusive, his "Morning Is Broken" remains associated with Christmas and also, perhaps, presents the Christian world's present greatest challenge to acceptance of someone outside their Christian sphere ... shall we accept Yusuf Islam, a Muslim, whether he accepts US or not? What a Christian might ask is, "What would the Christ Child Jesus have done?"<br /><br /><table width="100%" bgcolor="black"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><object style="height: 390px; width: 510px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PsIvySburfQ?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PsIvySburfQ?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="510" height="390"></object></td></tr></table><br />I'd originally intended to post a few more tunes, but, I instead changed my mind to conclude that nothing better could end this Christmas 2011 post than to include a video of the closing sequence of the 1946 Frank Capra movie, <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i> staring James Stewart and Donna Reed, in my mind the very best Christmas movie ever made. Thanks to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/FilmFTW1" target="_blank">FilmFTW1</a> for this video.<br /><table bgcolor="darkred" width="100% cellpadding="10"><tr><br /><td align="center"><br /><object style="height: 310px; width: 510px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-0h50v7UNJc?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-0h50v7UNJc?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="510" height="310"></object><br /><br /></td></tr></table><br />No, Potter never got his come-uppins, but that's really not what Christmas is about, is it? Enjoy, and Merry Christmas to you all!<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-2985656702482268972011-12-14T17:36:00.036-06:002011-12-16T07:14:42.976-06:00Who's the Best for the 99%?<a name="top"></a><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/metrotrendslogo.jpg"></center> <br />The <i>Metro Trends</i> element of the Urban Institute says that it's Oklahoma City. In an article named, <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/2011/12/metros-99/" target="_blank">"Are Some Metros Better for the 99%?"</a> on December 5, 2011, <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/author/mturner/" target="_blank">Margery Turner</a> of <i>Metro Trends</i> gave a hint that Oklahoma City might fare well in an answer to that question in the tantalizing chart below (click on the chart and most other images in this post for a larger image):<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/metrotrendschart.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/metrotrendschart_510.jpg"></a></center><br />On December 6, I received an email from Andrew Maddocks, a representative of <i>Metro Trends/Urban Institute</i> with this kindly message:<br /><blockquote>Hello from from a think tank in Washington D.C.! I hope all's well with you on this fine Tuesday.<br /> <br />We just published a blog mentioning Oklahoma City as one of the best cities in the country for low unemployment and affordable housing. Here's the key: "Somehow, it avoided the excesses of the boom years, and its economy has weathered the downturn better than most."<br /> <br />I wondered if you thought your readers might be interested in how their city compares to others around the country. If you're at all interested in linking to the post or re-posting, please let me know. You've clearly got a substantial readership there, and I'd love to share what the people at Urban are writing!</blockquote>Well, it doesn't take all that much for me to get wholly puffed up, but the initial article didn't give much detail about Oklahoma City, simply saying that,<br /><blockquote>One region that looks good on these metrics is Oklahoma City. Somehow, it avoided the excesses of the boom years, and its economy has weathered the downturn better than most. Housing costs are low, and though wages are too, a personal service worker can almost afford the rent for a two-bedroom apartment. And at 5 percent, Oklahoma City’s unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country.<br /><br />What can we learn from the Oklahoma City metro about keeping wages and housing costs in better balance through both good times and bad? For my next blog, I’ll track down some possible answers.</blockquote>With those tantalizing remarks, I replied that I would but only after more detail was presented about Oklahoma City. Today, December 14, that additional detail was provided in a follow-up article, and it has some pretty darn cool things to say about our city and includes a great interactive map reflecting that <i>our city just doesn't do well</i> in comparative scores in the top 100 metro markets, <i><b>IT SCORES #1, BEST OF ALL.</i></b><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="#aboutui">About UI</a> <a href="#turner">About Margery Turner</a> <a href="#study">About the Study</a><br /><a href="#thestudy">The Study</a> <a href="#map">Interactive Map</a> <a href="#summary">100 City Summary</a></center><br /><b>PRELIMINARY REMARKS. </b>Before getting to the heart of the matter, it's probably best to know a bit about who's doing the analysis and original reporting so we'll get a measure of how seriously that analysis and reporting should be taken. Here's that bit.<br /><br /><a name="aboutui"></a> <b>About Urban Institute & Metro Trends.</b> According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Institute" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, the Urban Institute was established in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson as "a Washington, D.C. based think tank that carries out nonpartisan economic and social policy research, collects data, evaluates social programs, educates the public on key domestic issues, and provides advice and technical assistance to developing governments abroad." The article says that it has a staff of about 350 and that its president is Robert D. Reischauer, former head of the Congressional Budget Office. There's more, but that's enough for me to take the organization seriously. According to <a href="http://www.metrotrends.org/about.cfm" target="_blank">this page at MetroTrends</a>, MetroTrends is "the Urban Institute's report card on how metropolitan America is faring."<br /><br /><a name="turner"></a><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/margeryturner.jpg" border="0" /> <b>About Margery Turner.</b> <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/author/mturner/" target="_blank"><i>Metro Trends</i></a> identifies her as Vice President for Research at the Urban Institute and says,<br /><blockquote>A nationally recognized expert on urban policy and neighborhood issues, Ms. Turner has analyzed issues of residential location, racial and ethnic discrimination and its contribution to neighborhood segregation and inequality, and the role of housing policies in promoting residential mobility and location choice. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 through 1996, and is co-author of <a href="http://www.urban.org/books/publichousing/" target="_blank">Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation</a>.</blockquote>Her <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Margery-Austin-Turner/100000602627124" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> says that she is from New York (Ithaca HS 1973) and has degrees from Cornell University (1977, Government) and George Washington University (1983, Urban and Regional Planning). And she plays the flute. That's good enough for me.<br /><br /><a name="study"></a> <b>About The Study.</b> It's best to keep in mind that this survey is solely about economics — it's not about quality of life or other urban pleasantries (or unpleasantries). It's about cities that have fared well and poorly through what the article calls the Great Recession (2nd quarter of 2007 through the 3rd quarter of 2011) and its focus is to identify cities that have fared well and poorly as measured by 4 criteria during that study period: (1) change in housing prices; (2) unemployment; (3) affordable housing for low wage workers; and (4) mortgage delinquency. Remember, this series of articles has to do with the 99%, not the 1%. If you are in the 99%, then these articles are about you.<br /><br /><a name="thestudy"></a><b>The December 14 Report Card.</b> Ms. Turner's <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/2011/12/worst-metros-report-card-economic-security/" target="_blank">December 14 article</a> is titled, "Best and Worst Metros ... A Report Card on Economic Security." Among other things, Ms. Turner writes:<br /><blockquote>Metropolitan Oklahoma City’s diverse economy – including government, universities, energy, and high-tech firms -- has held up well in the Great Recession. It didn’t fall victim to the housing boom and bust (2000 to 2007), so rents and house prices today are remarkably affordable and few homeowners are facing foreclosure. And the region scores high on lots of “top ten” lists -- most affordable (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/06/bargain-cities-affordable-real-estate-personal-finance.html" target="_blank">Forbes</a>), most recession-proof (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/29/cities-recession-places-forbeslife-cx_jz_0429realestate.html" target="_blank">Forbes</a>), and best to start a small business (<a href="http://money.cnn.com/smallbusiness/best_places_launch/2009/snapshot/241.html" target="_blank">Fortune Small Business</a>).<br /><br />So I decided to grade all of the nation’s 100 biggest metros: which are best and which are worst for family economic security?</blockquote>Unlike me, she appears to be a person of few words — she didn't name all of those "best" lists which have come out strongly for the city over the past couple of years in various categories, but that's a good enough start.<br /><br /><a name="map"></a><b>The Cool Interactive Map.</b> This is the fun part. Without reading a thing in the article, scrolling down a bit presents this map of the country ...<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/urbaninstitutemap1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/urbaninstitutemap1_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Why does only Oklahoma City have that big blue dot? If that isn't enough to catch the attention of an Oklahoma Citian, what would be?<br /><br />By clicking on that graphic, an exceptionally cool interactive map appears in which one can mouse-over a city to get snapshot of the study results:<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/urbaninstitutemap2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/urbaninstitutemap2_510.jpg"></a></center><br /><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/okcsummary.jpg" border="0" />Although you can click on any of the charts and maps shown in this post to get a larger view, here's the crop of the Oklahoma City summary shown in the above map. Note that one can download a much more detailed spreadsheet (Excel or comma delimited) file which I've done and will get back to shortly.<br /><br /><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 10px 10px 0px 0px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/UrbanInstitute/urbaninstitutemap3.jpg" border="0" />But for those who mainly want to play with that map, it is very easily done. The map also gives a reader the ability to change the weight given the 4 factors previously mentioned, if one doesn't like the equal (25%) weight given by the Urban Institute to the 4 factors used in reaching the conclusions that it did.<br /><br />OK OK. If you've read my blog for very long, you already know that I'm a "map person." So let's play with the map. To play with the map in <i>MetroTrends</i>, <a href="http://datatools.metrotrends.org/charts/metrodata/rankMap_files/rankMap.cfm" target="_blank">click here</a>. Or, you can play with it below, although you'll have to do more scrolling than in the <i>MetroTrends</i> location ... use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom or the vertical scroll bar at the right.<br /><br /><center><IFRAME SRC="http://datatools.metrotrends.org/charts/metrodata/RankMap_files/RankMap.cfm" frameBorder="0" WIDTH=510px height=710px style="border:none; border-style:none;"></IFRAME></center><br /><a name="summary"></a><b>Study Summaries.</b> As said previously (and see <a href="#resources">Additional Resources</a>, below), I've downloaded the Excel spreadsheet which gives much greater detail than the interactive map summaries do. The following table presents a summary of the spreadsheet data combined with the interactive map A-F scores which the spreadsheet does not reflect. About the latter, I've mouse-overed each of the 100 cities in the map to get city scores, A-F, which scores are not contained in the spreadsheet. I've truncated metropolitan area names to show only the 1st city name for metropolitan areas that have more than one city name in the metropolitan area name and have substituted an abbreviated form of "et al." (meaning <i>and others</i>) to be simply "etal." For example, in the Excel spreadsheet, the Nashville metro area is "Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN" but I've abbreviated that below to be "Nashville etal, TN." The top 50 metro areas are in the left column and the last 50 are in the right.<br /><br /><font size="1" color="black"><table width="100%"><tr><td bgcolor="bisque" width="30%"><b>Metropolitan Area</b></td><td align="center" width="8%" bgcolor="bisque"><b>Rank</b></td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque" width="8%"><b>Score</b></td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque" width="30%"><b>Metropolitan Area</b></td><td align="center" width="8%" bgcolor="bisque"><b>Rank</b></td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque" width="8%"><b>Score</b></td></tr><tr><td><b>Oklahoma City, OK</b></td><td align="center"><b>1</b></td><td align="center"><b>A</b></td><td></td><td>New Orleans etal, LA</td><td align="center">51</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Omaha etal, IA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">2</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Richmond, VA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">52</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td></tr><tr><td>Wichita, KS</td><td align="center">3</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Akron, OH</td><td align="center">53</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Tulsa, OK</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">4</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Lansing etal, MI</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">54</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td></tr><tr><td>Des Moines, IA</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Springfield, MA</td><td align="center">55</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Pittsburgh, PA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">6</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Salt Lake City, UT</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">56</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td></tr><tr><td>Madison, WI</td><td align="center">7</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Virginia Beach etal, VA-NC</td><td align="center">57</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Austin etal, TX</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">8</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Charlotte etal, NC-SC</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">58</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td></tr><tr><td>Baton Rouge, LA</td><td align="center">9</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Youngstown etal, OH-PA</td><td align="center">59</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Buffalo etal, NY</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">10</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Worcester, MA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">60</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td></tr><tr><td>Little Rock etal, AR</td><td align="center">11</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Allentown etal, PA-NJ</td><td align="center">61</td><td align="center">C</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Lancaster, PA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">12</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Cleveland etal, OH</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">62</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>San Antonio, TX</td><td align="center">13</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Honolulu, HI</td><td align="center">63</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Harrisburg etal, PA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">14</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Philadelphia etal, PA-NJ-DE-MD</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">64</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Rochester, NY</td><td align="center">15</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Charleston etal, SC</td><td align="center">65</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Greenville etal, SC</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">16</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Bridgeport etal,CT</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">66</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Houston etal, TX</td><td align="center">17</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Baltimore etal, MD</td><td align="center">67</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Dallas etal, TX</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">18</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">New Haven etal, CT</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">68</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Albuquerque, NM</td><td align="center">19</td><td align="center">A</td><td></td><td>Providence etal, RI-MA</td><td align="center">69</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Raleigh et al, NC</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">20</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">A</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Seattle etal, WA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">70</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>El Paso, TX</td><td align="center">21</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Atlanta etal, GA</td><td align="center">71</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Denver etal, CO</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">22</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Tuscon, AZ</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">72</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Knoxville, TN</td><td align="center">23</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Boise City etal, ID</td><td align="center">73</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Syracuse, NY</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">24</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">New York etal, NY-NJ-PA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">74</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Scranton etal, PA</td><td align="center">25</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Memphis, TN-MS-AR</td><td align="center">75</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Colorado Springs, CO</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">26</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Washington etal, DC-VA-MD-WV</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">76</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Nashville etal, TN</td><td align="center">27</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Poughkeepsie etal, NY</td><td align="center">77</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Augusta etal, GA-SC</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">28</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Chicago etal, IL-IN-WI</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">78</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Louisville etal, TN-KY</td><td align="center">29</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>San Francisco etal, CA</td><td align="center">79</td><td align="center">D</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Albany etal, NY</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">30</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">San Jose etal, CA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">80</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">D</td></tr><tr><td>Grand Rapids etal, MI</td><td align="center">31</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Detroit etal, MI</td><td align="center">81</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Columbia, SC</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">32</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Santa Rosa etal, CA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">82</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Columbus, OH</td><td align="center">33</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>San Deigo etal, CA</td><td align="center">83</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">St. Louis, MO-IL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">34</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Phoenix etal, AZ</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">84</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Indianapolis etal, IN</td><td align="center">35</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Oxnard etal, CA</td><td align="center">85</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Kansas City, MO-IL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">36</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Jacksonville, FL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">86</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>McAllen etal, TX</td><td align="center">37</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Los Angeles etal, CA</td><td align="center">87</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Boston etal, MA-NH</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">38</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Sacrameto etal, CA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">88</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Cincinnati et al, OH-KY-IN</td><td align="center">39</td><td align="center">B</td><td></td><td>Fresno, CA</td><td align="center">89</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Greensboro etal, NCMA-NH</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">40</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">B</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Bakersfield, CA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">90</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Minneapolis et al, MN-WI</td><td align="center">41</td><td align="center">C</td><td></td><td>Palm Bay etal, FL</td><td align="center">91</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Chatanooga, TN-GA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">42</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Tampa etal, FL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">92</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Birgmingham etal, AL</td><td align="center">43</td><td align="center">C</td><td></td><td>Lakeland etal, FL</td><td align="center">93</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Jackson, MS</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">44</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Bradenton etal, FL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">94</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Hartford etal, CT</td><td align="center">45</td><td align="center">C</td><td></td><td>Riverside etal, CA</td><td align="center">95</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Toldeo, OH</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">46</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Orlando, FL</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">96</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Portland etal, OR-WA</td><td align="center">47</td><td align="center">C</td><td></td><td>Modesto, CA</td><td align="center">97</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Milwaukee etal, WI</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">48</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Stocton, CA</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">98</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr><tr><td>Dayton, OH</td><td align="center">49</td><td align="center">C</td><td></td><td>Miami et al, FL</td><td align="center">99</td><td align="center">F</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="bisque">Portland etal, ME</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">50</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">C</td><td width="4%"> </td><td bgcolor="bisque">Las Vegas etal, NV</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">100</td><td align="center" bgcolor="bisque">F</td></tr></table></font><br /><a name="resources"></a><b>Additional Resources:</b> Steve Lackmeyer published a brief article about this in the <a href="http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-gets-high-ranks-in-new-surveys/article/3632119" target="_blank">December 15, <i>Oklahoman</i></a>. I've also modified the original Excel file for it to be a bit more readable, and to add a tab/page in the file for the summary shown above. <a href="http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity/Top100Rank.xls" target="_blank">Click here</a> to download that file. Or, <a href="http://datatool.urban.org/charts/metrodata/RankMap_files/Top100Rank.xls" target="_blank">click here</a> for the original Excel file without my tampering.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-78558343755819645132011-12-13T12:50:00.009-06:002012-01-09T03:12:50.552-06:00From Arrows to Atoms, 21st Century Version<a name="top"></a><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/arrowstoatomss.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/arrowstoatomss.jpg" border="0" /></a>On April 22, 1957, the "Arrows to Atoms" two-hundred-foot-tall tower at the state fairgrounds in Oklahoma City was dedicated and lighted as part of the state's Semi-Centennial.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/okcmaindust.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/okcmaindusts.jpg" border="0" /></a>The days of <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/03/dust-bowl.html" target="_blank">the Dust Bowl</a> were then well within the memories of most in the city and state even if most who are alive today will not have a personal recollection of that time. Although Oklahoma City was only on the edge of the Dust Bowl area, it affected us and our city's image greatly.<br /><br /><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/okcoverholser1935.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/okcoverholser1935s.jpg" border="0" /></a>During the days of the Dust Bowl and drought, badly parched Lake Overholser looked like this, in 1935 (looking north to the US 66 bridge around NW 39th today).<br /><br />The "Arrows to Atoms" theme avoided the negative images of the 1930s and focused on the city's present and hoped for future.<br /><br />But, by as late as 1991, the North Canadian River passing south of downtown still looked like this (credit Mark Klett in his <i>Photographing Oklahoma 1889/1991</i> (Oklahoma City Art Museum 1991):<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/klett_northcanadian_1991.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/klett_northcanadian_1991_510.jpg"></a></center><br />How could <i>THAT</i> turn into this?<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/canoe_kayak_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/canoe_kayak_01_510.jpg"></a></center><br />Arrows to Atoms, circa 1957, marked a break with the 1930s Dust Bowl. The city's <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/08/oklahoma-river-part-3.html" target="_blank">original (1993) MAPS program</a> would radically change the North Canadian and see a part of it renamed "The Oklahoma River." By the time 2007 rolled around, the city's river hosted its first Olympic trials during the <a href="http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/10/oklahoma-centennial-regatta.html" target="_blank">Centennial Regatta</a>.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/10_13_07_usa_rev.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/10_13_07_usa_revs.jpg"></a></center><br />Now, in December 2011, Oklahoma City is embarking on its 2nd version based of Arrows To Atoms, with an analogous theme, the Formerly Crappy North Canadian River To A Water Olympics Headquarters — the river that needed to be mowed twice a year is now the address of a major water sport U.S. Olympic organization.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Steve Lackmeyer wrote the story about this today in the December 13, 2011, <i>Oklahoman</i>:<br /><blockquote><b><font size="3">USA Canoe/Kayak will relocate headquarters to Oklahoma City</font><br />USA Canoe/Kayak, a member of the United States Olympic Committee, announced Tuesday the relocation of the organization's headquarters to Oklahoma City.</b><br /><br /> Both USA Canoe/Kayak Chief Executive Officer Joe Jacobi and Mayor Mick Cornett attributed the move to development of the boathouse district along the river and ongoing transformation of the waterway thanks to the original Metropolitan Area Projects.<br /> Jacobi said his office, which first opened in Oklahoma City along the Oklahoma River in 2009, will work closely with the city in developing a white water rapids venue included in the 2009 MAPS 3 ballot. The Oklahoma City office will replace Charlotte, N.C. as the organization's national headquarters as the group begins its first ever promotional campaign for paddle sports.<br /> "This is a perfect illustration of how MAPS 3 was an attempt to build on the success of the original MAPS," Cornett said. "I don't know what this is going to lead to, but I'm sure there are many opportunities ahead."</blockquote>Lackmeyer's story at NewsOK was enhanced by this video featuring Joe Jacobi and Mayor Cornett:<br /><br /><center><object id="flashObj" width="486" height="412" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=1325718958001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsok.com%2Farticle%2F3631682&playerID=1681694480&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAACqD3ms~,3I1DNCm2Ps-fwJuGXeVP_-3n_u1FX_vj&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1325718958001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsok.com%2Farticle%2F3631682&playerID=1681694480&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAACqD3ms~,3I1DNCm2Ps-fwJuGXeVP_-3n_u1FX_vj&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object></center><br />The development wasn't just reported locally. Similar Associated Press and other reports were carried by <a href="http://espn.go.com/olympics/canoe/story/_/id/7350716/us-moves-canoe-kayak-headquarters-oklahoma-city" target="_blank">ESPN</a>, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/wires/12/13/2080.ap.row.usa.canoe.kayak.headquarters.1st.ld.writethru.0662/index.html" target="_blank">Sports Illustrated</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/45657297" target="_blank">CNBC</a>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/usa-canoe-kayak-moves-headquarters-to-budding-rowing-hub-in-downtown-oklahoma-city/2011/12/13/gIQAALs5rO_story.html" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, and, of course, <a href="http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/12/14/3597255/olympic-group-pulling-headquarters.html" target="_blank">Charlotte</a>, the organization's previous home, among others.<br /><br />Here's the report at the official <a href="http://usack.org/news/2011/12/13/usa-canoe-kayak-announces-relocation-of-its-headquarters-to-oklahoma-city/45841?ngb_id=1" target="_blank">USA Canoe/Kayck.org</a> website:<br /><blockquote><b><font size="3">USA Canoe/Kayak Announces Relocation of its Headquarters to Oklahoma City</b></font><br /><br /> OKLAHOMA CITY – December 13, 2011 USA Canoe/Kayak, the national governing body (NGB) for the Olympic sports of flatwater sprint and whitewater slalom and a member of the United States Olympic Committee, announced today the relocation of its headquarters to the city of Oklahoma City.<br /> USA Canoe/Kayak will office with the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation, allowing the two organizations to collaborate and build on the inherent synergy of shared values and objectives.<br /> A panel consisting of Joe Jacobi, OKCBF Executive Director Mike Knopp, USA Canoe/Kayak Board Chairman Bob Lally, and other leaders in the paddlesports industry will discuss USA Canoe/Kayak’s commitment to the future of paddle sports in America during a live stream broadcast scheduled to air on paddling web sites across the country and around the world. Watch live at <a href="http://oklahomariverevents.org/live-video" target="_blank">oklahomariverevents.org/live-video</a>.<br /> A panel consisting of Joe Jacobi, OKCBF Executive Director Mike Knopp, USA Canoe/Kayak Board Chairman Bob Lally, and other leaders in the paddlesports industry will discuss USA Canoe/Kayak’s commitment to the future of paddle sports in America during a live stream broadcast scheduled to air on paddling web sites across the country and around the world. Watch live at oklahomariverevents.org/live-video.<br /> <br /><b>Joe Jacobi, USA Canoe/Kayak CEO:</b> "USA Canoe/Kayak is launching a new era in paddlesports in the United States, with a focus on enabling U.S. athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic, Paralympic and other international competition. With the tremendous momentum taking place at the Oklahoma River – from the National High Performance Center for kayaking and rowing to the MAPS 3 OKC citizen-voted sales tax initiative to fund quality of life projects which include the construction of a whitewater center and race course improvements to the Oklahoma River – Oklahoma City is the ideal location for the epicenter of our efforts and initiatives to grow paddlesports.<br /> A central component to USA Canoe/Kayak’s growth is the “Paddle Now!” program, which encourages families across America to explore our nation’s waterways in kayaks, canoes, dragon boats and stand up paddle boards. USA Canoe/Kayak has teamed up with canoe/kayak clubs across the country to promote paddlesports; learn more at <a href="http://usack.org/paddlenow" target="_blank">usack.org/paddlenow</a>. <br /> <b>Jacobi:</b> "This nation has intrinsic ties to waterways – from the days of early explorers and Native Americans who paddled and portaged across the country to today's active adventurers. We truly believe Oklahoma City, a place whose citizens have supported the Oklahoma River and whitewater initiatives, is the place to rekindle our nation’s passion for paddlesports."<br /><br /><u>Quotes:</u><br /><br /> <b>Alan Ashley, U.S. Olympic Committee Chief of Sport Performance:</b> "Mike Knopp and his team at the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation have created a model that places elite training in the heart of the community, building synergy between the elite athletes, local youth and adults, and the local business community. We’re hopeful that this approach will help USA Canoe/Kayak continue to build their talent pipeline and develop top athletes to represent Team USA."<br /> <b>William Irving, USA Canoe/Kayak National Teams Director:</b> "We couldn’t be more happy to be working even closer with our partners at the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation, who are providing our NGB with the ability to better serve our membership through a variety of resources that are focused on high performing athletes. Having our NGB based in Oklahoma City, will make a huge impact on the way in which we serve all of our constituents and infuse our sport with the 'can do' attitude that Oklahoma City exhibits. Looking into the future, once the Whitewater Course is in place, we will have a unique opportunity to bring our two Olympic sports together and for the first time in our sports history and be able to train Sprint and Slalom athletes alongside each other."<br /> <b>Kaitlyn McElroy, Sprint Kayaker:</b> "Personally, moving to Oklahoma City to train was by far the right choice for me. The facilities are amazing. The boathouse district has everything you need to train at a high level. All that's really left for you to do is work hard and go fast. Over the past two years there has been an influx of local children becoming involved with paddlesports on the Oklahoma River as well as an increasing number of athletes from all over the country coming to train. I think this creates a unique environment for everyone because you have kids who are just learning the 'tricks of the trade' mingling with world class athletes. I think this gives the kids great role models while keeping the older athletes honest and attached to why they started paddlesports in the first place."<br /> <b>Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett:</b> "The significance of USA Canoe/Kayak's relocation to Oklahoma City – in what was once known as 'the dust bowl state' – is indicative of the speed of change and positive forward momentum this community is creating. We've built a river that's become not only a health-and-fitness destination for our citizens, but a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site for our nation's aspiring Olympic kayakers and rowers. Becoming the headquarters of a National Governing Board is a testament to how powerful the MAPS initiatives truly are in influencing our ability to recreate and redefine our city."<br /><br /><b>About OKCBF</b><br /><br /> The OKC Boathouse Foundation promotes the use and development of the Oklahoma River as a world-class urban aquatic venue and provides access to rowing, kayaking and fitness programs for people of all ages and abilities. OKCBF programs pursue the highest goals of sports and embrace the principles of the Olympic spirit which inspire athletes to work toward personal excellence, embrace the power of teamwork, and practice respect for all people and the environment. To learn more or get involved, call (405) 552-4040 or visit okcbf.org.<br /><br /><b>About USA Canoe/Kayak</b><br /><br /> USA Canoe/Kayak is a non-profit membership organization based in Oklahoma City, OK, promoting canoe and kayak racing in the United States. A member of the United States Olympic Committee, USA Canoe/Kayak is the national governing body for the Olympic sports of Flatwater Sprint and Whitewater Slalom and the official U.S. federation of the International Canoe Federation. Other paddling sports sanctioned by USACanoe/Kayak include Marathon, Freestyle, Wildwater, Stand Up Paddleboard, Canoe Polo, Canoe Sailing, Outrigger, and Dragon Boat.</blockquote>Here's a cool video by US Canoe/Kayak, uploaded by <a href="http://riversportokc.org/" target="_blank">Okc Riversport.org</a>, which nicely showcases the river area and development, with downtown's skyline shown at 0:40 but you got to watch closely ...<br /><br /><center><iframe width="510" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hifRKqLX5j8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br /><br />More to follow ...<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31117373.post-32719732845805494552011-11-30T21:25:00.017-06:002011-12-02T14:01:26.822-06:00NBA Lockout Resolved But Thunder Goes Back To Seattle?<a name="top"></a><b>The Seattle ThunderSonics?</b> With the good news that the NBA owners' lockout of the players has been resolved, a couple of Canadian guys, <a href="http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/11/29/tbj-tour-video-seattle-gets-back-the-thunder/" target="_blank">J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas</a>, were in Oklahoma City to interview locals about the news that, as part of the deal, the Thunder were moving back to Seattle as part of a "peace offering."<br /><br /><center><object style="height: 300px; width: 500px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j3rD2mCw6mg?version=3&feature=player_profilepage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j3rD2mCw6mg?version=3&feature=player_profilepage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="500" height="300"></object></center><br /><span class="fullpost">As reported at <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/11/video-fans-told-thunder-going-back-to-seattle/1" target="_blank"><i>USA Today</i></a>, the article reads as follows:<br /><center><table bgcolor="#E0F2F7" cellpadding="10" width="90%"><tr><td><font color="black"><b><font size="3">Oklahoma fans told Thunder are moving back to Seattle</font></b><br />By Alonzo Adams, AP, as reported in <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/11/video-fans-told-thunder-going-back-to-seattle/1" target="_blank"><i>USA Today</i></a>:<br /><br /> As a <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/sports/basketball/for-thunder-fans-nba-lockout-hurt-wallets-too.html?_r=1" target="_blank">story</a> this week illustrated, Oklahoma City loves and needs its NBA team, the Thunder.<br /> As it pertains to why the city needs the team, writer Tom Spousta cites an Oklahoma City chamber of commerce estimation that each of the eight Thunder's home dates lost because of the strike would cost $1.3 million. He also explained that hotels that were selling out on game days were trying fill rooms offering rates for less than $100 per night and waiters who are seeing their tip total slashed by 80% or so.<br /> As it pertains to why the city needs the team, writer Tom Spousta cites an Oklahoma City chamber of commerce estimation that each of the eight Thunder's home dates lost because of the strike would cost $1.3 million. He also explained that hotels that were selling out on game days were trying fill rooms offering rates for less than $100 per night and waiters who are seeing their tip total slashed by 80% or so.<br /> But the city loves the now three-year-old Thunder as well. "It's a love affair we have here," local businessman Ed Lynn told Spousta. "It hurts. It isn't just a sporting event, it's a social experience for us."<br /> Fan T.J. Nance said, "It's the only thing we can agree on, other than conservative politics."<br /> So, when J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas of The Basketball Jones, as part of their tour to NBA cities, tried to convince fans on the streets of Oklahoma City that the Thunder were moving back to Seattle to become the Seattle ThunderSonics, it's not surprising that they were surprised and even a little upset.<br /> But considering that all's well that ends well for the locals, we can chuckle at a harmless prank.</font></td></tr></table></center>When I first located and read this article, a smile immediately crept across my face because of the incredulity of the premise — and the lady in yellow made my smile even broader since she obviously didn't have a clue about what she was talking. <br /><br />It is not enough to say, "Welcome back, OKC Thunder! Welcome back, NBA!" Why not? In Oklahoma City, businesses which have their livelihood based on regular NBA seasons playing their regular preseason games as well as during the regular season, have been irreparably harmed and no remedy is present in the new agreement to make them whole. Regular employees and local businesses which are predicated upon the NBA preseason and regular season existing have lost substantial amounts of income and business and no remedy exists in the new agreement to make them whole, either.<br /><br />Regardless of owner/player economic issues, the fans who buy tickets to these games and have been powerless to influence the outcome even though they are the singular group which drives the economic engine to make the owners make a profit and funds the players for their largesse player contracts.<br /><br />And so it is that fan scars, perhaps deep, exist from this lockout which involved the owners and players dispute. The third leg of the stool, the fans and their funding for the latter, had no voice as a factor in that resolution. <br /><br />Hopefully the Thunder organization will address those fan scars and will bump back the Thunder to the place that it was before the lockout when the Thunder were the winners of the Northwest Division. But don't look for the Thunder organization to pay money to those business who lost income during the lockout or give something to the fans for enduing the senseless events which occurred since the end of the last season.<br /><br />Not even an apology. Neither the owners nor the players have it within themselves to say, "I'm sorry," to the fans and businesses which rely on business as usual. Whether the Thunder, and the NBA, will be as popular in late December 2011 as they were in May 2011, before the owners' lockout began, remains to be seen ... but my guess is that it/they will be.<br /><br />In the meantime, a sense of humor is not a bad thing to have. I've looked for but could not find this lady's dad's website, exposure.com, she said ...<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/okcthunder/exposuredotcom.jpg"></center><br />Smiles are good.<br /><br /><center><a href="#top">Go To Top</a></center><br /></span>Doug Dawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14287287108412180656noreply@blogger.com2