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Memorial Day weekend 1973: Saturday night in Tulsa
For fun, I decided to look up the local newspaper from 50 years ago this weekend. I was particularly curious to see what kind of live entertainment was on offer, and what people were watching on TV. (News clips below are from newspapers.com. Click the image to see the original...
V-E Day 75th anniversary
The German war is therefore at an end. After years of intense preparation, Germany hurled herself on Poland at the beginning of September, 1939; and, in pursuance of our guarantee to Poland and in agreement with the French Republic, Great Britain, the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations, declared war...
Apollo 11 50th anniversary: Video, audio, and documents from 1969 and today
For folks of my age and older, watching men walk on the moon for the first time was an unforgettable thrill. Happily, through the wonders of the internet, there are many ways you can relive that experience and share it with the Gen Xers and later generations that missed...
No on SQ 788: medical marijuana
It has been interesting to learn that many of my medical friends who are advocates of alternative medicine and of the medical use of CBD oil (cannabidiol) and hemp are also opponents of SQ 788, the initiative petition that would, for all practical purposes, legalize recreational use of marijuana...
Wayne McCombs profile in GTR Newspapers
A bit of good news to break up the election stuff: Wayne McCombs, local baseball historian and executive director of the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum in Claremore, is the subject of a profile in GTR Newspapers. The profile by Terrel Lester begins with the story of McCombs's first...
Silent films and pipe organs this Saturday and next Friday
Tulsans will have two chances this month to sample the movie-going experience as it was almost a century ago, thanks to the Sooner State Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. This coming Saturday, January 9, 2016, at 11 a.m., Circle Cinema will screen the 1927 film It, starring Clara...
A bidding prayer for Christmas, A.D. 2014
Edited from the version originally published on December 25, 2012 Merry Christmas to anyone who happens by BatesLine today. As a Holland Hall high school student, I attended and sang in the annual service of Christmas lessons and carols at Trinity Episcopal Church, modeled after the annual Christmas Eve service...
Films of Greenwood post-riot and Oklahoma's African-American communities in the 1920s
100 block of N. Greenwood Ave., Tulsa, west side looking south toward Archer, 1924 or 1925, just three years or so after this block was destroyed in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. It is an exciting thing to see Greenwood alive as it was in its heyday. The...
Stop Vision2: Your help is needed
While it seems that nearly everyone who is paying attention right now is against Vision2, that won't be enough to win on November 6. Far more people who aren't paying attention right now will show up to vote for President on November 6 and may decide on the spot...
Tulsa Independence weekend 2011 events; Laura Ingalls Wilder's Independence Day
An early Happy Independence Day to one and all! There are fireworks somewhere around Tulsa every night this weekend, and Tasha has the definitive list of Tulsa's 4th of July 2011 fireworks celebrations, with links to parking and traffic information for the bigger displays. There's more to the weekend than...
Oklahoma roundup 2009/07/10
Some quick links to local bloggers and other local news: Tulsa Boy Singers will hold tryouts for new singers this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6th & Cincinnati in downtown Tulsa. Boys from 8 to 18, in all vocal ranges, are welcome to try...
Starlight, star bright
We attended Tuesday night's free Starlight Concert at the River West Festival Park to hear a concert by the U. S. Air Force Band of the West, performing alongside the Air National Guard Band of the Gulf Coast. It was well-attended and well worth the time to go. I think...
Fred Davis in the spotlight
I had been hearing about this famous/infamous ad-man for years, a native Tulsan and the nephew of Sen. Jim Inhofe, but I had never met him and had no idea what he looked like until I was on the convention floor Wednesday night and spotted Neil Munro of the...
Bates Motel really existed (sort of), right here in Tulsa
(Image originally from AlanOfTulsa on fotothing.com; direct link to photo.) One more Route 66 related entry. Someone called alanoftulsa posted this postcard with the following info on the TulsaNow forum. The doings at cousin Norman's place almost sound tame compared to the real-life Bates Tourist Hotel. Because of the conditions...
Flunking the Yellow Pages Test
An edited version of this piece was published in the May 24, 2006, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The archived version is no longer online. Posted on the web July 3, 2010. Flunking the Yellow Pages Test By Michael D. Bates When he was Mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith had...
Silent movie night on the river
At least once or twice a summer, when I was a kid, we'd make it out to Skelly Stadium for the Tuesday night Starlight Concert. Some weeks we'd hear Big Band music, other weeks it'd be Sousa marches or Strauss polkas. The Starlight Concert series continues its Tuesday evening performances...
Hollywood scandal: The nation's newspapers respond
It's fascinating to comb through the raw server logs for my website. awstats does a pretty good job of summarizing who's visiting, where visitors are coming from, and what they're looking at, but the detail in the raw log allows me to put it all together. For example, it allows...
Go forth, Gruntfuttock, my child!
Today was the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of "Round the Horne," one of the most enduringly popular radio shows of all time. As you might guess, any popular radio show that had its premiere only 40 years ago is obviously not American. In the '60s, the BBC still...
A remarkable gift
Blogger Rachel Lucas has posted a touching tribute to her grandpa, a WWII vet who passed away last week. She tells of a remarkable gift he gave his grandchildren: You see, Grandpa had a camcorder in the 1990s, and at family gatherings, he was always there in the background, silent,...
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