Vintage shots from days gone by!

Tulsa TV again

Fred Jones Ford dealership

 

I'll take that front row please!

 

Yep, a billboard in (you guessed it) Tulsa.

 

Still on Oklahoma....
The Dust Bowl was being discussed about 30 pages back (I'm behind on my reading). My grandparents had a farm just south of Enid, Oklahoma near Waukomis. Even in the mid 50's, there could be dust storms. I saw one while staying with them when I was around 4 or 5. My Grandpa made my Grandma mad because he opened the door to show my brother and I the dust storm.

 

From Tulsa TV--this 57 Plymouth was buried in a time capsule to be opened 50 years later. When it was, it was badly rusted out as the capsule had leaked. Somebody from the East Coast bought it anyway and last I heard, was trying to restore it.

 

Miss Belvadier is so hard to follow, I have been trying to keep track of her... but there is never anything new on her, last I saw the guy that has her had cleaned her up very well, but she is brittle.

I had hoped to try and get her for my local museum, or better yet I had hoped a Tulsa museum would have taken her in.

Such a sad fate for such a nice car, didn't they know that concrete was porous?

 

This is were our family stayed when we were in or near Tulsa. I hadn't thought of that place in years.

 

You forgot the word "heavy" in front of "long boards". Those things were a workout just getting to the water.

 

Cover of Johnny Preston's million-seller Gold
Album, THANKS to RockabillyHall.com!

Topping the singles chart for three weeks in January 1960, "Running
Bear" was the first and biggest hit for 20-year-old Johnny Preston
(John Preston Courville, 1939-2011) of Port Arthur, Texas.
Preston's friend J.P. Richardson, aka "The Big Bopper," wrote the
song and suggested it to Preston. Richardson's Bopper Music
produced the Mercury recording in a late-'58 session, and The
Bopper and George Jones (!) performed the Indian chants and war
whoops in the background ("Ohga, chucka! Ohga, chucka!").

Somewhat ironically, Preston's record release was delayed by legal
matters for seven months after his friend The Bopper, along with
Richie Valens and Buddy Holly, were killed in a famous plane crash
on Feb. 3, 1959, while headed to a show. Finally released in August
as Preston turned 20, the song entered the Top 100 in October and
shot to #1 by January 1960, were it stayed for three weeks,
remaining on the pop chart 26 weeks. Preston's follow-up single,
"Cradle of Love" went to #7 in the U.S., #2 in the UK.

Though I was only 9 at the time, I remember thinking of "Running
Bear" as pretty much a novelty song, a little like Sheb Wooley's
"The Flying Purple People Eater" of mid-1958 -- except that
"Running Bear" was a tear-jerker not a knee-slapper. I recall that
personal tragedy was a popular theme in the teen-music genre of
the time -- other examples being "Wake Up, Little Susie" and "Teen
Angel," also involving a young death).

Novelty or not, "Running Bear" had musical legs! Pat Boone
unashamedly covered it in late '60 for a hit of his own, followed
quickly by a George Jones take that hit in '62. Bob Wills did his
version in '68, and Sonny James' '69 take became one of Sonny's
best-sellers. WOW! In all, the Bopper's "Running Bear" was
performed by at least nine artists or groups in English, not in-
cluding five takes done in Danish, Dutch and German!

BTW, Billboard magazine's yearend Top 100 Hits
for 1960 listed these as the top 10 hits of the year:

1. Theme From "A Summer Place," Percy Faith
2. He'll Have to Go, Jim Reeves
3. Cathy's Clown, Everly Brothers
4. Running Bear, Johnny Preston
5. Teen Angel, Mark Dinning
6. I'm Sorry, Brenda Lee
7. It's Now or Never, Elvis Presley
8. Handy Man, Jimmy Jones
9. Stuck on You, Elvis Presley
10. The Twist, Chubby Checker

 

CINCINNATI'S MAYOR FUMES ABOUT WOMEN DRIVERS: The other day Louis Kline, a city official in Cincinnati, Ohio, was run down by an automobile driven by a woman, Mrs. Charles Haas. The accident evidently caught the attention of the city's mayor, Col. Mark Breit. In a message to the city council March 7, 1908, he laid out his idea for preventing women from working as chauffeurs, according to today's New York Times. The paper quotes the mayor as saying,
"I do not believe the running of an automobile is the proper sphere for women and would prohibit their doing so if I could have my way. The ONLY PROPER MACHINE for a woman to run is a SEWING MACHINE."

 

Bet he didn't get any sugar that night...

 

I don't se where "Wake up Little Suzy." was a bummer song,,,,lest ya think of what Suzies Dad is gonna do to him! Now,,, Martin Demmings, " Teen Angel" is a REAL tear jerker, cause he got the ring out of a Cracker Back Jox! Crow. LFFL

 

Does not it say it all, right there? THAT'S living!

 

I have a 45 of Carl Douglas' "Kung-Fu Fighting" anybody want it? (it just hangs on my wall)

 

I want this 57 Bird!

 

According to the Everly Brothers (who had to defend their song), Susie wasn't asleep. She had died of carbon monoxide poisioning while they were on the date. Both kids "fell asleep," and the boy is/was trying to wake her up, so that they both won't be in dutch with their old folks and polite society at large.
<!-- / message -->

 

I didn't think "Wake Up.." was such a bad tune. A couple of real bummer songs that made me wonder why anyone would sing about such things are "Patches" by Dickey Lee, and "One Dyin' and A Buryin'" by Roger Miller. Now they're bad, downright suicidal.

 

You can't have it!
But you can make one just like it.
I own the factory molds that made them! (and several more)

The picture you linked to is from my website and shows the Pretzel amusement version made for amusement parks an fairs with the full wrap around bumper. It is also gas powered as you can see the pull cord on the trunk lid and the antenna is to receive the radio signal to kill the car at the end of the ride. But the original bodies and cars were made by The Powercar company of Mystic CT that made Thunderbirds from 1955-66 and changed them each year to match the full size cars. I will attach a picture of a standard Powercar 57 Thunderbird at the Whitehouse. Ike's grandkids used to drive it through the halls of the whitehouse. The boy behind the wheel is the namesake of Camp David and ended up hitched to the Nixon daughter.

PS I also changed the image on my website by shrinking it so it would fit on the page. since you linked to such a large image.

 

Really? Sounds like a tall story to me, the lyrics don't reflect this at all....


The movie wasn&#8217;t so hot, it didn&#8217;t have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot

Back in the 50's a girl's reputation was the most important thing in the world to her, and it didn't take much to smirch it and start the tongues wagging, especially in a small town.

Edit: from the website "Songfacts"

This was written by the husband and wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote most of The Everly Brothers songs in the '50s. Their songs were also recorded by Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Buddy Holly.

This is about a young couple who fall asleep at the drive-in, realize they are out past curfew, and make up a story to tell Susie's parents.

Some Boston radio stations banned this because of the lyrics, which imply that the young couple spent the night together. At the time, staying out late with a girl was more than a little controversial.

 

The ultimate in bummer songs, the Louvin Brothers doing Knoxville Girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhMiKeSffns

 

Tulsa time capsule car was a hardtop. Just sayin....

 

I agree... Dead by CO while watching a movie, a little out there.

 

Holly Shit... What a F*cked up song. And we think todays songs are bad about whuppin' a Ho?

 

Love those tear jerkers!Don't forget Moody River by Pat Boone or Grandma got run over by a reindeer by Patsy and Elmo! Song censorship on the radio goes back a ways,Sixty Minute man by the Dominoes,Annie had a Baby and Work with me Annie by Hank Ballard were just a few of the censored ones in the Fifties.I remember one Detroit station cut out the line about the "Whores on 7 th Ave" in Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" in the 60's! Times sure have changed!

 

I also grew up in the Detroit area in the 50s/60s (who can forget the BIG 8 - CKLW?), and vaguely remember a satirical song that came out about Jackie Kennedy having a phone conversation with then-prez JFK - and it got pulled right after Kennedy was assasinated.

Also remember the other version of "Goodbye, Cruel World" by James Darrin that instead of going "... of to join the circus..." he was going "...off to join the Army. Gonna be a broken hearted guy...", instead of clown? I don't remember it being played too much. I heard someplace that the Army version got pulled because of the adverse affect it had on boys joining the Army for the wrong reason - ???

 

More Tulsa TV

At the Expo Center

 

From Tulsa TV--a top 40 music list from 4/23/1965

 

Tulsa TV

 

From Tulsa TV