Roxy Theater #13 East Main, Ardmore Oklahoma
Theaters in Ardmore where a big attraction for the servicemen and townspeople alike and in 1942 Ardmore had seven; the Jewel, the Paramount, the Ritz, the Roxy, the Stars, the Temple and the Tivoli. In 1943 the Roxy suffered fire damage and came back to life as the Globe Theater, a title submitted in the naming contest by an entrant commemorating William Shakespeare and the stage upon which he performed. Herschel Gilliam, the Globe’s owner, added his own theatrical touch to downtown Ardmore by standing on the sidewalk in front of the globe and hawking current shows which were surprisingly good, in some instances verging on art productions otherwise not shown locally. The Temple, in the basement of the Masonic building later the Ardmoreite Building charged a nickel for those under 12 for Saturday morning shows. East of the Globe a theater in the form of a log cabin, The Fox Theater, was popular with youngsters on Saturday mornings. The screen was located at the front of the theater with seating reversed from the usual order and facing from the back toward Main Street. Youngster soon learned that it was easy to sneak into the Fox through the large air vents in the back of the building. Sadly, one morning as a young boy made his way through the vent, the fan came on, severing his leg.
-Sally Gray, Territory Town, The Ardmore Story published 2006
The old Roxy Theater #13 East Main, Ardmore Oklahoma
Mangum, Oklahoma 1899
W.B. Frame Drug Store, located on the northeast corner of Main and Washington. Four employees of the store are posed inside. An elaborate marble soda fountain is seen on the right. 1930. Ardmore Oklahoma 1930
Ramada Inn in Ardmore opened in October, 1972
Oklahoma City snowfall, January 1954
Keokuk Falls, Oklahoma is a ghost town in Pottawatomie County. The location is 4.5 miles north and 15 miles east of Shawnee, as well as one mile west of the Creek Nation and one mile north of the Seminole Nation across the North Canadian River. It was named after Chief Moses Keokuk (1821-1908). He is buried in Stroud, Oklahoma’s Sac and Fox cemetery.
Mail from the Mailbag
I have a follow up question. Do you or anyone have access to film or video of the 1951 Championship playoff series between the Ardmore Indians and the McAlister team? If so, would I be able to purchase a copy? I would like to show my children and grandchildren. Also, please send my greetings to Jill. (My daughter is helping me write this). Thank you very much. –Ernesto (Klein) Wallerstein
112 is a European emergency number. No state uses 112 as a highway emergency number, contrary to a viral claim on Facebook.
HAM Talk by Butch Bridges KC5JVT – Allstar node # 58735
The Arbuckle 97 Net is held every Sunday evening at 8:00pm Oklahoma time. Any licensed HAM is welcome to chek-in if you can hit the repeater in the Arbuckle Mountains south of Davis, Oklahoma.
The Boredom Breaker Net is held everyday from Noon to 2:00pm Central Time from the Claremore Oklahoma repeater.
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
February 27, 2008 – Issue 579
Several of you wrote in since last week’s T&T to say Ardmore’s Snuff Street back in the 50s was also along “B” Street NW from 12th and B NW south to Main Street. I guess when you come down to it, there were many streets where you drove a block and took a dip. lol
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/SnuffStreet.jpg
“Al’s story is correct but I must put in this little bit of information to make it a complete story. We lived on 12th Ave NW between E and C streets but often times we went to town by going south on “B” St. N.W. and we took a dip at just about every block as we traveled that route. Even today when you take that route you will surely notice the dips along the way. We also called that route “Snuff street” -Ernest Martian
Many of us remember the Super Dog at 9th and North Commerce and its been talked about in many past issues of T&T. This week I received some photos of what was left of the restaurant that was located at the same spot. The Reader thought the name of the restaurant was Freeman’s when it blew up one night. Can anyone refresh our memory? Seems like the explosion took place around 1980?
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/Freemans1.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/Freemans2.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/Freemans3.jpg
Here’s a 1970s picture of a crowd of square dancers inside the civic auditorium.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/squaredance1970s.jpg
Jill and I were just west of our place a couple miles visiting John and Marie O’Dell this week. We really enjoyed seeing their 6 chickens and 1 rooster, wishing that we had the same thing, maybe someday soon we will. John has one chicken that lays green eggs. But one interesting thing we saw on their acreage was an oak tree estimated to be over 250 years old. John said it was not long ago a representative with the Forestry Service came visiting to see the tree, and he estimated it between 250 to 300 years old. The tree was struck by lightening some time back, but still survives. Below is a picture I snapped of Jill standing in front of this historic tree (that’s Sadie in the picture with Jill, John and Marie’s dog).
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/200yrOldTree.jpg
Now these eggs are the most beautiful eggs I’ve seen in a long time….. fresh from John and Marie O’Dell’s chicken yard. They have 6 hens and a rooster all living under a chicken wire cage to keep the skunks out. And with eggs sky high now days ($1.98 a dozen), these are going to taste just that much better! And you can’t buy eggs like these at the stores!!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/GreenEgg.jpg
“Howdy Butch, Holy Mackeral! Look what I found while looking for the Carter County radio frequency broadcasts. Apparently you didn’t get enough publicity for this heroic action or I would have seen it before. Congratulations, you done an outstanding job! Now that I am thru bragging on you, do you know where I can get the radio frequency numbers? I have a copy, but it has been copied so many times that some of the numbers are hard to read and I get them wrong in my scanner. Thanx.” -Ken
https://oklahomahistory.net/marietta-girl-kidnapped-raped-1982/
“Being an OU Sooner fan and a member of the OU Texoma Club, our Club members were guests of the OU Alumni Club in Norman, this past Saturday for lunch before we attended the OU Gals versus the OSU Gals basketball game, which OU won. I met a new member of our club who is originally from Turner. His name is Mike Fitts and he is the girls basketball coach at Pottsboro, TX. Seems his wife used to work in the only drug store in Davis, and Mike asked me if I knew Randy Moore. Of course, I played football and went to school in Davis with Randy. Randy graduated 1961 and I in 1963. If any of you Davis Grads of the Class of 1963 are reading this, please attend our 45th Reunion this coming May.” -Scott Bumgarner, Sherman, TX sooner1944@gmail.com
“Hi Butch, Can you stand one more story about Broomcorn? Around August of each year while in jr. High, age 13-15, in Marlow, Oklahoma, I would leave a wake up call with the telephone operator for 5:00 a.m. (yes, that was possible in 1948) and walk downtown where the big clock stood and wait. By 6:00 a.m., if there was work available, a pickup would arrive and take all who could get on to the farm where broomcorn was being harvested. They fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, (called dinner and supper) and a usual day consisted of ten hours in the field as a Johnnie, one who cut the corn, and haulers, those who hauled it to the thrashing machine and the ever constant Straw Boss. After supper all the harvested corn that day was run through a thrasher, which removed the seeds. The bundles of thrashed broomcorn, usually all a boy of 13 could carry from the thrasher, was bumped on a hard surface, usually a 55 gal. barrel to get the ends even, and carried to an open barn, where the corn was placed on 2-2 inch wide boards. The barn usually was a roof with open sides and the boards separated by 3-5 inches so the green corn could dry and be bailed in the fall. When the corn harvested that day was thrashed we would wash up at the stock tank as the dust from the seeds and corn made you feel like you were on fire. Long sleeve shirts were usually worn with buttoned necks to keep the dust out. Embarrassment was major when a woman asked me on my first day as a Johnnie if I was going to be P-ant when we thrashed that night. I had never heard a woman use such a word and did not know what a P-ant was. I soon discovered that was the person who carried the corn to the barn. We looked like a line of P-ant’s going from the thrasher to the barn. A hard, hot, and miserable job but it paid $.50 an hour with great food. A good Johnnie could earn $6.00 a day plus food. Lindsey was considered the Broomcorn Capital of the world in 1948 according to the Straw Boss.” -W. E. (Wally) Glasscock, Richmond, VA.
“Butch, If I am not wrong, the name of the business on Lake Murray Dr. was Cottingham?s Bait House, not Cunningham?s. A mistake that anyone could make after so many years.”
“Looking for country stores, I came upon the Ardmore grocery stores. A Heartsill’s store was at E & 12th NW in the 1930s. There was a ‘Besaw’s’ 1000 blk C NW, Bulard’s 9th & A NW.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ardmore-and-carter-county-grocery-stores/
“Butch: The parking meter in the photo is NOT old city of Ardmore parking meters.” -Rick Feiler
“In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours” -A quote by Mark Twain
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net