Yearly Archives: 2017

Welcome back. Friends on July 20-23 the play that broke all the records at the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway back in 1977, winning a Tony Award for Best Musical along the way, will be playing here at the Bartlesville Community Center. This show has been produced overseas in just about any country you can name including Germany, Ireland and Russia. Based on a comic strip that was popular from 1924 through the 1960s, the story starts in an orphanage in 1933 when a little girl who runs away meets millionaire Oliver Warbucks. She also meets a President named Roosevelt and many other prominent figures in a drama that is still a big hit today when between 700 to 900 productions of this musical are staged every year across the globe.
This year we will all have the opportunity to enjoy the show ourselves in a theater that was made for this type of legendary production. I’m sure most of you have guessed by now that I’m talking about Annie which back in 1977 starred Andrea McArdle as Annie and Reid Shelton as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

The show premiered at the historic Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT before moving to Broadway and was directed by Michael Price. I have been to the Goodspeed several times and I can tell you it is a truly beautiful small theater on the banks of the Connecticut River.

The Goodspeed opened in 1963 with a mission to produce new or little known musicals and bring them to a wider audience. With the leadership of Michael Price from 1968-2014 the theater produced over 250 musicals including 70 world premieres and 24 of these shows went to Broadway, including Annie. The Goodspeed itself has been recognized with two special Tony Awards and continues its dedication to musical theater including this summer when they are showcasing a production of Oklahoma!

I also know some McArdles back in Connecticut who were involved in the theater but that is a story for another day. I’ve got the scoop from the backstage personnel that this production is very professionally staged and that the backdrops are top of the line, guaranteed to make you feel just like you’re sitting in the Neil Simon Theater in New York. I also know from some of the parents and grandparents whose kids are involved in the production just how hard these young actors worked perfecting their skills to put on a show I’m predicting no one there will ever forget. Annie. Don’t miss it. For tickets contact Children’s Musical Theatre or the Bartlesville Community Center Box Office.

As for me, this week the road lies north up I-35 out of Oklahoma to Kansas where many a cattle drive ended. Kansas was also the state where wagons pulled by oxen loaded up with supplies headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’m checking out this old trail for a historical story I’m working on and should have more for you on that next time when I see ya down the road…..
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A few sayings from one of my role models…

Welcome back. Until the day he died in 1964 Waite Phillips carried a small booklet tucked away in his jacket pocket everywhere he went and he opened it often. Was it some kind of financial statement? After all, for most of his life Waite Phillips was one of the richest men in America. You might guess it was a report from one of the many companies he owned or perhaps a letter from his loving wife Genevieve that he was reading. Well friends these would be good guesses but the truth is that little booklet contained a couple hundred epigrams, some he had written himself and some which were written by other people whom he may have liked or admired.
Because we just celebrated Independence Day over the past few weeks I have been writing about Americans who all had their own driving force to succeed which led them to move mountains in their fields, becoming leaders not only in business but also as examples to their fellow men and women. This week I may just be bringing you the secret to Waite Phillips’ great success.
According to my Webster’s dictionary an epigram is a saying or remark that expresses an idea in a clever or amusing way. According to his son Elliot “Chope” Phillips his dad read daily out of that little book which he said contained good rules for a successful and useful life. These are just a few of his favorite sayings:

Real philanthropy consists of helping others, outside of our own family circle, from whom no thanks is expected or required. Waite Phillips

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them-that’s the essence of inhumanity. George Bernard Shaw

No one should boast of being honest, dependable, courteous and considerate for these are fundamental qualities essential to good character that everyone should develop and use. Waite Phillips

Often, we allow ourselves to be upset by things we should forget. Perhaps some man we helped has proved ungrateful, some person we believed to be a friend has spoken ill of us, some reward we thought we deserved has been denied us. We feel some disappointments strongly but isn’t that absurd? Here we are on this earth with only a few more decades to live and we lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that in a year’s time will be forgotten by us and by everybody. Let us devote our lives to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings. Life is too short to be over sensitive. Andre Maurois

To become competent in governing we must first learn to govern ourselves. Waite Phillips

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot keep out of financial trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away initiative and independence. Abraham Lincoln

Of course, there are many more epigrams in Wade’s book but unfortunately mine didn’t make it.

The only way to slow down time is to get a job you don’t like. Dale Lewis

If you have an epigram you especially like I’d love to read it. You can email it to me at buffalodale @netzero.com.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road….

I am showing Footprints in the Dew: The Last Ten Tapes at the Tahlequah Public library at 6PM tonight.

Welcome back. Will Rogers once said “a man only learns in two ways-one is by reading and the other is by association with smarter people.” This past weekend in Springfield, MO I caught upon some reading and got an education from the hundreds of people who attended a big “preppers” tradeshow at the Ozark Empire fairgrounds. I was unaware of this group myself but I soon learned this is a new fad with preppers shows popping up all over the country. Next month alone there will be two shows in the Carolinas as well as shows in Georgia, Utah, Arkansas and Virginia and the promoter told me that vendor space was selling out at all of them. Water purification systems, long term food supplies, Geiger counters, plans for organic gardens and underground storage units, these are just a few of the items that vendors had for sale. There were also well known speakers offering seminars on how to live “off the grid “and on self-defense.

In addition, the show offered survival gear such as gas masks and other devices designed to protect you from every kind of bad air and water conditions you might encounter. It was all quite interesting and the line to get into the show was two city blocks long on Saturday including some folks from overseas who were attending. For a little more info on preppers check out last week’s column at www.originalbuffalodale.com.

Tomorrow for me it’s a visit to the hometown of the first female principal chief of the Cherokees, Wilma Mankiller. This is also where Wes Studi, singer Merle Travis and a couple of dozen other well-known people were all born. A major university, Northeastern State is here along with the headquarters of the Cherokee Nation which was founded when the tribe was forcibly moved to the area in 1839 at the end of the infamous Trail of Tears. This trip will be taking me to a place where the stop signs, the no parking signs and the street signs are all written in both English and the Cherokee language. Another tid-bit, according to Wikipedia, the Cherokee Supreme Court building which was constructed in 1844 is the oldest public building in Oklahoma and it’s in this town as well. . My destination of course is Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

My visit to town will start at the Tahlequah Public Library for a screening of my film “Footprints in the Dew: the Last Ten Tapes” which will be free and open to the public. After the film I have set up an interview with a man that many of you may not have heard of but who is well known in many circles. He is one of the “smarter people” Will Rogers referred to and who I have been lucky enough to get to know.

A businessman but also someone for whom family comes first, whose Green Thumb Nursery has grown into the largest commercial nursery business this side of the Missouri River and who has become one of the leading conservationists in Oklahoma. His name is John Nickel and the 15,000+ acre ranch he donated to the Oklahoma Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, now known as the J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve, is just outside of Tahlequah along the Illinois River. The preserve is open to the public and offers the opportunity to hike through the Cookson Hills where you can see all kinds of birds and animals including free roaming elk, black bear and bald eagles. I have been there several times and friends it is one beautiful place. As for John Nickel I have only scratched the surface about his accomplishments which someone definitely needs to write a book write about.
Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road….
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I am considering making an audiotape of Footprints in the Dew….

Welcome back. I spent the past weekend doing a book signing in Kansas City at the largest gun show in the state which was held at the KCI Expo Center at the airport which is a place I wrote about a few weeks ago. It was great fun and the attractions in Kansas City are hard to beat. Of course, baseball is big this time of year but the city also offers great architecture some excellent museums and top of the line restaurants and shopping.
While I’ve been traveling over the last few weeks I also got the opportunity to work on another project. I have been planning another book but many people have suggested that I look into making an audiobook of Footprints in the Dew.

Not being familiar with audiobooks, I naturally did some research to find out more about them and what is required to produce one. The websites Silksoundbooks.com and Wikipedia both had plenty of information on the topic.
The first “talking book” as it was called was created in the United States during the 1930s when the Library of Congress started a project called “Books for the Adult Blind Project” in 1934. Excerpts from the Bible and writings by Helen Keller were made available on long playing phonograph records. Throughout the 1930s this was the technology of choice for recordings made by both the Royal National Institute for the Blind in Great Britain and the American Foundation for the Blind in the United States.

In 1949 both organizations began using magnetic tapes for their recordings but these tapes had to be loaded and threaded into the specially designed players which was difficult for blind people. Fortunately, the introduction of audiocassette tapes which were immediately adopted by the National Library Service for the Blind in the U.S. removed this barrier. These tapes became widely popular with sighted people as well and publishers began issuing spoken word versions of their books along with printed editions. It wasn’t long before public libraries in the U.S. and the U.K. purchased the tapes making them easily accessible.

In the 1990s the availability of audiobooks on CDs increased their popularity and tens of thousands of recordings were made. I found that today virtually every bestselling book has been recorded. Most of these recording are “abridged” or reduced versions because usually a recording of the full text requires many CDs.

Most recently, the advent of the internet has made audiobooks available by download to devices such as MP3 players, Smartphones and tablets. Audible.com which was founded in 1998 was the first website dedicated to selling digital audiobooks and is still a leader in the industry.
In 2005 Librivox was established in Canada with the goal of making digital audiobooks available for free and they currently have thousands of titles available for download.

Typically, the production of an audiobook consists of a narrator sitting in a recording booth reading the text while an engineer and a director record and direct the reading. If a mistake is made, the recording is stopped and the narrator reads it again. With recent advancements in recording technology, many audiobooks are now produced in home studios by narrators who work independently. An audiobook would make Footprints in the Dew accessible to more people and I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Coming up this week for me its OKC today, Tulsa on Thursday and then onto Springfield, MO where I’ll be hanging out at tradeshow designed for a group of people called “preppers”. These folks believe in preparing themselves to live off the grid in case of a manmade or natural disaster. The show will offer all kinds of survival gear such as gas masks, water purification systems and body armor. The show itself is called “the Springfield Prepper and Green Living Expo. It should be interesting.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road….

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Welcome back. This year’s class of eight inductees into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame is quite impressive with some names I hope you may have already heard of. American Idol winner in 2005 country music giant from Checotah, Oklahoma Carrie Underwood and Shannon Miller who won seven Olympic medals in gymnastics including two gold. Eight term U.S House of Representative member Tom Cole of Moore and the first black Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Tom Colbert of Sapulpa. Restauranteur Hal Smith of Ardmore and Phil Parduhn who is the Chairman of Pelco Products in Edmond and Pelco Structural LLC in Claremore. Civil rights activist Lois Sipuel Fisher and the renowned Cherokee linguist and statesman Sequoyah are being inducted posthumously.

The last inductee is someone I have had the privilege to get to know personally. Born on May 14 1940 in Duvall, Washington, he was the second of two children. He acquired a strong work ethic from his father at an early age learning that every penny counted in his struggling family. His dad milked cows by hand and as a little boy he churned raw milk into butter to make extra money for the family. In grade school, he excelled not only in class but also in sports. Tall and wiry, in high school he played basketball, softball, soccer, baseball and even tennis, often getting home after dark and then helping his dad haul hay. The whole family always attended church on Sunday and this young boy was a solid Christian but in 1951 his life was changed at a church revival in Seattle, Washington. It was led by a young preacher named Billy Graham. The boy had always had three ambitions and the first was to become a preacher, then he wanted to be a farmer because he loved cows as his father did and lastly, he wanted to be a businessman.
Billy Graham received the boy into God’s hands on that day in Seattle’s Taft Stadium and from then on, the kid from Duvall let the Lord guide his life. Reverend Graham became known around the world for his preaching and the kid went on to work his way through college even getting the opportunity to attend graduate school overseas. He retained the same drive and ambition he had always had and with his positive attitude he made friends everywhere he went. Eventually he too made a name for himself around the world, not only as a preacher but also as a farmer, rancher, businessman and philanthropist. Work brought him to Oklahoma as a young man and because of the kindness he found here he adopted the state as his own, becoming one of its best ambassadors. With a strong desire to help other people, he built his company Express Employment Professionals, into one of the leading employment companies in the country which gave him the tools he needed to achieve his other humanitarian goals.

He bought property in New Mexico adjoining the Philmont Scout Ranch which saved an important hiking trail from being closed. He quietly became the second largest donor to the construction of the new football stadium at OSU after Boone Pickens. He also became one of the leading supporters of the Children’s Miracle Network fundraiser as well as donating generously to many other organizations not because he wanted recognition but because he wanted to help other people.

Among all his many achievements in business, he served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. This man’s name is Bob Funk.
If you want to know more about Mr. Funk, the well-known biographers Bob Burke and Dan Gillogly have written a book about him called “Bob Funk: Doctor of Hope.”The ceremony for these eight inductees into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame will be in November and what a party that should be.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road……….
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Welcome back. I once knew a man who had been the National Collegiate Basketball player of the year and who, before graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in Civil Engineering, in his last year of school made the all-time All American team and friends not just everyone is on that team.
After being named the greatest basketball player to ever play at KU, in 1923 he took a job with Phillips Petroleum Company and spent the next forty-four doing any job that Frank Phillips and Boots Adams asked him to do. From construction, research and liquefied petroleum gas to sales, marketing and employee relations, he was involved with every part of the company’s operations. In 1951 when Boots became the Chairman and CEO of Phillips, this man became President of the company and when Boots retired he took his job.

He had started out staking wells right out of college and then moved on to work in the gas plants and on pipelines, working around the world. Now President of one of the world’s fastest growing companies, this man went on to have a successful career as a top executive until his retirement in 1967. But even then he was not done with life, going on to lead the boards of many not for profit groups including serving for twenty-two years on the Frank Phillips Foundation board which manages Frank’s favorite place, Woolaroc.
Beloved by family, friends, business associates and neighbors, I met this man later in his life when he was much sought after for his knowledge of Phillips’ history. As a young boy I had seen him often at the original YMCA where I was a member and he was a director. He radiated happiness and well-being which seemed to spread among all the kids including myself.

He and I were both much older when our paths crossed again in the mid-1990s at a membership party at Woolaroc and it was easy to see that he loved this place as much as Frank had. I was so glad to see him one more time because a few years later he passed away at Jane Phillips Medical Center on January 8, 1997. He was 94. He was praised and mourned by his associates at Phillips and around the world. He was a man I once knew and his name, which we should never forget, was Paul Endacott.

From a man I admired years ago to a man I know and admire now. He was born into a loving family but they were poor. The boy grew up with a work ethic like none I’ve known and became so successful that kings and queens called him friends. Yet like Paul Endacott he never forgot his roots. It was recently announced that he and six others will be inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame on November 16th a. A transplant to Oklahoma, I’ll leave you guessing until next week and till then,

I’ll see ya down the road.
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I’m headed to Pawnee for the weekend….

Welcome back. As a child growing up in the 1860s in prosperous Bloomington, Illinois this young boy would dream of the west where buffalo still roamed the plains. After getting his education he held several good jobs but the west kept calling to him. Popular magazines of the times like the Saturday Evening Post were full of stories about battles between the U.S. Calvary and plains Indians and the exploits of a man he came to worship Buffalo Bill Cody. The Dime Store novels of the 1870s telling stories about Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill inspired him and after a chance encounter he started living out his dream.

There were several Calvary scouts touring the country with Buffalo Bill telling stories about life in the west which was still a wide-open area. Although he was now a successful business man running his family’s mill, when the young man heard their stories he decided that his destiny lay out west and west he went. Over time the Pawnee tribe became like family to the now middle aged man as he traveled throughout the west on one adventure after another.

Always a showman he would follow his hero Buffalo Bill into show business creating his own act with his Pawnee brothers which toured the country. This city boy turned plainsman who was now the subject of his own Dime Store novels was named Gordon William Lillie or better known as Pawnee Bill.
Pawnee Bill’s life story is well known; how he married the love of his life, toured the world with his show and then in 1909 he and his idol Buffalo Bill joined their two shows together. The “Two Bills” show as it was called combined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show with Pawnee Bill’s Great Far East Show and friends people came in droves.

The show was successful for years until motion pictures became popular and put an end to this kind of traveling show. After the show closed, Pawnee Bill continued to be successful with other ventures. In 1930 in an effort to preserve the history of the old west he built a place called Buffalo Ranch on Blue Hawk Peak just outside of Pawnee, Oklahoma. He had built a house there years before and now in his seventies, this would be Bill’s last showplace. As they had in the past, people came by the thousands to see his show. The show went on for several years until his wife died. After that Bill was never the same and in 1942 he passed away, many say from missing her.

I am bringing you this man’s story because on June 9th and 10th the Pawnee Bill Original Wild West Show will be taking place at the original Buffalo Ranch just outside of town. It is an honor to be taking part in this event on both days which will have all the excitement of the 1930s show. The house where Bill and his wife lived will also be open to the public and everything is in its original condition just like when the two of them were there.

The town of Pawnee is quite a place to visit as well. Opened to non-Indian settlers in 1893, the town actually grew during the great depression because of all the WPA projects going on in the area. With the presence of two major rail lines, Pawnee which is named after the tribe, continued to have steady growth in the following years. One more little tidbit: Moses J. “Chief” Yellowhorse from Pawnee was the first full blooded Native American to play pro baseball.
For all the show info call (918) 762-2513.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road………………
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It was a fun evening showing my film in Nowata and I appreciate everyone who came out despite the threatening weather.

Welcome back. I’m keeping close to home this week with a story about a town that became famous in 1904 for having the world’s largest shallow oil field. That was the year that oil and gas was discovered and then the Missouri Pacific Railroad built a line through the area. Within fifteen years this Indian Territory trading post would become as historians say a “boom town” with a courthouse, three story bank and lots of hotels. When Highway 60 linked Nowata with Bartlesville and Ponca City in the 1920s it made the town that the Delawares called “No-weate” or “Welcome” in their native language an even more vibrant community.

Yes, I’m talking about Nowata, Oklahoma and on Saturday night my film “Footprints in the Dew: The Last Ten Tapes” will be showing at the Jack R. Ellis Memorial Theater at 7PM. Situated on the old original town square, this is a neat place that regularly features live entertainment and also has a kitchen that serves both snacks and dinner. The theater is the home of the Nowata Country Jubilee which showcases country music performers and supports a scholarship program for local students. For ticket information you can call them at (918) 273-0752.

Part of the Cherokee Nation, the entire town square was once owned by Chief Charles Johnnycake who was a registered Delaware Indian. Nowadays this early Oklahoma settlement has 130 businesses with Jane Phillips Hospital being the largest employer. In 1998 the hit movie “Possum” was filmed in Nowata and another little tidbit: on February 10, 2011 the national weather service proclaimed that Nowata had the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state at minus 31 degrees and friends that record still stands today.

Down the road for me means traveling and during the day Saturday I’ll be autographing books at the big R&K Gun and Knife Show at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Last weekend I was doing the same thing at a gun show at the OK State Park Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City and couldn’t help but notice the new building there. Now this isn’t your typical large event center, this thing is huge. I found out that the Bennett Event Center has 201,000 s.f. of contiguous floor space for exhibits as well as an expansive lobby and a full service catering kitchen. It’s quite a structure.

I’ll end this week with a story about a man who Bartlesville just lost. I met Richard Johnson in the 1980s. A fine musician, he was playing regularly at local establishments and always drawing crowds. As time went by he put his natural talent for organization to good use. For years SUNFEST benefited from his experience in the music world but as a founder and longtime Board member Richard’s involvement with the festival went way further than that. When Richard began his company Johnson Lighting & Sound he became the go to person for private parties, concerts, festivals and fundraisers throughout the region and beyond. The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque, OK Mozart, Indian Summer Festival and the HOT Street Parties are just a few of the local events he worked with. He will be greatly missed and tomorrow night in Dewey musicians will gather from far and wide for a memorial show and benefit starting at 6PM at the Heritage Theater. Proceeds from the show will help with the medical expenses Richard incurred while ill. This should be special so check it out for sure.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road………………
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My adventures buying a painting…..

Welcome back. First up this week is a little definition work from the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) website, all related to art and to painting in particular:

Abstraction The process of creating art that is not representational or based on external reality or nature.

Figurative: Representing a form or Abstraction: The process of creating art that is not representational or based on external reality or nature.

Expressionism: An international artistic movement in art, architecture, literature, and performance that flourished between 1905 and 1920, especially in Germany and Austria, that favored the expression of subjective emotions and experience over depictions of objective reality. Conventions of Expressionist style include distortion, exaggeration, fantasy, and vivid, jarring figure in art that retains clear ties to the real world.

In the world of painters terms such as “reserved”, “controlled”, “bold” and “expressionist” are used to describe an artist’s style. For example, up and coming artist Greer Ross Dexter from Houston, Texas way is also the daughter of the well-known painter Robert Newton Roos, Jr., gets great praise from critics and collectors for her use of oils and broad brush strokes. This young lady’s work is based on a figurative style interpreted with abstract and expressionist techniques.

If you are like me all the terminology about painting is a bit over my head, I just like to look at paintings and I know when I’m looking at a piece I like. Everyone’s taste is different of course, whether you prefer abstract, realist, minimalist or other styles of painting.

Where am I going with all this art stuff you may well ask? Saturday night out at Elder Care’s big event, The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque there was a painting in the Live Auction that was donated by Jane Johnstone and Mike McSpadden. Although they live in Texas now both Jane and Mike have history in this area. Jane is the daughter of Leo Johnstone, one of Bartlesville’s early community leaders. Mike is part of the McSpadden clan that included the legendary rodeo announcer Clem McSpadden. The two are longtime friends of the Mullendore family as well as supporters of Elder Care and they make it a point to come out to the Barbeque whenever they can. I know these two know their artwork and from my first glance I fell in love with the piece they had donated. Although I knew it would be way, way out of my league in terms of sales price I thought at least I got a chance to admire it for a while. But lo and behold this very striking black and white painting of Ogallala Sioux tribesman Black Eagle painted by none other than Greer Ross Dexter sold not way, way over my budget but just way over and I got it.

Museums are fun and they are some of my favorite places but owning a true piece of art that you can see every day is something special.

As far as Elder Care’s party, it was another big success. Perfect weather, a big crowd, great food and drinks and wonderful music along with a big dose of Oklahoma history, what more could you ask for? Once again, a dedicated group of hard working volunteers did an excellent job.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road….
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Welcome back. In between Dallas and Oklahoma City there’s a lonely exit called “40 to Springer- Gene Autry.” You go about 5 miles to Happy Trails road and then another mile or so to Tumbleweed road and then another mile or so and then friends you have arrived in the town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma population “a few”. There’s no main street, never was, just a handful of houses and a nicely remodeled auditorium with a gymnasium next door that is also very well kept up. My travels this past weekend took me to this place because it was recommended to me by Oklahoma singer and songwriter Les Gilliam. He told me about an event they were holding there which was advertised as the first Cowboy Way Fest. Three days of basically non-stop western music with a very impressive lineup. Sons of the Pioneers, Rex Allen, Jr. and Kristy Harris were just a few of the featured performers and Kristy had just won a Wrangler Award which is the equivalent of an Oscar in the western world. It was a no brainer for me, I had to go.

When I arrived on Friday night I found dozens of musicians playing everywhere from underneath shade trees to in the gymnasium when they weren’t playing on stage in the auditorium with their regular bands and they did this all weekend. The gym was also where the vendors set up, selling everything western of course. Another big draw in the gym was the appearance of a half dozen cowboy film stars. For you folks old enough to remember the T.V. show The Virginian, one of them was James Drury who played the Virginian. A big star in the sixties, it looked like he’s just about as popular now. Members of his fan club showed up in droves and after visiting with him I can see why. Nice guy!
Roberta Shore was there too. A star of the big screen and T.V., she got one of her early breaks in T.V.’s The Shaggy Dog in 1959 and many roles followed. Emmy Award winner Gary Clarke, another big cowboy star from the sixties, Alex Cord who had a leading role in the hit T.V. show Laramie, Ken Farmer another T.V. actor who has also done over 260 commercials and even the original Marlboro Man Ben Bates, they were all there.

Les Gilliam, a man who grew up knowing Gene Autry was also there playing every day to a full house. Les is a big time headliner who I mentioned last week will be playing this Saturday night at The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque out at the Mullendore Cross Bell Ranch.

The whole Cowboy Way Fest was put on by the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum which is open to the public Thursday-Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-5. I must tell you it’s a must see place for fans of the old west. Call Leslie Fisher who manages the museum for more info at 580-294-3335.

Cowboys, western music, museums dedicated to a way of life that’s all but forgotten. That’s what these cowboy festivals are all about, trying to preserve the music and traditions that are part of history now. Being a big cattle producing area we have that history right here in the northeast corner of Oklahoma and the last of one of the big ranches is the Cross Bell. For those of you who haven’t heard yet the ranch is hosting a big party benefiting Elder Care. It’s a chance to see where it all got started along with really good music, auctions like none I’ve seen before, and great food. With the weather looking good call Elder Care at (918) 335-8500 for tickets. For those of you who are not sure, tickets can be purchased at the ranch the night of the event.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road…..
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