Top 5 at the Dick Tracy Headquarters

Previously:

Top 5 at the CRC Car Show

Top 5 at the Banjo Museum  - -  Top 5 at the Harryhausen Exhibit

Top 5 at the Oklahoma History Center  - -  Top 5 at the Museum of Osteology

Legendary lawman Dick Tracy originally flowed from the pen of Pawnee, Oklahoma native Chester Gould.  The creation of the prolific cartoonist started in the funny pages but ended up on radio, TV, movies, and tons of toys & memorabilia.  Pawnee celebrates their favorite son with a annual festival and a museum on the town square.  Since I stopped by recently I thought it'd give it the ol' "Top 5" treatment so here's the Top 5 pieces of memorabilia on display at the Dick Tracy HQ:

5. Dick Tracy NES Game

I'm not a big video game guy but I did have a Nintendo back in the day.  This guy is from 1990 and seems like it would tie in to the Warren Beatty movie but according to a 30 second Google research session, it was more about the comic strip.  There were car chases & crime solving aplenty in 8 bit glory as Tracy joined Mario & Link in the NES pantheon.

4.  Secret Code Maker

Tracy saw way too much action for his team to rely on just a Decoder Ring.  This vintage beauty let Baby Boomer kids create uncrackable codes to update their crime fighting friends and bedevil their felonious foes.  Imagine what little Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" could do, locked away in his bathroom, with this thing!  Little Orphan who?

3.  Pawnee Police Dept Patch

According to Dodie, the nice lady working at the museum that day, the town's police actually do wear this patch as a part of their uniform.  It makes me wonder if there are other police departments in the country that have a fictional character as a part of their uniform.  I'd like to think Pawnee's finest like the idea of continuing Tracy's work.

2.  2-Way Wristwatch

Dick Tracy's #1 gadget is the 2-Way Radio Wristwatch.  It's one of the first examples of a recurring tech gadget in popular fiction and the museum staff is happy to point to it as a precursor to the Apple Watch.  Other than the hat/coat and square jaw, it's probably the most well known part of the character.

1.  Chester Gould Original Art

If you're going to celebrate an artist, you're gonna need some art.  The HQ has several examples of it on display.  They've also got original newspaper comic strips, old sketches and other examples of Gould's creativity.  It's a great way to get to a good look old school Oklahoma artwork.

Top 5 at the CRC Car Show

Previously:

Top 5 at the Banjo Museum  - -  Top 5 at the Harryhausen Exhibit

Top 5 at the Oklahoma History Center  - -  Top 5 at the Museum of Osteology

Every year the Canadian River Cruisers hold the Food & Shelter Car Show in Norman.    The annual event raises money for the charity "Food & Shelter" in Norman which, as you can probably guess, provides food & shelter to those in need.  Tons of classic and custom cars line up in Andrews Park to compete and show off.  I don't know exactly how car shows are judged but I know what I like...therefore it's time for another top 5 List!

5.  1980 Pontiac Trans Am

As soon as the mustache grows in I'm totally getting one of these sweet rides.  For a guy of a certain age (my age) the Trans Am was the ultimate "cool car."  That eagle emblazoned on the hood only encourages the well-worn urge to hop in and be a blocker for my old truck-drivin' buddy as we bootleg hooch across the country.

4.  1941 Chevy Pickup

I don't know anything about the owners of these vehicles but I'm just about positive that the guy that owns this beauty is constantly hauling wooden crates of apples from an orchard to a farmers market.  I'm look at it...that's gotta be the deal, right?

3.  Hazzard County Sheriff's Cruiser 

This was one of the few novelty cars there and, just like the Trans Am, appeals directly to my demographic.  If you're too young to remember the Dukes of Hazzard then you missed out on some southern fried hijinks and car chases aplenty.  This justice machine would have been driven by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane or one his capable deputies.

2. 1933 Ford Coupe 

Take your pick: mobsters, Rockefellers, Rocketeers, and any other type of pulp heroes and villains would feel right at home in this fancy-pants ride.  I don't know if this car won anything at the show but I voted it "Most Likely to be at Home on Turner Classic Movies."

1.  1970 Ford Fairlane 

Look at this thing.  Just look it it...a work of art!  This isn't the same model that the Griswold family used for their legendary vacation but if I was thinking of taking the tribe across country this is the automobile I'd want...old school swagger combined with an "I don't care" attitude...

Well there you have it!  My somewhat arbitrary pics for the latest event I stumbled into.  But at least money was raised for a good cause and the turtle wax manufactures rest easy.

Sight at the Museum

Previously: 

Where the Red Fern Grew  - -  Thunderstruck  - -  Bringing Up Bobby

Ryan Bellgardt is a prolific Oklahoma filmmaker whose work ranges from horror to scifi and now family films.  His latest work, The Adventures of Jurassic Pet, falls into the "kid makes a cute monster/alien/creature friend and goes on an adventure to help/save it" genre.  Like his other movies, Bellgardt filmed in Oklahoma and it's a lot of fun to try to track down the locations that make it on screen.

It usually involves spotting a street sign or a familiar building exterior or some other kind of landmark to figure out where a scene was shot.  But there were a couple of scenes in this movie that were easy to ID since they take place in one of the best museums in the state.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, on the OU campus, has an impressive amount of interactive features, cultural artifacts and historical items on display as well as frequent traveling exhibits.  But the biggest draw might be the colossal amount of fossils and dinosaur skeletons.  It's one of the best places in the state to take a gander at the remains of some of the behemoths that stomped around the Sooner state all those years ago.

The amount of fossil casts and skeletons really give the place a "museumy feel" for lack of a better term.  It's the perfect kind of visual shorthand that location scouts look for when they want a setting that is instantly recognizable for what it is.  In this case, the dinosaur museum looks like a dinosaur museum so it's a perfect place to film a scene that takes place in a dinosaur museum.

The museum appears in a couple of different scenes.  Towards the beginning of the film our hero Chris is on a field trip at Sam Noble with his class.  As the field trip progresses through the museum, several of their best specimens get some screen time.  Young Chris speculates on the possibility of dinosaurs being alive and well in the present while his teacher seems to become enamored with the tour guide.

The plot of the film involves Chris finding a magic (I think) dinosaur egg which quickly hatches into a baby dinosaur who quickly grows through adolescence into adulthood in about a day.  During that process the two chase after each other and run away from a bad guy scientist all over town.  Their adventures take them back to the museum for some dino-hijinks.

Fortunately no fossils were destroyed in the melee and the fun continued to several other locations.  If you've got kids that love dinosaurs (or just like checking out Oklahoma productions) you can see it for yourself on various streaming platforms or find a copy in your local Redbox.  There's already a sequel in the works so hopefully it won't be too long before before another Oklahoma museum gets the star treatment. 

Twisting in the Wind

Homage comes in various forms.  For a state like Oklahoma, which tends to keep things low-key, there's not too many movies that celebrate the state.  Sure, there's a few that take place here, but not too many that that really take a swing at the high-octane craziness that can happen, especially during tornado season.

A more typical type of homage is the roast.  Nothing tells you how you've endeared yourself to your friends like having them tell you how much you suck.  And one of the thickest branches on the "Roast Family Tree" is the Mad Magazine parody, which has been skewering pop culture for decades. 

From my perspective, the Oklahoma Homage Stars aligned in issue #349 of Mad.  It was the Fall of '96 and in addition to taking shots at Madonna, Hercules and Xena, Twister got their steaks and eggs served to them too.  With that, let's take a look...

As per the usual Mad format, we start off with a big splash page with the characters introducing themselves with gags-a-plenty.  The usual Mad art style is your standard "caricature" that tends to be somewhat accurate when it comes to faces.  BUt while Helen Hunt is recognizable, it looks like the artist didn't make any kind of effort to make Bill Paxton's character look like the actor.  It's enough to almost think they weren't able to see the movie but maybe caught a few Mad About You reruns.

The parody follows the plot of the movie pretty much, starting with young Helen Hunt seeing her father get killed by a tornado and swearing to one day hunt that tornado down and kill it.  The likenesses continue to be off with pretty much every other character throughout the story.  But there's a reason why Twister's most famous character looks a little off...

Gary Larson had retired the previous year.  If you're not familiar with the name, he was the cartoonist for The Far Side, which was incredibly popular in the 80s and early 90s and frequently featured cows, which is why we have this additional homage.  I guess he was still in the popular zeitgeist enough to influence our parody's writer to use for the Twister "flying cow" gag.

Which leads to a joke that should have been in the movie...and for some reason a Bart Simpson cameo.  Remember, it wasn't just the Far Side that was popular back then.  So just like in the movie we get the "gang goes to see Aunt Meg" scene and dine on "tasty cow."  And just like in the movie they go chase some more tornadoes.  But unlike the movie, we get a twist ending:

Speaking of homages, we end with a combo.  Taking a page from Newhart and the Wizard of Oz, Helen Hunt wakes up safely back in Must See TV Land with what I assume are semi-accurate caricatures of the cast.  You had to know her hit show was going to make it in this Mad parody somehow.

So not too many Oklahoma mentions but still plenty of state identity made it out of the movie and into the magazine.  This will have to hold you over until I can track down the "Grapes of Wretch" parody they undoubtedly did at some point.

Tulsa-X

This one takes a little setup to explain but I'll try to do it quickly: All the CW superhero shows (The Flash, Supergirl, etc) tend to do a major cross-over story once a year. And to enhance their superhero universe, the network's streaming service "CW Seed" airs original animated series based on some of the various shows' supporting characters.

This brings us to "Freedom Fighters: The Ray," an animated adventure starring The Ray, a superhero with light-based powers.  He was featured in live action in the 2017 cross-over story line, "Crisis on Earth-X." 

One of the conceits of the various CW superhero shows is that there are multiple Earths on which different characters live.  The majority of our heroes live on Earth 1 but in this story the gang discovers "Earth-X," a reality in which the the Nazis won World War II. 

Why am I talking about any of this?  Well, it turns out our boy The Ray lives in Tulsa!  And his movie starts off in the Earth-X version of Tulsa...or, if you will, "Tulsa-X."  Take a look at Nazi Tulsa:

Looks like the animators did a little homework for the visuals (or at least a quick Google image search) because there are a few Tulsa landmarks that are featured...starting with the Centennial Plaza area near the Arkansas River.

It's not a bad likeness but it's definitely better looking in real life (without all the swastikas).  When you think about it, it's weird that a world controlled by Nazis even has a Route 66 tribute...but that's probably one of those things that you shouldn't think about too much. 

And, as far as Tulsa landmarks go, the most famous one makes an appearance in the series as well, this time on Earth 1:

As I was watching, I didn't think for a second that the Golden Driller would make an appearance (cool stuff like that rarely ever happens for me) but after a while there he was.  It shows up in a montage where Ray (his superhero name is "The Ray" and his first name is "Ray" and, yeah, they point out how weird that is) and his boyfriend take in the sights of the town.  The guys also take in some sea life:

OK, so this one is kind of a cheat.  The boys do some shark viewing at the local aquarium which I am just going to go ahead and call the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks.  The scene is definitely not designed after the Tulsa area attraction but my personal head canon is that the Earth 1 Oklahoma Aquarium looks a little different from the Oklahoma Aquarium on whatever numbered Earth we live on.  But they both have sharks as you can see from the footage I got awhile back.

Aside from a a semi-accurate skyline shot or two, that's pretty much it for Oklahoma related stuff.  The rest of the story takes place in Detroit, Central City (the Flash's hometown) and Earth-X New York and involves The Ray getting the crap kicked out of him by Nazi Supergirl.  Check it out when you get a chance.

Scene Inspection: Dillinger

The life and times of mobster John Dillinger was immortalized in the 1973 film, "Dillinger."  The story of the "gangster's gangster" was partially filmed in Oklahoma.  And the town of Ardmore served as one of the movie's locations.  Check out a screencap from this scene:

Never mind what these two are talking about.  The real draw here is the billboard behind the shoe shine chair.  If you're like me, then you're always looking in the background for interesting details...or even "interesting" details.

 For example, old advertisements in the background of old movies are "interesting" to me.  Looks like it's your lucky day!  So let's break down some of the old ads from Dillinger:

"Oil, Cattle and Beautiful Lake Murray"

The middle ad boasts about some of Ardmore's biggest money makers.  Sure cows and oil pay the bills but the town's crown jewel is definitely the lake. It was built over 1935 (a year after Dillinger died) to 1941 and still bills itself as the "most beautiful lake in Oklahoma."  The lake's other claims to fame are the largest state park in Oklahoma and the first Oklahoma state park listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Sam P. Hall Ford"

This ad is on the right side toward the bottom (and partially obscured) with red letters and yellow-ish.  The Ardmore Ford dealership did big business in the area for decades.  Sam P. Hale was a Ardmore Rotary Club president and community leader.  And right above that ad is:

"Colverts Fine Dairy Products"

Colverts was another big business in Ardmore for the longest time.  It was mainly known for its tasty ice cream and unique sign outside which, unfortunately was taken down not too long ago.  But, thankfully, it was taken to the Greater Southwest Historical Museum.  Nostalgic milk enthusiasts can also join a Facebook Fan Page about the dairy.

The other ads aren't particularly legible but I haven't given up on them.  I'm just one eBay matchbook auction away from continuing to work my way through the rest of the sign.  Stay tuned...

Pryor Creek Comic Convention Wrap Up

This weekend was the 3rd Annual Pryor Creek Comic Convention and I was lucky enough to have access to shoot some video of it.  I think at this point, the cat's out of the bag about the next documentary I'm making.  It's about the many comic book and comic strip creators from the state of Oklahoma and shooting this con was a good step forward in the production.

Before I go any further, a special thanks to the con organizer Jimmie Tramel (seen above talking to the gentleman hold The Flash torso) who put together the convention for the Pryor Area Arts and Humanities Council.  I was able to get a quick interview with him and he's the reason I found out about the convention.

It was cold and icy Saturday morning so there was some concern about whether or not the streets would be safe enough for visitors, vendors and guests to get there.  I was close by so I was able to get there early to get some shots of the vendors setting up but it didn't take long to realize the weather wasn't going to keep too many people away.

As you can see in the pic above, the slick roads were no match for the Ghostbusting and Jurassic Parking vehicles.  They all made great photo ops which were usually taken quickly right before people rushed inside to warm up and buy comics.

I was able to get a quick interview with Oklahoma writer John Wooley, creator of the Twilight Avenger.  If you've been reading this blog then you already know I'm a fan of the Dust Bowl era Oklahoma mystery man (seen HERE and HERE).  But he let me know about another piece of his work, "The Miracle Squad," which has an Oklahoma-based story line in one of its volumes so that will probably be next on my pull list.

I was also able to touch base with writer Robert Soul whose comic "Ruined My Rhythm" is based in Tulsa.  He was kind enough to hook me up with a signed copy (thanks again, Robert!) which is now at the top of my ever increasing pile of books I need to read.  We agreed to set up a time to interview him for the documentary.

I would have stayed longer to check out more vendors and creators but unfortunately my time was limited and there were other things I needed to shoot.  But it was a great convention and I look forward to seeing it grow.

And, as usual, as I was looking back at the footage, I found something I wished I had bought.  I'll get you some day Little Debbie Hot Wheels!!!  Regrets, I have a few...