Selling ‘Tulsa’ to Tulsans

by Charles Morrow

05/13/2015

There’s Tulsa the city, and there’s Tulsa the movie. For a brief spell in the spring of 1949, when the movie premiered in its namesake locale, the business and political elite of Oklahoma joined forces with Hollywood luminaries in a common cause. The moviemakers sought to boost the oil industry, while the oil tycoons were delighted to see their endeavors saluted on the silver screen. The politicians, for their part, had hopes that the region might become a filmmaking center. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, potentially lucrative for all.

A report issued by the Chamber of Commerce in March of 1949 offers a snapshot of Tulsa at this time: a dynamic metropolis, population 197,363. City fathers liked to call it the Oil Capital of the World, and this was a source of great civic pride. But the movie, an action-melodrama released in April of that year, paints a disturbing picture of the city’s history. According to the film, modern Tulsa is indeed “the nerve center of a mighty industry,” but this prosperity was achieved at a painful cost. In the days of unfettered wildcat drilling—a period the screenplay firmly consigns to the past—there was corruption at the top. In the headlong drive for profits grazing land was ruined, streams were polluted, and innocent people, principally Native-American landowners, were ruthlessly cheated. Strangely, Tulsa was planned as a celebration of robust capitalism. Whatever its creators’ intentions, however, the final product is more a cautionary tale than a straightforward tribute to the era’s petroleum-industry pioneers. And yet when it premiered, Tulsa the movie was rapturously greeted by Tulsa’s citizens, including many of those business leaders, in a lavish three-day blowout unlike anything witnessed in Oklahoma up to that time. Few of the goals shared by the oilmen, politicians, and moviemakers were achieved, but in the meantime they sure did throw one helluva party.

Cast of characters

Three individuals were essential players in the Tulsa phenomenon. First, the film project itself was initiated by producer Walter Wanger[1], a 30-year veteran of motion pictures. Well-read, multilingual, and debonair, Wanger was nobody’s idea of a typical movie mogul. He was a tireless advocate of movies as cultural propaganda, especially as portrayals of the American way of life for international audiences, and he did not avoid sensitive social issues as subject matter. Behind the scenes, Wanger was active in liberal causes, and while his own patriotism was never seriously questioned, in the course of his career he was known to have hired “controversial” writers and actors. In the wake of the Hollywood Ten scandal of 1947, and subsequent Red Scare in the entertainment industry, Wanger was under pressure to demonstrate his allegiance to American values.[2] One day while listening to his car radio, he heard a news report on Tulsa that emphasized the central role of the oil business. He was intrigued, and later said that this, weighed with the huge success of the Broadway musical Oklahoma!, inspired him to set plans in motion for the movie. Wanger announced that Tulsa would be the first in a cinematic series on the American free enterprise system, to be followed by films on the airline industry, the press, and coal mining. He explained that his purpose was to “show the entire world how great America is.”

For Oklahoma Governor Roy J. Turner, the second key figure in the story, Wanger’s project was perfectly timed. Just weeks after he was elected in November 1946, Turner launched an initiative to lure filmmakers to his home state. He appointed his friend and fellow cattle rancher Bill Likins to act as liaison between the governor’s office and Hollywood, and touted the state as an ideal place to shoot Westerns in color. The governor must have been tickled pink when he was shown the script for Tulsa, which concerned conflicts between oilmen and ranchers in the 1920s: Turner himself had co-founded the Harper-Turner Oil Company in 1928, and had used some of his proceeds to establish an impressive 10,000 acre ranch in Sulphur, Oklahoma, near Ada. He owned some of the finest Hereford stock in the world, and had even composed a cowboy ballad entitled “Hereford Heaven.”[3] The governor happily offered his ranch to the filmmakers. Aside from a few quick shots of downtown landmarks, most of the location shooting for Tulsa took place there, 145 miles from Tulsa. The film was shot in Technicolor.

Wanger, who was producing on an independent basis at this time, was under contract to a British-owned company, Eagle-Lion Films. Soon after Tulsa wrapped in fall of 1948, two E-L advance men, Jerry Pickman and Richard Owen, arrived in the city to set the stage for a spring premiere gala. Determined to get local financiers on board, the duo approached the third major figure in the Tulsa story, 70-year-old William G. “Bill” Skelly. A quintessential self-made man, Skelly rose from humble beginnings to undisputed stature as a kingpin of the Oklahoma oil business. He had arrived in Tulsa in 1919, founded his eponymous company that year, and swiftly made a fortune. In 1923 Skelly co-founded the International Petroleum Exposition, an organization that held periodic trade fairs intended in part to boost public awareness of, and appreciation for, the oil industry. He had little interest in movies per se, but recognized a golden P.R. opportunity when he saw one. Skelly was instrumental in persuading his fellow oilmen to lay out $1,000,000 to finance the festivities surrounding the premiere of Tulsa, set for Wednesday, April 13. Governor Turner proclaimed the date “Tulsa Day in Oklahoma,” and preparations commenced.

Party prep

The celebration’s centerpiece was a three-hour parade, five miles in length, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the big day and crisscross the city’s downtown streets. Participants would pass an official reviewing stand at the base of the world’s largest portable oil rig, four stories tall, erected in front of the First National Bank at the intersection of 4th and Main. Skelly, in collaboration with IPE general manager William Way (who was also president of Tulsa’s Chamber of Commerce), conceived the parade as the “1949 International Petroleum Exposition on Wheels,” a follow-up to the previous year’s trade show at the fairgrounds. The procession was organized into six echelons representing various aspects of the industry, such as exploration, drilling, marketing, etc., each introduced with an appropriate float. Publicity releases proclaimed that the refinery apparatus to be displayed was valued at over $10,000,000. Over 2,000 exhibitors were invited to participate, and for additional dazzle, the Army Air Force’s 125th Fighter Squadron planned to soar overhead and sky-write the word TULSA at the height of the jamboree. And, of course, numerous marching bands were recruited to take part, representing the American Legion, the VFW, and the Akdar Shrine Temple, plus several regional high schools. Although Tulsas public schools were officially open on the 13th, Superintendent Charles Mason conceded the educational value of the parade, and announced that students with written excuses from their parents would be excused from classes and permitted to attend.

Pickman and Owen, the E-L advance men, were exceedingly busy in the weeks leading up to the premiere. Special “Tulsa Day” newspaper inserts were prepared, identical for both the Daily World and the Tribune, crammed with articles devoted to the film and its personnel that read suspiciously like studio puff pieces. The duo chartered a DC-6 airliner to transport 60 reporters from New York, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit to cover the event. They persuaded a local auto dealer to provide 20 new Lincoln convertibles to transport notables, and arranged for 20 young women from the Bannister Modeling Agency to act as escorts for the journalists. The ladies were “carefully screened,” according to one account, “for morals as well as glamour,” although it was not stated whether the gentlemen of the press were subjected to a similar screening process. Three local garment manufacturers were talked into creating dresses in an oil rig design, using a fabric dubbed “Tulsa” for the occasion. And for those who wished to accessorize, oil derrick costume pins and charm bracelets were also fashioned. There were innumerable parties planned for the week at the Tulsa Club, Southern Hills country club, Joseph LaFortune’s penthouse office at the National Bank of Tulsa, and elsewhere. And although Oklahoma was still legally “dry,” no one was inconvenienced for long. One journalist reported that “every office worthy of the name has a concealed bar behind its handsomely decorated walls.” Liquor was easily obtained.

As for Tulsa the movie, the event planners recognized well in advance that no single auditorium could accommodate all those individuals eager to attend the premiere. Therefore it was decided to schedule a total of four evening screenings, on a staggered basis, at the Ritz and Orpheum cinemas: 7 and 9 p.m. at the former, 7:30 and 9:30 at the latter, so the film’s stars could dash from theater to theater to deliver introductory speeches at all four showings. Tickets went on sale three weeks prior to the premiere, at a cost of $1.00 apiece for adults, hiked up from the customary 60 cents. A few days before the premiere, two more screenings were added at the Majestic, where the stars were scheduled to address the audience after the movie. Finally, two more shows were added at the Rialto, but without the stars in person. By that point they would presumably require a breather, for following the last of the screenings the entire celebrity contingent would be expected at the Tulsa Press Club’s dinner dance at the Hotel Tulsa, sure to last into the wee hours.

 Show time

For the movie people, the fun began on the evening of Monday, April 11th, when Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, and Chill Wills arrived at Municipal Airport, greeted by hundreds of cheering fans. Hayward’s husband, actor Jess Barker, arrived later that night, Wanger the following morning. Although it had been announced that his wife, movie star Joan Bennett, would accompany him, she was a no-show.[4] Tulsa’s director Stuart Heisler did not arrive until Tuesday afternoon, but was regarded as something of a fifth wheel. An article in the Tribune flatly stated that credit for the film belonged entirely to Wanger, and in the news stories Heisler was usually mentioned only in passing.[5]

The first scheduled event was a Tuesday morning pilgrimage to the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, where a wreath was to be laid at the beloved humorist’s grave. Just before this ceremony a near disaster erupted, when the sedan in which Chill Wills and his wife were riding burst into flames, apparently due to locked brakes. (The couple escaped without injury, and proceeded to the Memorial in another car.) Afterwards, a second ceremony followed in which Hayward was commissioned an honorary colonel of the Oklahoma Military Academy. That night, Governor Turner hosted oil executives, filmmakers, and journalists at a formal dinner at the Tulsa Club. A live radio broadcast from the club’s mezzanine was the evening’s highlight, and consisted of musical selections from the movie, dramatic scenes re-enacted by Hayward and Preston, and speeches. Bill Skelly delivered a surprisingly funny, self-deprecating talk poking fun at his own ignorance of movies. He said he’d told Hayward he hadn’t been to a picture since The Covered Wagon, a silent epic of 1923, then made the faux pas of asking her if she’d seen it. Perhaps inadvertently, Skelly reinforced his point when he forgot Hayward’s name, and awkwardly referred to her as “Miss Star.” Turner praised the filmmakers, and assured them his ranch was available for more location work. Tulsa Mayor Roy Lundy—who, like director Heisler, was largely overshadowed in the week’s press coverage—also spoke, and got a laugh when he quipped, “Tulsa is the best city in the world, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it from being that way.”

When the big day arrived at last, the weather cooperated: temperatures hovered in the upper 60s; there was no rain on the parade. By 10 a.m. a massive crowd estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 had assembled downtown. The parade began promptly on time—then stalled, when spectators repeatedly surged into the street and swarmed the cars carrying movie stars, can you believe this cars are sold later on for thousands of dollars ?. Can you be Chill Wills, plainly an audience favorite, frequently hopped out of his convertible, waded into the crowd, shook hands, and distributed  ed photos of himself.[6] At the agreed-upon moment Hayward climbed into an elevator on the portable oil rig, rode to the top, and addressed the throng over a P.A. system. Air Force fighter jets soared overhead in classic V-formation, the pilots having concluded, after much practice, that they were unable to sky-write TULSA after all, as a legible “S” was unworkable. Despite these attractions, it was noticed that spectators began to depart within an hour of starting time; by the second hour, many weary spectators were sitting at the curbs. Even so, plenty of folks remained to participate in a post-parade square dance that afternoon, on an outdoor platform set up before the Orpheum Theatre. And that evening, almost 7,000 people viewed the movie in its diverse venues. Shots of the skyline were greeted with cheers.

Thursday morning brought another ceremony, when Wanger received an honorary doctor of arts degree from the University of Tulsa. Dr. Clarence Pontius, T.U.’s president, conferred the honor in Lorton Hall before an assemblage of trustees, faculty and students. Wanger responded with a brief speech of thanks, then continued to a public affairs forum held by the Chamber of Commerce, for a final address. He reiterated his belief that movies touting the American way of life could be used as tools in the fight against international communism. He also admitted, eccentrically for a producer with product to sell, that Tulsa was “not the finest picture in the world,” but deemed it “a sincere attempt in the right direction.”

An unsigned piece in the Tribune suggested that the parade “was perhaps too long and too big for top entertainment value.” The event was nonetheless reckoned a triumph for a city that had matured and mellowed, but still took pride in memories of its “lusty youth.” An editorial concluded: “We are not surfeited with sophistication. We get a bang out of simple things like that parade yesterday. We hope we never grow old enough to be bored.”

The morning after

Once the parties were over, and the celebrities had gone home, what remained? Tulsa, the movie. And what is that, exactly? Viewed today, Tulsa is startling in several respects. First, it is striking that the story is built around a young woman who becomes a power broker, and that her closest (platonic) friend is an intelligent, sympathetically portrayed Indian. Moreover, it’s genuinely surprising to find a pre-1960s Hollywood feature with such a strong environmental consciousness: characters in this film not only discuss but squabble over issues such as energy production and soil conservation. And yet the filmmakers took pains to reassure viewers that the most harmful aspects of petroleum production had been entirely rectified.

The movie is narrated in folksy fashion by Pinky Jimpson (Chill Wills), who begins with a brief history of Oklahoma, its Native-American residents, and the oil that, with fateful results for all, was discovered under their land. Pinky segues to the Tulsa of the early 1920s,[7] and introduces his friend Cherokee Lansing (Susan Hayward), feisty daughter of a rancher. We learn that her father, Nelse, a widower, has invested heavily in Hereford cattle, and that their neighbor Jim Redbird, an Indian (played by Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz), lives alone and silently yearns for the beautiful Cherokee. Trouble comes when Nelse hears that dozens of his cattle have died after drinking from a polluted creek, contaminated by run-off oil from a newly drilled well on the adjoining property of wealthy businessman Bruce Tanner (Lloyd Gough). Furious, Nelse rides to the Tanner property to complain, just as workmen set off a nitroglycerin charge. The derrick explodes, and Nelse is killed by flying debris. Cherokee seeks vengeance against the politically powerful Tanner, who denies culpability in her father’s death. Through a series of unlikely twists she comes into possession of valuable oil leases, on land near the property of Jim Redbird, and establishes her own company. She is assisted by handsome, Princeton-educated engineer Brad Brady[8] (Robert Preston), who tries to impress upon her the importance of limited production.

Lansing Oil becomes highly successful, in competition with Tanner Petroleum. Cherokee is celebrated as “Tulsa’s Oil Queen,” and has an affair with Brady. Increasingly ambitious, she puts aside her distaste for Tanner and arranges a merger with his company, over Brad’s objections. Meanwhile, Jim Redbird refuses to permit unrestrained drilling on his land. He is summoned to court, where the judge—a Tanner stooge—threatens to find him mentally incompetent, and install a guardian to handle his business affairs. Jim flees the courthouse, returns to his ranch, and finds his own cattle dead from creek water polluted by Tanner-Lansing wells. Half-crazed, he starts a fire that quickly races out of control and sets the oil-field ablaze. In the ensuing inferno most of the derricks are destroyed. Surrounded by flames, Cherokee and Jim are narrowly rescued by Brad. Later, gazing across the smoldering field, the dazed survivors recount their mistakes and decide to start over, this time following sensible ecological guidelines. As the music swells, narrator Pinky tells us that this is exactly what they did, that proper conservation procedures are now universally observed, and that Tulsa is still the Oil Capital of the World.

After the closing credits have faded to black, one is struck by the contradictions inherent in a movie created to celebrate capitalism, which nonetheless accentuates its uglier aspects. Cherokee Lansing’s success in a male-dominated enterprise should be heartening, yet we watch in dismay as she succumbs to greed. Initially she follows the advice of geologist Brady, but eventually ignores his warnings against over-drilling. The unmistakable implication is that Brady should be running things. In a remarkable sequence, he presents a slide-show to a group of local ranchers and businessmen in which he illustrates the “cut-throat competition” that destroyed Oklahoma’s Glenn Pool, a once-productive field that is now a wasteland.[9] Brady is treated as an outsider and mocked, but is ultimately proven right.

Bruce Tanner, for his part, represents the American businessman at his most malignant: domineering, arrogant, and crooked. We learn that he has influence with politicians at the highest levels, though it’s dubiously claimed that his dealings are strictly legal. He’s on a first name basis with the governor of Oklahoma—here identified only as “Ned”—and aspires to the job himself, with Cherokee as his first lady. (To her credit, she spurns his advances.) But Jim Redbird is the heart and soul of Tulsa. He is in love with Cherokee, but recognizes that their relationship must remain chaste. He is indignant over the death of her father. In his best scene, Redbird confronts Tanner with a coldly angry speech defending his culture, and asserts that his people are well educated. “We vote, we have colleges, and we think,” he says. “And we think oil has been bad for this country.” Naturally, Tanner ignores him.

Although the oil-field inferno serves as the action climax, the film peaks emotionally when Redbird collides with the white man’s legal system. As many of Tulsa’s original viewers must have known, the perversion of justice detailed in this scene was common practice in Oklahoma’s early statehood days. According to Then Came Oil, an anecdotal history published in 1938, some 625 Indians who refused to cooperate with oil companies were pronounced mentally incompetent by judges and subjected to the control of state-appointed guardians, who were doubtless more amenable to development. It is painful to watch as Redbird is humiliated, to listen as he ironically embraces the term “crazy Indian,” and to witness his subsequent act of arson. The restoration of order at the finale, largely due to the heroic actions of Brady, hardly dispels the sour aftertaste.

If Tulsa the movie were to be screened in Tulsa the city today, would those shots of the skyline inspire cheers? Perhaps. But it’s more likely that twenty-first century audiences would applaud when the man dismissed as a “crazy Indian” speaks truth to power.

Coda

On the night of the premiere, Governor Turner proclaimed that Tulsa would tell the world more about Oklahoma than the musical Oklahoma! had managed to do. Beyond that ambiguous statement, his opinion of the movie is not known. But posterity does record that the governor fell short of a cherished goal: his state did not become a filmmaking center. Turner left office in 1951, and his successor did not pursue this objective. For Walter Wanger, Tulsa was an indisputable failure. The film, which cost $1,158,035 to make, failed to earn back even half its negative cost. Soon after its release, Eagle-Lion Films ceased production, and the company was absorbed into United Artists. Wanger did not follow through on his “free enterprise” series. He was consumed by personal and financial difficulties in subsequent years, and his career ended with the disastrous production of Cleopatra in 1963.

In the short term, only Bill Skelly appeared to emerge victorious. With hearty public support, petroleum production continued to boom through the 1950s, and at the time of Skelly’s death in ‘57 there seemed to be no end in sight. But starting in the ‘60s the situation began to change, with the birth of OPEC and the rise of Saudi economic power, followed by the oil shocks of the ’70s. Subsequently, Americans were angered by reports of domestic price fixing through artificial shortages. And today, the oil cartel enjoys unprecedented profits in the face of catastrophic ocean spills, and other, perhaps irreversible injuries to the environment. Public opinion has shifted decisively against the oil industry.[10]  No movie, trade fair, parade or charm bracelet, can possibly change that.


This article is dedicated to the memory of the author’s father, G. W. Morrow, who was surely in the thick of things on Tulsa Day.


Footnotes: 

1.  Pronounced to rhyme with “danger.”

2.  In the late ’30s Wanger had hired screenwriters Lester Cole and John Howard Lawson, two of the Ten, to work on separate projects. Lawson co-authored the Spanish Civil War drama Blockade.

3.  Turner also composed a follow-up tune entitled “My Memory Trail,” which he promoted on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town TV program in July 1949.

4.  Two years later, in a shocking scandal, Wanger shot and wounded Hollywood agent Jennings Lang, who was having an affair with Bennett. Perhaps it’s no accident the man’s name rhymed with “danger.”

5. Although actor Pedro Armendáriz played a major role in the film and was billed third in the credits, I could find no evidence that he was present for any events related to the premiere, nor could I find an explanation for his absence.

6.  That night Wills, who was rumored to be intoxicated, was ejected by police from the after-party at the Hotel Tulsa, and wrenched his shoulder in the scuffle. An article in the World suggested Wills was mistaken for a gate crasher.

7.  Without, of course, mentioning the 1921 Race Riot.

8.  The choice of name might have been intended as a tribute to Tulsa’s well-known forebear Tate Brady, or it may also have been coincidental.

9.  Eighty-five-year-old oilman Robert Galbreath, a developer of the Glenn Pool back in 1905, participated in the Tulsa Day parade and presumably saw the film, but if so, it appears his reaction was not recorded.

10.  According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans had negative feelings towards the oil industry. Even the banking industry was held in higher regard.


Charles Morrow’s sources for this article include Matthew Bernstein’s Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent, John Wooley’s Shot in Oklahoma, C.B. Glasscock’s Then Came Oil, back issues of the Tulsa Daily World and the Tulsa Tribune, and the files of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He’d also like to thank his mother, Eve Morrow, for her recollections of Bill Skelly.


Originally published in This Land: Spring 2015.