Although Gailard Sartain was already a familiar figure in Tulsa television, most viewers didn’t recognize him on one of his lesser-known TV appearances.

It happened during filming of a commercial for the Reasor’s grocery store. Reasor’s owner, Larry, didn’t even know what Sartain had done until they viewed the commercial later.

Sartain and Reasor had become friends while Reasor made his commercials at the KTUL studio, and Sartain appeared in “Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi’s Uncanny Film Festival,” which became a Tulsa cult classic.

Larry Reasor died in 2004, but his son, Jeff, has continued to manage the company and make commercials – though Jeff’s TV spots aren’t quite as outrageous as his father’s were.

Back in those days, Jeff frequently accompanied his father to the studio to watch commercial tapings. He vividly remembers Sartain, who went on to prominence in national television and movie appearances.

“We would be taping it, and he would come in. He was just what you would imagine, all full of life,” said Jeff.

One time they were shooting a Christmas commercial for Reasor’s. It featured a fireplace decorated for the holidays, complete with stockings “hung by the chimney with care.” Sartain came in to watch.

“He said, ‘I’ve got an idea,’” Jeff recalled. “Nobody ever knew what he was going to do.”

Sartain disappeared, then returned about 10 minutes after the commercial was filmed. The Reasors had no clue where he had been, or what he’d been up to. They found out three weeks later, when they saw the commercial on television.

“He hadn’t told us what he did, but he had climbed into the fireplace and draped his arm and leg down, like Santa Claus,” Jeff said.

One time Sartain asked Larry to appear on his show, acting as a diner customer who always punched in the same number on the jukebox. Sartain later reprised this character on “Hee Haw.” Larry declined Sartain’s invitation, but who knows? Had he accepted, he, too, might have attained national recognition.

Larry’s commercials helped propel Reasor’s from a modest grocery store in Tahlequah to a regional chain across Northeastern Oklahoma. Reasor’s has 13 supermarkets now, and two opening later this year.

“We just broke ground on a grocery store in Catoosa. We’re getting ready to open another one in Owasso,” Jeff said.

Yet another store is planned, with the location to be announced later.

Locally-filmed commercials that aired on Tulsa television stations years ago still are remembered by many area viewers, whether they featured a familiar face such as Larry Reasor’s, or Tulsa businesses and their spokesmen hawking everything from cars to furniture.

While Tahlequah people tend to laugh at the memories of Reasor’s antics, not everyone is as fond of some of the other commercials.

A poll by the Tulsa TV Memories Web site for the stupidest commercial, on review, contained the most nominations for Linda Soundtrak. The strident-voiced woman promoted electronic equipment with loud, rapid bursts of speech.

Other nominations included furniture stores, such as the still-running Mathis Brothers and the Four-Day Furniture ad, which features a salesman who rotates his arm like a windmill. The Reeves Brothers store was also mentioned, with its plaintive “Don’t forget poor old pappy,” and, “If you didn’t buy at Reeves, you paid too much.”

“You used to have one commercial. Now they have one after another,” said longtime TV viewer Joe Thurman of Tahlequah, who complained that it seems half of the programs today consist of commercials.

Nostalgia buff Kelly Yeager, owner of Kelly’s Resale, echoed a similar sentiment.

“We didn’t get as many commercials then. There was just one break in the middle of the program, not every four minutes or so,” he said.

Jeff Reasor said his father advertised on both Channel 2 and Channel 8, because they covered more of the viewers in their marketing area, at least at first. Channel 8 was especially popular in this area because of the strong signal sent out by its Coweta tower. When it was constructed in 1965, it was the second-largest TV tower in the nation.

Longtime KTUL owner James C. Leake was from Muskogee, and he was a relentless promoter of the Green Country area. He kept a news team in Muskogee, and that group frequently visited Tahlequah, recalled Mike Jett, Northeastern State University director of video technology, who worked for Channel 8 as a photographer and then as a reporter, from 1977 to 1985.

And Larry Reasor was willing to do almost anything to promote his store.

“My dad dressed up for Easter in a bunny rabbit suit,” Jeff said. “We did a commercial with him as a frying egg. His face was in the middle of a double-yolk egg.”

Perhaps the most outrageous – and one Larry was a little reluctant to do – required some coaxing. Larry dressed in an oversized diaper.

“He said he wouldn’t do it unless everybody else did. We had six stores at the time. All the store managers and the administrative staff had to dress in diapers,” Jeff said.

Another commercial featured Larry standing in the middle of a field, saying (what else?): “I’ve always wanted to be outstanding in my field!”

Reasor’s is celebrating its 43rd anniversary this month. The legacy was born when Larry bought the store he called Reasor’s Redbud Food in Tahlequah, on June 3, 1963. He ran his first newspaper ad in the Daily Press (then the Pictorial Press) that week. The store was in the building at 200 W. Choctaw, which now houses Reasor’s corporate offices. Another store was opened in the current site of Aaron Rents on Muskogee Avenue, before the final Tahlequah supermarket was built at the corner of Muskogee Avenue and the Bypass.

Reasor’s Redbud Food was part of the IGA chain.

“They didn’t sell ice cream or marshmallows. It just seems unusual at this time, with all the proliferation of food,” Jeff said.

Reasor’s also had a relationship with the Mini Max stores.

“In about 1969, a good friend of his, Larry Filkins, owned and operated the radio station here in town,” Jeff said. “They were old college buddies. He got into doing radio commercials here, locally only.”

The Mini Max stores wanted to do a series of TV commercials, and lacked a spokesman. So Larry got talked into going on camera.

“He did a couple of commercials, just your basic suit and tie, standing there talking about stuff,” Jeff said.

Then Larry started developing his own themes. His trademark was snapping his fingers and saying, “It’s easy to remember, Mini Max and Reasor’s.”

When the Mini Max chain closed, Larry continued doing his commercials. Jeff said his father’s name and face recognition helped as Reasor’s expanded into the Tulsa area.

Back then, commercials were 30 and 60 seconds in length. Today’s commercials last only 30 seconds. But even the 60-second span proved a problem on one occasion.

That year, at the time of the Cherokee Holiday, Larry enlisted Cherokee artist Cecil Dick to do part of the commercial in Cherokee. Dick was given a short script to translate into Cherokee. Larry opened the spot by saying he didn’t speak Cherokee, but his friend did.

“My dad talked for about eight seconds. Cecil had 45 seconds to say it. He went on for 45, 55 seconds,” Jeff said.

Finally they told Dick to stop after the one-minute mark had passed.

“He’d only gotten three-quarters of the way through. Dad didn’t realize the translation from English to Cherokee was so much greater. We ended up having to modify our commercial,” Jeff said.

Betty Thompson, still the receptionist at Channel 8 after 36 years, recalls well the visits by Jeff and his brother as the commercials were taped.

“Those boys were about 6 and 8. They used to come in with their mother, and they’d visit with me while their father was inside,” she said.

Now the commercials are recorded by ad agencies, not in the KTUL studio or at other TV stations.

Kate Kelly, Tahlequah tourism director, smiled as she recalled watching Larry antics. She especially was fond of his Easter bunny suit and the diaper commercial, which was used to celebrate the new year as the traditional New Year’s baby.

While most local residents remember the Reasor’s commercials best because of their Tahlequah connection and continuing presence, they do recall other favorites.

Yeager remembers the “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” slogan for antacids, and Reddy Kilowatt, who encouraged the use of electricity provided by rural co-ops.

“I do remember the Hot Wheels commercials because I had to have all of them,” he said.

Dorothy Crawford also looks back at some of the old commercials, including the antacid ones.

“Speedy Alka Seltzer. I used to like that,” she said. “You don’t see them advertising Speedy anymore, though.”

Thurman said prices have changed drastically since he watched some old ads.

“You used to hear that -- Pepsi Cola for a nickel. You can’t buy anything for a nickel now,” he said.

Today’s younger viewers who’ve never seen a cigarette commercial don’t realize the rugged Marlboro Man used to ride across the terrain of TV screens regularly. But TV repairman Darrell Lingbeck still remembers some of the cigarette jingles, as well as others.

“Kendall Motor Oil – they called it the 2,000 mile oil. In the 1950s and 1960s, that was quite a few miles,” he said.

And the cigarette jingles: A bellboy type wandering through a hotel or other public area, proclaiming, “Call for Phillip Morris.” And another brand boasted, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.”

That was long before the now-spurned Joe Camel, whose cartoon appearance is now considered too appealing to young people.

And Pat Wilson, a reformed former smoker, also remembers cigarette ads.

“They had beaucoups of them,” she said.

Wilson said cigarettes posed other hazards to young people than the possibility of cancer, especially if they sneaked into the outhouse for a smoke.

“My girlfriend and I burned down the toilet. We sneaked some cigarettes. My dad was coming and we stuck the cigarettes in the catalog. It burned down the toilet,” she said.

Tuesday’s Press: Local TV personalities make their mark.



Kids' shows on Tulsa TV

While most Tahlequah residents mention “Uncle Zeb’s Cartoon Camp” and “Mr. Zing and Tuffy” when they recall their favorite television shows as children, many other live shows aired on Tulsa stations and developed a following – at least for a time.

Here are some of them, as compiled by the Tulsa TV Memories Website:

• “Romper Room.” The series, which reached 43 markets across the nation, was created in the 1950s for preschoolers. The hostesses at each station were young women who previously had kindergarten teaching experience. The hostesses in Tulsa were Miss Nancy (Mary Susan Gifford) and Miss Lynn. As with Uncle Zeb, local kids got a chance to appear on the programs, which ran through the 1970s. The hostesses led them through a series of activities, including the magic mirror, where she looked through a mirror (which had no glass) and said “I see Johnny, and Susie, and ....” “Do Bee a Do Bee and Don’t be a Don’t Bee” was another educational figure. Said Randolph Friend of Tahlequah: “The Romper Room lady had been one of my dad’s students and we knew her.”

• “Zeta on Satellite Six.” A Channel 6 production, it starred Jim Ruddle and showed “Little Rascals films.” Ruddle told Tulsa TV memories that he had to dress in a helmet, goggles, cape, “and a uniform that belonged on an usher at a porn flick.” Ruddle played double duty as a reader of news after the kiddie show, so he had to make a quick change almost instantly. One day, as he shed his Zeta gear to reveal the shirt and tie underneath, his mike came off. He uttered an expletive, which made it onto the air, as he found out later. Fortunately for him, it wasn’t highly noticed or publicized.

• “Big Bill Blair and OOM-A-GOG” on Channel 2, from 1959 to 1964. OOM-A-GOG, a robot, later changed partners and appeared with Captain Alan. The captain wore an astronaut suit, keeping up with the interest in space at the time the first flights were made.

• “Spanky’s Clubhouse,” featuring the original Spanky McFarland of Little Rascals fame, now an adult. What did he show? “Little Rascals” films, naturally. One assumes the viewers gained additional insights from one who was there when it happened and knew the rest of the gang.

• “Captain Bill,” played by Bob Jernigan. The captain of a plane suffered adventures and misadventures with his sidekick, Windy O’Day, and their gal pal, Clancy. Wayne Johnson, who later became Tuffy of Mr. Zing fame, made his TV debut as the evil villain who wanted to destroy the world. It was probably just as well that no one could recognize him when he donned the furry suit of the lovable tiger.

• “The Bozo Show,” with Doug Montgomery playing Bozo. Hey, doesn’t almost anyone look the same in that clown getup?

• “Kids Karnival” with Bob Kelly, on KOTV prior to 1955.

• “Kids Korral,” with Don Marvin. Spanky wasn’t the only star appearing live on Tulsa TV. George Reeves, the ill-fated actor who starred as Superman in the 1950s series, made a guest appearance.

• “The Don Scott Show,” with the star appearing as Foreman Scotty of the Circle 4 Ranch.