An existing sofa was used and new leather chairs purchased for the living area. Three pencil drawings by Tim Moore of rap stars are the conversation starters in the room.
An existing sofa was used and new leather chairs purchased for the living area. Three pencil drawings by Tim Hearne of rap stars are the conversation starters in the room.
When Tyler Mosher and her husband, William, first saw their Tulsa Maple Ridge home, the project seemed insurmountable.
“There were unrepaired roof leaks, and some of the ceilings had collapsed,” says Tyler Mosher. “It was definitely in a state of disrepair.”
But the home had features the couple needed, specifically the potential to house six. The midtown lot offered enough acreage to enlarge the house and still have plenty of outdoor play space for the couple’s four children.
Initially, the project was overwhelming, but the Moshers have a solid background in construction renovation. Mosher’s company, Nest, purchases homes to renovate and put back on the market, while her husband has a commercial construction business.
Designer Lori Sparkman created a bar in a former pantry.
“We had plenty of experience,” says Mosher. “Plus, we have our connection of trusted subcontractors.”
The family purchased the home and, extraordinarily, moved in while the renovation was in progress.
“Last winter, when it was two degrees, we had an open wall on one side of the house,” Mosher recalls.
The entire project took about six months, including the addition that transformed the small kitchen by adding 20 feet to the home and creating a combination family room and spacious kitchen.
“With four children, I needed to be able to work in the kitchen while I could keep track of the kids,” she says.
The new construction also included a covered back patio and two new bedrooms upstairs. The original four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home now contains five bedrooms, three full baths and two half-baths.
“The home had great original moldings and details,” says Mosher.
But the homeowners decided early that all the exterior windows and doors needed to be replaced. Noticeably, there are no window coverings in the open areas.
“We wanted to take advantage of the natural light,” says Mosher.
The wood floors were refinished throughout the home, while neutral colors were selected for the walls and trim. And as they repaired the ceilings, new lighting was installed, specifically placed to accent the couple’s unique art collection.
In the living room, three pencil profiles by Moore artist Tim Hearne were purchased at Brookside’s Aberson Exhibits and feature rappers Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls.
“They are a serious conversation starter,” says Mosher, laughing.
“They wanted the living room to be a comfortable place to casually entertain,” says Lori Sparkman, owner of Fifteenth and Home, who worked with the couple to furnish and decorate the home.
The homeowners were looking for a home with the potential to house themselves and their four children. more bedrooms were added in the renovation.
The luxury master bath is one of the three full baths in the renovated home.
The homeowners transformed the kitchen by adding 20 feet, which meant they had to open up a wall in the middle of winter.
Sparkman utilized the family’s existing sofa and chose the classic lines of Savino camel leather chairs from American Leather with nickel detail on the base that wraps onto the front of the arms. Adjacent is a custom chaise upholstered with longhorn cowhides, an homage to the couple’s home state of Texas.
Local craftsman Eric Fransen, who crafted all the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, created the custom walnut cocktail table that features a subtle inlay of brass sections in the walnut.
The area rug is a wool textile from Calvin Klein.
“Because the owners have more of a transitional style, we chose a red Alpaca wool for the American Leather chairs by the fireplace that are a contemporary take on the traditional wingback chair,” says Sparkman.
In what was the original pantry off the dining room, Mosher created an open bar area. Fransen crafted the navy cabinetry with brass hardware. The countertop is a single piece of unlacquered brass with a contiguous sink. Fransen also crafted the walnut wall and shelves.
Next to the wine refrigerator is a pellet icemaker, probably better known to Oklahomans as “Sonic ice” – from the much-coveted ice used at Sonic Drive-Ins.
“It’s probably my favorite purchase in the house,” Mosher says.
It’s taken her the better part of two decades, but Tulsa native Heather Langenkamp has finally come to terms with the role that made her famous, the besieged but resourceful Nancy Thompson of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
It was a gradual process, she says, happening as she began accepting more invitations to appear at film conventions and screenings of the picture, such as the highly successful benefit event at Tulsa’s Circle Cinema in early November, where she was joined by her Nightmare nemesis, Freddy Krueger portrayer Robert Englund.
Smart, sharp and articulate, Langenkamp separates her ongoing work in the film industry from what she calls her quasi-professional life as a horror-movie icon and convention guest. It’s the latter, she notes, that finally brought her to an acceptance of Nancy and her importance to untold numbers of movie fans.
“What I noticed in this other life I lead, the quasi-professional life, was the things people would say about this character and what she meant to them,” explains Langenkamp. “It was very mystifying at first and then flattering, and now it’s incredibly heartwarming, and I’m just really grateful that the fans have embraced this character as they have.
“It took 20 years, but now, when people want to see the movie and talk about it like it’s an important American film, I can stand in front of it and have a totally different kind of attitude than I had about it in the past. I just have to show up. I don’t have to do anything.” She says, laughing. “It’s really amazing. I can just talk about this character, and talk about Robert Englund – it’s one of the easiest, fun jobs you can have.”
Langenkamp was a student at Stanford University back in the early 1980s when she got the Nightmare role; at the time of the picture’s official release, in November 1984, she’d only been out of her teens for a few months. She was no movie rookie, though, having already played the female lead in Nickel Mountain – a drama adapted from a John Gardner novel – by the time the cameras rolled on Nightmare.
Perhaps Langenkamp’s entry into the movies can be traced back to an unlikely place: Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art.
“They had a kids’ summer program, and I took acting there,” she recalls. “I remember playing a witch and painting on these crazy curlicue eyebrows in the bathroom and thinking to myself that I felt so powerful, being not only a strange character, but being a witch. I don’t remember even one line or what I did. I just remember putting on my makeup in that bathroom and loving the kind of feeling it gave me.”
That feeling persisted when the family moved to Washington, D.C., after her father, noted Tulsa attorney R. Dobie Langenkamp, was offered a job with the U.S. Department of Energy under the Carter administration.
“My drama teacher was strict, and she made us do things they probably wouldn’t make you do now. For example, if you were playing even the smallest part, you had to show up at every rehearsal,” she recalls. “You had to be there as part of the group. You did your homework in the aisle of the theater. You’re striking the sets at the end of the show, no excuses. So you learned a work ethic, and I really think that carried me through the hard work this business involves.”
The family arrived back in Tulsa in the early ‘80s, just in time for Langenkamp to get in on the excitement of director Francis Ford Coppola’s time in the city. Coppola and Tulsa author S.E. Hinton were then in the midst of working on two film adaptations of Hinton novels, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, and Langenkamp visited the local casting office in hopes of getting a role.
“I was lucky enough to turn my photo in to Janet Hirschenson, who was the casting director for Francis,” she recalls. “We had a nice conversation, and she said, ‘Well, why don’t you read a line?’ They gave me a piece of dialogue, and I read it, and I think I must’ve done a pretty good job, because later on, when they were doing Rumble Fish, she saw me again.
“I was lucky to be on the set that night,” Langenkamp says. “A friend of mine had brought me along, because it was a night shoot in kind of a bad neighborhood, and her mom didn’t want her to go by herself. When I saw Janet, she said, ‘Oh, you’re here. That’s great. Francis wants someone to shout out from the wedding party, to [actor] Matt Dillon, ‘Come on up and join the party.’ So she gave me that line, and I got my SAG card that way. It didn’t make the cut, but who cares?”
That Screen Actors Guild card, identifying her as a working film professional, became a valuable possession with her move to the West Coast. Although she did earn a degree in English from Stanford, it took her seven years because movie and TV work kept getting in the way. Her resume includes two more appearances in the Nightmare franchise: Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors (1987) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), a film that took director Craven’s trademark self-referentialism to the outer limits – he, Englund and Langenkamp all played themselves, the director and two lead actors from the original Nightmare, who were somehow being stalked by a real Freddy Krueger.
Heather Langenkamp (from left), John Wooley and actor Robert Englund met up at the Circle Cinema screening of the movie in November. Photo courtesy circle cinema.
“People don’t realize what a unique idea Wes Craven had,” she says. “The character was me, and there was no place to go after that. I realized that I wouldn’t be playing Nancy anymore, and Wes realized that he wouldn’t be directing Freddy and Nancy anymore. That’s what makes the movie even more interesting.”
Following New Nightmare, Langenkamp and her husband, Academy Award-winning makeup-effects artist David Leroy Anderson, had a son and daughter, and, she says, “I realized that if I was going to spend time with my husband, we were going to have to work together. Otherwise, we’d always be traveling to different places. We’d always have different schedules.”
With Anderson getting ready to travel to Canada for the Dawn of the Dead remake, Langenkamp offered to accompany him as his office manager.
“I told him, ‘I’ll take care of all the bookkeeping, all the hiring and firing, and I’ll take care of all the meetings with production so you don’t have to go to those, either,’” she says.
That’s been their relationship ever since, as partners in AFX Studio, which specializes in special-effects makeup.
“He keeps thinking I’m going to go away and become an actor again,” she says, “and I might, but we’ve built our company to a great place now, and it can survive that.”
Although she hasn’t had to leave AFX, Langenkamp has nonetheless continued to amass screen credits, most recently with a supporting part in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and a major role, alongside horror legend Barbara Steele, in the 2012 independent shocker The Butterfly Room.
“I take small roles that are offered to me that are good,” she says, “and the characters in the independent films I’ve played recently are so interesting and have really big parts.
“So many people ask me to do cameos in their movies, and I say, ‘You know, I have nothing to gain with a cameo in your low-budget independent film. But give me the lead, give me a part so that I can have something to show people, and I’ll do it in a minute.’”
Langston University keeps goats on its campus as part of agricultural research. Photo courtesy Langston University.
Langston University, located about 20 miles southwest of Oklahoma State University, also has a thriving agricultural program, and it recently received a boost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Langston University $1.5 million to further agricultural research at the institution.
“We are ideally positioned to provide new insight into the rapidly developing field of agriculture,” Dr. Marvin Burns, dean of agriculture and applied sciences at Langston, says. “We are grateful for the financial support of this important research and look forward to sharing the results [in 2015].”
According to Langston University spokeswoman Christina Gray, the funds will go toward several research projects to mine data – including studies on sustainable control of greenhouse gas emission by ruminant livestock – as well as food and agricultural science career pathway awareness and opportunities and the creation of a state-of-the-art centralized agriculture laboratory. Other supported research will look at enhancing the health and productivity of dairy goats along with a comparison between goats and other biological control methods on Eastern red cedar, considered an invasive species in Oklahoma.
“Cattle” and “communication” aren’t two words that most people would necessarily link together. When used to describe Oklahoma State University’s award-winning animal science judging teams, however, the words together make perfect sense.
OSU’s meat animal evaluation team recently won the national championship at the 2014 Meat Animal Evaluation Contest in Lubbock, Texas, defeating the other 11 teams from universities all over the U.S. It was OSU’s second time in the last four years to claim the title.
Earlier in 2014, the OSU livestock judging team claimed the title of champion team at both the National Western Stock Show in Denver and the Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo in Jackson, Miss.
The OSU Department of Applied Animal Science sponsors four other judging teams in addition to the meat animal evaluation and livestock judging teams: the dairy cattle judging team, equine judging team, quadrathlon team and the meat judging team.
Each team has unique aspects when it comes to membership and competition, but all have several things in common. For example, those who participate must have a love of animals, the desire to work as a team, a capacity for analytical thinking and, most importantly, great communication skills, says Dr. Blake Bloomberg, OSU livestock judging team coach and assistant professor for the applied animal science department.
Many members join for job preparation and experience. Some of the most successful breeders and influential leaders in the livestock industry trace their roots back to participation on competitive livestock judging teams.
From a competition standpoint, the school’s livestock, meats and horse teams have finished in the top three teams in 79 percent of the contests they have participated in, winning more than $62,000 in academic scholarships and prize monies, says Bloomberg.
Accolades and scholarships are just a small part of membership; students also learn skills for life and gain advantages to further their professional ambitions. Lessons in responsibility, leadership, pride and dedication are all part of livestock judging, says Bloomberg.
“The students who graduate through our judging program learn and perfect the art of communication,” he says. “This is one of the biggest reasons our students are so heavily recruited into various job markets.”
Team members typically graduate with a degree in animal science, food science, agricultural education or agricultural communications.
“The judging team members at Oklahoma State are the absolute reason the team has received the success and recognition that it has,” Bloomberg says. “Oklahoma has always been full of talented students and we strive to recruit the top students from all parts of the U.S.”
Lots of people vow to change in the New Year, and most of those resolutions revolve around health: lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier. Other popular resolutions include spend less, volunteer more, quit smoking and manage stress. But according to research conducted by the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, just eight percent of people who set new year’s resolutions actually achieve them.
John Norcross of the University of Scranton has said that it’s best to be concise and specific when setting resolutions.
“We say if you can’t measure it, it’s not a very good resolution, because vague goals beget vague resolutions,” he says in Forbes magazine.
According to the American Psychological Association, it’s best to start small and change one behavior at a time. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up, and don’t be afraid to ask for support from friends and family to achieve goals.
The Gulf Coast Cardinals celebrate a victory, Lake Jackson, Texas, 2009.
Photo by Brenda Read Photography.
Hometown sports teams connect us all to the American and human experience and to one another, says Caroline Lowery, program officer at the Oklahoma Humanities Council.
“Sports are a way to educate, enlighten and empower Oklahomans to explore their own personal narrative,” she says. “Sports teach us about ourselves, our communities and our shared cultural experiences.”
These concepts are explored in the Smithsonian exhibit Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America. Six Oklahoma towns will receive the privilege of hosting the interactive collection of sports history, culture and memorabilia.
The Bates College Team (rear) competes in the NCAA women’s rowing championships, 2012. Photos by Steve Johnson/Maac.
“The exhibit has ambient sports sounds in the background, TV monitors featuring sports stories, iPads that lead visitors on a question-and-answer scavenger hunt and even scented squeeze bottles that let you ‘smell the game,’” says Lowery. “Children and adults alike can experience how sports shape our lives through all five senses.”
Guests can also share their own sports stories on the supplemental app titled “Stories on Main Street.”
Lowery explains that sports have a way of shaping several aspects of our lives, including language – “throwin’ in the towel” – and ethics – “the cowboy code.” Each city will explore how sports have influenced its culture.
Althea Gibson shattered racial barriers in tennis and golf. She won both the u.s. open and Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958. In 1964, she became the first african-american to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Photo courtesy Library of Congress, prints and photographs division, NYWT&S Collection.
The six locations that will host the exhibit all have their own local story to tell, Lowery adds. The Guymon Public Library will showcase rodeo culture, Muskogee’s Five Civilized Tribes Museum will highlight the Native American sports legacy, and the Ralph Ellison Library in Oklahoma City will highlight African-American sports stories. The Miami Public Library will cover local sports heroes, Ponca City’s Pioneer Woman Museum will explore women in sports, and Weatherford’s Museum on Main Street exhibit will highlight various aspects of the community’s sports culture.
Hometown Teams hits Oklahoma City in March 2015. It will remain for six weeks before it moves to its next Oklahoma destination. Lowery says thousands are anticipated to turn out at each stop for this exhibit covering everything from football and baseball to skateboarding and surfing. Guests are sure to discover an aspect of the exhibit that appeals to their love of competition or community.
The Gulf Coast Cardinals celebrate a victory, Lake Jackson, Texas, 2009. Photo by Brenda Read Photography.
“We are so proud and honored to bring the Smithsonian to Oklahoma,” says Lowery. “I encourage everyone to go see the exhibit with their friends and families. Whether you are a sports enthusiast, a player, a fan, a cheerleader, a mascot, a band member, a soccer mom or a lover of history, this exhibit is for you.”
Native Oklahoman Tambra Raye Stevenson was named a National Geographic 2014 traveler of the year for her work with heritage foods. Photo by Scott Suchman.
Nutritionist and culinary historian Tambra Stevenson’s passion for food and health began early.
“I started a restaurant when I was a kid, and my sister was my loyal customer. The special of the day was always mom’s leftovers,” Stevenson recalls.
Stevenson was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Midwest City and attended Oklahoma State University.
“I originally went to Oklahoma State University as a biology pre-med major, but when a classmate heard how I was disgruntled with the path I was on, they recommended nutrition. It was a perfect fit.”
Stevenson now lives in Washington, D.C., where she runs a community kitchen project called NativSol. At NativSol, Stevenson teaches families about the power of creating health through heritage foods – foods eaten by a person’s ancestors. The idea for NativSol came through traveling and thinking deeply about purpose.
“After an outreach program I helped out with in Gulfport, Miss., I thought a lot about how I could impact my own community. My interest has always been in food, but I wanted to know my own role and how I could best help people,” she says. “The American diet is not working well for so many people, so I started looking for solutions.”
Part of that includes incorporating heritage foods. For those of African descent, Stevenson says, heritage foods include resilient crops like millet.
“If you want to be a strong and healthy person, you don’t need to look any further than these types of foods. I’m a food hunter; I’m always looking for different things that can help people become healthier,” Stevenson says. “I’m inspired by Julia Child and what she did to introduce French cuisine to the U.S. It’s similar to what I want to do with African heritage foods.”
Food hunting has taken Stevenson all over the world. Recently, it led to National Geographic Traveler magazine naming her a Traveler of the Year. She says she first caught the travel bug after visiting the Dominican Republic after college. She later went on to visit Ghana, Ethiopia, South America and more. Through it all, her Oklahoma heritage has been an integral part of her identity, Stevenson says.
“As I get older, and [after] having two children, I reflect more on Oklahoma and valuing where I came from. In Oklahoma, it’s all about faith, food, family and football, and you can find that all over the world – except it might be soccer instead of football,” she says. “Where I live now, it helps to have that Oklahoma mindset of not being impressed by job titles. In Oklahoma, it’s all about how grounded you are, and that’s been something that I’ve found has added value to many different situations. Even if you don’t think much about where you’re from, you have way more to offer than you can imagine.”
Stevenson contributed to the exhibit Food: Our Global Kitchen at the National Geographic Museum by offering several cooking classes (west African soups and stews and east African spices). She held a Kwanzaa class during the holidays.
“I’m also hoping to go to Nigeria and the northern region of Africa,” she says. “I want to learn more about their traditions.”
Able to pursue her passion every day, Stevenson says she believes everyone has a purpose.
“I feel sometimes that I’m not doing enough, but I try to appreciate each step of the journey,” she says. “Things have happened to me this year that I never thought would happen. I never thought I’d be in National Geographic, for one thing. But I hope others realize that it’s important to believe in what you do.”
I have been a bridesmaid a few times. Three, to be exact, and each time, I served as a maid of honor. The first time, my 21-year-old self stood next to my sister-in-law when she married my brother. I had no idea what was required of me, and I don’t think I did much more than attend showers and show up for dress fittings.
For my second tour, I was asked by my best friend, Lauren. This time, being 24 and a little more mature and responsible, I threw a shower, attended all mandatory functions and even wrote a speech (sorry it was so short, Lauren!) to deliver – with gusto – at the reception.
By my third time serving as a maid of honor – this time for my sorority sister, Heather – I was well prepared. I had learned that the maid of honor’s job is not only to be completely supportive of every decision the bride makes, but to also act as a security guard. As we drew closer to the big day, I grew increasingly protective. There’s a problem with the reception décor? Talk to me. I decided who was dispatched to handle the problem. The DJ has questions about what song to play when the newlyweds enter the reception hall? Ask me, then I’ll ask the ball-of-nerves bride in a kind and relaxed way. Nothing and no one got to Heather on her big day before they got to me. I stood in for the bride during the rehearsal, delivered not one, but two speeches – one at the rehearsal dinner, the other one quite emotionally at the reception. At 26, I came into my own as a maid of honor.
Afterward, I considered opening a maid of honor business. I have many dresses that would suit a wedding, all in a variety of colors. I have the experience and, more importantly, the speechwriting abilities to make a room full of people drop their forks and dab their teary eyes. Though my business venture never got off the ground, I still think it’s an idea that would easily sell on Shark Tank.
Planning a wedding isn’t an easy task. There’s lots of stress, money and time spent on pulling off the bride and groom’s perfect day. That’s why this month’s Oklahoma Wedding, a special section devoted to all things wedding, is so handy. Have a look at gowns, cakes, flowers and catering options available at local vendors. Take advantage of the service directory, which provides a comprehensive list of those who provide wedding services in the region. The Oklahoma Wedding Show (Jan. 17) will also bring many of these vendors together under one roof, which makes planning the special day a breeze.
Take as much stress out of your big day with our handy section. And while you may not see any businesses offering maids of honor for rent, just remember, you can always contact me.
Flavorful chicken spinach rolls at cumin honor the tradition of indian cooking techniques and dishes straight from the home kitchen. Photo by Brandon Scott.
Flavorful chicken spinach rolls at cumin honor the tradition of indian cooking techniques and dishes straight from the home kitchen. Photo by Brandon Scott.
The best meals in India are served in private homes, behind closed doors the tourist can never enter; and the best chefs are women born in tiny villages, immersed in Indian food traditions from birth, taught by their mothers who learned from their mothers before them.
“What you find at home,” says Shifali Bhullar, chef at Cumin, “you can’t find at restaurants.”
Bhullar grew up in a family of foodies.
“My dad cooks, my mom cooks, my brother cooks; everyone cooks in my family,” she says.
Chef Shifali Bhullar is no stranger to the Tulsa cuisine scene, but she’s making a new mark with cumin, her new restaurant, which specializes in homestyle indian cooking, such as the lamb chop masala. Photo by Brandon Scott.
Bhullar is standing in Cumin’s sparkling, new kitchen. Three pans, slick with oil, are heated on the stovetop. She throws mustard seeds and a sprig of curry leaves into one pan, cumin seeds in another, some garlic in the third. She tosses some onions in the first pan, stirs, then adds a pinch of ginger, a few ounces of pureed tomatoes, a bit of cayenne, then salt and sugar. Into the second pan, meanwhile, goes salt, cayenne and cumin seeds, each addition punctuated by a graceful stir and swirl. Finally, in goes an eggplant that has been roasting in a tandoor, the traditional Punjabi oven.
“It’s never-ending,” says Bhullar of helming the kitchen at Cumin. “I come to the kitchen at 7:30 in the morning to start work for the lunch buffet. That takes four hours. The minute the buffet is ready, I start work preparing dinner.”
The dishes for the lunch buffet are made fresh every day. Bhullar also cooks special dishes for the weekend buffet. You might find dum biryani, a paella-like rice dish that takes almost four hours to make. Even on weekdays, the buffet lineup changes daily.
“I’m just doing it the way I cook at home,” says Bhullar as she mixes roasted fenugreek leaves into the eggplant pan.
She’s happy now, immersed in the cooking, moving from pan to pan with a balletic grace. A swirl of creamy coconut milk goes into the first pan, followed by slices of fish fillet.
“That’s Goan fish curry,” she says.
It’s not a dish she grew up with, but, she says as she adds in a bit of tamarind paste, “it’s my take on it.”
Food is plated and carried into the dining room, where the somewhat sparse decor is livened by crimson tablecloths and paintings that Bhullar acquired on a special trip to India. They’re colorful and modern, vaguely abstract mosaic designs and sultry women in saris.
There are quite a few diners at the tables, and some of them have encountered Bhullar before. She and her family have been in Tulsa since the late 1990s, when they left India to join an uncle who emigrated to Broken Arrow decades before.
“I try to visit India every few years to show my children where they’re from,” Bhullar says, “but it’s not my home. I’m American now.”
More plates come out of the kitchen, their bright colors forming a rainbow of epicurean delight. Lamb chop masala is covered in a fire-red sauce dappled with specks of brown. Bhullar is proud of this dish, which she says conveys the essence of Punjabi cuisine. Its mellow, toasty sauce enriched by the drippings from the lamb merit pride. Bright green plates of lamb saag and palak paneer are sprightly dishes with fresh vegetable flavor highlighted by notes of citrus and spice. Several of the dishes shine with a tawny, autumnal glow. Their colors blending amber and umber, butter chicken, chicken shahi korma and paneer pasanda may look alike, but they taste completely different. Each has a rich, complex blend of ineffable flavors. Some have a deep, nutty flavor from ground cashews. All the chicken is roasted in the traditional tandoor oven. In contrast with these bright sauces, many of the menu selections, including most of the extensive vegetarian lineup, have no gravy at all. Instead they’re studded with a medley of fresh herbs and spices.
All dishes are expertly cooked and efficiently served. Though Cumin is new, Bhullar isn’t a novice. For four years, she and her husband ran Tulsa’s Indian Corner. Bhullar had to close that restaurant to care for family. But, says her husband, “we couldn’t stay away from it; it’s a passion for both of us.” 8242 E. 71st St., Tulsa. 918.994.7404
Custom car pioneer Darryl Starbird looks forward to the 20th anniversary of the national rod and custom car hall of fame museum in June. Photos by Brandon Scott.
Darryl Starbird was just a kid when America began its deep love affair with the car. In the mid-20th century, Americans, finished with Europe and tired of war, returned home to play, and their favorite toy was the automobile. It rapidly became a steel symbol of the American dream, an emblem of hard work. Like America, it was full of possibilities, and Starbird and a handful of talented designers and builders were hell-bent on exploring every one of them.
The National Rod and Custom Car Hall of Fame Museum sits, fittingly, on Route 66 near Grand Lake. Home to more than 50 unique automobiles, its mission is two-fold: to recognize the best designers and builders on the custom car scene that exploded after World War II and to memorialize America’s love affair with the automobile.
Custom car pioneer Darryl Starbird looks forward to the 20th anniversary of the national rod and custom car hall of fame museum in June. Photos by Brandon Scott.
“I want people to appreciate not just the cars. I want them to appreciate the designers and the skill and effort it takes to build the cars,” says Starbird. “Mostly, I just want to keep the American love affair with the automobile alive and well. That’s really what it’s all about.”
Founded by Starbird and his wife, Donna Starbird, in 1994, the museum holds 52 custom vehicles at any given time. Twenty-six are Starbird creations, a snapshot of his five-decade career as a custom car builder. The rest of the specimens are on loan from other builders around the country.
To be considered for display at the museum, a car must excel in one area: uniqueness. It must, above all other things, be one of a kind. The cars are stylistically wild, the futuristic imaginings of dreamers, who paid full attention in shop class. As unique as it gets, they’re named like horses: Predicta, Futurista, Debonair, Reactor Mach II.
“We have all types of cars in the museum,” says Starbird. “The main criteria is that they must be one-of-a-kind, exotic vehicles. We don’t display [cars from] even your average show car. They must be unique. We’ve only got room for 52 of them, so the cars must be well-known, as well; maybe they’ve gotten a lot of publicity or won awards.”
Starbird’s career began with tinkering. He had no formal training as an automobile designer but earned his chops doing bodywork in his hometown of Wichita, Kan. He picked up mentors along the way, heavy-hitters on the nascent custom car scene: George Barris, Sam Barris and Joe Bailon. In 1954, Starbird began customizing his own vehicles, a hobby financed by his fledgling business, the Star Kustom Shop.
After a couple of well-received entries at custom car shows, Starbird hit the big time in 1959 at the National Hot Rod Association’s National Custom Car Show in Detroit, then the automobile capital of the world. His entry, a 1957 Thunderbird lovingly named Le Perle, swept the top honors. With its smooth lines, accented fins and tubular styling, the car hinted at the aerodynamic designs that would become the Starbird trademark over the years.
“I went to school to be an aeronautical engineer. I worked at Boeing while I was in college. That background and being from Wichita, which was the airplane capital of the world back then, made an impact. The aerodynamic part of it, the aircraft influence of it, has affected my designs more than anything else,” says Starbird.
Starbird’s 1960 entry further wowed the auto world: the futuristic Predicta, a heavily modified 1956 Thunderbird that featured stick steering, a television, and most importantly, a bubble top – edge-to-edge glass with no support. The Predicta erased all suspicions that Starbird was just a flash in the pan and earned him the nickname of “The Bubble Top King.” Until Starbird put bubble tops on working cars, they were little more than sketches and drawings in the pages of Popular Mechanics. The Predicta was named “Car of the Future.”
Lil’ Coffin is among Starbird’s best known custom cars.
Custom car aficionados know Starbird’s name. They also know that his contributions to the popularization of the custom car scene weren’t limited to his unique creations. In 1957, he donned the promoter’s hat and hosted his own show in Wichita. It was a hit, and he expanded his repertoire to include 15 major cities across the country. His Tulsa show is the largest indoor car show in the nation.
“Darryl made two big contributions. One was producing car shows. It was significant because it brought a large number of people to see those beautiful automobiles. That’s one facet of his career. The other contribution is in the cars he built,” says Tom Vodele, editor of StreetScene magazine.
With these new and expanding outlets for creativity, the custom car scene exploded. As the shows drew in hundreds of thousands, Starbird and other creators focused solely on competition, rejecting lucrative orders from private collectors and auto enthusiasts.
Many of the popular draws for those shows live at the museum these days. Gene Winfield’s Reactor Mach II is a favorite for visitors. A modified 1956 Citroen DS, it found its way on to television shows like Bewitched, Star Trek and Batman. It proved that no Hollywood imagination of the future could fly without a serious imagination of the car, as well.
For Starbird and his colleagues, designing and building custom cars has taken on a cultural significance.
“I feel that it’s a sport because of the competition,” he says. “The guys actually build the cars to enter in the car shows around the country to win trophies. They’re competing with their skills, like you would in any sport. It takes real skill to build a car, and they’re definitely competing.”
As the audience grew, Starbird redoubled his efforts to inject custom cars into popular culture. In 1975, he founded the National Rod and Custom Association, an organization charged with spreading the enthusiasm for custom cars.
Starbird’s biggest pop culture coup sprang from the aisles of toy and hobby stores. A 1963 offering, the aptly named Futurista, was the first car built wholly by Starbird. The car body was handmade, and with stick steering, a double bubble top, fully electronic controls and a ton of other dream accessories, it’s considered futuristic even by today’s standards. It was also one of the first kits released by the Monogram model company with Starbird’s name on it. As a design consultant with the company, Starbird ultimately contributed 15 kits. Over the years Monogram has sold more than a million units of Starbird’s designs, and several are still available.
The bubble-topped Cosma Ray is just one of the more than 50 custom vehicles on display at the national rod and custom car hall of fame museum.
“Through his relationship with Monogram and his model car kits, he inspired many people. I hear so many people at our events tell Darryl, ‘I remember building that model car kit that you designed with Monogram!’ They inspired a lot of young people to get into this hobby,” says Vodele.
For his part, Starbird knew that custom cars had dented pop culture when his name popped up in George Lucas’s masterful teen epic, 1973’s American Graffiti. Though he served as a consultant on the film, Starbird wasn’t expecting to hear his name dropped in it.
“I thought it was just a B movie that would run at [drive-ins] and go away,” he says. “Lucas picked me over other designers because he, like me, was very much interested in futuristic things. My cars, of course, are futuristic. I felt really good about it. I probably got more mention from that one sentence in American Graffiti than I’ve gotten from all the cars I’ve built.”
Now 82 and theoretically retired, Starbird can still be found in his Grand Lake shop every day. He continues to add to the more than 200 cars he’s designed and built over five decades. The game has changed over the years as new technologies and materials become available. The emphasis these days, he says, is not so much on body styling. Contemporary enthusiasts are retooling engines and replacing interiors. The quest for singularity, however, remains.
The museum’s 20th anniversary celebration, set for June, will be big. Custom car designers from around the world will attend an award ceremony that’s garnered a reputation as the Oscars of the custom scene. Two new creators are slated for induction into the hall of fame, and a few of their cars will be on hand. Designers and builders from around the world will converge on Grand Lake, and they’ll bring some of their cars with them. More than 200 unique creations, past and present, will be on display for the public.
“The museum is the only place in the world that pays homage to these builders. There are museums for NASCAR. There are museums of drag racing. There are basically museums for all mainstream forms of motorsports. This is the only spot that pays homage to custom car builders and hot rodders. For that single reason, it’s important,” says Vodele.
