In May 2018 the Oklahoma House passed a bill that would give teachers and public employees a $6,000 dollar a year raise.
Rodgers and Hammerstein added the song “Oklahoma” to the musical formerly named “Away We Go”, based on the Lynn Riggs play Green Grow the Lilacs, when it was sputtering in out-of-town tryouts in Boston. It was soon named the state’s official song, the only one taken from a musical. The table at which the pair wrote the song is still on public display at Boston’s Shubert Theatre.
In the lyrics to the “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” song by Bobby Troup, several place names are mentioned. Here are all of them, in song order:
Chicago, LA
St. Louis
Joplin, Missouri
Oklahoma City
Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino
I had to look up Winona. Wasn’t super easy. It’s in Arizona.
Missed one: California!
Both Bobby Troup and Jack Webb, both rather plain looking guys, were both inexplicably married to Julie London.
Jack Webb is best known for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department in the radio and television series Dragnet. When Webb died in 1982, LA Police Chief Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714, the badge worn by Sergeant Friday, would be permanently retired. Webb was buried with a replica LAPD badge bearing the rank of sergeant and the number 714.
Grant Wistrom, former NFL defensive end for the St. Louis Rams (1998-2003) and the Seattle Seahawks (2004-2006), hails from Webb City, Missouri, which is on Route 66.
The number 714 is best known in American culture as Babe Ruth’s career home run total. The record was topped by Henry Aaron, who retired with 755, and is now held by Barry Bonds with 762. Bonds also holds the single-season record with 73. If Japanese records are counted, Sadaharu Oh has it with 862, all as a Yomiuri Giant.
(Tying the last two posts together…)
A portion of Prefectural Road 66, located near the village of Makkari in the Prefecture of Mie in Japan, is known as the Makkari Flower Road. Each year, more than 40,000 lilies bloom in a 2-kilometer section along the highway. Bulbs are planted in May and the flowers bloom sometime in August each year.
Sheriff Woody and his pals narrowly avoid being sent to a toy museum in Japan in the Pixar movie Toy Story 2.
The Sheriff in the Pixar movie Cars was voiced by Route 66 historian and author Michael Wallis.
Good trivia, SSR, thanks.
Route 66 historian and author Michael Wallis was born in 1945 in St. Louis MO. Among the books he authored is Route 66: The Mother Road 75th Anniversary Edition (1990), and also
The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate (2007). He currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife, Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis.
Note — it’d be very cool to meet him as I pass through Tulsa.
“Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, about a traveling man who detours to a romance in a motel (possibly on Route 66) and ends up never returning home, which was a hit for Gene Pitney. Its success in the UK enabled Pitney to become an international star.
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine wrote a song that appeared on their album 101 Damnations, entitled “24 Minutes from Tulse Hill” as a reference to the song. The song refers to the journey time by train to Tulse Hill, from central London.
Near Tulsa on Route 66 is the Blue Whale of Catoosa OK, about 15 miles east of Tulsa. And then, in Tulsa is the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza, which aims to celebrate and recognise the achievements of Cyrus Avery – often credited as the “Father of Route 66”. Avery created Route 66 while a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, and then he pushed for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.
The Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza features the flags of the eight states of Route 66, the Route 66 Skywalk (with its zig-zag art-deco style and familiar logo), a park, a pedestrian walk way over route 66, and several bronze statues including a land-run horse and wagon, and an old automobile featuring Will Rogers.
Will Rogers World Airport, located in Oklahoma City, is the busiest airport in the state of Oklahoma. Although it has the name ‘World’ in its official title, there are currently no scheduled international flights.
The airport first opened in 1911 as Oklahoma City Municipal Airfield. It was renamed in Rogers’ honor in 1941. Rogers died in a plane crash in 1935. The other major airport in Oklahoma City is Wiley Post Airport; it was named after famed pilot Wiley Post, who died in the same crash that took the life of Rogers.
Will Rogers World Airport is located about 10 miles due south of Ann’s Chicken Fry House, which is located on the original Route 66 in Oklahoma City.
Ann’s Chicken Fry House, Oklahoma City OK — thanks! It’s added to my list. (gImages, Ann’s Chicken Fry House, Oklahoma City OK - Google Search)
The Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore OK is along Route 66 and som 30 miles northeast of Tulsa. So, too, is Rogers State University, named after Rogers County which is named after Clement Vann Rogers, the father of Will Rogers. Clement V. Rogers was a Cherokee senator and judge in Indian Territory. Clem Rogers’ parents were both mixed-blood Cherokees who moved to Indian Territory in 1832, several years before the Trail of Tears.
ETA gMap, probably in the order I will visit them. Although I may not go to Will’s airport.
Missed edit window: gMap, Google Maps.
Will Rogers and Benjamin Franklin are the only American humorists to have United States Navy submarines named after them.
Paulette Bourgeois was inspired to create a children’s book by an episode of MAS*H where Hawkeye Pierce admits that he is claustrophobic and refuses to go into a cave, “If I were a turtle I would be afraid of my own shell”, he said. Her book Franklin in the Dark was the first in what became a best-selling series and TV show about Franklin, a little turtle. She did not realize until after the book was written that Hawkeye’s full name is Benjamin Franklin Pierce.
Mr. Benjamin Britt, also known as Ben, serves as General Partner at Route 66 Ventures, Inc. Route66 Ventures is a private investment firm focusing on helping entrepreneurs. They are located in Alexandria, Virginia, which makes their name odd as Route 66 is nowhere near Alexandria.