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GOLDEN Memories

Origins

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THE DATE

The date was set for Monday, April 11 at 6:30 PM. Hall, a member of the opulent, rich oil men's Tulsa Club, had arranged for the meeting to be held on the Roof Garden (up on the roof - in open air - under the stars). The Tulsa Club still exists and is located on the northwest corner of 5th and Cincinnati. Built in 1923, it stands 11 stories tall. It's across the street (due north) from the Stanolind Oil Building where Cash worked.

of May, the newly formed group began meeting at the Alvin Plaza Hotel (7th and Main) and hosting 75 to 150 men. What would later be known as the Tulsa Number 1 Chapter, would continue to meet at the Alvin for 37 years.
 

O.C. Cash was a master craftsman with the press. He would call his reporter friends at the Tulsa Tribune and the Tulsa World and give them such creative material about the new group, they couldn't help but use it. The clever use of the initials SPEBSQSA (a humorous slap at President Roosevelt's alphabetical agencies) was only the beginning.

One such event was escalated into a "legal battle" via the press. A "reactionary group" had apparently sprung up and began calling itself S.P.C.D.A.D.P.O.F.L.T. (The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dumb Animals, Dumb People, and Other Folk of Low Taste). It was reportedly backed, promoted, financed, and advised by the Chamber of Commerce. Their purpose was to consider legal action to "suppress, squelch, obliterate, eliminate, dehabilitate and otherwise bring about the non-existence of the harmless group of tenors, basses, and leads who enjoy their own singing once a month."

The group, claiming to be fair, agreed to hold off any legal action until after hearing the quartets sing at the Chambers' May 13th meeting. The performance was predicted to be 'just provocation for either mayhem or murder".

Cash also "publicly" invited Bing Crosby to attend a meeting. Bing wired his regrets and promised to dedicate a song on his next Kraft Music Hall radio show. Crosby and other VIPs were later named to the Society's Board of Directors. There was also interest in forming a chapter in Hollywood.
 
 

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