00:00When the motion picture Tulsa premiered in 1949, the city of Tulsa threw one glamorous party on the downtown streets.
00:08The film was set to premiere at several of Tulsa's movie palaces, and a giant parade would take place first.
00:15Not only were the stars of the film in town, but so were the director, the producer, and a slew of Oklahoma dignitaries.
00:23The city rolled out every imaginable piece of oilfield equipment to take part in the parade.
00:29It's estimated that 100,000 people jammed onto Boston Avenue and Main Street to steal a glimpse at the movie stars.
00:36The male lead was 31-year-old Robert Preston, who played geologist Brad Brady in the film.
00:41He would later play Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.
00:46The female lead was Susan Hayward, who played an oil producer, Cherokee Lansing.
00:52Hayward had five Best Actress nominations in the 1940s, none of them for Tulsa.
00:57Also starring in the film was veteran Hollywood actor Chill Wills, who played a down-home type character based loosely on Will Rogers.
01:07Never before had there been such a glorious event in downtown Tulsa.
01:12Downtown businesses let employees leave for the day to attend the parade.
01:16Schools closed, too, allowing students to be part of the event.
01:19After this parade, the film Tulsa was shown at downtown movie palaces, the Ritz and Orpheum theaters.
01:28The film was never a box office smash, and didn't really impress movie critics.
01:32But that April day that Tulsa premiered was unlike anything else ever in downtown Tulsa.
01:38And it's up to the parkа stream, and then it was sold outside.
01:39It was never a box officeLaUNG 04 or he had a box office in the park.
01:51Undertacy focusedheiten on the event, the whole up-to-top enterprise visit mom.
01:58ansen disappeared.
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02:02That's when showing off and feeling in high light.
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