OKPOP Museum

Yesterday was the birthday of cartoonist, illustrator, and artist Dan Piraro! Piraro grew up in Oklahoma in Ponca City and the Tulsa area and is the creator of the Bizarro cartoon strip.

Actor, comedian, artist and Tulsa native Gailard Sartain was posthumously inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame yesterday.

Sartain got his start in entertainment right here in Tulsa with the local late-night comedy show "The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting" followed by a stint on the country and comedy variety show "Hee Haw." In film, he had notable roles in comedies like the "Ernest" film series, "All of Me," and "Wagons East," and dramas like "Mississippi Burning," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "The Buddy Holly Story."

He was also an accomplished painter, illustrator, and artist. He created album cover art for Oklahoma musicians like Leon Russell, Roy Clark, and The Tractors.

What's your favorite song to come out of the Tulsa Sound?

🎸🎶🎧🎶🎸

It's 🦇🎃 SPOOKY SEASON 🎃🦇 y'all!

Get in the mood with this custom Spotify playlist full of themed music with Oklahoma connections! Link is in the comments!

We're thrilled to have this historic guitar as part of our collection at OKPOP!

Coveted and historic guitar that inspired look of OKPOP comes 'home' In 1954, Leo Fender presented Eldon Shamblin with a gold custom-made Fender Stratocaster. OKPOP Museum recently came into possession of the guitar that was coveted by Clapton and McCartney.

Are you familiar with the science-fiction Western "The Phantom Empire?" It was a 1935 serial film starring Gene Autry that featured an ancient subterranean civilization, ray-guns, and cowboy robots. What more could anyone ask for?

In celebration of what would have been Gene Autry's 119th birthday, we wanted to show off some of our cool new additions to OKPOP! We now have one of the few surviving pieces of the cowboy robots costume from the films in our collection! This piece, along with other clothing, costumes, and saddles owned by Gene Autry, supplement our growing collection of Gene Autry-related artifacts and memorabilia.

Born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on September 27, 1933, Will Sampson (1933–1987) was a Muscogee (Creek) artist, rodeo performer, and actor whose creative talents took him from Oklahoma to Hollywood. A largely self-taught painter known for his Native American and Western artwork, Sampson spent years competing on the rodeo circuit before making his film debut as Chief Bromden in the Academy Award-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). He went on to appear in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Poltergeist II (1986), becoming one of the most recognizable Native American actors of his generation. Beyond his film career, Sampson advocated for greater opportunities and authentic representation for Native performers, helping establish the American Indian Film Institute and founding the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts. His work as both an artist and actor remains an important part of Oklahoma’s cultural history.

We're so proud of our friends and neighbors at the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Muskogee! Today, their newly renovated museum is now OPEN!

Author Wilson Rawls, known for the hugely popular children's novel "Where the Red Fern Grows," was born on this date in 1913. He was raised outside of Tahlequah on their family's farm, which was their Cherokee allotment. Rawls lived there until, like many Oklahomans, his family picked up and moved west during the Great Depression, bound for California.

Though not a prolific writer, his two books continue to be incredibly popular children's novels. "Where the Red Fern Grows" was first published in 1961 and is a classroom staple with over 14 million copies in print. "Summer of the Monkeys" was a well-liked follow-up release that was first published in 1976.

Have you read both novels in your life? Or did you just watch the movies?

We wanted to wish a happy birthday to actress and native Tulsan, Mary Kay Place!

You might know her from films like The Rainmaker, The Big Chill, Private Benjamin, among many others. This photograph is from the film Modern Problems, with Place (second from left) standing next to Chevy Chase (third from left).