The Crossroads
of Creativity.
The Crossroads
of Creativity.
The Future of Our Past
The OKPOP Foundation has officially completed the $18 million Heart & Soul Campaign, and the State Treasurer has now approved and certified the pledges, releasing the state’s matching funds. This milestone marks the beginning of OKPOP’s next chapter: exhibit design, fabrication, and the build-out of Oklahoma’s first museum dedicated to the global creative impact of its people.
Hello Friends and Potential Donors,
“You know, this whole campaign wasn’t just about raising $18 million – it was about backing a mission that means something. OKPOP is here to celebrate the crazy amount of creativity that comes out of Oklahoma, to tell the stories of the folks who shaped music, film, and art, and to fire up the next generation to chase their own big dreams. The way people showed up to support this blows me away. Oklahoma should be proud of what’s coming.”
Honorary Campaign Chair
A little Oklahoma kid with a double-neck guitar and a whole lot of fire. 🎸
Today we remember Larry Collins, born in Tulsa on October 4, 1944, whose remarkable musical journey took him from rockabilly stages to some of country music’s most beloved songs.
Alongside his sister Lorrie, Larry lit up the 1950s as the Collins Kids. Their infectious energy, harmonies, and his dazzling guitar playing made songs like “Hoy Hoy” and “Beetle Bug Bop” unforgettable. Mentored by guitar great Joe Maphis, Larry was already an extraordinary player while most kids his age were just finding their footing.
His gift for songwriting brought another lasting legacy. Larry co-wrote “Delta Dawn,” which helped launch Tanya Tucker’s career, and “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” the chart-topping duet by David Frizzell and Shelly West.
For us at OKPOP, remembering Larry is personal. He was a great friend and an early supporter who believed in this museum’s vision. His encouragement remains part of our story as we work to share Oklahoma’s creative legacy with future generations.
We’re grateful for his friendship, his belief in OKPOP, and the music he gave the world. Remembering you with love today, Larry. ❤️
#OKPOP #LarryCollins #TheCollinsKids #OklahomaMusic #Rockabilly
From Boley, Oklahoma, to a life filled with music. 🎶
Today we remember composer, pianist, and educator Zenobia Powell Perry, born October 3, 1908, in one of Oklahoma’s historic All-Black towns.
Perry’s musical journey began with childhood piano lessons and grew into a remarkable body of work spanning piano pieces, chamber music, orchestral compositions, and her opera, Tawawa House. She also spent decades teaching, helping generations of students find and develop their own musical voices.
Her story reminds us that Oklahoma creativity reaches far beyond our borders, and that a creative legacy lives both in what we make and in the people we encourage along the way.
At OKPOP, we’re proud to celebrate Zenobia Powell Perry and the Oklahoma roots of her enduring musical legacy.
#OKPOP #ZenobiaPowellPerry #OklahomaCreativity #Boley #OklahomaHistory
Happiest of birthdays to Dan Piraro! 🎉
Raised in Ponca City and Tulsa, Piraro is the Oklahoma-rooted cartoonist and creator of Bizarro, the wonderfully strange and surreal comic panel first syndicated in 1985. For decades, his unmistakable mix of sharp observation, absurdity, hidden symbols, and offbeat humor has invited readers to look at the everyday world a little differently. His work has earned numerous honors from the National Cartoonists Society, including the 2010 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.
From the vault: a selection of a few of our Bizarro favorites from the Dan Piraro Collection at OKPOP! 🗯️
Happy birthday, Dan, and thank you for making the world a little weirder, funnier, and more creative.
#DanPiraro #Bizarro #OKPOP #OklahomaCreatives #Cartooning
Happy birthday to Gene Autry, born on this day in 1907! 🤠🎬🤖
Before science fiction and the Western became regular genre-mates, Autry saddled up for something wonderfully strange.
In 1935, The Phantom Empire sent the Singing Cowboy into a futuristic adventure filled with robots, ray guns, television screens, and a technologically advanced civilization hidden thousands of feet beneath his Radio Ranch. The 12-chapter cliffhanger serial is often credited as the first science-fiction Western, and it helped launch Autry as a movie star.
There’s an Oklahoma connection behind the camera, too. Lawton-born William Witney worked on the serial as an assistant director before going on to become one of the great masters of movie serials, Westerns, and action filmmaking.
And we’re lucky to have some pieces of this wonderfully weird chapter of movie history in the OKPOP collection, including signed sheet music, a promotional flyer, a lobby card, and one particularly memorable robot head that our team affectionately calls “Cowbot.” 🤖🤠 (courtesy of Boyd & Donna Magers)
Cowbot has an even earlier Hollywood history. The robots seen in The Phantom Empire were originally created for the 1933 MGM musical Dancing Lady, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, two stars with Oklahoma ties, before finding new life beneath Autry’s Radio Ranch.
A singing cowboy. An underground empire. Robots. Ray guns. Cliffhangers. And more than a little Oklahoma connection.
That’s pop culture history.
Happy birthday, Gene! 🎂⭐
#GeneAutry #ThePhantomEmpire #OKPOP #western #scifi
Happy birthday to Tulsa-born Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, an artist who didn’t just rethink what an electric guitar could sound like. She helped rethink what an electric guitar could be.
In 2016, Clark partnered with Ernie Ball Music Man to create the St. Vincent signature guitar, developing a completely new, angular design around her playing style, ergonomics, and life onstage. The collaboration resulted in Ernie Ball’s first mass-produced guitar designed by a woman, an important milestone in an industry where women had rarely been given the opportunity to shape an instrument from the ground up.
And the creativity went all the way down to the color: Clark personally hand-mixed the original custom “Vincent Blue” finish herself.
The result is equal parts musical instrument, industrial design, and creative statement, unmistakably St. Vincent.
That’s the kind of Oklahoma creativity we love: don’t just master the tools you’re given. Imagine a new one.
Happy birthday, St. Vincent. 🎸💙
#StVincent #AnnieClark #Tulsa #GuitarDesign
Remembering Will Sampson on his birthday today. ❤️
Born in Okmulgee on September 27, 1933, Sampson was Muscogee (Creek), a gifted visual artist, rodeo competitor, and eventually an unforgettable presence on screen. Before Hollywood knew his name, his family knew him as “Sonny,” an artist who was almost always drawing, painting, or creating.
His first film role became his most iconic: Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He went on to appear in films including The Outlaw Josey Wales, Orca, Fish Hawk, Poltergeist II, and Firewalker.
But Sampson’s legacy reaches far beyond the roles he played. He also worked to create opportunities for other Native performers, helping establish the American Indian Film Institute and later founding the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts to help connect Native actors with opportunities in the entertainment industry.
As Wes Studi remembered in an OKPOP oral history, Sampson was “an avatar of things to come.”
Will Sampson walked through a door Hollywood had rarely opened to someone like him, and then worked to hold that door open for others.
Today, we remember an Oklahoma artist, actor, trailblazer, and the generations of Native creatives whose paths he helped widen.
Read more about Will Sampson’s remarkable story in our blog post, “From Okmulgee to Hollywood: How Will Sampson Opened Doors for Native Actors,” at OKPOP.org.
#WillSampson #OKPOP #NativeFilm #Muscogee #OklahomaFilm
We’re so proud of our friends and neighbors at the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Muskogee! 🎶✨
Today, their newly renovated museum is officially OPEN!
We’re always excited to celebrate the people and organizations across our state who are preserving Oklahoma’s incredible musical legacy, sharing these stories with new generations, and creating places where music, history, and community come together.
Congratulations to the entire Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame team on this exciting new chapter. We can’t wait to come back! 💛
#OklahomaMusic #OklahomaMusicHallOfFame #OklahomaHistory #MusicHistory @okmusichalloffame
Some people make the music. Others make sure the world gets to hear it. 🎶
Today, OKPOP remembers Oscar “Ozzie” Cadena, born on this day in 1924 in Oklahoma City.
As a producer and A&R man for Savoy Records and later Prestige Records, Cadena helped document an extraordinary generation of American music, working on recordings by artists including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Charles Mingus, Milt Jackson, Jimmy Scott, John Lee Hooker, Yusef Lateef, and many others.
In 1955, Cadena produced the landmark Bohemia After Dark sessions, featuring some of Cannonball Adderley’s earliest recordings alongside Nat Adderley, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, and Kenny Clarke.
But Cadena’s impact extended far beyond the recording studio. He established Choice Records, and later became an important champion of the Southern California jazz scene. He helped bring jazz back to the legendary Lighthouse Café, booked musicians there and at other area venues, founded the Hermosa Beach Jazz Alumni, and helped preserve the community’s jazz history for generations to come.
On what would have been his 102nd birthday, we remember an Oklahoma-born creative whose work often happened behind the scenes, but whose fingerprints can still be heard throughout American music.
Happy birthday, Ozzie Cadena. 🎷
#OKPOP #OzzieCadena #Jazz
Donate
Your charitable donation directly contributes to OKPOP’s future, we are grateful for your support! Donations to support the OKPOP Museum may be made to the OKPOP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
Donations may be made through the secure online donation form or mailed to:
OKPOP Foundation
422 North Main Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103
If you have questions about additional gifting options, please contact Abby Kurin at akurin@okpopfoundation.org
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