Where would you go if you wanted to see an Oklahoma City-based "movie" picture of Marilyn Monroe? To the Oklahoman's archives, like this one on 2/17/1953 ...



... nope ... if you want the "real deal," you'd go to the Red Dirt Emporium, a recently opened retail shop on the Bricktown Canal, 115 E. California, by Hooters, like I did last night ... which I think was its official opening night! There, you'd get Marilyn standing VERY tall in front of the Criterion Theater on the same date as the above Oklahoman ad, 2/17/1953 ...

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... talk about a LARGE Marilyn Monroe!

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While that's not what I was there for, it's part of what I got at this very nice new retail shop on the Bricktown Canal and it makes a nice addition to my "Let's Go Downtown To The Movies" blog article!

Here are some pics that I took last night.

The Store Logo
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Chad Huntington, Proprietor
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Chad and Bob Bekoff are partners in this business, as I understand it. Mr. Bekoff owns the Bricktown water taxi business and Mr. Huntington is the taxi's general manager. Chad said that the goal of this new business is to begin to fulfill a public "request" for retail in Bricktown, and, from my visit last night, it seems to me they are off to a good start.

There's noting "cheesy" or "quaint" about it ... no stereotyping stuff ... no "home made crafts" ... just a good array of Oklahoma based goods for people wanting a good piece of work which is Oklahoma related without paying through the nose to get it ... at least, that's my impression. Sure, you can get your "Red Dirt Emporium" T-shirts and some refrigerator magnets if you want, but you can also get a good deal more. The Marilyn photo, for example, is one of hundreds (I think ... so it seemed to me) of similar Oklahoma City vintage photographs which were available. The shop has some sort of relationship with the Flaming Lips band (Flaming Lips Alley is on the north side) so they market some of that group's stuff, too (though I have to confess my general ignorance about that ... I guess that I need to get up to date!).

Here are some looks around the store.

Frankly, I'm not big on Frankoma pottery (even though my wife strongly disagrees with me on that) ...

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... but on the walls and around the shop I found plenty of stuff that I DID care about ... lots of history ...

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A picture on the wall ... sorry about the photo quality ... had trouble with "flash" issues ...

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Your OU/OSU fare ... Flaming Lips on the monitor above the games ...

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Messrs. Huntington (left) and Bekoff (right) talking with a guest/customer (middle)

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Something else on the wall to buy ...

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A couple of more views around the shop

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I also picked up a neat book on Okc History that I'd not seen before, "Oklahoma City Rediscovered" by William D. Welge (Arcadia Publishing 2007) which is similar to Terry Griffith's 3 volume series by Arcadia ... similarity ends, though, with the size of the book and its common publisher ... this book contains lots of stuff I've not had my grubby hands on before, images and stories largely focusing on Capitol Hill, Deep Deuce, and Bricktown.

So, having Marilyn and this new book in my mits, I was a happy Doug Dawg! I'm hoping that this retail establish makes it! It seems to me that it should because it's a class joint (so to speak)!