Cabana Swim Club

[Pete]

This has been touched on in other threads but I need help piecing together some memories.

I know the address was 3506 NW 56th and it was very near (just north) of the little lake that is still there today. Anybody remember exactly where it was situated?

Also, I know there was Candlewood Restaurant right on the lake also on 56th. Wasn't this restaurant previously (or subsequently) called something else and had characters that served as waiters?

And on old maps, I see the area labeled "Branding Iron Club". I suppose this was the predecessor to Cabana and the restaurants?

[rondvu]

I was looking at the map above. What is the Branding Iron Club, never heard of it?

[Pete]

Pretty sure the old Candlewood Restaurant became the Molly Murphy-esque "Buster T. Browns", which didn't last long before a catastrophic fire.

[LuccaBrasi]

You are correct, Candlewood became BTB and the building was the Branding Iron Club back in the prohibition days. The BIC was raided constantly in the 1950's by the sheriff unitl the property was annexed by OKC in 1962. It was owned by the Finely family unitl they sold in 62 to Mayfair Manor who had plans for a $35m aprtment/office park that never materialized. In late 66 and early 67, a religious group leased the building as a christian conquest center.

In 75, BTB proclaimed to be "Fun for Families", had "Saucy Spaghetti Specialties and Superior Sirloin Steaks", "Acres of Arresting Atmosphere", and was a "Delightfully Different Discotheque". The fire destroyed most of the bldg in Oct 75.


Candlewood was owned by the Bedford Company, a subsidiary of Globe Life & Accident Insurance, and was entertaining a prospective buyer for the building and "2 small lakes" two?? in Sept 74. Bedford owned the property since 1968 when they purchased it from Mayfair Manor Development Corporation.
The prospective buyer was the Anta Corporation which already owned all the land adjacent to the restaurant. Anta was formed from the bankrupt Four Season's Nursing Centers of America and do you know who was appointed the president of Anta (after prviously serving as trustee) by judge Luther Bohannon?.... James R. Tolbert III.

At the time, they owned 26 nursing homes in 5 states and substantial holdings of undevelolped property, all totalling $50m in value. Another player in Anta was Don Karchmer who was a VP in 75 and John Bingaman. Anta ended up dissolving 1984.

The same Anta Corp. cast of players turned around to start developing properties in Bricktown in Sept 85 with Bingaman owning Honorcare which moved into Karchmer and Toberts Glass Confectionary Bldg.

Maybe you already knew or all of this, but if not, that's my attempt at being Paul Harvey for the day.

[ljbab728]

Maybe you already knew or all of this, but if not, that's my attempt at being Paul Harvey for the day.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Paul Harvey ......... Good Day!

[Pete]

Maybe you already knew or all of this, but if not, that's my attempt at being Paul Harvey for the day.

Wow, no I didn't know hardly any of what you described. Thanks so much!

So, I take it Candlewood / BTB was on the site now occupied by Candlewood Senior Center? And Cabana was directly west of that on the site now occupied by an office building?

Where did you find that Buster T. Brown's information? I can't find an ads in the Oklahoman Archives.

[LuccaBrasi]

I actually found it in the Oklahoman archives, but I forget where or what search parameters I was doing at the time. It was not the BTB name as that turned up nothing. I saw that some of your graphics appeared to come from the archives so I thought maybe you saw the same article I did, but it sounds like you didn't. I have found the archives are sometimes hit and miss depending on the search parameters. I'll often use different forms of a name and keep searching and sometimes I'll get a hit that did not show up on a similar search. I was going to try and paste the articles I found in my reply but was having difficulty doing so, so I just typed it in.

I was intrigued by your post and thought I'd go take a look around for a few minutes and see what I could find if anything. Once I found the one article about Globe Life and Anta, I was intrigued even more, so I kept digging until more details and names begin to surface that resulted in drawing a line from events and relationships in the 60's to present day. It's interesting how the string of names and relationships carry forward throughout the years. Sometimes doing some investigative digging like that reveals why some relationships, projects, and developments are what they are (or what they're not) today.

Now that I think about it, I think I may have done an advanced search using the address and found that article and/or ad. Give that a try and narrow the search to the 70's and ultimately 74. There was also an article about the fire that was partially cut off.