In under a week, Gailard and Millaway threw together “Well, have to tell ya, there were gay people in Tulsa in The Uncanny Film Festival (as opposed to the Cannes Film 1970,” Jim Millaway said. “Ya know, it was just a local TV Festival) and Camp Meeting. show in Tulsa on late night. Television went off the air at The show was going along, hardly being noticed at all by midnight. We were the last thing on the air. The good people anyone at the station, and with little to no oversight. Bit by of Tulsa, they were asleep. We were really under the radar.” bit, they built a following that included thousands of Tulsans, Although Saturday Night Live would not air for 5 more among them people like Leon Russell and Roy Clark. years, Mazeppa’s format was almost identical. “Leon came down when he was at the height of his powers,” I asked Sartain where the idea came from. Sartain said. “He surprised everybody, came down to the “It was traditional,” he said. “It was sketch comedy. It had station, we were recording, he came right in and ad-libbed been around forever. More like the Show of Shows, but we a Mazeppa song, ‘Home Sweet Mazeppa On My Mind,’ or weren’t a variety show, it was more of a grab-ass kinda thing.” something like that.” Mazeppa had a new feeling, though. With no inspiration Can we see this magic moment? from SNL, Gailard’s timbre resembles Dan Ackroyd at “The director just decided he didn’t need that on his news times, Chris Farley falling all over the place at other times… reel so he just erased it.” even a hint of Jack Black here and there. The characters were Sartain told me about another twist of fate, when music multidimensional diamonds in the rough and had an in-the- agent Jim Halsey paid Gailard a visit at the station. “He came moment nature to their approach. down one time and said, “How would you like to have Roy “When we had an idea, we only had like 2 hours to do it MAZEPPA: Clark on your show?” in studio time,” said Sartain. “We had one set. The rest of THE UNCANNY FILM FESTIVAL AND CAMP MEETING “And I said, ‘Who are you?’” it we just had to make up as we went along. And Millaway “And he said, ‘I’m Jim Halsey,’ like I should know who he was great. If it hadn’t been for him, it wouldn’t have gone was, and he was a real nice guy. And he said, ‘I represent Roy anywhere.” Clark and if you’d like to have him on your show I’d certainly by Lindsey Neal like to do it.’” “I said, ‘Are you… insane? Are you a real person?’” 1973: Hee Haw! The End Of Mazeppa “I looked outside and saw this big black Cadillac and said, ‘Oh, okay. I guess you’re for real.’ ‘Cause I had a lot of people Sartain made a career move that led Mazeppa to a close in come down to the studio and do the same kind of things to its third year. “Halsey came up and said, ‘How’d you like to get on the show.” be on Hee Haw?’ “Roy Clark came on the show on Channel 6, and of course “And I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’m trying to finish up my ’s they erased that too. [laughs] So I have no proof that he did, masters degree.’ And I was serious. I was almost halfway Starring: GAilard SArtain as Dr. Mazeppa but he did.” done with it.” ulsa For their second and third year, Mazeppa moved to “And he said, ‘Well okay. I’d put you on if you’d like to.’” T day Channel 8 on Lookout Mountain, and Gary Busey found his “Then I said, ‘Well, wait a minute, how much does that r Pompazoidi & Gary Busey as Teddy Jack way to the cast. pay?’” “I knew him (Gary Busey) vaguely in high school. He went “He said, ‘Well, the scale is what you’d begin with, so that’d atu ive to Hale, I went to Rogers,” Sartain said. “And we’d run into be something like $650 a show.’” S each other a couple times and we were just kindred spirits. “And I was like, ‘What the…!?’” Sartain thought about Eddy & Jim Millaway as Sherman Oaks I was doing Mazeppa, and I went to a party for Tulsa Little what he was making locally and decided he was done with Theater, I think it was. He was there, and he said, ‘How in Mazeppa along with higher education. ight L the hell do I get on your show?’ And I said, ‘You come down “I got my BFA, but I dropped out of the masters program,” N there,’ and that’s that.” he said. With that, the duo became a trio and Teddy Jack Eddy was born. His maniacal look and non-stop energy tied the final ribbon on the perfect cast. When they weren’t filming, you Mazeppa and the meaning of life Tulsa, April 1970. Thankfully, a couple Tulsa fixtures are still here: Gailard Sartain as Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi, courtesy Steve Todoroff. might find them drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes at Kip’s Big Boy, or hanging out at Magician’s Theater. It was a Jim Millaway still seems connected to his childhood self. Gailard Sartain and Jim Millaway. magical era in Tulsa, on screen and off. “You grow up watching TV and saying, ‘I want to do that,’ Oral Roberts University is a glimmering, cornflower- I heard legends about the magical episodes of Mazeppa Gailard Sartain was 24 years old. He was a student at the Jim Millaway, who was playing a major role in writing That’s still in the American culture. People are still desperate yellow tourist attraction, only seven years old. The from my family members who watched it when it aired University of Tulsa where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts as well as playing Sherman Oaks, told me about the recipe to do that. If you haven’t been on TV, your life is not fulfilled. Golden Driller is four—youthful but chiseled—with from 1970-1973. My Uncle Mark described a living and was working on his Master’s Degree. for hilarity that made Mazeppa. “Fortunately it was a small [laughs] We just sensed that early on and got that phase over a “Mid-Continent” belt buckle and stands outside a room full of friends, a record playing, lots of smoke and He lived in his childhood home on Quebec near the enough thing and we didn’t really think anyone was watching, with.” fairgrounds. His Mother, Betty, feared he would never settle so there was no fear of failure because, yeah. [laughs] But you Millaway is humble about Mazeppa, attributing the hilarity 20-year-old Bell’s Amusement Park. Camelot Hotel beverages of choice when the Mazeppa introduction down. He was a complex artist with huge ambition disguised have to have that no fear.” partially to the audience’s state of mind. “A lot of that humor is only three and fit for a wedding reception; The Mayo would start: a psychedelic array of neon lights from by an outrageous exterior. Later, he would be called the “local was, we called it, ‘viewer enhanced,’ because the viewers had Hotel is 45 years old and the doors are still open. rides at a state fairground with dramatic old music that nut” in a Tulsa headline. Mazeppa Gets Saved been out or in and doing various substances and watching Nearby, the ornate Cimarron Theater stands at 4th & sounds like it would accompany an entrance by the In 1970, he worked at KOTV, Channel 6 downtown, where TV, so they thought the show was a lot better than it actually Denver—a ballroom fit for a king. wicked witch of the west. he was a cameraman. Mazeppa wasn’t making much, if any, money for the was.” “I was foolin’ around on the set of Go for Dough, an station. However, a call from a local business owner may have Although the show hasn’t aired for years, its humor has I never got to see an episode—until now. afternoon show that was live,” Sartain says. “I just started st saved Mazeppa from being canceled. stood the test of time. Driving down Harvard between 21 and 31st, you see When my cardboard box of four Mazeppa DVD’s fooling around with Gary Chew, who was the host, and he “The powers that be thought it was just insane and didn’t “Millaway and I were watching them about 5 or 6 months a giant, shiny statue of a chubby cartoon boy painted in arrived in the mail, I tore it open and unwrapped them, was amenable to me foolin’ around, so I did.” want anything to do with it,” Sartain explained, “And they ago and we wound up laughing so damn hard that we were glimmering red, white and blue with a fixed expression noticing they were manufactured by “Sartain, Inc.” The audience reacted to Sartain’s personality. “People got ready to pull the plug when Ed Greer from Greer’s almost crying,” says Sartain. “I don’t know whether it was of happiness. He’s the mascot of “Kip’s Big Boy,” home These shows are local, obscure and indie as they come. started calling in, saying, ‘Who is that silly guy doin’ that?’ Electronics called and said, ‘How do I buy time on that because of the nostalgia of it, or if it was really that funny… Some people liked it, and some people hated it.” show?’” but when we discussed it later, we both agreed we thought it of the big boy hamburger. This is your favorite burger Chances are, you haven’t seen an episode of Mazeppa One day an opportunity presented itself–somebody left “And they said, ‘What show?’” was funny. We did have some gems in there. Some of it was joint to hang out at night for coffee. either. You were either 1) Born too late or 2) Didn’t their position as the host of a horror movie wraparound show. “They said, ‘You know that late night thing on Saturday not, but we had some gems.” The city is going through a musical renaissance. catch them on TV the first time and haven’t bought Sartain seized the slot. “I asked Art Elliot, the program night with the crazy guy.’” All three of the leading cast members went on to have Gailard Sartain on the set of Mazeppa. Photo by Gaylord Herron. Downtown near 18th & Boston, Magician’s Theater the four DVDs of existing episodes. They are obscure director, who I was on good terms with, ‘Why don’t you let “And they said, ‘We don’t have anything like that.’” successful careers in entertainment. Millaway and Sartain and Nine of Cups are hot spots, attracting amazing mostly due to technology and lack of archiving—the me do that?’ And he said, ‘Well, hell, I might as well let you “And it really went like that. Finally somebody said, ‘Oh, worked on a CBS show together in LA. Millaway returned because you’re gonna be here anyway.’“ I know what it is. It’s that guy that’s the cameraman. He’s to Oklahoma to work as a writer for Roy Clark Productions musicians and nightly parking lot fights. Leon Russell news directors at Channel 6 & 8 taped over Mazeppa ends up angry and slapping Gailard at the end of Suddenly, Sartain was less than a week away from filming doing that late night thing now.’” and Hank Thompson’s TV show, as well as hosting another is the Master of Space and Time and Jim Halsey is each week to make the “best” use of two-inch tape. In almost every scene he’s in. his first episode without a clue of how to pull it off. “‘Oh!’ So then everyone fell in line after that. The show got Tulsa movie wrap-around show in the 80’s before entering cranking entertainment through town. fact, the DVDs that exist now only account for about a Dr.Mazeppa Pompazoidi (Gailard Sartain) is the popular.” his family business. Tulsa has only 4 stations on TV: 2, 6, 8 and 11. tenth of what they actually aired. Most Tulsans haven’t wizard who stops in to introduce a movie, but Sartain Gailard asks Jim to help with Popular it was. The actors were quickly becoming local “You can only do showbiz for so long,” Millaway said. Home VCRs don’t exist yet and you only have one seen the footage for forty years. plays a different character in almost every scene. There’s his TV Show icons and being recognized around town. “I’ll never forget it, Leon Russell named his son “Teddy Jack” after Gary one time I took my parents out to dinner,” Gailard recalled, Busey’s Mazeppa character, and Sartain later painted one of shot to see what’s on TV, and you’d better not miss it. The DVD exists because of pure luck. A few people Jerry Ralph R.B. Bob Bevis, a furniture salesman, Over a cup of coffee at TU, Jim Millaway was pulled into “And some old woman came by with a whiskey voice and Leon’s album covers: Will ‘O The Wisp. Specifically, you better not miss Mazeppa Pompazoidi ran off some tapes before they were destroyed, and some Johnny Donut, host of “Dialing for Dullards,” Coach the cast of a brand new show. grabbed my hair and pulled my head back and said, ‘I don’t Busey and Sartain were both in The Buddy Holly Story in every Saturday night, because Saturday Night Live fans with access to commercial recording equipment Chuck, a demanding gym teacher, Chuckles Gufaux, Sartain recalled, “We were in the student union one day think that hair is real.’” 1978, and both continued entertainment careers that have doesn’t exist yet. made copies. I slid my DVD into the player, turned up a professional “laugher,” Benny the Crusher, a wrestler and I told him I had this show I was gonna do, and he said, “I said, ‘God almighty.’” lasted to the present day. TV ends at midnight. That’s right folks, programming the volume, watched the psychedelic intro and leaned who is secretly gay… and many more. ‘Oh, no kiddin? What are you gonna do?’” “My Mother was appalled. She said, ‘How often does that “Mazeppa was just something that was meant to be,” Sartain “I said, ‘I don’t know—and it’s on this Saturday! You gotta happen?’” reflected. “It was like you mentioned the talent in Tulsa, isn’t never-ending. There’s a 3-minute “sign-off” into the screen. How did they come up with all this? Sartain has a help me!’” “I said, ‘Too damn much.’” it’s still here, and it’s everywhere, it’s just… some kind of segment with American Indian Dick West at the end The cast: hypothesis. “I think it’s the chicken poo poo that’s in “And he said, ‘No I don’t!’” synchronicity. I don’t know. I’m trying to put my mind to of the night. the water from the chicken farms in Arkansas that “And I said, ‘Yes you do! I’m not kiddin’ Jim, you got to!’” Lawzee! (“Lordy” is too sacrilegious to what it could be, but it’s not anything extraordinary other Then, anti-climactically, TV goes off the air. Sherman Oaks (Jim Millaway) is the sweetly made us silly.” “And he said, ‘Oh alright. But I’m not gettin’ on camera, say.) than who wants to pursue it, to even get lucky, and when they southern-accented host and interviewer for most skits. Jim Millaway mentioned the local inspiration. “The I’m wearing a sock on my head or something.’” do get lucky they better be able to deliver, because you only And so Jim Millaway came on board as Sherman Oaks, There’s a skit where Sherman Oaks interviews Benny get lucky about once. One time off the high dive, and that’s Tulsa, January 2011. With a sense of the audience, he provided stability and audience was in on it. We would portray characters the character who always donned the same costume: a mask the Crusher. Benny (Sartain) is yelling at the top of his it.” pacing, playing a vital role in balancing each act. with regional humor. Everyone knows one of those or from TG&Y at Utica Square with fake glasses and hair that lungs about how he’s going to tear someone’s head off at an Oral Roberts is dead. Camelot Hotel, Bell’s Teddy Jack Eddy (Gary Busey) is “the man with unfortunately is related to one of those. We were just covered only the top half of his head. upcoming wrestling match. At the end of the scene, Sherman Amusement Park and Cimarron Theater have all been the talent,” whose Hollywood acting school teaches kind of riffing on a character.” Oaks asks the cameraman, “Are we off?” As soon as Benny Lindsey Neal is a writer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a torn down, and, instead, we have the massive BOK everything from crying, falling and slow motion Mazeppa’s Lost Year thinks he’s off the air, he deflates into a flamboyant gay man regular contributor to This Land. who says he’s exasperated and thinks he stubbed his toe. Arena. Kip’s Big Boy is now a Village Inn. fighting to how to make airplane sounds. Teddy Jack The Makings of Mazeppa Pompazoidi.