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Victoria Lee's interview with Joesf Glaude and James Ruggles

Making It Happen with Guest Ann Downing

Allen Frizzell on Making It Happen TV

Tommy Brandt on Making It Happen TV

Jackie Cox on Making It Happen TV

Bob Bell - Bells Amusement Park

For the Christmas of 1946, before there was ever such a thing as go-carts, Bob’s dad made him a midget racer, which was powered by a Maytag washing machine motor.  After seeing what he had done, their next door neighbor approached him  about combining their skills and building rides which they could run on the weekends, to make extra money.  To start off, they built a miniature train, which was put on a track that circled their house at 2232 E. 8th Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  They didn’t charge for the rides, so it was kind of like a testing ground for them.  Later, his parents progressed to building small rides, which were placed on a playground, under the big screen at the local drive-in theaters.  After two or three years his dad and the neighbor dissolved and the neighbor went on to become a land developer, but Bob’s dad continued to make rides.
Bell’s Amusement Park became an Icon to the City of Tulsa.  I doubt if there is anyone in Tulsa who hasn’t experienced at least one time a stroll through the park.   At first glance, I don’t  think I expected Bob Bell to have the kind of heart,  I saw in him the day of our interview.  When I first saw him at the gate, he was busily attending to the functioning of a ride.  He appeared to be a man in a hat, with a pair of blue jeans on that was totally consumed in work.  However, as we went inside to talk, I saw a tenderness from this man, which brought tears to my eyes.  I asked him, if there was anything he would change in his life, if he could?  His words were “If you change anything, it changes everything.  I can’t even imagine not having the wife I have, or the children I have, or my role in life.  So No, I wouldn’t change a thing.”   “Wow, I thought.”