This follows up my initial "review" of this marvelous book by Steve Lackmeyer & Jack Money. My 1st was based upon a "quick look" through each of the pages. This one is based on actually reading all of the text through the 1st 6 chapters, from the preferatory pages (small Roman numeral pages) through Arabic page 70 (the entire Arabic pages total 186, excluding the 10 pages of footnotes and index at the end.
And, these are "large" pages ... it's a "coffee table" size book.
Although lavishly illustrated with gorgeous images throughout, this book isn't just "pretty", it is a true "history" book which details the activity associated with downtown Oklahoma City as to events occurring from 1955-6 forward to the present day. I'm not a "fast" reader, and reading all the text takes time ... and don't think that the overall length of the book (196 Arabic pages plus several in the first which are Roman numeral pages) means that it is "short". I'm just guessing, but I'd suppose that the "text" portions of each page are probably 8 point font size, maybe 7, so that's a lot of text on each magnificent page. This is a "serious" history book, unlike any other I've seen of Oklahoma City history in its detail.
After numerous acknowledgments, the book begins with a magnificent 2 page "Foreword" by Bob Blackburn, Executive Directory of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The Chapters are: (1) Urban Renewal, (2) "Downtown of Excellence", (3) A New Downtown, (4) Urban Renewal's Demise, (5) Neal Horton, (6) Big Plans, (7) The Crash, (8) Bricktown's Second Chance, (9) "Downtown is dead, and we helped kill it", (10) Visions of a New Frontier, (11) Swing the Vote, (12) An Unexpected Challenge, (13) Butchering the Steer, (14) A Real Life SimCity, and (E) Epilogue.
Having closely read through Chapter 6, I've not been disappointed in a single paragraph or page (save the nit-picky comments about the Criterion being a Cinerama theater, below). I've learned more stuff that I didn't know in pages 1-70 than I've read in hundreds of other pages elsewhere!
I said I rated the book 5 stars (highest rating) in my earlier "quick" review. I now give it a 5++++ stars. It is wonderful. It is a gem.
Not to detract from that opinion, the authors did get one thing wrong in some of their preliminary remarks ... when talking about the Criterion Theater on pages 5-6. On those pages, it is said that, "As late as 1960, Cooper Theaters was upgrading its stately Criterion Theater in downtown Oklahoma City, making it the state's only Cinerama Cinema."
Unless I am badly misinformed, the Criterion was never converted to Cinerama ... but, in fact, the former Harber (even before that, the Liberty) was, becoming the Cooper Cinerama in 1960. It was on Robinson, west side, immediately north of the Colcord. I think that probably the authors confused the Criterion at 118 W. Main with the Cooper in the 100 block of North Robinson. For more about downtown Okc theaters, see
Doug Dawgz Blog: Let's Go Downtown To The Movies .
But, the Cooper wasn't the 1st Okc Cinerama (and not that the authors said that it was) ... around 1953-56 or so, the building which was originally the Overholser Opera House (1903), to become the Orpheum (1921), to become the Warner (1928), became Oklahoma City's 1st cinerama theater around 1953-56 at 217 W. Grand (Sheridan). It was razed in 1964. It is shown below in a 1956 or 1957 pic:
And, Tulsa had Cinerama theaters, too, though I'm not sure if there was one in 1960. Below is an advertisement for the Fox, which opened in 1966, advertising for Kubrick's
Space Odyssey ...
... and in 1965 the Continental Cinerama opened in the NW part of town (now destroyed) and Tulsa had one of those, too.
But, aside from these nit-picky comments about Cinerama theaters in Oklahoma City, and that the Criterion was not one of them, I have nothing but praise for this great book.