A few days before Christmas 1959, a middle-aged man in a checkered tweed jacket hovered near a jewelry counter in downtown Tulsa, where — unknown to him — a dark-haired young woman was watching from the corner of her eye.
When the sales clerk turned away for a moment, the man casually lifted a gold-tipped cigarette lighter from the counter and slipped it into his pocket.
He was nearly to the front door when the young woman, a plain-clothes store detective, stepped in front of him.
“Mr. Seidenbach would like to see you in his office,” she said.
J. Leslie Seidenbach owned an upscale women’s clothing store near Fourth and Main streets. And he dealt with shoplifters personally.
This time, however, Seidenbach let the man go with a handshake. The “thief” was a Tulsa Tribune reporter who had gotten permission ahead of time to put the store’s security to the test.
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Downtown shops were cracking down on shoplifting that holiday season, when Seidenbach said the problem had gotten so bad that it was cutting profits in half, according to the archives of the Tulsa World.
Meanwhile, suburban shopping centers were stealing customers. Utica Square had been the first to challenge downtown’s retail dominance in 1952, followed three years later by Eastgate near Admiral Place and Memorial Drive. And Northland Shopping Center opened near 36th Street North and Hartford Avenue in 1957.
For the ’59 holiday season, downtown launched one of the first major campaigns to lure customers back from the ’burbs. Promotions included several square blocks of festive lighting displays plus free rides on a 40-foot Santa’s sleigh, free bus trips to the central business district and up to five hours of free parking in more than 40 different lots and garages.
Shoppers, nonetheless, still seemed to prefer the ‘burbs. Seidenbach’s closed by 1965. And most other major retailers left downtown by the end of the decade.
This year, however, Tulsa will try again with the “Downtown Days of Wonder” campaign.
The effort, organized by the Downtown Tulsa Partnership, will promote annual holiday events such as Arvest Winterfest and Glow on the Green. But it will also try to revive downtown holiday shopping with pop-up stores in some of the long-vacant retail spaces, matching local entrepreneurs with storefronts in the Deco District through Jan. 15.
DTP has decorated several square blocks of the old central business district and even had a local software developer build a virtual Christmas tree that will stand five stories tall at Fifth and Main streets, albeit visible only through augmented reality on a smartphone. And the group plans to make downtown even more festive next year, said Brian Kurtz, president and CEO of Downtown Tulsa Partnership.
“Our ultimate goal,” Kurtz told the Tulsa World, “is to go back to the days of the 1950s and ’60s, when we had these major lighting displays adorning downtown streets.”
Featured video: Scenes from the 94th annual Tulsa Christmas Parade
Scenes from the the 94th annual Tulsa Christmas Parade in Tulsa
Michael Overall
Staff Writer
Born and raised in Oklahoma, I write news features and personal columns on a variety of topics. Phone: 918-581-8383
