Chapter 8 Phillipstown Icons

I think he and John D. Rockefeller shared a lot in common besides being pioneering profiteers in the oil business. It must have been the staid Christian upbringing. That and all the money just didn't mix. History records stories of old John D. Rockefeller in his dotage riding in the back of his limo beneath a big comforter with one of his young female assistants, who were old enough to be his grand daughters. It makes you wonder what his wrinkled arthritic hands were busy doing. If you have access to the Phillips anniversary album they gave out to all the employees back on the 50 year anniversary go to the pictures of old Frank Phillips sitting with the contestants of the bathing suit contest held annually down in Johnstone Park by the river. Guess who did the judging? I would wager that more than one of the young winners and probably the runners up found their way into old Frank's bed. Money and power corrupt and Bartlesville proved the rule rather than the exception. Our iconic royal family, the Kennedy's, illustrate this as well. The patriarch of the family, Joseph Kennedy, former ambassador to Great Britain and well known prohibition bootlegger, had a Swedish mistress who lived with the family at the Kennedy compound. One account has him keeping the whole family waiting at the dinner table as he returns from playing tennis, he takes the mistress upstairs in full view of his wife and kids, bonks her, then comes to dinner. Nice guy, wot? Is it any wonder his sons all turned out to be womanizers too? Well, Frank was probably full of himself. My father, a military man of 30 years and someone who did not need to prove his manhood to anyone having served in two wars, took one look at the cowboy costumes on display at Woolaroc that belonged to old Frankie, and said it appeared that the man was about 4 feet tall with an ego around 12 feet tall. I think that sums it up. Just like his contemporary, John D. he had the money and power to indulge any and all of his peccadilloes no matter how twisted. He also had a lock on public opinion in an essentially company town. His own little fiefdom: Bartlesville. Most of you know the story about Frank's hand picked successor, "Boots" Adams. If ever there was a conniving calculating man, he was it. When I was hired I had a beard. I was told that under Adam's CEO ship I would have been put on the plane and been sent home without having an interview. He employed spotters to see if PPCo employees patronized any gas stations other than Phillips. Employee's cars had to have Phillips tires and batteries unless they were original equipment on new cars. The guy was a megalomaniac. The topper was how he used his first wife, and Osage Indian to get exclusive rights to develop the Burbank Field, the field that made Phillips the company it became. I guess no sooner than the ink was dry on the lease, he divorced her. You have all heard of "Bud" Adams, owner of the former Houston Oilers and the now Tennessee Titans. Well that was Boot's son by wife number one. There is a family photo in the PPCo album showing Boots, Bud and trophy wife number 2 and all Bud's half siblings. Bud sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl. He is short and squat; his half siblings are all tall and slender, mirroring his step mom. It is no wonder why Bud Adams has rejection issues. If you recall he moved to Houston to make his fortune, with not a small amount of seed money from Pops (like all the kids got). He bought the Oilers and started a love hate relationship with the host city and its fans. Bud never really fit into Houston and never really tried to be part of the Houston social elite scene. It probably reminded him too much of Dad and the PPCo/Bartlesville elite. Hell, hadn't that nose in the air crowd run Cities Service Company out of "their" sending them packing to Tulsa? The town was only big enough for one oil company it seems. As you all know, Houston didn't see eye to eye with Bud Adams so he took his ball, and his team to Tennessee, where they became the Tennessee Titans. Maybe Bud will fit in better in the Volunteer state. I hope so; I think his dad really did him and his mother dirt. There were lots of stories about the Old PPCo, like the elevator girls in the old Frank Phillips building also serving as entertainment for visiting dignitaries. I assume call girl was not one of the job categories at Phillips listed with the Employment Commission. There was also the story about the bootlegger that the company employed. No he didn't make moonshine for the company, but he brought in and stored quantities of liquor across state lines, which was then illegal, for use by the company executives. Then there were the Nixon slush fund contributions. The story goes that a company functionary was caught traveling with a brief case full of cash. This was ostensibly to pay off some Middle Eastern potentate. But on investigation a money trail was traced and it was found that PPCo had made substantial contributions to a slush fund for then President Nixon. Not surprising really, there wasn't anything illegal about it then I don't think, and today we just call the PACs, or Political Action Committees. PPCo supported more than a few and I remember the company holding meetings soon after PACs were legislated, urging all employees to contribute. When the company urged anything you couldn't help feel the muzzle of the gun against the side of your head. United Way was the same way. I mean you came in and found nicely printed cards on your desk with your name and all relevant company info on the card. There were messages setting a deadline for completion of the pledge cards, and word had it each manager was expected to deliver a response of X percent as part of his performance evaluation. Never one to be pressured, I would dutifully submit the pledge and never send them a dime. My repugnance was only verified years later when it was revealed that the President of the United Way was using our hard earned money for booze and hookers. Hell, I wanted my hard earned money for booze and hookers. Let him get his from someone else. I often wondered if the company got kickbacks for strong arming their employees the way they did for so called charities.