Molly Murphy's After-Hours Stories



Buck and The Cambodians –My First Molly’s Party

The first Molly’s party I ever attended was in October of 1982.  Prior to the party, management sent out a memo stating that anyone under 21 was strictly forbidden to order drinks and anyone caught doing so would be fired immediately.  Being the good little Catholic girl that I was (and surely still am today), I took the memo at face value and wondered how I was going to get around that little rule. How was I to know that the memo was strictly a formality and that at a Molly’s party, a 5 year old could get drinks with no effort at all?
At the party I employed the strategy of just drinking everyone else’s drinks as I floated from group to group.  Needless to say, I mixed beer, wine and liquor. (If you ever worked with David Campbell, you know there is a line that goes here, but I’m too nice to repeat it)  I was quite hammered by the time the party ended and Hobbit (Nick Randall) began what would become a familiar ritual and drove Camp Director and I back to Norman.

The next day I was sicker than a dog from drinking too much of everything and woke up about 30 minutes before it was time for Camp Director to pick me up to go to work.    I barely got in the shower and when Campy picked me up, she said I still had my makeup on from the night before.  I rode in the front of her Ford Ranchero wedged in between her and Terry Kelso. They were having a grand time making fun of me and laughing at my plight.
As soon as I got out of the car, I walked up to the back door and pretty much tossed my cookies in the back of Molly’s.  Three Cambodian kitchen workers and the love of my life, Zeb the Mountain Man (Buck Wynn) stood silently watching as I pretty much lost the entire lining of my stomach.  I remember thinking, “Ok, how bad can your life get when you lose it in front of the kitchen help and the hunk you’ve been flirting with all summer long?”
The Cambodians were murmuring towards the end.  God only knows what they were saying.  I’m sure it was something like, “These American girls can’t hold their liquor.”  Buck just sort of stood there and didn’t say much.  I think he knew better than to say anything.  With as much dignity as I could muster, I marched into Molly’s and cleaned myself up.

It had been the typical Molly’s party.  Miss Betty, the secretary, had discovered a member of upper management (who shall remain nameless) and Mai Tai sleeping on the back terrace of the club with no clothes on when she came in that morning.  We were all tired and hoping for a slow Sunday.  I was just praying that David would let me go home early.

I was pretty much running club door from the podium in a prone position when some puke from the Corporate Office (Ralph) strolls in for dinner.  It had been slow up to then and David had decided it was ok to admit 5 strippers who were in serious violation of our dress code and wanted to sit at Rat’s table.  (Hmmm, imagine that!)
I have to stand at the club door and look bright and chipper, David is in the back pretty much panicking and looking at the want ads wondering what the hell he’s gonna do with the rest of his life. For the first time in Molly’s history, 5 customers are served their salad at the table so that they don’t have to parade to the salad car in their Daisy Duke shorts and boob tubes.  Ralph takes his sweet time eating dinner.  Somehow it all worked out and we got the strippers out the back door without Ralph ever seeing them.

By that time, we were all exhausted and I was so glad when David let me go h ome.  Of course I had to wait for Campy and Terry for Tip Pool, so I hung out in the little hidden library by the DJ booth.  I shall be forever grateful to Jack Greenway for playing soft, soothing music for the rest of the night.      - Susie (Hazelton) Kitchen

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...back in 1976 after a very busy Saturday night. Us kitchen help were largely high school students and as a reward for the torture we went through that night, Russ went to the bar and brought a case of beer to the restaurant and we all sat and drank beer for an hour or two. Then drove home.  No liability issues there huh??   :-)
All night employee parties: I remember walking out several times at 6-7 am after the all niters.  Needless to say there was lots of "stuff" going on the parties. What great times those were. I wonder if anyone really remembers them??????     - Jeff Eason

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...those nights at Mitch's house were great, weren't they? Mark Shipp mentioned about how we thought
that house was haunted - do you remember? At night we'd all lay there in his bed and listen to creepy stuff in his attic (now, in
retrospect, I'm sure they were squirrels..lol). Although I had my own apartment in Norman, I think I spent 1/2 of my nights at that ole party house on Chautauqua...some craaaazzzzzy stuff went on there!     - Robin (Baker) Stiner
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I can't remember Monica's last name but she lived at the house too.  When it was Mitch and Cindy. I remember having to spend the night at "the house" because the girls where gone and Mitch didn't want to spend the night by himself because he felt "the ghost" messed with him.
So - there were several of us that went over there and on that night the cat kept getting petted in the corner... nobody there of course and the stereo went on full blast... not turned on. Lights would go off in the room that we where in and turned on in the rooms that we weren't in.

Let's see... what else... have you ever heard the fog story? Mitch claimed that one night ( his bedroom was in the back and there was a mirror in his room.) He woke up and saw headlights in the distance in his mirror ( which would have reflected the backyard) and all of a sudden the headlight zoomed into his room. OK - the fog story... Cindy said that she woke up and her room was filled with fog. She also could not stand for her closet door or drawers to be left open... yet, in the mornings.... yep you guessed it... the drawers and the closet doors would be open.

Now - for the good story - Dave Eage.... he claimed they all went over to get rid of the "ghost".... I must have been on one of my WWF adventures, because I missed this one..... but he claimes that they went to have a "cleaning of the house". As soon as they got out of the van, this bird started to chirp louding... it was around 2 in the morning... so he starts his little chant and the bird started to hawk very loudly... he said the lights started going on and off in the house... when everything became silent, they all went to investigate... in the attic was an old trunk... it seemed the ghost had luggage because the trunk was gone. Now, we all know that Dave used to tell me lots of crap and in my young age, I bought it all....( Ok - so I wasn't all that young... but I still bought it) so I don't know how much of THAT story was true.... you decide.... fact or fiction? Cindy did tell me that she woke up and say a man in which talked to her.... she can't remember what he said... but she did describe him.... goose bumps.     - Dottie Pearson
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Oh my god.  I am so glad Robin Baker found me!  I have been reading these stories today absolutely loving it.  Yes, that house was haunted and that ghost terrorized Mitch.   I think we called him” Irving”.   He was a ghost who was particular about his music and  hated Michael Jackson and would turn off the stereo every time we played “Thriller”.  Monica’s last name is Martin.  I saw her about 6 years ago but don't know her whereabouts now.  She moved to New York but had returned to Oklahoma, maybe Shawnee or Muscogee?  Not sure.  I still live in Norman.  Every time I pass that house I think of those days and Irving.  I’m beginning to think now, however, that our ghost may have had something to do with our life style.  You think?  Mitch took great care of Monica and I.  He used to make us French onion soup!     - Cindy (Sell) Hanska


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Once Kelly and I went to see "Psycho 2" with Marcia Lopez. In the opening scene, they flash back to the original with Janet Leigh in the shower right before she gets whacked. The whole theater was quiet.

Mark throws up his hands and says, "Dear God! Who smiles in the shower?"

EVERYBODY in the whole place laughed. We had so much fun that night.
Mark and I were spending the night over at Mitch's house and we dropped Kelly off. She called us later and begged to come over because she was scared. The electricity was out because of a storm. So Mark and I went and got her and we all slept in the living room.

Love you, Mark Shipp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     - Susie (Hazelton) Kitchen
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Oh My God!!!! I have forgotten all about that!!! I remember the night I spent at Mitch's House(one of many) and was scared to Death!! It was all about the Noises coming from the Attic! I was scared and spent the night in bed with Cindy Sell!! Remember us sitting in the living room with the lights out, with candles burning, listening for noises???     - Mark Shipp


I wasn't in Oklahoma City during the “parade and float” years; I was off in L.A. trying to survive without Molly’s.  But during a return visit I got in on the final night of float-building for the July 4th parade. The infamous Statue of Liberty float.  Nobody slept that night and the parade lineup started very early in the morning.  Everyone was beat.
Yes, like a rented mule.

Anyway, the whole gang builds this huge ten-ton thing, and early-morning parade day it’s all set to go.  The power underneath the whole thing: Scotty's poor little blue truck.  Not one of those big Ram-tough diesel deluxe jobs, mind you, just one of those little pickups that you use to take your lawnmower over to your mother’s.
So Scotty and I climb in and under and around and through the chicken wire, and into the cab of the truck.  There was a peephole in front of Scotty – about the size of an orange – and this was our connection to the outside world, including the parade route, the pedestrians, and the power lines.
Dave had secured the talents of a semi-local opera star to stand in the back of the pickup and sing "Lady In The Harbor" with a backup tape, through a makeshift PA system.  The kind of PA system that only Bob Tayar Enterprises could be proud of.

It had to be 120 degrees in that truck.  My God.  It was covered with chicken wire and kleenex or whatever, and there wasn't a hint of fresh air underneath it all.  Fortunately, Scotty and I had some foresight earlier that morning, and got ourselves a 5-gallon tub full of ice and Busch beer.
If you’ve never had the opportunity to pound a few cheap beers under circumstances such as excessive heat, sleep deprivation, dehydration and breakfast, it does come highly recommended for a few quick laughs.
I think we ended up the parade route in our underwear; it was so hot in there.  I shudder to think what that engine was going through.

Now to get the speakers to work so this woman could sing while we were moving through the parade, my job was to touch two bare wires to a screw behind the front seats inside the truck.  Every time we'd hit a bump or stop or start rolling, the wires would "jitter" off the screw and the music would turn on and off.
It was hilarious.  That poor woman probably never sang again.

Meanwhile, Scotty and I continued through the 5-gallon tub.  We'd finish a beer, and stuff the empty can out the window…and the next and the next.  We were getting an easy buzz and laughing our sweaty butts off.
All we could think about was the patriotic OKC crowd curiously watching a trail of beer cans coming out the back of a strange, sometimes operatic float at 9:00 in the morning, on a memorable, but entirely forgettable July 4th.     -Darren Stone



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