Lewis Meyer

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Junior League of Tulsa conducted oral history interviews with pioneer Tulsans on medicine, lifestyles, architecture, government, business, education, journalism, and many other subjects regarding the early history of Tulsa. The collection rests with the Tulsa City-County Library.
One of the interviews featured Lewis Meyer. For sixty years, Meyer was a Tulsa institution as an author, bookstore owner, and book reviewer.
Lewis Meyer was an attorney who found practicing law dreadfully boring, so he opened a bookstore in 1955 next door to the Brook Theater, now the location of The Brook restaurant at 34th Street and Peoria Avenue. He started writing book reviews for local newspapers in the 1930s, then began discussing books on local radio stations and even made public appearances to give speeches about books.
By the early 1940s, Meyer had his own daily radio program, “The Values We Live By,” and was speaking to crowds twice a week at downtown Tulsa’s popular Brown-Dunkin department store. His Sunday morning TV show, “The Lewis Meyer Bookshelf,” began airing on KOTV in 1953, and continued for 42 years.
By visiting the Tulsa City-County Library website and the digital collection, you can hear the entire oral history project. The library has granted permission for us to share this Lewis Meyer interview conducted March 26, 1980, by Danna Sue Walker who was the People and Places columnist with Tulsa World.
Listen to Lewis Meyer talk about early Tulsa radio, hypocrites, and alcoholism on the podcast and website of VoicesOfOklahoma.com.