Funny Money

[Petro-Sooner]

Anyone read this? I'm about to dive into it. Its about the Penn Square bank fall out in the 80s do to the oil bust.

[OUHOMER]

I knew a few guys who had fun with their money until it came crashing down.

[mikeelikee]

I read it over 20 years ago. Regulators didn't do a very good job back then. I was in banking in 1982, and I still am. Bill Patterson--quite the loan officer!!

[1stTimeCaller]

You should also read Oil and Honor, the Pennzoil vs. Texaco war.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

I read parts of it a long time ago. That's some crazy stuff. I grew up around the banking business, so I remember when that happened. It really was a dark day in banking, even for people not associated with Penn Square.

[Sooner_Havok]

Bill Patterson-- Land lord to a friend of mine

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

Bill Jennings--We called him Mr. Peanut at my old job.

[bluedogok]

Funny Money was a more condensed version of what happened, Belly Up was a more detailed look at the PSB debacle. The writer of Funny Money worked for the NY Times at the time but has family in OKC.

There was also another one similar that was about a Vernon, Texas S&L during the same era but dealt more with real estate. The apartments that I lived in Dallas were mentioned in the book. My father knew of the guy having grown up in Altus.

[Petro-Sooner]

Anyone happen to know where the Penn Square shopping center was located back then? Its been mentioned several times and was just wondering. Are they talking about the mall or the Belle Isle shopping area? thx

[1stTimeCaller]

It's the tower where Harold's is isn't it?

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

Anyone happen to know where the Penn Square shopping center was located back then? Its been mentioned several times and was just wondering. Are they talking about the mall or the Belle Isle shopping area? thxPenn Square Mall was the same place it is now, it was just a strip mall. In the 80s they totally remodeled and enclosed it.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

It's the tower where Harold's is isn't it?No. That's 50 Penn Place.

[OUDoc]

Yeah, the bank was out on the northwest edge of the parking lot of Penn Square Mall. I never noticed if the building is even still there or not(I don't think so). It was separate from the mall, though.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

The building is still there. It is that small bank that is catty-cornered from Cheesecake Factory.

[Petro-Sooner]

Interesting.

We are located in the building that PSB built, or was in the process of, but never got the chance to move in.

[Mjcpr]

This book doesn't sound very funny at all.

[M]

I used to work in that building, now called the Valliance Tower. The views were awesome, and it was always interesting when Sky News9 would blast by your office, leaving you wondering how they didn't just clip your windows.

[Petro-Sooner]

It is a nice view!!!!

[goodonya]

Boy oh boy, you talk about memories. I was in the upstream business in the early '80's and officed on Park Ave across from 1st National. I got to see (and participate) in much of the debauchery that was OKC with the money flowing from Penn Square loaned by "the collateral is in the ground" wild Bill Patterson.

Funny Money is pretty good but doesn't have the detail of "Belly Up". If you want about 60% of the ugly picture of the wild times and unbelievable bad judgement and outright greed by PSB, Chase, Manny Hanny, SeaFirst, Mich. National, and the other cattle, read em' both. A girl I went to HS with in the late '70's was one of the Penn Square secretaries that got a battlefield promotion to jr. loan officer working for Wild Bill. It wasn't until our 10-year HS reunion that I was able to put the last 15% of the whole picture together. Combined, both books won't tell the the whole story but it's enough to get the sordid picture. BTW, a former OU wrestling champ was the engineer for PSB providing the "collateral" for the loans. He had a nice sailboat on Hefner at the time.

Many, many of the "unnamed" or "unidentified" characters in both books are or were widely well known at the time. My sin of the boom was not taking money offered by Wild Bill because I didn't believe we had the collateral to get through the loan committee. I wasn't just naive, I was stupid with a capital S.

[Petro-Sooner]

Switzer wrote in his book that him and a couple other guys took out a loan for a couple mill from PSB.

Only a chapter in but its interesting.

[bluedogok]

Yeah, the bank was out on the northwest edge of the parking lot of Penn Square Mall. I never noticed if the building is even still there or not(I don't think so). It was separate from the mall, though.
The one on the out=parcel was the motor bank lobby, they had the main bank sitting on what is now the Macy's wing off the main court area. It used to be next to a club that I think was called Clementine's. The bank collapsed while the tower was under construction. Sooner Federal Savings Bank was the one in 50 Penn Place.

Another even that occurred around the same time was the discovery of the Orbach's clothing store founders murdered bodies in their house just north of Penn Square. They were found four days before the bank closed.

Cold Case OKC - Orbach Case: Ken Raymond on Orbach murders (http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1119212095&channel=713285227)

[Soonerus]

The one on the out=parcel was the motor bank lobby, they had the main bank sitting on what is now the Macy's wing off the main court area. It used to be next to a club that I think was called Clementine's. The bank collapsed while the tower was under construction. Sooner Federal Savings Bank was the one in 50 Penn Place.

Another even that occurred around the same time was the discovery of the Orbach's clothing store founders murdered bodies in their house just north of Penn Square. They were found four days before the bank closed.

Cold Case OKC - Orbach Case: Ken Raymond on Orbach murders (http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1119212095&channel=713285227)


You are correct...

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

So what's happening in the book now? Are they filling boots with champagne yet?