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Amarillo’s Wolflin Village, which not so long ago was an abject, sparsely populated strip mall, is now the kind of elegant shopping center Oprah Winfrey’s staff would flock to in an effort to surround her with comfort if she happened, for example, to be stuck in Amarillo for five weeks or more. Winfrey is stuck in Amarillo, going to court every day as a defendant in a lawsuit brought against her by several cattle-raising entities. The beef industry blames her allegedly unfairly edited episode about mad cow disease for not representing all the facts, thus causing a precipitous decline in beef sales. Wolflin Village is full of tony shops, including a fine linen boutique, a store full of china and crystal, a popular epicurean cafe, and the Casual Gourmet, which is known as Amarillo’s most comprehensive kitchenware store. However, despite its resuscitation, Wolflin Village – conveniently situated across the street from the Amarillo Little Theater where Oprah is taping her daily show – is not accustomed to an undue amount of attention. The stores stock the hottest goods in Amarillo, a town where it’s no exaggeration to say that trends arrive about two years after they saturate much of the nation. Plenty of Amarilloans will tell you that’s exactly why they love their city and why they choose to raise their families there.
That’s not what 22-year-old James Turner, a “visual merchandiser” (glorified window dresser?) at the Casual Gourmet, will tell you. He has certain obvious gifts, like intelligence and good looks. But there’s more. If you don’t perceive them at first, you’re doomed, because while he might be too gracious to inform you of them, J.T. (as he is known to his friends) is loaded with charm and the gift of gab, which he’ll use to draw you out of yourself and have you saying things you never imagined you would have said.
This reporter is grateful for his gab; although Amarillo is my hometown, investigating the many odd media events proved to be an initially vague process. It’s difficult to know exactly what’s going on in this miasma of “Oprah Mania.”
Like other Wolflin Village employees and merchants, J.T. was witness to a media invasion that erupted in full force the day of Oprah’s arrival January 21 and didn’t ebb until several days thereafter. His recollection of Oprah’s first day of taping is clear:
“We shut and locked our doors about 4:45 or 5pm. I was standing outside watching everything from 4:00 on. My bosses and I went over there and saw Oprah driven up in her Suburban. She rolled down the window and waved and got out and everyone started yelling, `Oprah we love you! We love you Oprah!’ Right… like you can love someone you don’t even know! Of course, I was thrilled too, but then I’m amazed by fax machines and cable TV… easily amused. The panty ladies were there,” the proprietors of Pam’s Lingerie, several doors down from the Casual Gourmet. “Everyone shut down to watch the excitement.” J.T. alone had run-ins with crews from CNN, People, Entertainment Tonight, the BBC, the local news crews, a crew from Oklahoma City, and a reporter from Toronto.
“It was just media frenzy. People would walk into the store. We’d think they were customers. They’d walk around and look around and then come up to us and say, `Hey, can you talk?’ They’d whisper to us, `Can you talk?’ And we’d say, `Talk about what?’ That’s what the reporter from Toronto said: `I’m from such and such paper in Toronto. Can you talk?’ `Talk about what?’ `Oprah.’ `Well, yes.'” And surprisingly, “All the reporters were so nice except for the Amarillo ones. The Amarillo ones were so pushy. Maybe it was because it was their town and they didn’t want to be scooped by out-of-towners.
“One newscaster from Amarillo kind of made me mad. He came in and said, `What do you think about Oprah?’ and Oprah’s chef had told us not to say anything or do any interviews – that lasted all of about three or four days – but I wouldn’t really do local news anyway. I would do Toronto because hey, who do I know up there? If I look like a jackass, then I look like a jackass, at least people don’t know me. So I said to the Amarillo reporter, `I don’t have a comment.’ See, I didn’t get energized until I met Oprah’s chef and personal assistant and I thought, `Oh my god! It’s Oprah!’ And then I became totally starstruck. Because I’m… you know, a redneck Texan,” he says with a hint of self-deprecation.
“The newscaster kept asking why I wouldn’t just talk to him, asking where Oprah was staying. And of course [my bosses and I] didn’t say. But we knew where Oprah would be staying two days before she told anyone because we had to make deliveries there. The newscaster kept pushing, telling us that it wasn’t even his story and that he was fixing to move to San Antonio anyway. So that night on the news it was his story, of course. The next day he was out in the parking lot covering the issue and I told him he was a liar.”
Though they all note either an increase in sales or traffic through their stores, the Wolflin Village merchants at this point are relieved the coverage has died down and seem disgusted by reporters’ tactics and leery to make comment. Several of them have become well-versed in the lingo of public comment, telling me that instead of being quoted that they’d like to be “a reliable source,” or off the record, or an “informed insider.” When I tell them that it’s not the latest legal news about Oprah I’m looking for or how much money she’s spent in each store, a puzzled expression passes over their faces.
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“I saw one news crew interview these two articulate, well-dressed, neutral women outside the store. They were asking what people thought Oprah should do for fun while she was in town and on the news that night instead they had some redneck hillbilly who said, `I think Oprah ought to go to that Ruby Tuesday’s ’cause they have a lot of Hollywood memorabilia.’ That’s the biggest bunch of bull… Oprah doesn’t care about Hollywood memorabilia, and if she does she can go buy whatever memorabilia she wants.”
Since both parties involved in the lawsuit are under a gag order, much of the media frenzy surrounding the case has consisted of reporters quoting each other and the media talking indirectly about the case and directly about themselves. News events in Amarillo are rarely mirrored by national news events, but then isn’t it odd that within the same time frame, Oprah temporarily moves to Amarillo to defend herself against Texas cattlemen and it comes to light that a former White House intern allegedly had a sexual relationship with the President? What’s similar about both cases is that no one who is directly involved in them is speaking.
As for Oprah, she arrives at court at 9am every day and waves to the crowd, then recesses for lunch and when court adjourns for the day she’s driven over to the Little Theater in her big black Suburban to tape her show. During that daily routine, she may have a moment to chit-chat with one or two fans… but not about the lawsuit. Reporters can spend all day in the courtroom and report about what takes place there, but they can only surmise Oprah’s feelings or intentions given that she hasn’t yet testified, if she will at all. And as for the Presidential scandal, it’s quite clear that independent counsel Kenneth Starr is not talking to intern Monica Lewinsky’s attorney, William Ginsburg; speculation and innuendo run rampant.
Thank god there are commentators in Amarillo like J.T., who finishes up our conversation by reflecting on the newly popular sport of obtaining Oprah tickets in Amarillo.
“I’m not standing in line more than an hour. I’ve got stuff to do.”
This article appears in February 6 • 1998 and February 6 • 1998 (Cover).