Tinker intersection has extensive history: First Hollywood and Vine street sign 40 years old

Published Feb. 23, 2008
By Brandice J. Armstrong
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- In Los Angeles, the Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street intersection is a well-known landmark. At Tinker, it could be legendary.
   Named after the southern California intersection, Bldg. 3001's focal point for foot-traffic directions has an extensive and near-fabled history. Its first sign debuted 40 years ago and its origins began at least 15 years before that.
   "Exactly when people started calling the crossroads 'Hollywood and Vine' is unclear, but it was surely part of the parlance by the time of the Korean Conflict," said Dr. James L. Crowder, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center historian since 1980.
The United States entered the Korean Conflict in 1950.
   In late 1967, F.C. Wilkerson, a longtime maintenance division chief, officially named the intersection. He had his sheet metal shop employees build an official 'Hollywood and Vine' green street sign for the site. The photo of the new sign ran in a January 1968 issue of Tinker Take Off, Dr. Crowder said.
   The wide, east-west walkway became "Hollywood," while the narrow north-south footpath was named "Vine," Dr. Crowder said.
By 1981, the OC-ALC intersection was in the news again.
   Dr. Crowder said an anonymous visiting four-star general saw the sign and thought it was unprofessional. Mr. Wilkinson removed the sign and replaced it with the professional-sounding, "Quality and Production" street sign. Yet, it was reportedly still referred to as "Hollywood and Vine" by Tinker personnel.
   During Maj. Gen. Richard A. Burpee's tenure as OC-ALC commander, from 1983 to 1985, the "Quality and Production" was taken down and replaced with the "Hollywood and Vine" green sign.
   Dr. Crowder said the identity of the four-star general remains a mystery.
   "Years later, Ron Bledsoe, then-executive assistant to the OC-ALC commander, asked the OC-ALC Office of History to investigate all possibilities as to who the mystery four-star general was," Dr. Crowder said. "Circumstantial evidence pointed to the two men who commanded the Air Force Logistics Command in 1981."
   Dr. Crowder said he knew one of the two men on a personal basis and called the now-retired general at home. He, Gen. Bryce Poe II, said he was innocent.
In recent years, the green "Hollywood and Vine" sign was replaced with a blue street sign.