The Constantine Theater in Pawhuska became the setting for a high-stakes oil-lease auction on January 18, 1923, when winter brought the oilmen indoors. With Greek columns, murals, and lights encircling the stage, the theater framed a public contest in which leases for land above the rich Burbank field drew bids of extraordinary size.

Setting and Appearance

Described as “the finest building of its kind in Oklahoma,” the theater offered a formal, brightly lit interior for the winter auction. Greek columns and murals gave the building a grand appearance, while a necklace of lights around the stage made the auction platform the room’s visual center. The setting brought the oilmen and their competition into a theater designed for spectacle.

The January 1923 Auction

Five months after McBride’s murder, many of the major oilmen assembled at the theater. Colonel Ellsworth E. Walters began with less valuable leases, reminding bidders that no tract would sell for less than $500. The first sale described began with a $500 bid and closed at $600. As the day went on, bids climbed through $10,000, $50,000, and $100,000, prompting Walters to remark that Wall Street was waking up.

Tract 13 sold to Harry Sinclair for more than $600,000. Walters then announced Tract 14, located in the middle of the rich Burbank field. The room fell quiet before a representative of Gypsy Oil Company, an affiliate of Gulf Oil, bid $500,000. Seated with a map spread across his knees, he spoke without looking up. The account leaves the bidding on Tract 14 at that opening offer, without stating its final price.

Significance

The theater’s role in the account is concentrated in this auction: its stage and auditorium became the physical setting for the rapid escalation of oil-lease prices. The progression from a $600 sale to a tract worth more than $600,000, followed by a half-million-dollar opening bid, makes the scale of the contest tangible. In this scene, the theater is more than a winter venue; it is the enclosed public arena where the value of the land and the intensity of competition are made visible.