Waite Phillips is a jut-jawed, beetle-browed Oklahoma oiligarch who likes portmanteau words based on his name. Such are the Philturn Rockymountain Scoutcamp ("Phillips" riveted to "good turn"), Philmont (his 300,000-acre New Mexico ranch), Philtower and Philcade (his skyscrapers at Tulsa). Oiligarch Phillips last week did a good turn at Tulsa, where the Philbrook Art Center was opened. Its aim: to make culture gush in an oil town once called (by Harper's Magazine) a "cultural Sahara."
Philbrook was formerly Donor Phillips' million-dollar Italianate mansion. Its first exhibition featured borrowed paintings. But Tulsans put on a $50,000 drive to buy art for themselves,...
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