PAC Bids Farewell To Yellow Jackets

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- They are ushering in a new era at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.  Those old bright yellow jackets the ushers wore are gone, in favor of something new.  When the Color Purple opens next week the ushers will be sporting new jackets.  They're not purple, but they're close.

Anyone who has ever attended an event at Tulsa's Performing Arts Center has seen the ushers wearing their very distinctive yellow jackets.  The yellow blazers have been the uniform for ushers at the PAC for more than 30 years.  Max Fisher whose company Event Services provides the personnel has worn his since 1985.

Max says originally the color was selected because people would see it and because of them, the ushers were given the name yellow jackets

We've been called the Yellow Jackets, bumble bees, yellow coats, gold coats and things not printable," said Max Fisher.

When a gift from the Performing Arts Center Trust made new jackets possible, they found, no one makes yellow blazers anymore.

So, they started looking at everything from bright orange and lime green to black and they settled on burgundy.

There's something nostalgic, something we'll miss about those very loud, very yellow jackets.

Inside the Chapman Music Hall the new jacket color coordinates better with the new color of the seats.

The name "Yellow Jackets" won't work anymore, so the Performing Arts Center is holding a name-the-ushers contest.  The winner gets a gift certificate for the Daily Grill in the Crowne Plaza Hotel.