Historic oil paintings return home to NBC Oklahoma

Robert Margo with Eraldo Carugati’s painting of his grandfather, R.D. Cravens

OKLAHOMA CITY – Before NBC Oklahoma’s North Penn location was a bank, it was home to a prominent early-day Oklahoma City real estate entrepreneur and his family. The family ultimately sold the home after a tragedy – a kidnapping and a murder – but for years, family members enjoyed the grand home near the corner of Memorial and Pennsylvania, surrounded by thick trees, gravel roads, fish ponds, hen houses, cattle and barns.

Today, portraits of the original owners, R.D. and Ida Mae “Mollie” Cravens have returned to their original home, thanks to a gift from two of their grandsons, Robert Margo and Craig Margo, both of Oklahoma City. Painted by Italian artist Eraldo Carugati, who came to Oklahoma after imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, the oil paintings hang in what is now NBC’s downstairs conference room. The Margos remember this conference room fondly as a sitting room.

The Margo grandsons remember riding horses through the property, which stretched at the time from NW 122nd to Memorial on the north and south and Pennsylvania and May Avenue to the east and west. Some of the offices on the south end used to be the three-car garage, which explains the unusual tiny windows. The large bay window in front of the teller station once looked out from on top of a hill at the woods; that cozy room was a club room with a fireplace, cordoned off by a wooden folding panel. The master bedroom suite was located in what is now CEO H.K. Hatcher’s office, along with R.D. Craven’s office; the dining room and kitchen were turned into the teller station and customer service offices.

Unlike today, there were no Walmart, Aldi’s, Hibdon’s Tires or any other nearby businesses, nor was there a Kilpatrick Turnpike bringing traffic to shop or eat at the busy Memorial and Penn intersection. The home was beyond the edge of the boundaries of Oklahoma City and entirely undeveloped.

Craig Margo with Eraldo Carugati’s painting of his grandmother, Mollie Cravens

Tragically, R.D. Cravens lost his life suddenly in 1962 in a ransom scheme that involved his daughter, Bobbie J. Margo. A gunman forced his way into the home she shared with her husband, Dr. Marvin K. Margo, and their two boys and demanded a $5,000 ransom. She called her dad, who withdrew money from the bank and went to their north Oklahoma City house. R.D. Cravens was shot and killed when he went to pay it. The gunman also shot Cravens’ brother-in-law, J.W. Quillian Jr., before killing himself; Quillian survived.

Robert and Craig Margo remember living at the Cravens home for about 18 months after the kidnapping and murder. The grandchildren stayed in upstairs bedrooms that are now NBC’s single large conference room. Craig Margo even remembers law enforcement agents hiding in the trees and a police officer moving into a house on the property.

Originally, the Cravens planned to move their children and families to the property so they could all live near each other. But after the murder, the Cravens family sold the home and surrounding property, and the land around it was developed. Capital National Bank bought the property and building and opened there in 1982; in 1995, that bank became what is today known as NBC Oklahoma.

Now, thanks to a gift from the Margos, a piece of NBC’s past is touching our present with the paintings of the Cravens having returned to their original home.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

NOTE: This biography was primarily researched by Aaron Moses, then curator of NBC’s Wigwam Gallery in Altus.

Eraldo Carugati was born in 1921 in Milan, Italy. In 1943, after the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the Nazis captured Carugati and placed him in the Dortmund Concentration Camp, where he survived by painting portraits of German soldiers and creating and trading forged Nazi rations stamps.

He escaped in 1945 and joined the U.S. Army as an interpreter (he spoke Italian, English, French and German).

Several years later, he accepted the longstanding invitation of an Army officer from Oklahoma, Capt. Jack Hart, to move to Paul’s Valley with his wife and child. Jack Hart had been injured shortly before Carugati arrived, so the artist stayed with Hart’s brother, Dean, on a six-month visa and began painting formal portraits.

The work led to commissions that included U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr, from Ada, who brought him to Oklahoma City, commissioned him to paint the senator’s entire family and then lobbied for the artist and his family to receive asylum in the United States.

Ultimately, Carugati moved to Evanston, Ill., and worked for the firm Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco, Inc., which worked in graphic design, photography and commercial art. Carugati became an illustrator who designed covers for publications like “The Rotarian,” “Time Magazine,” “National Lampoon” and others.

He created the cover art for the four 1978 KISS solo albums by Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss as well as the cover for Rush’s 1975 album “Fly By Night.” The National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution owns five of Carugati’s portraits, including of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, and of Alexander Haig, who worked as Secretary of State under President Reagan and chief of staff under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Other paintings reflect the artist’s interest in surrealism and left-leaning politics, such as a 1980 parody of George Washington after his image on the dollar bill.

Carugati died in 1997 at the age of 76.

Tragically, R.D. Cravens lost his life suddenly in 1962 in a ransom scheme that involved his daughter, Bobbie J. Margo. A gunman forced his way into the home she shared with her husband, Dr. Marvin K. Margo, and their two boys and demanded a $5,000 ransom. She called her dad, who withdrew money from the bank and went to their north Oklahoma City house. R.D. Cravens was shot and killed when he went to pay it. The gunman also shot Cravens’ brother-in-law, J.W. Quillian Jr., before killing himself; Quillian survived.

Robert and Craig Margo remember living at the Cravens home for about 18 months after the kidnapping and murder. The grandchildren stayed in upstairs bedrooms that are now NBC’s single large conference room. Craig Margo even remembers law enforcement agents hiding in the trees and a police officer moving into a house on the property.

Originally, the Cravens planned to move their children and families to the property so they could all live near each other. But after the murder, the Cravens family sold the home and surrounding property, and the land around it was developed. Capital National Bank bought the property and building and opened there in 1982; in 1995, that bank became what is today known as NBC Oklahoma.

Now, thanks to a gift from the Margos, a piece of NBC’s past is touching our present with the paintings of the Cravens having returned to their original home.