SCHLEY RIDE TO KANSAS CITY

[Music] april 1954 and we're in kansas city this is a pan left to right overlooking kansas city's downtown section that's the union station in the foreground and we're seeing all of this from the penn park it's a memorial to the world war one soldiers we'll get a little better picture later on of just where we're looking from this is a popular spot for photographers because you can look out not only across the union station but on over to the rather interesting skyline of kansas city that was a wide angle at f7 and a half now we're going to a one inch at f7 of the union station and the kansas city skyline we have descriptive information in our folder which describes all those skyscrapers that you see in the distance in honor of those who served in the world war in defense of liberty in our country ruth walks towards the museum portion of this memorial of the war of world war number one the observatory tower was observed there and we have a wide angle of memorial park we approach observation tower the center tower center is the tower and the two museums are to the left and right with the kansas city skyline in the background and we work to a 40 millimeter tint pan of the observation tower which might be taken back and cut in previously at the tilt shot at 160 feet wide angle dissolved to a one inch this is an indian on a pony with a skyline background from penn park this indian is pictured in much of the literature and on many postal cards from kansas city he's described in the literature we have in our file folder kansas city's city hall is now world famous since it was so well advertised early in 1954 in flight magazine kansas city city hall is located in an area which apparently was once a slums area across the street from the city hall is the federal building and when we went to the steps of the federal building to make these shots looking across the street from the statue then over coming in on a close-up so that we could actually read city law unfortunately [Music] area [Music] the country club plaza is a unique area where all the new buildings are new and of unique design and appearance it's a section removed from downtown kansas city and was built up in the very recent years this being 1954 free parking many large parking areas are provided and this industrious bank has not only provided a bank and a parking lot right on one of the main streets of the company that has also provided a bank deposit arrangement where you can make your deposit right from your automobile now this isn't particularly unique anymore milwaukee has this type but um it was set up here many years ago when the country club plaza was first originated yes you can make your bank deposit or draw money or write checks from your car window here in the country club plaza area of kansas city country club plaza as i said is a an area removed from downtown kansas city and is complete in itself every type of store shop banking service cafeteria look at this woman's square the cricket west and butchers p-u-t-s-c-h cafeteria [Music] nichols parkway and 47th street is sort of the keystone to this country club parrot has plaza area the word nichols refers to the name of the founder it's our understanding that a man by the name of nichols had this idea of planting this area building it up selling the lots and it's also our understanding that he owns many if not all of the buildings in this area of a commercial nature and rents them out however he's now dead and his son is taking over this is a view down nichols road again [Music] many unique things happen here in country club plaza we're always doing something to get the people to come downtown come over to country club class and do their shopping bugs bunny is uh used at easter time bugs is singing some of his popular songs made popular by walt disney some of the musical recordings and the children of course gather around to hear him at christmas time i suppose they have santa claus either live or otherwise this is at the corner of nichols road and wyandotte w-y-a-n-d-o-t-e i don't know what the wine dot refers to but that word comes up about as often as spring city does in waukesha we might look into that angle and find out just what wyandotte means to this area well it's uh still early in april first week in april that we're here in kansas city getting these beautiful views some of the trees are beginning to flower some of the trees are beginning to leave out but slowly we found that st louis for example was way ahead of kansas city probably two or three weeks in the leaving out section and in the matter of climate grass is much greener in st louis at this same time of the year that it is here in kansas city picture of kansas city again this is the starlight theater in kansas city this is an outdoor theater i would say it compares with the blatz outdoor theater in milwaukee for all general purposes it seats seven thousand six hundred people and is located in one of the parks in kansas city known as swope s-w-o-p-e swope park unlike the flats theater it has a tremendous number of permanent seats some of these pictures were shot from the stage and the stage has complete facilities with little wheeled types of conveyances to run on the paraphernalia for the stage and then we went on over to the zoo this is one of the first zoos that we observed any um elephants where both a an older or bigger elephant was present along with a baby elephant this baby elephant was particularly playful the keeper was cleaning up around the premises at the time we were there and often it was necessary for him to actually bat the playful elephant over the broad back of the elephant to get him out of his way the keeper complained that the elephant being a youngster was just as playful as an ordinary human being this was something new to us we had always thought that elephants were slow moving type of creature to be pushed about by a pike pole and chained by his feet but here's another demonstration that even in nature youngsters are playful in this zoo which of course is uh typical we also observed some sea lions they were just sea lions playing about in the sunshine of course spring comes much earlier to kansas city than it does to the milwaukee area and here early in april it was about as warm as we have it in milwaukee perhaps in late may or even early june the kansas city zoo as we observed it seemed to be more spread out if that's possible in swoop park then the zoo is at the washington park or west park as it used to be called area in milwaukee it does seem however that the zoo in milwaukee is a much more complete operation more specimens on exhibition and so forth we have in this zoo zebras and dromedary camp camels and our k keeper of the dromedary cattle camels and the zebra is a mr holloway h-a-l-l-o-w from mr helloway we obtained a release he uh has been with the dromedary camels and zebras for about three years now he said he thought that probably the camels had been mistreated at least when they were turned over to him they were a tough lot to get along with they're very ornery but during this three year period of time he has apparently won their confidence because he goes right into the zoo area with them right into the runways into the yard and for our cameras for the picture log cameras he actually unlocked a gate and opened the gate so that we might get a better shot of these camels than we could through the wire fence now we weren't too anxious to go on the inside and get even better views of these camels even though mr halloway invited us to do so we were mighty content to shoot through the gateway and having taken the pictures we were awfully glad to have him close the gate again if you're listening to this you better stand up that's one of those songs that makes us stand up i haven't got anything else to say municipal auditorium up baltimore avenue turn on baltimore to truman road this was 15th street before the name was changed to truman road we're looking east on truman road old 15th street you have the sign here indicating that this is the corner of truman road and baltimore streets in the distance it's the kansas city power and light company building and now we're going to travel out truman road to the east to independence missouri and the courthouse at independence missouri independence missouri is a typical small missouri town with a square and the courthouse located in the middle of this square harry truman's home is just a couple of blocks from downtown independence it's an old home probably built in the 1800s word comes to me not confirmed or verified that this home was built by harry truman's wife's family ancestors of mrs truman at the time we visited it in early april 1954 it wasn't in particularly good shape we thought that at least the grass and grounds of a home owned by a man who was or is the past president of the united states would be a little bit neater or better kept or let's say at least that the grass and the turf it would seem should have been better and that perhaps there would be more flowers and shrubs growing than we found perhaps however missouri gets pretty hot in the summertime and maybe grass doesn't grow as well as it ought to maybe it kills out here in the summertime yes harry truman's home has a antenna for receiving television programs i don't know if he listens into margaret's programs or not some of the windows are still have the stained glass of a bygone era the home has a an iron fence all the way around it and it would appear that the front gate is rather securely locked several sets of wires seem to run from the front gate as a matter of fact uh there's a push button to the right of the front gate and apparently this rings a bell inside of the house this may be something that goes back to the time when mr truman was president united states we tried unsuccessfully all morning to get an audience with mr truman or at least to get permission to photograph his uh office but as you will see later we got only the outside door then later on we traveled up to excelsior springs out of kansas city this is maybe all between 30 and 40 miles perhaps out of kansas city maybe not quite that far this is a health center something like hot springs arkansas the spring water here and so forth apparently has given rise to a number of these uh various types of hotels and health resorts there are some clinics that do quite a specialized type of business on the disorders of the colon and so forth and the town is pretty well built around this uh spring water deal they even wash their cars in the excelsior spring as you have noticed perhaps the outstanding one is the elms hotel this as we traveled around the city was the biggest most up-to-date and neatest and we understand that it is to the elms hotel that harry truman often came for a quick rest during his term as president of the united states we're finishing up a few uh views of excelsior springs typical street scene and the mccleary clinic for colon and rectal disorders also a view of the united states post office in excelsior springs if you ever visit excelsior springs the mccleary clinic is among those that you will certainly see and if you have any colon or rectal troubles it's a spot that's visited by people from all over the world frankly we were disappointed with excelsior springs seems to be sort of a little dumpy type of town of course that's what happens so often when something is so highly advertised as excelsior springs and then you get there and it just doesn't live up to your ex expectations well i'm not taking away from the healing angle i know full well that the hospitals here do a fine job and um that there have been many many people cured of their troubles but as a resort town it just doesn't seem to measure up and i often wonder since we've been there why harry truman spent the time there that he did incidentally the hall of waters as it is known is a building that's now owned by the u s government but they want to give it up and it will be necessary that two hundred and eighty five thousand dollars be raised by excelsior springs and the community then the u s government will turn the hall of waters building over to the little town of excelsior springs i can't give all of the background on this but i know that they are going to have an election and vote to determine whether or not the city should go in debt raise the bond issue for the sum of two hundred and eighty five thousand dollars now if the government doesn't sell the building to excelsior springs then the building is going to be closed at the present time it houses the chamber of commerce and other important buildings federal reserve bank building at 10th and grand avenue and the doorway to the bank building are all being shot now back in kansas city and we're doing this because these are the doorways that the former president harry s truman has to enter on his way up to his office and uh because we were unable to get in his office they were holding a big meeting there we're just showing you a shot of his door which plainly says and simply harry s truman and now we're going on to the capital of kansas of missouri jefferson city missouri and here is an odd one right in the shadow of the capitol building we have tweety t-w-e-e-d-i-e [Music] tweety footwear right next door to the capitol building right around the capitol here are many beautiful sites many beautiful buildings office buildings beautiful landscaping the capital itself is a beautiful site to behold and it's quite unusual to find this tweety footwear a bootery or shall we say a showery a place where shoes are made apparently tweety purchased this land many many years ago right next door to the capitol building and then as the business of the state of missouri grew um office state office buildings and other important buildings were built around and well tweety's still there town of jefferson city missouri is not an extraordinary town