"We found Excelsior Springs to be a dumpy little town." LOL I see little has changed. At this time my grandpa and 7 year old Dad would drive 75 miles taking loads of sheep to the Kansas City stockyards-at one time second in size only to Chicago. After getting his check at the stockyards auction building Grandpa liked treating the family to a meal at 'The Golden Ox'.
That "Indian" sculpture is the Scout, Dedicated in 1922 as a memorial to local tribes, The Scout depicts a Sioux scout on horseback. Originally cast for the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, it arrived in Kansas City for a temporary exhibit on the way back to the sculptor on the east coast. Cyrus E. Dallin, of Boston and Paris, sculpted The Scout for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco where it won a Gold Medal. Citizens were so delighted with the statue that they raised $15,000 to purchase it. Its prominent position on a hill in Penn Valley Park overlooks the city. This larger than life-size equestrian statue has become a symbol and a mascot of the city. It now rests a top a large stone plinth.
My grandfather worked. at Union Station during this time. He worked there for 40 years, from 23 years old to 63 years old. When I was a child, he showed me bullet holes in the columns from the shootout between Pretty Boy Floyd and the Feds. Before he worked at Union Station, he worked for J.C. Nichols, and he helped build what is now known as the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on the Plaza--the one with the horses. My sister, who once had a store on the Plaza in the early 70s, told me that the shops on the Plaza did better during the depression than other areas, because Nichols had the store owners pay a percentage of their profit for rent, rather than a set price, so if their sales went down, so did their rent.
I can remember going to union station in the 50’s to pick up my grandmother. Every time I was there it was absolutely packed with people. It seemed to me there wasn’t a single foot that wasn’t occupied. Those were good years there. I spent many Saturday mornings at the movie theater on the plaza. My. Brothers and I spent a lot of time on the plaza in 54-55. I was 5 and they were only 11. We were on our own no adult was around. Certainly different times. This film brings huge memories. I remember all these sites the zoo was a great place back then.
One of my earliest memories is Union Station. I escaped the grasp of my mothers hand when I spotted my big brother when he came home from Viet Nam. Mom didnt see him, but I did!😁
FYI. Wyandotte is the name of an indigenous tribe. Also, the name of a county in Kansas directly across the Missouri River from Kansas City, MO. While you’re at it, check out Quindaro Township.
7:32 Wyandotte is the Kansas county in which Kansas City, Kansas is located. It is also the name of an Indian tribe (actually a combination of 3 tribes that united) that moved to Kansas City, KS from Ohio. There was a time when Kansas City, KS was called Wyandotte City.
His description of the grass at the Truman Home, in Independence, Mo is an ignorant description to say the least. Harry Truman didn't believe in spending a great deal of money on making the yard "Look Pretty"; and as far as the overall condition of the Truman Home (at that time), it was "Lived In" and it had it's issues (like every other house). Heck, the Truman Home still has it's issues and is a National Park! The Wallace House next door to the Truman Home is also part of that National Park.
Hey in your listing change it it said Jackson City instead Jefferson City. I find Mr Truman interesting. I've been to the houses that you showed and in one down Lamar Missouri and a few of the other ones. His father couldn't hold a job for whatever reason they move around quite a bit. Have you been in the pendergast mansion. Still got bullet holes but then it's on the historical site list. What's the connection? Some say pendergast is the reason Truman was put on the ticket. You might figure in the gas mansion with bullet holes he may not been the best guy. Google it research it. It's been said Harry Truman was one of pendergast men. But I've got at least a hundred relatives that would not be here if it wasn't for Harry Truman dropping the bomb on Japan a couple of times. That makes him okay with me! And for all you who want to cry about it. It saved million Japanese lives if you hunt thousand American lives. Plus it kept the Russians from gaining territory and a warm weather Port for the naval ships. They still don't have one. We got enough trouble with Chinese and they're Navy. Sure wouldn't want to have the Russians in there and how different Cuba would have been possibly if the Russian Navy could send him more ships. Horse a real way he ended that is that John f Kennedy secretly pulled our missiles out turkey. But in any case he gave us more leverage because they were not in the Pacific Ocean and that all goes back to President Truman dropping the bombs on two Japanese cities. Hey they started it and killed thousands of ours men in uniform and Pearl harbor. And you know until about decade or so ago they taught it quite differently in their schools. Now I suppose they're friendly country with us now we still protect them and we buy a lot of their stuff. So Harry Truman was the right person at the right time for the job of President of the United States. Even if he was a Democrat.
@@sharonc.2207 Had to think for a moment but you're right Independence is in Jackson county. And they did talk about the shoe factory or whatever it was right next to Capitol building my how things have changed. Me in a little while since I've been to Jefferson City. I'm into the old car thing. And I remember there's a VW bug and Van shopping salvage yard south of there a little ways. Thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't thought about it thanks for the reply
The City Of Kansas City Missouri is in the State Of Missouri which was A City Before Kansas was Established As A State. They Basically Copied Off From Kansas City Missouri and Now Today The Metro is linked to 2 states...like other metros...Cincinnati, New York etc...
Kc starts to get hot n humid in april
Amazing how well preserved is the color on this old film. Somebody really took care of it.
Kodachrome film does not fade.
Thank you!
"We found Excelsior Springs to be a dumpy little town." LOL I see little has changed. At this time my grandpa and 7 year old Dad would drive 75 miles taking loads of sheep to the Kansas City stockyards-at one time second in size only to Chicago. After getting his check at the stockyards auction building Grandpa liked treating the family to a meal at 'The Golden Ox'.
oh yes indeed
I miss when the plaza wasn't just for tourists and more local businesses. It wasn't ran by an out of town real estate firm like now.
That "Indian" sculpture is the Scout, Dedicated in 1922 as a memorial to local tribes, The Scout depicts a Sioux scout on horseback. Originally cast for the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, it arrived in Kansas City for a temporary exhibit on the way back to the sculptor on the east coast. Cyrus E. Dallin, of Boston and Paris, sculpted The Scout for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco where it won a Gold Medal. Citizens were so delighted with the statue that they raised $15,000 to purchase it. Its prominent position on a hill in Penn Valley Park overlooks the city. This larger than life-size equestrian statue has become a symbol and a mascot of the city. It now rests a top a large stone plinth.
TY I grew up in K.C.
My grandfather worked. at Union Station during this time. He worked there for 40 years, from 23 years old to 63 years old. When I was a child, he showed me bullet holes in the columns from the shootout between Pretty Boy Floyd and the Feds. Before he worked at Union Station, he worked for J.C. Nichols, and he helped build what is now known as the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on the Plaza--the one with the horses. My sister, who once had a store on the Plaza in the early 70s, told me that the shops on the Plaza did better during the depression than other areas, because Nichols had the store owners pay a percentage of their profit for rent, rather than a set price, so if their sales went down, so did their rent.
Thanks for sharing that. I would like to hear more stories you have.
Nichols was a great man. TY I grew up in Northeast area. Going to the Plaza was a big deal.
I agree. JC made greater Kansas City a beautiful place to live.
I can remember going to union station in the 50’s to pick up my grandmother. Every time I was there it was absolutely packed with people. It seemed to me there wasn’t a single foot that wasn’t occupied. Those were good years there. I spent many Saturday mornings at the movie theater on the plaza. My. Brothers and I spent a lot of time on the plaza in 54-55. I was 5 and they were only 11. We were on our own no adult was around. Certainly different times. This film brings huge memories. I remember all these sites the zoo was a great place back then.
One of my earliest memories is Union Station. I escaped the grasp of my mothers hand when I spotted my big brother when he came home from Viet Nam. Mom didnt see him, but I did!😁
Lived all my life in Kansas City, all my family lived in the River Quay.
You can barely hear the narrator over the totally inappropriate music….having said that, it’s cool to see KC as it looked in 54.
FYI. Wyandotte is the name of an indigenous tribe. Also, the name of a county in Kansas directly across the Missouri River from Kansas City, MO. While you’re at it, check out Quindaro Township.
The Western Auto sign was new THAT year.
14:20 crazy how half the buildings here don't even exist anymore, as I-670 is entrenched in their places.
Kansas City is my fav city in MO
Fantastic footage - thanks for sharing!!
I'm taking this with me if I back in time.😁 6:49 LOL, Bugs Bunny on the Plaza!
7:32 Wyandotte is the Kansas county in which Kansas City, Kansas is located. It is also the name of an Indian tribe (actually a combination of 3 tribes that united) that moved to Kansas City, KS from Ohio. There was a time when Kansas City, KS was called Wyandotte City.
Then they decided they wanted to leech off a Missouri city and the rest is history
It's also a street on The Plaza
For more info on the plight of those tribes, and their history in the KC area, check out Lyda Conley. She needs a movie.
Wow! (And I never realized David Lynch did a travelogue of my hometown 😄)
I think you'll find that is Jefferson City and Jackson County. Not Jackson City.
I love KC
Classic footage of K.C.Mo.
Nice work clips
His description of the grass at the Truman Home, in Independence, Mo is an ignorant description to say the least. Harry Truman didn't believe in spending a great deal of money on making the yard "Look Pretty"; and as far as the overall condition of the Truman Home (at that time), it was "Lived In" and it had it's issues (like every other house). Heck, the Truman Home still has it's issues and is a National Park! The Wallace House next door to the Truman Home is also part of that National Park.
As someone who grew up in excelsior springs, it is still a dumpy little town lol
that's the "Scout", dude on the horse.
Hey in your listing change it it said Jackson City instead Jefferson City. I find Mr Truman interesting. I've been to the houses that you showed and in one down Lamar Missouri and a few of the other ones. His father couldn't hold a job for whatever reason they move around quite a bit. Have you been in the pendergast mansion. Still got bullet holes but then it's on the historical site list. What's the connection? Some say pendergast is the reason Truman was put on the ticket. You might figure in the gas mansion with bullet holes he may not been the best guy. Google it research it. It's been said Harry Truman was one of pendergast men. But I've got at least a hundred relatives that would not be here if it wasn't for Harry Truman dropping the bomb on Japan a couple of times. That makes him okay with me! And for all you who want to cry about it. It saved million Japanese lives if you hunt thousand American lives. Plus it kept the Russians from gaining territory and a warm weather Port for the naval ships. They still don't have one. We got enough trouble with Chinese and they're Navy. Sure wouldn't want to have the Russians in there and how different Cuba would have been possibly if the Russian Navy could send him more ships. Horse a real way he ended that is that John f Kennedy secretly pulled our missiles out turkey. But in any case he gave us more leverage because they were not in the Pacific Ocean and that all goes back to President Truman dropping the bombs on two Japanese cities. Hey they started it and killed thousands of ours men in uniform and Pearl harbor. And you know until about decade or so ago they taught it quite differently in their schools. Now I suppose they're friendly country with us now we still protect them and we buy a lot of their stuff. So Harry Truman was the right person at the right time for the job of President of the United States. Even if he was a Democrat.
Maybe supposed to say Jackson County and Jefferson City but they got lazy and combined them
@@sharonc.2207 Had to think for a moment but you're right Independence is in Jackson county. And they did talk about the shoe factory or whatever it was right next to Capitol building my how things have changed. Me in a little while since I've been to Jefferson City. I'm into the old car thing. And I remember there's a VW bug and Van shopping salvage yard south of there a little ways. Thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't thought about it thanks for the reply
Nuice!
This is Kansas City Missouri in the 1950s, Title should be called Jackson County not Jackson City.
Ah, so it is, Missouri. 👍😎🇺🇸
@@huwzebediahthomas9193 Yep you got it brother
KC skyline downtown didnt look much different up to the 1980's.
"Here we have Bug Bunny made popular by Walt Disney" ...whoops
Listen again 06:59 he said the bunny sings songs produced by Walt Disney. Music probably from his cartoons
Ben Stein, (Ferris? Ferris?), must have taken speech lessons from this guy. He was clueless to The Plaza Lights.
You lost me when referring to Bugs Bunny as a Walt Disney character.
The narrator was a jack ass
Listen again 06:59 he said the bunny sings songs produced by Walt Disney. Music probably from his cartoons
20:25
This was a time when America was peaceful before the Hippie era of the 1960s
@@mikedrown2721 Right and the Black community became are what they are today due to Lyndon B Johnson creating the stupid welfare system.
Really???? Duck and cover.... 🔥
@@mikedrown2721 think the 1945 two nukes on Japan did it, really!!!
The hippie era was rad. It was the 80s and Reagan neoliberalism that really tanked this place.
Not peaceful for African Americans but i digress
There should of been no music
The good days are long over here, ruined by mayor lucas
Many think Kansas is a state, can't remember where it is in, Missouri is it? I forget. 🇺🇸
Half is in Missouri half is in Kansas
The City Of Kansas City Missouri is in the State Of Missouri which was A City Before Kansas was Established As A State. They Basically Copied Off From Kansas City Missouri and Now Today The Metro is linked to 2 states...like other metros...Cincinnati, New York etc...
Kc Kansas-kc mo