Kansas City Streetcar 1956

    A few months ago, the Star ran an article about bringing back streetcars to Kansas City. The reporter, Lynn Horsley wrote that the last streetcar run was in June 1957. The article prompted a memory I had of the folks taking us to ride a streetcar before they went out of service. I didn't remember where we started the ride, but I remembered it ending in the Plaza. Through my research I found the following clip. You can see we three older children riding in the front of the car with I assume the one parent not filming. I don't remember which parent rode with us, but if it went as usual Mom would have been left with the assignment to get in position and film us while also herding 18-month old Cindy.



     To my disappointment it wasn't technically the last run since we rode it in 1956 and the streetcars ran into 1957. Horsley wrote that the ridership peaked shortly after the World War II at 136 million riders a year, but by 1956 had lost nearly 100 million riders.

      Steve told me when I brought this film to his attention that the San Francisco streetcar system has a streetcar painted like an old Kansas City streetcar.

The A's and the Yankees 1957

     As mentioned earlier in 1955 the A's decamped from Philadelphia and moved to Kansas City replacing the Blues, a Yankee farm team. In this clip are Steve and I watching a game in August 1957. As Steve pointed out when I asked what team the A's were playing, "It's Mickey Mantle striking out."

And Yogi Berra catching. Also I can see the number of the A's pitcher who comes in in relief, number 25, Arnie Portocarrero. Portocarrero came into pitch in the top of the 3rd, one batter after the prior relief pitcher had given up a grand slam. He faced Mantle in the top of the 5th and struck Mantle out. It seems a weird swing if you ask me.

       Mary Grace kept a calendar instead of a diary, but they are almost as informative as a diary would be. But the calendar for 1957 has gone missing so I had to use other avenues of research. From the chronology of the home movie I know Scott [Scott's birthday is June 29] has been born and school hasn't started. Through the following web site I was able to throw out all night games between the A's and the Yankees in July and August and then narrow it down to the one day game Mickey Mantle struck out in.  Info about the A's-Yankee game, 

After all that, I believe this game is Aug 22, 1957. The following is the report from the New York Times of the game. The story seems more concerned that the Yankees still travel by train instead of flying than the game.

KANSAS CITY,          Aug. 22-It didn’t take the Yankees long to put the rambunctious Kansas City Athletics in their proper place today.

Irked no end over the two successive defeats pinned on them by Harry Craft’s men, the Bombers exploded for six runs in the third inning. Four of the tallies rode in on a grand slam homer by Harry Simpson and from there the Yanks rolled on to an 11-to-4 victory.

Thus their dignity restored by salvaging one decision in the three-game series, the Bombers were able to move on to the next stop with a comfortable lead of six and a half lengths over the Chicago White Sox, idle today.

However, there was one little fly in the ointment for Casey Stengel, Don Larsen, despite the commanding lead the six-run blast provided, again failed to go the distance. In fact he failed to survive five rounds and so did not receive the victory. This went to Johnny Kucks who, belted out in the first inning last night, returned today to do four commendable rounds and pick up this tasty tidbit.

Mickey Mantle also did not fare too well in this struggle with Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox for the batting lead. Getting a single for his only blow of the series, the Switcher went hitless in three other official times at bat and saw his mark fade to .377. Meanwhile Williams playing in Cleveland added a point to his average and now leads with .386.

However most of the other Yanks did well for themselves in a fourteen-hit barrage that started against Wally Burnette and continued against three others. Near the end, the Athletics trotted out a 19-year old bonus left-hander, Dave Hill who always can say that in his first appearance he was clubbed for a homer by Yogi Berra. It was no. 19 for Yogi.

Larsen, roughed for two tallies in the first inning, seemed to be on easy street after the Yanks came up with their six in the third. Simpson’s homer was an unusual shot in that it cleared the left-field wall. It was no 10 for Suitcase Harry, who formerly played for the A’s and his second in two games.

A two-run homer by Joe DeMaestri, however, routed Larsen in the fifth.

Immediately after the game, the Yanks hustled off for their long train haul to Cleveland, which should produce more grumbling in the ranks. The majority of Yankee players do not at all take to the club’s non-flying policy and there were plenty of complaints after the thirty-hour ride on the rails that brought them from New York.

As one player expressed it, “It’s all right to say players twenty-five years ago used trains but players twenty-five years ago, didn’t have to travel from New York to Kansas City. Also they weren’t smothered in night games. In this modern age, where the players rest is constantly broken up by night ball, he should at least be assured of a night’s sleep in a hotel room.”

Players with clubs that fly haven’t got a breeze, either, and there’ll be plenty of grievances aired by player representatives next winter from that quarter. Particularly is this true in the National League, where the common practice is to play a night game on the getaway, then fly immediately to the next town.

The New York Times

Published: August 23, 1957

Copyright © The New York Times

 

Suburbia 1955

    Because of the frigid, snowy conditions, I thought I'd post something involving warm and probably hot weather. We moved to Shawnee, a suburb of Kansas City, in 1951. Our house was part of a new development set  in the middle of a cornfield, actually I'm not sure what kind of field it was. But it was a gently rolling area barren of any trees. In this movie from the summer of 1955 we've lived there for four years, but the trees were still shorter than most of us. Mary writes in her memories of her life:

        Going in to 1955 we had two big events.  Both on the 17^th of January.  Nieman School was ready.  All the kids were loaded on a bus, one room at a time, with all their books and supplies and moved from Flint School to Nieman.  Steve no longer would ride the bus.  I took him in the morning along with assorted neighbor children and he walked home.

            The same day The Kansas City Star trial started.  Congress had decided you couldn’t own a newspaper and a radio and TV Station.  Some said the Star [trial] was brought on by Pres. Truman who was mad because they never hit the porch with his paper.  Ray covered it.  The Star lost but Ray got a raise because Mr. Roberts said he did such a good job.

      Glaringly absent from her highlights was one I remember vividly, that the Philadelphia A's moved to Kansas City. We had occasionally gone to the Kansas City Blues, a minor league team of the New York Yankees, but now we were entering the major leagues. (We thought that, but it turned out we were still a farm team of the Yankees, just not officially.) Even to me at five that seemed important. As you can tell from the following clip, Steve quickly donned a shirt celebrating that.

      Nancy Love who was Steve's age lived behind us. She can be seen running into the tent Sally received for her birthday. Also joining us in the tent is another neighbor, Richard Freyermuth.

     Below is the longer clip which even includes the city bus that went by more than once a day. If Mom needed the car, Dad would make his way to and from downtown on the bus. I'm assuming the commute which could take nearly an hour by car, would have been longer on the bus. If Sally and Steve have corrections, let me know.