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The KC Downtown Loop · Nov 26, 2023

In The Loop: December 2023

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Kevin Worley · The KC Downtown Loop

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday! 🎁 Check out the “Welcome” section below that lists December concerts and events, then treat yourself to a night or two Downtown during the season. I’ll see you out on the town!

No prizes or praises (for now), just a trivia question to test your Downtown knowledge….

Q. Which band in 1923 was the first Kansas City group to record a phonograph recording of its music? Clue: The band leader was born on Dec. 13, 1893, in Kansas City, Mo.

A. See the answer near the bottom of this issue.

A century and a half ago, the city’s board of education established our town’s first public library (although the official date of establishment is December 5, the actual meeting of the board was December 4 in Downtown Kansas City).

“…The Library enhanced the image of Kansas City as a community that was civilized and cultured, which was attractive to East Coast promoters offering financial support to Kansas City's then-fledgling economy,” according to library’s website.

The library’s first “collection” was an encyclopedia set — which remains in the possession of the library to this day. Today’s system of a Central Library and nine branches now boasts more than 1.2 million items in its collection.

The first building solely dedicated to library use was built at 8th and Oak streets and opened in 1889. The building (shown here in 1910) still stands today, although it is no longer a part of the Kansas City Public Library system. Photo: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Mo.

On the southeast corner of 15th and Troost (now Truman Road and Troost), the 1,400-seat New Center Theatre opened this month in 1916. It started as a facility for live productions and silent films, before “talking” movies took over at the theater around 1929.

Originally leased to movie house proprietor Samuel Zueker of Chicago, the New Center appears to have become a cultural and entertainment attraction for Kansas City’s African-American community at some point in its history.

A 1919 ad in the Kansas City Sun (see below) promoted a production with an “All-Star Negro Cast” and “Colored People Seated Anywhere in the House.”

A 1930 article in the Kansas City American reported that the theater in that year employed an all-Black staff, “from manager down to janitor,” with a total of 48 employees.

The New Center Theater was housed in a seven-story office building on the southeast corner of what is today Truman Road and Troost Avenue. Photo: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Mo.
Advertisement from the March 1, 1919, Kansas City Sun.

After the inaugural season of Negro National League Baseball in 1920, the Kansas City Sun published fictional (and perhaps snarky) letters to Santa Claus from the various team owners from the league, beginning with the home-team Monarchs:

From Negro National League founder and president Rube Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants:

And from John Connor (not Connors) of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants:

In an adjacent article, the Sun reported that 700,000 people watched Negro League baseball that year, and that “One hundred thousand White and Negro fans attended the Monarch games at Association Park the past season without the lest bit of friction.”

The newspaper also noted that the Monarchs drew more spectators than the white Kansas City Blues team of the minor league American Association.

Bringing you some of the most interesting properties for sale or lease in and around Downtown Kansas City….

Property presented by: Michelle Van Trump
Brokered by: Van Trump Realty LLC
Price: $1,590,000
See the property online here

Homes and buildings featured in The Loop are not necessarily recommendations or endorsements, but rather illustrations of interesting properties for sale or lease in the vicinity of Downtown. Properties may or may not remain available at time of publishing.
A postcard from the Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection, mailed in 1916, depicts Union Station and trains at night. Mrs. Ray wrote, “The scene is especially nostalgic at Christmastime. At this time of the year students were coming home from school for the holidays. Trains arrived all day and from all directions, and a jam of parents and friends were in the station lobby, awaiting their arrival. Everyone was in a gay mood, and sometimes carolers sang from balconies above the lobby.” Image: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Mo.
At the Mariah Carey concert, T-Mobile Center, Nov. 24, 2023. Photo: Jeff Foster

Answering the question “Who are all these people and where are they going?”, The Loop brings you a list of some of the biggest events happening Downtown each week. Please give a friendly Downtown-Kansas City welcome to audiences and attendees of….

TODAY

1st - 5th

6th - 12th

13th - 19th

20th - 26th

27th - 31st

For a more exhaustive list of everything happening Downtown, go to the VisitKC events page and use the “regions” function to search for Downtown, Westside/Southwest Blvd, West Bottoms, River Market, Power & Light, Crown Center, Crossroads, 18th & Vine — or anywhere you want to go in the KC Metro

For live Kansas City Jazz performances, visit LiveJazzKC.com

Q. Which band in 1923 was the first Kansas City group to record a phonograph recording of its music? Clue: The band leader was born on Dec. 13, 1893, in Kansas City, Mo.

A. With an assist from Kansas City's Winston Holmes Music Store, the Bennie Moten Orchestra recorded several songs at the Okeh Recording Company in Chicago on Sept. 23, 1923. (Band leader Bennie Moten was born this month in 1893 and grew up on Woodland and Michigan avenues near Kansas City’s music halls.)

Write to: tips@kcdowntownloop.com or contact The Loop via social media

Kevin Worley, Co-Publisher/Editorial
Joe Nichols, Co-Publisher/Business
Direct links to all social media available at the bottom of this link

  • Terence and Marsha Arredondo

  • Karin (Erickson) Bradford

  • Henna and Steve Fuller

  • Chris Gahagan

  • Bob and Susan Hiatt

  • The Kiwinda-Tinsley Family

  • Todd and Donna Martin

  • Jane Reed and Mark Patterson

  • Anonymous

  • Anonymous

Read the original on kcdowntownloop.substack.com ↗

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