Monday, March 29, 2010

In Lieu of 1000 Words: Myra

Let’s take a break from recalling museum history and appreciate living history.

Late last month Myra Taylor turned 93 years young.

Be sure you read that wording right. Because anyone as feisty and vivacious as Myra acts on stage cannot be referred to as old. The kid is 93 years young.

A profile a decade ago in The Kansas City Star’s Star Magazine noted that she started in show business at age 15. She may be best known for her years as the singer with Harlan Leonard’s big band, The Rockets, in the 1940s. After spending much of the 1960s and ‘70s in Europe, she returned to the US, settling in Hollywood and landing in a few episodes of The Jeffersons. But in 1994 family brought her back to KC. And this city is most decidedly the better for it.

Actually, one statement in the last paragraph isn’t quite right. Myra Taylor is probably best known today, singing with the Wild Women of Kansas City. Along with singers Geneva Price, Lori Tucker and Millie Edwards, you cannot find a more enjoyable, just downright fun, night of music than these ladies – each one a wonderful vocalist – deliver.

A 2007 NPR interview and (way too short) performance can be found here.

The Wild Women played all over KC the week of Myra’s birthday. I caught them Friday night at The Blue Room. Here’s a smidgen of the wildness we enjoyed (clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it).

The Wild Women of Kansas City. Left to right: Lori Tucker, Geneva Price, Millie Edwards, Myra Taylor

Behind the ladies: Kevin Young on bass, Mark Kaplan on drums, Mike Moreland on electric piano

Myra Taylor

Lori, Geneva, Millie and Myra

The Wild Women of Kansas City

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Other Jazz Museums That Weren't, 3

Let’s recap: Part one and part two of this series told of initial efforts in Kansas City to create a jazz museum, bringing us up to the 1980s, when the Count Basie Orchestra announced that, at a hall of fame ceremony on August 21, 1985, the band would officially move its headquarters to Kansas City.

*****

“The International Jazz Hall of Fame - an organization that exists on paper but has no physical home - will present an awards and induction ceremony at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Music Hall that will honor some of the biggest names in jazz.

“The ceremony, to feature performances by the Count Basie Orchestra, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and others - is one of the biggest single events attempted by Eddie Baker, executive director of the Charlie Parker Foundation and a leading proponent of the project. If the event comes off as advertised, it could be a keynote in the eventual establishment of his long-envisioned International Jazz Hall of Fame.”

The Kansas City Star, August 18, 1985

*****

“An evening of long-winded introductions, heartfelt testimonials and glib humor Wednesday marked induction ceremonies into the International Jazz Hall of Fame….

“The Basie band, under the leadership of Thad Jones, closed the evening with a spectacular set of classics and contemporary material, highlighted by vocalist Carmen Bradford’s emotional, bluesy rendition of ‘Happy Birthday,’ in memory of the Count, who would have been 81 Wednesday.

“Guitarist-vocalist George Benson, accepting Miss Fitzgerald’s award, spoke of his pleasure in returning to Kansas City to hear legendary stories of Kansas City’s jazz era ‘again and again from a different point of view.’ Mr. Benson then performed three numbers with the Basie band.”

The Kansas City Star, August 22, 1985

*****

“On August 21, only about 500 people attended induction ceremonies into the International Jazz Hall of Fame. The event, held in the Municipal Auditorium, featured performances by the Woody Herman Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra.

“[The] chairman of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, and others said that the Hall of Fame ceremonies suffered organizational problems and that ticket prices of $150 to $20 didn’t help.

“Disappointment at the turnout may not be the only negative legacy of the Hall of Fame ceremonies. Last week, Mr. Woodward said that in light of the poor turnout he was reassessing a commitment he made last year to make Kansas City the Basie orchestra’s home.

“‘If that (the Hall of Fame event) was an indication of support, perhaps there isn’t as much support as we thought,’ he said.

“He didn’t indicate when a final decision would be made.”

The Kansas City Times, September 16, 1985

*****

“Although Kansas City has been the official home of the Count Basie Orchestra since last summer, the band’s leader said there had been little progress toward actually establishing a headquarters.

“Aaron Woodward, the legendary bandleader’s adopted son and chief executive officer of Count Basie Enterprises, Inc., said he had been unable to find a corporate sponsor to support the band’s Kansas City area activities....

“‘I can’t point to any success or pending success,’ Mr. Woodward said. Therefore, he said, he is concentrating on upcoming recording sessions....

“‘I feel like I’ve wasted a year,’ Mr. Woodward said. ‘I don’t see anything coming of it….Basically, I’m looking in a different direction….’

“Mr. Woodward said he began questioning the support for jazz in Kansas City after seeing the relatively light turnout for the International Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at the Music Hall on Aug. 21, the late bandleader’s birthday. The event also marked the ‘official’ designation of Kansas City as the Basie band’s headquarters.

“Only about 500 people attended the program at the Music Hall to hear performances by the Basie band, the Woody Herman Orchestra and Bobby Brookmeyer.

“‘In almost any place on the planet earth, that would have been [an exceptional] lineup, but you only got a couple of hundred people,’ Mr. Woodward said. It got my attention. What kind of support is there really? Any support? Is it a pipe dream?’

“…Mr. Baker said someone in Kansas City needed to exercise leadership to assist the band in its efforts to find a home and to make peace between different factions pursuing divergent goals. Mr. Baker wants to establish his International Jazz Hall of Fame in the former Jewish Community Center, 8201 Holmes Road, or a comparable facility. Others have advocated establishing a center in the 18th and Vine Historic District….

“’Somebody needs to get all of us together,’ Mr. Baker said. ‘We want jazz back in the city. We could satisfy everybody, but first we’ve got to get together….I’m sick of arguing. I’m sick of fighting. I’m tired of trying to compromise…’”

The Kansas City Star, December 10, 1985

But this wasn’t why the Basie Orchestra never moved to Kansas City.

*****

In 1989, everybody got together, and the plan described in my post The Jazz Museum That Wasn’t was announced. Space for the Count Basie Orchestra was part of the plan.

That plan was one of the options outlined in a study done for the city. Another option in the study was the possibility of restoring the Gem Theater, tearing down the buildings across the street from the Gem and constructing a new facility. That, as we know, is what actually opened in September, 1997.

The study was delivered to the city in September, 1984.

Details, in another blog post.

(Next week it's back to other topics. Other thoughts and photos await posting, and if you've followed this blog any time, you know I can only go so long without shooting my mouth off. But this history will return sometime next month.)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Other Jazz Museums That Weren't, 2

Efforts to start a jazz hall of fame/museum in Kansas City date to the 1960s. Some of the earlier steps and missteps were recounted in part one of this series tracing KC’s path to a jazz museum, told through quotes from news clippings, documents and studies collected during my years with the Kansas City Jazz Commission and the Kansas City Jazz Festival.

*****

“The idea of a hall of fame has been kicked around since 1969, mostly by leaders of the Charlie Parker Foundation, which directs an academy for young jazz musicians, and by the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

“Many proposals for combinations of museum, exhibition hall and training center have been made through the years. Some of these focused closely on Kansas City’s contributions, but since 1977 Mr. Baker and the Parker foundation have advocated a hall of fame recognizing contributions of musicians around the world. In September 1977, Count Basie and saxophonist Charlie Parker were the first inductees into the International Jazz Hall of Fame.”

The Kansas City Star, August 18, 1985

*****

In October, 1983 the Kansas City Council passed a resolution to establish a Jazz Hall of Fame in the 18th and Vine Historical District.

*****

“Although significant interest in establishing a jazz hall of fame emerged in 1983, controversy about its proposed location seemed to dilute efforts to revitalize Kansas City as a jazz town....

“Eddie Baker, president of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation and Academy of the Arts, has envisioned an ‘international’ hall of fame within the building that currently houses the Jewish Community Center at 8201 Holmes Road. (The Jewish Community Center’s board of directors plans to relocate the community center in Johnson County.) Mr. Baker’s plan calls for more than a tourist attraction. He wants a center to serve educational needs and provide retirement plans for musicians….

“‘I think it ought to be where there’s some semblance of jazz jazz history,’ said [the co-chairman of the Jazz Commission], ‘and 18th and Vine certainly has that. The funny thing is, here’s all these people arguing over where the location should be and nobody has identified the money that will be required to do this.’

The Kansas City Star, December 18, 1983.

*****

“The race to finance a jazz hall of fame escalated last week when Eddie Baker, executive director of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation, received $10,000 and additional support to help finance his dream of an international jazz hall of fame, preferably on the city’s south side....

“Mr. Baker’s plans took a step towards realization Wednesday when Aaron Woodward, who is the chief executive officer of Count Basie Enterprises Inc. and the late bandleader’s adopted son, presented a $10,000 check from Mr. Basie’s estate to Mr. Baker for the International Jazz Hall of Fame, a project that Mr. Basie supported. Mr. Woodward said that a collection of his father’s memorabilia would be housed at the proposed hall, of which trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry are honorary co-chairmen.

“Mr. Woodward also announced that the Count Basie Orchestra would be based in Kansas City and would participate in educational activities at the hall when not on tour. Mr. Basie died in April.

“’Things are really beginning to happen now,’ Mr. Baker said. ‘The International Jazz Hall of Fame exists.’”

The Kansas City Times, December 24, 1984

*****

“The Basie band has agreed to participate in educational programs in conjunction with the International Jazz Hall of Fame.

“Mr. Woodward said plans called for the Basie band to be based in the city for several weeks each year, during which the orchestra would perform and provide musical training for young people and university students. However, the band’s busy touring schedule probably would prevent it from making more than a few appearances in Kansas City the rest of the year, he said.

“Mr. Woodward said the International Jazz Hall of Fame and the Count Basie Memorial Foundation, organized as a not-for-profit corporation as part of his plan to base the band in Kansas City, would be based at the Charlie Parker Foundation, 4605 the Paseo, until separate facilities could be established for the various entities.

“’The International Jazz Hall of Fame does exist,’ said Mr. Woodward, who added that Count Basie had endorsed the concept before his death. ‘That is a fact that is real. The International Jazz Hall of Fame and the Count Basie Memorial Foundation…are associated with the Charlie Parker Foundation. They are in the same place.’

“Mr. Baker said the Jewish Community Center complex, which is for sale for $3.5 million, would be the model for the kind of educational center needed for a hall of fame.…”

The Kansas City Star, August 18, 1985

*****

“Fourteen jazz greats will be inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame on Aug. 21, the late Count Basie’s birthday and the day on which the Basie Orchestra will officially make Kansas City its permanent home.

“The announcements were made Thursday in a press conference by jazz great Dizzy Gillespie and local jazz activist and bandleader Eddie Baker at the Westin Crown Center hotel.

“Mr. Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman, Jo Jones, Clark Terry, Ella Fitzgerald, Freddie Green, Woody Herman and Max Roach will be inducted into the hall of fame in a ceremony at the Music Hall.

“Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bobby Hackett, Mary Lou Williams and Art Tatum are to be inducted posthumously.

“Aaron Woodward, Mr. Basie’s adopted son and executive officer of the Count Basie Orchestra, confirmed today that the band’s headquarters would be moved to Kansas City on Aug. 21….”

The Kansas City Star, June 28, 1985

*****

I’m going to give away the ending: The Count Basie Orchestra doesn’t move to Kansas City.

But the reason why has nothing to do with the location of the International Jazz Hall of Fame. The reason why is…in another blog post.

(The next post will be up later this week.)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Other Jazz Museums That Weren't, 1

Groups in Kansas City had tried to establish a jazz hall of fame/museum at least since the 1960s.

In an earlier post, I told of the 1989 press conference officially presenting the city's plans. Those particular plans died but eventually led to the American Jazz Museum.

There’s plenty more to the story. So here, part one of a look at Kansas City’s convoluted path to a jazz museum, told through quotes from news clippings, documents and studies collected during my years with the Jazz Commission and the Jazz Festival.

*****

“The move to create a jazz hall of fame in Kansas City began almost 20 years ago when Kansas City Jazz, Inc., a group of Kansas City businessmen with an interest in jazz, began inducting performers into a ‘hall of fame’ in conjunction with their annual jazz festivals. Sherman Gibson, a lawyer and semiprofessional trumpet player who helped organize the group in 1964, said about 13 performers were inducted.

“‘We had inductees,’ Mr. Gibson said, ‘and we had some ideas about coming up with a place for a museum.’

“In 1969 the group explored the possibility of a hall of fame near 12th Street and the Paseo. Kansas City Jazz, Inc. became largely inactive after 1975, he said.

“‘We had lots of people with ideas but nobody with money,’ Mr. Gibson said.”

The Kansas City Times, December 24, 1984

*****

“The intent of this report is to demonstrate the applicability of a Cultural and Arts Center for the Armory Building at 1701 East Eighteenth Street. The Mutual Musicians Foundation, Inc., and the Black Economic Union, with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, have been able to establish a jazz program and the architectural feasibility of such an undertaking. The project is now ready to begin….”

“The Armory…was constructed in 1924. Originally, the building was named the New Rialto. In 1929, the building was renamed the New Boone Theatre in honor of John W. ‘Blind’ Boone, the famous black child prodigy pianist and composer from Missouri, who died in 1927. In 1949, the building was remodeled and renamed Scotts Theatre Restaurant and Show Bar….Scotts housed vaudeville acts, good food, musical entertainment, drama and motion pictures. A subsidiary of the Orpheum Circuit booked nationally touring acts in the building on a regular basis.

“A few years later the restaurant closed and the building was acquired by the State of Missouri. It was converted into a National Guard Armory and became the home of the 242nd Engineering Battalion, an all-black National Guard unit. The 242nd was disbanded in 1960 with the elimination of segregated National Guard units in Missouri. A few years later the City of Kansas City acquired the building from the State for the token sum of $1….

“Eighteen months ago the City agreed to sell the Armory Building to the Mutual Musicians Foundation for a token fee. [Since] the MMF acquired the building they, working with the Black Economic Union, have been attempting to determine the most feasible approach for rehabilitation of the Armory Building into a Jazz and Cultural Center….

“The major use of the building will be to present imaginative programs which will stimulate creativity in the performing arts, with Kansas City jazz highly accented….

“To maximize space, we are proposing that the lobby of the Theatre be used for the Kansas City Jazz Hall of Fame and Gallery. This will be a rotating display of exhibits of historical and cultural interest to...citizens interested in the history of Kansas City jazz….”

The Tradition Jams On, National Endowment for the Arts Project No. R80-42-76, published by The Mutual Musicians Foundation (MMF) and the Black Economic Union, April, 1979.

The building was to also include a store, a snack bar, and, on the upper floors, rehearsal space, MMF offices, and possibly a recording studio. The renovation budget was $583,128.

The next step was to raise funds.

More than 30 years later, the Armory remains empty.

The final page of the report reproduces sheet music for the song Kansas City autographed by Count Basie, Jay McShann, Buck Clayton, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Al Grey, Clark Terry, Baby Lovett, Milt Abel, Dave Brubeck and others. I wonder where the original is today.

*****

“The idea of there being a Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City is a popular idea. During our study, there was a separate effort going on, led by Kansas City Philharmonic music director Maurice Peress and others, to begin a National Jazz Archives in Kansas City - including a Jazz Hall of Fame. As Peress stated, the Archives/Hall of Fame could be ‘a rallying point for jazz festivals and all sorts of related activities.’

“The idea attracted the interest of many civic leaders and also outsiders, including Walter Anderson, assistant to the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Anderson came several times to Kansas City to confer with local leaders of the idea. There was talk of locating the Archives/Hall of Fame in Union Station….

“….I believe strongly that the black arts leaders…should rally to the Archives/Hall of Fame idea for Union Station….In the first place, the side spaces in the Armory Building are much too confined to house any major collection of museum/archive proportions….Second and most importantly, an Archives/Hall of Fame in Union Station developed with sophistication and marketed with imagination, can draw a huge audience to Kansas City….”

C’mon Down, A Report on a Possible Jazz Center at 18th and Highland, Prepared for the Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City, January, 1980. Funded by the Office of the Arts of The Ford Foundation.

This report proposed that the Armory instead be redeveloped as the Midwest's premiere jazz club, with pages of studies supporting why and how. I suspect this influenced the decision to include The Blue Room in the American Jazz Museum complex.

*****

In 1983, the Kansas City Council passed a resolution to establish a Jazz Hall of Fame in the 18th and Vine district.

In 1984, the Count Basie Orchestra committed to moving its home base to Kansas City and to giving Basie's memorabilia to the Jazz Hall of Fame. And they donated $10,000 from Basie’s estate. But not for a Jazz Hall of Fame in the 18th and Vine district.

Details, in another post.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Some Things Never Change

They could have been written yesterday.

While digging through old news clippings and documents recently, dating to the 1970s and ‘80s, I was struck by the issues raised, by the situations and perceptions and wrong perceptions described, which still plague Kansas City jazz.

I vaguely remembered the cover story in The Kansas City Star’s Star Magazine from May, 1987. The jazz community buzzed over it at the time. When I was named Jazz Commission chairman, one new board member set a goal that we would turn things around enough for the magazine to later publish an update. It was a noble if naive ambition.

The cover cried, “Gone Begging – The truth about Kansas City jazz. It’s enough to give you the blues.”

A page five editorial read in part: “Horace Washington, the sax still smoking in his hands, smiles and nods towards the audience which…comes to fewer than 12. I try to imagine what it’s like for Washington and the rest of his group to perform for such a tiny crowd. Must be like Matisse showing his paintings in the dark.”

It went on: “There are more organizations dedicated to preserving or restoring jazz in this city than there are for any other cause. Too bad they’re failing.”

As a then-organizer of the jazz festival and then-treasurer of the Jazz Commission, who two months later would be named chairman of the Jazz Commission, that made my Sunday.

It continued: “Who gives a honk. Jazz is and has always been – in my lifetime, at least – an esoteric music form. If it can’t exist in the free marketplace perhaps it should disappear. Sort of America’s musical dodo bird. Let jazz buffs (who as a whole are sort of looney anyway) buy old records and dream of what might have been.”

He later said not to “junk jazz” because it’s our history, but that attempted save seems mostly insincere. I looked at the photo of the editor, with his smirk and handlebar mustache, and decided, add a couple horns and there’s the devil.

It’s the “jazz is dead” cry, that time with spit. That’s why when our friend Plastic Sax threw the cry before us late last year, though more respectfully, I replied (here). I’ve heard it for decades. And I heard it when I was in a position to do more about it than write a blog post.

It was an argument parried often. After the 1985 jazz festival, Tom Leathers, publisher of The Squire, a now-defunct Johnson County weekly, opined that we festival organizers should give up on jazz and put our efforts into an event Kansas City would appreciate: a free country music festival.

Leathers never backed down.

After a jazz event held in conjunction with 1988’s Final Four in KC drew half the anticipated crowd, an organizer said, “We thought people from out of town would want to hear Kansas City jazz after the games Saturday night. But maybe our assumption was wrong.”

Leathers pounced: “Unfortunately, it was – not only for them but for virtually everyone in recent years who’s tried to push jazz locally. And we wonder why they keep trying so hard to promote interest in something – when there’s so little enthusiasm for it.

“It would be nice if Kansas City still loved jazz. What a good symbol it would be! And something we could could really cling to and promote.

“But the sad truth is that jazz is all but dead in Kansas City – just as it is elsewhere...."

Hey, you want to say jazz is dead? I have decades of pugilistic experience with that canard. Jazz may never again live in the mainstream, but it’s music KC writers wrapped for burial in 1985, '87 and '88 that's still with us.

That’s not the only battle from decades past still being waged. A study on redevelopment in the 18th and Vine district, conducted October through December, 1979 for the Black Economic Union, raised this flag:

“….To attract people, the leaders of the jazz effort…must face the issue of [the] safety reputation of the 18th and Vine area. Half of the white population and nearly three-quarters of the black, are nervous about the assumed dangers of the neighborhood; our researchers noted that white patrons interviewed at Gates’ and Bryant’s, who had come to the neighborhood mid-day, were nervous about coming back at night. There would need to be a major public relations effort, to convince black and white customers that the [area] is a safe place to be.”

I wrote about those perceptions, still unjustly felt, here.

A couple lines from the Star Magazine story also caught my eye.

Like this one: “The city also spent $200,000 on jazz films that, three years after the purchase, no one can watch.”

Now, a quarter century after the purchase, we can watch damn few of them.

And a rep of Friends of Jazz, the organization which then staged KC’s paid jazz series, said: “We try to put jazz in the Folly and we’re lucky to get 200 to 300 people out for a jazz concert.”

I’ve chastised the Folly for similar sized crowds today. I recall larger audiences, but perhaps I’m just remembering the big names.

In 1987, the small audiences were blamed on a preponderance of free summer jazz in KC (the jazz festival, the 18th and Vine festival, the Spirit festival, weekly concerts in the parks mostly featuring national jazz figures). Today, we can more clearly see that KC claims no greater percentage of jazz fans among the populace than any other city. Actually, in retrospect, the signs were clear then: We weren't drawn by the jazz, we were attracted to big names and free.

(I still maintain, though, that the Folly jazz series base can grow through proper use of social media.)

Jazz will likely always face an uphill slog. But today's challenges are no worse than those it faced when I got involved.

Fact is, too many of them are the same.

Monday, March 1, 2010

And That's the Way It Was

Kansas City hosted college basketball’s Final Four at Kemper Arena in 1988. CBS televised it.

And what does that have to do with jazz?

A month or so before the tournament, a producer for CBS News came to town to prepare a story on Kansas City jazz for their morning news program, then called CBS This Morning, to air the day of the championship game. And one weekend night, she arranged for most of Kansas City jazz’s elder statesmen, our then-living jazz legends, to gather at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, at 1823 Highland, and tell their stories.

The legends came early and performed. That, too, was taped. Then, about 2 a.m., the Foundation’s doors were closed, tables were moved out of the way on the first floor, and chairs were arranged in a semi-circle, facing the bar. The producer, with her camera man and sound man, stood in front of the semi-circle, recording as she asked questions – good questions, she had done her research well – and our living jazz legends recounted their tales.

Among those in that semi-circle: Carmel Jones, Herman Walder, Ben Kynard, Claude “Fiddler” Williams, Art Jackson, Oliver Todd, Orville “Piggy” Minor, Bill Saunders. And others who I no longer recall.

Some of us watched from the back of the room, after vowing silence. I was Jazz Commission chairman at the time and was there with the Mayor, Richard Berkley (who is very much a jazz fan). We watched as the legends talked of Kansas City’s early jazz days, of Tom Pendergast’s wide open town, of gangsters and bars, of Bennie Moten and other bandleaders, of Count Basie, of traveling with Jay McShann, of young Charlie Parker. “Piggy” demonstrated playing two trumpets at once.

They talked and recorded for nearly an hour. Then the doors to the Foundation reopened and they jammed some more.

The Mayor asked that I try to get a copy of the full, unedited discussion for Kansas City’s planned jazz hall of fame/museum. I spoke to the producer that night and made a couple of follow up calls later. But CBS News doesn’t give out raw, unedited tape, even to a city’s anticipated jazz museum (which, as an earlier blog post detailed, wouldn’t actually open for another nine-and-a-half years).

In retrospect, I wish I’d tried harder. At the time, these were the guys you might find at the Foundation any given afternoon or night. These were the stories you could sit at a table and hear them tell. This night the stories were being taped, yes, but I’d heard them before. I’d seen “Piggy” play two trumpets at once a dozen times (it was, as you’d expect, much more novelty than art). Herman Walder was 83 years old then, yet he’d still energetically lead a line of people through the Foundation while playing, When the Saints Go Marching In. Then, common sense aside, he seemed like someone who would be with us forever. Then, I didn’t perceive the urgency.

But now, 22 years later, nearly all of those legends are gone. Now, you can’t walk into the Foundation on a Saturday afternoon and ask Herman about Bennie Moten. Also now gone, I suppose, is the footage of Herman discussing exactly that.

I doubt I’d have ever changed any minds and obtained that tape, anyway. But what I wouldn’t give to hear those stories today.

Only a miniscule part of the taping was actually used in the four-and-a-half minute story which aired. But what’s there is our history. You can see for yourself.

This video was digitized from a 22-year old VHS tape, recorded from the broadcast as it aired. So the quality is only adequate. Hopefully, nobody will ask that a news story seen once, more than two decades ago, be removed from YouTube. Unless that happens, here’s a taste of the way it was that night, interspersed with Clint Eastwood and archival footage, from CBS This Morning, April 4, 1988. Harry Smith opens from inside Kemper Arena: