Kansas City Illustrated; 211

Program is Kansas City illustrator and these are among tonight's story. High technology is changing the way Kansas City does business. As industries evolve people are forced into developing new skills. A lot of people really do not understand that computers. Don't come out and just gobble them up. They are a tool like a hammer. But there's something that can be used to control the machine. I definitely want to see it. Jacqueline Kennedy we need to recognize we need the jobs and we need the tourist industry here and I think it should stay here we are the second largest county in the state. We did loose track is one of the few artists whose life story has been made into a feature film. Through December 9th. You can see what all the fuss was about. It is a special collection of prints and drawings on display at the Nelson Adkins museum. And that's the whole point of special exhibitions is to bring fine interesting art. And hope. That people respond. To. These stories and more tonight on Kansas City Illustrated.

So. Good evening. Welcome to Kansas City Illustrated. I'm John Masterson. On our television magazine. Tonight we're going to rain from public affairs to sports to the arts and we'll begin by looking at the state of high technology in Kansas City and how the nature of business is changing. The estimates are that from 28 to 60000 people in the Kansas City metropolitan area work in high tech jobs. The number of jobs depends on how high tech is defined. But

however it's defined the work is related to computer and electronics technology. Some firms applied new technology some produce new technology. The reporter is Claire Roberts the characterization of high technology here in Kansas City is one in which you wouldn't have a lot of the breaking R&D in general. You would instead have more of the application and production aspects of high technology. It does not have the resources or the competitive advantage to attract the manufacturers of the technologies what it does have is some industries that are already applying this technology to their to their production lines or to their line of business and becoming more competitive and national and world markets. And that's what Kansas City really needs to foster is the application of this technology into the existing industries in business here in the Quincy area.

A greeting card company is probably not the first place you'd go looking for an electron microscope or carbon dioxide laser. Both of them can be found here in the research and development department of Hallmark cards. I'm told they are partly responsible for the high quality expected of Hallmark products. And right now the company is marketing Christmas cards that have been cut with the laser. We're very interested in manufacturing cards using the laser we're using the laser as a cutting tool. Many of the more nait cards of the past were made by using the very expensive dye cutting techniques the laser can do this sort of intricate cutting and the costs are considerably lower. In one process. We use a copper mask that we scan the pattern is etched into the copper when the laser beam scans the copper. The light is reflected. Wherever there. Is copper and. That there is some material below the mask. That vein will pass through the mask in that area it will cut that

material. So that material will have inscribed in it the pattern or that. Right now the laser at Hallmark Cards is only used for research. Sometime next year they expect to bring in a production laser to cut cards with another process Venuses it is called perimeter. It shapes the outline of three dimensional objects by controlling the position of the laser beam. That object is moved around under the beam on a computer controlled table. And what we're trying to evaluate is the use of the computer for example in manufacturing and making. A product. For example maybe 100 minutes on. Can we cut that ornament out using the laser beam. Order to compete with the Japanese. We're going to have to invest in high technologies new technologies like the laser that allow us to do accurate high quality cutting at a reasonable price. Lasers because of the fact that you got such precision the beam

you're going to be able to work on patterns that are so difficult that eventually you're going to see types of products that you could only dream about a scanning electron microscope opens up a whole new world to the viewer far. Away half the. Work that we. Using. Electron microscope for us to support our research projects with. A. New printing surface we want to look at. Some material and to develop. The time we need to see something under extremely high magnification. Or. Identify what. Elementally. That. Material is composed of. The second thing is. A problem solver. A scanning electron microscope because it doesn't use light. We can't. See any color. On what we're looking at. However. What we can do is go to magnifications. Thirty or fifty thousand. Magnification. With very high resolution and no problems with depth of

field. Focus and. No focus on the problem like you have a light. So. We're doing things right now. That we never could do without it and there's no one else in town we can go to. To see these things. To do this type. Analysis. Training is a key word cropping up in high tech circles these days. How do you attract professionals and technicians to work with new equipment and how to keep them updated as industries undergo rapid changes. It might be as simple as transferring skills from a typewriter to a computer but it could involve a lot more. The DEVERALL Institute of Technology offers degrees in computer information systems and electronics engineering technology. President Phillip limit feels Kansas City has significant opportunities for growth in the high tech industries. Our forecast has about 9000 new jobs created in the areas for which we train people. For the tri state area of Kansas in Missouri. In about twenty eight hundred to

3000 of those jobs will be in the Kansas City metropolitan area. That's out of the national forecast of 350 to 400 thousand new jobs in this area. By 1990 while hopes of churning Kansas City into another Silicon Valley might be overambitious. Mr. Clement is not alone in his predictions of high tech growth for the metropolitan area. Governor of Missouri has initiated a program to try and attack attract high tech companies into Kansas City area and they have set up a brokerage system with one of the community Toney's is acting as a reference center for keeping track of all the different resources that would be helpful to high tech companies. That's the kind of thing that the area is going to have to do to remain competitive because so many cities have decided that their economic salvation is on attracting high tech employers and that kind of service is going to be critical in getting those high tech employers to come here.

I think the need was identified by businesses and the retraining request as businesses move in and move out. They have a tendency to. Request certain kinds of programs and the educational field was feeling that request they were being asked to train certain kind of employees that we didn't have the facility to train because of rapidly changing expensive equipment educational facilities cannot afford to keep up with industry's training needs in a centralized location. More and more educators are going into the work environment to retrain employees. I think it is is necessary for education to customize the training for the business need even though they may be similar and. In need a lot of the companies. There is a specific need in each company.

For those of us who can't tell a capacitor from a resistor it's comforting to know that not all jobs in the high tech future will require extensive amounts of retraining. I think there are basically three levels of jobs and high technology. One level which is the operational like I know what button to push type thing and this level of is you will be the biggest employer. And it doesn't take a large amount of training. It doesn't take a lot of technological knowledge but the higher you go in that whether you go to step 2 step 3 then the more knowledge you're going to have. Have to hire. Although we have a significant unemployment level you still see pages and pages and pages of want ads in your Sunday paper for jobs. The problem is that the people who are unemployed do not have the proper background for the jobs that are becoming available and that becomes what's called structural unemployment.

A federally funded program based at Maplewood community college tries to provide employable skills to people without jobs. Or program as it's set up now is designed for the contract we have with Eastern Jackson County private industry Council to provide computer repair or microprocessor technician training to economically disadvantaged students from their area. Twenty people ranging in age from their late teens to late 40s are taking advantage of the program that could change their lives. After five months of training they're ready for an entry level job paying between 12 and $16000. Everybody is really involved. People are coming back for the most part for retraining. They've been out in the world a while and they know what it's like. This is a chance for a career change and they're making the most of it. We tell our people now regardless of what you're training you leave here with. Expect to have more. In fact that's your only job security because if you're doing a good job the company you want to have you trained on the latest item that comes out to be worked on and therefore you be that much more valuable to them.

This used to be the way machines were made by hand but the machining and tooling industry is changing along with technology. At EPIK manufacturing a medium sized defense subcontractor. The old style only requires a high skilled. But even the best can't compete with the efficiency or intricacy of the computer controlled machines. They've. Got. These. For. People from those who are highly skilled many hours of development. Training that they can carry around in their head and basically they are the ones who. Are copying seems to. Need for highly trained operators. Who understand complex parts complex machines. How to. Work with those computers and machines. Even how to. Edit. Those programs and. Those machines were operating they're much more expensive pieces of equipment. And so it's mandatory that they're kept operating at high efficiency all the time.

CNC is probably in some cases. Cut nine percent of. The hours and go on some jobs not all jobs some jobs take as long. As they will manually. And some jobs are cut out as much as 90 percent of the labor. This piece will someday be a part of a Titan missile. It's complexity would require ten times as long to cut by hand. If asked for it by very very concerned. About a number. Of. Things. There is a. Definite shortage of skilled people. Should we get into a. Conflict of some kind. The skilled people until and to do the defense work. Is not their. Best for is very concerned about it. You probably don't think a farming is a high tech industry but with today's concerns about production and efficiency. Times are changing. Alfred Lavelle the world's largest manufacturer of dairy equipment has pioneered the use of the computer and milking and feeding equipment.

The Delaval agricultural division of the Swedish owned Alfa Laval company does research and development in Kansas City not only for the United States for the world market as well. There 75 Cal Holstein dairy farm is used as an engineering laboratory in research and development of new products. We are applying computer technology not only in taking data from Macao such as not to yield but also in fact controlling the feed intake. Kyle we've been successful in developing a system whereby cow wears a identification device around her neck which we call a transponder. And this transponder in reality in real terms marriage is a call to the computer that becomes her notification. Link between her and the computer about five to six thousand dairy farms out of a hundred and thirty three thousand

in the United States currently use is individualized computer controlled system time previously spent on individual cows is freed up as the dairy man begins to rely on the computer. To what he calls needing special attention. That way he can take care of a lot more cows. With the advent of the computer we now have the. Tools to put it at his disposal. Those facts he needs to make decisions on when to say sell an animal or what to feed an animal. On a. More up to date basis. The feed that goes into a dairy animal represents approximately 25 to 30 percent of the cost of producing. Cost of production. So. Therefore becomes very critical that he feeds that dairy cow exactly what she needs. Or. Maintain.

Her production level. He believes that computerization will touch all aspects of farming and that it's not going to happen overnight but certainly as we move through the 1980s and into the 21st century the computer and the capabilities of managing dairy farms with computers to a very high level will grow in importance as industry changes with the advancements of technology. Individuals must change too. I think what we're seeing now is just a need for constant training really into the concept of lifelong learning. Whether you're talking about a blue collar worker that may not have a formal degree or education or even people in the engineering field that may have a bachelor's and master's there is just a constant need with the changing society and technology for constant upgrading. Clear your old alma mater you MPAC is doing something to increase training in high tech fields.

Well the Center for Business Innovation is being developed using the resources of you MPAC Rockhurst the Midwest Research Institute and the linden Hall library. Their main goal is to develop a 30 acre business park near the university so they can use the university's resources and also to develop a 5 million dollar venture capital fund which will save a lot of businesses from going under during their first years. Thanks a lot they're built a man who's with us the Kansas City Star has been in high tech for a long time in fact. You do your writing. I guess his goal is it is goal. Of course you are a very good writer and a nun and a typewriter anymore video terminal and video terminal. And I enjoy I enjoy that. But my real love is not high tech. My real love is low tech tools low tech tools. Yeah I've brought along a few examples but my worry is John that archaeologists some day thousands of years from now we'll dig up our culture and find these tools and not have any idea what they're used

for so I'd like to explain the use of a few of these have this segment videotaped and put it in a time capsule. OK let's begin. Well everyone knows that's a hammer. Well yeah. But will the archeologists know what it's used for. There are two main uses in our society for this too. One is to smash screws into walls and the other is to hold up windows that don't work right anymore you raise them up and you let it back down and you. Your window holds up like that. Well I've got one of those in my house. Well probably you've got one of these too. Yeah I use that when the hammer doesn't hold up the window I put a screwdriver. Yeah well other people use this for other things. For instance one of its main uses is to chop up ice at picnics so that it'll go around the beer. Oh that's good. And other people use it to dig up dandelions with but probably the main use is to strip the metal groove out of screws so that they are ready for the hammer to smash into the wall. So you have a coathanger. Well some people think of this as a coat hanger and it's used that way. But archeologists in the future should know that

its primary use in our society is as a spare antenna for car radios you know you see that a lot. Why do you and other people put a hook in the end of it and use it to open their car door that's been locked from the inside and they've locked their keys in. Well I'm sure archeologists are going to learn a whole lot from this stuff. Well there's just one more tool I'd like to show kind of a low tech tool and that's this. This is used for smashing plugs and also for expressing your opinion that what you see on TV. Listen to a lot of high technology is being used right tonight and Thanksgiving all over the country in shopping centers and places like that they're turning on the Christmas tree preparing to be jolly. The Christmas season in Kansas City Illustrated has a tree with lights on it. We'd like for you to do the honors and try. This is a high tech remote control switch. I see. Now if you just work that switch OK I'm ready. OK. Go ahead and go there.

We need more like. A film that has been made with unmistakable conviction. Testing it must be seen by every person who still has a conscience. An astounding testament to human love an extraordinarily eloquent and intimate version of life. Testament starring Jane Alexander and William Devane. The season drew on American Playhouse Monday. Knowing year old TV no. Pool build a racetrack for Kansas City. Among the candidates are Lamar Hunt

who's thinking of putting one on land near his worlds of fun and the American Royal Association reported by The Kansas City Times to be thinking of combining a track with a horse auction and the taxpayers the citizens of Jackson County who voted so heavily two weeks ago for parimutuel betting will they become involved as track owners and operators. Whitaker talk with the Jackson County executive Bill Werris. Bill how could a track in Jackson County be financed. What are you looking at. Well I think there are various alternatives to financing. Obviously the number one priority is to finance it with private monies through private industry. Second would be to have a special revenue bonds can be issued a third way is general obligation bonds which you to go to a vote of the people for two thirds or finally. And I think. Probably the last way to do it would be to have a. Issue on the ballot a half cent sales tax which would finance that. I think if we were to do that we would talk about a

total cap on Privets program for us. But that that could be a way I really think special revenue bonds is going to be the key to it. Cooperation between private industry and the some government. What advantage would say a half. Percent sales tax have over bonds. Well when you talk about bonds you talk about I guess the best way to to draw an analogy would be to say you're doing it with credit cards. When you talk about asset sales tax just like paying with cash half cent sales tax you would require a sunset provision which means that you would issue the tax save for four or five years as soon as you have enough money to pay off the debt whatever you're building a capital improvement. In this case the racetrack then the tax would go off. That's automatic by state law. People sometimes don't believe that because some of the times they've been told yeah we're not going to have this tax after a certain amount of time and yet it's continued even utility taxes and we have

the city can't city has issued. They were told it was an emergency tax and yet we still have it. How many years later. So these are the things these are some of the problems with it. When you talk about obligation bongs you're talking about a long time. How feasible do you think a sales tax proposal would be with voters can get approve something like that. Well as I said you'd have to tie it into total capital improvements program. We're not we wouldn't tie that just into a race track to two. Freeways roads bridges something like the city parks department is talking about a total ban program for improvements. I think those are more important to do this. But when you tell people that you're issuing this tax and yet it will return you have to make some investments or have to broaden the tax base too as well. As far as the bonds go is that do you think a more viable alternative with voters. We need what two thirds vote on general obligation bonds need two thirds vote on special revenue avantage you don't need a vote you just need to have the capacity to issue those bonds

knowing that the revenue from the track or whatever you issue whatever project can be paid it off in the case of the sports complex. We issued bonds and the rent from the chiefs and the royals pay those bonds off. Let's talk a little bit about the location of a track. It seems that there are no less than about a dozen possible locations being touted by different developers and groups. Where would you like to see a track I'm sure you're going to say Jackson County but specifically where what appeals to you. Well I can't get into the fact of trying to go from city to city being county executive. I definitely want to see it Jackson County. We need the revenues we need the jobs we need the tourist industry in here and I think it should stay here we are the second largest county in this state. We have the most ground of any county or the acreage we are the largest county. There are a number of spots. The air that Richard about. There's a good one. There is room at the Jackson County sports complex. There's a piece of land off I-70 which we've been approached about

and towards blue. It's a good spot. The riverfront if properly done could be a good place. There are a number of other places that people have mentioned but I really think that what we're trying to say here is is that you need about 300 acres. And I think you know with 300 acres or so and good highway accessibility roads Internet a lot of places for parking. So these are the types of things that are important. You know one of the things about the sports complex is you've already got the highways built in but you can't have I don't think it would work so well with the road with the royals and the Chiefs. Richard you've got the highways in there you've got the land you've got the road system. It'd be a good place and be an excellent place to have. Longview Lake area would be another good place. Some people I know are looking toward the Lamar Hunt proposal outside worlds of fun as being an attractive location. Do you think Jackson County can if you will beat out or come out ahead

of the hunt side as a track location. I hate to say that we're going to get into a. Argument so I speak with Lamar Clay County. Places like that we definitely are going to do everything we can to keep it in Jackson County. I think that's very important. We're working with 24 state representatives and state senators that represent our area and most of the Jackson County area. That's again the second largest number in this general assembly next to St. Louis County. So we're going to use everything we can to keep it in this area. As I said before one of the problems with putting in a site like that is you've got to have you're going to provide about 2500 jobs. People have to get to those jobs. Those are not going to be real high paying jobs so it doesn't mean that they all have the transportation to get there. They're going to it's going to have to be accessible to people for bus lines and things of this nature so they can get to those jobs. I would be opposed to that because it's in Clay County. And this morning we heard news of the American royals possible involvement in operating

overseeing a track a quality track. What do you think about that possibility. I think it's a great idea with the American Royal. You're talking about a corporation and the board of governors that have quality people that have a good name. They are very good. Their credibility is high in the community. If someone would build the track issued a bond some governmental agency like Jackson County and they were and leased it to them and let them run and operate the track I think it would be tremendous. I can view much like what we have what the what the sports complex. We we issued the bonds for the two stadiums. County owns the stadiums. But we listen to the Chiefs the royals. They run the tar operation. They pay rent. I could see that being the same way. So you see a good possibility for working with American right. I think it's going to take a combination of private industry and some governmental operation to make sure that it runs properly. Some have said that parimutuel attendance is down across the board throughout the country that indeed the golden

age of racing is dead is over anyway. What do you think about the long term economic viability of a track say in Jackson County. Well I think depends on how you do it. Quali tracks are surviving Arbonne certainly isn't down in Nourmahal and I think if you have a good operation a quality operation you have nice facilities you keep the facilities up you keep them clean you make it entertainment. It'll go in in many cases the bigger getting. Much bigger. You see purses for race racing now that they are unbelievable they're going to run a lot of the smaller tracks out of business. I think any city is a a viable area to attract the tourist industry. I mean we have so many other things here that if we operate a track in Kansas City you've got the royals you've got the Chiefs. You've got worlds of thought you've got all kinds of things to keep the people here. So you have no concerns about it being a lucrative ongoing kind of proposition if done properly.

And again that's why I think somebody like the American rock corporation who run a first class operation could run a first class operation a track would be a perfect marriage and would be great. And I think it would do well for you. How many tracks do you think that Missouri could support statewide. Definitely three possibly four. They would like to St. Louis Kansas City. They're talking about once a day around the Ozarks. And also I think Springfield could possibly do it. Depends on how the racing season is set up. That's the big thing. Quickly to I want to touch on the issue of quarter horses that's being floated about now as I'd like to next quarter horses with thoroughbreds maybe even Arabians do you think that's a good idea. Yes. As long as they don't mix the seasons. We have a climate here I think that could stand almost eight months of racing. And I think it could work with the thoroughbreds. Finally I did want to touch on where things stand now what kind of timetable you're looking at and what kind of behind the scenes things are going on now as far as your position in Jackson County.

I think things are moving very fast much faster than we had anticipated. And I can't give you all the answers to that because I don't know but because people are going in many different directions but I see it coming together a little bit right now. But there is definitely mechanisms going on you're pursuing that certainly we're not the only ones either. There's a lot of other people that are pursuing that as well to look forward to seeing what finally will come out of all of this. Phil West thank you for being with us on Kansas City Illustrated American racehorse is running a counter clockwise direction on Bert mostly in England and Ireland and other places horses run clockwise most often on grass which leads us to contemplate grass green grass the kind that lawns and golf courses are made of. Steve Holmes thinks the grass is fake Astroturf. He went out to the Royal Stadium recently where the royals are spending one and three quarters million dollars for a new artificial field. Have no fair baseball purist it's not a super monster Muhtar marathon they're just putting in the new turf. It's called Astroturf a drain through and yes it's

going to be green greener than the old stuff at least for a few years. The old stuff had been in here since the early 70s when the stadium opened is the fake grass greener than the stuff on the other side at Arrowhead. Well now the Chiefs are using the same type of turf but not with the drainage system. The Royals plan to install a new field hold water. The Royals hope not. Fans coming from out of town or anywhere in the city for that matter can be relatively assured that the game will be played. But basically the water. It's an entirely permeable surface on the water drains right through the turf through the padding through the asphalt through the gravel and into drainage pipes that are laid underneath the fields so the days of the the game savors the loud machines the rulers and the half an hour to an hour or an hour and a half wait in preparation for the field being ready are over. But virtually When the rain stops and the umpires say play ball

it's just a case of as soon as the pitcher can get warmed up and I really think at this point the progress of the game and the starting time of the game will most likely be dictated by the pitcher being warmed up that probably will be the longest thing the system Robinson says should handle up to 10 inches of water per hour of course in conditions like that who's going to come out and watch him play. Some players complained about the hard old surface. Robinson says the astroturf fade is actually softer than grass. This should reduce the risk of injury. Monsanto and a local company started removing the old field last month scooping up the asphalt underneath and maybe six to eight inches of dirt. This is what it looked like Sunday on the new surface. Plastic fibers protrude about a quarter inch from a woven backing like a giant piece of indoor outdoor carpet for the world's largest welcome mat after a rain the blades may feel damp but the rest of the water drains drew to the pad below which is about five eighths of an inch

thick with pencil with holes every couple of inches to help the water move on down that it goes through the asphalt 10 to 12 inches thick with lots of airspaces to convey it on down to the gravel. Several inches of gravel then into a maze of pipes then into the sewers. Apparently the surface can handle rain but can it cope with chewing tobacco. I'm not worried about the chewing tobacco I'm worried about that new fad that's been around for the last few years and that's a good look at our dugouts at their game the bullpens are you those people that chew tobacco like you do. George Brett is very good he spits on the dirt he never spits on the carpet but that no Faddis sunflower seeds blocking up the little holes in the padding. That's our big problem now is try to keep it clean so dark don't get into the little holes in the sunflower seeds don't get into the batting or we'll be using the water removal machine again.

The weight of that water removal machine according to her Robinson helped wear out the old turf. The new surface may be ready by Christmas and the Royals hope not to do this again for at least another decade. We'll keep you posted. The Royals Newfield will make its season debut April 8th in the home opener against Toronto. Steve Holmes is here and we're going to conduct a scientific experiment to show whether or not the royals are getting their money's worth. For the million three quarters they're spending on this new turf. That's exactly what we're going to do. Somewhat scientific anyway yes the the old stuff is what you'll see here on the right. The paler stuff and the new stuff obviously would be the stuff on the left then. And when you tap down your finger you can hear it at home. But it really. You can see how a player would really hurt if he came down hard on that. So let's prove that it's impervious to water pistol shots to show. Sure. So you know it happens

when you fire into this. It doesn't go through Lousteau when they fire water pistols on it all the time it just doesn't go through. It's one of the problems. Well I don't know. I'm not sure we can prove this with water but maybe with your other scientific apparatus here the channel 19 props department has come up with something here. Just ordinary tap water and a little cup. We should warn people don't try this at home. It's really more difficult than it looks. Yes. Oh now I see are we probably about half of that container in there. Oh I don't know where it is coming through. Yeah. Can you see that at home. That's the whole idea. And you can probably see if I tell this up the holes that are underneath there. And this is the whole purpose of it. That's right it keeps going through to the asphalt the gravel down into the drainage ditches. It's kind of a garish green. What will players look like on it. Well they'll probably. Have human skin tones. We'll hear those two players on this grass and see.

What they look like. This kind of will give you an idea of what players look like. On the turf right there. But. That's only during the monsoon season with high winds. But now to be scientific about this. Let's show what it looks like with the old stuff there and why they were having problems and why they had to have the big machines out there. Is Gore's. It and you can probably see if I felt that just right that it's accumulating on there it runs off but not through not through you no the underside is still dry. Well this has certainly been an exciting experiment Steven. Thank you for dropping by. Anytime. Next on Frontline. Famine. Seven million people starving the resources of the world. It should be possible to become a place to get used to getting. Food.

We need some help. Look beyond the nightly news set the politics of a human tragedy. Watch cry Ethiopia cry. On Frontline television for our time. Tuesday at 8:00 here on TV 90. This year about 350000 people are expected to pass through the elegant doors of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art here in Kansas City. From year to year the attendance figures stay about the same although they are sometimes boosted by surges that accompany unusually attractive exhibitions. Randy Mason tells us about one such show as well as about some of the other things going on at the house. William Rockhill Nelson built. The.

Truck is a very important figure in the history of advertising and what is hidden underneath the show is the emergence of the star and the way you advertise the star. Also with the. With all the with all of the techniques of creating an image and managing the image about all that most of us know if Andri to lose track is that the diminutive French artist did not lead a happy life in the 80 some years since his alcohol hastened death. The world has seen his distinctive graphic style appropriate for everything from greeting cards to wallpaper. Recently thousands of area residents have been taking advantage of an opportunity to expand their knowledge of we'll track through a collection of his prints and drawings on display at the Nelson Adkins museum. Last weekend the browsers were joined by a panel of experts in town to talk about the artist and the period in which he left an area known as La Belle poke.

He came from one of the oldest aristocratic families in France and his father his father's politics were intensely royalist. He wanted to bring back the Bourbons who had been chased away a hundred years earlier time the French Revolution and lived in a kind of dream world. All this father did was rode horses and and dreamed of bringing back the monarchy. He'd had this childhood a childhood accident in which it had been revealed there had been so much inbreeding in the family that he just never grew right after each leg was broken the bones were so weak and he grew up stunted and eventually very early he became a hopeless alcoholic. There's just a lot of pain behind these very happy images. And one of the things that can come to the show and look at it the portraits of women lithographs of women there's a series called. And it's different women most of them prostitutes and. He was the kind of man who could who could live in a brothel. And be accepted.

And there are amazing images of women. You look at the French artist who one would most compare him with would be Do guy who was also an aristocrat. But Duke was was a complete chauvinist whereas Trek loved women and that's one of the that's one of the secrets to his art. He really loved women and in some cases the uglier the woman the more he left her. In many ways it's. Something of an ideal show. It is just right for the size of our surveys. It is about art. It has a real point to it which is the contribution of this incredible genius to graphics arts. And I think it's a very enjoyable show. I think it's kind of show that everyone no matter what his background can find it accessible easy to get with it.

Originally the exhibition wasn't scheduled to play Kansas City thanks to some late hour negotiations that Nelson became the tour's night stop before it heads home to San Diego because of the altered itinerary. No published catalogues were available. Print curator George McKenna met that challenge by creating detailed labels that explain the subjects and situations depicted in the posters and lithographs something he normally doesn't like to do. I don't like people standing there reading the labels. For one thing they always find the arrows and the other thing is that they don't look at the pictures. Once you gaze upon the. Might. Be reading. Reading pictures is not the same thing. How has the exhibition played so far it seems there was incest. Everybody was attract a crowd pleaser. You know. People today may be more attuned to the convention. They said it's. More staid the sons of that time.

Looking it has been a very busy man lately. Though it's the biggest the exhibition is just one of five shows featuring Prince at the Museum this month. Directly next door is this very popular photographic collection entitled An open land. War Room. And as part of an overall move to heighten the museum's visibility around the country Makena is preparing to compile a catalog of the Nelsons own print holdings. As important as it may be. It's not the kind of work most museum goers will ever actually see. I'd like some of the more immediately visible alterations. Those people who've been around recently who. Visit the museum regularly or have come in the last year has seen dramatic changes in the installation. Of many of the collections. Last year alone we re-installed 23 gallery spaces that's 23 out

of 66 roughly. Starting with a European painting collection. It didn't make any sense. It was hung. There was no order to it. Moreover we there was no. Everything was. Shown against oatmeal mush and there was no grace to it. And so we stepped back. Sort of like sitting on a cloud looking down at the institution and said Is this logical is this good. And we said well no it isn't. Things have just been let go of this. Nobody really looked at. The way this was displayed. People get tired in the museum and I do. Your eyes fill up your brain cells up. And your feet get tired after about an hour and a half. So we try to introduce that dynamic of changing colors senses an environment that keeps people fresh and it helps them see the works of art. One of the recently revamped areas is the East Indian way.

It's wall colors were changed and lighting drastically improved an area that's still in transition set to show its new face to the public around December 1st is the bookstore. It won't be much bigger but it certainly will be better. We looked around in this what does Kansas City need. It needs a center for publications information on art. Art history and design. So we've taken we no longer any. In and earrings or bits of jewelry. Very few reproductions of works of art. But what you will see instead is a mix of publications unlike anything any anywhere else. Certainly in the Midwest we're carrying all kinds of periodicals from Japan from Canada from South America from Europe from England and they are really good. And the same with the mix of

books and exhibition catalogues. That's a new. Component. If you say you can't get to New York or Washington or London or Paris or Tokyo to see a good exhibition that interests you. You can come to us and chances are we'll have it if it's a major exhibition catalogue. So that will be available and then more images drawn from this collection. In the past we've had postcards. Of paintings and sculptures from all kinds of other questions. We're now entering a phase of more postcards posters of both. Showing images from this collection. People come here they write. They want to. They want a souvenir of what's here. They don't need to have a souvenir of what's in the Louvre do they. Like any major museum. Nelson is more than just a place to look for great works of art. It also houses a restaurant a library a security force a carpentry shop. All in All About 260 people are employed here. Director Mark Wilson admits that it's easy for an institution as big as the Nelson. To become insulated from the community it

serves. One of the reasons he likes to bring in a large mass appeal touring shows wherever possible. You've still got about two weeks to catch a track exhibition. This intriguing blend of arts and advertising will be here complete with pictures and labels through December 9. Why you think. People have latched onto one track over the years. What it is that has made him wear so well. Well I think there's something very compelling about this figure and I think it is not an accident that the two most readily recognized artists at least in this country are on the truck and Van Gogh. There's something about. The idea of the lonely artist and the artist racked with pain

that. Fulfills a stereotype. For us there are many happy artists. Get. Loose track was a social commentator whose work says much about the perils of his day. Among today's social commentator is are also a graphic artist are the cartoonists one of the best and best known lives in Kansas City. Charles Barsad. About this time last year our arts reporter Joelle in Brisbane talked with Charles Barsad. We thought it was an unusually interesting story and we've looked for an opportunity to put it on the air again. Joe Brisbane has since moved to Washington. Charles Bastardi is still here in the last 20 years. A cast of cartoon characters have danced out of Charles Barsad his imagination. And

on to the pages of The New Yorker Playboy and the original Saturday Evening Post Magazine. He has a virtual tradition in the New Yorker and is a frequent feature in the come lately publications like USA Today and Channel Communications. Since the mid 1960s. Charles by Saudi has called Kansas City home reproducing the human condition through that cast of characters which has included Cowboys struggling artist dogs ducks and alienated executives by Saudis cartoon style is not easily defined for his characters play very different roles according to the publications in which they're cast. Things seem to happen in different ways. I don't think I've been real rigid on the style. The it seems more important to me just to get whatever it is. Up to a cross. I. Think. The stuff I've done for Playboy over the years. There is more. The changes in style was very evident. There is. A little

harder style than I used for the New Yorker. And then I also do stuff for op ed pages of. New York Times in the City star and times. And that's quite different. But the whole thinking process is because that's not it's not a cartoon. There's no captions and. Then certain things can get much more abstract and strange and odd and. Maybe editing. It's. Probably more of a selection process. Than editing I suppose. For example each week in The New Yorker a number of things. Maybe something. That they can choose from. And so there's editing in the sense that they select what they want as opposed to you know of course what other people have seen in. The. But also then within the cartoon they want to be sure just as I want to be sure that all of you know you've got all the

right notes and there's nothing in there that's jarring that's going to. Detract in some time. Mike. A mistake or one change the emphasis a little bit or something but we work all that out together. Certainly there's anything in that sense. Of course when the magazine itself is put together all the cartoons have to be balanced. And. Balanced in accord with the seasons and. The other cartoons and the editorial material and. All of the things that have to go into that. So it's rather. It seems to me a rather delicate process drawing upon and about the human condition isn't always the enviable job it seems. Even cartoonist Charles Barsad he faces a form of writer's block. But because his range of publications are so varied the characters and situations remain flexible. Well it doesn't always work but you are essentially just trying to work your way through it. What I do is I do a lot. I sent the New Yorker. Many more

things they could possibly use. And I'll cut my paper to size the size that I worked on and I start sketching with a pencil and just sort of noodle around. I race a lot. And I'll put it in a setting maybe it's a business setting or office setting maybe I have a vague idea something I want to say. Perhaps dealing with say OK well if the organization is paternalistic Well that means the employees might be child childish perhaps so will have an executive reacting in the middle management type or likely reacting to that childish mood. I'll play around with it. And. It just sort of play around with it until it comes. Comes around to what I want to Usually you know you hear something you say oh wow I've got to make a cartoon out of that. But more often seems to be starting to feel it now. One of the things that happens you'll go someplace and say you know party and hostess will

say oh a lot of crazy people here you're going to get a lot of ideas tonight. Well it doesn't work that. Doesn't for me. You know I don't try to overhear little bits of dialogue or conversation or anything like that. You know. Maybe I should but I don't. Know I don't get sketches. It just sort of you know I have to be sitting feeling kind of comfortable and semi safe drawing board. And that's what I try to put it all together. And. You know. Which comes first it's just that very sometimes even a caption will pop in your head. And you'll find some someplace that fit it. From. Where do you draw the second Do you see. Any of the cartoons. It doesn't seem to be. A natural part of your experience. Right.

I. Did wrote a school a residential treatment center. School for mentally retarded emotionally disturbed children in Texas that did it for a number of years. And. It was executive sure. And then I worked at homework and although I was creative areas and. In. That sort of thing. No one had the sense of when I was working in a large corporation and no question about it. And. Whereas back in school it was much more of well we've got a decent would do it in the big corporation. It's got to be true of all the corporations that you go through the. Procedures or whatever the politics in one thing and another. Well of course it all shows up in the courts. It's

the. Cheapest price already cartoon commentary. It's for the most part. The gentle humor about human faults and fears. However he is also capable of scathing satire. His views on television are especially mocking. Oh well you know television is very much part of. Part of our life in that. So you know we need to make observations about it. But as far as watching television to make comments you don't really have to watch very much. You know I don't know. I really don't know much about the series and. It's been a long time since I sat down and watched something all the way through just. To get a cartoon out of it. But I have done it. I watch Charlie's Angels once years ago all the way through and I got one good cartoon out of it and I figured you know I get it. I paid my dues. But you just need to be generally aware of it. And mostly I think though what I. I guess thinking back when I. Saw my

cartoons deal with usually the news stuff like that as presented on television which is quite important because. They say most of us get our news from television that that's true or not. It's sad if it is. But certainly we get a lot of our. First news on television. So it's something that needs to be commented on. Charles Bersani long may he draw. Finally tonight a report on those who took part last week in our discussion on cigarette smoking on the day of the great American Smokeout. We can report that Bev Haskins the public relations vice president made it through most of Thursday without smoking but has cut back from two and a half packs to a pack a day. Don Anderson of the prospect of Westport quit for the day. The president of the Kansas City comets David Jones instead stayed off cigarettes for the day. Plus he said Forty five minutes including time for an airplane flight when he usually smokes heavily. Sean's dad says he'll try

again next week to quit. Reports aren't available from our other two smokers and we'll be back next week with another edition of Kansas City Illustrated. Until then I'm John Masterman wishing you a good night and a good week. That. We. Get. It.