Kansas City Illustrated; 832

Ivory Productions the award winning team behind room with a view and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge brings to light the story of the only Indian princess in exile visited once a year by her father's tutor. She attempts to recapture memories of happier childhood days. My father used to go to London. He would buy up all the jewel shops literally just came back with these clothes of squeaking cushions an exploding cigar and things like that. Because of a few accidents because of his sense. That he had made it up to be an. Autobiography of a princess. Wednesday night at 8:00 on ABC public television. Delights broadcast costs have been paid for in part by KCET subscribers and by the lab Kunkle Corporation a Kansas City manufacturing firm equipping laboratories throughout the world. Next time on Frontline inside the U.S. military's intense race relations school the leader came out and said they can go in but you can't make it happen. It's time to change the color of your skin. On

Frontline. Celebrating 30 years of adventure drama of mystery and nature. This is K.C.B.. And it is the worst reported public television station local support for this program on K.C.B. has been provided in part by United telecom and its long distance company U.S. sprint the. News Welcome to Kansas City Illustrated I'm John Masterman.

Kansas City's new school superintendent Walter Marks is with us tonight to be interviewed by Deborah Holmes as our program begins. March remains something of a mystery in Kansas City. He hasn't been here long enough to accomplish much. And meanwhile his past as chief of the schools in Richmond California is running after him. Also on tonight's agenda a look. With reporter Donna politics at Kansas City medical professionals who help out in third world countries on the royals on Thursday's longest game. The team's change of manager. And Randy Mason the story which we ran a few months ago and are we running tonight on the late lamented Kalvin film company here. Kansas City city council finance chairman Dan Kaufman will be with us to discuss plans for a tax election Aug. 6. Deborah homes range through a list of issues in her interview with Walter marks Kansas City's new school superintendent including grand jury findings in Richmond California alleging mismanagement.

Well Dr. Marks this has been an eventful week. Lots of things have been going on in the school district here and back in California. Let's start with the news in Richmond and we should start at the top with a grand jury did not indict anybody. You're not going to jail and neither is the school board. But one interesting thing that they did say in their criticism of you they said your administrative staff and this is in the grand jury's words didn't demonstrate didn't demonstrate an ability to plan and implement a far reaching change in the educational practices in the district. How do you respond to that. As you're asking your top people I respond to it like anything else. That was an attorney's opinion. Did their research on what occurred in the school district and reported it back to the grand jury. I don't agree with that but that's his assessment. I think that the issue that you have to deal with is the magnitude of the massive change that occurred in a period of time which it occurred. I mean when you're talking about a two year timeframe to convert 48 schools into a totally new type of operation much like what you've done in Kansas City we did that in a 24 month timeframe.

It was I think the criticism would have been more accurate had it been that we tried to do too much in that period of time and probably no group of human beings could manage all the dimensions of that. And surely you've experienced that. Kansas City the difference is you've had the money to pay for it here. We didn't have the money to pay for it there. And and I think that was stated in that also. But I will I just don't feel it was a lack of people's ability to manage it as we just played too much on too soon because the report also said that tighter financial controls were needed in the district in fact and all California's School districts. But it said that you had you and the board and others had been repeatedly warned about deficits and yet you still went on with the school district started deficit spending there in 1983 and it used up through 83 to about 87 when I got there. Almost all the surpluses and ability to move money around and make it work. I inherited a $7 billion budget

deficit when I walked Dan.. And bottom line is we couldn't really close that gap. And I guess the last year and a half was the first time that the county and the state said you know you're headed for trouble on this because every year you're spending more than you're taking and you've been doing that since 1983. The thing that's not stated in that report is that what I put in the programs all that specialty schools were not funded out of that general fund budget they were funded out of a special grant from the state of California of nine million dollars. So the place that we got hurt in the general fund was when we had to dip in and give large teacher increases because that had to come out of a general fund couldn't come out of the DS save money and that was something that I think we were rightfully criticized for doing. We did not have the money and that that created the massive deficit that we had there. In retrospect was it wise to go forward with such a wide ranging program for changing the school district around when you came in and you knew you had a deficit to start with.

Well Debbie you got to look at it we're talking at two deficits we're talking about a general fund deficit versus the money to pay for the change we're putting in exactly what you've got in Kansas City. We don't have a deficit in the desegregation part we have a deficit here of 10 million in our general fund. That's exactly what we had in California. So with the change we were putting in we were funding out of that pot of about $9 billion. That was fine. We had the money to do it there. The problem was and we came back to the general fund and gave an 18 percent salary increase two years and each year was $21 billion. And then the state economy went down. The money wasn't there to fund that. And yet we had made the commitment to fund it and then just couldn't manage that so. So if you really look at Kansas City we are in almost exactly the same situation. Problem in the general fund desegregation money available you can only spend for say You can't spend for general operating that's exactly what we were into in Richmond. And speaking of deficits you do have come up with a proposal to help trim

that a little bit and run a part of it is to eliminate 55 jobs in the central office. What kind of jobs would those be. It would save what 3.5 million I think that's your estimate around 3 million or so. We've trimmed the budget deficit from what I had when I came down to about 6.5 it was about 10 million dollars going into next year. And the way we did that was to cut attorney's fees by about a million and a half dollars. I just felt we could come inside and do better and save some money so we've done that then we made a reorganization that did cut 55 jobs and changed 110 positions in that organization all at central level and that resulted in the rest of the cut. What kind of positions are they range from technical positions clerical positions all the way to top level management. I had a 25 member cabinet to advise this afternoon when I came. We've cut that to 12. So we've we've got half of the top level administration. And then we cut technical and secretaries that primarily reported to that group. And then we made

a cut in what we call resourced teachers which were central office and we want to shove that function to the building level rather than to keep it downtown. So that's primarily how the 55 cuts came and along with that. You also propose that some of your top people assistance be given higher salaries and I think your salary your low end of the salary begins at where Dr. Garci is high end of the salary and another where you're starting at 77 to I think your salary range is 77 98 depending on whoever is named. The range is some criticism from the state about cutting back services ever on central office and raising salaries. We did two things. Number one the assistant area superintendents that were under the Garci administration were paid at a rate of about seventy five thousand two hundred. We raised that to 77. Got to keep in mind that is on the table a proposed salary increase for next year based out of past monies that were available about three to four percent. So if you put three or four percent on that

75 that was there you get 70 almost 78. We're going in at 77 so there's absolutely no change. Even though those people now are picking up the duties of all those people at the top end of the guy the old salary guide went up to 86 for the deputy superintendent is making eighty six thousand dollars. And I don't know that's the highest salary in the place except mine. So we have not we have not gone beyond what the current salary levels were. The only thing that we did we had to add an annuity on top of some of the people we brought in from out of state because they lost the retirement system in the state they were coming from. So they were taking a salary cuts. So we added a $10000 a new city which is a retirement system so that they would not lose in this state they were coming from. That's the only difference that really is. No salaries are going to be money for the incremental raises and the teachers salaries. I know the teachers union is very concerned about that. They have also been critical of your plan.

Well there are now several in the plan totally. They testified in front of the DMC that they supported the reorganization they took an advisor asked the DMCE to take no exception to the reorganization plan because they've analyzed it like we have and they came down to the bottom lines about saying there will be money for salary increases because that's part of the order that was set up some time ago to give salary increases that does not impact negatively or positively on the deficit. Not cutting will be cutting these 55 positions in central offices that in your view are going to make things run smoother. One of the biggest complaints I hear from parents and others who try to get some information or something out of the school district if you can't ever nobody knows where anything is. And and you can't get through to anybody. Well it's my hope that it will. My personal feeling was that to her too many people in that bureaucracy to make it work there were two main layers are too many people that had little jobs instead of the man the more macro approach to it. I hope it will. The other thing is we've put different people in control.

We know now who who to hold accountable so if it's not working and who to go to and say why didn't that happen. I didn't know that. Under what what I found. So I'm hopeful it will. I think the first test of that will be how well we open school in the fall because that's been a problem. I was going to say what are the plans for opening school in the fall we're at the end of one school year. There's always some sort of debacle at the beginning of the school year with kids being left at bus stops. Horror stories you've heard them I'm sure you've heard. Well first of all we are we have started planning a month ago with a team of people that look at every every issue of opening school. And that team has been in place they have been meeting looking at the issues from transportation to supplies and materials being delivered having equipment in schools. We know where that where the problem spots are right now. This is months before school opens. Second thing we have a transportation director who knows he knows the problems and the possibilities with transportation we have him on board now and he's been on board

about a month and a half. It was the first person we tried to hire. So we're going to have some better planning and transportation. We have on Monday night we will make our recommendation on the human resources position has been open for two years and nobody primarily running that we finally staffed that position. We think with a quality person so we're going to have some key people on board that have been able to hire in the past. How do you feel about the concern and the criticism that some have that you've hired brought in people from the Richmond school district also to take on administrative posts. Well I can assure you I hire people that I don't hire my enemies I try to hire people who I professionally know and can trust and believe that their job will be done. We really have not brought very many people in from Richmond. We've interviewed several people from Richmond. But I think to date we've hired three people out of that district and we tried to pick the best that they had out there and bring with us here that had knowledge of what we wanted to do. So we didn't have to train

everybody to begin with. Another thing that happened this week is the racial quotas were eased for some of the magnet schools there is especially a problem with middle schools and high schools and reaching those. Is it realistic to too for Kansas City to assume to have a school district that's 60 40 60 percent black 40 percent white when the general school population doesn't even reflect that. Is it realistic are we spending an awful lot of time trying to get a handful of white students in. I think we can do it. I've been I was really at first I really worried about that when I first came here but now that I see the possibilities and I saw what happened at Central this past weekend I mean we did a totally different ad campaign on that we ran a lot of electronic media on that and we had over a thousand people come out to look at that school the next day the lines were jammed with people inquiring the audience was about a 50 50 black and white. And it looks to me like if we do the proper kind of ad campaign and have a school that really produces we can get those

numbers. I see it happening in two or three of our schools that I really didn't think we were going to get for next fall so yeah I think it is realistic because people always point to King Middle School is one that's going to be the hardest one to bring whites into because of the neighborhood and its reputation and so forth. But the white parents with there seem to be happy well kids there. We had to get we had to get that school under control. We've got a principal there doing a super job and the teachers are doing great. And and I think if you look at now where it's going it's great to go out and recruit the students. But we had to get that school in shape so people would come to it. And I can't say enough about the principal and the staff in that school they've just done a tremendous job of getting it where it's now an acceptable school. We'll recruit the kids. And while we are unfortunately out of time again and hope to see you at the next phase of the schools hopefully it'll be a conversation when we're talking about the smooth opening of the school district in the fall. But I do thank you for being here and I thank you for the opportunity. They're called medical missionaries doctors and nurses who leave the comforts of home to

practice medicine often without pay throughout the world. Donna pallidus reports on some Kansas City medical professionals who share their skills with third world countries and some medical students who are getting to know how medicine is practiced in other countries. The Dominican Republic is the destination every February for this group of Kansas City doctors and nurses but they're not here for a little R and R. Instead they'll spend a week or two working almost around the clock without pay. This year for the first time we're seeing large numbers of actual infants children that are going to be in that age group where they're going to be the most benefited by the surgery that we do on lots of the injuries those type of procedure that can help at any age with one of the procedures to the procedures that we do the most corrupt left on the clock count surgery. And this year probably for the first time we're seeing massive numbers of infants that are coming in which means that we can we can stop that social stigma zation that develops you know early on in life.

The Dominican Republic has about 20 surgeons for seven or eight million people on 20 plastic surgeons in the United States so we'll have for seven or eight million people will have maybe two or three hundred plastic surgeons. So there simply are not enough surgeons to do the plastic surgical problems and they're not necessarily a greater number of patients with cleft lips and cleft belts and it's very difficult to even even find those type of statistics. It's just simply no one there to repair them. To make those repairs. Dr. Garraty formed medical aid for children of Latin America a non-profit sponsored by the Christian Medical Society. So no one's getting paid for it and it's all just gratis. But that makes it more fun more worthwhile for us long term. And the day that we generally get there one pack and the next day which is generally on a Sunday we may see two or three hundred new patients

in a day time. And then we'll arrange for more than half of those to have their operations in the next week. We just kept going to sleep on about five to six hours of sleep and just get up and keep doing it the next day. So excited about doing it. And you know you only have four days and if you don't get it down. These kids aren't going to have anything done for nothing. Here we see a fair number of those problems here in Kansas City but not not in that kind of quantity. That's a great opportunity to be able to. Perfect the skills that are involved in. Treating and caring for these children and adults. This is our seventh sojourn into the country and now they feel a lot more comfortable with us. They trust us to bring all their you know. Before it was like well we'll take the older kids see how they do. That's the feeling that I got for now that we see we're going down and we're seeing the infants actually bring their newborns in. Dr. Quinn joined the Dominican Republic trip several years ago as part of his residency at Truman Medical Center.

Now I remember remember John Quinn very well. I remember when he entered the program and. He always is a very caring young man. We're looking for students when we're selecting them who've given us some evidence of volunteer work when they could. Not necessarily in a hospital in their community but in some way that they've been in the position of helping others and have an interest in continuing to do that. You MKC is among medical schools across the country which offer electives allowing students to spend anywhere from one month to one year studying medicine in another country. For some international students it's a chance to return to their birth place and explore the thoughts of practicing medicine there one day. In India they don't have the funding for education as well as much as we do so they don't have as many residency programs whereas here we get a lot of training in very high specialized fields. I would like to go back for at least some time either for a few years after my residency

because I'd like to do my training here or like a number of physicians do these days go back for a few months every year and do some of the charity work over there and then come back here and live here for the rest of the time. I think what really stood out is Israel's got a socialized medical system. So that's basically government run and health services the American private private profession kind of medicine. So that was interesting to see the contrast in the two patient care involved and how it was affected by a socialized system. They pay their transportation they pay their lodging. They are not obligated for any tuition. In other words tuition is waived between one medical institution and another. And many of them who have gone off to third world countries have gotten some support from from their local church or from this really wonderful Reader's Digest

program that will defray the travel expenses. You med center. Lee Marvin is among students who've also made use of the Reader's Digest medical assistance program. To check your blood pressure. Leave. You spent eight weeks in New Guinea a step toward her career goal of becoming a medical missionary is kind of a different philosophy. I think it's it's good just to get a different perspective from life in the United States. Infection is a big problem there. And it was really amazing to see people come in very sick and just get some antibiotics and they would really improve a lot. Some of the discouraging things compared to here was there's no radiation oncologist in the country. And I thought people with horrible horrible very painful cancers who couldn't get very much relief because they just didn't have the medicine or the

radiation therapy in terms of the students who have had third world experiences. Most of them come back with with heightened awareness of serving underserved populations and of the role of poverty and health and the need to create some some fundamental change in healthcare delivery not just curative approaches to disease but like I said changing the whole way that health care is delivered in an allocation of resources. Barthe ourselves there is concern in the international health community. That medical students may be placing a drain on the countries they visit because valuable time is spent teaching students procedures while they're away from home. But many students say the international experience is necessary to learn about disease is not common in the US. We would be seeing many of these tropical diseases and travelers from the United States who are returning and may have these and if were not exposed to it anywhere else. You won't recognize it when you see it.

Medical students are not part of the group that travels to the Dominican Republic. But Dr. guarantee's work as a U.N. case professor of medicine has inspired him to include plastic surgery residents in the trip. My main interest to start this was to increase education for residents. Since then it's become pretty selfish. It's something that I live on and live. Year to year to do because it's very gratifying so gratifying. I know I have a lot of people. Thank me for everything that I've done but I feel great and more gratitude to them for letting me be able to do this. And it's. Sometimes becomes a semi religious experience. It is just. It is something that I'm addicted to. I need to go back on a year to year basis. Addictive is a word both physicians and medical students use to describe their international experiences were the rewards are measured not in monetary terms but

in a patient smile or thank you. And doctors say the absence of massive paperwork or malpractice threats lets them concentrate on one of the primary reasons they got into medicine. Simply providing care. My father actually is a pediatrician who's been involved in third world medicine so for as even an 18 months of age he was traveling around the world and dragging me along. So it sort of gets in your bloodstream and it's exciting. And I think in a lot of physicians don't do it because they haven't had that one initial experience but after that one initial experience it's addictive. The climate is different as far as the patient relationship. You aren't as worried about getting sued or something. And so we're not as concerned about things that maybe don't seem as important. And you can focus on what the patient really needs in the Dominican Republic we're not dealing with insurance companies or worrying about medical malpractice or worrying about how we

fill the chart or whether someone is going to be looking over our shoulder for them from the government. We're doing medicine just like it ought to be taking care of people. They're thanking you afterwards and you feel gratified that she had that training to be able to take care of someone. Still to come on Kansas City Illustrated read the Mason's story on the Kalvin Company Gohar on the Kansas City Royals in Thursday's longest game. In our look back over the week with city council finance chairman Dan Kaufman. A recent Supreme Court ruling involving the abortion issue could soon altered the way Planned Parenthood of Kansas City Council's pregnant patients. At issue was the so-called gag rule on the next edition of Kansas City Illustrated. We'll look at Planned Parenthood decision on whether or not to continue accepting federal funds. The gag rule we're on we would not be able to tell any stars of course

that's next time on Kansas City Illustrated Friday night at 8:00. In a few months ago our amusements editor Randy Mason was amused and fascinated by the stories of the good old days the good old days as lived by members of Kansas City's film and video community. So in February Randy produced for our program a story about the long gone Calvin company a film pioneer nationally known and a victim of the turn from film the video it was a story we thought you might enjoy even a second time and here's Randy Mason. Thanks John. When I was getting started in the TV business back in the mid 70s news footage was still being shot on film not video. And almost all Industrial's that is business of educational productions were done on film too not 35 millimeter like the big theatrical features but 16 millimeter. And one of the biggest users and developers of 60 millimeter film in the country was the Kalvin Company here in Kansas City where such notables as

director Robert Altman and CBS newsman Hughes Rudd got their professional start. Back in February the building where Calvin had spent its glory days their 15th and Troost was being torn down to make way for expansion of a nearby school and it seemed like the perfect time to pay tribute to the place some affectionately knew as Cal Tech. Right here. Why is it that. You couldn't wait to get here in the morning and you'd stay until midnight.

We did a lot of sitting a night here because of the streetcars going up crews here and that create a lot of noise even on a sound stage. The street cars when they start to stop there for 15 straight or trolling road they squeak. And it really takes some time that you might have a you know several takes and then after you one more from the streetcar I came North. I was 17 years old. And I think I was just a kid. I was in all. And the first time I think Jerry Dyer. And me had to put the clap stick on. And I couldn't do it. I just turned and I said Terry I can't do this. And I walked out and and just kind of everybody was very very understanding. Finally I you know it's got a scene six take four and clapped it between them. These two cameramen spent well over fifty years working for the Calvin company. In fact Wayne was one of the last ones out when the IRS finally padlocked it in 1986. In recent years parts of the building have been used as a drug

rehab center. The activity just a faint echo of the days when the biggest sound stages between Chicago and Los Angeles lured clients from around the country. And kept hundreds of people busy not only making movies but also processing and printing. Anywhere from five to 10 a month. Shifts sometimes seven days a week. So the staff up and down the hall is tall tall and when you are you know is unusual too. Now that you look back on it it was totally contained. I mean it was the whole film business contained in one building you know in a laboratory and adding. The direction and writing everything was right there. You don't find that very often now you know people are all fragmented. The company even manufactured something to play the films on a 16 millimeter projector called The movie might weighing in at under 30 pounds and developed some say on a bet between founder F.O. Calvin and his engineering

partner Lloyd Thompson producer director Gene Carr fondly remembers visiting the man they called Cal as Johnson County home. And he had ported mineralized his entire house so this is himself. He didn't hire it to be done. Andrew can you tell people who don't who didn't know Cal and they would probably say that it was rather poorly executed but it wasn't it was just excellent. He was very. Creative even intelligent kind of a guy and he in his basement I remember in his home he had a machine shop and he had an idea about something that he wanted to do. For instance that little projector that you had I'm sure that basically was his idea. Best of all he had the knack for hiring good people especially as the war was winding down and business really beginning to rev up people like Frank Barhai. We had a production department. Cameramen like Norm SPUI Don Hoffman Bill Simmons and Charlie Patton. Go to a movie and figure out how they did all kind of special effects with

lighting and filters and color Joven and it was I find it very fascinating and the most interesting part about it is just it was only about a generation earlier than that. Movies were born and things like color and sound were barely in their teens. Patty quickly realized that more sophisticated effects like a split screen that were easy to do in 35 millimeter took some innovation to pull off in 16. One of his favorite directors to work with Calvin because he encouraged experimentation was a young Kansas City named Robert Altman. Together they churned out traffic safety films sports training programs even a film for the VFW that particularly in this black and white print bears more than a little resemblance to the epicenter of combat but Patman would go on to direct how it is down here where I like to call a war except my. HADDIX assistant on this one was a very young art Goodell. Who remembers

having their clothes but not the camera gear stolen during a ballgame in Detroit and then heading off to Boston to film the raid with some minimal guidance from Altman. He said I'm only use about three minutes worth of this in a hole so is no way I can use more than that. You guys are going to have to stand here. And then arrest time just make a practice painting or do this. I've got to go someplace I've got a good idea of where he went. But I wouldn't say he was very good at handling people. He could get them to do what he wanted to without being obtrusive or. Rough for Unki and he goes. Kalama joke. He used the pain of doing something they might not really want to do and go along with people who had never argue too much. He had anytime anybody disagreed with him or maybe somebody said something he didn't really. Why he had failed.

His standard reply was If that's true crochets Robert Altman did begin his feature filmmaking career in Kansas City first with horns of pop'n then in 1955 the delinquents for which he asked Charlie paddock to imitate the lighting of the asphalt jungle. After a career that seems such commercial highs as Masch in Nashville and lows as hell than when Ted Altman's bounce back strong this year with Vincent is non-Hollywood approach to filmmaking has often been attributed to the lessons learned during the Kalvin years of efficiency and self-sufficiency. Not to mention certain personality traits he didn't really recognize is. That something you couldn't do is refuse to believe that you. Will do that and. You do that particular way to do it another way and you just never just stop and say this is all I can do. Jim L'anse should know. At one point he went out to Los Angeles with Altman

and also shared an apartment with Altman's brother in law Dick Sarabia another Calvin alumnus who made good in Hollywood. These days you probably know him best as the voice of KCET. Guns tanks and garbage on the front line. But in the 50s and 60s he and Bill a year out were among the busiest actors playing roles in Calvin Industrial's little vignettes made to as he puts it some kind of painless story. Sad case maybe you might know. TONY JONES is in the movie business a place where you could regularly pick up some extra cash and a little exposure and lots of appeal for area actors and media folks. Art Ellison and Charles Brai both put in some time on the giant service station set that could be altered to fit a sponsor's needs. Of course as the budgets got bigger so did the names. War correspondent Bob Considine e.g. Marshall Walter

Cronkite Anita Bryant and Johnny Cash all made their pitches. So John and charity in here was the proper spirit which was the name of the show. And we had to build up this entire set. On stage and then tear it down. And this was after of course. Lives were. John and another man was an actor. I was sitting there were absolutely unbelievably good. Gene Carr says nice things about nearly all the top flight talent he worked with. But if you push him really hard he can't think of at least one exception. Art Linkletter. Very difficult man. And enough said long before he came to work for Calvin. Gene knew about the place through its annual workshop attended by the industry's Crimble a Crill after joining the team he worked on among other things projects for clients like Nassa and Caterpillar and enjoyed it immensely.

My people were basically the bridge can do the work for children. It was necessary to bring in somebody else's work. We were qualified to do it. And if that person couldn't couldn't do it for other reasons it might be otherwise occupied so we would carry like some sort of camera action and that is one of the greatest places to work in the world for the people that you associate with with the exception of some management maybe management which by the way it changed in the early 60s following the passing of both Calvin and Thompson. It was a time of great uncertainty. New technology is looming larger and larger on the horizon. Part of the reason Charlie Paddick decided to go solo as far back as 1955 I didn't rave because I was mad at Cal and company thing I could see the handwriting on the wall that television was going to soon be the Fang's So I wanted to get out and point out that besides I saw these town television cameramen making more money than I was.

For years Charlie ran a studio in the basement of his duplex. He says though if it hadn't been for his kids he probably wouldn't have been able to make the transition into video at the right time. Meanwhile the new management at Calvin already is slow in deciding to process a new Kodak reversal film. But their faith in Super 8. Instead it was really a shame because here was Sony offering all of this equipment to the biggest and best and most prestigious industrial film company in the country with its branches all over the country. It would have been a gigantic powerhouse. Even so at the time he came to Calvin in the early 70s on his cousin Bob's recommendation John all down the wall when he was still there only that when he was starting to slip. Interestingly enough working odd hours into building his own grandfather built he was able to finish his first film about the demise of the Aultman building downtown.

Realized he was hooked. Because there was a little bit of an organizational disintegration going on in the management. I was able by default to become a director got to be able to walk on the set and have people with behind the camera or with 20 years saying why aren't you going to shot this over here and then have the editor say Well I think if you can get me on such and such and the same person saying Be sure you go in and do. And so I would learn from these people with all this incredible background. Essentially that is the legacy the Kalvin Company has left Kansas City after the last of its services were phased out in the early 80s. A wealth of talented technical people were made. Many of whom have tried to pass the traditional long that was proven recently when local crews played a big part in the making of several movies here. Some like Charlie Patrick and John Altman have successfully set up shop. Others like Wayne Sharpe and Harold Teevan found new places to apply some of their knowledge some more and more now are retired or gone. After I sold my part of Enron Corporation and retired

supposedly Then I went to work at the University teaching and I taught there for six years. And I many times. Found myself quoting Larry Sherwood who was the vice president of Kalvin Company. To my students things that I had learned from Larry sure wouldn't things that I had learned that the Kalvin Company when I worked there. This is some 40 some years later. The new center building as it was originally known was put up in the hopes that the city would be moving in that direction. It didn't happen. Soon it will join such long gun structures as the old cork and bottle down the street. Robert Altman and Calvin krewes often get a drink or two after work. In the early 80s the last hope was that the huge sound stages might somehow attract a buyer. We had a group of investors who committed to it and got us sort of half way down the line. And they pulled out without any warning. And. That

was the last chance for the building. I didn't think that they would knock it down. I just thought it was a great building. A cost I'm to renovate it though. Because it deteriorated over the last two years. I spent so many wonderful years here that. I got in a way I hate to see it go. Because it's the end of an era. No. I was kind of hoping that they would implode it you know blow it up. And not as garbage. I was going to shoot that. I've got a high speed camera. That I was in that way they all. Just gone. After this piece aired the first time I heard from an amazing number of people who used to work at Calvin and almost all of them remembered it very positively. Naturally some had some pictures and film footage that I wished I'd been able to get a hold of forehand. Of course there is nothing left now of the building itself a place that Harold Teevan remembered as a great vantage point during the riots of 1968 except that he had to drive around them to get there to develop the

film for the networks. That's all the time we have this week till next from back here in the corner Randy Mason. Thanks Randi. Thursday's game at Royal Stadium was the longest in the history of the Kansas City Royals 18 innings nearly six and a half hours. It started off as a classic pitching duel between two of baseball's greats Brett Sabor Hagan of the royals and Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers. They left after seven innings and the game changed character. The Royals as a team change character. The manager was changed by the royals two weeks ago. McRae coming in to replace the ousted John Wathen the Braves homecoming was hardly relaxed. A look at the royals now with Tom Gore yesterday six and a half hour 18 inning pretty well sums up the royals season thus far a long long struggle. That's what Hal McRae walked into last month the last time McRae wore Royal his uniform was in 1987 when the team was fighting to

take over first place in the A.L. West. Now McCrae is back in royal blue and the team is fighting to get out of last place. As you may have guessed Max returned last week drew a good deal of attention as was evidenced by the number of reporters surrounding the new manager as he held court in a pre-game powwow in the dugout. We'll see what the guy's going will be duros does right. Now. So when we go in the Flip reels. Basically trying to get a lot of good to these. Stories. A lot of it is light maintenance. Is not working. Doing the things that you do with a crane is still adjusting to his new job despite a full week on the road behind him and a foreign to record is managerial debut at home. Weighed heavily on his mind last night. I have butterflies. It was I was glad to be back. Glad to see everyone but. Not excited. Kind of apprehensive.

You know it was the it was Dick. McCray may still be reeling from the shock of being asked to take over the job. He says he thought there was no chance he'd ever had the opportunity to manage in Kansas City after turning down a temporary assignment. Almost four years ago however he says that coaching hours he put in since then should improve his chances for success. So I work with him. I went to the minor leagues I worked with kids I went to the big leagues as a batting code for Montreal. You know I've matured. I watch the game. So you formulate some ideas and you know. I think those experiences are going to help me now. McCray may need all of the help he can get two months into the season. The Royals find themselves displaying moments of brilliance but overall still unable to get on track. That helped to derail John wantons career and brought McRae back to Kansas City which puts a little pressure on Mack to deliver soon. But there's pressure no denying that. But I'm going to tack this the way I did planned. I'm going to be aggressive not be afraid do the

things that I think good players do and see what happens. What happens largely depends on what players take the field. That's why the number one subject of conversation out here is the relative health of this ballclub. That's not surprising since this team is injury free for the first time in about two years with Brett and such a back in the lineup. We know that's a big key. To us here too to our success and they have been around some kind of scuffle and trying to find guys in the know to fill those holes and of course some runs but I think we're going to get a lot better and I think we're going to back in the lineup. To be which we are your show when you don't have your best players. We were going along this year without Paul Jackson and George Brett and Kevin Sites that's a. That's a big hunk of. Offense and a big hunk of our ball club. Obviously Bo Jackson won't be back but. Kevin and George. Will be in our end and that's a that's a big help. No one will be happier to get that help than the pitching staff. Prior to getting shelled on Sunday. Tom

Gordon's E.R. was 1.7 too and yet he had a record of just four and three red Sabor Hagen who had a notice against Nolan Ryan yesterday as a 6 and 3 record with an area of 2.6 1. That happens. It doesn't matter how good a team you are you're going to lose some games because the other is going to come along as the time and is going to shut you down. So. Those things happen. It's it's hard at times but you know that's not the biggest thing. The biggest issue is winning ballgames and having everybody happy. And for myself I'm happy. I thank God every day I get a chance to play and I'm you know just getting a chance to be out there every day. Sure they're stoic but they certainly wouldn't mind some off chance something in short supply out of the stadium for example three times yesterday. The Royals left the bases loaded and the team's miserable average puts the royals near the bottom of the batting chart. But changes are in the works. We've been moving a lot of running. They've been hitting and run and we've been stealing bases we've been putting guys in motion

you know to keep pressure on the other team. We're doing that little bit more often than when Duke was here. But a lot of times were down and we didn't have the opportunity but how you know he may be aggressive and that's all you have to be with the team that we have had a lot of guys that can still basis that we have to still have a lot of guys and picket line drive so we just have to stay within ourselves and do the things we can do. And everything will go. All right. Will it be all right soon. Well in the last few weeks the royals have shown some signs of life. And the hope around here is that the team is over the hump. Well it seems there's a little bit more of a fresh attitude which I think is going to lead to more of a you know a shop type play you know hopefully something can carry over. There's no guarantee that will but hopefully we can continue to have the kind of new attitude type situation and hopefully it'll lead to a lot of wind. It'll take a lot of wind to pull this club back into competition which right now is as far down the road as some care to look. Well I don't think we're a last place club I think is going to do a whole division is. Excellent

evasion and it's going to be a while it's a well balanced division. I think we can be competitive. I don't know exactly where we're going to end up it's going to have a lot to do with injuries and. A number of things like that. Certainly not the last place job that we hope to climb out of last place. We're getting closer to doing that and you got out of last place and then you look at 500. You just take one step at a time. I see no reason we can't be competitive Bob. I don't know to say if we're going to win the whole thing or anything like that. I think we have a good ball club here. But you know I can't really honestly see us winning the whole thing. Not this year I think we're close. I think we need you know something else. But I think we're very close. Others say the club is more than close and more than just competitive. A few players are even looking down the road to a destination the royals haven't even thought about for a long time namely the playoffs something that mathematically is very difficult to do. But you know. I think myself as well as anyone else in the clubhouse will be as optimistic as we possibly can. You know it's it's still you know it's not it's not even June yet so we get a lot of baseball to go and you know a lot of things can happen with what

Texas did with a long winning streak. You know certainly a long winning streak is not as likely to happen. As it did for Texas. But you know a long winning streak in some consistent baseball can put us back into play very well at home this year and if we can turn that around the way we've been played on the road it speaks for itself so far. And I'll. Say. The playoffs spot of course. Is. The new sparks showing in the team but there seems to be one in the fans as well. Take a look at his reaction to how crazy Jackson in the Top 12. I know this isn't the Bronx. We do have some real baseball fans in Kansas City after all. Kansas City taxpayers may be throwing things on the field or maybe they won't with a tax package to come to a vote Aug. 6. Part of the purpose is to induce Douglas Aircraft to build a new aircraft manufacturing plant here with us as the city council finance

chairman Ben coffin and the leading supporter that hosel welcome. Thanks for coming. Thank you. To see us again so soon after last Yeah and also with us are the regulars on this inquisition Deborah Holmes and Barbara Bailey and Jean McKinley. Well August 6 and elects to do summarize the decision because and we have two provisions that basically are jobs crime and neighborhoods. Package proposition 1 will be a 25 cent levy to help bring McDonnell Douglas to Kansas City to build a high tech new generation aircraft manufacturing plant that in its beginning years will employ almost 9000 people. This is a very significant economic development jobs opportunity for Proposition 2 is a Hassen sales tax that will provide 100 more police on the streets in Kansas City as well as an improved neighborhood services. Public improvements and maintaining some existing services.

The average cost for the average family in both of those is a dime a day. In other words it's a dime a day for the 25 cent labor for the whole family not a person and a dime a day for the house and sales tax for the whole family not for person. Now do I understand correctly that. With the property tax if the city doesn't get Douglas Aircraft here that won't be collected. That's correct. It's a no lose proposal if McDonnell Douglas does not come to Kansas City or if they do or if they select us and the project does not proceed the tax will not be collected. So it's impossible for us to lose on this. Now what's the breakdown on the sales tax as far as what the neighborhoods are going to get out of this. Have you come up with a kind of a pie chart on that for the police department. It will get. But you know we're working on that right now. We of course pass the ordinances to put this on the ballot just yesterday. And my goal is the finance chairman to have a go the pie chart if you will of the list done by next week or Thursday of next week. I want to get that done and behind us so we can get on with the campaign right away.

Can you give us an idea of what some of the capital improvements might be and what some of those neighborhood improvement. Yes basically in terms of public improvements we have a number of major projects for which our obligations for matching funds to the federal and state governments increase significantly next year. And we simply can't fund those increased costs out of the existing program. One of the main examples is the Blue River flood control which will address the flooding problems in the Blue River industrial area. We're seeking to protect about 50000 jobs and we've not yet made it from anation exactly what we'd be doing in the context of Neighborhood Services we're looking at a number of things ranging from demolition of being just buildings which is a very serious problem in the older part of the city as well as code inspection to make sure people are keeping their properties up to snuff. Now I'd like to ask you something Dan. How about sales tax in general. Has the council ever talked about the possibility of having a sales tax is considered regressive by many people that it affects the lower income populations more acutely and so therefore there are organizations some people who feel that you

should exempt medicine from those kinds of things. And you talked about that. Yes I have in fact and I agree with that that say in sales taxes groceries should be exempted prescription medication already is under state law. But we have a problem where we're trying to deal now with the city's financial problems before they become a financial crisis. We're not going to be another Philadelphia or New York. We're going to see a lot of this across the country. We need to repair our finances in a number of areas. Unfortunately we can't impose any tax that we're not allowed by the state to do. I proposed two years ago we exempt groceries from sales taxes. I proposed two years ago that we repealed the emergency utility tax. Those will require new revenue measures however the require state authority. A state law would be required to exempt groceries from sales taxes for example. It takes a long time to get a state law passed as you know we have problems right now. We can't go to the legislature till next winter which means it couldn't go to our voters until the summer of 92. If we won the if we got the legislation we wanted in the first year more than likely we could present something to our voters until the summer of 92 or

actually the fall of the fall of 1993 because the legislative session doesn't get out in time to a summer election. We have problems right now. So we're doing this basically as a as a measure to take care of the immediate situation so we don't end up a year or year and a half from now being in New York or Philadelphia. Or Hartford or Hartford we're going to deal with. Well it's a problem a manageable problem as opposed to a crisis. Well how manageable is it. In fact we do. The city is really very close to its detriment. No in terms of debt. Kansas City has very little outstanding debt. We could issue up to in terms of general obligation bonds. Eight hundred million dollars worth of geo bonds or almost a billion dollars. We only have about a hundred and eighty million dollars of debt outstanding for general obligation bonds. So we're we're in fact we're very favorable in a very favorable situation in terms of outstanding debt. Kind of like getting to your own home situation. We have very little MasterCard and Visa so to speak. I'll return to the sales tax just for a minute. If you get this half set Now we've already had sales tax

increases and bond issues everything else for this disabled war on drugs which seems to have done nothing. You've got Judge Clark slapping property legalese on us but you're going to put the sales tax up to almost 7 percent. It's not going to drive consumers out of Kansas City. We're very concerned about that. However we're simply doing now what other cities including our in our metropolitan area and across the country will be doing in the 1990s. The 1990s will be the decade that state and local government comes to grips with federal cutbacks in aid to states and local governments which started in the late 1970s. As I said before we're trying to deal with what is a problem and not a crisis and you'll be seeing I'm afraid a sales tax is increasing across the entire nation as well as in our own metropolitan area. We're very concerned about the level and feel that what we're asking for here is a low cost per person or per family. It will get some very serious things done that need to be done. And the thing it's like

frustrating about it Jim is I agree with you that the sales tax is regressive. But whenever we do public opinion polls of what the voters will or will increase or taxes for. Overwhelmingly they are willing to increase their sales tax and underwhelming. Are they willing to increase their property tax so it's a very strange predicament you find yourself. What's your prediction. You've got as I said you got all these other levees and bond issues and sales tax increases have already been instituted You got a state that's going to come at us with higher education tax increase. What's your prognosis is this thing in August going to pass. I believe it will of course. We have to go through a campaign. We think we're in good shape on that in terms of having various constituencies behind us on this thing. The things that are needed Donna McDonnell Douglas saying for example it's a no lose thing. I mean if we don't get McDonnell Douglas or they decide to come here and don't build for some reason the taxes never collected. I think that's a fairly palatable proposition. It's a mild increase in the property leaving only a dime a day for the hope for for the entire family the average family in

Candice's unanimity on the Council on unanimous support for this. No we had it was all of us were in favor except one person Judy Swope voted against the sales tax as I recall and she has not said that because of her campaign promises during the campaign she said she would not vote for a tax increase if the if the inducement is approved from income. But here comes McDonnell Douglas. The next thing McDonnell Douglas Douglas Aircraft wants will be tax abatement. Well this property is on the property we're looking at is on city owned properties that wouldn't be real property taxes in the first place. That's one thing that really helps us in our bid against competing cities is we have so much land up at our airport and we already own it. Therefore there's no taxes there's no tax to abate because the city owns it. They will leased the land from the city. In addition we are working with the state to put together a very significant package to bring the Donald Douglas to Kansas City. So in addition to what we'll be

doing there'll be different inducements offered by the state right now. To be perfectly frank we're not in a position to talk about all the details of that because we're competing against other cities. They'd love to know what our package is so they could one of us. So we've got Labor reservoir don't you. All the laid off workers in St. Louis. Yeah. From a Donald Duck. That's right. Which helps somewhat. McDonnell Douglas knows Missouri well because of the facility in St. Louis. In effect they've gone shopping. They've put four cities against each other and they'll take the best deal they can get. Is that what it amounts to is it as cold blooded. I think it's probably pretty cold blooded. They're looking at the economics of the aviation industry is tight enough right now including McDonnell Douglas in particular that they have to look at the cost very very closely. So it will be something of a bidding war and you'll see the same scenario repeated dozens of times throughout the entire 1990s. It as big corporations move and move. Well. We're out of time.

I wish we could go on with this and unfortunately our last program for the summer is June 28 so we probably won't see again until fall and fall to the next fall. We'll all know. Thanks thanks for coming in. Thanks for inviting me. Velázquez city illustrate it for this edition be with us next week for another go round here. I'm John Masterman for the South Kent City Illustrated Goodnight American playhouses is next with the story of attorney Clarence Darrow a man followed by controversy both in and out of the courtroom. Kevin Spacey stars in the American Playhouse presentation of death row. It's next on K.C.B. public television. Local support for this program on K.C.B. has been provided in part by United telecom and its long distance company U.S. sprint. In the spring of 1990. An expedition set up an extraordinary

challenge. To bring dog teams to the icy summit of Canada's tourist. Season premiere adventure. Celebrating 30 years of adventure drama mystery and nature defeated. P.S. If you. Can just get these viewers supported public television station the following program contains language that might offend some members of our audience viewer discretion is advised broadcast of the following program is made possible thanks to the financial support of KCET subscribers who our viewers like you. Are